Daniel — Hebrew, Aramaic and Old Greek compared
Choose a chapter to explore the source readings and their notes. Original references, source labels, and review records are retained.
Source guide and review record
SAINTS TRANSLATION
Daniel with Old Greek Additions
Version One • Complete working translation draft
Hebrew and Aramaic–English alongside Old Greek–English, with textual comparison and selected, attributed Rabbinic and Saints interpretation.
The Greek column follows the Old Greek main text of Rahlfs–Hanhart. The Prayer of Azariah and Song of the Three Young Men are within chapter three; Susanna and Bel and Dragon follow the twelve main chapters. Theodotion is not translated in this volume.
Draft and source access date: Sep 8, 2026
Comparison key
Same — corresponding meaning and content. Similar — modest difference of expression or emphasis. Different — a meaningful detail differs. Divergent — added, absent, or rearranged material governs the comparison. Disparate — a major difference in meaning or consequence; strict contradiction is not required. Colors appear in the notes column only.
References in both translation columns follow the selected sources. Bracketed absence notices are editorial. Categories describe the source relationship, not the religious worth of either tradition. Difficult readings remain visibly provisional.
Numbering and source coverage
Retain actual BHS and Rahlfs–Hanhart source numbers and account for additions, omissions and rearrangements explicitly.
Daniel is Hebrew and Aramaic in the Masoretic source.
Prayer of Azariah and Song of the Three Young Men occur within Greek chapter three; Susanna and Bel and Dragon have separate Greek publisher book routes and are given separate final sections without fabricated Hebrew counterparts.
Precise alignment is established from each complete source chapter before authoring.
In 2:4 the source changes from Hebrew to Aramaic at the royal greeting.
Selected Rahlfs–Hanhart 2:1 reads second year, and its 2:40 and 2:42 are present; another Old Greek edition’s different readings or minuses are not imported.
In chapter three, BHS 1–23 align with Old Greek 1–23; Old Greek 24–90 preserve the Prayer of Azariah, furnace narrative, and Song of the Three Young Men without invented Aramaic counterparts.
BHS 24–30 align with Old Greek 91–97.
BHS 31–33 remain at their source position and correspond to common English 4:1–3; Old Greek chapter three ends at 97.
Chapter four preserves BHS 1–34.
Old Greek retains its actual discontinuous sequence 4–5, 10–17, 17a, 18–33, 33a–b, 34, 36–37, 37a–c.
BHS 3:31–33 and related Greek 4:37c remain at their own source positions and are cross-referenced rather than duplicated.
Chapter five includes the selected Greek’s unnumbered prefatory narrative, editorially located as 5:preface; it is not a fabricated numbered verse.
Greek 5:26–28 is a single combined publisher unit, paired with all three Aramaic verses in one row.
Thus chapter five has thirty Aramaic verses in twenty-eight source units, nineteen numbered Greek units covering twenty-one numbered verses plus the unnumbered preface, and twenty-nine comparison rows.
Chapter six retains BHS and Greek 1–29, plus Greek 13a.
The Greek opening names Artaxerxes before Darius and gives one hundred twenty-seven satraps; Aramaic names Darius at about sixty-two years and one hundred twenty satraps.
Chapter eight returns to Hebrew in BHS; both selected sources have complete verse labels 1–27.
Final document sections thirteen and fourteen are editorial navigation for Susanna and Bel and Dragon, not a claim about the selected publisher’s Daniel chapter numbers.
Their references retain Susanna 1 and Bel and Dragon 1.
Susanna’s printed source sequence is 6; 7–8; 9; 10–11; 12; 13–14; 19; 22; 23; 28; 29; 30; 31; 32; 33; 34; 35; 35a; 36; 37; 38; 39; 40; 41; 44–45; 48; 51; 52; 53; 54; 55; 56; 57; 58; 59; 60–62; 63.
Bel and Dragon’s printed sequence is 1–11; 13; 14; 15–17; 18–28; 30; 31–32; 33–42.
Combined printed units remain combined; missing printed labels are not reconstructed from Theodotion.
