There are two sons of Zilpah. Zilpah was Leah's maidservant, who gave her to Jacob as a wife to bear children. And her children are: Gad, Ligirii; Asher, agate.

The sons of Leah are two: Isachar, an amethyst; Zebulon, Chrysolite.

The sons of Rachel are two: Joseph the beryl; Benjamin, onychius.

These are the twelve stones, which correspond to the twelve tribes of Israel.

About the Seventy Interpreters and Those Who Misinterpreted the Holy Scriptures

Ptolemy II, surnamed Philadelphus, having built a library in the city of Alexandria, in the so-called Vruchia, a region located in the same city, entrusted this very library to the care of a certain Demetrius of Phalereus, ordering him to collect in it from everywhere the books of poets and other writers. When the books were collected to fifty-four thousand, then the king sent to the Jerusalemites a letter and a golden table weighing one hundred talents instead of the table taken from the holy place in Jerusalem, asking them to send him all the Holy Scriptures of the Jews. And they, gladly and without delay, copied the books in golden Hebrew letters, and sent him exactly twenty-one books, and according to their calculations, twenty-two canonical books and seventy-two apocryphal books. But the king, having received the books and opened them, could not read them, and therefore he was forced to write them another letter, asking them to send him interpreters who could translate for him what was written in Hebrew into Greek. Then the teachers of the Jews, having chosen seventy-two interpreters from among the men from each tribe, send them to the king, following the example of Moses, who went up to the mountain at the command of the Lord and heard the words: "Take with you seventy men and go up to the mountain" (Exodus 24:1, 12). And he took six from each tribe, and seventy-two of them all together. And so they did, and sent seventy-two men, who slept with the king in pairs on thirty-six beds, so as not to be shaken in thought by the agreement with the others, and thus did their work. For Ptolemy, having built the houses mentioned above, and dividing each of them into two, enclosed two in each from morning to evening, and with them he enclosed two youths for service and for cooking, and also scribes. And not in the walls of those houses he made window doors, but on top, in the roof, he made holes called anaphotids. Thus, spending time from morning to evening, locked up, they made the transfer. Each pair of interpreters was given one book to translate, as, for example, the Book of Genesis to one pair, the Exodus of the children of Israel to another pair, Leviticus to a third, and others like this. And thus came the Scripture, translated thirty-six times. When the translation of all the books was finished, the king sat down on a high throne, and thirty-six readers sat down on the floor, having the books before them. And when one read, there was no disagreement. Such a miraculous work of God makes it clear that these men had the gift of the Holy Spirit. Where something was subtracted from them, there was subtracted from all together, and there was no need for what was subtracted, but an increase was necessary. Thus, the books translated into Greek were placed in the first library. And after her another library was built, called by the daughter of the first, in Serapium.

And the time of Ptolemy and Cleopatra passed, as long as the kings of the Lagidian dynasty reigned. And then came the Roman emperors. Augustus reigned for 56 years. In the 42nd year of his reign, Christ Tiberius was born at the age of 23. In the 18th year of his reign, the Lord was crucified. From the crucifixion to the devastation of Jerusalem, 40 years and several days passed. From Augustus to Hadrian - 180 years. In the 12th year of the reign of Hadrian, Aquila became famous, so that from the time of the translation of the 72 interpreters to the translator of Aquila, or to the 12th year of the reign of Hadrian, 430 years, 4 months and about 9 days passed. This Hadrian came to Jerusalem and, intending to recreate it, took the aforesaid Aquila, a Greek by birth, just as Hadrian himself was a Greek. Aquila was the father-in-law of the emperor, descended from Sinope of Pontus. It was the emperor who placed him in Jerusalem to supervise the work, giving the city his name and the title of royal name. As he himself was called Aelius Hadrian, so he called the city Eliae.

