Hence we see that when Babylon was overthrown, Darius returned to his own kingdom in Media and brought Daniel along with him the same honorable capacity to which he had been promoted by Belshazzar. . . . But as for the fact that a nonchronological order is followed, so that some history is narrated in the reign of Darius before material is given for Belshazzar’s reign, whereas we are subsequently to read that he was put to death by Darius, it seems to me that the anachronism results from the fact that the author has brought all the historical portions together in immediate sequence. ^[1] TRICKERY UTILIZED TO DESTROY DANIEL. ISHO‘DAD OF MERV: We need to take notice that previously the Babylonians, that is, their princes, had used trickery in their jealousy of Daniel to destroy Daniel and his companions and had persuaded Nebuchadnezzar to build the golden statue and to order that it alone be worshiped by those under his authority. So, too, now the Medes use trickery in the elaboration of the edict and decree in order to destroy Daniel. ^[1]

Daniel received the Holy Spirit and therefore prophesied. So, too, the king promoted him because he had the grace of the Spirit. For the king spoke in this regard, I have heard of you that the Spirit of the holy God is in you.^[1] And farther on it is written, Then Daniel became distinguished above all the other presidents and satraps, because an excellent spirit was in him. And the spirit of Moses also was shared by those who were to be judges.^[2]

Normally, in fact, those entrusted with kingship or any other rule confide least in the people closest to their predecessors; but Daniel enjoyed the same trust from all, receiving equal privileges and being entrusted with the same governance—hence, of course, his becoming one of the three supervisors under Darius. Now, by supervisors I think there is reference to what are now called viceroys, and by satraps to the governors of the nations, Daniel being one of the supervisors.

[Daniel] had received from God a greater and more abundant grace. Now, from this we learn that to those also who are entrusted with conduct of earthly affairs, even if unsympathetic to religion, a grace of wisdom is given from God for their management of those they rule. Blessed Daniel implied as much in saying, Because there was an extraordinary spirit in him, that is, he had received the grace in keeping with his religious sentiments.

I myself would simply interpret this as meaning that they were unable to discover any pretext of accusation against him in any matter in which he had injured the king, for the simple reason that he was a faithful man and no suspicion of blame was discoverable in him. Instead of suspicion Theodotion and Aquila have rendered offense (amblakema), which is essaitha in Chaldean. And when I asked a Jew for the meaning of this word, he replied that the basic significance of it was snare, and we may render it as a lure or sphalma, that is, a mistake. Furthermore, Euripides in his Medea equates the word amplakiai [offenses] (spelling it with a p instead of a b) to hamartiai, that is to say, sins.

It was well said that they went surreptitiously, for they did not come right out with what they were aiming at but contrived their plot against a private enemy on the pretext of honoring the king.

Nothing is more repugnant than envy: it pressured them into committing impiety and caused an impious decree to be published forbidding those intent on offering prayers to God; they prevented not only themselves from doing it but also all others subject to royal control. . . . In surrendering their mind’s eye to envy, they did not understand that the king could not supply everything to petitioners, like health, life, fathering children, abundance of rain and anything else that we receive when we ask it of God. Losing their senses, however, they ascribed to the king what belongs to God and persuaded the foolish king to reach the same verdict and ratify their request.

Darius, as he loved quietness and inactivity and found work and business unpleasing, left the care of the empire to his prefects, and for this reason the Scripture adds, he set over the kingdom satraps, that is, 120 governors. And over them he placed three presidents, including Daniel. Then they asked him to set an interdict according to the law of the Medes and Persians. Indeed, among the Persians and the Medes, a law stated that when the king had set a certain rule, it was not permitted to rescind it. So the satraps asked the king for this kind of firm and immutable decree; and they were certain that the king would have not rescinded such a decree in order to save Daniel. It is likely that Daniel was not present in the hall of justice on that day, when the king argued from morning till evening with his satraps in order to save Daniel. If he had been present, he would have immediately confessed that he had prayed [to God], and after the confession of the crime the trial would have not been extended until evening.

Note how much this verse implied in a few words in mentioning the piety and courage of blessed Daniel. First, when Daniel learned that the decision has been reached, he went into his house —that is, when he got news of the passing of the law, he had great scorn for it and continued openly doing the opposite. It next mentions a further detail that reveals his courage: the windows were open, it says—in other words, he said his prayers not in secret but openly, with everyone watching, not for vainglory but in scorn for the impiety of the law.

