In comparison with the Hebrew codices, our codices have many more verses according to the version circulating in the churches, Thus therefore Ananiah, Azariah and Misael praised and blessed the Lord^[1] down to, All you faithful worship the Lord, bless the God of gods, praise him and celebrate, because his grace endures forever. Then king Nebuchadnezzar heard them singing hymns, and he saw them that they were still alive.^[2] Or, according to another version, it moves from, And as they took a walk in the middle of the flames, they praised God and blessed the Lord^[3] down to, All you faithful, worship the Lord, bless the God of gods, praise him and celebrate, because his grace endures forever.^[4] But in the Hebrew codices, these three men Sadràch, Mesàch and Abdènego fell down bound in the middle of the fire^[5] are immediately followed by the verse, Then king Nebuchadnezzar was immediately astonished and rising up in a hurry, he addressed his ministers.^[6] This in fact is how Aquila has written the text, following the Hebrew.^{[7] [8]} PRAISING GOD AMONG TRIBULATIONS. THEODORET OF CYR, They walked about in the middle of the flames singing praises to God and praising the Lord. These words provide an indication of the essence of their faith. For, instead of asking to be freed from the evil that had befallen them, they celebrated it, singing the praises of the one who was in control of their situation and who had allowed them to make this most honorable confession. There is a similarity here that can be observed between the old and the new. When the blessed apostles Peter and John were condemned to a similar fate by the Pharisees, they left rejoicing since they had been considered worthy to be punished for the name of Jesus.^[1] The blessed Paul with Silas, also being inflicted with the tortures of the magistrates of Philippi, remained in jail, bound in shackles. However, at midnight, the text says, they prayed and sang to the Lord.^[2] Thus also these blessed young people insisted on going back and forth inside the furnace offering praises to God. ^[3]

Regarding prayer,^[1] we have examples in Daniel, And Azariah, standing up, prayed in this way, and opening his mouth in the middle of the fire he said. . . .^[2] And in Tobit, And I prayed with tears saying, ‘You are just, O Lord, and all your works are just, and all your ways are mercy and truth. And your judgments that you offer are true and just forever.’^[3] Since the passage cited in Daniel has been obelized because it is not found in the Hebrew and those of the circumcision reject the book of Tobit as not canonical, I will quote the words of Anna from the first book of Kings: And she prayed to the Lord and cried with many tears and made a vow saying, ‘Lord of hosts, if you will look down on the lowliness of your servants,’ etc. . . .^[4] Also, in Habakkuk, A prayer of Habakkuk, the prophet, with song, ‘Lord, I have heard your voice, and I was afraid. Lord, I considered your works, and I was astonished. In the middle of two animals you will be known; in the approaching of the years you will be known.’^[5] This example illustrates very well the definition of the term proseuchē^[6] in that it combines prayer with the attempt to give glory. But also in the book of Jonah, Jonah prayed to the Lord his God out of the belly of the fish, saying, ‘I cried in my tribulation to the Lord my God, and he listened to me; from the heart of the grave you heard the screams of my voice; you threw me into the depths, in the heart of the sea, and the waters encircled me.’^[7]

Whenever we are oppressed by various difficulties, let us repeat this same prayer with our whole heart. And whatever may happen to us, let us confess that it is only right that we endure it. In this way the Scripture may be fulfilled in us: The daughters of Judah, O Lord, have exulted and rejoiced in all your judgments.^[1]

Who would not admire the dignity of the tone of the wisdom of the introduction? It is not in prosperity and good fortune and not even in a favorable circumstance of life that it celebrates God the creator of the universe, but inside this furnace. The prolog calls him God of the ancestors, demonstrating his prudent judgment and announcing the virtue of the ancestors. It says, We praise you, O Lord, that we have those ancestors whose God you intended to be called. You in fact have said to your servant Moses, ‘I am the Lord of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.’ ^[1] This your name is worthy of praise and glory, not on just one occasion and a specified time but for all ages.

Recall what happened to Ananiah and his companions. From which sources did they make water flow or how many vessels of water did they use to extinguish the fire that rose up forty-nine cubits high? Even when the flame rose a little too high, faith was poured out there to extinguish the fire like a river when all confessed their sin, saying, You are right, O Lord, in all this that you have made; yes, we have sinned in committing evil. And their confession dissipated the flames.

