Author: Daniel
The section concerning Bel and the Dragon, like Susanna, is not found in any existing Hebrew or Aramaic originals, but do exist in some Greek texts that are translations from a Hebrew or Aramaic version. Most of the footnotes for this section comes from the Glossa Ordinaria.
Daniel refuses to worship the god Bel 1 And Daniel was the king's guest, and was honoured above all his friends. 2 Now the Babylonians had an idol called Bel: and there was spent upon him every day twelve great measures of fine flour, and forty sheep, and sixty vessels of wine. 3 The king also worshipped him, and went every day to adore him: but Daniel adored his God. And the king said to him: Why do you not adore Bel? 4 And he answered, and said to him: Because I do not worship idols made with hands, but the living God, that created heaven and earth, and has power over all flesh.
He denies that Bel consumes food 5 And the king said to him: Does not Bel seem to you to be a living god? Do you not see how much he eats and drinks every day? 6 Then Daniel smiled, and said: O king, be not deceived: for this is but clay within, and brass without, neither has he eaten at any time. 7 And the king being angry, called for his priests, and said to them: If you tell me not who it is that eats up these expenses, you shall die. 8 But if you can show that Bel eats these things, Daniel shall die, because he has blasphemed against Bel. And Daniel said to the king: Be it done according to your word.
The priests' conspiracy against the king 9 Now the priests of Bel were seventy, besides their wives, and little ones, and children. And the king went with Daniel into the temple of Bel. 10 And the priests of Bel said: Behold, we go out: and set on the meats, O king, and make ready the wine, and shut the door fast, and seal it with your own ring: 11 And when you come in the morning, if you find not that Bel has eaten up all, we will suffer death, or else Daniel, that has lied against us. 12 And they little regarded it, because they had made under the table a secret entrance, and they always came in by it, and consumed those things.
The food is consumed by the priests 13 So it came to pass after they had gone out, the king set the meats before Bel: and Daniel commanded his servants, and they brought ashes, and he sifted them all over the temple before the king: and going forth, they shut the door, and having sealed it with the king's ring, they departed. 14 But the priests went in by night, according to their custom, with their wives, and their children: and they ate and drank up all.
The plot is exposed and Bel is destroyed 15 And the king arose early in the morning, and Daniel with him. 16 And the king said: Are the seals whole, Daniel? And he answered: They are whole, O king. 17 And as soon as he had opened the door, the king looked upon the table, and cried out with a loud voice: Great are you, O Bel, and there is not any deceit with you. 18 And Daniel laughed: and he held the king, that he should not go in: and he said: Behold the pavement, mark whose footsteps these are. 19 And the king said: I see the footsteps of men, and women, and children. And the king was angry. 20 Then he took the priests, and their wives, and their children: and they showed him the private doors by which they came in, and consumed the things that were on the table. 21 The king, therefore, put them to death, and delivered Bel into the power of Daniel: who destroyed him and his temple.
Daniel refuses to worship a dragon 22 And there was a great dragon in that place, and the Babylonians worshipped him. 23 And the king said to Daniel: Behold, you can not say now, that this is not a living god: adore him, therefore. 24 And Daniel said: I adore the Lord, my God: for he is the living God: but that is no living god.
Daniel slays the dragon 25 But give me leave, O king, and I will kill this dragon without sword or club. And the king said, I give you leave. 26 Then Daniel took pitch, and fat, and hair, and boiled them together: and he made lumps, and put them into the dragon's mouth, and the dragon burst asunder. And he said: Behold him whom you worship.
Daniel is cast into a den of lions 27 And when the Babylonians had heard this, they took great indignation: and being gathered together against the king, they said: The king has become a Jew. He has destroyed Bel, he has killed the dragon, and he has put the priests to death. 28 And they came to the king, and said: Deliver us Daniel, or else we will destroy you and your house. 29 And the king saw that they pressed upon him violently: and being constrained by necessity: he delivered Daniel to them. 30 And they cast him into the den of lions, and he was there six days. 31 And in the den there were seven lions, and they had given to them two carcasses every day, and two sheep: but then they were not given unto them, that they might devour Daniel.