We must quickly draw from our memory and bring together from all of holy Scripture all the passages where we have read of domata, which means in Latin either walled enclosures (menia) or beds or sun terraces, and also the references to anogaia, that is, upper rooms. For after all, our Lord celebrated the Passover in an upper room,^[1] and in the Acts of the Apostles the Holy Spirit came on the 120 souls of believers while they were in an upper room.^[2] And so Daniel in this case, despising the king’s commands and reposing his confidence in God, does not offer his prayers in some obscure spot but in a lofty place, and he opens up his windows toward Jerusalem, from whence he looked for the peace [of God]. He prays, moreover, according to God’s behest and according to what Solomon had said when he admonished the people that they should pray in the direction of the temple. Furthermore, there are three times in the day when we should bow our knees to God, and the tradition of the church understands them to be the third hour, the sixth hour and the ninth hour [i.e., 9:00 a.m., noon and 3:00 p.m.]. Last, it was at the third hour that the Holy Spirit descended on the apostles. It was at the sixth hour that Peter, purposing to eat, ascended to the upper room for prayer.^[3] It was at the ninth hour that Peter and John were on their way to the temple.^[4]

When blessed Daniel in Babylon prayed, he opened the windows facing Jerusalem, not under the impression that God was confined there but from his knowledge that the divine manifestation occurred there.

He did this not only to provoke his accusers but also to fulfill an ancient law: when Solomon built that famous temple and celebrated the festival of consecration, he prayed a prayer of supplication for divine grace and implored that the temple be filled with it, adding this in addition to other things, If you surrender your people to their foes, and they take them as captives to a land distant or near, and they have a change of heart in the land where they are transported and pray to you in their exile in the words, We sinned, we did wrong, we broke the law, and they turn back to you with their whole heart and with their whole soul in the land of their foes where you transferred them, and they pray to you toward their land which you gave their ancestors, and the city that you chose and the house that I built to your name, may you hearken from heaven, forthwith from your dwelling place, and forgive their sins by which they have sinned against you and all the transgressions they have committed against you, and show them pity before their captors.^[1] Instructed in this, Daniel faced Jerusalem in praying.

And so in the monasteries of Palestine and Mesopotamia and all the East the services of the above-mentioned hours are ended each day with three psalms apiece, so that constant prayers may be offered to God at the appointed times, and yet, the spiritual duties being completed with due moderation, the necessary offices of work may not be in any way interfered with: for at these three seasons we know that Daniel the prophet also poured forth his prayers to God day by day in his chamber with the windows open. Nor is it without good reasons that these times are more particularly assigned to religious offices, since at them what completed the promises and summed up our salvation was fulfilled. For we can show that at the third hour the Holy Spirit, who had been of old promised by the prophets, descended in the first instance on the apostles assembled together for prayer.

Do not pray as the hypocrites; but as the Lord commanded in his Gospel,^[1] thus pray: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done, as in heaven, so on earth. Give us today our daily [needful] bread, and forgive us our debt as we also forgive our debtors. And bring us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one (or, evil); for yours is the power and the glory forever. Three times a day thus pray.

The psalmist instructs us to allot three periods a day to God when he says, At evening, at morning and at midday I shall speak what I have to say, and you will hearken to my voice.^[1] For those three periods while Daniel diligently beseeched God, not only did they obtain foreknowledge of the future, but he also merited the freedom of his people held captive for so long.

From this passage we learn that we are not to expose ourselves rashly to danger, but so far as it lies in our power, we are to avoid the plots of our enemies. And so in Daniel’s case, he did not contravene the king’s authority in a public square or out in the street but rather in a private place, in order that he might not neglect the commands of the one true God almighty.

In order to magnify the dishonor involved in this contempt, they speak of the man who showed this contempt for the king’s commands as a mere captive.

And he prays constantly (deeds of virtue or fulfilling the commandments are included as part of prayer) who unites prayer with the deeds required and right deeds with prayer. For the only way we can accept the command to pray constantly^[1] as referring to a real possibility is by saying that the entire life of the saint taken as a whole is a single great prayer. What is customarily called prayer is, then, a part of this prayer. Now prayer in the ordinary sense ought to be made no less than three times each day. This is evident in the story of Daniel, who prayed three times each day when such great peril had been devised for him.