There is none, there is no remedy better able to destroy sins than to continually recall them and to continually accuse oneself. In this way the publican could cancel his innumerable sins by saying, God, have mercy on me, a sinner.^[1] And thus also the Pharisee remained unjustified because, taking no care to think of his own sins, he condemned everyone else, saying, I am not like other people, greedy and avaricious, or even like this publican.^[2] Thus also Paul exhorted, Let each one examine his own conduct, and then he will find reason to boast only in himself and not in others.^[3] Did you know that even in the Old Testament the righteous accused themselves? Listen to them speak as with one voice. David said, My iniquities have gone over my head. They oppress me like a heavy burden.^[4] And Isaiah cried out, Woe is me, wretched man, because I am a man of unclean lips!^[5] The three young men, while they were in the furnace and offered their bodies to death for God, counted themselves among the greatest of sinners, saying, We have sinned, we have done every kind of evil. And yet what was more brilliant, more pure than they? And even if they had committed some sins, the nature of the flames would have cancelled all of them. They did not look at their virtues, however, but thought of their sins.

The three young people surely did not sin, nor were they old enough at the time they were deported to Babylon to justify being punished for their personal faults. Thus, it must mean that they were, therefore, speaking as representatives of the people in the same way as the apostle when he said, What I do is not what I want, the actions that I do are those which I do not want to do,^[1] and so it goes throughout the rest of that passage in a similar context.

The observance of the laws and the prescriptions, he says, add nothing to the lawgiver, but to us they provide an abundance of resources. It is for this reason that God has established these laws, so that through their observance he might supply us with an occasion for salvation.

And I said, Woe is me, I am stunned, because though I am a man with unclean lips and live among a people of unclean lips, I have seen with my eyes the Lord of Sabaoth.^[1] The vision astonished the prophet, it caused him suddenly to start, it threw him into great fear, it moved him to a confession, it disposed him to know the faintheartedness of his own being more clearly. All the saints are like this: the more they are honored, precisely then do they humble themselves the more. Thus also Abraham, when he spoke with God, called himself dirt and dust.^[2] And Paul, when he was honored by receiving that vision, called himself an abnormal birth.^[3] Therefore this prophet also declares his own meanness, first because of his nature, saying, Woe is me, I am stunned, because I am a man, and then because of the state of his soul, And I have unclean lips. I believe he called his lips impure in comparison with the fervent mouths of those pure powers^[4] and with the service they rendered with the utmost exactness. He did not stop here but makes his confession for the whole people, adding the words, I live among a people of impure lips. And why does he accuse his lips? To show his inability to speak freely. Given that the three young men said practically the same thing in the furnace—We cannot open our mouths—here also, which was a moment for hymns and praise (and indeed he saw the heavenly powers just doing this), it is right that he speaks of his lips, which above all else are called to that ministry.

We dare to speak thus, since we have many testimonies of your goodness. In the first instance, the same name, that one for which we call you Lord; then, your immeasurable mercy that you employ in guiding all things; besides this, the agreement you made with our ancestors: in fact, you promised them that you would make the Hebrew people illustrious and worthy of praise. The prophet remembers therefore the names of his ancestors, recalling the good Lord to compassion by mentioning those righteous ones.

May the Lord make you fruitful, you and your children.^[1] Have you seen another kind of blessing, the increase of the people? For this same reason it says elsewhere that the contrary is a punishment: We have become smaller than any other nation; we are now humiliated throughout the earth. And in fact they enjoyed this blessing when they were in Egypt, despite the infinite number of things forbidden them, the forced labor, the tribulations, the cruelty of their persecutors. But nothing caused the Word of God to fail, and the blessing acted in such a way that in two hundred years, they had become six hundred thousand people.^[2]

You have not been giving false promises, O Lord. Rather, it was we who violated the agreements. Although we had become many due to the promise you made, because of our sins we were reduced to only a few. He implies this, in fact, when he asserts, We have become fewer once more. He does not, in fact, say, We are few in comparison with all the other peoples, but, We have become fewer, that is: We were beyond number due to your promise, but once we violated that agreement with you, from many we became only a few. Then he provides God with the details of the misfortune that had hit them. He does not, however, inform him as if he thought that the Lord was ignorant of what had happened but summons him to mercy through the enumeration of the misfortunes.

