The Pulpit Commentary — Daniel — Section 144

symplw11ia, flvo CltACB of siplionia, and 'AA,ca.7o, Ba,BvAu,r.,fon· tTvµ.µaxoV,na-" fr)l]glit soven co.eoe or nothing o.t all. As the along with the Babylonians as their ally." word ae we have it now is distinctly Greek, The Assyrio.ne possessed Cyprue--another the eviclonce of the Greek vereione, while source of Hellenic influence. Tbo ln.tcr strong nego.tively, ie weak positively. Wo So.rgonids, Esarhe.ddon rrnd Asshur-bani-pal, mean by thie that o. Greek word put on the those who be.d the closest rele.tionsliip with mnrgin might eo.eily slip into the text of the Babylon, had also the supremacy in Egypt, Beptuo.gint, o.nd thence into the Palestinian and now we know from Flinders Petrie reoeneion-the Maeeoretic. Moreover, tho anrl others, in the accounts they have givr·n co.ea o.go.inet sumph011ya is strengthened usof their explorations at Daphne, that there when we compare the ineto.ncee in which it we.s, before the time of the Babylonian power, occurs with those in which it cloee not a Greek colony of old standing. To meet occur. If we looked o.t the mo.tter a priori, this contention it is urged that the words tho caeca where a word would most likely in question e.re much later than the time be dropped is in a conversational repetition of Nebuchadnezzar. Certainly we shall of such o. liet of instruments. But tho beet admit that the earliest instance of ta>..-rTJplov supported case of the occurrence of thie word is in Aristotle, but the date of the word is is in the offer made by Nebuchadnezzar, not to be limited by its occurrence in that if even yet they would yield, they Aristotle (Ariet., 'Problem.,' xix. 23. 2). l t would be forgiven. 'l'he word in question occurs in a de6nition of a tTigon as a occurs here in tho two text.a represented by triangular psaltery - a mode of speech the Maeeoretic in the Septuagint and which implies that "psaltery" wa..e alreacly Theodotion. It does not appear in the relatively a common designation. We could Peehitta.-its place being represented by not define a "trichord " as a piano in tziphonia, as we said above. On the other which each note was produced by three hand, the place where we might most wires of the same length stretched to the readily find a marginal note like sumphonia same degree of tension-unless pianos were is precisely the last occurrence of a fre- compe.re.tively common. That it does not quently recurring list. But, again, the occur earlier is probably due to the wonl plo.ce where we should most certainly expect beginning possibly as a localiem, and then to find every word of such a list given with becoming common in literature. Thus scrupulous exo.ctness, is what purports to many of the phrases denounced as recent be the record of a proclamation. But in Americanisms are proved by more careful Theodotion the word in question is not investigation to be old provincialisms that present in his record of the proclamation. he.ve attained literary rank, or at all events In the seventh verse, where the proclamation semi-literary rank, in a new country. Hence, is repeated to show the obedience it re- even though it were proved that p'santmn ceived, the word sumphonya is absent in the is of Greek origin, and that it belongs to the 'ifossoretio text and the versions, Further, original text of Daniel, which is more than next to the record of a proclamation in doubtrul, it would yet be no great strain to likelihood for an accurate repetition of all imagine the name and the instrument had the words of such e. list, ie, where a case is passed over to Babylon before the traditional being founded on this procle.mation. Thie, de.te of Daniel. ago.in, is a case in which sumphonya does 'fhe case for aumphonya is even weaker. not occur eave in the Q'ri. When those Even should it be granted to be in the text who are about to accuse to Nebuchadnezze.r of Daniel, and further that it is a Greek word, the three Hebrews, repeat to him hie pro- it is not an instrument until at all events clo.mation, according to the Greek versions a much later date than any one pretends they leave out the word before us e.ltogether, Daniel to have been written. Yet Canon according to the K'thib e.nd Peehitta they Driver lays the main stress of his argument insert e.nother word altogether. To us the on the fact that in the passage before us it argument seems conclusive that the word in means an instrument, and in this view he is question was not po.rt of the original teitt of supported by Mr. Bevan. The whole strens Daniel. of this statement really depends on a passage We co.nnot leave this question without in Polybius (l'olyb., x.ui. 10), in which it is adverting to some other aspects of it. The alleged the word in quesLion means a mu- intercourse between the Hellenic peoples sical instrument of some sort. The view that and .Assyria seems to have been con- the word before us in the passage means a. siderable. We know from Strabo, xiii. musical instrument can 011Jy be maintained 2. 3, under the title of Leebos, that Anti- on reading the word preceding rJ"vµ.cptuvia as menidae, the brother of the poet Alcreue, 1repcl.-rwv, not 1r,pcl.µ.,ov, and on the further wo.e in the Babylonio.n army at the time assumption that 1repdnov means a musical when Ncbucho.dnezzar wne king, Strobo instrument, of which there is no proof. n quotes Alcmue, 'An••<Ev{6cu, 3v <1>11crlv is true that 1<Epu mel\llS not only the horu IOB THE BOOK OF DANIEL. [en. m. 1--30.