Thus, Aquila, living in Jerusalem, saw that the disciples of the apostles were distinguished by faith and performed great signs of healing and other miracles. For when they had returned from the city of Pella to Jerusalem itself, they dwelt there. When the city of Jerusalem was taken by the Romans and devastated, all the disciples were foretold by an angel to leave the city. Having departed from thence, they settled in Pella, a city lying on the other side of the Jordan. Aquila, struck by all this, came to believe in Christianity. And after a short time, according to his request, he also received the seal of Christ [4]. But at the same time he did not renounce his former occupation, to which he had given himself up when he was a pagan. Precisely, he was carefully taught vain stargazing, and having become a Christian, he did not renounce this error, but every day he observed the position of the hours of birth. For this he was rebuked by teachers, who, while rebuking him daily, nevertheless did not achieve any success. On the contrary, he argued with them, discussing his fate, and they, seeing that he could not be saved, expelled him from the Church. He, dishonored, is inflamed with vain zeal and, having sworn to renounce Christianity, accepts circumcision according to the Jewish rite. At the same time, he devoted himself with the greatest zeal to the study of the Hebrew language and the Hebrew letters. Having learned it perfectly, he set about his translation of the Holy Scriptures, guided not by right reason, but by the deliberate thought of overthrowing certain clear sayings contrary to the translation of the seventy-two interpreters, in order that what is attested in the Divine Scriptures about Christ might be transmitted differently for the sake of covering his shame and defending his foolishness. And this translation of Aquila was the second translation after the expiration of the said amount of time, i.e., four hundred and thirty years. After this, in the time of Commodus and Severus, a certain Samaritan, Symmachus, one of those who are considered wise by the Samaritans, was not honored by his people, and was indignant with his own tribe, came to the Jews, became a proselyte, and received a second circumcision. For as those who pass from Judaism to Samaritan are circumcised a second time, so also do those who pass from Samaritanism to Judaism. But even after circumcision they become uncircumcised with the help of a certain medical art, by means of stitching and medicinal potions, as the Apostle says: Is it in circumcision that anyone was called? Let him not commit uncircumcision for himself: is anyone uncircumcised? let him not be circumcised (1 Corinthians 7:18). It is said that this demonic delusion was first invented by Esau. So this Symmachus, having composed his own translation for the refutation of the translators who were among the Samaritans, made a third translation.

After him, and following in his footsteps under the emperor Commodus II, a certain Theodotion of Pontus, one of the adherents of the heresy chief Marcion, who also came from Sinope, being angry at his heresy, also deviated into Judaism, and was circumcised, and, having learned the Hebrew language and the Hebrew letters, published his translation of the Holy Books. In most cases his translation agrees with the translation of the seventy-two, for he has acquired great skill from the practice of this translation.

As for the fifth and sixth editions of the translations, I cannot say where or who the translators were. I can only say that the fifth was found hidden in a barrel in Jericho after the persecution of King Septimius Severus in the time of Antoninus Caracalla, son of Severus, together with other Hebrew books. In the time of the emperor Alexander, the son of Mamaea, the sixth edition was found, also hidden in barrels in Nicopolis near Actium.

Under the emperor Decius, Origen became famous, who, as we said earlier, introduced both the sign of asterisk ("*" - the sign of replenishment - A.L.) and the sign of the owel ("-" - the sign of excess - A.L.). He compared the six translations and the Hebrew text on one page with the same Hebrew words and sayings, and on the other with the Hebrew words in Greek letters in the corresponding column, so that even those who do not know the Hebrew letters could understand the power of the Hebrew sayings with the help of the Greek. And thus, in his so-called exaples and octaples, by juxtaposing two pages of the Hebrew text and six translators in parallel rows, he was of great use to those who were inquisitive about all that was good. And, oh, if he had not fallen into error in his writings, if he had not offended the world and himself, by beginning to teach badly about the faith and badly explain most of the Holy Scriptures!

He, having found the fifth and sixth editions of the translations, and not knowing who had compiled them, marked the fifth with the letter "e," signifying the number five, and the sixth with the letter "x," signifying six. But some, finding the Hebrew edition in the first place, the translation of Aquila in the second, then the translation of Symmachus, then the translation of the seventy-two, then the translation of Theodotion, and finally the fifth and sixth editions, think that the translations of Aquila and Symmachus were composed before the translation of the seventy-two. However, they are mistaken. Origen so compared them and did well that he gave the translation of the seventy-two a place in the middle. He placed it in the middle so that this translation would serve as a revelation of the translations placed on both sides of it.

Table of contents or a brief recap of what is contained in the Panaria

Since we have taken up the intention of announcing to you the names of heresies and revealing the lawless deeds of heretics as poison and destruction, but at the same time to offer an antidote that heals the wounded and protects those who are wounded, we will call our book Panarius, or a box of medicines for those who are wounded by them. This book consists of three parts and contains eighty heresies, which are, as it were, the likeness of beasts or serpents. After considering the octopus heresies, the one foundation of truth is presented, and at the same time the salvific teaching, the rule of faith, and the bride of Christ, the Holy Church, which has existed from eternity, but with the coming of Christ in the flesh in the course of time was revealed among the above-mentioned heresies, and which we have examined in our memoirs of the preaching of Christ [7]. We have briefly and extensively proclaimed it, in accordance with the teaching of the Apostles, after considering the impiety of heresy, and we have done this, as it were, to refresh those who have taken the trouble of reading a work on heresies. We ask all of you, benevolent readers, to pay attention to the preface, and to the exposition on heresies that follows, and the confession of truth, and the teaching on the true faith of the Holy Universal Church.