Origen compiled an Old Testament called the Hexapla (c.245 A.D.). It was, in effect, a parallel Bible which had six columns. The first column was the Hebrew Old Testament. Three other columns portrayed Greek translations by men who were Ebionites. They believed in the ethical teachings of Jesus but did not believe in Paul's doctrines of grace. Indeed, they called Paul an apostate and wholly rejected all his epistles.1 They did not believe Jesus was Deity - that He was God with a capital "G", and taught that Joseph was the father of Jesus. Several of the Ebionites whose translations were included in these columns later apostatized, returning to Judaism.
One of them (Aquila of Sinope, 80-135 A.D.) was excommunicated from the Christian community for steadfastly refusing to give up astrology and for practicing necromancy.2 During the reign of Hadrian (A.D. 117-138), he supervised the building of a pagan temple to Jupiter on the site of the Temple of Solomon and placed a statue of the Emperor where the Holy of Holies had been.3 Aquila produced a new translation of the Old Testament into Greek wherein he deliberately translated many sections of Scripture concerning the Messiah in such a way as to make it impossible to apply these passages to the Lord Jesus Christ.4 He conjectured that the Greek word "parthenos" of Matthew 1:23 was not the virgin Mary but represented a corruption in the original text. According to Aquila, the correct understanding was that Jesus was the bastard son of Mary and a blond Roman soldier of German extraction named "pantheras" (Eng. = panther).5 Origen considered the works of these Ebionites to be "inspired" and thus included them in his "Bible".
The fifth column (written in classical Greek) supposedly is Origen's revision of an older pre A.D. Greek Old Testament translation. Today, this 5th column is referred to by text critics (though they are loathe to admit this) as the "LXX" or the "Septuagint".6
Origen also worked with the New Testament. Whereas he mainly translated the Old, he edited the New. Origen traveled extensively and everywhere he found a Greek New Testament, it was altered to fit his doctrine. He, of course, felt that he was merely "correcting" the manuscripts. However, men of God do not change original manuscript readings. If one does not agree with the text of a manuscript, the place for change is at translation; but to alter the original document - never! Origen had a wealthy patron who supplied seven stenographers and seven copyists to accompany and assist him as he systematically altered Scripture.7
Origen was the third head master of a school in Alexandria, Egypt, which had been founded in 180 A.D. by the Greek philosopher Pantaenus. Pantaenus was succeeded in 202 A.D. by Clement of Alexandria (not to be confused with Clement of Rome) who taught that Plato's work was also inspired in the same sense as Scripture. Their writings indicate they were lost, albeit "religious", Greek philosophers. Neither professed a new birth apart from water baptism; indeed, it was on the basis of their having been so baptized that they declared themselves "Christian".
2 Foy E. Wallace, A Review of the New Versions, (Ft. Worth, TX: Noble Patterson Pub., 1973), Addenda, section 3, p. 21. Wallace reprints Professor R.C. Foster's "The Battle of the Versions" in his Addenda, 3rd & 4th sections, pp. 13-36.
3 Ibid., pp. 22-23.
4 Ibid., pp. 16 & 18. Irenaeus assailed Aquila as a wicked perverter of Scripture, Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. I, Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson, eds., (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans Pub. Co., 1867; rpt 1978), "Against Heresies", Bk. III, ch. XXI, p. 451.
5 Wallace, A Review of the New Versions op. cit., Addenda, section 3, p. 17.
6 Jones, Floyd Nolen, The Septuagint: A Critical Analysis, op. cit., p. 19. 7 Elgin S. Moyer, Who Was Who in Church History, (Chicago, IL: Moody Press, 1962), p. 315; also see John H. P. Reumann, The Romance of Bible Scripts and Scholars, (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1965), pp. 98-103 for a more detailed account.
