Aquila of Sinope

Aquila of Sinope (Kosovo, Grachanica, c. 1318) Aquila of Sinope (2nd century CE) was a native of Pontus , celebrated for a very literal and accurate translation of the Hebrew Bible into Greek . Only fragments of this translation have survived in what remains of fragmentary documents taken from the 1st and 2nd Book of Kings, and from the Psalms, found in the old Cairo Geniza in Fostat (Egypt), while excerpts taken from the Hexapla written in the glosses of certain manuscripts of the Septuagint were collected earlier and published by Frederick Field in his momentous work, Origenis Hexaplorum quæ Supersunt , Oxford, 1875. Epiphanius ( De Ponderibus et Mensuris , chap. xiii-xvi.; ed. Migne, ii. 259-264) preserves a tradition that he was a kinsman of the Emperor Hadrian , who employed him in rebuilding Jerusalem (as Aelia Capitolina ), and that Aquila was converted to Christianity but, on being reproved for practicing astrology , 'apostatized' to Judaism . He is said also to have been a disciple of Rabbi Akiva (d. ca. 132 CE). In Jewish writings he is referred to as עקילס (Aquilas). Aquila's version is said to have been used in place of the Septuagint in Greek-speaking synagogues. The Christians generally disliked it, alleging that it rendered the Messianic passages incorrectly, but Jerome and Origen speak in its praise. Origen incorporated it in his Hexapla . It was thought that this was the only copy extant, but in 1897 fragments of two codices were brought to the Cambridge University Library. These have been published: the fragments Aq containing 1 Kings xx. 7-17; 2 Kings xxiii. 12-27 by F. Burkitt in 1897, those containing parts of Psalms xc.-ciii. (signed as Aq ) by C. Burkitt's article in the Jewish Encyclopaedia . The surviving fragments of this translation, and of other Greek translations forming part of Origen's Hexapla, are now being re-published (with additional materials discovered since Field's edition) by an international group of Septuagint scholars. This work is being carried out as The Hexapla Project under the auspices of the International Organization for Septuagint and Cognate Studies, and directed by Peter J. Gentry ( Southern Baptist Theological Seminary ), Alison G. Click to see online translation of Epiphanius' Treatise on Weights and Measures Chisholm 1911 .¹