Letter to Origen on the History of Susanna (complete)

Greetings, my lord and son, most honoured Origen, from Africanus.

When you held the sacred dialogue with Agnomon, you mentioned the prophecy of Daniel in his youth; and, as was fitting, I accepted it at the time. But I wonder how it escaped you that this part of the book is counterfeit. For this section, though otherwise an elegant composition, is shown to be recent and fabricated, and is refuted in many ways.

When Susanna had been condemned to die, the prophet, seized by the Spirit, cried out that the sentence was unjust. First, then, Daniel prophesies in another way, by visions and dreams, and always receives the appearance of an angel, not prophetic inspiration. Then, after uttering this in so wonderful a way, he also convicts them in a most extraordinary manner, as not even Philistion the mime would have done. For the rebuke through the Spirit was not enough; he separated the two and asked each where he had seen her committing adultery. And when the one said "under a holm-oak" (prinos), he answers that the angel will saw (prisein) him; and he threatens the one who said "under a mastic tree" (schinos) that he will likewise be split (schisthenai). In Greek words it happens that such things sound alike: prinos with prisai, and schisai with schinos; but in Hebrew they are wholly different. And everything that is current of the Old Testament was translated from Hebrew into Greek.

And how could captives of the Chaldeans in Babylon, cast about like dice, thrown unburied in the streets, as is recorded of the former captivity of Israel, with their sons torn from them to be made eunuchs and their daughters to be concubines, as had been prophesied, sit in judgment in capital cases, and that too against the wife of their king Joakim, whom the king of the Babylonians had made sharer of his throne? And if it was not he, but some other Joakim of the people, how did a captive come to have such a mansion and a spreading park?

But before all these points, this section, together with two others at the end, is not contained in the Daniel received by the Jews. Besides all this, of so many prophets who went before, none has used the very words of another; for their word was not poor, since it was true. But this man, threatening one of the two, reminds him that the Lord says: "The innocent and the righteous you shall not kill." From all this it seems to me that the section is an addition. And the character of the style too is different.

I have struck the note; you make it sound back to me, and teach me by writing in reply. Greet all my lords. All who know you greet you. I pray for your health.