Part 4 (1/2)

RELIGIOUS AND SOCIAL STATE.

RELIGIOUS.

So far as the Jewish actors in the scene are concerned, they exhibit a true religious spirit from the O.T. standpoint, with an unshakeable firmness of conviction that Jehovah alone should be wors.h.i.+pped.

The episode shews (in common with the canonical part) that the Captivity had already produced a stubborn opposition to idolatrous temptations among the Jews. The tendency to follow after other G.o.ds, and to depart from Jehovah in this way, had been outrooted from the habits of these exiles; and their example now would be for all time an incentive to others to resist, at any cost, the pressing inducements to become idolaters.

It is difficult to find anything really inconsistent with the religious position, so far as we know it, of Israel in Babylon. Bissell, however, writes strongly to the contrary, in company as he avers, with almost all non-Romish scholars. This opinion is based on little more than the supposed inappropriateness of the Prayer and Song to the occasion, and on the discrepancy of v. 15 (38) with the circ.u.mstances of the time, and with other parts of the composition (p. 445 and on v. 15). This ”discrepancy” is dealt with under 'Chronology.' Bissell also quotes with approval the exaggerated comparison of Eichhorn, who deems the three ”like dervishes gifted in penitential exclamations, which they interrupt by abuse of Nebuchadnezzar.” A consistent religious ground is maintained throughout by the three; there is for them no ”doing at Rome as Rome does” in vital matters of religion. And their condition is evidently compa.s.sionated by G.o.d, their faithfulness approved, amid the persecutions of a foreign land.

Considerable talent and art in devotional composition are manifested in confession, pet.i.tion, and praise--talent and art of which the Christian Church has widely availed herself from a very early period. The tone of Azarias' prayer is not discordant with Daniel's description of his own prayer in ix. 20, nor with the prayer itself immediately preceding that verse, either in sentiment or phraseology. They may well have come from the same editor, whether the prime author of the whole book or not.

Verse 16 (39) apparently contains phrases culled from Pss. x.x.xiv. 18, li. 17. M. Parker on Deut. xxviii. 56 (_Bibliotheca Biblica_, Oxf. 1735) thinks that the declaration of the three in v. 9 (32) corresponds with Deut. xxviii. 49, 50, being in fact a public acknowledgment that national impiety had brought upon them the distress in which they were at present involved. If so, it shews knowledge of the law on their part.

But the connection is one solely of idea, and not of phraseology. There is a strong connection in phraseology, however, between v. 27 and Deut.

x.x.xii. 4 in LXX. In any case the religious tone of the whole production is not inconsistent with what we might have expected.

SOCIAL.

The nature of this piece does not afford much scope for the display of the social condition of Babylon and its inhabitants. It is to be expected therefore that it will shew us far less of these matters than either Susanna or Bel and the Dragon. But so far as it gives any indications, it is in accord with the canonical Daniel, and with what we know from other sources of the customs of the country. Evidently Israel was in a state of subjection to the Babylonian king, who ordered idolatry to be practised by captives and natives alike. It is shewn by v. 9 (32) _sqq._ that the former smarted under his tyranny, and appealed to G.o.d for redress, like their forefathers in Egyptian bondage.

The punishment of burning, on which the whole story turns, is quite Babylonian. Jer. xxix. 22 is another instance, so that there is no lack of _vraisemblance_ in its introduction here. (_See_ Hastings' _D.B._ art. _Crimes and Punishments_, I. 523, for other instances). It has been thought (Smith's _D.B._ ed. 2 art. _Furnace_, I. 1092b) that this furnace in Daniel is alluded to by our Lord in St. Matt. xiii. 42, 50; but how opposite on this occasion are the consequences of being cast into it! Here prayer and praise from the righteous, there weeping and gnas.h.i.+ng from the wicked. The allusion must be considered a very doubtful one.

The subservience of the king's servants[24] in performing their cruel work, and the absence of a protesting voice or of a helping hand from any quarter, is very characteristic of the results of Eastern despotism.

All, except the three martyrs, were afraid of Nebuchadnezzar, whose murderous rage under contradiction is of a piece in both the Chaldee and the Greek portions of the chapter. No one else on this occasion dared to disobey his decree, and there is no sign of anyone venturing so much as to intercede for the Jewish victims.

In such small glimpses as are given, in this extension of chap. iii., of the social state of Babylonia there is nothing clearly indicating that the interpolation (if such it be) is of an unhistoric or untrustworthy character, nothing wholly irreconcilable with the rest of the book.

Indeed the author (W.T. Bullock) of the note on Daniel iii. 23 in the S.P.C.K. _Commentary_ goes so far as to write of ”that n.o.ble canticle _Benedicite_,” as an ”historical doc.u.ment.” This expression may require qualification, but it is not beyond the bounds of possible fact.

THEOLOGY.

The theology appears to be of a perfectly orthodox character, quite what might have been expected from the three children; nor is it inconsistent with that contained in the rest of the book of Daniel. The exile had not now contaminated the Jewish religion, but had rather purged it of its corruptions, and eradicated in particular the fatal tendency to ”serve other G.o.ds.” Such sins are thoroughly confessed by Azarias in a style not without resemblance to Daniel's confession. (_Cf._ v. 6 (29) with ix. 5 in both versions; also Esther xiv. 6, 7.)

