Theodotion (; , gen.: Θεοδοτίωνος; died c. 200) 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 " in the course of taking exception to their rendering of the "virgin" prophesied in Isaiah as "damsel", "following whom the Ebionites pretend that he was begotten of Joseph."] perhaps working in Ephesus,["Theodotian of Ephesus" in Irenaeus] who in c. A.D. 150 translated the Hebrew Bible into Ancient Greek.
History
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 2nd century Theodotion's text was quoted in
The Shepherd of Hermas and in
Justin Martyr's
Dialogue with 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, c. A.D. 240. The Hexapla, now only extant in fragments, presented six Hebrew and Greek texts side-by-side: two Greek versions, by Aquila and Symmachus, and Theodotion's version following it, apparently reflecting a contemporary understanding of their historical sequence.
Theodotion's 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 reputation of being "unlearned" among more confident post-Renaissance editors, such as Bernard de Montfaucon.
Use instead of Septuagint
Theodotion's translation was so widely copied in the
Early Christian church that its version of the
Book of Daniel virtually superseded the Septuagint's. The
Septuagint Daniel survives in only two known manuscripts,
Codex Chisianus 88 (rediscovered in the 1770s), and Papyrus 967 (discovered 1931).
Jerome, in his preface to Daniel (A.D. 407), records the rejection of the Septuagint version of that book in Christian usage: "I ... wish to emphasize to the reader the fact that it was not according to the Septuagint version but according to the version of Theodotion himself that the churches publicly read Daniel."
[Jerome, Commentary on Daniel , translated by Gleason L. Archer (1958), accessed 5 January 2019] Jerome's preface also mentions that the
Hexapla had notations in it, indicating several major differences in content between the Theodotion Daniel and the earlier versions in Greek and Hebrew. However, Theodotion's Daniel is closer to the surviving Hebrew
Masoretic Text version, the text which is the basis for most modern translations. Theodotion's Daniel is also the one embodied in the authorised edition of the Septuagint published by
Sixtus V in 1587.
See also
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Aquila of Sinope
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Hexapla
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On Weights and Measures (Epiphanius)
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Symmachus
Notes
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Jewish Encyclopedia: "Theodotion" Details of Theodotion's insertions.
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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.
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Emil Schürer in Herzog-Hauck, Real-Encyclopädie für protestantische Theologie i. 639 (1909)
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External links
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Theodotion's version - The Greek text and English translation of Theodotion's Greek version of the Old Testament.
