develop; this is of itself sufficient to show that the book in its original form was written before B.C. 100; so that we shall not be far wrong in fixing the date of this about the middle of the second century B.C. V. THE ORIGINAL LANGUAGE OF THE BOOK There can be no two opinions as to what the original language of the book was, namely Hebrew; in numerous instances the Greek proves itself to have been translated from Hebrew, the idioms being those of classical Hebrew; so that this was the original language of both the longer and shorter forms. St. Jerome, in the preface to his translation, says that he had the book before him in Aramaic; this cannot, however, have been the original, for neither Origen nor the Jews with whom he was in communication knew either of a Hebrew or an Aramaic form of the book.[407] The Hebrew original was lost altogether in the West, but must have been preserved in some form or other in the East. CHAPTER IV The Additions to the Book of Daniel [LITERATURE.—Brüll, _Das apokryphische Susanna-Buch_, in “Jahrbücher für jüdische Geschichte und Literatur” (1877); Ball, in Wace, II, pp. 305-360; Schürer, II, iii. pp. 183-188, German ed., III, pp. 452-458; Scholz, _Judith und Bel und der Drache_ (1896); Julius, _Die griechischen Daniel-Zusätze und ihre kanonische Geltung_ (1901); Daubney, _The Three Additions to Daniel_, (1906); Rothstein, in Kautzsch, I, pp. 172-193; Bennett, Kay, and Witton Davies, in Charles, I, pp. 625-664. The articles by Marshall in Hastings’ _Dict. of the Bible_, and Kamphausen, in the _Encycl. Bibl._] I. PRELIMINARY REMARKS