Her Story, History, and the Ancient Versions of Daniel 11.6

Abstract

Text-critical study of Dan 11.6 shows that the Hebrew text behind the Old Greek may have been tweaked to be more historically accurate to present the verse as it appears in the Masoretic text and Theodotion. It is possible that two versions of this verse, one emphasizing the fate of the Ptolemaic princess Berenice and one that does not mention her, already existed in the earliest Hebrew texts. Recent proposals for the historical reconstruction of the Third Syrian War are considered alongside these textual points to portray the kind of close attention and activity that went into the writing and rewriting of Dan 10–12.