The two separate additions have no Hebrew/Aramaic counterpart in the selected Masoretic Daniel.
Divergent in those rows denotes this source-level absence, not a comparison between two Greek recensions.
Coverage: 357 Hebrew / Aramaic verse labels in 355 source units; 497 numbered or lettered Greek labels plus 1 unnumbered preface in 487 source units; 504 comparison rows.
Source-unit totals count distinct source cells: a combined range counts as one unit. Verse-coverage totals expand numbered ranges and retain lettered labels; the Greek unnumbered preface is counted separately. All categories count comparison rows.
Classification totals: Same 13; Similar 61; Different 192; Divergent 209; Disparate 29.
Sources and consulted scope
All source entries below were accessed on the source access date stated at the beginning of this volume. The linked chapter headings above give the exact ancient-text routes used.
[H] Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia, fifth corrected edition edited by Adrian Schenker (1997), publisher presentation of Daniel.
Chapters 1–12, complete publisher running main texts read directly before translation. No apparatus collation.
Access type: Direct publisher ancient-language running main text.
[G] Septuaginta, Alfred Rahlfs; second revised edition Robert Hanhart (2006), publisher presentation of Daniel, Old Greek recension.
Chapters 1–12, complete publisher running main texts read directly before translation. No apparatus collation.
Access type: Direct publisher ancient-language running main text.
[E1] R. Timothy McLay, Daniel: To the Reader, in A New English Translation of the Septuagint (NETS), 2007/2009 digital edition.
Introduction on pages 991–994 and labeled opening OG/Theodotion columns consulted only to establish recension identity and versification issues. NETS uses a different Greek critical edition; it is not the translation base here.
Access type: Translator’s primary edition introduction and labeled parallel presentation.
[S1] Saint Hippolytus, On Christ and Antichrist 19–26, New Advent English text
Sections 19–26 read: comparison of Daniel two and seven, imperial identifications, and the stone interpreted through Christ and the Son of Man. Greek original not collated.
Access type: Direct published translation of patristic primary work.
[R1] Rashi on Daniel 4:24:6, Hebrew excerpt reproduced in the Sefaria sheet Visions & Pictures, Daniel Chapter 4
Complete Hebrew comment on Daniel 4:24:6 read in its labeled excerpt: counsel to feed hungry Jewish exiles, royal support for twelve months. The direct individual Sefaria reader did not expose the full comment.
Access type: Primary commentary excerpt reproduced in a labeled source sheet.
[S2] Saint Cyprian of Carthage, On Works and Alms 5, New Advent English text
Section five read directly, including Daniel’s counsel and the king’s failure to heed it, within the teaching on almsgiving. Latin original not collated.
Access type: Direct published translation of patristic primary work.
[R2] Rashi on Daniel 7:13:1, Sefaria Hebrew commentary
Complete short Hebrew comment displayed in the indexed primary-source result, identifying the humanlike figure as King Messiah; no broader claim about all of Rashi’s chapter-seven interpretation.
Access type: Indexed primary commentary excerpt.
[G-SUS] Septuaginta, Alfred Rahlfs; second revised edition Robert Hanhart (2006), publisher presentation of Susanna, Old Greek recension.
Complete displayed ancient Greek running main text read before translation, including its actual discontinuous printed labels and combined units. No Theodotion text or critical apparatus collated.
Access type: Direct publisher ancient-language running main text.
[G-BEL] Septuaginta, Alfred Rahlfs; second revised edition Robert Hanhart (2006), publisher presentation of Bel and Dragon, Old Greek recension.
Complete displayed ancient Greek running main text read before translation, including its actual discontinuous printed labels and combined units. No Theodotion text or critical apparatus collated.
Access type: Direct publisher ancient-language running main text.
[L1] William D. Mounce, Greek New Testament Dictionary, apodidomi entry.
Lexical entry read for the middle-voice sense sell, with its New Testament examples. General lexical evidence only; no direct interpretation of Daniel claimed.
Access type: Direct lexicographer entry.
[L2] Liddell–Scott–Jones Greek–English Lexicon, phylasso entry, Scaife ATLAS presentation.
