DesU action, Citt of (Isa. xix, 18). See On.
Destruction OF BEL AND THE DRAGON, The History of the, one of the apocr^'phal books of the Old Testament, found only in the Greek. See Apocrypha.
I. Title and PosUhn, — This apocryphal piece, which is called by Theodotion, or in our editions of the Sept., Bi)X cat ApoKioVf Bel cmd the Dragon^ and in the Yulg. The History of Bel and the Great Serpent^ has in the Sept. the inscription lie Trpo^reiag 'AfifioKoi^u. vtov 'liyo-ov ix riiQ i^vXrjg A«vt, A Part of the Prophe4y of Habakkuk, the Son ofJewe, of the Tribe of Levi, and is placed at the end of Daniel as a supplemental diapter, forming in the Yulg. the 14th chapter of that prophet. In the English Authorized Version it is entitled in fhll as above, where it is placed between the History of Susanna and the Prayer of Manasses. See Bel and THE Dragon.
II. CotUenie.^The plan of the writer is both inge- nious and attractive. Cyrus, who was a devout wor- shipper of Bel, urged Daniel to serve his idol, and re- ferred to the marvellous &ct that it devoured daily the enormous sacrifice of twelve great measures of fine flour, forty sheep, and six vessels of wine (ver. 1-6) ; but Daniel, knowing the deception connected there- with, smiled at it (ver. 7) ; thereupon the king sum- moned the priests of Bel, and demanded an explana- tion firom them (ver. 8-10) ; they, to satisfy him that the idol does consume the sacrifice, told the monarch that he should place it before Bel himself (ver. 11-18). Daniel, however, had ashes strewed on the pavement of the temple, and convinced CyruB, by the impress of the footsteps upon the ashes, that the sumptuous feast prepared for Bel was consumed in the night by the priests, their wives, and their children, who came into the temple through secret doors, and the king slew the crafty priests (ver, 11-22). As for the Dragon, who, unlike the dumb Bel, was, as Cyrus urged, a living being (ver. 28, 24), Daniel poisoned it, and then ex- claimed, " These ore the gods you worship 1" (ver. 26- 27). The Babylonians, however, greatly enraged at the destroyer of theur god, demanded of Cyrus to sur- render Daniel, whom they cast into a den wherein were seven lions (ver. 28-82). But the angel of the Lord commanded the prophet Habakkuk, in Judssa, to go to Babylon to furnish Daniel with food, and when he pleaded ignorance of the locality, the angel carried ^-^Tu by the hair of his head through the air to the
* den, where he fed and comforted Daniel (ver.
86-89). After seven days Cyras wottifte^ bewail Daniel, *'and, behold, Danid vm The king then commanded that he ikaldki out, and all his persecutors be thrown in tek ly devoured, and the great Cyras opodj ada edged the greatness of the God of Israel (to. This story is read in the Ronuui Church cnAsh.! 4 day, and in the Anglican Church on the 2Sdflf ki her. See Danibu, Apocbyphai« ADwrumik
III. Character of the Booic—The objadcf Aik ish author of the history of the destrvdaaa sfiii the Dragon was, according to Jahn, "to van the sin of idola!try some of his brethroi vhiUi braced Egyptian snperstitiona. The book Tvaa| fore well adapted to the time, and shovstbirUw phy was not sufficient to keep men from a| into the most absurd and degrading h^ The time of the writing Jahn ascribes to tk^i the Ptolemiee, when serpents were still ^ntAaffii Thebes.
Among the difficulties attaidlng thii ai a of the book of Daniel, Jahn ennmentei tiie i nating Daniel a priest (xiv, 1), which he eocmhai be a confounding of Daniel the jjropbetvitkM the priest (Eara viii, 2; Neh. x, 7); the eritf^a king to destroy the idol of Bel, and the asK serpents were worshipped at B^ylon ; but Ik all these difficulties to be removed bv repiiic^ whole as a parable, pointing out the vanity rfi* and the impostures of the priests. We mahm by Herodotus that the temple of Bel was dtftn^it Xerxes. By Protestants, of coune, these ^^ for the canonicity of this and the other apeoT?^^ ditions to Daniel are regarded as wboUj iasfflar See Dectero-Canonical.
IV. Source and original Languagc^T^ tea this story is evidently derived from Dan-Tiaadli viii, 8,lngeniously elaborated and cmbeffiskedte* the desired end. It is not in the natuxe of sai »« legends to submit to the trammels of &ct, « fe* deavor to avoid anachronisms. That DaakI, vi* « of the tribe of Judah, should here be repiwetfri* priest of the tribe of Levi ; th*t he ahoold heBbe* to have destroyed the temple of Belns whicfc«p» down by Xerxes, and that the Babytoiiaai lim* described as wordiippers of living animali, *^°J never were, are therefore quite in hanaooy w » character of these legends. Their object is eftct • not fact. The Greek ofour editions of the SiiM* language in which this national story baa beea »os out by the Alexandrine embellisher to exak tte |^ of Abraham before Ae idolatrous Gie^ y** ftagments of it in Aramaean and Hebrew an p^ the Midrash (BereMh Raiba, c 68), J«»*7 Gorion (p. 84-87, ed. Breithaupt), sad io D**** work, De Habacud vUd et aiate, whidi ^^^ * Babylonian and Palestinian shape oftlM8ei*F"* dition8.~Kitto, s. ▼. See Bel.