Bel and the Dragon

Text and Content

This short narrative has been transmitted at the end of the Greek Book of Daniel. Catholic and Orthodox Bibles include it as Daniel 14, but it does not appear in the Protestant New Korean Revised Version. The story consists of three parts.

• The story of Bel: The king believes that Bel, a god of Babylon, eats the food offered to him each day. Daniel secretly scatters ashes on the temple floor. The next day, footprints on the floor reveal that the priests and their families have been entering through a secret door and eating the offerings.
• The story of the dragon: The Babylonians worship a great living dragon (serpent) as a god. Daniel kills the dragon by feeding it cakes made of pitch, fat, and hair.
• The story of the lions' den: At the demand of an angry populace, Daniel is confined in a lions' den for six days. During that time an angel brings the prophet Habakkuk from Judea to feed Daniel. On the seventh day the king finds Daniel alive and has his accusers thrown into the den.

Background

"Bel" is an Akkadian title meaning "lord." It was commonly used to refer to Marduk, the chief god of Babylon, and has the same meaning as Baal. The text survives in Greek in two forms: the Old Greek version of the Septuagint and the version of Theodotion. Theodotion's version sets the events in the reign of King Cyrus, while the Old Greek version introduces the story as coming from the prophecy of Habakkuk. Scholars differ on whether a Hebrew or Aramaic original existed and on when the text was written.

Significance in the Context of the Whole Bible

The name Bel also appears in the canonical Old Testament. Isaiah 46:1 declares, "Bel boweth down," and Jeremiah 50:2 and 51:44 prophesy that God will punish Bel. Bel and the Dragon can be read as a narrative expression of this biblical critique of idolatry, which holds that idols are nothing more than lifeless created things.

Interpretation and Issues

• Canonical status: At the Council of Trent (1546), the Catholic Church affirmed the entire Book of Daniel, including this section, as canonical, and it calls such material "deuterocanonical." The Orthodox Church also includes it in the Bible. Protestants regard it as apocryphal because it is absent from the Hebrew Bible. The Westminster Confession of Faith states that the Apocrypha are not inspired Scripture, and the Belgic Confession lists "Bel and the Dragon" by name among the apocryphal books. The Anglican Thirty-Nine Articles hold that the Apocrypha may be read for example of life but are not to be used to establish doctrine.
• Distinction from the lions' den incident: The lions' den story in Daniel 6 takes place during the reign of King Darius and lasts a single night. In Bel and the Dragon, Daniel is confined for six days in the time of Cyrus, and Habakkuk appears. Because the two are separate texts, care should be taken in preaching and teaching not to conflate their details.

In the Korean Church

The text appears as Daniel 14 in the Catholic Common Translation and in the 2005 Catholic Bible (Seonggyeong). It is also available to the Anglican Church of Korea, which uses the revised edition of the Common Translation. In most Protestant churches, which use the New Korean Revised Version, it is rarely used as a preaching text and is mentioned mainly as an example when the Apocrypha are introduced.