Nebuchadnezzar’s Mind and Memory in the Old English “Daniel”

As Mary Carruthers observes in her seminal Book of Memory, the cultivation of memory was considered a mark of superior ethics in the Middle Ages. She claims, for example, that “the choice to train one’s memory or not, for the ancients and medievals, was not a choice dictated by convenience: it was a matter of ethics. A person without a memory, if such a thing could be, is a person without moral character and, in a basic sense, without humanity” (Carruthers 14). In the present article, which aims to discuss the Old English biblical paraphrase Daniel, I argue that memory plays an important, if not essential, role in Nebuchadnezzar’s conversion. The poet expands on the biblical source, the Old Testament Book of Daniel, to depict the Babylonian king as commencing a process of rectification of the self by incorporating and internalizing the word of God, mediated in the poem by Daniel the prophet, as part of his self.

The Concept of “Miracle in a Fiery Furnace” in Byzantium and Its Later Reminiscences

Introduction. The article discusses the motive of a “miracle in a fiery furnace”, based on the story of the Three Holy Children in the Book of Daniel. Methods. The study provides a comparative analysis of the Biblical topos about the trial by fire in Byzantine, Western European and Eastern sources. A semiotic approach of textual study is used. Analysis. In Byzantine hagiography and hymnography, the plot of the “Three Holy Children” was interpreted as a prototype of the Incarnation, so, the sacred situation was reproduced in new historical conditions. In the Lives of Bishops of Cherson, the plot about miracle in the furnace is used for construction the local sacred history. Similar motives are found in the narratives about the baptism of Rus, such as Vita Basilii (the fifth book of Theophanes Continuatus), Vita beati Romualdi by Petrus Damiani, Historia de predicatione episcopi Brunonis. In narrative about conversion of Özbeg Khan to Islam, literary plot was connected with shamanistic representations about the holy fire. Results. The Biblical topos of the “fiery furnace” underwent a semantic transformation within the framework of various discourses. It was used in Byzantine texts for constructing the Christian Identity, while was enhanced by Turkic mythology in Muslim tradition.

BORROWINGS AS A MEANS OF COINING STYLISTIC SYNONYMS IN THE KRYMCHAK LANGUAGE

Stylistic synonymy or hendiadys (Latinized from Old Greek έν διά δυοȋν «one through two») is an important feature frequently detected in Ottoman Turkish literary standard texts. Simultaneously several scholars found it as a prominent feature of the Bible language, precisely in Old Testament. Thus, it is not surprising to find it in the fragment of Book of Daniel in Krymchak manuscript, Yosif Gabai’s jonk, dated to the early 20th century, which is in the possession of the Crimean Ethnographic Museum. As linguistic data proves, Book of Daniel probably was translated much earlier in Ottoman period and represents Hebrew-Turkic translation literature. The translator employed hendiadys by using different strategies of combination, but usually they are two nouns, or two verbs connected by a conjunction. Phrases composed by Turkic and foreign words of the same meaning or synonymic loanwords with Turkic suffixes, expressing one notion. Stylistic figures found in the manuscript are represented by following types: Turkic-Hebrew, Hebrew-Arabic, Arabic-Persian, Persian-Turkic, Arabic-Mongolian, Arabic-Turkic. Some of them could be treated as religious hendiadys. Hendyadyoin is not attested in folklore texts of Yosif Gabai’s Krymchak jonk, but in religion texts, which are variety of standard.

From Chronology to Translation

Against the backdrop of the still-smouldering controversy over his chronological work, Broughton began to break down his contentious vision of biblical history into the raw elements needed for a new English Bible. The first signs of this were his translations of the book of Daniel into English (1596) and Latin (1599), two remarkable publications that illustrate not only the complexity and creativity that could characterize godly attitudes towards biblical translation, but also how Broughton’s longstanding interest in anti-Catholic polemics was beginning to morph into a more fraught concern with anti-Jewish controversy. Using these translations as well as Broughton’s contemporaneous debate with Cambridge professor Edward Lively over the interpretation of Daniel, this chapter argues that Broughton’s interests were drawn towards translation partly as a natural outgrowth of his interest in chronology, but partly also out of a growing desire to disseminate the findings of cutting-edge polyglot biblical scholarship to as wide an audience as possible. Drawing on previously unexamined manuscript evidence, this chapter concludes by reconstructing Broughton’s earnest but ill-fated campaign for a new translation throughout the 1590s, covering the personal, political, and confessional factors that led to Broughton’s calls remaining unanswered

On Mending the Peace of the World: Sir Francis Bacon’s Apocalyptic Irenicism

This essay is about irenicism and science, i.e. about the interrelationship between the quest for peace on earth and the quest for knowledge about the world. Both are global aspirations, the former focused on achieving concord among rival peoples and ideologies, nations, and religions; the latter on comprehending the earth and the heavens and the way the things in them are made. Sir Francis Bacon (1561–1626), Viscount St. Alban and sometime Lord Chancellor of England, who, citing in Latin the Biblical prophecy in Daniel 12:4 – “Many shall go to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased” – linked together the increase of geographical knowledge in his own day with the prospect for new discoveries in all fields of learning. For Bacon, the advancement of all branches knowledge, fated to come together in the same age, would in time bring religious unity and with it this-worldly peace, thereby paving the way for the fulfillment of the apocalyptical prophecy in the Book of Daniel, which in Christian discourse was interpreted to mean the Second Coming of Christ. This essay explores Bacon’s discussions of his aims and the methods he advocated as addressed the consequences of “discovery” for mending world back to its wholeness.

