Little is
known of the biography of Symmachus. He worked in the first half of the third
century, or perhaps the second century. He is sometimes identified with the
Ebionites—a Christian group who observed the practices of Judaism—though he is
more likely to have been a Jew. The revision of Symmachus “combined the best
Biblical Greek style, remarkable clarity, a high degree of accuracy regarding
the Hebrew, and the rabbinic exegesis of his day.” Generally speaking Symmachus
translates ad sensum, while nonetheless attempting to reflect the Hebrew
as precisely as he is able to. (Hector M. Patmore, Adam, Satan, and the King
of Tyre: The Interpretation of Ezekiel 28:11-19 in Late Antiquity [Jewish
and Christian Perspectives 20; Leiden: Brill, 2012], 182)
