Also 7–8 anglicized tetraples. [a. Gr. τετραπλᾶ, neut. pl. of τετραπλοῦς fourfold, f. τετρα-, TETRA- + -πλοος -fold. Cf. F. tétraples (Littré).] A text consisting of four parallel versions, esp. that of the Old Testament made by Origen. Cf. HEXAPLA, OCTAPLA.
1684. N. S., Crit. Enq. Edit. Bible, xviii. 178. He maintains that the Tetraples and Hexaples of Origen … were call’d Tetraples, because they contain’d a fourfold Version; Hexaples because they comprehended six Versions.
1705. Hickeringill, Priest-cr., IV. (1721), 242. Origen’s Tetraples, Hexaples, and Octaples.
1831–3. E. Burton, Eccl. Hist., xxiv. (1845), 516. Origen appears at first to have published the three versions of Aquila, Theodotion, and Symmachus, together with the Septuagint: they were arranged in four parallel columns, and the work was called Tetrapla.
