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| A Letter to Origen from Africanus About the History of Susanna.
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A Letter to
Origen from Africanus
About the History of
Susanna.
————————————
Greeting, my lord and son,
most worthy Origen, from Africanus.3026
| 3026 [See Routh’s
Reliquiæ, vol. ii. p. 115; also Euseb., i. 7, and Socrates,
ii. 35. He ranks with the great pupils of the Alexandrian school,
with which, however, he seems to have had only a slight personal
relation. Concerning this Epistle to Origen, and the answer of
the latter, consult Routh’s very full annotations (ut
supra, pp. 312–328). Concerning Gregory Thaumaturgus,
the greatest of Origen’s pupils, we shall know more when we come
to vol. vi. of this series. He died circa 270.] | In your
sacred discussion with Agnomon you referred to that prophecy of Daniel
which is related of his youth. This at that time, as was meet, I
accepted as genuine. Now, however, I cannot understand how it
escaped you that this part of the book is spurious. For, in
sooth, this section, although apart from this it is elegantly written,
is plainly a more modern forgery. There are many proofs of
this. When Susanna is condemned to die, the prophet is seized by
the Spirit, and cries out that the sentence is unjust. Now, in
the first place, it is always in some other way that Daniel
prophesies—by visions, and dreams, and an angel appearing to him,
never by prophetic inspiration. Then, after crying out in this
extraordinary fashion, he detects them in a way no less incredible,
which not even Philistion the play-writer would have resorted to.
For, not satisfied with rebuking them through the Spirit, he placed
them apart, and asked them severally where they saw her committing
adultery. And when the one said, “Under a holm-tree”
(prinos), he answered that the
angel would saw him asunder (prisein);
and in a similar fashion menaced the other who said, “Under a
mastich-tree” (schinos), with being
rent asunder (schisthenai). Now, in
Greek, it happens that “holm-tree” and “saw
asunder,” and “rend” and “mastich-tree”
sound alike; but in Hebrew they are quite distinct. But all the
books of the Old Testament have been translated from Hebrew into
Greek.
2. Moreover, how is it that they who were
captives among the Chaldæans, lost and won at play,3027
| 3027 Nolte would change
ἠστραγαλωμένοι
(or ἀστραγαλώμενοι,
as Wetsten. has it), which is a ἅπαξ
εἰρημένον, into
στραγγαλώμενοι
or ἐστραγγαλωμένοι,
“strangled.” He compares Tob. ii. 3. | thrown out unburied on the streets, as was
prophesied of the former captivity, their sons torn from them to be
eunuchs, and their daughters to be concubines, as had been prophesied;
how is it that such could pass sentence of death, and that on the wife
of their king Joakim, whom the king of the Babylonians had made partner
of his throne? Then if it was not this Joakim, but some other
from the common people, whence had a captive such a mansion and
spacious garden? But a more fatal objection is, that this
section, along with the other two at the end of it, is not contained in
the Daniel received among the Jews. And add that, among all the
many prophets who had been before, there is no one who has quoted from
another word for word. For they had no need to go a-begging for
words, since their own were true; but this one, in rebuking one of
those men, quotes the words of the Lord: “The innocent and
righteous shalt thou not slay.” From all this I infer that
this section is a later addition. Moreover, the style is
different. I have struck the blow; do you give the echo; answer,
and instruct me. Salute all my masters. The learned all
salute thee. With all my heart I pray for your and your
circle’s health.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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