The multiplication of versions doubtless proved to be a source of increasing confusion in the 3rd century. This situation the Alexandrian theologian Origen, working at Caesarea between 230 and 240 ce, sought to remedy. In his Hexapla (“Sixfold”), he presented in parallel vertical columns the Hebrew text, the same in Greek letters, and the versions of Aquila, Symmachus, the Septuagint, and Theodotion, in that order. In the case of some books, Psalms for instance, three more columns were added. The Hexapla serves as an important guide to Palestinian pre-Masoretic pronunciation of the language. The main interest of Origen lay in the fifth column, the Septuagint, which he edited on the basis of the Hebrew. He used the obels (− or ÷) and asterisk (*) to mark, respectively, words found in the Greek text but not in the Hebrew and vice versa.

The Hexapla was a work of such magnitude that it is unlikely to have been copied as a whole. Origen himself produced an abbreviated edition, the Tetrapla, containing only the last four columns. The original manuscript of the Hexapla is known to have been extant as late as about 600 ce. Today it survives only in fragments.

Manuscripts and printed editions of the Septuagint

The manuscripts are conveniently classified by papyrus uncials (capital letters) and minuscules (cursive script). The papyrus fragments run into the hundreds, of varying sizes and importance, ranging from the formative period of the Septuagint through the middle of the 7th century. Two pre-Christian fragments of Deuteronomy from Egypt are of outstanding significance. Although written not on papyrus but on parchment or leather, the fragments from Qumrān of Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers, and the leather scroll of the Minor Prophets from Naḥal Ḥever from the last centuries bce and first centuries ce, deserve special mention among the earliest extant. The most important papyri are those of the Chester Beatty collection, which contains parts of 11 codices preserving fragments of nine Old Testament books. Their dates vary between the 2nd and 4th centuries. During the next 300 years papyrus texts multiplied rapidly, and remnants of about 200 are known.

The uncials are all codices written on vellum between the 4th and 10th centuries. The most outstanding are Vaticanus, which is an almost complete 4th-century Old Testament; Sinaiticus, of the same period but less complete; and the practically complete 5th-century Alexandrinus. These three originally contained both Testaments. Many others were partial manuscripts from the beginning. One of the most valuable of these is the Codex Marchalianus of the Prophets, written in the 6th century.

The minuscule codices begin to appear in the 9th century. From the 11th to the 16th century they are the only ones found, and nearly 1,500 have been recorded.

The first printed Septuagint was that of the Complutensian Polyglot (1514–17). Since it was not released until 1522, however, the 1518 Aldine Venice edition actually was available first. The standard edition until modern times was that of Pope Sixtus V, 1587. In the 19th and 20th centuries several critical editions were printed.

Coptic versions

The spread of Christianity among the non-Greek-speaking peasant communities of Egypt necessitated the translation of the Scriptures into the native tongue (Coptic). These versions may be considered to be wholly Christian in origin and largely based on the Greek Bible. They also display certain affinities with the Old Latin. Nothing certain is known about the Coptic translations except that they probably antedate the earliest known manuscripts from the end of the 3rd and the beginning of the 4th centuries ce.

The Armenian version

The Armenian version is an expression of a nationalist movement that brought about a separation from the rest of the church (mid-5th century), the discontinuance of Syriac in Greek worship, and the invention of a national alphabet by St. Mesrob, also called Mashtots (c. 361–439/440). According to tradition, St. Mesrob first translated Proverbs from the Syriac. Existing manuscripts of the official Armenian recension, however, are based on the Hexaplaric Septuagint, though they show some Peshitta (Syriac version) influence. The Armenian Bible is noted for its beauty and accuracy.

The Georgian version

According to Armenian tradition, the Georgian version was also the work of Mesrob, but the Psalter, the oldest part of the Georgian Old Testament, is probably not earlier than the 5th century. Some manuscripts were based upon Greek versions, others upon the Armenian.

The Ethiopic version

The Ethiopic version poses special problems. The earliest Bible probably was based on Greek versions, after Ethiopia had been converted to Christianity during the 4th and 5th centuries. The earliest existing manuscripts, however, belong to the 13th century. Most manuscripts from the 14th century on seem to reflect Arabic or Coptic influence, and it is not certain whether these represent the original translation or later ones. Many readings agree with the Hebrew against the Septuagint, which may have been caused by a Hexaplaric influence.

The Gothic version

The Gothic version was produced in the mid-4th century by Ulfilas, a Christian missionary who also invented the Gothic alphabet. It constitutes practically all that is left of Gothic literature. The translation of the Old Testament has entirely disappeared except for fragments of Ezra and Nehemiah. Though a Greek base is certain, some scholars deny the attribution of these remnants to Ulfilas.

The Old Latin version

The existence of a Latin translation can be attested in North Africa and southern Gaul as early as the second half of the 2nd century ce and in Rome at the beginning of the following century. Its origins may possibly be attributed to a Christian adoption of biblical versions made by Jews in the Roman province of Africa, where the vernacular was exclusively Latin. Only portions or quotations from it have been preserved, and from these it can be assumed that the translation was made not from Hebrew but from Greek. For this reason, the Old Latin version is especially valuable because it reflects the state of the Septuagint before Origen’s revision. By the 3rd century, several Latin versions were circulating, and African and European recensions can be differentiated. Whether they all diverged from an original single translation or existed from the beginning independently cannot be determined. The textual confusion and the vulgar and colloquial nature of the Old Latin recension had become intolerable to the church authorities by the last decade of the 4th century, and about 382 Pope Damasus decided to remedy the situation.