Greek BIBLE. It is a matter of dispute among authors whether there was a Greek version of the Old Testament more ancient than the Septuagint. See SEPTUAGINT.
Before our Saviour's time, there was no other Greek version of the Old Testament, besides that which went under the name of the Septuagint: But after the establishment of Christianity, some authors undertook new translations, under pretence of making them more con-
formable to the Hebrew text. The first who performed this design was the Jewish proselyte Aquila, of the city of Synope in Pontus, disciple to Rabbi Akiba, who put it in execution the twelfth year of the emperor Adrian, A. D. 128. St Epiphanius pretends, that being excommunicated after his conversion, for addicting himself to judicial astrology, he set about this version out of hatred to the Christians, and with a wicked design of corrupting the passages of the prophets relating to Jesus Christ. St Jerom says, his version is made word for word, and with too scrupulous a nicety.
The second Greek version after the Septuagint is that of Symmachus, a Samaritan by birth, who first turned Jew, then Christian, and at last Ebionite. He composed it, according to Epiphanius, in the reign of the emperor Severus. His version was more free than the rest; for he applied himself chiefly to the sense, without translating word for word; wherefore his version comes nearer the Septuagint than that of Aquila. The third Greek version is that of Theodotion of Ephesus. It is said he was a disciple of Marcion, and that, having had some difference with those of his sect, he turned Jew. The version of this author was the best of the three, because he kept a just medium between Aquila and Symmachus, not confining himself so servilely to the letter as the first did, nor wandering so far from it as the second did.
There were, besides these, three other Greek versions, whose authors are unknown.