The Pulpit Commentary — Daniel — Section 171

require to be greater. Ewal,l'e further led to the nickname being glvo,n. If h<i consitlorntion, that as "thirty-eighth" would intended his pietnre of Nr:hneho.,1n-•z7.ftr only lcn.vo flve years till tho forty-throe resting in hie palace nfler his victr,rir,ns years of Nobuchrulnczzar wero completed, career, with all the dignity of an Ori,.ntal and tberoforo would not leave epn.ce for monn.rch, to be recognized as a portrait of tho seven years of marlncse, is of Iese force, Antiochus roaming the streets with a set of ne we aro not obliged to t11ko "times" oe drunken companions, the author of Daniel 11 yeore" in vere. 16 and 32. The king hnd mnst have had singular ideas of portraiture. received tokens of Di vine power in his past It would require a madness greater then history, n.nd ha,d in a sort ncknowlcdµ;ed Nebuchadnezzar's to believe it. God, but still he had not surrendered hia Vera. 6, 7.-Therefore made I a decree to pride. The idea. that in this there ie a bring in all the wise men of Babylon before reference to Epiphanes seems for-fetched. me, that they might make known nnto me The only re11.son assigned by Hitzig nnd the interpretatio.i of the dream. Then Behrmann is that the Antiochion mob C!lme in the magioians, the astrologers, nicknamed him 'ETl'1µ.a.,f,r. We he.ve no the Chaldeans, and the soothsayars: and I reason to believe the.t this wae a common told the dream before them ; but they did nickname, even in Antioch, and there ie not make known unto me tha interpre,ation not very much likelihood of the nickname thereof. These verses do not occur in the spree.ding to Judma. There is absolutely LXX. Theodotion is a somewhat slavish no evidence tba.t Antiocbus ever received translation of the Maasoretie text, " From the nickname "Epimanes." The passage me there was set up ( fr,971) a decree to appealed to is usually Polybius, x.x vi. l 0, summon before me all the wise men of but in that passage there is nothing of the Babylon," etc. The Pesbitta is somewhat kind said. This portion of Polybius be.a freer, bnt as close to the Massoretic text. come down to us only in q uote.tion in A.the- Still, the want of the verses in the Septua- nams' 'Deipnosophistie' - a collection of gint would throw a doubt on their authen- odds a.nd ends, strung together by e. dia- ticity, even if there were nothing in the logue. In this book, twice is this portion -rerses themselves to make them liable to of Polybius quoted, e.nd in introducing this suspicion. quotation in both ea.sea the author refers Ver. 8.-Ba.t at the last Daniel came in to the nickname "Epimanes." In the one before me, whosa name was Belteshuzar, oose, v. 21 (193), be says generally "Anti- aocording to the nams of my god, a.nd in ochus, surnamed (KA719,lr) Epipbanes, but whom is the spirit of the holy gods: and ce.lled(J,oµ.auO,ls) Epima.nes, for bis deeds." before him I told the dream, saying. This So for a.s this goes, .Antiochus ma.y ha.ve verse is also omitted in the Septoagint. been generally nickna.med F,pima.nee; but Instead of this verse and those preceding, it ie to be noted tha.t this is not ea.id, nnd this verse occurs o.fter the account of the Polybius is not given as the a.uthority. In dream, "And when I a.rose from my couch the other passa.ge the aspect of things is in the morning, I called Daniel, the ruler changed. In x. 53 (439) Atbenams gives of the wise men, and the chief of the inter- the reference to the book of Polybius, and preters of dreams, a,nd I related to him the says, speaking of A.ntiocbus, "Polybius dream, and he showed me o.11 the interpre- calls him Epimanes on account ot' bis tntion of it." Theodotion and the Peshitta deeds." Here .Atbenams says thnt Poly- agree with the l\fassoretic text. The Septua- bi"lls himself cnlled Antiochus Epimanes, gint arranges differently; instead of defer- not thnt a,nybody else did so. Ho does ring the nccount of the dream till N ebnchad- not sa,y that Polybius snys thnt Antiochus nezzar tells it to Daniel, the account of the "wa,s called Epimnnes," but that "Polybius dream follows immediately upon the state- calls him (Il0Ao/l1os Ii' a.brb, 'ETl'1µ.a,ij ,cal ment of the fact that it had occurred and o~K 'ETl't,Pavi))." He further gives no indicn- hnd troubled the king. In it, as we have tion where Polybius says this. As there is seen, there ia nothing of the summoning of no evidence for the nickname, there is no o.11 the wise men of Baby Ion in nll their evidence that this incident wns invented vnrious classes. This summoning of thB to suit this non-existent nickname. The whole college of wise men, astrologer~, picture of Ne bnchadnozznr at rest in his soothsnyers, and Chaldeo.ns, is in obviou., po.lo.ea is ns unlike ns possible the uneasy contradiction, not only to eh. ii. 48, but restless demeanour of .Antiochus, stng- also to the ninth verse of the cbnpter beforo gering through the streets more or less us. There wns no need of summoning the drunk, joining with any bruwlers ho might college of augurs until the king haJ. con- come in contact with. If the writer of sulted their head. 'l'he explanation of these Dnnicl got the story of the madness from verses and the occasion of their int~rpo- the nickname, ho would not foil to get nn lo.tion is not unlike the fact narrnted in account of the be.bits of the monnrch, which oh. ii. 2, where Ncbuchndnezznr, on aL-...  134 THE BOOK OF DANIEL. [OH, IV, 1-37.