To understand what the Syro-Hexapla is, we must first understand what it means.
Syro-
The “Syro-” part refers to the Syriac language. This is just a form of Aramaic, the common language in the days of Jesus in Judea.
Hexapla
“Hexapla” is in reference to the massive translation project of the Old Testament carried out by the Christian scholar Origen in the 200s AD.
The main point of the Hexapla was to bring together several different translations of the Hebrew Old Testament and make the best possible translation into Greek. Specifically, the fifth column of the Hexapla contained a translation filled with notes, marks, and footnotes. In other words, the Hexapla was pretty much the first ever study Bible for scholars.
However, there is an issue. We no longer have any copies of the Hexapla. All that remains are little fragments and quotes from other people throughout history.
There is one exception though.
The Syro-Hexapla
In the early 600s AD, there was a Bishop named Pawlos of Tella (also called Paul of Tella).
This Bishop lived in Syria and then fled to Egypt because of some sort of persecution back home. He ended up in a region of monasteries known as the Enaton.
Enaton is the Greek word for “ninth” because these monasteries were centered around the “ninth” milepost southwest of Alexandria, Egypt.
Anyhow, while Paul was in Egypt, he spent a few years working on a translation project. Specifically, he was translating the Greek Hexapla into Syriac.
From around 613-617, he translated the fifth column of Origen’s Hexapla into the Syriac language.
The really important thing about this, though, is that he meticulously copied all of the marks and footnotes that Origen had included. In addition, Paul made his own notes where different Greek translations from the Hexapla disagreed. Thanks to Paul’s preservation of all these notes, modern scholars can reconstruct much of what the Old Testament looked like in the first few centuries. Shocker, shocker, it was nearly identical to today. But still, this information does help work out some difficult translation issues, some weird grammar, and some word choices.
Now, there is one big issue with the Syro-Hexapla. It is a translation of the Greek Hexapla, which is a translation of the original Hebrew Old Testament. So, it’s a translation of a translation. That makes it a bit less reliable when figuring out the original text of the Old Testament.
But, thankfully, Paul of Tella did decide to translate the Hexapla very very literally. The Syro-Hexapla is written in Syriac, but it is a very literal translation of the Greek Hexapla, so we can use it to pretty precisely figure out what the Hexapla had said in Greek.
Codex Ambrosianus
Like I said, we don’t have any copies of the Hexapla.
As for the Syro-Hexapla, we also don’t have the original copy. But, that’s true for almost every historical document out there.
Remember, the Syro-Hexapla was translated in the early 600s. And, what we do have is the so-called Codex Ambrosianus, which is a copy of the Syro-Hexapla from either the 700s or 800s. Not too long after the Syro-Hexapla was originally translated.
Codex Ambrosianus is just Latin for “The Ambrosian Book” because it’s been stored in the Ambrosian Library of Milan since some time before the 1600s.
This Codex contains all of the Prophetic Books, the Psalms, and a few others. With the help of some other documents, we also have the Syro-Hexaplaric text for much of the Torah and the Historical Books. In the end, scholars have put back together almost the entire Syro-Hexapla, but we are still missing a few sections, especially in the Torah and the Historical Books.
Interestingly, a scholar from the 1500s, Andreas Masius, wrote about how they originally had the first section of the Codex Ambrosianus, containing the Torah and Historical Books. But, by the time of Masius, that section of the Codex had been lost somehow.
Summary
To sum it all up, the Syro-Hexapla was a translation of the fifth column of the Hexapla from Greek into Syriac.
Bishop Paul/Pawlos of Tella made this translation in the early 600s AD. He included all the critical marks and notes that the original Hexapla had.
Modern scholars can use these notes to help figure out what the original Old Testament looked like and make footnotes in modern Bibles about different possible translations of verses.
And, thanks to the Codex Ambrosianus and other documents, we do have a nearly complete idea of what the Syro-Hexapla looked like.
I hope that helps you learn something new.