The Ante-Nicene Church · AD 180–313 · External witness

Theodotion the Translator

fl. later 2nd century (death unrecorded) · Reviser of the Greek Old Testament · Ephesus

External witness

Who Theodotion the Translator was

The Ephesian — proselyte or Ebionite, the ancients disagreed — whose revision of the Greek Old Testament stood in the sixth column of Origen's Hexapla, and whose version of Daniel the church quietly preferred to the Septuagint's own. Irenaeus names him beside Aquila among those who unsaid Isaiah's virgin; the church read his Daniel anyway.

Also listed in non-christian witnesses.

Common questions

When was Theodotion active?

Theodotion the Translator is dated fl. later 2nd century (death unrecorded) in the archive, which places Theodotion in the Ante-Nicene Church (AD 180–313).

Which early sources mention Theodotion?

Theodotion the Translator is named in 2 primary-source passages catalogued here, drawn from Eusebius of Caesarea and Jerome of Stridon. Every passage is quoted from a named public-domain translation, earliest first.

Where was Theodotion from?

The archive associates Theodotion the Translator with Ephesus.

Who were Theodotion’s contemporaries?

The archive links Theodotion the Translator to 3 other figures, including Aquila the Translator, Symmachus the Translator and Origen of Alexandria. Each connection is drawn from a source that places them together, not from inference.

Primary-source mentions (2)

Every passage below is quoted from a named public-domain translation, earliest first.

Ecclesiastical History V.8 (quoting Irenaeus)

c. AD 325
…as Theodotion the Ephesian translated it, and Aquila of Pontus, both of them Jewish proselytes.
Eusebius of Caesarea · V.8 · source text

Prefaces to the Vulgate (his Daniel adopted by the churches)

c. AD 390
Jerome of Stridon · Preface to Daniel · source text

Connected in the archive

People

Events in this lifetime

Place

Places served

The one place the sources put Theodotion.

  1. 1Ephesus

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