The Three Additions to Daniel

Preface

The three apocryphal portions of Daniel considered in this book haveoften been hardly judged. One of them had almost become a byword ofcontempt for fabulous inventiveness. Yet the writer hopes that he hassucceeded in shewing that they are worthy of more serious attention thanthey have frequently received. The prejudice long existing in thiscountry against the Apocrypha as a whole has told heavily against two atany rate of these booklets; and he who attempts to investigate thenature and origin of the Additions to Daniel finds himself following atrack which is anything but well beaten. The number of commentaries ortreatises in English dealing directly with these works is very small.Indeed, considering the position accorded to them by the Church, it issurprisingly so. And of those which exist, some are not very valuablefor accurate study. Hence, in preparing a treatise of this kind,materials have to be quarried and brought together from varied anddistant sources; and the work, small as its result may be in size, hasproved a laborious one. The conclusions arrived at on many points arebut provisional; for the writer thinks that the day has not yet comewhen the source and place of these Additions to Daniel can be surely andincontrovertibly fixed. It is to be hoped that further evidence andlonger study will eventually make these matters clearer than they are atpresent. Meanwhile, careful and unprejudiced work upon the subject, bywhomsoever undertaken, cannot but tend towards that goal; and the authortrusts that he may have contributed something which will help, at leasta little, towards the solution of the difficult problem presented.

The Song of the Three and the Histories of Susanna and of Bel and theDragon are most interesting memorials of the spirit of their time,though that time may be difficult to fix precisely. And when looked atfrom the religious point of view they are replete with valuable morallessons for "example of life and instruction of manners," to borrow theterms which the Sixth Article of Religion employs with regard to theApocryphal books. An attempt has been made, in a concluding chapter oneach book, to draw some of these lessons out, so that they may be easilyavailable for such homiletic and other purposes as are contemplated inthat Article.

The study of these three pieces supplementary to Daniel has convincedthe writer that they are of more value than has been generally supposed,and are worthy of the attention of biblical scholars in a much higherdegree than that which has usually been accorded to them. If he has inany way helped in providing materials, or in suggesting ideas, which mayfructify in abler hands, he will be rewarded for the researches he hasmade.

It appears to him that there is much connected with these books which weare unable now fully to discover; much about which it is unwise todogmatize; many questions which must be treated as open ones; manyproblems which can at most only receive provisional solutions, tillfurth

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