Although Origen and his Hexapla are well known among biblical scholars, questions about his philology, particularly textual criticism, persist. The Hexapla contained very important texts and translations of the Hebrew Scriptures, but unfortunately it was probably destroyed in the seventh century and we possess only fragments of it. This volume systematically treats the questions of Origens forerunners and heirs and attempts to reconstruct how Origen developed the philological method he received and also how his followers received and innovated his textual work.

This volume locates Origen and his Hexapla between those philologists and revisers who came before him and those philologists who developed and innovated his work. It demonstrates the value of an inter-disciplinary approach to reconstructing the history of Origens philological work on the copies of the Christian Old Testament scriptures.