Part 7 (1/2)

THE HISTORY OF SUSANNA

THE HISTORY OF SUSANNA.

a.n.a.lYSIS. (T)

vv.

1--4. Susanna--her husband, family, and house.

5,6. Two newly-appointed Elders resort thither for official purposes.

7--14. How they yielded to the 'l.u.s.t of the eye,' and laid their plot.

15--21. How they attempted to carry it out.

22--26. Susanna's soliloquy and cry.

27--41. The Elders' false accusation in private and in public, resulting in her condemnation to death.

42--44. Her prayer.

45--49. The inspiration of Daniel to clear her.

50--59. He re-opens the case, and proves the Elders to be false.

60--62. The death-penalty is transferred to them, and Susanna is delivered,

63, 64. Whose family thank G.o.d; while Daniel's reputation is established.

N.B.--It is not clear why the 'heading' or 'contents' in the A.V.

_begins_ with v. 16. _Cf._ the heading of Bel and the Dragon for a similar ignoring of the early verses, as also that of I. Macc. i.

t.i.tLE AND POSITION.

t.i.tLE.

This is in general simply S??s???a, as in the true LXX.

In Cod. A (T) it is designated at the end ??as?? a', our chap. i. being ??as?? ', and so on. It is therefore included in the number of the visions.[29] ??as?? also occurs in the t.i.tle of Holmes and Parsons'

cursive 235.

In the Syriac of Heraclius (=W2 of Ball, pp. 323a, 330a) it is ent.i.tled ”The Book of the child Daniel,” or ”The Book of little Daniel” (Churton, 3896). This last t.i.tle also seems applied to Bel and the Dragon in a Nestorian list mentioned by Churton (on the same page), and in Ebed Jesu's list of Hippolytus' works (_D.G.B._ art. _Hippolytus_, p. 104a), When applied to Bel and the Dragon, however, 'little' must refer to the size of the book, and not, as is usually understood when it heads Susanna, to Daniel's youthful age. To this Bar Hebraeus (1286), in his Scholia on Susanna, expressly attributes it (ed. A. Heppner, Berlin, 1888, p. 18). He also remarks that neither Syriac version is equal to the Greek.

”The Judgments of Daniel,” ??a???se?? ?a????, is a good t.i.tle given by Arnald, by Churton (p. 390), and by Westcott (Smith's _D.B._ art.

_Additions to Daniel_, ed. 1, 3966, ed. 2, 713b), none of whom specify any source or authority for it, Arnald alone giving the Greek. It may be traced back, however, through Sabatier to Flaminius n.o.bilius, who writes, ”In multis [vetustis libris] inscribitur Daniel, in quibusdam Susanna, in aliquo d?????s?? ?a????, Judicium Daniel” (Append, to Bp.

Walton's _Polyglott_, Lond. 1657, p. 191). He gives no information as to what this 'certain' copy at the end of his descending climax might be in which he had found this t.i.tle; nor does it quite agree with the plural form in which Arnald gives it, presumably with regard to the double sentence pa.s.sed by Daniel. Holmes and Parsons give no such reading, and no one now seems able to identify the 'liber' intended by Flaminius.

Delitzsch (_di Hab. Vita_, etc., Lips. 1842, p. _25n_) says that ”Unus Cod. qui ex coen.o.biis montis Athos advectus est” gives the t.i.tle pe??