The question of the origin of this version is of some critical importance, for if the work of Aquila, the Septuagint Ecclesiastes cannot be earlier than 130 A.D. Supposing this to be the first Greek version of the book, we obtain an argument in favour of the Herodian date of Ecclesiastes advocated by Grätz. Upon the whole, however, there seems no sufficient reason for doubting that there was a Septuagint version of the book distinct from Aquila's, as indeed Origen's Hexapla and St. Jerome in the preface to his commentary attest, and that this version in its original form goes back, like the versions of Job and Proverbs, to one of the last centuries before Christ.
On the Peshitto version of Koheleth and Ruth there is a monograph by G. Janichs, Animadversiones criticæ &c. (Breslau, 1871), with which compare Nöldeke's review, Lit. Centralblatt, 1871], No. 49. For the text of the Græcus Venetus, see Gebhardt's edition (Leipz. 1874). Ginsburg's well-known work (1861) contains sections on the versions.
