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People, while the Imperial Name appeared in publick Acts, or was used at Home only: whoever confiders this, I fay, will cease his Wonder, when, amidst such a variety of Appellations for one and the fame Perfon, he finds this Hiftorian making use of one, and that of another, according as his Fancy, his Pronunciation, or the Custom of the Country, where he liv'd, leads him.

Daniel, in all Probability, calls the fame Perfon Darius Medus, whom the Greek Hiftorians call Cyaxares 11; but, when it is observed, that these Hiftorians agree with Daniel as to the main Points of his Narration, viz. That Babylon was taken by an Army of Medes and Perfians, whereof the Medes, being the fuperior, were at that time, named firft; that Cyaxares, King of Media, affifted at the Siege, and was treated by Cyrus as his Chief; that the City, in the Night-time, was furprized by Cyrus, after a Day of Riot and Revelling, by diverting the Course of the River Euphrates; that, Cyaxares, being old and naturally unactive, chofe to live at Ecbatana, the Capital of Media, while Cyrus attended the Affairs of the Government of Babylon; and that Cyrus, upon his Death, fucceeded to the whole Empire:

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Vid. Xenop. Lib. 5. & 8. & Herod. Lib. 1.

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Empire: If we obferve, I fay, the exact Agreement between thefe Hiftorians, as to the chief Matters of Fact, we may cafily difpenfe with fome small difference in Point of Names; efpecially confidering, that the Authors lived at no less a distance than Babylon is from Greece, and that the Greeks confequently might make ufe of the Name, which he went by in Media, as beft known to them, which the Babylonians, after he had taken their City, changed into Darius Medus, or the Victorious Mede, and which Daniel, being Captive in the Place, might in Conformity call him.

It may happen indeed, that there is of Art de- now and then a Word or two in the Book of Daniel, which may feem to have fome Analogy to the Greek Tongue, and, with fome little Variation, may be derived from it; but then it is to be obferved, that (befides the Precarioufnefs of an Argument taken from the Etymology of Words, which is very often a pure Matter of fancy) the Words, that are produced of this kind, are, for the most part, technical Terms; fuch as might flip into any Language, without being perceived, and fuch as a Writer might properly enough ufe, without understanding any more of the Tongue,

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from whence they are borrowed. chitects and Mechanicks, we know, ufe to this Day feveral Greek and Arabick Terms of Art in their respective Profes fions, and yet they do not pretend to understand the Language from whence they came; and why might not Daniel, fpeaking in Terms (as he certainly does, when he Names the mufical Inftruments, very probably of Grecian make, which were ufed at the Confecration of Nebuchadnezzar's Golden Image) why might not he, I fay, make use of Words of a foreign Extract, and, at the fame time, be fuppofed a Stranger to the other Parts of that Language. This, I think, is the common Privilege of most Writers. Nor is the Mixture of fome fuch Greek Terms in the Caldee Language fo difficult a Matter to account for, if we will but allow, what Grotius obferves, viz. "That, before Daniel's Age, ma66 ny Colonies both of the Ionians and "Eolians, having fettled themselves in "Afia Minor, (which lies contiguous to "fome Provinces of the great Eaftern "Kingdoms,) might, that way, com"municate the Names of what they in"vented or improved, even as far as "Babylon it felf.

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'Bishop Chandler's Vindication.

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The Tranflation of the Septuagint ing o- Interpreters has been held in fuch the Verfi- Efteem, that, to have any part of on of the Scripture omitted in it, would give a Seventy. juft Sufpicion, as if it had not been

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extant, or not known, at the time when those learned Men undertook the Work: but this is fo far from being true in the Cafe of Daniel, that we find the Seventy's Verfion of him read publickly in our Saviour's time; that we find Juftin Martyr and Clemens Romanus, who both wrote before Theodotion's Verfion was made, citing Paffages, out of it; that we find St. Jerome giving us feveral various Readings, different from thofe in Theodotion, fometimes from thofe of Aquila and Symmacus out of it, and, at the fame time, telling us, that this Tranflation of Daniel was repudiated, and that of Theodotion fubftituted in its room, by the Doctors of the Church. It was Origen indeed, who firft brought it into difcredit, by his comparing it with that of Theodotion from the Original, in his Hexapla, which fhew'd its Imperfections a little too plainly but then its Degradation proves,that before this happen'd to it, it was us'd in the Chriftian Church

▾ Dial. cum Triph. Ed. Ox. p. 87. rinth. Ep. 1.

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Church all along, and held to be as
Canonical, as any other Books of Scrip-

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The Omiffion of Daniel's Name in In the Cathe Enumeration of the Prophets, which talogue of Prophets we meet with * in Ecclefiafticus, is of no in Ecclefigreat Moment, because we find no men- afticus, tion made of Ezra, as well as him and tho' much may be faid, as to the Imperfection of that Book,y the probable lofs of fome part of it in Egypt, or the Boldness or Negligence of the Tranfcribers ; yet, fince the reft of the Books of the Old Teftament were written in Hebrew, which was the common Language of Judea, and that, wherein Jefus the Father of Sirach wrote, and a great part both of the Books of Ezra and Daniel was written in Caldee, which was a Tongue not fo well known in Judea ;

the Author's Ignorance of that Tongue was the true Occafion, as I take it, of the Omiffion of these two, and only of these two famous Writers, in that Catalogue of the Prophets.

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There are fundry Reafons likewise And the to be given, why we have no Caldee ParaParaphrafe upon Daniel, as well as the reft of the Prophets: For, befides that

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* Jer. on Dan. iv. 8. Chap. xlix.

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logue to Ecclefiafticus. Vid. Prol. to Ecclefiafticus. Whifton's literal Accomplishment.

Fonathan.

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