The G.o.d of their fathers is He alone to whom prayers and praises are to be addressed. He is regarded as the Lord of all creation, both as a whole and in its specific parts. He is looked up to to make good the old promises (13), being full of mercy (19), as well as of power and glory (20, 22, 68). He is a king (33), just (4), and gracious (67), with an ear open to the addresses of his people. The righteousness of even His heavy judgements is acknowledged in the prayer; and the hymn throughout shews that the grat.i.tude of man is plainly deemed acceptable to Him.

As to the question of praise being called for from inanimate things or irrational beings, we must remember that though unfitted, so far as we understand them, for conscious praise, their creation, maintenance, and usefulness give evidence of G.o.d's greatness and goodness. As Cornelius a Lapide notes on v. 35 (57) ”Inanimes creaturae benedic.u.n.t Deum creatorem suum, non ore sed opere, ait S. Hieronymus,” giving, however, no reference to the pa.s.sage in Jerome. Ps. civ. 4 and Heb. i. 7 afford some helpful clues to the operations of Nature in this connection. Man is treated by our author as the interpreter of Nature, with a right, as made in the image of G.o.d, to call upon it to glorify its Maker. He offers vocal praise on its hehalf as well as on his own; though things without life praise G.o.d silently, by fulfilling the parts for which He made them. A somewhat similar idea of the elevating influence exerted by natural beings may be discerned in the second of the _New sayings of Jesus_ as restored by Messrs. Grenfell and Hunt (Lond. 1904, p. 15). And Addison fitly writes (_Spect._ No. 393), ”The cheerfulness of heart which springs up in us from the survey of Nature's works, is an admirable preparation for grat.i.tude ”(_cf._ 'Early Christian Literature and Art,' _s.v._ 'Hippolytus').

Azarias desires that the rescue of the party may redound to the knowledge among all men of the sole deity of Jehovah (22)--a pet.i.tion for the conversion of the Gentiles. The phrase in the last verse of the Song, ?e?? t?? ?e??, might be taken as an admission of the existence of other G.o.ds over whom Jehovah was supreme. But clearly this is not so intended, as may be proved from the use of the phrase in Deut. x. 17, Pss. xlix. I (LXX), cx.x.xvi. 2. Yet it is not unlikely that Nebuchadnezzar used the phrase in this acceptation in ii. 47. The other occasion, however, on which it is used in Daniel (xi. 36), allows it to be taken only in an orthodox sense; nor is any other likely in the mouth of Azarias, who resisted to the utmost the command to sin by idolatry.

It is observable that Azarias omits the clause ”in thy seed shall all nations of the earth be blessed” (Gen. xxii. 18, xxvi. 4) from his quotation of the patriarchal promise. This might arise from dislike to the nations, who had conquered Israel; but on the other hand, the gist of it is contained in his concluding pet.i.tion in v. 22.

The objection that Ananias, Azarias, and Misael are invoked as saints (which probably caused the omission in 1789 of v. 66 (88) from the American P.B.) is sufficiently answered by pointing out that the Song is praise, not prayer; and that these three do not stand on a different footing in this respect from the other objects apostrophized. Moreover, a highly poetical composition of this kind is not to be too literally interpreted. As Liddon remarks in his _Elements of Religion_ (Lond.

1892, p. 182), ”The apostrophes of the Psalms and Benedicite are really acts of praise to G.o.d, of which his creatures furnish the occasion;” and Addison again (_Spect._ No. 327), ”Invocations of this nature fill the mind with glorious ideas of G.o.d's works.” v. 43 (65) is oddly applied by Archdeacon Frank, _Serm._ XLII. to Pentecost (Oxf. 1849, II. 254).

Belief is plainly shewn in an angelic ministry, sent down to help G.o.d's suffering servants, and endued with miraculous powers. The angel comes, too, after their humble confession and prayer for rescue (vv. 43--45), and before their song of praise. The very propriety however of this arrangement, from a theological point of view, induces Rothstein to deem the prayer a subsequent introduction, in order to supply the want of request for deliverance before praise for its accomplishment; and he thinks that the opening in the narrative for the insertion of the prayer (between vv. 23 and 46) was not, in the ??, very deftly effected (Kautzsch, I. 175, 181).

The natural and the supernatural, without any incongruity, are blended as being all under one control, all subserving the same great ends, as in the Hebrew Bible. But there is no increase of the miraculous element beyond that in chapter iii., in which this piece is inserted; and at a later age increase would have been highly probable. What essential difference is there to be found between the miracles of the Chaldee and of the Greek Daniel? Surely none.

A typical resemblance was discerned by St. Antony of Padua (_Moral Concordances_, ed. Neale, p. 123), between v. 26 (44) and the Annunciation, but this will be regarded by many minds as a very fanciful theological discovery, and one surely not in the purview of the composer of the pa.s.sage.

CHRONOLOGY.