Watchfulness and being-on-guard senses, including middle usage, consulted as general lexical evidence. No claim that this entry resolves or cites the Susanna construction.
Access type: Direct lexicon entry in the Perseus Scaife ATLAS presentation.
Contextual term record
יהוה / אדני / אלהים / κύριος / θεός — YHWH / Lord / God / Lord / God
Retain the actual divine designation; Hebrew Adonai in Daniel 1:2 is Lord, not YHWH. Clear divine pronouns are capitalized.
סָרִיס / εὐνοῦχος — eunuch
Keep the ancient court office visible; no claim that a particular youth underwent castration is added.
זֵרֹעִים / ὄσπρια — seed-grown food / legumes
Keep the difference between the broad Hebrew seed-derived food and Greek pulses/legumes visible.
συμφωνία / סוּמְפֹּנְיָה — symphonia
Daniel three: precise instrument or ensemble identification remains uncertain.
סַרְבָּל / σαράβαρα — trousers
Provisional garment identification in Daniel 3:21,27 / Greek 3:94; Greek 3:21 independently has footwear and tiaras.
בר אלהין / ἄγγελος θεοῦ — a son of the gods / an angel of God
Daniel 3:25 / Greek 3:92: retain the king’s differing descriptions without a definite later christological identification in the translation.
σχῖνος / σχίσει — mastic tree / will split
Susanna 1:54–55 preserves the first Greek tree-and-punishment wordplay in a note, without inventing a substitute English tree.
πρῖνος / καταπρίσῃ — holm-oak / may saw apart
Susanna 1:58–59 preserves the second Greek wordplay with the actual tree and threatened action.
ἀρτάβη / μετρητής / μνᾶ — artaba / metretes / mina
Bel and Dragon retains the ancient dry measure, liquid measure, and weight; local capacities and weights are not silently standardized.
Editorial decisions
Translate both English columns independently from the ancient-language main texts; never substitute or programmatically modify modern English translations.
Use the publisher’s Old Greek route DAG, identified from distinctive chapter-one content and verified against E1’s explicitly separated recensions. Theodotion is a distinct Greek version and is not silently blended into this draft.
Recognizable names shared between the source traditions may use the familiar English form; substantive name, identity, kinship, or place differences remain explicit.
Daniel 2 follows the actual Rahlfs–Hanhart Old Greek main text, including the second year, verses forty and forty-two, and the striking-earth and not-leaving-another-nation clauses. Do not replace these with NETS/Göttingen or Theodotion readings.
Daniel four preserves the actual Old Greek additions and gaps: seven years, the cosmic tree with sun and moon, angelic pursuit and imprisonment, a replacement ruler, penitential prayer, and the long concluding royal letters. BHS retains seven periods and its own narrative sequence.
Daniel seven preserves the actual Old Greek’s tongue, as-an-Ancient-of-Days clause, and kingdoms-that-will-perish reading. Reception from Rashi and Hippolytus is attributed separately and never substituted for the base wording.
Daniel eight retains the gate of Ailam versus Ulai watercourse, four versus three ram-charge directions, northern versus Beautiful-land horn expansion, reversed trampling agency, and the Greek’s explicit days at 8:14. Difficult Greek clauses remain visibly provisional.
Keep Daniel nine’s actual divine designations distinct: YHWH, Lord/Adonai, God, and Greek Lord/Master. Greek propitiation in 9:19 remains distinct from Hebrew forgiveness; Greek gladdening in 9:24 remains distinct from Hebrew anointing.
Render Greek eleeinos as worthy of pity/compassion in 9:23 and 10:11,19, preserving its difference from Hebrew chamudot, treasured; do not replace the Greek adjective by beloved.
Preserve explicit Egypt and Romans in the Greek of Daniel eleven alongside Hebrew south and ships of Kittim. Keep the daughter-versus-king treaty difference, national exceptions absent in Greek 11:41, and land allotted for a price versus as a gift.
Daniel twelve retains Greek dispersion and everlasting shame, strengthening my words, madness and an earth filled with injustice, and Daniel’s glory, alongside the Hebrew contempt, bringing many to righteousness, increase of knowledge, and allotted portion.