He realized that he had been tripped up by his own reply to their question and that envy was the motive of their plot. And so to avoid the appearance of acting against his own law, he wanted to deliver Daniel from danger by ingenuity and strategy rather than by exerting his royal authority. And so earnestly did he labor and strive that he would not accept any food, absolute monarch though he was, even until sunset. And as for the plotters, so firmly did they persist in their evil purpose that no consideration of the king’s personal desire or of the damage he would sustain had any effect on them.

Just as the king understood that the princes were making their accusation out of motives of envy, so also they for their part understood what the king’s purpose was, namely, that he wished to rescue Daniel from imminent death. And so they allege that according to the law of the Medes and Persians, the commands of a king cannot be nullified.

You do not have the authority to overturn what you have prescribed, the laws of Medes and Persians ordering that the laws passed by the previous king be fulfilled. Under pressure both from the compelling logic of the words and from the number of the accusers, the king surrendered blessed Daniel to the lions.

For what shall we say? Was Daniel cast into the den of lions by those who feared God? Were Ananias and Azarias and Mishael shut up in a furnace of fire by those who observed the great and glorious worship of the Most High? Far from us be such a thought! Who, then, were they that did such things? The hateful, and those full of all wickedness, were roused to such a pitch of fury that they inflicted torture on those who served God with a holy and blameless purpose [of heart], not knowing that the Most High is the defender and protector of all such as with a pure conscience venerate his all-excellent name. . . . But they who with confidence endured [these things] are now heirs of glory and honor and have been exalted and made illustrious by God in their memorial for ever and ever. 1

From Syria even to Rome I fight with beasts: not that I am devoured by brute beasts, for these, as you know, by the will of God, spared Daniel, but by beasts in the shape of people, in whom the merciless wild beast himself lies hid and pricks and wounds me day by day. But none of these hardships move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself,^[1] in such a way as to love it better than the Lord. Wherefore I am prepared for [encountering] fire, wild beasts, the sword or the cross, so that only I may see Christ my Savior and God, who died for me. I therefore, a prisoner of Christ, who is driven along by land and sea, exhort you: stand fast in the faith,^[2] and be steadfast, for the just shall live by faith;^[3] be unwavering, for the Lord causes those to dwell in a house that are of one and the same character.

Lord, who fulfilled your promises made by the prophets, and had mercy on Zion and compassion on Jerusalem, by exalting the throne of David, your servant . . . by the birth of Christ, who was born of his seed according to the flesh, of a virgin alone; please, O Lord God, accept the prayers that proceed from the lips of your people which are of the Gentiles, which call on you in truth, as you accepted the gifts of the righteous in their generations. In the first place you respected the sacrifice of Abel . . . of Ezra at the return;^[1] of Daniel in the den of lions; of Jonah in the whale’s belly.^[2]

Let not, therefore, any one that works signs and wonders judge any one of the faithful who is not granted the same: for the gifts of God that are bestowed by him through Christ are various; and one person receives one gift and another another. . . . For neither did the wise Daniel, who was delivered from the mouths of the lions, nor the three children, who were delivered from the furnace of fire, despise the rest of their fellow Israelites: for they knew that they had not escaped these terrible miseries by their own might but by the power of God did they both work miracles and were delivered from miseries. Wherefore let none of you exalt himself against his brother, though he is a prophet or though he is a worker of miracles.

He sealed with his ring the rock by which the opening of the pit was shut up, so that the enemies of Daniel might not make any attempt to harm him. For he had entrusted him to the power of God, and although not worried about lions, he was fearful of men. He also sealed it with the ring of his nobles, in order to avoid all ground for suspicion so far as they were concerned.

Certainly it had been decided by Darius to save Daniel from the present danger with any possible means; therefore he sealed the entrance of the den with his own signet and invited the satraps to do the same. This had to be done for two reasons: first, in order that [the satraps] might not steal there without being seen and, after rolling off the lid, might kill him; second, in order that they might not spread among the people the rumor that some fraud had been used inside the den.

