Introduction.

...diligently read, and published that immeasurable work of his six-fold and eight-fold Bible (*), in which all these translations are held against one another and their variations are indicated, and who explained almost all the holy books? The author is referring to Origen (c. 184–253 AD), a prolific early scholar who created the Hexapla, a massive comparative edition of the Old Testament. From these divine records, all these great men drew their deep knowledge, that reverence, that zeal, and that love for religion.

One would still today acquire this thorough knowledge of religion; one would glow with that same love and that same zeal if one sought to draw from that very same source. God once urgently recommended this to his people: The statutes that I command you today shall be imprinted on your heart. You should instill them into your children and take them to heart, whether you sit in your house or are on a journey, whether you lie down to rest or stand up again. You should bind them as a sign on your hand; they shall always hover before your eyes. You shall write them upon the threshold and the door of your house (**).

In the early days of the Church, people devoted themselves with such zeal to the study of the Holy Scriptures that believers were found then who knew how to recite them from memory without any stumbling, as if they had the books lying open before them. Almost all instructions from the Church FathersThe influential bishops and theologians of the first few centuries of Christianity. were nothing more than clear and moving explanations

(*) original: Hexapla, Octapla — These terms refer to Origen’s multi-columned Bibles which featured six or eight versions of the text side-by-side for comparison.
(**) Deuteronomy 6:6.