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ADDITIONS TO DANIEL

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Originally appearing in Volume V07, Page 807 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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ADDITIONS TO See also:

DANIEL .—The " additions to Daniel " are three in number: Susannah and the Elders, See also:Bel and the See also:Dragon, and The See also:Song of the Three See also:Children. Of these the two former have no organic connexion with the See also:text. The See also:case is otherwise with regard to the last. In some respects it See also:helps to fill up a See also:gap in the canonical text between verses 23 and 24 of See also:chapter iii. And yet we find Polychronius, See also:early in the 5th See also:century, stating that this song was not found in the See also:Syriac version. Susannah.—This addition was placed by Theodotion before See also:chap. i., and Bel and the Dragon at its See also:close, whereas by the See also:Septuagint and the See also:Vulgate it was reckoned as chap. xiii. after the twelve canonical chapters, Bel and the Dragon as xiv. Theodotion's version is the source of the See also:Peshitto and the Vulgate, for all three additions, and the Septuagint is the source of the Syro-Hexaplaric which has been published by Ceriani (Mon. Sacr. vii.). The See also:legend recounts how that in the early days of the Captivity Susannah, the beautiful and pious wife of the See also:rich Joakim, was walking in her See also:garden and was there seen by two elders who were also See also:judges. Inflamed with lust, they made infamous proposals to her, and when repulsed they brought against her a false See also:charge of See also:adultery. When brought before the tribunal she was condemned to See also:death and was on the way to See also:execution, when Daniel interposed and, by See also:cross-questioning the accusers apart, convinced the See also:people of the falsity of the charge. The source of the See also:story may, according to See also:Ewald (Gesch 3 iv.

636), have been suggested by the Babylonian legend of the See also:

seduction of two old men by the goddess of love (see also See also:Koran, Sur. ii. 96). Another and much more probable origin of the See also:work is that given by Brull (Das apocr. Susanna-See also:Buch, 1877) and See also:Ball (See also:Speaker's A pocr. ii. 323-331). The first See also:half of the story is based on a tradition—originating possibly in Jer. See also:xxix. 21-32 and found in the See also:Talmud and Midrash—of two elders See also:Ahab and See also:Zedekiah, who in the Captivity led certain See also:women astray under the delusion that they should thereby become the See also:mother of the See also:Messiah. But the most interesting See also:part of the investigation is concerned with the latter half of the story, which deals with the trial. The characteristics of this See also:section point to its See also:composition about 1oo-90 B.C., when See also:Simon See also:ben Shetab was See also:president of the Sanhedrin. Its See also:object was to support the attempts of the See also:Pharisees to bring about a reform in the See also:administration of the See also:law courts. According to Sadducean principles the See also:man who was convicted of falsely accusing another of a See also:capital offence was not put to death unless his victim was already executed. The Pharisees held that the intention of the accusers was See also:equivalent to See also:murder.

Our apocryph upholds the Pharisaic contention. As Simon ben Shetah insisted on a rigorous examination of the witnesses; so does our writer: as he and his party required that the perjurer should suffer the same See also:

penalty he sought to inflict on another, so our writer represents the death penalty as inflicted on the perjured elders. The See also:language was in all See also:probability Semitic-See also:Hebrew or Aramaic. The paronomasiae in the See also:Greek in verses 54-55 (157ro o'Xivov . . . o-xiia) and 58-59 (viro 7rpivov . . . apio'ee) See also:present no cogent difficulty against this view; for they may be accidental and have arisen for the first See also:time in the See also:translation. But as B1-till and Ball have shown (see Speaker's Apocr. ii. 324), the same paronomasiae are possible either in Hebrew or Aramaic. Bel and the Dragon.—We have here two See also:independent narratives, in both of which Daniel appears as the destroyer of heathenism. The latter had a much wider circulation than the former, and is most probably a judaized See also:form of the old Semitic myth of the destruction of the old dragon, which represents primeval See also:chaos (see Ball, Speaker's Apocr. ii. 346-348; Gunkel, Schopfung and Chaos, 320-323). See also:Marduk destroys Tiamat in a similar manner to that in which Daniel destroys the dragon (See also:Delitzsch, Dos babylonische Weltschopfung Epos), by See also:driving a See also:storm-See also:wind into the dragon which rends it asunder.

See also:

Marshall (See also:Hastings' Bib. Dict. i. 267) suggests that the " See also:pitch " of the Greek (Aramaic RD,i) arose from the See also:original See also:term for storm-wind *in).

End of Article: ADDITIONS TO DANIEL

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