50.
LANGUAGE AND STYLE.
LANGUAGE.
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. Sch??rer, however, in Hauck's _Encycl._
(I. 639), appears to think that this is translated from ??, and not _vice
vers??,_ as Gaster claims. In his third German ed. of _H.J.P._ (III. 333)
he agrees with Gaster in deeming ???•?“?•?? to be ??, but considers the
Aramaic to be a rendering of ??'s Greek, taken into the tenth-century
Chronicle of Jerahmeel.
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