The Apologists · AD 130–180 · External witness
Aquila the Translator
fl. c. AD 130 (death unrecorded) · Proselyte of Pontus · Translator of the Hexapla's Aquila column · Pontus → Palestine
External witness
Who Aquila the Translator was
A Gentile of Pontus converted to Judaism under Hadrian, whose ferociously literal Greek Old Testament — 'a young woman shall conceive,' not 'a virgin' — became the synagogue's answer to the church's Septuagint. Irenaeus already argues against his renderings; Origen honoured the rigour and set the version in the third column of the Hexapla. Distinct from the biblical Aquila of Pontus, Priscilla's husband.
Also listed in non-christian witnesses.
Common questions
When was Aquila active?
Aquila the Translator is dated fl. c. AD 130 (death unrecorded) in the archive, which places Aquila in the Apologists (AD 130–180). The dating is traditional and approximate; the archive marks it as uncertain rather than fixing a year the sources do not give.
What did Aquila write?
Aquila the Translator has 1 catalogued writing in the archive: The Greek Old Testament of Aquila.
Which early sources mention Aquila?
Aquila the Translator is named in 3 primary-source passages catalogued here, drawn from Eusebius of Caesarea, Epiphanius of Salamis and Jerome of Stridon. Every passage is quoted from a named public-domain translation, earliest first.
Where was Aquila from?
The archive associates Aquila the Translator with Pontus, Palestine. The sources record more than one location, so the places are listed in the order the record moves through them.
Writings (1)
The Greek Old Testament of Aquila
The hyper-literal proselyte version — Genizah palimpsests and the Hexapla's third column[Fragments: Kings and Psalms from the Cairo Genizah; Origen's third column]Read the interlinear source text →
Primary-source mentions (3)
Every passage below is quoted from a named public-domain translation, earliest first.
Ecclesiastical History V.8 (quoting Irenaeus)
c. AD 325Not as some of those say who now venture to translate the scripture, 'Behold, a young woman shall conceive'… as Theodotion the Ephesian translated it, and Aquila of Pontus, both of them Jewish proselytes.Eusebius of Caesarea · V.8 · source text
Epiphanius, On Weights and Measures 14–15 (the proselyte of Sinope, kinsman of Hadrian)
c. AD 392[Epiphanius makes Aquila a kinsman of Hadrian and a proselyte of Sinope, who learned Hebrew and made his version to answer the Christians.]Epiphanius of Salamis · On Weights and Measures 14–15
Epiphanius of Salamis's De mensuris et ponderibus, written c. AD 392 — a handbook of biblical measures, canon and versions, carrying the fullest ancient account of Aquila. The complete text survives only in Syriac. Syriac text with English translation: James Elmer Dean, Epiphanius' Treatise on Weights and Measures: The Syriac Version (Chicago, 1935); Greek fragments in Karl Holl's edition. No public-domain English translation exists.
Letter 57.11 (the 'contentious' translator weighed)
c. AD 395Aquila, a proselyte and a contentious translator, who has endeavoured to translate not words only but their etymologies as well.Jerome of Stridon · Letter 57.11 · source text
Connected in the archive
People
Events in this lifetime
- AD 70 · The fall of Jerusalem, AD 70
- AD 95 · Domitian’s reprisals, AD 95
- AD 96 · Rome writes to Corinth: 1 Clement, AD 96
- AD 112 · Pliny writes Trajan, AD 112
- AD 117 · Symeon and Ignatius martyred, AD 117
- AD 135 · Bar Kokhba crushed; Aelia Capitolina, AD 135
Place
Places served
The 2 places the sources put Aquila, in the order the record moves through them. This is what the sources attest, not a reconstructed route.