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Tyndale Open Bible Dictionary

DANIEL, Additions to

Part of the Deuterocanonical works, consists of three supplementary sections to the book of Daniel. This additional material is in the Greek translation of the OT book of Daniel, but not in the ancient Hebrew-Aramaic texts. One such addition is the Prayer of Azariah and the Song of the Three Young Men inserted between Daniel 3:23 and 3:24. These 68 verses describe the actions and words of Hananiah, Azariah, and Mishael in the fiery furnace. The second addition was the colorful story of Susanna, a maiden whom Daniel saved from execution, brought about by a false accusation of adultery. Susanna’s location in the text varies. The Septuagint and the Latin Vulgate place it after Daniel 12. Other ancient versions, such as the Old Latin, Coptic, and Arabic versions place it before chapter 1 because of Daniel’s apparent youth. The third addition, Bel and the Dragon, tells how Daniel duped pagan priests and killed a dragon “without sword or club.” The Roman Catholic Church accepts this material as canonical.

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• Prayer of Azariah and the Song of the Three Young Men

• Susanna and the Elders

• Bel and the Dragon

Prayer of Azariah and the Song of the Three Young Men

Prayer for deliverance and hymn of praise attributed to three young Jews thrown into King Nebuchadnezzar’s fiery furnace. Along with Daniel, the three youths had been taken into the court of the Babylonian king during the exile of the kingdom of Judah (Dn 1:1-6). Azariah was given the Babylonian name Abednego (v 7). He and his two friends were condemned to death for refusing to worship the king’s gold statue (3:1-23) but were so miraculously preserved from burning that “they didn’t even smell of smoke” (vv 24-27). Acknowledging that the God whom they worshiped had saved them, the king commanded that none of his subjects should ever dishonor the God of the Jews (vv 28-30).

The Prayer and Song are among several “Additions to Daniel” found in early Greek and Latin versions but not in the original Hebrew and Aramaic texts. The additions seem to date from the intertestamental period of Jewish history, but the language of their composition is not certain. These two works, possibly composed in Hebrew, appear first in Greek in the Septuagint translation of the OT made in the second or third century BC. They were inserted in a logical place in the biblical narrative, following Daniel 3:23. Thus, the Septuagint version of Daniel contained 68 additional verses between 3:23 and 3:24, the first 22 being the Prayer of Azariah.

In the fourth century AD, when Jerome translated the Bible into Latin, he realized that the Prayer, the Song, and several stories added onto the end of the book of Daniel (Susanna and the Elders; Bel and the Dragon) were not in the original texts, but he left them in place. Altogether, Jerome’s Vulgate Bible included 14 or 15 books or portions of books not recognized by Jewish scholars as part of their Scriptures. These writings are now known as the OT Apocrypha, and are usually omitted from Protestant Bibles. When Martin Luther translated the Bible into German in AD 1534, he collected them in a separate section at the end of the OT with a note that the Apocrypha (plural form of a Greek word meaning “hidden”) were “useful and good to read” even if not “equal to the sacred Scriptures.”

Azariah’s prayer is certainly “useful and good” as a model prayer, being very similar to Daniel’s prayer (Dn 9:3-19) and to several of the biblical psalms (compare Pss 31 and 51). It contains confession and repentance as well as a plea for deliverance. Azariah admits that God’s people deserve his righteous judgment “because of our sins,” but he pleads with God to remember his promise to bless the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He offers as sacrifice “a contrite heart and a humble spirit,” dedicating himself and his companions to God.

After Azariah’s prayer comes an account of how “the angel of the Lord” came down and “made the midst of the furnace like a moist whistling wind,” causing the three rescued youths to praise God “as with one mouth.” Their song, like Psalm 148, calls upon all of creation to “bless the Lord.”

Susanna and the Elders

In the Greek Septuagint and the Latin Vulgate, it follows the canonical conclusion of Daniel. It was probably written by a Jew who lived in Palestine in the middle of the first century before Christ. The setting of the story, however, is in Babylon.

Susanna, daughter of Hilkiah, was a very beautiful woman married to Joakim, a rich man of distinction. Joakim’s distinction increased in the community when he opened up his beautiful garden to the Jewish community in exile. It was a proper meeting place for the elders and judges. Trouble arose when two elders recently elected as judges were filled with lust for Susanna. Their office as judge brought them back to Joakim’s garden whenever the court was in session. At opportune times the two judges, who knew nothing of each other’s desires, feasted their eyes on her beauty. One day they found themselves in a situation wherein they were forced to admit their passions to each other. The impropriety of their thoughts resulted in a plot to seduce Susanna quietly.

Susanna, who was used to bathing herself in the garden pool to cool herself off in the heat of the day, came to the pool with her two maids for the purpose of bathing. The three ladies were unaware of the presence of the two judges, who had hidden themselves. When the two maids left to bring Susanna soap and olive oil, the judges took the occasion to present themselves to Susanna. They admitted to her their sexual desire for her and requested her permission to have relations with her. Their legal minds had devised a trap so that, if Susanna were to refuse them, a case would be presented in court according to which they would claim to have witnessed Susanna’s adulterous relation with a young man. Susanna, believing that adultery was a grievous sin against the Lord punishable by death, refused the judges, shouted for help, and hoped to be sustained by the members of her household. During the resulting tumult, the judges falsely accused Susanna to her servants.

