Introduction

A NOTE ON THIS RENDERING

THE WITNESS — AND WHICH GREEK

THERE ARE TWO GREEK DANIELS, and the House must say which it renders. The OLD GREEK — the original Septuagint Daniel — diverged so far from the Hebrew that the Church SET IT ASIDE; it survives in barely two manuscripts. In its place the Church received THEODOTION, and it is Theodotion that stands in Codex Sinaiticus and Codex Vaticanus, and that the Greek Orthodox have read ever since. THIS VOLUME RENDERS THEODOTION, from the Brenton English Septuagint, which is in the public domain. 7:13 — WHERE THE CHOICE BITES Theodotion reads that one like BAR ENASH came ON TO the Atik Yomin. The Old Greek reads that he came AS the Atik Yomin. One preposition: in the one he APPROACHES the Ancient of Days; in the other he COMES AS HIM. It is the verse Yeshua quotes at His own trial. The House prints Theodotion and declares the Old Greek here, and hides neither. BAR ENASH IS NOT BEN ADAM Chapter 7 is written in ARAMAIC; chapter 8 in HEBREW. At 7:13 the one who receives the everlasting dominion is BAR ENASH. At 8:17 the word spoken to Dani’el on his face in the dust is BEN ADAM. THE ENGLISH SON OF MAN MAKES THESE ONE PHRASE. THEY ARE NOT ONE PHRASE. And it is BAR ENASH — Dani’el 7:13, not Yechezkel — that Yeshua takes for His own name. THE ADDITIONS STAND WHERE THE GREEK PUTS THEM The Prayer of Azaryah and the Song of the Three are NOT an appendix. In the Greek they stand INSIDE the third chapter, between verse 23 and verse 24, and the chapter therefore runs to ninety-seven. AND THE GREEK’S OWN NUMBERING HAS A GAP IN IT: verse 66 is followed by verse 71, and there are verses numbered 72a and 72b. THIS IS NOT A MISPRINT. It is how the Septuagint numbers the Song, and the House has not tidied it away. TWO NAMES THE GREEK COLLAPSED INTO ONE The Greek calls Dani’el by the Babylonian name BALTASAR — and it calls the king who saw the writing on the wall BALTASAR also. In the Aramaic these are two different names: BELTESHATZAR is Dani’el; BELSHATZAR is the king. As the Greek stands, Dani’el throws the feast and Dani’el is slain in the night. The House restores the two names, because the Vorlage had two. 5:25 — THE WRITING ON THE WALL The Greek gives MANE, THEKEL, PHARES — Greek letters chasing Aramaic words. The hand wrote MENE, TEKEL, PERES. AND THE WHOLE SCENE IS A PUN THE GREEK CANNOT CARRY: PERES means DIVIDED, and PARAS means PERSIA. One word says the kingdom is broken and names who breaks it. The House prints the Aramaic. THE HOUSE WILL NOT PUT ITS OWN CONFESSION INTO A HEATHEN’S MOUTH At 3:92 Nevuchadnetzar says the appearance of the fourth is like A SON OF ELOHIM. The Greek has no article. To print THE SON OF GOD is to make a pagan king confess what he has not yet confessed. So too at 4:8, 4:9 and 4:18: the Greek says A HOLY SPIRIT OF ELOHIM, and behind it the Aramaic says THE SPIRIT OF THE HOLY GODS — spoken by the man who built the golden image. THE READER MAY DRAW THE CONCLUSION. HE WILL. But Rule X.4 forbids the House to draw it for him inside the verse. 8:14 — AND THE NUMBER IS NOT THE NOT YOU WERE TAUGHT The Greek reads TWO THOUSAND AND FOUR HUNDRED evenings and mornings. THE HEBREW READS TWO THOUSAND AND THREE HUNDRED. It is a hundred days, and whole prophetic systems have been built upon the Hebrew’s number. The House renders what the Greek says, and tells you plainly what the Hebrew says, and leaves the reckoning to you. THE CHAIN OF THE APPOINTED TIMES At 2:21 Dani’el says of the Most High: AND HE CHANGES TIMES AND SEASONS. At 7:25 the horn SHALL THINK TO CHANGE TIMES AND LAW. What belongs to Elohim alone, the horn attempts. Set beside Shemot 31:13–17, where the Shabbatot are A SIGN and A PERPETUAL BERIYT; beside Tehillim 74:8, where the enemy says LET US ABOLISH THE APPOINTED FEASTS OF ELOHIM FROM THE EARTH; and beside Amos 6:3, where the Greek reads FALSE SABBATHS — the witness is fourfold, and it is one. THE TONGUE Hebrew and Aramaic terms are set in the House’s green and glossed at their first appearance — in the script and in English — and thereafter left to stand bare. The Name YAHUAH is never glossed, for a name is not a title. Numbers that SIGNIFY are Hebraised; numbers that MEASURE are left in English. RULE X.4 The text is rendered as it stands. The translation is never adjusted to fit a conclusion. Interpretation belongs to the introductions and the notes — never to the verse.