Symmachus (; "ally"; fl. late 2nd century) translated the Old Testament into Greek. His translation was included by Origen in his Hexapla and Tetrapla, which compared various versions of the Old Testament side by side with the Septuagint. Some fragments of Symmachus's version that survive, in what remains of the Hexapla, inspire scholars to remark on the purity and idiomatic elegance of Symmachus' Greek. He was admired by Jerome, who used his work in composing the Vulgate. Life Eusebius inferred that Symmachus was an Ebionite (Ἐβιωνίτης Σύμμαχος "Symmachus the Ebionite"), but this is now generally thought to be unreliable. The alternative is that he was a Samaritan who converted to Judaism. Epiphanius' account that Symmachus was a Samaritan who having quarrelled with his own people converted to Judaism is now given greater credence, since Symmachus' exegetical writings give no indication of Ebionism. At some time in his life, he had also written a commentary on the Aramaic Gospel of Matthew, known then as According to the Hebrews. Symmachus ben Joseph A rabbi from the time of the Mishnah, named Symmachus ben Joseph, is identified by some with Symmachus the translator; others hold the claim to be unfounded, although Epiphanius of Salamis puts Symmachus within the time-frame of Rabbi Meir, saying that Symmachus had converted to the Jewish religion after being a Samaritan. The rabbinic Symmachus was a student of Rabbi Meir, and his teachings are mentioned in the Mishnah under the name Sūmkos (). His translation According to Bruce M. Metzger the Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures prepared by Symmachus followed a 'theory and method... the opposite of that of Aquila':for his aim was to make an elegant Greek rendering. To judge from the scattered fragments that remain of his translation, Symmachus tended to be periphrastic in representing the Hebrew original. He preferred idiomatic Greek constructions in contrast to other versions in which the Hebrew constructions are preserved. Thus he usually converted into a Greek participle the first of two finite verbs connected with a copula. He made copious use of a wide range of Greek particles to bring out subtle distinctions of relationship that the Hebrew cannot adequately express. In more than one passage Symmachus had a tendency to soften anthropomorphic expressions of the Hebrew text.However, Symmachus aimed to preserve the meaning of his Hebrew source text by a more literal translation than the Septuagint. Saint Jerome admired