Sometimes, a puzzling detail in an otherwise lucid biblical narrative proves to be the invention of an early exegete struggling to resolve a difficulty posed by some element of the nascent Hebrew Bible. The Chronicler reports that in the time of Josiah "they boiled the Passover lamb with fire, according to the ordinance" ([TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII], 2 Chr 35:13). (1) No single "ordinance" prescribes such a culinary technique; rather, Deuteronomy indicates that the lamb should be boiled ([TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII], Deut 16:7), while Exodus insists that the lamb should not be boiled but "roasted with fire" ([TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII], Exod 12:9). Thus, the Chronicler introduced a formulation that would satisfy the requirements of both the Deuteronomic and the Priestly codes that he numbered among his sources. Had we neither Exodus nor Deuteronomy but only the text of Chronicles, it is unlikely that we would be able to deduce the origins of the Chronicler's singular recipe. It is unsettling to imagine that some of the curious details that continue to puzzle readers may be exegetical responses to texts that are not preserved in the Hebrew Bible. It is possible, however, that the stimuli for some of these exegetical responses have been preserved outside of the Hebrew Bible proper--in the versions, for example. In the present essay, I shall demonstrate how an anomalous figure in the last vision of the book of Daniel--namely, the "ambidextrous" angel who raises both his left and right hands while swearing an oath--may be explained by recourse to the Greek text of the Song of Moses. At the same time, I shall be settling a question about the Greek text of the Song of Moses by recourse to the anomalous figure in the last vision of the book of Daniel.
