Nov.6] SOCIETYOF BIBLICAL ARCH.-EOLOGY. [1894.havetranslatedthis name, is no one elsethan Theodotion. It will
at once be apparentwhyit is said thathe foundit. Bearing in mind
the character of his work as a translator, that it consisted chieflyin
adjusting the Greek text so as to reproduce the meaning of the
Hebrew original more accurately, onecan easily understand his
anxiety to get hold also of the Hebrew or Aramaic originals of
thoseportionswhichwerenot included in the Hebrew canon,but
wereto be found in the Greek of the LXX. Thereforeit is said
that he " found " this text,i.e., he discovered the old original. A
comparisonbetweenthisAramaictextand the Greek of Theodotion
will soon convinceus whether my conjecture is correct or not.
Beforeproceedingto this exegetical part,we have still to examine
thatintroduction,whichmayyieldsomeunexpected results. First
againthe name Todosand Theodosius. If this be identical with
Theodotion,as I suggest, thenthisshortnotice willthrowa flood
of light on the history and biographyof this otherwisevery little
knowntranslatorof the Bible. Hithertoall that was known is due
to the short andnot very clearnoticesof Irenaeus, Hieronymusand
Epiphanius,whosecredibility has beendoubted.* Theonlything
certainwasthat he must have livedbefore Irenaeus(d. 202), i.e.,
beforethe close of the second century. He may alsohavebeena
Jewishproselyte. Hieronymus makes him out to have been an
Ebionite or semi-christianus. Accordingto Epiphanius (Irenaeus;
he came from Ephesus, was originally a Marcionite, embraced
afterwards Judaism, studiedHebrew, and madehis translation in
the time of the emperor Commodus. Thatis almost all that is
knownhitherto aboutthisman. Thereis nothing improbable in
the idea that theodotionmayhavebeena proselyte. Mostif net
all the Greek translationsowetheirorigin to proselytes : such were
AkilasandSymmachus. They felt more keenlythe inadequacy of
the existing translations, and strove afteranother which should
renderthe Hebrew originalin the most faithfulmanner,in order to
have,if it were possible,the Hebrew original in a Greek garb. To
the Jews the Greek wasalmosta matter of indifference ; not so to
those to whom Greekwastheir naturallanguage,andwhohad to
acquirethe knowledge of Hebrew afterwardsin life by hard work.
Onlysucha motive willexplainthe number of Greek translations.
The same may have beenthe primary motive for Theodotion to
* Vide de Wette, I.e., p. 101.
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