Bel and the Dragon
Encyclopedia
The narrative of Bel and the Dragon incorporated as chapter 14 of the extended Book of Daniel
exists only in Greek in the Septuagint. This chapter, along with chapter 13, is referred to as deuterocanonical
, in that it is not universally accepted among Christians as belonging to the canonical works accepted as the Bible
. The text is viewed as apocrypha
l by Protestants and typically not found in modern Protestant Bibles, though it was in the original 1611 edition of the King James Version. It is listed in Article VI of the Thirty-Nine Articles
of the Church of England
.
at the court of Cyrus, king of the Persians: "When King Astyages
was laid to rest with his ancestors, Cyrus the Persian succeeded to his kingdom." There Daniel "was a companion of the king, and was the most honored of all his Friends" (14:1).
The narrative of Bel (14:1-22) ridicules the worship of idols. In it, the king asks Daniel, "Thinkest thou not that Bel is a liuing god? seest thou not how much he eateth and drinketh euery day?" to which Daniel answers that the idol is made of clay
covered bronze
and thus, cannot eat or drink. Enraged, the king then demands that the seventy priests of Bel show him who consumes the offerings made to the idol. The priests then challenge the king to set the offerings as usual (which were "twelve great measures of fine flour, and forty sheep, and six vessels of wine") and then seal the entrance to the temple with his ring: if Bel does not consume the offerings, the priests are to be sentenced to death; otherwise, Daniel is to be killed.
Daniel then proves through a ruse (by scattering ashes over the floor of the temple in the presence of the king after the priests have left) that the sacred meal of Bel is actually consumed at night by the priests and their wives and children, who entered through a secret door
when the temple's doors were sealed.
The next morning, Daniel calls attention to the footprints on the temple's floor; the priests of Bel were then arrested and, confessing their deed, showed the secret passage that they used to sneak inside the temple. They, their wives and children are then put to death, and Daniel is permitted to destroy the idol of Bel and the temple. This version has been cited as an ancestor of the "locked room mystery
".
In the brief but autonomous companion narrative of the dragon
(14:23-30), "there was a great Dragon, which they of Babylon worshiped." In this case the supposed god is no idol. However, Daniel slays the dragon by baking pitch, fat, and hair (trichas) to make cakes (mazas, barley-cakes, but translated "lumps") that cause the dragon to burst open upon consumption. In other variants, other ingredients serve the purpose: in a form known to the Midrash
, straw was fed in which nails were hidden, or skins of camels were filled with hot coals, or in the Alexander cycle of Romances
it was Alexander the Great who overcame the dragon by feeding it poison and tar.
The parallel with the contest between Marduk
and Tiamat
, in which winds (sâru) controlled by Marduk burst Tiamat open, has been noted by many informed readers; barley-cake has been substituted for "wind"
As a result, the Babylonians are indignant. "The king has become a Jew; he has destroyed Bel, and killed the dragon, and slaughtered the priests," they say, and demand that Daniel be handed over to them.
The third narrative (14:31-42), Daniel in the Lions' Den, is apparently Daniel's first or second trip. It has been made into a consequence of the preceding episode, but the Septuagint precedes it with the notice, "From the prophecy of Habakkuk
, son of Jesus, of the tribe of Levi." Daniel remains unharmed in the den with seven lions, fed by the miraculous transportation of the prophet Habakkuk. "Upon the seuenth day the king went to bewaile Daniel: and when he came to the den, he looked in, and behold, Daniel was sitting. Then cried the king with a loud voyce, saying, Great art thou, O Lord God of Daniel, and there is none other besides thee. And he drew him out: and cast those that were the cause of his destruction into the den: and they were deuoured in a moment before his face."
The Greek text of "Bel and the Dragon" exists in two versions. One, represented in a minority of manuscripts, sometimes called the "Old Greek" version, seems to represent the Septuagint translation, evidently so unsatisfactory that the early Church opted to substitute Theodotion
's version in its place, in the official copies of the LXX that have survived.
