OG Daniel 11:34 – Join with them by intrigue?
The Old Greek version of this verse contains a portion that nobody can really make sense of, nor can anyone explain its origin.
While the Hebrew says:
‘but many will join them through flattery (or intrigue),’
…the Old Greek literally says:
‘many will gather against them and against city, and many as if by inheritance.’
Huh?
Nobody can really explain what it means, never mind how the difference got there!
Most say they words are probably from an entirely different Hebrew original, but it was horribly garbled when it was translated into Greek, and that garbled portion was later removed from the Hebrew text. If that’s the case, then the only remaining trace we have of the missing garbled words is this translation into Greek!
However, we have a theory!
The last word of the verse (‘inheritance’) is exactly the same as the word used back in verse 21, where the Old Greek translator didn’t understand the rarely-used word, and so he (we think) went back to the root, and came up (wrongly) with inheritance. You can read the translator note for more.
Since the same word is used here, that explains this last word, but not the other differences… So what about the rest?
The simplest explanation is that the original Hebrew text said something like ‘but many people of the city will join together against them through flattery (or intrigue)’. The Greek translator translated it, but, despite his best efforts, misinterpreted the last word exactly as he did back in verse 21.
Later, the verse happened to become damaged in the main Hebrew scroll. So when it came time to copy the Hebrew text into a new scroll, scribes couldn’t read certain words. Rather than make up their own words, they just dropped the damaged words upon copying, turning the verse into what we see today in Hebrew: ‘but many will join them through deceit’.
If this is what happened, then the change in meaning is almost nil, and it’s amazing how we can trace even such a small change over 2,300 years.
Also, whether we read the Old Greek or the Hebrew version, the event described actually happened. Many Jews did slyly side with Antiochus against their fellow countrymen, and this happened in the city of JeruSalem.