DANIEL
626
DANIEL
tory of the destructinn of Bel and the dragon, termi-
nating the book as ch. xiv. The first of these frag-
ments (Dan., iii, 24-90) consists of a prayer in which
Azarias, standing in the midst of the furnace, asks
that God may deliver him and his companions, Ana-
nias and Misael, and put their enemies to shame
(verses 24-45); a brief notice of the fact that the
Angel of the Lord saved the Three Children from all
harm, whereas the flame consumed the Chaldeans
above the furnace (46-50): and a doxology (52-56)
leading on to the hymn familiarly known as the " Bene-
dicite" (57-90). The second fragment (ch. xiii) tells
the history of Susanna. She was the faithful wife of
a wealthy Jew named Joakim, and resident in Baby-
lon. Accused falsely of adultery by two unworthy
elders whose criminal advances she had repelled, she
was sentenced to death by the tribunal before which
she had been arraigned. As Susanna was led forth
to execution, Daniel, moved by God, remonstrated
with the people upon permitting without sufficient
inquiry the condemnation of a daughter of Israel.
He examined himself the two pretended witnesses
separately, and proved their testimony to be self-
contradictory. In fulfilment of the Law of Moses
(Deut., xix, 18, 19), the two eldei-s were put to death,
"and Daniel became great in the sight of the people
from that day, and thenceforward." The last deutero-
canonical part of Daniel (ch. xiv) contains the narra-
tive of the destruction of Bel and the dragon. It re-
counts first the clever manner in which Daniel unde-
ceived the king, Cyrus, who regarded a Babylonian
idol, called Bel, as "a living god" that actually ate
ample offerings, whereas these were really consumed
at night by the pagan priests and their families: in
consequence, these impostors were put to death, and
Bel and its temple destroyed. It records, in the sec-
ond place, how Daniel caused to die a great dragon
that the Babylonians worshipped, and that the long
wished him to adore as "a living god". Enraged at
this, the people forced the king to deliver Daniel to
them, and cast the Prophet into a lions' den. Daniel
remained there unharmed for six days, and fed by the
prophet Habacuc who was miraculously transported
from Judea to Babylon. On the seventh day, the
king having found Daniel alive in the midst of the
lions, praised aloud the God of Daniel and delivered
the Prophet's accusers to the fate which Daniel had
miraculously escaped.
The Greek is, indeed, the oldest form under which these deutero-canonical parts of the Book of Daniel have come down to us; but this is no decisive proof that they were composed in that language. In fact, the greater probability is in favour of a Hebrew origi- nal no longer extant. It is plain that the view which regards these three fragments as not originally written in Greek makes it easier to suppose that they were from the beginning integrant parts of the book. Yet, it does not settle the question of their date and author- ship. It is readily granted by conservative scholars (Vigouroux, Gilly, etc.) that the last two are probably from a different and later author than the rest of the book; while it is maintained, on the contrary, by nearly all Catholic writers, that the Prayer of Azarias and the Song of the Three Children cannot be dis- sociated from the preceding and the following context in Dan., iii, and that therefore they should be referred to the time of Daniel, if not to that Prophet himself. In reality, there are wellnigh insuperable difficulties to such an early date for Dan., iii, 24-90, so that this fragment also, like the other two, should most likely be ascribed to some unknown Jewi.sh author who lived long after the Exile. Lastly, although the deutero- canonical portions of Daniel seem to contain anachro- nisms, they should not be treated — as was done by St. Jerome — as mere tallies. More sober scholarship will readily admit that they embody oral or written traditions not altogether devoid of historical value.
But, whatever may be thought concerning these lit-
erary or historical' questions, there cannot be the least
doubt that in decreeing the sacred and canonical char-
acter of these fragments the Council of Trent pro-
claimed the ancient and morally unanimous belief of
the Church of God.
