But it
appears to lose its force in the case of additions such as these, or
those to the book of Esther. For the Song of the Three, Susanna, and Bel
and the Dragon are hardly likely to have had separate rolls assigned to
them; least of all this first piece, which fits into the middle of the
accepted narrative, and is scarcely intelligible without it. Something
more therefore is wanting to explain the inclusion of those portions in
the Greek Bible.
Bengel's explanation (_Gnomon on Matt._ xxiv. 15), that the apocryphal
books in Latin Bibles were mixed with the canonical "pro argumenti
affinitate," though distinguished at first by marks (afterwards omitted)
in the index, however likely so far as it goes, fails to account for
their admission on so slender a plea into Biblical MSS. at all.
If the additions are to be regarded with Streane (_Age of the Macc._ p.
161) as "specimens of fiction," this one, more strongly than the other
two, shews the pre-existence of the canonical Daniel; but it is very
hard to understand how 'fiction' of this kind could be introduced into
the Bible with no general protest, and ultimately come to be treated as
of Divine authority; and this position is defended, even in these
critical days, by the greater number of Christians in the world.
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