Notes on the Aramaic Part of Daniel. 2bl 



we have than to rewrite it according to our ideas of good Aramaic 

 usage. 



2 : 16 KsS'S't' n^innS K'niraV There is a characteristic gerundial 

 construction of the infinitive preceded by waw, which is frequent in the 

 Palestinian dialect (both Aramaic and the later Hebrew) and is some- 

 times misunderstood by modern interpreters. It may be rendered by 

 the passive voice, or by supplying some such phrase as " // zvas intended.'' 

 This verse reads : " Daniel entered and asked of the king that he would 

 grant him time, and the interpretation ivotild be slioivn to the king." 

 Marti, Grammar, /// he. (but not in his commentary) says : " Wahr- 

 scheinlich ist hier KJ^Sn ausgefallen," namely, just before the word 

 X"l^'£1- But the text is right as it stands. A similar case is 1:5, 

 qS'^j*^!]. The passage reads : "And the king appointed them a portion 

 for each day, from the dainties of the king and from the wine which 

 he drank ; and they were to be educated for three years, at the end of 

 which time they should stand before the king." Here Marti, Conini., 

 Kittel's Biblia Hebraica, and others, propose to transfer this infinitive, 

 together with all of that part of vs. 5 which follows it, to the end of vs. 4 ! 

 This is merely one variety of the idiom described in Noldeke, Syrische 

 Gratnni.-, p. 216, below ; Gesenius-Kautzsch, Gramni., § 114, h, k, etc. 

 2:17 ^K'll'^p. If I am not mistaken, this name, which occurs several 

 times in the later parts of the Old Testament, was originally ■'XTtT'^XSi 

 " Help of God." Similady, I believe that the name Samuel, ':?S1S5^% is 

 in its origin a contraction of Sk'I^IDU^, " Heard of God," cf. bKI^DU^"' etc. 

 If this is true, these names furnish early examples of that occasional suppres- 

 sion of the guttural X? which is so noticeable in the later dialects, especially 

 in Aramaic. I hope to discuss this subject at some length elsewhere. 

 2 : 24. Of the two verbs, ^^ and ^fX> given in this verse by MT, 

 one is manifestly superfluous. The former was not in the text rendered 

 by Theodotion ; the latter has no equivalent in the old Greek version.' 

 Evidently the preposition ^^ was dittographed by mistake. The original 

 had '^^x only. 



2 : 29 )phD "T^iVVI- " Thy thoughts arose.'' This Palestinian idiom 



(cf. Isaiah 65 : 17 and the citation in i Cor. 2 : 9), which is both Hebrew 



and Aramaic, plainly underlies the Greek of Luke 24 : 38 and Acts 7 : 23. 



2:31. It is obvious that the word K'^iltT is impossible where it stands. 



It does not mean " great " (in size),^ and even if it did, it could not 



^ Marti, Grawm.^ and Kittel, Biblia Hebraica.^ are mistaken in supposing 

 that the old Greek did not render ^^. 



^ In 2 : 6 and 4 : 7, the two other passages which are cited in Brown- 

 Driver-Briggs in support of this meaning, the correct-translation is "exceed- 

 ing," and the word is an exact synonym of "^^J^^. 



Trans. Conn. Acad., Vol. XV. 17 



