This assumes that the ' History ' is of Palestinian origin : and there is nothing against this. If it cannot be proved to have been originally written in Aramaic, it cannot be proved that it was not.
An argument, as old as the time ot Origen, which has been Adduced in favour of a Greek original, seems to the present writer untenable. In vv.Mf. and ^^- there ocourtwo paranomasise. Daniel asks the first elder: 'Under what tree didst thou see them?' and the reply is: 'Under a mastic tree' (Or. o-;tr.oO ; and Daniel says: 'The angel of God shall clrave {<rx.<rit) thy Boul to-day.' The second elder replies : ' Under a /io/m-tree ' (tp)»K) ; and Daniel says : ' The angel of God has a sword to cut thee in two' (T/s.o-a. <rO. These verbal plays are so ingenious that they have been held by m.any to prove, beyond all con- troversy, a Greek origmal. There is no more cogency in this, it seetus to us, than if, supposing all early VSS to be lost, we should read in English: 'Under a dovt tree* . . . 'the Lord shall cleave thee,' ' Under a i/eic tree ' . . . ' the Lord shall Atn<; thee,' and should therefrom infer Ku<jlish authorship. Origen says that he asked many Jews to furnish him with Heb. words that would produce a similar assonance : but always io vain (.\ligne, xi. ei-tio). If Ileb. fails, Aramaic is equal to the de- mand. The 'mastick' is in Syriac VSS Npn^D (using Heb. letters) ; and the verb ' to cut in two ' is poD : the word which occurs in Pal Syr of Mk 016 'I beheaded John.' In the second case Lj and W„ have N:on 'a pomegranate' ; opposite which, we surmise that there originally stood the words: 'The angel of God shall precipitate thee' (ND"1). This is the punishment stated in LXX to have been inflicted: 'They muzzled them and threiv them down into the ravine.' The verb ND"l is used in this same sense in the Aram, ot Du 320 ()16, and in the Targ. ot Jon 1"', Ezk 16*.
iv. Canonicity. — The History of Susanna was incluilcd in the Canon by the (ireek, Syrian, and Latin Chunlu--. The lirst to dispute its claim was Julias Africaiuis. In his Letter to Origen he powerfully questions its historicity (Bissell, 446), and calls it a aOyypafj^fia vtwrepiKby nal TrfTrXaa- liJvoi'. Origen makes a rejoinder to each of his objections, but the replies are far from satisfactory. Iren.-eus cites vv.^-- '^ and " as ' voices from Daniel the propliet' {adv. Jlrer. iv. 26. 3), and TertuUian refers to our history {de Corona, iv.). Hippolytus treats it exegetically at the commencement of his Comni. on Daniel ; and fragments are extant of a Comni. by Origen in Book x. of his Stromata, from which Jerome makes extracts in his Comm. on Daniel, c. xiii. Schiirer {HJP U. iii. 186) collects Origen's citations from Susanna.
Literature.— Ball in Speaker's Apocr. ii. 3'23 fl. ; Fritzschc, Uandhucli zu den Apokr. i. 116 f., U2t.; Schiirer, II J I' 11. iii. IS3 fl ; Zockler, ApuL-r. deti AT 213 II.; Bissell in Lange'a
Apocr, 44.5 fl.; TS\<i\\'aoTn, Einleitunf] in die Apokr. Schriftcn. 447 ff. ; Uothstein in Kautzsch's Apokr. u. Pseudepinr. d. AT
i- i78ff- J. T. Marshall.
SCSI ('Qto ; B Souffci, AF SowO.— A Manassite, Nu 13'= <"). The text, however, is doubtful (sea Nestle, Eigennamcn, 209; Gray, HPN 92; Dillm. Am. ad loc. ).
SWADDLE, SWADDLING-BANDS (nVjiq hdth- ullah ; ' to swaddle ' [^nn] hdthal, airapyavbui).- — The wrapping in swaddling-clothes is at the present day, as it was in ancient times, one of the hrst services rendered to the newborn infant in the East. The child is laid across the diagonal of a square of cloth of which the corners are folded over the body and feet and under tlie head. The bandages, wliich are of plain cotton among the poor and of silk and embroidered work in the case of the rich, are then wrapped round the cloth which encases the child. The custom seems to point back to the
rXtktn IK SWADDLINQ-CtOinKS.
early nomadic life, as the bandaging not only aflbrda protection against cold and support to the spine, but also bj' the confinement of tlie limbs enables the mother more easily to carry the child on the day's jimrney. During the first week salt water (Ezk IG') is applied daily to the lips and flexures of the body wherever the tender skin might become iiiHamed. This hardening process as a protection against chafing is further assisted by dusting the joints with a powder of pounded myrtle leaves, and any tender or irritated parts of the skin are rubbed with olive oil. The absence of these attentions at the birth of Israel (Ezk 16') indicated the outcast insignilicance of the nation at the beginning. Amid tlie privations of the manger at Bethlehem this maternal duty was carefully attended to (Lk 2'-'-). The s\vaddlin"-bands are daily unfastened in attending to the i-liild, but the practice is kept up for about a year until the child is strong enough to use his limbs. The Oriental cradle has not the high sides of the Western cradle or infant's crib, and the infant is firmly tied down by long straps resembling the swaddling-bands round the body. This idea of restraint appears in the majestic figure of the clouds as the swaddling-bands of the sea (Job 3S»). In La 1^' the AV 'swaddled' ('prisa tippahti) is in UV tr. 'dandled.' The word is a denominative from nso ' span ' or ' palm of \die hand.'