AN ATHEISTIC BIBLE APOCRYPHA STUDY THE SONG OF THE THREE HOLY CHILDREN
The first of several Apocrypha out-takes from the Old Testament’s Book Of Daniel. This is set between Daniel 3: verses 23 and 24. It deals with the prayers of Daniel’s three allies after they are cast into a white-hot fire pit, in a botched execution attempt by Nebuchadnezzar. The trio, and Daniel pray, as they remain miraculously fire proof through their faith in God.
The version in Daniel focuses in Nebuchadnezzar and his worrying discovery that the quartet seems unharmed by the furnace. The song shifts the emphasis onto the three friends of Daniel, (himself barely mentioned) as they pray continuously during their time in the homemade Hell. It is the change of point of view that probably got his extract excluded from the officially accepted book of Daniel.
The three companions are not children, despite the emotive title, but fully-grown men. The prayer is uttered by Azarius, and mostly consists of a sprawling list of attributes of God and recognitions of his greatness. Exactly how the prayer is recorded in writing is unclear – it seems unlikely that the non-burning men would have writing materials on them, or even be able to see to write in the writhing flames. Perhaps a witness outside the burning pit heard it and wrote it all down, or Azarius penned it after being released and set free.
The prayer praises God and accepts that people are all sinners. Azarius even accepts that being captured by a tyrannical king and thrown into a fire pit is God’s way of telling Azarius that he has sinned and needs to reassert his faith. The list then gets tedious, thanking God for the Sun, Moon, rivers, trees, etc, in verse after verse.
A break from this shows the Chaldeam prison guards trying to make the fire ever hotter, fuelling it with pitch and wood. Three of these men are burnt to death by the flames for their efforts. An Angel who guards the prisoners from the fire, and joins them in their temporary ordeal protects the quartet. At times the book seems to assert that the men move through the solid wall of fire unscathed, and somehow able to breathe and pray in an atmosphere where the oxygen is burning. In others, the Angel keeps the fire back, giving the captives a protective flame resistant corridor of freedom.
A silly, tedious and highly unlikely aside from the main story attempting to ply on heart-strings by seeing the adults as children, or at least children of God’s chosen tribes. It seems no wonder that scholars saw no reason to include it the main canon of their scriptures.
Arthur Chappell
