Nov.6] PROCEEDINGS. [1894.by all the recognized authoritiesto be of a purely Greek,probably
Alexandrinian,origin,though it be extremely difficultto reconcile
it with the fact that suchtextswere knownin a Semitic language
fromancienttimes.
I think nowto have recovered thatveryoriginal,the existence
of which has hitherto been denied, on apparently insufficient
grounds.
In the Chronicle of Jerahmeel, wholivedsomewhataboutthe
10thcentury, if not earlier, I have foundan Aramaic textwhichis
interestingfrommorethanone point of view. Thecompilerof the
Chroniclegives firsta Hebrew translation of all those chaptersin
Danielthatare in Aramaic. Thenfollows a long rhymedintroduc
tion,afterwhichthe author says: " Now I am copying the missing
praisesandsongswhich praised andsang the three young men,
whichTheodosiusfound,andare not in the 24 (canonical) books.
Andthis is the text (chapter) whichTheodosiusthe wise man,who
translated(the Bible)in the days of Commodus, the king of the
Romans,introduced(arranged)in his Corpus (Canon)* It is not
found in the book of the Hebrews but in that of the Seventy
wisemen,whotranslatedthe book of the Law togetherwith Elazar
the high priest,whowas killed in the days of Antiochus (his
bonesmaybe ground to dust), whotranslatedthe whole Lawin the
daysof Ptolomffius, kingof Egypt ; and the two men whosenames
were SymmachusandAkilas, whotranslated in the days of king
Adrian,weretranslators(thereof)also. AndAkilasis Onkelos."
"Andthis is the text of that whichis not written in the Corpus
(Canon)of the Hebrews and was found by Theodosius."
So far this remarkable introduction,whichI have triedto render
in a more intelligibleform. The languageis greatly involvedand
the meaning is not perfectly clear. But onepointcannotbe mis
taken,viz.,thatthe compiler wantedto convey the meaning thatthe
textwhichhe incorporated intohis Chronicle was the one found or
discoveredby Theodosius. In order to understand fullythe whole
bearing of these few words, onemustfirstsettlethe question as to
who this greatmanTheodosius was,of whom Jerahmeel speaks
withsucha respect. I say that this Todos or Theodosius, as I
- I draw specialattentionto the word f\0usedhere,as this seems to be the
exactequivalentof Kavov, and furnishes the best explanation of this term. I am
preparinga specialstudyon this term.
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