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Bel and the Dragon

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The tale of Bel and the Dragon incorporated as chapter 14 of the extended Book of Daniel was written in Aramaic around the late second century BC and translated into 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 apocryphal by Protestants and typically not found in modern Protestant Bibles, though it was in the original 1611 KJV. It's listed in Article VI of the Thirty-Nine Articles of the Church of England.

Narratives

The chapter is formed of three independent narratives, which place the culture-hero Daniel 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) is a folk tale ridiculing worship of idols. In it, the king asks Daniel, "Do you not think that Bel is a living god? Do you not see how much he eats and drinks every day?" Daniel proves through a ruse that the sacred meal of Bel is actually consumed at night by the 70 priests and their wives and children, who entered through a secret door when the temple's doors were sealed. The priests and their wives and children are killed, 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 the Babylonians revered." In this case the supposed god is no idol. However, Daniel slays the dragon by raking 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 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. "On the seventh day the king came to mourn for Daniel. When he came to the den he looked in, and there sat Daniel! The king shouted with a loud voice, 'You are great, O Lord, the God of Daniel, and there is no other besides you!' Then he pulled Daniel out, and threw into the den those who had attempted his destruction, and they were instantly eaten before his eyes."

Some have suggested that the Daniel in Bel and the Dragon is different from that of Daniel 1-13 .

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.

See also

Notes

External links

References

  • Jewish Encyclopedia, "Bel and the Dragon"
  • in the NAB



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