When they were in Babylon and their enemies wanted to make them sing, they neither listened nor obeyed, because they were prisoners and the servants of masters who maltreated them. But having been deprived of their homeland and their freedom (and even their lives were in danger) and compelled by the hands of their enemies as in a trap, when they were commanded to sing that song with their harps, they said, By the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept, because those who deported us asked us to sing. How can we sing the songs of the Lord in a foreign land?^[1] We must not say that they acted thusly because they had no harps. They give the reason: How can we sing the songs of the Lord in a foreign land? And they had their harps with them: On the poplars of that land we hung up our harps.^[2] But they were not allowed even to fast. This is what the prophet had said to them: ‘Have you fasted for these seventy years?’ says the Lord.^[3] That the offering of sacrifices or libations was prohibited is what the three young men say: We have neither prince, nor prophet, nor leader nor place to offer you the firstfruits and to find mercy. They do not say, We have no priest, for in fact there were priests. But so that you would know that everything depended on the place and the entire law was linked to it, it says, There is no place. And why speak of sacrifices and libations? It was not allowed even to read the Law (which another prophet reproves, And they read out the Law and proclaimed the confession)^[4] or to celebrate the Passover, Pentecost, the Feast of Booths.

I declare that this sacrifice (I am referring to humility) has always been superior to the Jewish sacrifice, not only now but also in the past. In fact, those three young men who in the furnace of Babylon changed the flames into mud; who were mere lads but elders; small but stronger than the many; prisoners but more powerful than the king; they who lost their homeland but not their faith; naked but clothed; poor but well-off; servants but above the free; they who changed the furnace into dew, transforming the elements; who extinguished the strength of the flames; who were bound by the tyrant and loosed by the fire—they sang a hymn, saying, We have sinned, we have done every kind of evil, departing from you, we have fallen short in every way. We have neither prince, nor leader, nor prophet, nor holocaust, nor sacrifice, nor oblation, nor incense nor place to offer you the firstfruits and to find mercy. May we be received with a contrite heart and a humble spirit.

Since, it says, your law does not allow the customary sacrifices to be offered in every place, we offer a contrite and humble heart in place of the rams, the bulls, the countless sheep, and we ask that this sacrifice be more pleasing to you than any other, since you are accustomed to freeing from all dishonor those who trust in you. This holy man does not pronounce these words about himself but was schooled by David the prophet, who in the psalm asserts, If you had wanted sacrifice, we would have given it to you; you will not be pleased with burnt offerings: a contrite spirit is the appropriate sacrifice to the Lord. God will not refuse a contrite and humble heart.^[1] And again, from the mouth of God, Surely I do not eat the meat of bulls, nor do I drink the blood of goats. Sacrifice to God an offering with praises, and pay your vows to the most High, and call to me in the day of your trouble, and I will have mercy on you, and you will praise me.^[2] And a little later, You will honor me with a sacrifice of praise, and here is the path in which I will show him my salvation.^[3] This divine man, following the instruction of such words, begged God to accept the contrite heart in place of every other offering.

I speak of our God. You could burn for him with a fire as great as it is holy: it is enough, however, that in place of your former passions, you would yield to desires having value. If you were impressed with a lofty person’s prestige, nothing is higher than God. If you were awed by things apt and tending to glory, there is nothing more glorious than God. If you could not help but admire the splendor of shiny things, is there perhaps something more brilliant than God? If the sight of beautiful things attracted you, nothing is more beautiful than God. If you thought you perceived truth in someone, there is nothing truer than God is. If you felt yourself obliged to admire someone for his generosity, nothing is more generous than God. Do you admire what is pure and simple? Nothing is more limpid than that goodness. Do great riches tempt you? Nothing is more abundant than that prosperity. Are you fond of someone because he is faithful? What could be more secure than God’s fidelity? Do you like something because it suits you? But nothing could be more suitable than God’s love. Is there something that attracts you by its unaffected air or its pleasantness? There is nothing more terrible or more benign than that greatness,^[1] than that indulgence.

Sallust in his history^[1] says that the naphtha is a species of tinder used in Persia, most apt in feeding fires. Others believe that naphtha is the name given to olive pits that are thrown away when the dregs of the oil have dried up. They assert that in the same way, the Greek term pyrinē comes from its property of feeding the fire (pyr).

