Last week we spoke about how Hippolytus claims that Susanna was the daughter of Jehoiakim who was the son of the last king of Judah.  This week we will see that Hippolytus goes even further, claiming that Susanna was the daughter of Hilkia the high priest and that her uncle was no other than Jeremiah the prophet.  Further Hippolytus goes on to say that the great-grandson of Susanna was Zerubabbel who laid the foundation of the 2nd temple.  For a much needed picture of the genealogy go here. Hippolytus also points out a gap in Matthew’s genealogy of Jesus

She was a daughter of Hilkia the priest, who found the book of the law in the house of the Lord, when Josiah the king ordered him to cleanse the Holy of Holies.  His brother was Jeremiah the Prophet… And so these, being from priestly lineage, from the tribe of Levi, mixed with the tribe of Judah, so that through the two righteous tribes, by their unity, the righteousness of Christ according to the fleshly seed, may be shown,  so that He who was born from them in Bethlehem may be proclaimed as Christ and Priest of God.

For also Matthew, wishing to trace  the pure and faultless descent of Christ according to the flesh until Joseph, coming to Josiah he omits his five sons and names Jeconiah, who while in Babylon was begotten from Susanna, skipping  from righteous seed to righteous seed. For he says, “Josiah begot Jeconiah and his brothers during the deportation to Babylon.”    How is this declared? For Josiah reigned in the land of Judah thirty-one years and he died there.  Therefore how is it possible that having died there he begot Jeconiah in Babylon?    From this it is necessary to observe that Matthew traced the genealogy of him who was begotten from Jehoiakim and from Susanna, as Jehoiakim was the son of Eliakim who was called Jehoiakim the son of Josiah.    For Matthew was not able to trace the genealogy of him who was banished by the Holy Spirit, as being in the line of this Jeconiah,  as some deceivers maintain.  For this cripple was brought into Babylon and there as a prisoner was turning the mill childless and died. So that scripture does not idly teach us saying, “And there was a man living in Babylon and his name was Jehoiakim and he took a wife, Susanna by name, a daughter of Hilkia, who was exceedingly beautiful and feared the Lord.”    And so Jeconiah was begotten by her, and Jeconiah begot Shealtiel, and Shealtiel begot Zerubbabel.  He together with Ezra the scribe and Joshua the son of Jehozadak came up to Jerusalem according to the command of Cyrus the Persian.   And thus continued the pure race of the fathers until the generation of Jesus Christ.

Hippolytus explains the gap in Matthew’s genealogy by claiming that Matthew simply skipped the generations of those who were deemed too evil to be named as an ancestor of Christ.  Much the same argument is used by “old Earth” Christians who say that the genealogies in Genesis may very well be filled with gaps.  Hippolytus does draw some interesting conclusions, but we cannot be sure of his accuracy.  To this day scholars still struggle to successfully identify the names of those involved in the Babylonian captivity in the rebuilding of Jerusalem.  If any experts on Biblical genealogies are reading this, please comment!

Next week we will turn to a primary theme in Hippolytus’ commentary on Daniel: persecution.

Much of Hippolytus’ Commentary on Daniel focuses on the persecution of Daniel and his companions and how this relates to the Church.  However, at the start of his work Hippolytus seems to enjoy describing the background behind the Book of Daniel and explaining some of its difficulties.  Last week he spoke of why the Book of Susannah was out of chronological order, this week he will speak about geneaological matters:

For these are the five sons of the blessed Josiah [the King of Judah]: Jehoahaz, Eliakem who was also called Jehoiakim, Johanan,  Zedekiah who was also called Jeconiah, and Shallum…Therefore scripture describes these things this way so that it may signal the occurrence of the captivity of the people, while Jehoiakim, the son of Eliakim who was also called Jehoiakim , was deported and those with him, the three youths together with Daniel were taken. Thus Jehoiakim was the husband of Susanna.

Here Hippolytus argues that Jehoiakim, the son of the last king of Judah (also named Jehoiakim who’s other name was Eliakem) was Susannah’s husband.  None of this is explicit in scripture, but Hippolytus does make an interesting point.  In my old Brenton translation of the Septuagint I see that Jehoiakim is variously spelled Ιωακιμ, Ιωαχιμ, and Ιωακειμ (Daniel 1:1; 2 Kings 24:8,12 2 Chron. 36:10 )  Hippolytus uses one spelling for all of them (as far as I can tell).  I don’t know Hebrew and don’t have an updated Septuagint on hand to do anymore analysis.