Susanna and Bel and Dragon follow only the actual selected Old Greek running text. Susanna begins at printed six and ends at sixty-three, retaining five hundred servants, four children, angelic understanding, the two tree wordplays, gagging, the ravine, fire, and the final praise of the young.
Bel and Dragon retains the Habakkuk heading, Daniel son of Abal as priest, oil in the daily quantity list and wine in the later meal, priestly seals, thirty minas of pitch, the six-day confinement, and the actual ending. No priestly execution is inserted in verse twenty-two.
The prayer and hymn within Daniel three, Susanna, and Bel and Dragon are fully translated from the chosen Old Greek main text; no unattested Masoretic parallel or unreviewed Theodotion reading is supplied.
Bounded second-agent review prompted sell for the middle apodosetai in Greek 8:25, with giving-back retained as an alternative; removed causal agency from the temporal phrase in 12:7; and added the watchful/cautious alternative in Susanna 1:63. No ancient base reading was changed.
Disparate index
This index lists the comparison rows whose governing category is Disparate; the full wording and note remain in the tables.
1:11: The Hebrew introduces a subordinate steward; the Old Greek names the chief eunuch Abiesdri himself as Daniel’s addressee. The person and administrative relationship change.
2:11: The Aramaic names gods in the plural as the possible revealers; the Old Greek names an angel and adds an explicit conclusion that the request is impossible. The supernatural agent changes.
2:35: The Aramaic ends with the mountain filling the earth; the Greek ends with its striking the earth, changing the stated effect. The Greek also has finer than chaff and omits summer.
2:44: The Aramaic says kingship will not be handed to another people. The Greek makes the kingdom the active subject of not leaving another nation, changing the assertion’s object and consequence. Saints: S1, sections 23–26, reads the metallic kingdoms as successive earthly empires and the final kingdom as Christ’s victory; those identifications remain commentary.
3:18: Aramaic maintains refusal even if deliverance does not occur. Greek presents their refusal as something the king will then recognize, without the if not condition; its idol is singular.
4:8: Greek gives the tree a cosmic role, housing the sun and moon and filling the space beneath heaven. Aramaic describes growth, height, and worldwide visibility without those celestial inhabitants.
4:14: Aramaic names the watchers’ decree and teaches the living about God’s allocation of human kingship, including to the lowliest. Greek directs recognition to the afflicted figure and states authority over all heavenly and earthly beings, without those allocation clauses.
4:19: Greek explicitly accuses the king of pride against the Holy One and His angels and of destroying God’s house in connection with the people’s sins. Aramaic here identifies his vast power without that accusation or temple explanation.
4:28: Greek specifies an immediate replacement by a despised household man, with transfer of authority and luxury by sunrise. Aramaic announces the king’s loss without naming such a successor or that deadline.
4:29: Greek makes angels the pursuers, specifies seven years and complete separation from human contact, and repeats confinement and another ruler’s possession. Aramaic has seven periods and ends with recognition of the Most High’s rule.
5:17: Aramaic explicitly refuses the rewards before agreeing to interpret. Greek has no refusal and instead immediately reads the writing in explanatory Greek terms and describes the hand stopping. That ethical and narrative difference is not harmonized.
5:30: Aramaic explicitly reports the king’s death that night. Greek reports the interpretation’s fulfillment through transfer of kingship to Medes and Persians, without stating his death or the night.
6:23: Aramaic explicitly names God’s angel and denies wrongdoing toward the king. Greek omits the angel, distinguishes ignorant fault and sin, and directly rebukes the king for listening to deceivers and casting Daniel to destruction.
7:13: Aramaic has the humanlike figure approach the Ancient of Days and be presented before Him. The selected Old Greek instead reads hos palaios hemeron, as an Ancient of Days, with attendants present; it does not contain the same approach clause. The two likeness descriptions and their difficult relation are retained without a forced identification. Rabbinic: Rashi on 7:13:1 identifies the humanlike figure as the King Messiah [R2]. Saints: Saint Hippolytus, On Christ and Antichrist 26, reads the Son of Man as the Son approaching the Father [S1]. That reception is not evidence for replacing this Old Greek wording with another Greek version.