God commands the fire to consume the Chaldeans, so they would not believe that the fire’s energy had been weakened by the miracle and deny its truth. For this reason those who were inside remained unhurt, while outside the fire attacked the Chaldeans, to firmly convince the onlookers that, in regard to the saints, the fire was not ignorant of its own nature but rather honored piety. Thus also the lions did with Daniel.^[1]

When the spirit is suffocated from inner turmoil and taken up with various kinds of restlessness, having been deprived for the moment of any hope of human aid and turning totally to the Lord, an angel of the Lord descends near to it. In other words, the divine word descends to the aid of the servant and brushes aside the burning blazes of passion so that the heated darts of the enemy^[1] do not penetrate the inner citadel of our heart and the enemy cannot hold us in his fiery furnace.

Let us also imitate those young people. Indeed, even now too there is a gold statue,^[1] the tyranny of mammon. But let us not pay attention to the tambourines, the flutes, the harps of ten cords^[2] or the other forms of the pomp of wealth. Yes, even if we must fall into the furnace^[3] of poverty, we prefer it, so as not to adore that statue, and in its midst there will be a wind of dew. Let us not then be afraid to speak about the furnace of poverty. In fact, back then, those who fell into the furnace were shown to be more glorious, while those who worshiped the statue perished. But then it happened all at once; now instead some things will take place down here, some up there, others both here now and in the day that will come. Those who prefer poverty rather than worshiping mammon will be more glorious both here now and also then in the future, while those who down here become rich unjustly then will endure the more serious punishment.

Lazarus also came out of this furnace too, no less glorious than those young people, while the rich man who was in the place of those who were worshipers of the statue was condemned to Gehenna.^[4] Indeed, much of what has been said about these young people was a prefiguration of this. Just as those who fell in the furnace suffered no harm, while those who were outside of the furnace were seized with great violence,^[5] thus it will be also then. The saints, walking through the river of fire,^[6] will not suffer any pain—in fact, they will be resplendent—while the worshipers of the statue will see the fire attacking them more ferociously than any wild animal, and it will drag them within.

This episode is an elegantly written text, but apart from this, it can be demonstrated that it is clearly a work of literary fiction that should be rejected as more recent for many reasons. When Susanna was condemned to death,^[1] she protests that the decision was unjust.^[2] First of all, Daniel consistently prophesies in a different way, by means of visions and dreams or by receiving the manifestation of an angel but never by prophetic inspiration.^[3] . . . When one of the elders says, Under a mastic tree^[4] (prinos), he answers that the angel will cleave him in two^[5] (prisein). And in a similar way he threatens the other who says, Under an evergreen oak^[6] (schinos) and that he will hew you down (schisthenai). It happens that in Greek these words introduce assonances (prinos with prisai and schinos with schisai), while in Hebrew they are completely different sounding.^[7] Instead, all the admitted parts of the Old Testament from the Hebrew have been translated from the Hebrew into Greek. . . . The more important fact is that this episode, together with the other two that are at the end,^[8] are not found in the text of Daniel received from the Hebrew.

What is narrated here happened at a later time, although it is placed at the beginning of the book.^[1] For it was a custom with the writers to narrate many things in an inverted order in their writings. We also find in the prophets some visions recorded in the past tense but which were fulfilled only later. Again, some are recorded as future events but have already been fulfilled. And this was done by the disposition of the Spirit so that the devil might not understand the things spoken in parables by the prophets and might not a second time lay his snares and ruin humanity.

This Joakim who lived in Babylon took Susanna as his wife. She was the daughter of Hilkiah,^[1] the priest who had found the Book of the Law in the house of the Lord when King Josiah had ordered him to purify the holy of holies.^[2] His brother is Jeremiah the prophet, who, like those who remained after the deportation of the people to Babylon, went to Egypt and lived in Taphne,^[3] where he was stoned to death by them while he was prophesying.^[4] Susanna, being of the priestly line, of the tribe of Levi, intermarried with the tribe of Judah, thus in herself joining these two righteous tribes from whom the righteous seed of Christ would appear, and thus he who was born from them in Bethlehem^[5] was manifested as a priest of God.^[6] Matthew, in fact, wanting to follow the pure and untainted genealogy along the line of Joseph,^[7] when he reached Josiah, omitted his five sons and mentioned Jeconiah, who was born in Babylon from Susanna, passing over one righteous seed in favor of another right-eous seed. It says, in fact, Josiah begat Jeconiah and his siblings at the time of the deportation of Babylon.^[8]

Trees are easily recognized from the fruit they have produced.^[1] Being devout and full of zeal for the law^[2] they bear to the world worthy sons of God, that is, the prophet and witness of Christ^[3] and the one who from Babylon has been found tested and faithful,^[4] who has manifested the holiness and the wisdom of the blessed Daniel. ^[5] DAUGHTERS ^[1]

It is opportune to ask how those who were captives and had been enslaved by the Babylonian could gather together in the same place as if they were free. It must be known that after he deported them, Nebuchadnezzar dealt with them in a humane way and permitted them to meet together and to do all things according to the law.