Hippolytus seems to have had a real interest in chronology and genealogy, which makes sense given that he wrote an entire book on them The Chronicon.  Next week we’ll finish off this genealogical stuff with Hippolytus’ rather intriguing discussion on why the genealogies in Matthew and Luke leave out some people mentioned in Daniel, and Hippolytus’ theory on how Jeremiah, Susannah, and others were all related to each other.

As mentioned last week, Hippolytus began his Commentary on Daniel with a summary of events, namely the Babylonian Captivity, which caused Daniel to be found in Babylon.  Hippolytus then starts to comment on the Book of Susannah, which he considered part of the canonical Book of Daniel.  Roman Catholic and Orthodox Christians consider this as part of the Apocrypha today.  In the following passage Hippolytus explains why, in his copy,  Susannah is found at the beginning of the book of Daniel and not later on in the book, which would make more chronological sense:

Therefore the account itself [The book of Susannah] occurs later, but it is written before as the first of the book.   For it was the custom of the scribes to place many things in reverted order in the scriptures.  For we also find in the visions of the prophets, some which occurred first are even fulfilled at the end, and in turn again what is spoken last occurs even first.   This occurs by the economy of the Spirit, so that the devil may not understand the things which are spoken by the prophets in parables and, having ensnared Man again a second time, kill him.

Roger Pearse has asked how the Greek text of Hippolytus’ Commentary on Daniel was completed.  My German is not very good, but from what I understand from the german introduction, Marcel Richard (editor) was able to use ultra-violet light to read part of the most important manuscript, Codex Vatopedi Cod. Paris. Suppl. gr. 68, that had been made illegible due to water damage.  This helped restore part of the text.  Some additional Catenae were used as well as, I think, a new manuscript, to fill in the gaps.  Here and there M. Richard also reconstructed words or phrases.  Although entire chapters were previously only available in Church Slavonic, these made up perhaps only 3% of the text, most of it was available in Greek by 1900.

If someone knows more, or if I am wrong, please let me know.

-Update-

I originally listed the wrong manuscript (or part of the manuscript) See comments for more information.

While my translation of Hippolytus’ Chronicon is being edited, I have decided to begin translating his Commentary on Daniel from Greek to English.  This is the oldest Christian commentary on scripture that we possess yet it has never been completely translated into English. Some fragments of it were published in the 19th century and can be found in the Ante-Nicene Church Father Library here. Another translation was also done in the 19th century on part of the commentary as well: Part of the commentary of S. Hippolytus on Daniel (lately discovered by Dr. Basilios Georgiaoles), with introductions, notes & translation by J.H. Kennedy, Dublin : Hodges, Figgis, & Co, 1888. The place holder can be found here on Google Books but it is not available to read.

For my translation I am using the GCS (Die Griechischen Christlichen Schriftsteller) series number NF 7 which supersedes the older SC (Source Christianes) Series 13 edition (published in 1947). The mostly complete Greek text was not made available until 2000 when the GCS edition came out, the SC edition made use of Old Slavonic manuscripts to fill in the gaps. I have asked around and it seems that there is no one who is currently translating this text into English, so it is a good choice.

In his Commentary Hippolytus frequently references the persecution Christians endured under the Roman empire and also discusses Daniel’s visions and dreams, the meanings of which are still, sometimes heatedly, discussed in our day. He includes the apocryphal parts of the book and does not shy away from difficulties in scripture (at least he hasn’t so far…). It’s a good read and an inspiring one too. I hope by doing this a little of Hippolytus’ world and faith may be shared with those who live today.

To keep up interest and also to keep me from being lazy, I plan to post interesting excerpts from my translation weekly. Keep in mind that these are rough draft translations and I am purposefully leaving out all footnotes and book/chapter references to simplify things. Today we will begin with a quote that sets the stage for the coming weeks:

And he, the King and those with him, were judged in spirit on account of the transgression of the oath of the Lord and the covenant, which were set before him. And taking his sons, Nebuchadnezzar slaughtered them before him and he blinded the eyes of Zedekiah who was also called Jeconiah, and shackled him in iron fetters and brought him into Babylon and he ground at the mill until the day in which he died. When he died they took his body and hurled it behind the wall of Nineveh. At this the prophecy of the prophet Jeremiah was fulfilled…

Therefore after all of the people were deported and both the city was deserted and the holy place destroyed in order to fulfill the word of the Lord, which he spoke through the mouth of Jeremiah the prophet: “The holy place will be deserted seventy years.” Here we find the blessed Daniel in Babylon as a prophet and as an avenger of Susannah.