This is on the
assumption that Tobit is, as Streane thinks (p. 148), pre-Maccabean, or
at any rate earlier than this Song. But as the words used are not very
distinctive, it is quite possible that they might have been
independently prepared. The mention of Ananias, Azarias, and Misael in
I. Macc. ii. 59 is not conclusive as to its writer's knowledge of the
Song, but the order of the names, which does not occur elsewhere, makes
a remembrance of v. 88 not improbable. I. Macc. is dated by Kautzsch
(I. 31) from 100 to 90 B.C.; Streane (p. 149) allows slightly wider
limits; and Westcott (Smith's _D.B._ II. 173) suggests 120 to 100. As to
another possible indication given by v. 66 (88), see 'Chronology,' p.
69.
Of that scepticism which followed the refinements of rabbinism there is
no trace, either here, or in Susanna, or in Bel and the Dragon. The
tone of them all is that of an earlier time, free from any symptoms of
this later decline. But still the signs of date are not sufficiently
decided to justify us in fixing upon a narrow period with any degree of
certainty.
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