Polyglot Bible [key], Bible in which different texts, often in different languages, are laid out in parallel columns. Polyglot Bibles serve as tools for textual criticism. Origen's Hexapla was the most famous ancient example. More recent Polyglot Bibles include the Complutensian Polyglot, which contained the first printed Greek New Testament (prepared at Alcalá, Spain, 1514–17); the Antwerp Polyglot (1571–80); the Paris Polyglot (1629–57); and the London, or Walton's, Polyglot (1654–57). The latter is the most elaborate and contains—besides the usual Hebrew and Greek—the Samaritan Pentateuch and the Aramaic, Latin, Ethiopian, Syrian, Arabic, and Persian biblical texts.
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