There does not seem to be any undue love of the marvellous or straining
to bring it into prominence. Both the statue and the Dragon are
destroyed by ordinary means; and their false position in the imagination
of the people is unmasked without any resort to the miraculous.[77] This
element does not enter into the story till the rescue of the persecuted
Daniel, who has been so zealous for the honour of his God.
Though, with its two companion pieces, it has been cavilled at (not to
reckon Africanus' enquiries) from the time of the Jewish teacher whom
Jerome tells us of in his preface to Daniel, yet even the most
contemptuous deprecators of the 'Additions' can find little seriously to
condemn in the theology of this story.[78] Considering the strong
desire which has existed in some quarters to charge these apocryphal
books with grievous doctrinal error, this fact says much. The knowledge
of God and of divine things is what would be probable at the time it
represents, and is not incongruous with the book to which it is
appended, nor with its fellow-appendices.
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