Susanna had to endure this from of old, and we still must endure under the princes of Babylon. Susanna was a figure of the church; her husband Joakim, a figure of Christ. The garden that was found near the house represented the communion of saints, planted like fruitful trees^[1] in the middle of the church. Babylon is the world. The two elders are figures of the two peoples who conspire against the church, one of the circumcision and the other of the Gentiles.^{[2] [3]} JEREMIAH INDICATES THEIR NAMES. ORIGEN (VIA JEROME): A Hebrew informed us that they were Achiah and Zedekiah, those whom the king of Babylon roasted in the fire because their conduct in Israel was an outrage, having committed adultery with the wives of their neighbors.^{[1] [2]} ADVICE FOR PRACTICAL LIFE. ORIGEN (VIA JEROME): In the morning^[1] Susanna went to take a walk. It is not at all out of place (in order to pacify those who find examples in the sacred writing for everything that we do) to take a walk at a time such as this, for example, since back then one did well to take a walk in order to keep his own body healthy. ^[2]

The leaders of the Jews want to eliminate this episode from the Scriptures,^[1] insinuating that none of this happened in Babylon, because they are ashamed of what the elders did then. The economy of the Father does not acknowledge this line of argument since the sacred Scriptures, without qualification and with all frankness, tell us everything, not only the just actions of the people who were saved by what they accomplished but also the scandalous lives of some whose conduct led to their own perdition. In such a way, fortified by the fear of God, we will hurry to imitate the righteous in order to be saved like they were, but those who have done the opposite will have under their eyes the sentence that will be sent from God. ^[2] THOSE WHO ALREADY ARE WICKED. ORIGEN (VIA JEROME): The Greek word pathos is better rendered for us with the term disturbance^[1] rather than with the term passion. Therefore this disturbed and covetous desire stimulated, or rather it churned violently, in the heart of the elders. But because their souls were like plowed soil and they could only think about getting what they desired, their own feelings became perverted, and, once perverted, their eyes were turned toward earth so that they did not see the celestial truths, and they forgot about sound judgment, they forgot about God, about honesty, about the nature oriented toward the good inborn in every person. ^[2]

These words are easily understood: the two peoples, incited by Satan who is working in them, never stop trying to raise up persecutions and tribulations against the church. They try to destroy it, but they are not in agreement with each other.

These words indicate that, with regard to food, the Jews are not in agreement with the Gentiles; but in their ideas and in all the other affairs of this world, they are of one mind and can agree with one another.

Thus in revealing themselves to each other they look toward the time when suddenly they will be interrogated by the angels in order to render to God an account of all the sins they have done, according to the word of Solomon, The interrogation will destroy the impious.^[1]

Which is the favorable day if not that of Passover? This is the day in which the laver is prepared in the garden for those who burn with lust; and the church, washed like Susanna, is presented to God as a young and pure spouse. And, like the two attendants who accompanied Susanna,^[1] faith and charity prepare the oil and the ointments for those who come to be washed. What do the ointments signify? The commandments of the Word. The oil is nothing other than the gifts of the Spirit. With these the faithful come scented with the anointing that takes place after the laver of washing. These things were prefigured here in the blessed Susanna for our sake.

Thus here it is symbolized that anyone who wants to partake of the water that flows in the garden^[1] must renounce the gate that is wide and enter through the tight and narrow door.^[2]

Thus just as in paradise the devil hid in the snake, also now, hidden in the elders, it has conceived desire in order to corrupt Eve anew.^[1]

Listening to these words, the blessed Susanna was troubled in her heart and set a watch on her mouth since she did not want to be contaminated by the impious elders. It is possible to truly understand what happened to Susanna, you see, since you find the same thing fulfilled now also with the church. When, in fact, the two peoples come to an agreement in order to corrupt some of the saints, they wait for the appropriate moment and then penetrate into the house of God, while all are praying and singing hymns to God, and they drag outside some of those they seize, saying, Come, consent with us and worship our gods; otherwise we will denounce you. If they do not consent, they drag them before the court and accuse them of acting contrary to the law of Caesar and condemn them to death. ^[1] ANOTHER NAME FOR SIN. ^[1]

