756
THEESHING
THRO^'E
in LXX w-ith verbs of ' shame,' and tlnis this also may be a Hebraism, and due to familiarity witli the I,XX. The evidence of a Heb. original is not irresistible, but probable.
iv. Versions.— The LXX presents the earliest extant text. Theod. edited the LXX with sundry emendations of little Bi^ificance ; none of them so important as in ' Bel and the Drairon ■ (vol. i. 207). A collation of the two versions is piven by Eichhom (422 fl.), and also in Field's Uexapla (ii. 9Utf.). The Vul^. is in the main an accur.ite tr. of Theodotion. Tlie Syriac as given by Laixarde is the same text as Walton's, the differences being merVlv such as occur in transcription. Worthy of note are the" readings : 15 iSSi, ' a place where we may offer spicks and a sacrifice' : ^^ ^*^K 'let not thy servant be ashamed ' for ijiXoira. oTirfs. rtu : « (72), • The angel of dele went down into the furnace.' The Syro-Hexapiar text is » tr. of the LX.X.
V. Canonicity. — Ball gives several citations from Jewish writings of the incidents narrated in the Biblical portions of Dn 3 ; but it is ditticult to finil Rabbinic quotations of our apocryphon. Pe-sarliim llSa tells how R. Hiskiah ilesoribes the three martyrs as reciting Ps 115, clause by clause, in rotation ; and how R. Samuel the Sbilonite used to say that Yorkemi, the prince of hail, begged to go down to cool the furnace ; but Gabriel ofi'ered not only to make the furnace cool within (as the hail would do), but also to make it hot without (Speaker's Aporr. 306 f.).
In the Christian Church, Hippolytus gives a few notes explanatory of the Song. Julius Africanus disputed the canonicity of the additions to Daniel. Origen wrote in reply defending their genuine- nes.s, and on sever.al occasions quotes ' the Prayer ' ; e.g. in Com. on Matt. bk. xiii. 2 he quotes v."<»*l ' as it stands in the book of Daniel according to the LXX' as representinjr the ditterence between the soul and the body. Cyprian, de Lajysis, e. 31, quotes v.^ '^i as ' scviptura divina ' ; and he ad- duces the Prayer of the ' tres pueri in camino inclusi ' as a model of ptiblic prayer (de Oral. Do7)iinica, c. 8).
LiTEKATURE.— Ball in Speaker's Apocr. ii. 3059. ; Fritzschc, Bandbueh zu den .ipokr. i. l'2.'i ff. ; Schurer, HJP n. iii. 1S3 ff. ; Zockler, Apnkr. des AT 230 ff. ; Bissell in Lanire's Apokl-.; ]£,\chhom, EiiUeilxini} in die Apokr. SchriJ'ten, 419 ff.; Uothsteia in Kautzsch'a Apokr. u. Pseudcpi-ir. d. AT i.
172 fl. J. T. Marshall.
THRESHING.— See Agriculturf, vol. i. p. 50.
THRESHOLD.— 1. In Neh 12=» D"iv?ri -spst (AV 'thresholds of the gates') undoubtedly means • storehouses of the gates' (so RV ; cf. RV 'store- house ' as tr. of c'5j:>!^ n'3 [A V ' house of Asuppira '] in 1 Ch 26'°, and of cspK alone [AV' ' Asuppim '] in v."). The te.\t of the LXX is in this verse defective, but the words ir t<} (rwayayeti' /le Toi)j iri/Xupoi'S obviously represent oii't-'n 'scxs. 2. IP : Jg 19" the Levite's concubine was found in the niornin" dead, with her hands upon the threshold ; 1 K 14" Jeroboam's wife had just reached the threshold of the pal.ace at Tirzah when her .son died ; Am 9' ' Smite the chapiters [of the columns supporting the temple roof) till the thresholds shake'; Is 6* 'the foundations of the tliresholds were moved at the voice of him that cried ' ; Ezk 43', referring to the circumstance that the royal palace and Solomon's temple were within the same enclosure and formed one set of build- ings, God makes it a matter of reproach that they have set ' their threshold by my threshold, and their door post beside my door post ' ; Zeph 2''' 'desolation [n-jn ; but Wellh., Now , et al., after LXX KipaKes, resid lii! 'raven(s)'] shall be on the thresholds (of ruined Nineveh).' A cla.ss of temple oliicials were ' keepers of the threshold ' (irn -irr) : Jer 35* [in sing.], 2 K 12i° 22* (=2 Ch 34") • 23* 25'8 [ = Jer 52"] ; 2 Ch 23* [isn nj;i?] ; in 1 Ch D'"-*"
* These \eepers of the door are in 2 K 12i<i 'priests' ; to 2 Ch 849 they cbtractcristically become • Levite».'
[in the latter verse 153 0'i;;lr] similar officials ar« provided for the tabernacle ; the office is a seculai one in Est 2-' 6'-, answering more to that of body-
fuard (cf. the LXX a.px'<!'^l^<'.To4>v\aKes in 2-'). Id s 84" the pilj^vim declares that he prefers being at the threshold (B irapapnrTeiffSai) in the house of God to dwelling in the tents of wickedness. The other occurrences of 1P are : Ezk 40« ">• ' 41'» "*', 2 Ch 3'.
The principal LXX renderings of "JD not noticed above are:
re trpiUufc, Jg 1927, 1 K 141', Ezk 43s ; to i^ifUufst, Is K* ; rk T/!iiTt-x«, Am 91 ; t! ii/kitu, Zeph 21-', 2 Ch 3' ; (» ji/ia^c-a.. or «J
ifi/XtiO-a-ovTl,-) T,,t ctiki.t, Jer 35 (42)J, or ri. <rTi=()fti», 2 K 1210 (9| 224 2.S18, or Ti. riin., 2 Ch 349, or tt,. iSi,, Jer 62^-i, or n, i\(rcin, 1 Cl» 918 ; (liV Tit «-iX«j) Tit •;«■»»•.., 2 Ch -234 ; ivpilK, Ezk 4116.