_), who regards the
story as "essentially apocryphal," admits "an edifying element."[84].
This element might perhaps be used with advantage more than it is by
missionaries to idolatrous peoples.
The sordidness and trickery of heathen priests[85] is contrasted with
the uprightness and single-minded devotion of Daniel. His God moreover
delivers him, but their gods do not deliver them. The Bel of this
history is as dumb as the Baal of I. Kings xviii.; their names and
characters quite agree.
The once flourishing temples of iniquity are conspicuously brought to
nought, affording a lesson of confidence and patience to those who fear
the Lord. Thus the angry opponents, who made certain of slaying Daniel,
were disappointed, and judgment quickly overtook them.
With v. 6 Arnald, _in loc._, finely contrasts the P.B.V. of Ps. xvi.
2--the God who was estimated by the amount of provisions he consumed,
and the God to whom earthly goods were nothing. But the Hebrew will
hardly bear the P.B.V. rendering.
The character of Daniel, without fear or reproach, is not out of keeping
with that displayed in the canonical book, and in the companion story of
Susanna.
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