It is better for me not to escape your hands than to sin in front of God. She refused the proposals she heard because she feared him who she could not see and to whose divine gaze, however, she was very visible. Because she did not happen, in fact, to see God does not mean that God did not see her. God saw what he was building up: he inspected his work, inhabited his temple. He was there; he was answering their insidious trap. If the giver of chastity had abandoned her, chastity also would have been extinguished. Therefore she said, I am trapped on every side. But she waited for the one who would save her from weakness of spirit and from the fury of the false witnesses who were like stormy winds. Between these winds and that storm, however, chastity did not suffer shipwreck because the Lord guided the route. She screamed. People came. The process began, and the case came up for judgment. The servants of Susanna believed what the imposter elders said against their mistress. It seemed to them that it would be against their religion not to believe the elders, even though the innocent and stainless life Susanna had led up to this point seemed to offer valid testimony of her chastity. No such chatter had been made on her account. There they were, false witnesses, but God noticed. The household believed one thing; God saw another. But what God saw, human beings did not know, and it seemed right to believe the elders. Therefore she had to die, but if her flesh were to die, her chastity still would have triumphed. Instead, the Lord was present to whom she prayed, and he heard because he knew her.

And to whom did Susanna cry out? She cried out to God, as Isaiah says, Then you will call, and the Lord will answer you; while you are still speaking, he will say, Here I am.^[1] And the two elders cried out against her. The wicked never stop crying out against us and say, Away with such people from the earth, for it is not fitting that they should live.^[2]

The devil does not fill someone or dwell in him by participation in his nature or being, as some think, but is thought to dwell in someone whom he has filled with confusion, deception and wickedness. With this same deception he entered the old men, who became cruel toward Susanna, and filled their souls with the passion of lust and the belated will of old age. In fact, it is written, The two old men arrived, full of evil intentions. He also filled the entire Jewish people with these deceptions. As the prophet says, Woe to you, sinful nation, a people full of sins, evil seed, corrupt children.^[1] Evil seed is the devil, and his children are called sinners because of their surpassing wickedness. If, therefore, those who are called his children in the Scriptures do not possess the devil according to a participation in being—because this has been shown, more than once, to be impossible in creatures—then neither can anyone else receive him by participation in his being but only by taking on an extremely treacherous will.

Her beauty was not, in fact, the beauty of the body of a prostitute, like the beauty painted on the body of Jezebel^[1] or the face that is made up with makeup of all colors. Rather, it was the beauty of faith, wisdom and holiness.

With my voice I have cried to the Lord. I have not, that is, cried with the voice of the body, whose sound is made from the vibration of the air, but with the voice of the heart that is silent for human beings but sounds like an outcry to God. Susanna was heard by this voice. With this voice the Lord has taught to us to pray without sound in the secret places, that is, in the recesses of the heart.^[1] Nor would one say that we pray less intensely because of the fact that no word comes out of our mouth. In fact, when we pray silently in our heart, if alien thoughts come to distract the mind of one who prays, we cannot anymore say, With my voice I have cried to the Lord.^[2] We can rightly say these words only when the soul—without being dragged down with the flesh and having no sexual purposes in mind—alone speaks to the Lord. Then this prayer can be truly called an outcry because of the vigor of the tension that the soul experiences. And he has heard me from his holy mountain.^[3] From the prophet the Lord called a mountain where it is written that the stone that was cut without human hands has grown into the grandeur of a mountain.^[4]

The Spirit endued the soul of Daniel with wisdom so that, young as he was, he became a judge of elders. The chaste Susanna was condemned as a wanton harlot. There was no one to plead her case, for who was to deliver her from the rulers? She was led away to death; she was now in the hands of the executioners. But her Helper was close at hand, the Comforter, the Spirit who sanctifies every rational nature. Come here to me, he says to Daniel. Even though you are young, convict old men infected with the sins of youth. For it is written, God raised up the Holy Spirit on a young lad; and nevertheless (to pass on quickly) by the sentence of Daniel that chaste woman was saved. We bring this forward as testimony since this is not the time for expounding further. Nebuchadnezzar also knew that the Holy Spirit was in Daniel because he says to him, O Belteshazzar, master of the magicians, I know about you that the Holy Spirit of God is in you.^[1] One thing he said truly, and one falsely. Daniel did have the Holy Spirit, that was true; but he was not the master of the magicians because he was no magician. His wisdom came through the Holy Spirit. And before this he had also interpreted for Nebuchadnezzar the vision of the image that he who had seen it did not himself understand.^[2] For he says, Tell me the vision, which I who saw it do not know.^[3] See the power of the Holy Spirit: those who saw it did not know, while those who did not see it did know and interpreted.

