Daniel and Androcles

THE OLD GREEK VERSION, preserved in Codex Chisianus, probably exhibits the story of Daniel in the lion's den in the earliest form known to us. Its claim to be derived from Origen's Tetrapla is borne out by the version of Paul of Tella found in Codex Ambrosianus Syro-ilexaplaris. Theodotion's version seems to have been based on one already extant toward the end of the first century A. D. The daughter-versions--Old Latin, Coptic, Ethiopic, Gothic, Armenian, Slavonic-were made from Theodotion whose text took the place of the Vetus Graeca in the great codices. MSS, daughterversions and patristic quotations furnish an extensive apparatus criticus for the restoration of Theodotion. The Syriac Peshita, like Theodotion, represents an Aramaic text closely resembling the Masoretic, and in spite of some curious variants in the Latin Vulgate, Jerome's text seems to have been quite similar. The marked differences between the Vetus Graeca and this text officially recognized by synagogue and church have attracted little attention among scholars and, when referred to at all, have generally been explained either by negligence in copying or intentional changes in Codex Chisianus or by alterations, due to the same causes, in the Aramaic text from which the version was made.1 Neither explanation is very plausible. A careful comparison has led the present writer to the conviction that the old version rests on an Aramaic text, and that this text was earlier than the one represented by our MSS of the Hebrew Bible and its ancient renderings. In the Vetus Graeca, Darius appoints three presidents and has in mind -making one of them, Daniel, chief ruler under himself of the empire. Jealous of Daniel, the other two plan to ruin him through his religion. In vs. 3 they are spoken of as i-oh Sv'o alvSpag, in vs. 4 as ol Sv'o veaviaxot, in vs. 12 as ovrot otL alv~pwrot, and in vs. 24 as

Biblical Studies and Interpretation · Classical Antiquity Studies · Historical and Linguistic Studies · History · Philosophy