270 Charles C. Torrey, 



original text of vs. 12, therefore, probably read as follows: "ipl? DHH 



■^n KKnnn rw'ti^i'c^'' ;trn5i bns n -noKm >ipntt? xr^xs \niu^ntr 



npSn Xnvn an ,r3tOr K^iar Sram -X"^n; "But leave in the earth 

 the stump of his roots, even with a bond of iron and brass. He shall 

 be fed with the grass of the field, and wet with the dew of heaven, 

 and his portion shall be with the beasts." Both rhythm and sense are 

 now perfectly restored. It is barely possible, but hardly probable, that 

 another word was lost in company with nOttP^^ ; thus, the imperative 

 1"TIDX) following the word *^T\V\i would make the phrase less obscure. 

 But it may well be that the author deliberately aimed at obscurity here. 

 As for the meaning of the " bond of iron and brass," those who dis- 

 cuss it should not leave entirely out of account the exegesis preser\'ed 

 for us in the old Greek translation. In vs. 14 a (not in our Aramaic) 

 Nebuchadnezzar describes how, in his dream, the tree was actually cut 

 down before his eyes ; its branches were broken and scattered ; it (or 

 rather, he I) "ate the grass of the field, and was cast into prison, and 

 was bound by them in fetters and in brazen shackles." So also vss. 22, 

 St? 'puXaxfjv aTra^ouai as; 29, (Jvxt zrfi oo^tjs uou or^jouai ae; 30a, i^tb 

 Napoupoovoaop .... sTtxa I'tt) ejTcOTjOTjv; these rendering passages which 

 are not in our Aramaic. This is the (probably faithful) translation of 

 a text which was current near the middle of the second century B.C.* 

 I believe, nevertheless, that Marti is right in concluding [Comm. in loc) 

 that the original intent of the " bond of iron and brass " was to sym- 

 bolize the absolute security in which the king's throne was kept for 

 him ; see especially vs. 23. 



* It may, of course, have been a good deal older than that date. Any- 

 one who came across an old and interesting version of the Daniel stories 

 (i. e., chaps. 1—6) might have felt at liberty to substitute it, or a part of 

 it, for the '' standard " version, in making up a copy of the expanded book. 

 As for the origin of this edition of the stories, namely that one which 

 appears in the old Greek of chaps. 4—6. the probability is that it was made 

 from memory only, without the aid of any written text. No one who com- 

 pares it carefully with our Aramaic recension can doubt for a moment that 

 the latter stands very much nearer to what the author himself wrote. Our 

 Biblical text, that is, comes straight from the original through the usual 

 process of manuscript transmission; and the numerous changes and losses 

 which it has suffered are probably all due to the usual mechanical accidents. 

 The Aramaic text underlying our older Greek version of chaps. 4—6. on 

 the other hand, was the creation of a narrator who wrote it out from mem- 

 ory ; sometimes omitting, or transposing, often repeating, expanding, and 

 adding altogether new material. In all probability, this edition from mem- 

 ory included the whole of the original book (chaps. 1—6); and from it the 

 three chapters named were excerpted, near the middle of the second century 



