Notes on an Aramaic Fragment of the Apocryphal Stories in the Book of Daniel

Towards the end of the 19th century an important Aramaic text was discovered by M. Gaster, who claimed that this was an original text from which Theodotion translated in the pre-Christian period two of the three tales in the book of Daniel, but not contained in the traditional Hebrew/Aramaic form of the text. Though this text has not received much attention it deserves, Gaster’s position, we believe, is well founded. Here is a brief discussion of some salient features of the language of this Aramaic text, accompanied by philological observations of the two Daniel passages in Greek as compared with the Aramaic text.