Additions to Daniel
The Additions to Daniel comprise three chapters not found in the Hebrew/Aramaic text of Daniel. The text of these chapters is found in the Greek Septuagint and in the earlier Old Greek translation. They are accepted as canonical and translated as such in Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox and...
exists only in Greek in the Septuagint. This chapter, along with chapter 13, is referred to as deuterocanonical
Deuterocanonical books
Deuterocanonical books is a term used since the sixteenth century in the Catholic Church and Eastern Christianity to describe certain books and passages of the Christian Old Testament that are not part of the Hebrew Bible. The term is used in contrast to the protocanonical books, which are...
, in that it is not universally accepted among Christians as belonging to the canonical works accepted as the Bible
Bible
The Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...
. The text is viewed as apocrypha
Apocrypha
The term apocrypha is used with various meanings, including "hidden", "esoteric", "spurious", "of questionable authenticity", ancient Chinese "revealed texts and objects" and "Christian texts that are not canonical"....
l by Protestants and typically not found in modern Protestant Bibles, though it was in the original 1611 edition of the King James Version. It is listed in Article VI of the Thirty-Nine Articles
Thirty-Nine Articles
The Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion are the historically defining statements of doctrines of the Anglican church with respect to the controversies of the English Reformation. First established in 1563, the articles served to define the doctrine of the nascent Church of England as it related to...
of the Church of England
Church of England
The Church of England is the officially established Christian church in England and the Mother Church of the worldwide Anglican Communion. The church considers itself within the tradition of Western Christianity and dates its formal establishment principally to the mission to England by St...
.
Narratives
The chapter is formed of three independent narratives, which place DanielDaniel
Daniel is the protagonist in the Book of Daniel of the Hebrew Bible. In the narrative, when Daniel was a young man, he was taken into Babylonian captivity where he was educated in Chaldean thought. However, he never converted to Neo-Babylonian ways...
at the court of Cyrus, king of the Persians: "When King Astyages
Astyages
Astyages Astyages Astyages (spelled by Herodotus as Ἀστυάγης - Astyages; by Ctesias as Astyigas; by Diodorus as Aspadas; Akkadian: Ištumegu, was the last king of the Median Empire, r...
was laid to rest with his ancestors, Cyrus the Persian succeeded to his kingdom." There Daniel "was a companion of the king, and was the most honored of all his Friends" (14:1).
The narrative of Bel (14:1-22) ridicules the worship of idols. In it, the king asks Daniel, "Thinkest thou not that Bel is a liuing god? seest thou not how much he eateth and drinketh euery day?" to which Daniel answers that the idol is made of clay
Clay
Clay is a general term including many combinations of one or more clay minerals with traces of metal oxides and organic matter. Geologic clay deposits are mostly composed of phyllosilicate minerals containing variable amounts of water trapped in the mineral structure.- Formation :Clay minerals...
covered bronze
Bronze
Bronze is a metal alloy consisting primarily of copper, usually with tin as the main additive. It is hard and brittle, and it was particularly significant in antiquity, so much so that the Bronze Age was named after the metal...
and thus, cannot eat or drink. Enraged, the king then demands that the seventy priests of Bel show him who consumes the offerings made to the idol. The priests then challenge the king to set the offerings as usual (which were "twelve great measures of fine flour, and forty sheep, and six vessels of wine") and then seal the entrance to the temple with his ring: if Bel does not consume the offerings, the priests are to be sentenced to death; otherwise, Daniel is to be killed.
Daniel then proves through a ruse (by scattering ashes over the floor of the temple in the presence of the king after the priests have left) that the sacred meal of Bel is actually consumed at night by the priests and their wives and children, who entered through a secret door
Secret passage
Secret passages, also commonly referred to as hidden passages or secret tunnels, are hidden routes used for stealthy travel. Such passageways are sometimes inside buildings leading to secret rooms. Others allow occupants to enter or exit buildings without being seen...
when the temple's doors were sealed.
