Epistula ad Origenem Of Africanus concerning the story of Susanna.

Greetings, my lord and son and most honored in all things, Origen, from Africanus. When you were making the sacred. dialogue against the ungrateful one, you mentioned the prophecy of Daniel in his youth; and as was fitting, I then welcomed it. But I wonder how it escaped your notice that this part of the book is spurious; for this section, 79 though otherwise a graceful composition, is both shown to be and is disproven in many ways as a modern and fabricated composition. For when Susanna had been ordered to die, the prophet, being seized by the spirit, cried out that the decision was unjust. First, that Daniel prophesies in another manner, by visions and dreams at all times and receives an angelic epiphany, but not by prophetic inspiration. Then, after speaking out so wonderfully in a way, he refutes them in a most paradoxical way, such as not even the mime of Philistion. For the rebuke through the spirit was not enough, but having separated each one privately, he asks where he saw her committing adultery. And when the one said under a holm-oak, he answers that the angel will saw him in two, and to the one who said under a mastic tree he similarly threatens that he will be split. In Greek words, then, such things happen to sound alike, to saw from the holm-oak and to split from the mastic tree, but in Hebrew it is entirely different. But everything that comes from the Old Testament was translated from Hebrew into Greek. But among the Jews, being captives in Babylonia, being strangled and thrown unburied in the public squares, as is related in the former captivity of Israel, and with their sons being taken away for castration and their daughters for concubines, as had been prophesied, surely they did not also judge concerning death, 80 and this concerning the wife of Jehoiakim, who had been their king, whom the king of the Babylonians had made to share his throne; but if not this one, but some other Jehoiakim from the people, from where did such an establishment belong to a captive, and was there a vast garden? But before all these things, this section, along with two others at the end, is not included in the Daniel received from the Jews. And on top of all this, of so many prophets who have gone before in succession, no one has used the saying or thought of another; for their word, being true, was not impoverished; but this one here, threatening one of them, reminds him of the Lord saying: You shall not kill the innocent and righteous. From all these things, it seems to me that the section has been added. But also the character of the phrasing is different. I have knocked; but you, both echo for me and instruct me by writing back. Greet all my lords, all who know you greet you. I pray to God for you to be well, along with your company, [and] according to his mind.

Epistula ad Origenem Ἀφρικανοῦ περὶ τῆς κατὰ Σουσάνναν ἱστορίας.

