THE MAV SCHAFF-HERZOG
is told how the three children Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego (or, as their Hebrew names are given in i, 7, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah), refusing to fall down before the image of the king, were punished by being thrown into the furnace, but were miraculously saved. In the Greek text of Daniel an insertion is made after iii, 23, in which it is told that Azariah when in the furnace prayed to God to be saved, and when his prayer was heard, that the three sang a song of praise, the text of the prayer as well as of the song being given, (b) The History of Susanna: In the Greek text this passage generally stands at the beginning of Daniel, and Daniel is introduced as still a boy. Susanna, the wife of a prominent Jew of Babylon, named Joacim, is wrongly accused of adultery, and condemned to death, but is saved by the young Daniel's wisdom and prophetic gift, (c) Bel and the Dragon : Daniel proves to the king of Babylon (whom Theodotion calls Cyrus) that the god Bel neither eats nor drinks the offerings put before him. The destruction of a dragon, which is an object of worship, Daniel brings about by feeding it with indigestible cakes. Being cast into the lion's den at the instigation of the enraged populace, Daniel is not touched by the lion, and is miraculously fed by the prophet Habakkuk.
Of these three insertions the first only is a proper supplement to the canonical book of Daniel. The other two are independent and probably originated , independently. There is no certain reason for assuming that either of the three insertions was originally written in Hebrew or Aramaic. The history of Susanna is certainly a Greek original, as was inferred by Julius Africanus and Porphyry from plays on words possible only in Greek (cf. Bertholdt, Einleitung, iv, 1575 sqq.; a thorough but nevertheless abortive effort to put aside the force of these plays was made by Wiederholt in TQ, 1869, pp. 290-321). Of the Song of the Three Children in the furnace and the story of the dragon, Gaster published an Aramaic text from a Jewish chronicle of the Middle Ages, which he regards as the original (Gaster, The Unknown Aramaic Original of Theodotion's Additions to the Book of Daniel, in PSBA, xvi, 1894, pp. 280-290, 312-317; xvii, 1895, pp. 75-94). But the author of the chronicle says that he gives the insertions, " which Thodos found; and this is the section which was inserted into his text by Thodos, the wise man, who translated in the days of Commodus, King of the Romans" (PSBA, xvi, 283, 312). Since Symmachus and Aquila are also mentioned as Bible translators, Thodos is no doubt Theodotion, as Gaster also states. The chronicler himself thus declares that the insertions are later than Theodotion. Still less originality can be claimed by another Aramaic (SyriacJ reproduction of the story of the dragon, which Raymundus Martini quoted in his Pugio fidei, and which was published by Neubauer (The Book of Tobit, London, 1X78, pp. xci-xcii, 39-43); the same can also be said of the Hebrew recension of the History of Susanna in Jellinek, Bet ha-Midrash (G vols., Vienna, 1877, vi, 126-128). ()n account of the linguistic agreement of the insertions with the translation of the rest of
the book, Fritzsche is led to the assumption that they are united with the book by the translator [of the Septuagint], and were recast by him (Exegetisches Handbuch, i, 114). This is improbable if the Greek origin of the insertions is maintained. Before the Daniel legend could produce new formations in the Greek language, a Greek book of Daniel had to exist. On the History of Susanna there is an interesting correspondence between Julius Africanus and Origen, in which the former denies the genuineness of the story and the latter defends it (Julii Africani de historia Susannas epistola ad Origenem et Origenis ad ilium responsio ed. J. R. Wetstenius, Basel, 1674, Eng. transl., ANF, iv, 385-392). The text of the Septuagint of the Book of Daniel, together with its additions, was early displaced from ecclesiastical use by the version of Theodotion; consequently all manuscripts and editions of the Septuagint contain Theodotion's version of Daniel. The text of the Septuagint is extant in only one manuscript, which is in the library of Prince Chigi at Rome (Codex Chisianus, no. 88 in Holmes's Yetus Testamentum ; Tischendorf dates it in the eleventh century), and was first edited by Simon de Magistris (Daniel secundum LXX ex tetraplis Origenis nunc primum editus e singulari Chisiano codice, Rome, 1772). A correct reprint of the Codex Chisianus was first published by Cozza (Sacrorum bibliorum vetustissima fragmenta Grwca et Latina, part iii, Rome, 1877), and after him by Swete (The Old Testament in Greek, iii, Cambridge, 1894). Wherever Theodotion could not revise after a Hebrew original, his text in the additions is nothing but a revision of the Septuagint. The text of the Septuagint is the basis of the Hexaplar-Syriac version.
4. The Prayer of Manasses: After King Manasseh had been taken to Babylon by the Assyrians, and while in captivity, he repented and besought God to be delivered; God heard his prayer and brought him back again to Jerusalem (II Chron. xxxiii, 11-13). According to II Chron. xxxiii, 18-19, this prayer was written in the " Book of the Kings of Israel " and in the " History of Hozai " and " among the sayings of the seers." This reference suggested the composition of a prayer which should correspond to the situation. It is found in some manuscripts of the Septuagint (e.g., Codex Alexandrinus) among the hymns given at the head of the Psalms; and is also quoted in full in the Apostolic Constitutions, ii, 22. The latter furnishes the earliest trace of the existence of the prayer; it may be, as Nestle supposes, that it was transferred from this passage into the manuscripts of the Septuagint. It is nowhere found in the text of Chronicles. The Latin translation in the Vulgate (since the Council of Trent put into the appendix) is entirely different from the Old Latin, and is of very late origin. -Ci.^Bar-uch: Under the name of Baruch, the faithful friend and companion of the prophet Jeremiah, whose prophecies he wrote down (Jer. xxxvi, 4, 17 sqq., 27, 32; xlv, 1) and with whom he shared the involuntary abode in Egypt (Jer. xliii, 5-7), a work is extant which consists of the follow-