The next morning, Daniel calls attention to the footprints on the temple's floor; the priests of Bel were then arrested and, confessing their deed, showed the secret passage that they used to sneak inside the temple. They, their wives and children are then put to death, and Daniel is permitted to destroy the idol of Bel and the temple. This version has been cited as an ancestor of the "locked room mystery
Locked room mystery
The locked room mystery is a sub-genre of detective fiction in which a crime—almost always murder—is committed under apparently impossible circumstances. The crime in question typically involves a crime scene that no intruder could have entered or left, e.g., a locked room...
".
In the brief but autonomous companion narrative of the dragon
Dragon
A dragon is a legendary creature, typically with serpentine or reptilian traits, that feature in the myths of many cultures. There are two distinct cultural traditions of dragons: the European dragon, derived from European folk traditions and ultimately related to Greek and Middle Eastern...
(14:23-30), "there was a great Dragon, which they of Babylon worshiped." In this case the supposed god is no idol. However, Daniel slays the dragon by baking pitch, fat, and hair (trichas) to make cakes (mazas, barley-cakes, but translated "lumps") that cause the dragon to burst open upon consumption. In other variants, other ingredients serve the purpose: in a form known to the Midrash
Midrash
The Hebrew term Midrash is a homiletic method of biblical exegesis. The term also refers to the whole compilation of homiletic teachings on the Bible....
, straw was fed in which nails were hidden, or skins of camels were filled with hot coals, or in the Alexander cycle of Romances
Romance (genre)
As a literary genre of high culture, romance or chivalric romance is a style of heroic prose and verse narrative that was popular in the aristocratic circles of High Medieval and Early Modern Europe. They were fantastic stories about marvel-filled adventures, often of a knight errant portrayed as...
it was Alexander the Great who overcame the dragon by feeding it poison and tar.
The parallel with the contest between Marduk
Marduk
Marduk was the Babylonian name of a late-generation god from ancient Mesopotamia and patron deity of the city of Babylon, who, when Babylon became the political center of the Euphrates valley in the time of Hammurabi , started to...
and Tiamat
Tiamat
In Babylonian mythology, Tiamat is a chaos monster, a primordial goddess of the ocean, mating with Abzû to produce younger gods. It is suggested that there are two parts to the Tiamat mythos, the first in which Tiamat is 'creatrix', through a "Sacred marriage" between salt and fresh water,...
, in which winds (sâru) controlled by Marduk burst Tiamat open, has been noted by many informed readers; barley-cake has been substituted for "wind"
As a result, the Babylonians are indignant. "The king has become a Jew; he has destroyed Bel, and killed the dragon, and slaughtered the priests," they say, and demand that Daniel be handed over to them.
The third narrative (14:31-42), Daniel in the Lions' Den, is apparently Daniel's first or second trip. It has been made into a consequence of the preceding episode, but the Septuagint precedes it with the notice, "From the prophecy of Habakkuk
Habakkuk
Habakkuk , also spelled Habacuc, was a prophet in the Hebrew Bible. The etymology of the name of Habakkuk is not clear. The name is possibly related to the Akkadian khabbaququ, the name of a fragrant plant, or the Hebrew root חבק, meaning "embrace"...
, son of Jesus, of the tribe of Levi." Daniel remains unharmed in the den with seven lions, fed by the miraculous transportation of the prophet Habakkuk. "Upon the seuenth day the king went to bewaile Daniel: and when he came to the den, he looked in, and behold, Daniel was sitting. Then cried the king with a loud voyce, saying, Great art thou, O Lord God of Daniel, and there is none other besides thee. And he drew him out: and cast those that were the cause of his destruction into the den: and they were deuoured in a moment before his face."
The Greek text of "Bel and the Dragon" exists in two versions. One, represented in a minority of manuscripts, sometimes called the "Old Greek" version, seems to represent the Septuagint translation, evidently so unsatisfactory that the early Church opted to substitute Theodotion
Theodotion
Theodotion was a Hellenistic Jewish scholar,, perhaps working in Ephesus who in ca. AD 150 translated the Hebrew Bible into Greek. Whether he was revising the Septuagint, or was working from Hebrew manuscripts that represented a parallel tradition that has not survived, is debated...
's version in its place, in the official copies of the LXX that have survived.