Theodotion

Theodotion (Θεοδοτιών) (d. ca. 200 A.D.) was a Hellenistic Jewish scholar [The only contemporary reference to him is that of Irenaeus ("Adversus Haereses", III.xxi.1), who ranks him with Aquila of Pontus, another translator, as "Jewish proselytes" in the course of taking exception to their rendering of the "virgin" prophesied in "Isaiah" vii. 14 as "damsel", "following whom the Ebionites pretend that he was begotten of Joseph."] , perhaps working in Ephesus ["Theodotian of Ephesus" in Irenaeus] , who translated the Hebrew Bible into Greek. Whether he was revising the Septuagint, or was working from Hebrew manuscripts that represented a parallel tradition that has not survived, is debated. In the second century Theodotion's text was quoted in the "Shepherd of Hermas" and in the Christian apologist Justin Martyr's "Trypho".

His finished version, which filled some lacunae in the Septuagint version of the "Book of Jeremiah" and "Book of Job", formed one column in Origen of Alexandria's "Hexapla". (The Hexapla presented six Hebrew and Greek texts side-by-side: two Greek versions, by Aquila and Symmachus, preceding the Septuagint, and Theodotion's version following it, apparently reflecting a contemporary understanding of their historical sequence.)

Theodotion's translation was so widely copied in the Early Christian church that it virtually superseded the Septuagint "Book of Daniel" [The Septuagint "Daniel" survived in only a few mss., including the Chigi codex "Codex Chisianus", and Papyrus 967.] . Jerome (in his preface to Daniel) records the rejection of the Septuagint version in Christian usage, asserting that its translation was very faulty. Theodotion's is the one embodied in the authentic edition of the Septuagint published by Sixtus V in 1587. []

His caution in transliterating Hebrew words for plants, animals, vestments and ritual regalia, and words of uncertain meaning, rather than adopting a Greek rendering, gave him a probably undeserved reputation of being "unlearned" among more confident post-Renaissance editors, such as Bernard de Montfaucon.

ee also

*Aquila of Sinope
*Symmachus the Ebionite
*Septuagint

Notes

References

* [http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=180&letter=T "Jewish Encyclopedia":] "Theodotion" Details of Theodotion's insertions.
*Moses Gaster, 1894. "The Unknown Aramaic Original of Theodotion's Additions to Daniel" in "Proceedings of the Society for Biblical Archaeology" Vol. xvi. Demonstrating that the existing Aramaic text is itself an adaptation from the Greek of Theodotion, not its original.
*Emil Schürer in Herzog-Hauck, "Real-Encyclopädie für protestantische Theologie" i. 639 (1909)
* [http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Dictionary_of_Christian_Biography_and_Literature_to_the_End_of_the_Sixth_Century/Dictionary/T/Theodotion,_otherwise_Theodotus Dictionary of Christian Biography and Literature to the End of the Sixth Century (1911)]