From  such  Hebrew  Bibles  probably  came  the  Greek  versions
of  early  "  heretics  and  apostates  to  Judaism  "  like  Onkelos  or
Aquila  and  Theodotion.  This  last  apostate's  version  (called
"an  independent  translation  or  rather  revision  of  the  LXX,"
Smith's  Christian  Biography)  is  the  one  on  which  Origen  prin-
cipally relied  in  preparing  that  bible  which  Eusebius  prided
himself  on  having  a  copy  of,  before  it  was  burned  in  the  Csesarean
library.  Originals  and  authoritative  copies  of  all  these  bibles
have  however  been  lost  or  amended  out  of  existence.
Theodotion  we  know  "  was  a  self-taught  Hebraist,  one  not
competent  to  be  an  original  translator  ...  he  was  a  mere
worker  on  lines  laid  down  by  others,"  and  anxious  above  all
things  to  upset  Christians.  (Christian  Biog.)  He  had  before
him  different  versions  of  the  Scriptures  in  170-180  a. a,  the
most  accurate  of  which  would  probably  be  versions  professing
to  follow  the  most  popular  LXX  in  Alexandria ;  for  the  real
LXX  was  gone  and  even  the  quasi  version  had  then  passed
through  some  200  troubled  years  of  wars,  uncritical  editing,  and
inaccurate  and  biased  transcribing.
