The probability of a Semitic original lying in the background of this piece, has always been considerable. Those who have maintained Greek as the original language, have generally spoken a little less confidently with regard to this than with regard to its two companion pieces. So Bissell writes (p. 443), though a supporter of the Greek (p. 43), "undoubtedly more can be said in favour of such a theory" [of a Semitic original] "than for a similar one in respect of the two remaining additions." And since M. Gaster discovered in 1894 an Aramaic text, the grounds for deeming the Greek to be the original, though not set aside, have been partially undermined. Schürer, however, in Hauck's Encycl. (I. 639), appears to think that this is translated from Θ, and not vice versâ, as Gaster claims. In his third German ed. of H.J.P. (III. 333) he agrees with Gaster in deeming תודוס to be Θ, but considers the Aramaic to be a rendering of Θ's Greek, taken into the tenth-century Chronicle of Jerahmeel.
It must be confessed that the existence of two Greek versions increases the probability, though it does not prove the existence, of an original in another language. It does not seem likely that Θ would have revised the Ο´ of the additions in the same way as the canonical part, unless he had a similar basis to go upon in both cases. If not, why, and on what authority, did he alter the additions at all? And this consideration applies to the other two, even more than to the one we are dealing with, inasmuch as the version of Susanna and of Bel and the Dragon involved more numerous changes. Irenæus' statement that Theodotion "ἡρμήνευσεν," taken strictly, would of course always imply an original to translate; but Irenæus may only have been thinking of the particular passage from Isaiah which he refers to (III. xxiii.).
Many phrases may be instanced which point to a Semitic original, or at least fit in well with the theory of its existence. Towards counterbalancing this there is a much smaller number which may be thought to tell in the opposite direction. But in the main, as Comely truly writes (op. cit. p. 420), "accedit hebraismorum frequentia quum in Alexandrini tum in Theodotionis versione."[[20]]
[20] Dr. Julian (Diet. Hymnol. p. 134) has the following strange sentence as to Benedicite, " It is not in the Hebrew version (sic) of the Scriptures, and on this ground, among others, it is omitted from A.V."
It is to be observed, however, that the names of the Three are Grecized from their original Hebrew nomenclature,[[21]] although their Babylonian names are employed in Dan. iii., and adopted by Ο´ and Θ in the canonical portions, both before and after the apocryphal episode. An apparent exception occurs in v. 23 of Ο´, where clauses of that verse and of v. 22 have been transposed and slightly altered. Here Azarias occurs in the same form as in the apocryphal portion. But this isolated use of the Hebrew form of his name has probably been brought about by the insertion of our piece into the chapter, the same form and phrase, τοῖς περὶ τὸν Ἀζαρίαν, being found in v. 49 of both Greek texts. A like phrase occurs in Ezek. xxxviii. 6, and in Acts xiii. 13. The order of names, too, differs in this Addition from their order elsewhere, the two last changing places, thus bringing Azarias (Abed-nego) into the middle. It is remarkable that he is twice, vv. 2 (25) and 8 (49), placed as if he were the leading member of the trio, in the former verse as uttering the prayer, in the latter as heading the party in the furnace; and so also, as pointed out above, in v. 23 of Ο´. This last fact, however, is counterbalanced in the same version by all three being named in v. 24 as praying, Azarias not there figuring as the sole speaker. These small indications certainly point to some ancient distinction between the uncanonical insertion, as we have it, and the body of the book.
[21] G. Jahn in loc. thinks this fact an indication of a later hand, as shewing that they severed themselves in the furnace from contact with heathenism, and were giving themselves to intercourse with Jahwe alone. But surely an interpolator must have been aware that this was their attitude from the outset.
E. Philippe (in Vigouroux' D.B. II. p. 1266) argues for Hebrew and not Greek originals, because of the existence of two Greek versions, neither of which, he says, appears to be a revision of the other, containing hebraisms suggestive of a Hebrew original. But as regards the Song of the Three, this statement, that neither version is a revision of the other, must be regarded as more than doubtful. He also says that the Chisian and Syro-Hexaplar MSS. contain critical signs of Origen, revealing a Hebrew text, and in 87 (Chisianus) at xiii. 1-5, Α´, Σ´, Θ´ indicate Aquila, Symmachus, and Theodotion, all translators from the Hebrew. This last point, however, may not stand as to the Song of the Three (see note in Kautzsch, p. 176) so far as Aquila is concerned. For Origen, in his letter to Africanus, seems to imply that Aquila's rendering did not contain the Song: Οὕτω γὰρ Ἀκύλας δουλεύων τῇ Ἑβραικῇ λεξει ἐκδέδωκεν—§ 2.
Jerome's words in the Vulgate, after v. 23, "quæ sequuntur in Hebraeis voluminibus non reperi," are very guarded, not absolutely denying the existence of a Hebrew text, but merely asserting that he has not met with it. Cod. Amiatinus, however, has 'non repperiuntur,' an expression which asserts more comprehensively the absence of this passage in his time.
The following are some specific indications of language which appear to be of sufficient interest to be noted separately:
v. 27 Ο´, Θ. Δίκαιος εἶ ἐπὶ πᾶσιν = צַרִּיק צַל rendered by ἐπὶ in Dan. ix. 14 (in both versions) and in Neh. ix. 33. Δίκαιος ἐπὶ also occurs in Bar. ii. 9, in that part of Baruch which is almost certainly a translation from the Hebrew. Ball (Speaker's Comm.) gives a similar phrase from the Iliad, and Bissell a still more apposite one from Il. IV. 28, to shew that it is not unknown in pure Greek. Gaster's Aramaic has simply ל not צל.