Bel and the Dragon

Background and History

The chapters above are the King James Apocrypha. This essay is the setting of Bel and the Dragon: who is said to have written it, when and where the book places the story, what happens in it, which copies have been found, and why the Protestant canon does not include it.

Canon and Authorship

Anglican Article VI lists Bel and the Dragon among the other books. The Confession of Dositheus names the History of the Dragon. Trent receives Daniel entire with all its parts. This King James keeps the chapter apart from Daniel. Westminster Confession 1.3 refuses the books commonly called Apocrypha.

The book does not name its writer. Bel and the Dragon 1:1 says Astyages was gathered to his fathers and Cyrus of Persia received the kingdom. A composition year and a reign of years for Astyages were not added. A scholarly introduction was not opened.

At a Glance

Setting

Bel and the Dragon 1:1Close

And king Astyages was gathered to his fathers, and Cyrus of Persia received his kingdom.Bel and the Dragon 1:1 · King James Version (Apocrypha)Open source says king Astyages was gathered to his fathers, and Cyrus of Persia received his kingdom. Daniel 6:28CloseSo this Daniel prospered in the reign of Darius, and in the reign of Cyrus the Persian.Daniel 6:28 · King James VersionOpen source says Daniel prospered in the reign of Darius and in the reign of Cyrus the Persian. Daniel 10:1CloseIn the third year of Cyrus king of Persia a thing was revealed unto Daniel, whose name was called Belteshazzar; and the thing was true, but the time appointed was long: and he understood the thing, and had understanding of the vision.Daniel 10:1 · King James VersionOpen source is the third year of Cyrus king of Persia. This page does not give Astyages a reign of years.

The Text

This King James prints Bel and the Dragon as its own book, one chapter of 42 verses. Bel and the Dragon 1:2Close

And Daniel conversed with the king, and was honoured above all his friends.Bel and the Dragon 1:2 · King James Version (Apocrypha)Open source says Daniel conversed with the king and was honoured above all his friends. A scholarly introduction was not opened.

Structure and Themes

The chapter tells Daniel’s exposure of Bel, then a dragon which they of Babylon worshipped (Bel and the Dragon 1:23Close

And in that same place there was a great dragon, which they of Babylon worshipped.Bel and the Dragon 1:23 · King James Version (Apocrypha)Open source). Bel and the Dragon 1:27CloseThen Daniel took pitch, and fat, and hair, and did seethe them together, and made lumps thereof: this he put in the dragon’s mouth, and so the dragon burst in sunder: and Daniel said, Lo, these are the gods ye worship.Bel and the Dragon 1:27 · King James Version (Apocrypha)Open source says Daniel put pitch, fat, and hair into the dragon’s mouth, the dragon burst, and Daniel said, “Lo, these are the gods ye worship.” Bel and the Dragon 1:41CloseThen cried the king with a loud voice, saying, Great art thou, O Lord God of Daniel, and there is none other beside thee.Bel and the Dragon 1:41 · King James Version (Apocrypha)Open source is the king’s cry, “Great art thou, O Lord God of Daniel, and there is none other beside thee.” Bel and the Dragon 1:42CloseAnd he drew him out, and cast those that were the cause of his destruction into the den: and they were devoured in a moment before his face.Bel and the Dragon 1:42 · King James Version (Apocrypha)Open source says the king cast those who had caused Daniel’s destruction into the den, and they were devoured.

Issues With This Book

Anglican Article VI lists Bel and the Dragon among the other books. The Confession of Dositheus names “The History of the Dragon.” Trent receives Daniel entire with all its parts, in the decree quoted on How Was the Bible Canon Decided, and What Is the Apocrypha?. This King James keeps the chapter apart from Daniel. The Dead Sea Scrolls contents page opened for this collection does not name this book. A composition year was not added.

Further Reading

The King James chapter and Daniel 6 and 10 are the texts set beside each other here.

On This Site

These articles quote the church lists and the passages that those lists argue from. They link back to this collection.

• How Was the Bible Canon Decided, and What Is the Apocrypha?
• What Bible Do Catholics Use?
• What Do Catholics Believe?
• What Do Protestants Believe?
• What Do Anglicans Believe?
• Catholic vs Protestant: What’s the Difference?
• Is Purgatory Biblical?
• Who Wrote the Bible?
• Can Christians Believe in Evolution?

Church Lists

The Council of Trent, session 4 (1546), receives Tobias, Judith, Esther, Wisdom, Ecclesiasticus, Baruch with Jeremiah, Daniel, and two books of Maccabees, and it anathematizes a knowing refusal. That decree’s first and second books of Esdras are Ezra and Nehemiah, not the books titled 1 Esdras and 2 Esdras in this King James Apocrypha. The decree does not name the Prayer of Manasseh as its own book. The English of the decree is quoted on How Was the Bible Canon Decided, and What Is the Apocrypha?

Catechism of the Catholic Church, 120 says the Church discerned the canon by apostolic Tradition and counts 46 Old Testament books, including Tobit, Judith, Wisdom, Sirach, Baruch, and 1 and 2 Maccabees.