Commentaries: — Catholic: Rohling (Mainz. 1876); Tro- CHON (Paris. 1882); Fabre d'Envied (Paris, 1889); Knaben- BAUER (Paris, 1891). Protestant: Meinhold. (NordiinKen. 1889); Bevan (Cambririge, 1892); Behr,\iann (G6ttinEe7i. 1894) ; Prince (New York, 1899) ; Driver (Cambridge. 1900i ; Marti (Freiburg im Br.. 1901); Wright (London, igOtl). Introductions to the Old Testament: — Catholic: R.\ult (4th ed. Paris, 1882) ; Vigouroux (oth ed., Paris. 1886) ; Corxely (Paris. 1886); Trochon-Lesetre (Paris. 1890); Kaulen (4th ed.. Freiburg im Br., 1899); Gigot (New York, 1906). Protestant: Keil (tr. Edinburgh, 1882) ; Bleex-Wellhausen- (6th ed., Berlin, 1893): Driver (9th ed., New York, 1899); Cornill (tr. New York, 1906).
Francis E. Gigot.
Daniel, Ch.\rles, b. 31 Dec, 1818, at Beauvais, France; d. 1 Jan., 1893, at Paris. He joined the Soci- ety of Jesus in 1841, was professor of rhetoric in the novitiate at Saint Acheul, and in 1857, with the assistance of Father Gagarin, founded the "Etudes de th^ologie et d' histotre", a magazine that soon became a monthly publication. Father Daniel edited it with ability until 1870. He was a man of extensive and accurate learning, of unquestionable taste, and he had an unusually receptive and assimilative mind. He contributed to the "Etudes" many articles on philo- sophical subjects: "Optimism" (1859), "Positivism" (1860), "Leibniz and Saisset" (1861), "The Vatican Council" (1869-1870); "Protestantism: the Crisis of Protestantism in France" (1862), "The Organization of Protestants in France" (1863); biographies of Pere Beauregard (1858), Mme. Swetchine (1864), Ch. Lenormand (1860), and P. L^on Ducoudray, martjT of the Paris Commune f 1892).
Other more important works are: "Des Etudes clas- siques dans la society Chretienne" (1853); "Histoire de la bienheureuse Marguerite Marie et des origines de la devotion au Sacr^ Coeur" (1865), translated into Italian, Polish, and Chinese; "La vie du P. Alexis Clerc, marin et Jesuite" (1876, English tr., New York, 1880), and "Les J&uites instituteurs de la jeunesse au XVIP et au XVIIP siecle" (1880). His "Questions actuelles: religion, philosophie, histoire, art et litterature" is preceded by a sketch of the author bv Fathers Mercier and Fontaine, S. J. (Poitiers, "1895).
De Scorhaili.e in E/urfes (1893), I; Sommervogel, BiW. (fcto c. de J., IX, supplement and a notice by Mercier.
J. LlONNET.
Daniel, G.^briel, historian and controversialist, b. at Rouen, France, 8 Feb., 1649; d. at Paris, 23 June, 1728. He entered the Society of Jesus at Paris in 1667, and after making his last vows at Rennes, 1683. was assigned to the professed house of Paris where his extraordinary talents resulted in his being appointed historiographer of France by Louis XIV. Of the pub- lished writings of Father Daniel, consisting of philo- sophical, theological, and historical treatises, many have been translated into German, English. Spanish, Italian, and Latin. In the first class perhaps the most famous was the oft-reprinted "Voyage du nionde de Descartes", a refutation of the vortex the- ory of that philosopher. His refutation of Pascal's "Provincial Letters", which underwent several re- visions and reprints, and his published correspondence with Natalis Alexander respecting the Dominican and Jesuit doctrines of Probabilisni, Grace, Predestin- ation, etc., stand out conspicuously among his the- ological works. He publi.shed al.so many shorter works, princip;illy ag;iinst the Jansonists, and one volume of a projected course of theology for .seminaries.
But it is as the author of the celebrated "Ilistoire de France" that Father Daniel has achieved his most
