Symmachus, a translator of the Old Test, into Greek, was born in Samaria during the latter half of the 2d century. Originally a Jew, he became a Christian, but embraced the doctrine of the Ebionites.
In spite of the high reputation enjoyed by the Alex- andrian version, or Septuagint (q. v.), not only among the Hellenists outside of Palestine, but also within Pal- estine itself, at a later time it became an object of sus- picion to the stricter Jews, owing to polemical reasons, so that, against the Christians, they denied its correct- ness, and set up another translation in opposition to it. The first who made a version for the use of the Jews was Aquila (q. v.) ; not much later than Aquila, Theo- dotion (q. v.) prepared a second, and very soon after- wards another translation was made by Symmachus. From Epiphanius, De Pondeiibtis et Mensuris, c. xvi (whose accounts, however, Bleek pronounces fabulous), we learn that Symmachus was a Samaritan, 'Evfi- I^M\6(; TiQ ^aftapeirrjQ twv Trap' avTolc (TO(pu)v . . . r(h]acic (piKapx'av . . . Trpoff7]XvTtvH Kai Treptrsf-iveTai CEvrepov. With Epiphanius agree Athanasius {Synop- sis), the Chronicon Paschale, and Euthymius Zigabenus, in Carpzov, Critica Sacra, p. 567. Eusebius {Hist. Eccles. vi, 17 ; and Demonstr. Evany, vii, 1 ) calls him 'E/Bioivoioc, an Ebionite, which is also the opinion of Jerome and modern critics. Fiirst and Geiger call him a .Jew, and a pupil of R. Meir (q. v.).
As to the time in which he lived, Epiphanius (loc.cit.) places him in the reign of king Severus. With this
would agree the fact that Irenaeus does not name him, while he mentions Aquila and Theodotion, and that Origen already found his translation in existence. Bleek says that from Eusebius {loc. cit.) we may infer " that the translation of Symmachus was little known before the time of Origen, and that Origen had obtained it from a certain woman Juliane, to whom it had come from Symmachus himself." The passage in Eusebius runs thus: Tavra di 6 'ilpiyivijc jXiTd Kai dWwv ti'c rric Ypatpdg tpni]vilu)v rov ^vj-ifj-axov, arjixaivti irapd 'louXiaj/z/c Tii'oc; Et\i](psi'ai iji' Kai (paai Trap' avrov l.vufia.yov rai- (iijiXovQ Siaci^affBai.
As to the yenitis of the translation, Epiphanius tells us that he translated in opposition to the Samaritans. Trpog cia(Trpo(pi)v Tm> Tzapd 'SafxapeiTaig tpjiyjvsvaag. But this supposition is in bad taste, for, in the first place, in Gen. v Symmachus agrees with the Samaritan against the Sept. ; in the second place, we cannot see how he should have made his translation in opposition to the Samaritans, who only accept the Pentateuch, while Symmachus's version is on all the books of the Old Test. ; and, in the third place, none of the other Church fathers knew anything of his opposition to the Samari- tans. The probability is that his whole aim was di- rected towards a more elegant and finer version ; for Symmachus, in his version, betrays the endeavor to sat- isfy the genius of the Greek language and to keep aloof from every influence of Eastern ideas and the Hebrew original. Thus he forms periods where the original has simply co-ordinate sentences, e. g. 2 Kings i, 2, ID^ 1ir-n, dTTtXBovrec TrvBtff^t; Joh x-K.xiv,29, Z:ip'a'' Ntni S'lUT^ "^T^^, avTOV St ripefiiav diSovToc rig KaraKpivel: Psa. ix, 4, "linX "^a^X niir:;, dvaarpacpivTwv tCjv ix^pihv fiov. Where the Hebrew circumscribes an ad- verbial idea by a verb, Symmachus uses an adverb, as Gen. iv, 2, r~?i3 ClDr!"!, Kai ttciKiv tTiKtv; or he uses the adjective for the Hebrew nomen qualitalis, as Psa. liv, 24, n?2nm dim iiriX, ^laifovoi Kai SoXioi. He reduces the Hebrew tropes to the corresponding Greek, e. g. 1 Sam. xx, 25, D"S3 D"S2, luoTrep tuo^tt ; XXV, 25, Ijb-nX 151X DiTDi X3-bs, fi)) Trpocxyg, a^iiijv, rilTSn ri^, in Gen. ii, 17, becomes S-vj/rot; tcT}/. He uses additions for the sake of elegancy : thus, Job xxi, 13, inni PIN'ZJ "5"i-1, Kai ra;)^£tiic dvocroi Kai djSaadt'KTToi tig aStjv KarepxovTai ; Ezek. xvi, 31, ')3nx D3pb, fv d^ioTri(T7ui avi'dyovera /iKT^wpara. Hebrew proper nouns are often translated etymological- ly, e. g. Deut. xxxii, 49, D"'"inj'ri "itl, to opog twv £tal3dani)i'; Isa. xix, 18, Qinfl T^S, TroXig y'jXiov.
Taken all in all, Symmachus deserves the praise which has been bestowed on his translation, which was called vei'sio jieispiciia, nianij'esia, admirabilis, aperta. Je- rome, In A mas Hi, 11, speaks of Sj'mmachus. " Non solet verborum KUKoZilXiav, sed intelligentiaj ordiuem sequi;" Li Isa. V, 1, "Sj'ramachus more suo manifestius." Eu- sebius, In Psa. xxi, 31 sq., says, oaip'iaTtpov 6 Svfifia- i^oc;, and acpoSpa ^av^iaarCjg o "S.vfifiaxoQ; In Psa.xlvi, 10, ovTiiig r)pi.u)i'tv(7e ^av/jaaruig 6 'S.hfi^axog. Still we cannot characterize his style as being pure Greek or elegant; and Symmachus himself seems to have felt it, for he made a second edition of his translation, in w-hich he corrected all such Hebraisms and harsh expressions as had crept in. Thus Jerome, In Jer. xxxii, saj's, "Sj'mmachi p7-inia editio et LXX et Theodotio solos (fivvoi) interpretati sunt; secunda quippe Symmachi vertit ^KJXoi;;" and In Nakum Hi he writes, "S3'mma- chus uTTOTvpiag 7rXr/pj;f, quod possumus dicere crudeli- late vel severitate ijlena ; in altera ejus editione reperi [xeXoKOTriag TrXrjpijc, i.e. sectionibus carnium et frustis per membra concisis." Whether his second edition em- braced all the books of the Old Test, cannot be decided with certainty, since only a few fragments of the second edition on some of the books are extant.