Additions to Daniel

c. 2nd–1st century BC · Apocrypha / Deuterocanonical Books

About this text

Includes the Prayer of Azariah (in the fiery furnace), the Song of the Three Young Men, Susanna (a story of virtue and justice), and Bel and the Dragon (Daniel debunking idolatry).

Significance

Susanna is one of the earliest detective stories in literature. The Song of the Three Young Men is used in Christian liturgy.

How to Read This Historical Text

Additions to Daniel is included here as a historical and educational resource, not as Scripture and not as a replacement for the biblical canon. Readers may find it useful for understanding the ideas, debates, devotional language, and literary settings that surrounded Jewish and Christian communities in different periods.

Read this text with context in mind. Notice its era, category, and relationship to canonical passages, then compare its themes with the Bible itself. Some library works preserve valuable historical background, while others represent viewpoints that many Christian traditions rejected. Inclusion in this library does not mean endorsement of every claim or doctrine in the text.

For more about how The Bible Companion handles public-domain writings, Bible translations, attribution, and devotional material, see the Sources & Editorial Policy.

Key excerpts

Excerpts forthcoming. The full text is available in the public-domain library.

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This text is one of 10 in the Apocrypha / Deuterocanonical Books category, and one of 62 across the entire library.