An angel takes Habacuc to Daniel with food 32 Now there was in Judea a prophet called Habacuc, and he had boiled pottage, and had broken bread in a bowl: and was going into the field, to carry it to the reapers. 33 And the angel of the Lord said to Habacuc: Carry the dinner which you have into Babylon, to Daniel, who is in the lions' den. 34 And Habacuc said: Lord, I never saw Babylon, nor do I know the den. 35 And the angel of the Lord took him by the top of his head, and carried him by the hair of his head, and set him in Babylon, over the den, in the force of his spirit. 36 And Habacuc cried, saying: O Daniel, you servant of God, take the dinner that God has sent you. 37 And Daniel said, You have remembered me, O God, and you have not forsaken them that love you. 38 And Daniel arose, and ate. And the angel of the Lord presently set Habacuc again in his own place.
Daniel is saved and his accusers executed 39 And upon the seventh day the king came to bewail Daniel: and he came to the den, and looked in, and behold Daniel was sitting in the midst of the lions. 40 And the king cried out with a loud voice, saying: Great are you, O Lord, the God of Daniel. And he drew him out of the lions' den. 41 But those that had been the cause of his destruction, he cast into the den, and they were devoured in a moment before him. 42 Then the king said: Let all the inhabitants of the whole earth fear the God of Daniel: for he is the Saviour, working signs, and wonders in the earth: who has delivered Daniel out of the lions' den.
Commentary on Bel and the Dragon
1 Theodotian's version begins with "And King Astyages was added to his fathers, and Cyrus of Persia received his kingdom." Astyages was the material grandfather of Cyrus; on his death, with his son Cyanxares incapable of managing the empire, Cyrus destroyed the empire of the Assyrians and Chaldeans, and transferred the power of the Medes to the Persians. And Daniel was the king's guest: Now, he was the king’s table companion and familiar, the text says, and was ranked above all his acquaintances; enjoying this favor, he gave a glimpse of what had been prophesied of him by God through the prophet Isaiah and was responsible for the people’s release being effected. (Theodoret of Cyrus) The Old Greek Septuagint versions begins the book with "From the prophecy of Habakkuk, the son of Jesus of the tribe of Levi." (St. Jerome)
2 The Babylonians were the first to deify a notion of Bel, who was portrayed as a dead man and had supposedly once been one of their kings. (Ambroisaster) And Daniel was full of zeal and he smashed the idol of Bel, the god of the Babylonians, who was the first king of the Chaldeans, the father of Ninos, who built Nineveh. (Gregory Bar-Hebraeus) The Old Greek Septuagint version reads, "There was a man, a priest, whose name was Daniel son of Habal, a companion of the king of Babylon." forty sheep, and sixty vessels of wine: The Old Greek Septuagint Version reads, "four sheep and six vessels of oil." |
4 The Spirit of God our Father, who as He does not depart nor is separated from those who confess Him, Himself both speaks and is crowned in us. So Daniel, too, when he was required to worship the idol Bel, which the people and the king then worshipped, in asserting the honor of his God, broke forth with full faith and freedom, saying, "I do not worship idols made with hands...." And devoted to God, and filled with the Holy Spirit, he exclaims and says: I worship nothing but the Lord my God, who founded the heaven and the earth. Dan. 3:16-18 (St. Cyprian) Daniel was given over to the lion’s den a second time under kingdom of Cyrus for destroying Bel and killing the dragon, and he was hated. (St. Athanasius) the living God: For who is the God of the living unless He who is God, and above whom there is no other God? Whom also Daniel the prophet, when Cyrus king of the Persians said to him, “Why dost thou not worship Bel?” (St. Irenaeus)
21 We ourselves are also called to destroy many idols, not by doing anything spectacular but by living with the naturalness of an ordinary Christian, sowing peace and joy around us. In this way we will topple the idols of misunderstanding, of injustice, of ignorance, and of those who claim to be self-sufficient and arrogantly turn their backs on God. (St. Josemaria Escriva) |
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30 Encircled by the lions as though by sheep, he passed his time that way without fear, the good man’s trust restraining the wild beasts’ nature and not allowing them to demonstrate the characteristics of wild animals. (St. John Chrysostom)
31-32 The Old Greek Septuagint versions reads, "There was a den in which seven lions would be fed, to which the conspirators of the king would be delivered. And every day two bodies condemned to death would be provided for them. And the crowd threw Daniel into that pit so that he might be devoured and not even have the good fortune of a burial. And Daniel was in the pit six days."
