Part 5 (2/2)

JEROME (420). In the _Comes_ or Lectionary, the Song is made use of, but probably the Comes is not really Jerome's. (_See_ art. _Lectionary, D.C.A._ 962a.)

THEODOERT (457) in _Letter_ CXLVI. quotes v. 63 amongst a string of canonical texts; and also deals with the whole in his _Commentary on Daniel_, as consolidated with chap. iii.

SEDULIUS (460?). In his poem _De tribus pueris_ there is nothing which goes beyond the canonical record; but, strangely enough, in his _Miraculorum recapitulatio proedictorum_ there are the lines

”.... flagrante camino Servavit sub rore pios.”

And equally in the prose version ”rore sydereo puerorum membra proluit in camino.” This shews a recognition of v. 50 (de la Bigne, _Bibliotheca Patrum_, ed. 4, 1624, pp. 660, 661, 914).

VERECUNDUS (552) wrote a comment on some of the ecclesiastical canticles including the prayers of Azarias and Mana.s.ses (printed in _Spicilegium, Solesmense,_ Vol. IV.).

It is manifest, therefore, that Early Christian writers regarded the Song as of much value and importance; were well acquainted with it, and often quoted it in much the same manner as the canonical books.

Occasionally, however, a knowledge of it is not shewn where we should have expected it; and in some cases we know that those who quoted it denied, or doubted, its canonicity.

ART.

This Greek insertion in the book of Daniel has, on the whole, offered less scope for the exercise of artistic talent than the history of Susanna or even than that of Bel and the Dragon. The nature of its contents, which consists in the main of a prayer and a song, reasonably accounts for this paucity of ill.u.s.tration. It does not lend itself so readily as its two companions to pictorial treatment. Nevertheless a certain number of examples are not wanting.

Loisy in his _Canon of the O.T._ (1890, p. 95) remarks, ”Des avant le IV^e siecle, on ornait les catacombes de peintures dont les sujets avaient ete fournis par Tobie et les fragments de Daniel.”

In a fresco from the cemetery of St. Hermes, the Three Children are represented, each over a separate stoke-hole (or what looks like one), with hands elevated as if in prayer or praise, most likely in reference to v. 1 (24), (_see D.C.A._ art. _Fresco_, p. 700a). Another picture of figures somewhat different, yet with outstretched hands, is given from Bottari in the same Dictionary under art. _Furnace._ There are sculptured representations of the Three on the high crosses at Moone Abbey, and at Kells (M. Stokes, _Early Christian Art in Ireland_, Lond.

1887, II. 22).

In the Utrecht Psalter, over the Song are depicted, as well as in other places, the sun and the moon, very appropriately (_D.C.A._ art. _Sun_), and in other illuminated Psalters, pictures of the Three in the furnace are not uncommon. Thus Brit. Mus. MS. Additional 11836 has an illumination of the furnace scene.

The under side of the wooden roof of Trinity College Chapel, Cambridge, was painted about 1870 with the series of natural objects mentioned in the Song proper, and with the words appertaining to each. A few extracts from _Benedicite_ are on scrolls in a modern window on the south side of the chancel of St. James' Church, Bury St. Edmunds.

It is a little surprising that the series of objects named in this Song has not been more frequently chosen for decorative purposes on roofs, walls, or windows of ecclesiastical buildings, where a long series would be appropriate. Perhaps the length of the series, and the difficulty of making any but an arbitrary selection, has something to do with the rarity of its appearance.

A set of not very satisfactory wood-engravings by MacWhirter and others, one ill.u.s.tration to each verse, was published in a small book under the t.i.tle of the _Song of the Three Children ill.u.s.trated_ (London, 1887)

The verse ”O ye wells,” etc., is said to be a frequent motto for the floral well-dressings at Tissington, in Derbys.h.i.+re, and elsewhere, on Ascension Day; and a more appropriate one could hardly be found. But in general the Song of the Three Children has not, for the reason given above, and doubtless others besides, proved a popular subject in art.

LITURGICAL USE.

GENERAL.

There is, strange to say, no record of the Song's employment in this way amongst the Jews. Statements sometimes made to the contrary in works on the P.B., _e.g._ by W.G. Humphry, F. Procter, E. Daniel, and J.M. Fuller (S.P.C.K. _Comm._ ”Introd. to the Song”), ”in the _later_ Jewish Church,” all appear to have originated in a misunderstanding of an ambiguous sentence in Wheatley's _Rational Ill.u.s.tration_ (1875, p. 143).

He says that it ”was an ancient hymn in the Jewish Church.” But this does not necessarily imply that it formed any part of Jewish services.

Nor did Wheatley probably intend to a.s.sert that it did. In point of fact no evidence of such use is forthcoming, though it certainly would not have been surprising if the Song had been so used, at least among the h.e.l.lenistic Jews. For as Rothstein says in Kautzsch's Apocrypha, like Ps. cx.x.xvi. it is ”offenbar antiphonisch aufzufa.s.sen” and ”litaneiartig.”

Notwithstanding the previous neglect, as it would seem, of this Song in Jewish wors.h.i.+p, its use by Christians dates from an early period. So Bp.

Gray (_O.T.,_ p. 611) says, ”It was sung in the service of the primitive Church;” and Ball, ”the instinct of the Church, which early adopted the _Benedicite_ for liturgical use, was right” (p. 307). Yet after it had come into high esteem with Christians its chances of Jewish acceptance would of course be largely diminished.

EARLY.

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