Let us examine why this visitation of the Lord did not take place before her condemnation but at the moment in which they were taking her away to death. This happens so that the power of God would shine forth. When he wants to save one of his servants, he saves him when he wants to and how he wants to. When he wants the trial to end, he waits patiently, to glorify and crown his servant like a good athlete. When Susanna finished praying and was heard, the angel of the Lord was sent to her, he who is the avenger and helper, to defeat her enemies. When Daniel saw the angel’s haste, being a prophet and having the Spirit of God, he shouted, I am innocent of her blood! so as not to be responsible for her death with the others. Pilate acted in the same way before the Lord, washing his hands and saying, I am not responsible for this blood.^[1]

And a little while after the elder said, ‘Under the mastic tree.’ And Daniel answered him, ‘You have lied well—but against your own head; here in fact is the angel of God with a sword for cleaving you in two.’ Since the Hebrews do not accept the story of Susanna asserting that it is not contained in the book of Daniel, we must carefully assess if the words schini and prini (which mean mastic tree and evergreen oak) exist in the Jewish language and what their etymology is—if, that is, in their [i.e., the Hebrew] language schino derives from the word to cleave and prino from the word to divide or to saw.^[1] If we do not succeed in this attempt, we are necessarily forced to accept those whose position is that this pericope only exists in Greek because it contains etymology that is found only in the Greek and not in the Hebrew. But if someone finds that the words to cleave and to divide also have the same etymological root as those two trees in the Hebrew, then we will be able to accept this pericope as Scripture as well.

Let us pay attention, just as Joshua says, so that we can prevail over the Canaanites,^[1] because if they prevail over us and hold us captive, they may turn us from Israelites to Canaanites, just as it happened to him who was won over by the enticements of the flesh, to which the prophet said, Race of Canaan and not of Judah, beauty has seduced you. Let it not happen to us, therefore, that we hear, race of Canaan, because cursed is the son of Canaan; he will be a servant to his brothers.^[2] May the Lord instead grant that we may be children of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, heirs according to the promise^[3] and brought forth from stones^[4] so that we may be children of Abraham, in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Salvation was awaited by and offered to Israel but not to the carnal Israel. In fact, it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise who are considered his offspring.^[1] As John also attests, the children of Abraham are not the children according to the flesh, since they are also children of vipers,^[2] and God can raise up children of Abraham from rocks.^[3] The Lord taught that the right of succession is constituted by works of faith and that we must not think of the birth of children according to carnal generation, when he says, If you were children of Abraham, you would do the works that Abraham did.^[4] And Daniel also, condemning the old men, does not say, offspring of Abraham, but, offspring of Canaan and not of Judah. Ezekiel also, confronting the people with their iniquities, says, Your father was a Canaanite, your mother a Hittite. Your origin and your birth are of the land of Canaan.^[5] We are not dealing, therefore, with this Israel that comes from carnal succession and to which is attributed the birth of a generation that is wholly profane because of its unbelief. It is not to this Israel, therefore, that salvation is given, because they did not accept it when it was offered, but to that other who, their slavery ended, has become the people of God.

Ham receives the sentence so that he might come to his senses, and he is punished through his son,^[1] so that you would learn that even if one is old, the punishment will pass to the child. And this makes his life bitter and painful, knowing that even after his death his son will be punished for what he did. And that the son will be miserable from birth and all his descendants detestable and inclined to evil is what the Scripture says instead of pronouncing a curse: Your father was an Amorite and your mother a Hittite.^[2] And elsewhere it says scornfully, offspring of Canaan and not of Judah.