Eusebius of Caesarea, the Roman Empire, and the Fulfillment of Biblical Prophecy: Reassessing Byzantine Imperial Eschatology in the Age of Constantine

Modern scholarship often attributes to Eusebius of Caesarea (d. circa 340 AD) the view that God's heavenly kingdom had become manifest in the Roman Empire of Constantine the Great. Consequently, Eusebius is deemed significant in the development of Christian eschatological thought as the supposed formulator of a new “realized eschatology” for the Christian Roman Empire. Similarly, he is considered the originator of so-called “Byzantine imperial eschatology”—that is, eschatology designed to justify the existing imperial order under the emperors in Constantinople. Scholars advancing these claims most frequently cite a line from Eusebius's Tricennial Oration in which he identified the accession of the sons of Constantine with the prophesied kingdom of the saints in the Book of Daniel. Further supposed evidence has been adduced in his other writings, especially his Life of Constantine. This article argues that this common interpretation of Eusebius's eschatology is mistaken and has resulted from treating a few passages in isolation while overlooking their rhetorical context. It demonstrates instead that Eusebius adhered to a conventional Christian eschatology centered on the future kingdom of heaven that would accompany the second coming of Christ and further suggests that the concept of “Byzantine imperial eschatology” should be reconsidered.

The Book of Daniel as Witness to the Pluriform Bible

The Book of Daniel is an anthology that comes to us in a variety of compositional configurations distinguished in their organization by genre and chronology. Daniel’s varied compositional configurations—MT, Old Greek, Theodotion, Syriac—characterize the book as a literary exercise in divinatory wisdom that can point readers in different directions. The wisdom promoted in MT Daniel is mantic in that it is concerned with how knowledge of God’s effective reality in history can be divined (apocalyptic). In other forms of Daniel, the wisdom recommended for ancient Jews is mundane in that it is concerned with how they may conduct themselves with integrity within their own communities and relative to others (wisdom). I argue that, in the case of Daniel, the meaning of this biblical book is indicated not only in its semantic content but also through the various compositional configurations given to it during antiquity. This finding is consistent with a need for the sort of textually and compositionally pluriform Bible edition articulated by James Sanders.

Introduction

The role of communications in human affairs is discussed. An early way of communications is writing on the wall as mentioned in the biblical Book of Daniel, presented in Rembrandt’s interpretation. It is emphasized how expensive communications to places far away was even a century ago and how cheap it is now. Cost of a telephone call to America then and now are compared. It is claimed that the book is suitable for the interested layman; at the same time, there is a lot of information for those who are interested in the history of communications technology.

The Additions to Daniel

The ancient Greek versions of Daniel contain three extended passages that are not included in the Hebrew-Aramaic (MT) version of the book. These “Additions” to Daniel consist of the tale of Susanna (= LXX Daniel 1), the Prayer of Azariah and the Song of the Three Young Men (LXX Dan 3:24–90), and the tales of Bel and the Dragon (LXX Daniel 14). Daniel is one of several biblical books that contain additional material in their Greek versions (cf. Esther, Jeremiah, and Psalms). As with the court tales of the Book of Daniel, the three Additions to Daniel describe a model life-style that stresses covenantal fidelity and assures divine reciprocity. The message of the model is clear: just as Daniel, Susanna, and the three young men Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego prosper in the face of hostility and the threat of death, so Jews who live in foreign lands could survive and even thrive by maintaining their traditional identity and trust in God. Whatever the circumstance, justice will prevail, the righteous will be rewarded, and the wicked will be punished.

The Apocrypha, the Septuagint, and Other Greek Witnesses

As for the Apocrypha, the Septuagint and Other Greek witnesses, there are four different groups of canons or Bibles to consider. Group one comprises the books and additions (to Esther and Daniel) that are in the Roman Catholic, Greek, and Slavonic Bibles: Tobit, Judith, Additions to Esther, Wisdom of Solomon, Wisdom of Jesus Son of Sirach, Baruch, the Letter of Baruch, the Letter of Jeremiah (which is Baruch, chapter 6), the Additions to the Book of Daniel (with the Prayer of Azariah and the Song of the Three Jews, Susanna, and Bel and the Dragon), 1 Maccabees, and 2 Maccabees; the second group consists of the books in the Greek and Slavonic Bibles, which are not in the Roman Catholic canon (1 Esdras, also called 2 Esdras in Slavonic or 3 Esdras in the Appendix to the Vulgate), the Prayer of Manasseh (in an appendix to the Vulgate), Psalm 151, and 3 Maccabees; the third group contains the book that is in the Slavonic Bible and in the Latin Vulgate Appendix, but not in the Greek Bible: 2 Esdras (also called 3 Esdras in the Slavonic Bible or 4 Esdras in the Vulgate Appendix); and the fourth group contains 4 Maccabees, which can only be found in an appendix to the Greek Bible.