1853, pp. 79, 80): "It is seldom
that these additions to Daniel are quoted or alluded to at all by the
early Christian writers, but when they are, it is only that they may be
condemned." This may be taken as a specimen of a certain class of
adverse opinion, evidently formed without sufficient investigation of
the subject. In reality, these pieces are referred to, considering their
brevity, with surprising frequency; that the references are not
exclusively, or even generally, for purposes of condemnation, hardly
needs to be stated.
What effect these writings took on Jewish readers there is little or
nothing to shew. With the rest of the LXX, they seem to have lost ground
with Jews as they gained it with Christians. The closing scene of Bel
and the Dragon, however, is made use of in _Breshith Rabba_ to
illustrate Joseph's abandonment in the pit (Gen. xxxvii.)[2]. To
Christians indeed they have, from a very early date, constantly
presented themselves as highly valuable for purposes of edification.
Nor, with the possible exception of Susanna, is it easy to see in what
way they could have furthered, in that aspect, any undesirable end.
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