Page:Jewish Encyclopedia Volume 2.pdf/72

36 THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Aquila

representation of ¥ (in the Cairo fragment of the Psalms) by r; e.g., reiav for |VX. This feature reappears in the names of the Hebrew letTranslit- ters attached to the Book of Lamentaerations. tions by the original scribe of " Cod. Vaticanus (B)." It may be conjectured that the scribe of the Vatican MS. took them through the "Hexapla" from Aquila 's version. In some points Aquila agrees rather with the New Testament than with the older forms found in the Septuagint; e.g., for ^X jya he has Br/di/A, not Ba&rfk

(compare ByOavia in the New Testament). In Ezek. xxx. 17, where the Septuagint has HMov trdleuc, Aquila has Qv for |1K, but Symmachus and Theodotion have v T

Aw.

Aquila's translation occupied one of the columns of Origen's "Hexapla," and so was accessible to Christian scholars. Very considerable use of it was made by Jerome in preparing the Latin version now known as the Vulgate, though (as we might expect) the more pedantic features are dropped in borrowing. Thus in Ex. xxxii. 25 Jerome's propter ignominiam sordid comes from Aquila's elc bvojia pbirov (!1SOb6). and for "Selah" in the Psalms his semper follows Aquila's aei. More important for modern scholars is the use made of Aquila's version in Origen's revision of the Septuagint. The literary sources of the Latin Vulgate are merely a point of Biblical archeology, but the recovery of the original text of Original the Septuagint is the great practical Text of task which now lies before the textual the Sep- critic of the Old Testament. Recent tuagint. investigatiou has made it clear that Origen's efforts to emend the Greek from the Hebrew were only too successful, and that every known text and recension of the Septuagint except the scanty fragments of the Old Latin have been influenced by the Hexaplar revision. One must learn how to detect Origen's hand and to collect and restore the original readings, before the Septuagint is in a fit state to be critically used in emending the Hebrew. The discussion of this subject belongs rather to the criticism of the " Hexapla " than to a separate article on Aquila. It will suffice here to point out that Aquila's version is one of the three sources by the aid of which the current texts of the Septuagint have been irregularly revised into conformity with a Hebrew text like that of our printed Bibles. For the association of the Targum of the Pentateuch with his name see Onkelos. See also



Field, Oriflenis

Hexapkirum quce Supersunt,

Oxford, 1S75: Wellhausen and Bleek, Ehileilung in

Testament, 4th

" Aquila torical, the following may be considered. the Proselyte translated the Torah (that is, the whole Of Scripture compare Blau, " Zur Einleitung in die Heilige Schrift," pp. 16, 17) in the presence of R. Eliezer and R. Joshua, who praised him and said, in the words of Ps. xlv. 3 [A. V. 2], Thou art fairer than the children of men grace is poured into thy lips; therefore God hath blessed thee forever.' " This contains a play upon the Hebrew word " Yafyafita " (Thou art fairer) and the common designation of Greek as " the language of Japhet " ( Yer. Meg. i. 71c). In another place similar mention is made that Aquila announced his translation of the word riDinj in Lev. xix. 20 in the presence of R. Akiba (Yer. Kid. i. 59a). The parallel passage in the Babylonian Talmud to the first-cited passage (Meg. 3a) shows that by "translated in the presence of" is to be understood " under the guidance of " consequently, Eliezer, Joshua, and Akiba must be regarded as the three authorities by whom Aquila governed himself. This agrees with what Jerome says (in his commentary on Isa. viii. 11); viz., that,

'





according to Jewish tradition, Akiba was Aquila's teacher a statement which was also borne out by the fact that Aquila carefully rendered the particle DX every time by the Greek avv, the hermeneutical system first closely carried out by Akiba, although not original with him (B. K. 41J). This would place Aquila's period at about 100-130, when the three tannaim in question flourished. This accords with the date which Epiphanius ("De PonderibusetMensuris," chap, xiii.-xvi. ed. Migne, ii. 259-264) gives when he places the composition of Aquila's translation in the twelfth year of Hadrian A certain Aquila of Pontus is mentioned in (129). a tannaite source (Sifra, Behar I. 1 [ed. Weiss, 106S;

—



ed. Warsaw, 102a]).

21)

and Epiphanius

And, seeing that Irenjeus (I.e. iii. agree that Aquila came from

(I.e.)

that place, it is quite probable that the reference is to the celebrated Aquila, although the usual epithet, " the Proselyte, " is missing. Aquila of Pontus is

mentioned three times in the New Testament (Acts xviii. 2 Rom. xvi. 3 II Tim. iv. 19), which is only a mere coincidence, as the name " Aquila " was no doubt quite common among the Jews, and a haggadist bearing it is mentioned in Gen. R. i. 12. Zunz, however, identifies the latter with the Bible translator. Priedmann's suggestion that in the Sifra passage a place in the Lebanon called " Pontus " is intended has been completely refuted by Rosenthal



("Monatsschrift,"xli. 93). more difficult question to answer is the relationship of Aquila to the "proselyte Onkelos," of whom the Babylonian Talmud and the Tosefta have much

A

Septuagint.

Bibliography

36

<1as

AUc

ed., pp. 378-582, Berlin, 1878

Burkitt, Fragto the Translation of Aquila, Cambridge. 1X97 Taylor, Origen's Hrrapla (part of Ps. xxii.), Cambridge, 1901 ; S. Krauss, in the Steinsclmeidcr-Zeitschrift, 1896, pp. 148-163. [See also Taylor's Sayings of the Jewish Fathers, 2d ed., pp. viii. et seq.~

ments of the Books of Kings According

P. C. B.

t.

In Rabbinical Literature "Aquila the Proselyte " din D^pV) and his work are familiar to the

Talmudic-Midrashic literature. While "the Seventy " and their production are almost completely ignored by rabbinical sources, Aquila is a favorite personage in Jewish tradition and legend. As his-

to relate.

There

is,

of course, no doubt that these

names have been repeatedly interchanged. The large majority of modern scholars consider Relation to the appellation "Targum of Onkelos," Onkelos. as applied to the Targum of the Pentateuch, as a confusion (originating the Babylonians) of the current Aramaic version (attributed by them to Onkelos) with the Greek one of Aquila. But it will not do simply to transfer

among

everything that is narrated of Onkelos to Aquila, seeing that in the Tosefta (see index to Zuckermandel's edition) mention is made of the relation of Onkelos