The Hellenistic World and Rome
The earliest of the Daniel fragments from Qumran Cave IV covers sections
of chapters –, and is thought to date from the late second century..,
thus only some half a century after the composition of these chapters. The
fragments also confirm that the shift from Hebrew to Aramaic and back
characteristic of the canonical Daniel (:b–: is in Aramaic, the rest in
Hebrew) was already present in the texts circulating in the late Hellenistic
period. At some point which remains open to debate two different Greek
translations were made, one of which came to be that which formed part of
Christiancodicesof the Bible and is therefore labelled as the Septuagint text—
quite unhistorically, since the legendary account of the translation carried
out by seventy-two elders under Ptolemy Philadelphus related only to the
five books of Moses, and at that time (the third century..) the canonical
Daniel had not been written. The other is that ascribed to Theodotion, al-
leged to have worked in the second century..Butatextwhichwasatany
rate close to his is quoted by writers of the first century..In particular,
a ‘‘pre-Theodotion’’ version seems to lie behind some passages in the New
Testament.^20 But it is futile to try to see the earliest history of the transla-
tion of Daniel into Greek in terms of specific and distinct ‘‘versions’’ repre-
sented in later manuscripts. For by far the most important known user of
the Greek Daniel is Josephus, in book of theAntiquities, written in Rome
in the s..^21 His paraphrase of Daniel incorporates readings which are
shared with either the ‘‘Septuagint’’ text or the ‘‘Theodotion’’ one, or with
neither.^22
It is in fact not unlikely that Daniel had been translated into Greek, per-
dix, nos. – ( QDana–b), andLes petites grottes de Qumran, DJD III (), – (Q
PapDan). Note in particular the Aramaic ‘‘son of God’’ fragment, discussed by G. Vermes
in ‘‘Qumran Forum Miscellanea I,’’Journ. Jew. Stud. (): –, on –; translated
in G. Vermes,The Dead Sea Scrolls in English^4 (), –.
. For these questions, which I do not attempt to go into further, see M. Harl, G. Dori-
val, and O. Munnich,La Bible grecque des Septante(), and the important article by
M. Hengel, ‘‘Die Septuaginta’’ (n. ). I was very grateful to Tessa Rajak for allowing me
to see the text of her unpublished Grinfield Lecture on the Septuagint, Oxford Univer-
sity, : ‘‘The Jewish Reception of the LXX in the First and Second Centuries..: Some
Thoughts on Josephus and LXX Daniel.’’
.Ant. , –; , –. See G. Vermes, ‘‘Josephus’ Treatment of the Book of
Daniel,’’Journ. Jew. Stud. (): –, and S. Mason, ‘‘Josephus, Daniel and the Flavian
House,’’ in F. Parente and J. Sievers, eds.,Josephus and the History of the Greco-Roman Period
(), –.
. See J. Ziegler, ed.,Susanna, Daniel: Bel et Draco(Göttingen Septuagint XVI., ),
. As does Rahlfs in his standard edition, Ziegler prints both texts.