23 and 24 of Dan. iii.; the History of
Susanna in the language of the A.V. is "set apart from the beginning of
Daniel"; and Bel and the Dragon is "cut off from the end of" the same
book. The first of these additions alone has an organic connection with
the main narrative; the other two are independent scenes from the life,
or what purports to be the life, of Daniel--episodes, one in his
earlier, one in his later, career. In the Song, Daniel personally does
not appear at all; in Susanna and in Bel he plays a conspicuous part; in
Susanna appearing as a sort of 'deus ex machina' to set things right at
the end; and in Bel he is an essential actor in the whole story.
It is hoped to shew, amongst other things, that the dissimilarity
supposed to exist between these additions and the rest of Daniel is by
no means so great as has sometimes been imagined. The opinion of one of
the latest commentators on Daniel (Marti, T??bingen, 1901, p. xx) may be
taken as a fair sample of this view. He thinks these pieces by no means
congruous with the canonical Daniel: "Den Abstand dieser apokryphischen
Erz?¤hlungen von dem in hebraram.
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