The Pulpit Commentary — Daniel — Section 228

'' or over thoy rnimo l\t the bottom of the plied unto_ ,:on. I ma.ke e. deoree, That in ·fon," is l\n intcnaillcn.tion of the narro.Uve. every doIDJ.n1on of my kingdom men tremble In U10 Mn.ssorctic loxt it is "all their bones;" and fear before the God or Daniel; for he i• in tho LXX. it is simply "their bones." the living God, and stedfe.st for ever, and 'fhcodotion and tho Pcsbitte. agree with his kingdom that which shall not be de- tho Me.ssoretic toxt. The alo.ughter of the stroyed, and his dominion shall be even unto wives and children of ofl'cndera, with the the end. He delivereth and rescneth, and guilty persons themselves, was the common he worketh signs and wonders in heaven pre.ctico. Thora o.ro two other accounts of and in earth, who he.th delivered Daniel this event-one preserved in the apocryphal from the power of the lions. This decree story of Del and the Dro.gon, and the other has a resemblanco to the decrees of N ebu- in the po.gee of Josephus. According to the che.dnezzar. ·In the Septuagint thern is story of Bel and the Dragon, the king, who lees magniloquence, though the divergence thus condemns Daniel, is no less e. person is too great to be the result merely of differ- than Cyrus the greo.t conqueror. The reason ence of reading, "Then Darius wrote to of the condemnation is not e. decree for- all nations and tongues and countries bidding all worship, but because Daniel had dwelling in all his land, saying, Let all le.id be.re the deceit of the priests of Bel, men who are in my kingdom stand and n.nd killed the sacred dragon, the people of worship, and serve the God of Daniel, for Babylon were incensed, and threatened he alone e.bideth, and liveth to gen~rations Cyrus that they would burn his house if he of generations for ever. I Darius will did not deliver Daniel into their hands to worship and serve him all my days, for be cast into the lions' den. The seven lions none of the idols that a.re made with hands ,vere starved in order that they might be are able to deliver as the God of Daniel sure to devour Daniel. For six days he did Daniel." It is to be observed that it is was there in the den. In order that Daniel only to the inhabitants of his own land that might not starve, whatever befell the lions, Darius writes, and further, it is "all men He.bacno WI\S brought from Jndaia, carried in his kingdom" he commands, not " every by the hair of his head, to feed the prophet. dominion in his kingdom." There is no 'l'he destruction of Daniel's accusers is stated notice taken of the kingdom of God ; it is in a more compendious fashion. The fact God himself who liveth and e.bideth for that this version is referred to by Irenreus ever. The last verse, again, in the Septua- ('Adv. Hmres.,' iv.), Tertullian ('De Jejnniis,' gint, in which Darius professes his faith in vii.), and Clement of Alex1mdrie. (' Strom.,' i. Jehovah, is evidently spurious. Theodotion p. 329, Morel), shows that early in the and the Peshitte. agree with the Massoretic second century this narrative was incorpo- text. Removing the exaggerations from it, rated with the canonical Daniel. This the decree of Darius does not mean any makes it almost necessarily before Christ more than we found in the decrees of Nebu- in the date of its origin. If so, it is difficult chadnezzar; it is simply e. warning against to imagine the canonical version to be only showing any disrespect to a Deity with such a century and e. half older. Josephus shows formidable powers as Jehovah. It may be no signs that he knew of this apooryphal regarded as connected with the dualistic addition, but adds a feature for himself, view of the universe maintained by Zoro- "The enemies of Daniel, when they saw astrianism, that deliverance from lions is that nothing evil had befallen him, un- spoken of with such awe. The lion was one willing to attribute bis deliverance to Deity of the beasts specially representative of the o.nd his providence, declared that the lions evil principle, as we see in Persepolis. bad been filled with food, and therefore There was thus evidence given that the neither attacked Daniel nor approached God of the Jews was supreme over the him, and maintained this to the king. But powers of evil; therefore, without forbidding ha. hating their me.lice, ordered that much any ~ubject of Babylonia. from worshipping flesh be thrown to the lions, and when they his own ancestral divinity, Darius yet com- had gorged themselves, that the enemies of manded him, in so doing, to watch his Daniel be cast into the den, in order that conduct, so that nothing disrespectful to the he might lea,rn whether the lions would powerful God of the Hebrews should be spare them on account of their being satis- done by him. fied. It was then manifest to Darius, when Ver. 28.-So this Daniel prospered in the the se.tre.ps had been thrown in, that Daniel reign of Darius, and in the reign of Cyrus had been preserved by miracle, for the lions the Persian. The Septuagint follows a. dif- spared none of them, but tore them e.11 to ferent reading, "And King Darius was pieces e.s if they had been fe.mishing." gathered to his generation. And Daniel was Vers. 25-27.-Then King Darius wrote established in the reign of Darim, and unto all people, nations, and languages, Cyrus the Persian inherited the kingdom " that dwell in all the en1·th; Pence be multi- -a readiDg due to the influence of Xeno- DAKrnL. o l!H THE BOOK OF DANIEL. [en. vr. 1-28.