Each of these details testifies both to his humanity and to his cowardice: a mark of his humanity was his refusing to partake of food or let his eyes rest in sleep, instead staying awake in grief for the unjust punishment of Daniel; it was a mark of cowardice that he was not so affected as to counter the accusers and invoke his royal authority and power to save the wronged.

King Darius rose early at daybreak, that is, while it was still dark, around dawn, so that there was even need of lamps (the meaning of at daybreak).

The term pit (lacus) implies a really deep depression, or dry cistern, in which the lions were fed. And so he proceeded hastily to the pit at the break of dawn, believing that Daniel was alive.

The same faith, which on the previous evening had led Darius to seal the entrance of the den, brought him again to that place, as if he would have seen Daniel still alive.

By his tears he showed his inner emotion, and forgetting his royal dignity, the conqueror ran to his captive, the master to his servant.

Each of these phrases shows the religious spirit of the king, who complimented Daniel on his piety: first, he calls him not his own servant but God’s; next, he calls Daniel’s God living; then, in praise of his piety, whom you serve with constancy, that is, you were not prevented from worship under pressure of the law. The question Was he able to rescue you from the lions’ mouth? means, Was it his will to render you impervious against the lions? After all, he would not have referred to God as powerless after calling him living.

Stopped the mouths of lions, quenched raging fire and escaped the edge of the sword.^[1] See how they were in death itself, Daniel encompassed by the lions, the three children abiding in the furnace, the Israelites, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, in diverse temptations; and yet not even so did they despair. For this is faith. When things are turning out adversely, then we ought to believe nothing adverse is done but all things in due order.

The lesson that was read today invites you to the true faith, by setting before you the way in which you also must please God. It affirms that without faith it is impossible to please him. For when will an individual resolve to serve God, unless he believes that he is a giver of reward? When will a young woman choose a virgin life, or a young man live soberly, if they do not believe that for chastity there is a crown that does not fade away?^[1] Faith is an eye that enlightens every conscience and imparts understanding. The prophet says, And if you do not believe, you shall not understand.^[2] Faith stops the mouth of lions, as in Daniel’s case, for Scripture says concerning him, Daniel was brought up out of the den and was found to be hurt in no way, because he believed in his God.

Daniel also was persecuted as Jesus was persecuted. . . . Daniel they cast into the pit of lions, and he was delivered and came up out of its midst uninjured; and Jesus they sent down into the pit of the abode of the dead, and he ascended, and death had not dominion over him. Concerning Daniel they expected that when he had fallen into the pit he would not come up again; and concerning Jesus they said, Since he has fallen, he shall not rise again.^[1] From [harming] Daniel the mouths of the ravenous and destructive lions were closed; and from [harming] Jesus was closed the mouth of death, [though] ravenous and destructive of [living] forms. They sealed the pit of Daniel and guarded it with diligence; and they guarded the grave of Jesus with diligence, as they said, Set guards to watch at the tomb.^[2] When Daniel came up, his accusers were ashamed; and when Jesus rose, all they who had crucified him were ashamed.

Since a simple punishment was not sufficient for those culprits, in order to balance the offense they had brought against a righteous man, after being condemned to the same punishment, they were thrown to the beasts together with their wives and children.

The foundation and strength of hope and faith is fear. In Psalm 111: The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.^[1] Of the same thing in the Wisdom of Solomon,^[2] . . . in the Proverbs,^[3] . . . in Isaiah,^[4] . . . in Genesis,^[5] . . . and in Psalm 2,^[6] . . . Then Darius the king wrote, To all peoples, tribes and languages that are in my kingdom, peace be to you from my face. I decree and ordain that all those who are in my kingdom shall fear and tremble before the Most High God whom Daniel serves. TO QUIRINIUS:

The reason why signs are performed amid barbarian peoples through the agency of God’s servants is that the worship and religion of the only God may be proclaimed.

And so the statement that we read above at the end of the first vision, And Daniel lived until the first year of King Cyrus, is not to be understood as defining the span of his life. In view of the fact that we read in the last vision, In the third year of Cyrus, king of the Persians, a word was revealed to Daniel, whose surname was Belte-shazzar; this is what is meant, that up to the first year of King Cyrus, who destroyed the empire of the Chaldeans, Daniel continued in power in Chaldea, but afterwards he was transferred to Media by Darius.