This is the text of the story, but an allegory can also be drawn from the letter. Hilkiah in fact means alteration of God or praise of God. Susanna means their praise or apostolic lily. Joakim, disposition of the Lord or praise of the Lord. Daniel, judgment of God and God is judge.^[1] When, therefore, the joy of the souls of the church, who are pleasing to God—that is, the apostolic lily, the sweet-smelling flower, the spiritual aroma, the daughter of Hilkiah who learned from her parents to act according to the tradition of the prophets (who are the food and the inheritance of Israel)—unites with Christ, the spiritual spouse, who is Joakim, the spiritual spouse of the church—the one who prepares for the faithful the goods of the world to come, announcing the kingdom of heaven and making them participants of the Holy Spirit^[2] (who is worthy of praise forever, amen)—then the godless judges of the people will suddenly arise. If, however, they cannot corrupt her soul with forbidden dogma, killing it (this is in fact the death of the soul), then they give the body over to the senseless, unreasoning mob to be sacrificed. And if God permits the suffering of the spouse, he places the crown of martyrdom on her. And if instead he frees her from the hands of her enemies,^[3] then also he honors her, keeping her near himself. Those who plot against her are in any case condemned to Gehenna by God’s just judgment,^[4] pronounced over them by Daniel, whose name is translated judgment of God. The old men have no name, like the rich man spoken of by Luke, who did not pity Lazarus’s sores.^[5]

The Logos, as John said, was made flesh.^[1] Scripture, in fact, has the habit of indicating people with the term flesh, as when it says by the mouth of the prophet Joel, I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh,^[2] and as Daniel said to Astyages, I do not adore idols made by the hands of people, but the living God, who has created the sky and the earth and has power over all flesh,^[3] for he and Joel identify the flesh with the human race.

Ah! What a great sign of acknowledgment—that a god eats and drinks a lot! Daniel did not say, Master, this could never be God (the king in fact was a weak person) but instead explained, I speak to you about the God who created the earth and the sky,^[1] and you speak to me about such utter nonsense? Surely this would not be something that matters to God. God in fact does not have hunger, nor does he get tired.^[2]

Which damage does not derive from the excess of eating and drinking? Diseases, strife and all kinds of problems derive from the satiety of the belly, with all their consequences. When did it happen that Eve went out looking for something outside of paradise? Was it not perhaps when she listened to the snake and ate of the fruit of the tree in order to please herself with the fruit that had been forbidden to her?^[1] When did it happen that Cain decided to commit the abomination of killing his brother? Was it not perhaps when he tasted the fruit of the firstfruits, reserving the best for his own appetite?^[2] When did it happen that the sons of Job suddenly found their tombs in the same place as they were eating? Was it not perhaps while they were attempting to eat and to drink [to excess]?^[3] When did it happen that Esau fell from divine blessing? Was it not perhaps when, for the attraction of the gullet, he became a slave to his belly?^[4] When did it happen that Saul fell from his royal status? Was it not perhaps when he ate the meat of the precious sheep against the prohibition of the law?^[5] When did it happen that the people of Israel provoked the temper of God? Was it not perhaps when they mourned for the dishes of the Egyptians, expecting from their leader meats and pots of stew?^[6] Hofni and Phineas, Eli’s sons, how is it that they did not survive even a single hour but were killed in battle? Was it not perhaps because they secretly stole the offerings of meat destined for the sacrifice?^[7] And as for Jacob, one who was naturally blameworthy, is it not that he began revolting when he ate and was not filled up, he grew fat and became thick and broad?^[8] And when did it happen that the Sodomites took to stimulating themselves against the laws of nature? Was it not perhaps when they corrupted their minds in their continuous banquets?^[9] This in fact is what Ezekiel recalls to their shame when he says, In the abundance of the wine and the satiety of the bread they abandoned helping others,^[10] and he says this regarding the city of Sodom. But then he adds, And also her daughters, namely, the suburbs that always imitate the customs of the city. And what happened when the purpose of temperance was abandoned by that ancient people? Was it not perhaps when, in a similar way, they got older they began to lie around on the couch, which is how they are described with some disdain by the prophet: They eat lambs from the flock, and the year-old calves are removed from the stable still nursing. And they drink filtered wine, after which they are massaged with precious ointments; they abandon themselves to the comfort of their couches, while they suffer nothing over the ruin of Joseph?^[11] And Isaiah, against whom has he turned his complaints? Is it not perhaps against those who rise up early in the morning in order to feast? And thus he exclaims, Woe to those who rise up early in the morning and go in search of inebriating drinks, who hang around late in the evening until they are inflamed in their faces with wine; they drink the wine, accompanied by the lyre and harp, but they do not attend to the deeds of the Lord.^[12] And when the priests of Bel were confounded by Daniel? Was it not perhaps when they left a trail through the ashes that their treachery was uncovered because they had gone to take the food and drinks meant for Daniel?