32-38 I realise that it would have been easier for God to allay the prophet's hunger, or to place food in front of him. Yet God did not do it that way. Rather he arranged for another prophet, Habacuc, to be transported miraculously from Judea to bring him food. God did not mind working a great miracle here, because Daniel was in the lions' den not through any fault of his own, but on account of the injustice of the devil's hirelings, because he was a servant of God and a destroyer of idols. (St. Josemaria Escriva) Now of the angels each is believed to be in a circumscribed place. The angel who stood by Cornelius Acts 10:3 was not at one and the same moment with Philip; Acts 8:26 nor yet did the angel who spoke with Zacharias from the altar at the same time occupy his own post in heaven. But the Holy Spirit is believed to have been operating at the same time in Habakkuk and in Daniel at Babylon, and to have been at the prison with Jeremiah, and with Ezekiel at the Chebar. Ezekiel 1:1 For the Spirit of the Lord fills the world, Wisdom 1:7 and whither shall I go from your spirit? Or whither shall I flee from your presence? And, in the words of the Prophet, For I am with you, says the Lord...and my spirit remains among you. Haggai 2:4-5 (St. Basil)
32-33 To those who seek God's kingdom and righteousness, He promises that all things shall be added. For since all things are God's, nothing will be wanting to him who possesses God, if God Himself be not wanting to him. Thus a meal was divinely provided for Daniel: when he was shut up by the king's command in the den of lions, and in the midst of wild beasts who were hungry, and yet spared him, the man of God was fed. Thus Elijah in his flight was nourished both by ravens ministering to him in his solitude, and by birds bringing him food in his persecution. (St. Cyprian) Just as the breakfast of the reapers was carried into the den of lions and presented to |
Daniel in his hunger, it behooved that an example should be set, teaching us that, at a time of pressure and persecution and whatsoever difficulty, we must live on eating dry food. (Tertullian)
33 The Old Greek Septuagint version says that this happened on the sixth day that Daniel was in the lions den.
35 If Habakkuk, who was an ordinary man, was not seen by anyone when he was carried by the hair of his head by an angel from Judah to Babylon, how much more credible it is that Christ was not seen when he was willingly led up by the Devil. (Opus Imperfectum concerning Mt 4:5) God willed that Paul go to Rome, and could have placed him there like he did with Habakkuk from Judea to Babylon. But God chose other miraculous signs for Paul by saving his life multiple times to perserve him for a trip to Rome. (St. Ammonius)
38 He was in the den for God’s sake, and yet he counted himself unworthy of His remembrance, and of being heard. Yet we though daring to commit innumerable pollutions, and being of all men most polluted, if we be not heard at our first prayer, draw back. Truly, great is the distance between them and us, as great as between heaven and earth, or if there be any greater. After so many achievements, after the miracle which had been wrought in the den, do you account yourself so humble? Yea, he says; for what things soever we have done, “we are unprofitable servants.” ( Luke xvii. 10.) Thus by anticipation did he fulfill the evangelical precept, and accounted himself nothing. For “God hath remembered me,” he said. His prayer again, of how great lowliness of mind it is full. And again the three children said thus, “We have sinned, we have committed iniquity.” ( Song of the Three Children, ver. 6.) And everywhere they show their humility. And yet Daniel had occasions innumerable for being puffed up; but he knew that these also came to him on account of his not being puffed up, and he did not destroy his treasure. (St. John Chrysostom)
39 There is, then, a blessedness even in pains and griefs. All which virtue with its sweetness checks and restrains, abounding as it does in natural resources for either soothing conscience or increasing grace. Daniel, who was so wise that, when in the midst of the lions enraged with hunger, he was by no means overcome with terror at the fierceness of the beasts. So free from fear was he, that he could eat, and was not afraid he might by his example excite the animals to feed on him. (St. Ambrose) |
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