Polyglot (book) Polyglot (book) A polyglot is a book that contains side-by-side versions of the same text in several different languages. Some editions of the Bible or its parts are polyglots, in which the Hebrew and Greek originals are exhibited along with historical translations. Polyglots are useful for studying the history of the text and its interpretation. The first enterprise of this kind is the famous "Hexapla" of Origen of Alexandria, in which the Old Testament Scriptures were written in six parallel columns, the first containing the Hebrew text, the second a transliteration of this in Greek letters, the third and fourth
Polyglot (book) New Testament; and, while the earlier polyglot had only the Targum of Onkelos on the Pentateuch, the Antwerp Bible had also the Targum on the Prophets, and on Esther, Job, Psalms, and the Salomonic writings. Next came Guy Michel Lejay's "Paris Polyglot" (1645), which embraces the first printed texts of the Syriac Old Testament (edited by Gabriel Sionita, a Maronite, but the Book of Ruth by Abraham Ecchellensis, also a Maronite) and of the Samaritan Pentateuch and version by Jean Morin (Morinus). It has also an Arabic version, or rather a series of various Arabic versions. The last great polyglot