7:17: Aramaic predicts four kings arising; Greek describes four kingdoms perishing. Both the identified entities and the direction of their announced fate differ.
8:10: Hebrew makes the horn cast down and trample heavenly beings. Greek reverses the action: the raised horn is dashed down and trampled by the stars. Its passive verbs and by-them phrase are preserved.
8:11: Greek has a commander rescuing captivity, ancient mountains, their place, and a sacrifice, followed by difficult shifts of unexpressed subject and pronoun. Hebrew describes exaltation against the host’s prince, removal of the regular offering, and the sanctuary’s foundation. The Greek mountain and rescue clauses are retained; their syntax remains provisional.
8:25: Hebrew ends with the king confronting the prince of princes and being broken without human agency. Greek instead continues his hostile action and ends with the difficult synagogen cheiros and apodosetai, provisionally gathering of a hand and sell. The final verb is middle; sell is a documented middle sense [L1], while a giving-back interpretation remains possible. The exact construction and unstated object require further review; no Hebrew defeat clause is inserted.
9:24: Hebrew includes atonement, sealing vision and prophet, and anointing; Greek instead includes wiping away injustices, understanding and fulfilling the vision, and gladdening a holy of holies. The holiness expression may refer to a sacred place or person and is not prematurely identified. Hebrew seal up sins follows the displayed written form; no critical-apparatus or qere collation is claimed.
9:26: Greek preserves its unusual sequence seven and seventy and sixty-two without an expressed unit here; Hebrew has sixty-two weeks. Hebrew cuts off an anointed one, while Greek removes an anointing, chrisma, and later mentions the anointed one with the destroyed sanctuary. Hebrew’s people of a ruler and flood differ from Greek’s kingdom of nations and wrath. The pronoun antecedents and have nothing remain open to review.
9:27: Greek has an expanded and difficult chronology, explicitly periods, years, and many weeks, and removes sacrifice at the week’s end. Hebrew strengthens a covenant for one week and stops sacrifice at its halfway point. Greek’s temple and desolation differ from Hebrew’s wing of abominations and desolator. Unexpressed agents and abrupt referent shifts are retained rather than supplied from a preferred eschatological scheme.
10:9: Hebrew twice affirms hearing before the deep sleep. Greek explicitly denies hearing and describes a fall, without the same sleep clause. The negation is retained.
10:13: Hebrew leaves the speaker beside Persia’s kings; Greek has the speaker leave Michael with the Persian king’s general. The participant left behind and the opposing office both differ, with the same twenty-one days.
11:6: Hebrew centers the agreement and its collapse on the southern king’s daughter and those accompanying or supporting her. Greek has the king himself enter the northern kingdom and gives numb arms and waiting, without the daughter or her surrender.
11:7: Hebrew has a successor from her roots attack the northern king’s fortress. Greek has his root and expressly makes the king of the north the approaching combatant. The pronouns are not resolved into named historical persons.
11:14: Hebrew describes violent members of Daniel’s people rising to fulfill a vision. Greek describes designs against Egypt and a singular agent rebuilding fallen national things before the prophecy’s establishment; the altered action and agency remain visible.
11:26: Hebrew makes the king’s table companions his destroyers and his army the swept-away force. Greek instead makes anxieties consume him and then describes an active sweeping subject; the source’s agency is preserved.
12:2: Hebrew uses dust and two outcome clauses. Greek uses the earth’s breadth and gives three clauses, including dispersion, by repeating others; this does not by itself establish whether the negatively described groups must be wholly distinct.
12:4: Hebrew’s ranging and increased knowledge differ sharply from Greek’s madness and an earth filled with injustice. The Greek is not silently changed into the Hebrew progress-of-knowledge wording.
