Alexander A. Di Lella addresses the "Son of Man" appearing as the "Ancient of Days" in the Old Greek of Daniel 7.

Date
2001
Type
Book
Source
Alexander A. Di Lella
Non-LDS
Hearsay
Secondary
Reference

Alexander A. Di Lella, "The Textual History of Septuagint-Daniel and Theodotion-Daniel," in The Book of Daniel: Composition and Reception, ed. John J. Collins and Peter W. Flint, 2 vols. (Supplements to Vetus Testamentum LXXXIII,II; Formation and Interpretation of Old Testament Literature II, 2; Leiden: Brill, 2001), 2:591

Scribe/Publisher
Brill
People
Alexander A. Di Lella
Audience
Reading Public
PDF
Transcription

Since every translation, even the best, is an interpretation, F. F. Bruce has argued that OG-Dan displays evidence of theological Tendenz. (F. F. Bruce, "The Earliest Old Testament Interpretation," OTS 17 [1972] 37-52; and idem, "The Oldest Greek Version of Daniel," OTS 20 [1977] 22-40.) He examines, for example, the most celebrated verse: OG-Dan 7: 13, which reads, ιδου επι των νεφελων του ουρανου ως υιος ανθρωπου ηρχετο [967 places ηρχετo after ουρανου] και ως παλαιος ημερων παρην. This text clearly states that "the one like a son of man" appears "as the Ancient of Days. " (Bruce, "The Oldest Greek Version," 25-26.) In agreement with the MT, Th-Dan reads ως υιος ανθρωπου ερχομενος ην και εως του παλαιου των ημερων εφθασεν, "one like a son of man was coming, and to the Ancient of Days he reached." But S. Pace Jeansonne argues against the position of Bruce; she affirms Ziegler's conjectured reading (Ziegler, Daniel, 170) (following Montgomery) (Montgomery, Daniel, 304) that ως παλαιος is a deliberate corruption of εως του παλαιου, a reading reflected also in Tertullian (died ca. 220 CE), Cyprian (died 258 CE), and the Consultationes, which are based on OG-Dan.34 But curiously, both she and Bruce fail to mention that 967, which Ziegler did not have available but which had already been published in 1968, reads the same as 88-Syh. This unique reading found in all three OG-Dan witnesses should not be dismissed simply on the basis of a conjectured reading in Ziegler's eclectic edition.

BHR Staff Commentary

"Tendenz" is a term used to denote the intent of the author.

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