"[66] But no special reference to Egyptian forms of
idolatry is apparent in support of this view, which seems based on
little more than a wish to fit in the idolatry with the theory of the
story having an Alexandrian origin.
A. Scholz's notion that the whole piece is a 'vision' with allegoric or
apocalyptic meanings only, and never intended to be taken as history,
looks like a wonderfully forced hypothesis, laying a great strain on the
imaginations both of the writer and the reader. The book having been
received as canonical in the Roman communion, its contents must at all
hazards be reconciled with the maintenance of that position. Yet it is
fair to note that Luther, on other grounds, regarded Susanna and Bel and
the Dragon as pretty spiritual fictions, in which history must take its
chance (Z?¶ckler, p. 216).
INTEGRITY AND STATE OF THE TEXT.
This double story seems to have been treated as one in the Greek. In the
Syriac and Arabic versions the Dragon has a separate title (noticed in
A.V. margin, "Some add this title _of the Dragon_').
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