_ (I. 639), thinks Susanna and Bel and the Dragon may well
originally have had independent existences. If so, this might help to
explain Josephus' disregard of them.
It is a reasonable inference from v. 57, that the author was a Jew in
the strictest sense, and not from one of the ten tribes. Yet it should
not escape notice that in v. 48 "Israel" is apparently used for the
entire people, including all the tribes.[32] The invidious contrast
between the Israelitish and Jewish women is omitted in what Dr. Salmon
calls, "the second Syriac recension" of Susanna, termed erroneously at
one time "the Harklensian" (_Speaker's Comm._, p. xlvi.). The contrast
in v. 56 between Israel and Canaan is made into a stinging reproach, but
is hardly to be understood literally as to the Elder's family descent.
J. Kennedy in _Daniel from a Christian standpoint_ (p. 55), says of this
and the other Additions that there is "no means of determining when,
where, or by whom written." He adds (p. 56), "those who conceived and
wrote the additions were both intellectually and spiritually incapable
of appreciating the book [of Daniel] and its contents," and he concludes
that they "belong to different ages and to entirely different conditions
of thought.
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