The Confession of Dositheus, from the Synod of Jerusalem in 1672, answers “What Books do you call Sacred Scripture?” by naming, among the books Cyril Lucaris had called Apocrypha, “The Wisdom of Solomon,” “Judith,” “Tobit,” “The History of the Dragon,” “The History of Susanna,” “The Maccabees,” and “The Wisdom of Sirach,” and it says “we judge these also to be with the other genuine Books of Divine Scripture genuine parts of Scripture.” That sentence, on the English hosted by CRI/Voice, does not name 1 Esdras, 2 Esdras, or the Prayer of Manasseh. The host says the English is adapted from J. N. W. B. Robertson’s 1899 translation. The brackets around “Bel and the Dragon” on that page are the editor’s.

Anglican Article VI says the other books, “as Hierome saith,” the Church “doth read for example of life and instruction of manners; but yet doth it not apply them to establish any doctrine.” The article’s other books include the Third and Fourth of Esdras, Tobias, Judith, the rest of Esther, Wisdom, Jesus the Son of Sirach, Baruch, the Song of the Three Children, Susanna, Bel and the Dragon, the Prayer of Manasses, and the First and Second of Maccabees. Its canonical First and Second of Esdras are Ezra and Nehemiah. The sentence is on the Articles of Religion and on What Do Anglicans Believe?

The books commonly called Apocrypha, not being of divine inspiration, are no part of the canon of the Scripture, and therefore are of no authority in the church of God, nor to be any otherwise approved, or made use of, than other human writings.

That is Westminster Confession 1.3, as printed by the Orthodox Presbyterian Church. What Do Protestants Believe? quotes the same paragraph.

The Lutherhaus Wittenberg records a complete German Bible of 1534, printed by Hans Lufft in Wittenberg, titled Biblia, das ist, die gantze Heilige Schrifft Deudsch. A Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek record of a 1536 Lufft Apocrypha title page reads “Apocrypha. Das sind Bücher: so nicht der heiligen Schrifft gleich gehalten: und doch nützlich und gut zu lesen sind.” Bruce Metzger, writing in Christianity Today in 1957, says the 1534 edition gathered the books between the Old and New Testaments under that heading and did not include 1 and 2 Esdras. The 1534 leaf itself was not opened for this page.

The New Testament and These Books

These pages do not cite a sentence in the New Testament that names Tobit, Judith, Wisdom, Sirach, Baruch, or Maccabees as Scripture. Jude 14 says Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied, and the next verse continues that prophecy. First Enoch is not one of the fourteen books in this King James Apocrypha. The text and the history are on 1 Enoch.

1 Maccabees 9:27 says there was great affliction in Israel, “the like whereof was not since the time that a prophet was not seen among them.” 2 Maccabees 15:38 is the writer’s own limit: if the story is done well, that is what he desired, and if slenderly and meanly, that is what he could attain.

2 Maccabees 12:44 says that if Judas had not hoped the slain would rise, it would have been superfluous and vain to pray for the dead. Verse 45 says he made a reconciliation for the dead, that they might be delivered from sin. This King James text has no verse 12:46. The Catechism’s footnote 607 names 2 Maccabees 12:46 for that reconciliation. Is Purgatory Biblical? quotes the churches on that dispute and does not decide it.

Tobit 12:9 says alms deliver from death and shall purge away all sin. Sirach 3:30 says water quenches a flaming fire and alms make an atonement for sins. Those sentences are what the pages that discuss almsgiving and atonement are quoting. This site does not have a separate article whose only subject is alms.

Jewish Lists

Josephus, Against Apion 1.8 (William Whiston’s translation), says the Jews have “only twenty two books, which contain the records of all the past times; which are justly believed to be divine,” five of them Moses, thirteen the prophets after Moses through Artaxerxes, and four hymns and precepts. History written since Artaxerxes “hath not been esteemed of the like authority with the former by our forefathers, because there hath not been an exact succession of Prophets since that time.”

Jerome’s prologue to Kings, the Prologus Galeatus, in Kevin P. Edgecomb’s public-domain translation, counts twenty-two books and says “whatever is outside of these is set aside among the apocrypha.” He names Wisdom, “the book of Jesus son of Sirach,” Judith, and Tobias as not in the canon, and he says the first book of Maccabees is Hebrew and the second is Greek. The translation is at tertullian.org.

Athanasius, Festal Letter 39 (367), counts twenty-two Old Testament books and includes “Jeremiah with Baruch, Lamentations, and the epistle” as one book. He then names Wisdom of Solomon, Wisdom of Sirach, Esther, Judith, and Tobit as “not indeed included in the Canon, but appointed by the Fathers to be read.” The English is the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers text on New Advent.

Melito of Sardis, quoted by Eusebius in Church History 4.26.14, lists the Old Testament books he learned in the East. The list includes “Wisdom also” and does not name Tobit, Judith, Sirach, or the books of Maccabees.

The Jewish Encyclopedia (1906), “Bible Canon,” says the Jewish canon is twenty-four books: the five of the Law, eight of the Prophets, and eleven Writings. It summarizes the baraita in Bava Batra 14b as Law; Prophets (Joshua, Judges, Samuel, Kings, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Isaiah, and the Minor Prophets); and Writings (Ruth, Psalms, Job, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Canticles, Lamentations, Daniel, Esther, Ezra, and Chronicles). That summary does not include Tobit, Judith, Wisdom, Sirach, Baruch as its own book, or Maccabees. The English of the Talmud on Sefaria is copyrighted, so this page does not reprint it.

3 Maccabees, 4 Maccabees, and Psalm 151 are not in this King James text.