The piety of Susanna was tested in a court that favored the case of the judges. Since they were men of social standing in the community and they were united in their witness against Susanna, she had no chance for a fair trial. The court judged her guilty of adultery and condemned her to death. Her execution was delayed by the counsel of a young man named Daniel. He requested that the trial be reopened on the ground that the witnesses had not been cross-examined. In a separate cross-examination, it was discovered that their testimony did not corroborate. The one had seen Susanna with her young man under a clove tree and the other had seen them together under an oak tree. At the contradiction of the testimony, the assembly admitted the false evidence of the judges and the innocence of Susanna. Instead of Susanna, the two judges were put to death on the ground of having given false witness.

The purpose of the story is threefold. It celebrates the piety and virtue of Susanna and the corruption of the judges, who “no longer prayed to God, but let their thoughts stray from him and forgot” the claims of morality. Second, it challenges the traditional legal method by which two witnesses could falsely accuse a man and their testimony was accepted as true. Naboth, Jesus, and others had been accused by false witnesses and found guilty without any cross-examination. Third, the story introduces the reader to Daniel, who is here pictured as a young, wise man whose wisdom challenges that of the elders.

Bel and the Dragon

The book has always been regarded as apocryphal by the Protestant churches but was confirmed as canonical by the Roman Catholic Church at the Council of Trent (1545–63).

The book contains two tales of Daniel, that is, the story of Bel and the story of the Dragon. The setting is in Babylon during the reign of Cyrus. Daniel was highly honored and was living as companion to the king but continued to worship God and to pray. Among the gods worshiped by Cyrus and the Babylonians, one of the greatest was Bel, or Marduk (OT Merodach).

One day the king ordered Daniel to worship Bel because he was a powerful god, a fact supposedly proven by his voracious appetite. The king explained that Bel consumed 12 bushels (432 liters) of flour, 40 sheep, and 50 gallons (189 liters) of wine left for him daily in the temple. To the local people, Bel was obviously a mighty god. Daniel pointed out to the king that an idol made of clay and bronze could not possibly be consuming the food, and Daniel offered to prove it. In anger the king sent for the priests and demanded to know what happened to the food. They assured him that it was indeed eaten by the god.

The next day the food was taken to the temple and placed on the table as usual. Unknown to the priests, Daniel had his servants sprinkle the floor with fine ashes. The temple was then sealed with the signet rings of the king and several of the priests. The next morning the seal was found intact and the group entered the temple. Seeing the table empty, the king rejoiced in the power of Bel. Daniel, however, pointed to many footprints clearly visible in the ashes, revealing to the king the trickery of the priests. They confessed that they had been entering by a secret door and removing the food. Cyrus ordered the 70 priests and their families killed and permitted Daniel to destroy the pagan temple.

The second tale recounts events surrounding the worship of a dragon (possibly a serpent). The Babylonians venerated a dragon that, as the king pointed out to Daniel, was very much alive. Here there was no possibility of trickery, since all had seen the dragon eat and drink. But Daniel again refused the king’s request to worship an idol. Further, Daniel asked permission to kill the dragon without using either sword or staff, a seemingly impossible task. Receiving the king’s permission to try, Daniel made a concoction of pitch, fat, and hair; boiled it together; formed it into cakes; and fed it to the dragon. After eating the cakes, the dragon burst apart and died immediately. At the death of their dragon-god the king had to face the anger of the Babylonians, who were convinced that he had been converted to Judaism. To turn away their wrath, the king reluctantly delivered Daniel to them to be put to death.

Two persons, usually condemned criminals, were thrown into a den of seven lions every day. This time the lions were not fed, but Daniel was thrown in alive. After six days, however, Daniel was still alive, although both he and the lions were extremely hungry. In a section of the text probably added later, the Lord sent an angel to the prophet Habakkuk, ordering him to take to Daniel a meal he had prepared for his reapers. Habakkuk began to make excuses that he had never been to Babylon and didn’t know where the lions’ den was. The angel then took him by the hair and deposited him in the lions’ den, where Habakkuk told Daniel that the Lord had remembered him. After giving Daniel the food, Habakkuk was returned safely to his own home.

The next day the king arrived on the scene to bewail the death of Daniel, only to find to his amazement that his friend was still alive. Daniel was released from the den and his accusers were thrown in and devoured immediately by the ravenous lions.

Bel and the Dragon exists in two principal Greek and two Syriac texts, almost certainly derived from a lost Hebrew original. The author, place, and date of the original are unknown. It is possible that the story of Bel could have been written as early as the fourth century BC, with the dragon story composed later, possibly by a different author. The most satisfactory date, judging by the content and purpose of the work, would be 150– 100 BC, a time of great religious and political difficulty for the Jews.

Bel and the Dragon was written to convey the futility of idol worship and to impress on the Jews the need to continue firm in their faith in times of persecution and hardship. Babylonian gods were ridiculed in both tales. The book may also have been a warning not to trust the friendship of the heathen, who in time of trouble might find it expedient to sacrifice the life of a friend. Despite the fact that Daniel was described as the king’s companion, under pressure the king was prepared to hand Daniel over to a mob.

In the contest with Bel (Marduk), Daniel confronted a god who had been the patron of Babylon since 2275 BC. Frequent references to him were made in cuneiform inscriptions. For example, Nebuchadnezzar II had commanded the temple of Bel to be restored to a position of supremacy as one of the finest and most majestic ziggurats (pyramidal towers). The apocryphal writer would have been aware of the destruction of that famous landmark by the Persian king Xerxes I (ruled 486–464 BC), who carried off the seated golden image from the shrine. The temple was described as being in ruins at the time Alexander the Great entered Babylon in 332 BC. The dragon in the second tale had long been venerated in Near Eastern religion and was well known in legends of ancient Sumeria.