The Deuterocanon
Ashes on the temple floor catch the priests who were eating the god's dinner.
Two short satires on idolatry, appended to Daniel, and genuinely funny. In the first, Daniel proves that the god Bel is not eating the nightly offerings by scattering ash on the temple floor and showing the king the footprints of the priests and their families who came through a hidden door. In the second he kills a living dragon the Babylonians worship by feeding it a cake of pitch, fat, and hair, is thrown into a lions' den for a week, and is fed by the prophet Habakkuk, who is carried there by an angel holding him by the hair. Scripture for Catholics and Orthodox as part of Daniel, printed among the Apocrypha by Protestants.
If you remember one thing
Daniel scatters ashes on the temple floor overnight and shows the king the footprints of the priests who had been eating the god's dinner.
“I will worship the Lord my God, for he is the living God.”
Bel and the Dragon 25
Genre
Openly satirical, and read as such by most, including many who receive it as Scripture. Appears as Daniel 14 in Catholic Bibles.
Named here rather than skipped. Where Christians read a passage differently, we say so instead of choosing for you.
Daniel 14 in Catholic and Orthodox Bibles; printed separately in the Apocrypha.
Everyone here has a write-up, drawn from the same records that explain the names while you read the text.
Taken young into the Babylonian court, Daniel rose by wisdom and unbending faith, refusing the king's food, reading dreams and the writing on Belshazzar's wall, and emerging unharmed from the lions' den. His later visions map the rise and fall of empires to the end.
The whole book, with the people and places explained as you read. Available in KJV. Chapters marked ✦ carry a verse the New Testament takes up.
A quiz for Bel and the Dragon is on the workbench. In the meantime, the games for the judges, the kings, and the prophets are open.