Χαῖρε κύριέ μου καὶ υἱὲ καὶ πάντα τιμιώτατε Ὠρίγενες παρὰ Ἀφρικανοῦ. Ὅτε τὸν ἱερὸν ἐποιοῦ πρὸς τὸν ἀγνώμονα. διάλογον, ἐμνήσθης τῆς ἐν νεότητι προφητείας τοῦ ∆ανιήλ· καὶ ὡς ἔπρεπεν, ἠσπασάμην τότε. θαυμάζω δὲ πῶς ἔλαθέ σε τὸ μέρος τοῦτο τοῦ βιβλίου κίβδηλον ὄν· ἡ γάρ τοι περικοπὴ αὕτη χάριεν μὲν 79 ἄλλως σύγγραμμα, ἀλλὰ σύγγραμμα νεωτερικὸν καὶ πεπλασμένον δείκνυταί τε καὶ κατὰ πολλοὺς ἀπελέγχεται τρόπους. Τῆς γὰρ Σουσάννης ἀποθανεῖν κεκελευσμένης πνεύματι ληφθεὶς ὁ προφήτης ἐξεβόησεν, ὡς ἀδίκως ἡ ἀπόφασις ἔχοι. πρῶτον ὅτι ∆ανιὴλ ἄλλῳ τρόπῳ προφητεύει ὁράμασι καὶ ὀνείροις διὰ παντὸς καιροῦ καὶ ἀγγέλου ἐπιφανείας τυγχάνει, ἀλλ' οὐκ ἐπιπνοίᾳ προφητικῇ. ἔπειτα μετὰ τὸ θαυμασίως πως οὕτως ἀποφθέγξασθαι καὶ παραδοξότατά πως αὐτοὺς ἀπελέγχει, ὡς οὐδὲ ὁ Φιλιστίωνος μῖμος. οὐ γὰρ ἐξήρκει ἡ διὰ τοῦ πνεύματος ἐπίπληξις, ἀλλ' ἰδίᾳ διαστήσας ἑκάτερον ἐρωτᾷ, ποῦ αὐτὴν ἐθεάσατο μοιχωμένην. ὡς δὲ ὁ μὲν ὑπὸ πρῖνον ἔφασκεν, ἀποκρίνεται πρίσειν αὐτὸν τὸν ἄγγελον, τῷ δὲ ὑπὸ σχῖνον εἰρηκότι σχισθῆναι παραπλησίως ἀπειλεῖ. ἐν μὲν οὖν Ἑλληνικαῖς φωναῖς τὰ τοιαῦτα ὁμοφωνεῖν συμβαίνει, παρὰ τὴν πρῖνον τὸ πρῖσαι καὶ σχίσαι παρὰ τὴν σχῖνον, ἐν δὲ τῇ Ἑβραΐδι τῷ παντὶ διέστηκεν. ἐξ Ἑβραίων δὲ τοῖς Ἕλλησι μετεβλήθη πάνθ' ὅσα τῆς παλαιᾶς διαθήκης φέρεται. Παρὰ δὲ Ἰουδαίοις αἰχμάλωτοι ὄντες ἐν τῇ Βαβυλωνίᾳ στραγγαλώμενοι καὶ ἐν ταῖς πλατείαις ἄταφοι ῥιπτούμενοι, ὡς ἐν τῇ προτέρᾳ αἰχμαλωσίᾳ τοῦ Ἰσραὴλ ἱστορεῖται, τῶν τε παίδων αὐτοῖς ἀποσπωμένων εἰς εὐνουχισμὸν καὶ τῶν θυγατέρων εἰς παλλακάς, ὡς προπεφήτευτο, οὐ δὴ καὶ περὶ θανάτου ἔκρινον, 80 καὶ ταῦτα τῇ βασιλέως αὐτῶν γενομένου γυναικὶ Ἰωακείμ, ὃν σύνθρονον πεποίητο ὁ Βαβυλωνίων βασιλεύς· εἰ δὲ οὐχ οὗτος, ἀλλ' ἄλλος τις τοῦ λαοῦ Ἰωακείμ, πόθεν τοιαύτη κατάλυσις αἰχμαλώτῳ περιῆν καὶ παράδεισος ἀμφιλαφὴς ἦν; πρὸ δὲ τούτων ἁπάντων ἥδε ἡ περικοπὴ σὺν ἄλλαις δύο ταῖς ἐπὶ τῷ τέλει τῷ παρὰ τῶν Ἰουδαίων εἰλημμένῳ ∆ανιὴλ οὐκ ἐμφέρεται. ἐπὶ δὲ πᾶσι τοσούτων προωδοιπορηκότων προφητῶν ἑξῆς οὐδεὶς ἑτέρου κέχρηται ῥητῷ ἢ νοήματι· οὐ γὰρ ἐπτώχευσεν ὁ λόγος αὐτῶν ἀληθὴς ὤν· οὑτοσὶ δὲ ἐκείνων θατέρῳ ἐπαπειλῶν ὑπομιμνήσκει λέγοντος τοῦ κυρίου· ἀθῷον καὶ δίκαιον οὐκ ἀποκτενεῖς. Ἐξ ἁπάντων τούτων ἐμοὶ δοκεῖ προσκεῖσθαι ἡ περικοπή. ἀλλὰ καὶ τῆς φράσεως ὁ χαρακτὴρ διαλλάσσει. Ἔκρουσα· σὺ δέ μοι καὶ ἤχησον καὶ ἀντιγράφων παίδευε. Τοὺς κυρίους μου πάντας προσαγόρευε, σὲ οἱ ἐπιστάμενοι πάντες προσαγορεύουσιν. ἐῤῥῶσθαί σε ἅμα τῇ συνοδίᾳ [καὶ] κατὰ νοῦν θεῷ εὔχομαι.