Symmachus's Greek Version

Symmachus's version is an important ancient Greek Jewish translation of the Hebrew Bible, made directly from Hebrew and taking the Hebrew Bible as its base text. Originally broad in scope, it belonged to the tradition of Jewish Greek renderings that followed the Septuagint, and it is classed as a fresh translation rather than a revision, with the Septuagint and other Jewish Greek versions standing behind it as predecessor or base translations. Its translation philosophy aimed at idiomatic, polished Greek while remaining attentive to the sense of the Hebrew, and it was valued for this more idiomatic Greek than that of Aquila while still keeping close to the meaning of the Hebrew. Origen placed it in one of the columns of his Hexapla, and it is chiefly through such quotations and fragments that it is known today. Ancient reports disagree about Symmachus's precise religious affiliation.