Review status and unresolved readings
Complete working draft of Daniel one through twelve and the selected Old Greek additions: Prayer of Azariah and Song of the Three Young Men within chapter three, followed by Susanna and Bel and Dragon. Source coverage is reconciled. Greek is the publisher’s Old Greek recension, not Theodotion; translation of both Greek recensions is not claimed. A second agent performed a bounded review of Old Greek 3:40, all of chapters eight and twelve, and Susanna 1:22–63, with selected lexical checks. Whole-book independent linguistic review, critical-apparatus collation, and resolution of the remaining explicitly provisional constructions are outstanding.
All ordered source labels reconciled against the complete selected publisher texts as read chapter by chapter. Required fields, categories, unique and non-overlapping references, absence cells, and translation quantities checked. A second agent independently reviewed the limited Greek scope specified in the status statement. Neither whole-book independent linguistic review nor critical-apparatus collation is claimed.
Whole-book independent Hebrew/Aramaic/Greek scholarly review and critical-apparatus collation remain outstanding; the bounded second-agent Greek review is identified separately.
2:5,8 Aramaic azda is provisionally rendered firm decision, with the alternative matter departed explicitly noted; Greek 2:8 unambiguously describes departure.
2:18 Greek timoria in the petition is rendered help; 2:22 its final katalysis/dwelling phrase requires lexical and syntactic review without supplying light as subject.
2:35 Greek struck the whole earth and 2:44 the kingdom will not leave another nation differ materially from the Aramaic filling and non-transfer of kingship.
Old Greek 3:40 has two unresolved clauses with opisthen sou. Both are preserved with tentative literal glosses and explicit syntactic uncertainty; no emendation or confident smooth reconstruction has been adopted.
Greek Daniel 5 preface hestatai is provisionally weighed. Aramaic third-ranking office versus Greek authority over one-third in 5:7,16,29 is retained pending specialist lexical and administrative review.
Old Greek 7:13 reads as an Ancient of Days rather than the Aramaic approach to the Ancient of Days. Both likeness phrases and the attendants’ presence remain explicit; their relation requires specialist review without substituting Theodotion.
Old Greek 7:6 tongue, 7:17 kingdoms that will perish, and 7:26 plan to defile are preserved. Ambiguous pronoun antecedents in 7:12,27 are not resolved by theological capitalization.
Hebrew 8:11–12 has difficult subject and offering/host syntax; the regular offering and host are retained with a provisional relationship. Greek 8:10 reverses the trampling agent, and 8:11 has a rescuing chief commander and ancient mountains; all are preserved.
Greek 8:25 ends with synagogen cheiros and apodosetai, provisionally glossed gathering of a hand and sell, with exact force unresolved. This does not justify importing Hebrew’s prince-of-princes confrontation and being broken without a hand.
Daniel 9:21 Hebrew muaf biaf is provisionally swift flight; an interpretation through weariness also requires consideration. Greek explicitly describes rapid movement.
Daniel 9:24–27 preserves the selected Hebrew written forms and Masoretic clause division, and the Old Greek’s differing purposes, numerical clauses, anointing/anointed distinction, and end-of-week wording. No historical identification or harmonized calendar has been substituted.
Daniel 10:1 preserves Hebrew third year versus Greek first; 10:9 hearing versus explicit non-hearing; 10:13 speaker remaining versus leaving Michael. Greek 10:16 vision-upon-my-side wording remains syntactically provisional.
Daniel eleven retains numerous difficult Greek constructions, particularly 11:8 year-for-the-king, 11:18 reproach/oath, 11:21,34 allotment, and 11:38–39 cross-verse desirable-things and foreign-god pronouns. Exact wording is retained provisionally without historical harmonization.
Greek 12:7 hands-of-release construction and 12:11 dia pantos syntax require specialist review; the explicit uncertainty does not license replacing Greek by Hebrew. Greek 12:2 repeats distinct others clauses, which need not establish mutually exclusive negative groups.
Susanna 1:63 phylassometha eis is provisionally be attentive to; the middle verb’s watchful or cautious force is also possible, and its exact exhortative construction needs further review. Bel and Dragon 1:11 kleidas is rendered locks in context, with keys noted as the ordinary lexical alternative.
Linguistic review and rendered-page verification are distinct from source coverage.