SOME LINGUISTIC EVIDENCE REGARDING ITS DATE. 227 



the present day. The term in Aram, for a letter in Ezra is 

 iggereth (Ezra v, 6), derived from the Assyrian egirtu. This word 

 is often found in the Eg.-Aram. papyri, as well as in Biblical 

 Aramaic. The LXX render nishtewdn by (jiopoXoyo^, tax- 

 collector ! This is a fair specimen of the knowledge these 

 translators had of the foreign words occurring in Daniel and 

 Ezra. 



(11) IDItb^ : informant, intelligence agent; the termina- 

 tion -Jcara in Old Persian being added to express the doer, 

 agent ; here it is added to the azd, or azda mentioned above 

 (p. 225, No. 5). 



(12) "jt : zan has been explained above, p. 213. 



(13) ^2r\"l : from Av. ratha, a chariot, hence rathakaray a 

 charioteer or driver, wagon-driver. 



(14) ilDI^ : Pers. ndvapat, evidently meaning a ship-captain. 

 In Ach. ndvaya, adj., means, when applied to water, able to bear 

 a ship, navigable. Ach. must have had the word ndv-, = Gk., 

 Lat. and Skt. stem meaning a ship. The termination is Ach. 

 fati, Av. jpaiti, master. 



(15) "^U^DIt^ : the first element in the word is ajpa, near, etc., 

 found in Av., Skt., etc., and perhaps the root 5ar, Av., to unite. 

 The Aram, word is often read with d instead of r for the penulti- 

 mate letter. Meaning unknown. 



(16) "^Dl^^n : Hamdakara as a Persian word reminds us of 

 the hadddbar of several passages in Aram, of Daniel. That the 

 words are Persian seems clear, but the derivation and meaning 

 are unknown. 



(17) tiJl : found in Ezra and elsewhere, meaning treasure. 

 It was borrowed in Assyrian in the forms ganzu and gunzii. 

 We find also the compound ganzaharu, representing Old Persian 

 ganzabara, which became (according to the usual rule of assimila- 

 tion) gazzabardj wrongly punctuated (/i2;6af in Ezra vii, 11. 



(18) : " commander," from Ach. /rama/ia, command ; 

 cf. Skt. pramdna. (In modern Persian the word is farmdn.) 



(19) n'^DOi^ : fr. upa, as above, and either root kar, to make, 

 or root keret, to cut ; hence upa-keret, to cut in, cut to shape ; 

 in either case Persian . 



(20) ynin : from han = ham, together, and perhaps Av. 

 root dvan, to fly. 



(21) "^DD^^ : Probably Persian, apasara. (It may be the word 

 afsar, found in modern Persian, meaning a crown.) 



q2 



