Susanna and the Wisdom of God
In the book of Daniel, the Church also receives pages absent from the Hebrew Bible, the deuterocanonical parts: the song of the three young men in the furnace, the story of Susanna, and the mockery of the idols of Bel and the dragon. These stories prolong the message of the book: God delivers the innocent, he sees the secret of hearts, and he is the only living God before the dead idols. All the wisdom of Daniel converges there toward the One who is to come. These pages have come to us through the Greek Bible, the Septuagint translation that the first Christians read; absent from the Hebrew Bible, they were kept by the Church as fully inspired, what are called the deuterocanonical books, that is, received in a second stage but with the same authority. Far from being secondary additions, they carry some of the most beautiful lessons of the book on the providence of God, who watches over the innocent and confounds the lie.
The song in the furnace
In the furnace where the three young men walk without burning, the Greek Bible places a long song, the canticle of the three children. Instead of groaning, they bless God, and they call all creation to join in their praise: the sun and the moon, the rain and the dew, the mountains, the beasts, and men, all are invited to bless the Lord. This admirable song, which the Church makes its own in its prayer, says a deep truth: at the very heart of the trial, faith is not content to survive, it sings. The fire that was to destroy becomes the place of a praise, and the furnace, a sanctuary. Those who suffer for God transform their trial into an offering.
Susanna, the innocent one saved
The story of Susanna is a drama of purity and justice. This faithful woman is surprised at the bath by two old men, respected judges, who press her to yield to their desire and threaten, if she refuses, to accuse her of adultery. Susanna chooses death rather than sin: “it is better for me to fall into your hands without having acted, than to sin before the Lord.” Daniel 13:23 Condemned on the false testimony of the judges, she is saved by the young Daniel, to whom God gives wisdom: questioning the two accusers separately, he makes their lie burst into the open, and the innocent one is delivered while the guilty are punished. The story proclaims that God sees the secret, defends the slandered innocent, and confounds the lie. The Church has recognized in it the figure of every righteous one falsely accused, and even of Christ himself, condemned on false testimony then justified by God. The first Christians loved this story so much that they painted it on the walls of the catacombs: Susanna, surrounded by the two old men, became the image of the faithful soul assailed by evil and saved by God, and of the Church itself, slandered but preserved. The lesson goes beyond the incident: when every appearance crushes the innocent and the judges themselves lie, God remains the only true judge, the one who sees the heart and restores the truth in broad daylight.
The mockery of the idols
The last stories stage Daniel unmasking the vanity of idols. At Babylon they worshipped a statue named Bel, to whom huge offerings were served each day, believed devoured by the god; Daniel proves to the king that it is the priests who, in secret, come to eat everything by night. They also venerated a great serpent as a living god; Daniel makes it perish by a poisoned food, showing that a god that dies is not a god. These pages, tinged with humor, hold up to mockery the worship of idols: to pray to what the hand of man has fashioned, or to what can die, is a folly. Before these false gods, Daniel confesses the one living God, creator of heaven and earth. This mockery of idols prolongs the great derision of the prophets, from Isaiah to Jeremiah, against the gods of wood and metal: they have a mouth and do not speak, eyes and do not see, they must be carried for they cannot walk. To worship the work of one’s own hands is the overturning of all truth, for it is to make a thing one’s master. Daniel sets against these dead idols the living God who acts, delivers, and saves, the only one before whom it is worth bowing down.
The wisdom that runs through the ages
Thus the book of Daniel, from the first story to the last vision, says one same wisdom. God is master of history: the empires pass, his reign remains. He is present in the trial: he walks in the furnace, shuts the mouths of the lions, sings with the martyrs. He sees the secret and defends the innocent, against the powerful and the liars. And he opens the future onto a twofold hope, the Son of Man who will receive everlasting kingship, and the awakening of those who sleep. All this, written to sustain persecuted believers, converges toward Christ, in whom the wisdom of Daniel finds its face: the Son of Man, the Righteous One condemned and justified, the living one who has conquered death.