Chapter XVII.--The Translator Symmachus.

As to these translators it should be stated that Symmachus was an Ebionite. But the heresy of the Ebionites, as it is called, asserts that Christ was the son of Joseph and Mary, considering him a mere man, and insists strongly on keeping the law in a Jewish manner, as we have seen already in this history. [1895] Commentaries of Symmachus are still extant in which he appears to support this heresy by attacking the Gospel of Matthew. [1896] Origen states that he obtained these and other commentaries of Symmachus on the Scriptures from a certain Juliana, [1897] who, he says, received the books by inheritance from Symmachus himself.