(formed of ἐξ, fix, and ἀπλα, I open, I unfold), in church-history, a Bible disposed in fix columns; containing the text, and divers versions thereof, compiled and published by Origen, with a view of securing the sacred text from future corruptions, and to correct those that had been already introduced.

Eusebius, Hist. Eccl. lib. vi. cap. 16. relates, that Origen, after his return from Rome under Caracalla, applied himself to learn Hebrew, and began to collect the several versions that had been made of the sacred writings, and of these to compose his Tetrapla and Hexapla; others, however, will not allow him to have begun till the time of Alexander, after he had retired into Palestine, about the year 231.

To conceive what this Hexapla was, it must be observed, that, besides the translation of the sacred writings, called the Septuagint, made under Ptolemy Philadelphus,