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Daniel Destroyed Two Gods in a Single Week

The priests laid a bullock and ten barrels of wine before Bel each night. By morning the table was bare, and Daniel asked for ashes on the floor.

Curated by Arthur · Told by Maggid ·
Table of Contents
  1. Ashes on the Floor
  2. A Living Mouth
  3. Iron Inside the Cake
  4. The City Wanted Blood

Every morning the table was bare. The priests of Bel laid out the god's supper in the dark: one bullock, ten rams, ten sheep, a hundred doves, seventy loaves of bread, ten barrels of wine. By dawn every crumb was gone. The king of Babylon pointed at the empty boards as proof of divinity. Daniel pointed at the priests.

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"Would that thou didst believe in the glory of our god Bel," the king told him, "who consumes what is laid upon this table." Daniel did not bow. "Let not the heart of the king be deceived. There is no breath in it. It is the work of the craftsman. It is the priests of Bel who eat the contents of this table."

Ashes on the Floor

He offered to prove it. The king agreed. The temple was locked. Ashes were scattered across the floor while the priests were kept ignorant. The doors were sealed with two rings, the king's and Daniel's, and they retired for the night.

In the morning the seals were untouched. The table was bare. Darius fell prostrate before Bel in awe and prepared to worship. Daniel caught the motion and pointed downward.

The footprints ran in both directions. Men, women, children. Seventy priests had been creeping in through hidden passages every night, feasting on the god's offering with their whole families. Hauled before the king and threatened with death, they showed the tunnels. The idol was destroyed. The temple came down.

A different man might have stopped there. Daniel did not.

A Living Mouth

The Babylonian princes, humiliated by the Bel disaster, offered what they thought was an unanswerable counter. Not a stone idol this time but a living creature: the sacred dragon of Babylon, a massive serpent that dwelt in a cave and devoured the sacrifices placed at its mouth.

"Look at this great serpent," Darius said. "Surely you cannot lift your thoughts against this living god. This is mighty and strong. Who would dare rise up against it to do it evil?"

Daniel's reply was even. "It is but a beast, and can be subdued by the hand of man. Give me permission to deal with it, and I will kill it without sword or staff or any warlike instrument." He asked only that the king protect him from the princes' vengeance. Darius, certain the creature was untouchable, agreed.

Iron Inside the Cake

Daniel went to work like a cook rather than a warrior. He fashioned iron instruments shaped like wool combs, joined them back to back with the sharp points facing outward in a circle, and coated the whole device in layers of fat, grease, pitch, and brimstone until the spikes were hidden. He shaped it to look like a normal offering and cast it into the dragon's mouth.

The dragon swallowed greedily. As the fat melted inside the belly, the iron prongs pierced its entrails. In another telling he boiled pitch, fat, and hair, shaped the sticky mass into thick cakes, and fed them one after another until the heavy mixture swelled and the great serpent split open and died.

The next day the animal was dead. Three days later, when the Babylonians came to make their daily offering, they found a swollen, decaying corpse and a horrible stench. Daniel stood over the burst carcass. "Look well," he said. "These are the gods you have been bowing to."

The City Wanted Blood

The princes plotted to kill both Daniel and the king. A Jewish exile had been allowed to destroy the national gods, first the hollow bronze, then the living mouth in the cave. The city gathered. Darius learned of the conspiracy and ordered the ringleaders put to the sword.

Two gods had fallen in a single week, and neither had required a conventional weapon. Ashes had been enough for Bel. A cake had been enough for the dragon. The king had watched his own body start to bow over empty plates, then had been forced to look at footprints in the dust. He had watched a beast he called mighty take food from a prisoner's hand and die of it.

Daniel did not linger over the victory. He had asked for permission, mixed the pitch, hidden the iron, and waited for a stomach to do the rest. Babylon still had its palaces. It no longer had a table that could pretend to eat, or a cave that could pretend to be divine.

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From the tradition

Sources

4 sources

The texts behind this telling. Some cards carry a translation of the source; others are our own retelling of it, and each card says which. Every card links out to the original.

Chronicles of Jerahmeel LXXIIChronicles of Jerahmeel (Gaster, 1899)

Retold in our words. Read the original at the link below.The Chronicles of Jerahmeel, trans. Moses Gaster (1899) · Public Domain

Darius summoned Daniel to test his wisdom and found him seven times wiser than any report had claimed. According to the Chronicles of Jerahmeel, a 12th-century Hebrew chronicle translated by Moses Gaster in 1899, Darius appointed Daniel as his personal counselor, just as the previous king had done. But one day the king tried to convert Daniel to his own religion.

The idol Bel was the great god of Babylon, and his appetite was legendary. Every day the priests laid out one bullock, ten rams, ten sheep, one hundred doves, seventy loaves of bread, and ten barrels of wine on his table. By morning, it was all gone. "Would that thou didst believe in the glory of our god Bel," the king told Daniel, "who consumes what is laid upon this table."

Daniel was unimpressed. "Let not the heart of the king be deceived," he replied. "There is no breath in it. It is simply the work of the craftsman. It is the priests of Bel who eat the contents of this table." He offered to prove it, and the king agreed.

Daniel had the temple locked and sealed with only one entrance open. Then the king ordered ashes scattered across the floor of the temple while the priests were kept in ignorance. The doors were sealed with the king's ring and Daniel's ring, and they retired for the night.

The next morning, the seals were untouched. When they opened the doors, the table was bare, every morsel consumed. Darius fell prostrate before Bel in awe. But Daniel pointed to the floor. There in the ashes were the footprints of men, women, and children. The seventy priests of Bel were hauled before the king, and under threat of death, they revealed their secret entrances: hidden passages through which they crept in every night to feast on the god's offerings.

Full source
Chronicles of Jerahmeel LXXIIIChronicles of Jerahmeel (Gaster, 1899)

Retold in our words. Read the original at the link below.The Chronicles of Jerahmeel, trans. Moses Gaster (1899) · Public Domain

After Daniel exposed the fraud of the idol Bel and destroyed his altar, the Babylonian princes demanded a rematch. According to the Chronicles of Jerahmeel, a 12th-century Hebrew chronicle translated by Moses Gaster in 1899, they pointed to a living creature that no one could dismiss as mere stone and clay: the sacred dragon of Babylon, a massive serpent that dwelt in a cave and devoured sacrifices placed at its mouth.

Darius challenged Daniel directly. "Canst thou lift up thy thoughts also against this great and mighty serpent god? This is mighty and strong, and who would dare rise up against it to do it evil?" The princes were thrilled, certain that this time Daniel would finally be destroyed.

Daniel's reply was cool and confident. "It is but a beast, and can be subdued by the hand of man. If my lord the king will permit me, I shall slay it without either sword or stick or any warlike instrument." He asked only that the king protect him from the princes' vengeance.

Daniel's weapon was brilliantly simple. He fashioned iron instruments shaped like wool combs, joined them back to back with the sharp points facing outward in a circle. He coated this lethal device in layers of fat, grease, pitch, and brimstone until the spikes were completely hidden. Then he shaped the whole thing to look like a normal offering and cast it into the dragon's mouth.

The dragon swallowed it greedily. But as the fat melted inside the creature's belly, the iron prongs pierced its entrails. The dragon died the next day. Three days later, when the Babylonians came to make their daily offering, they found only a swollen, decaying corpse and a horrible stench. They plotted to kill both Daniel and the king, but when Darius learned of the conspiracy, he ordered the ringleaders put to the sword.

Full source
Bel and the Dragon 1:1-22Additions to Daniel

Retold in our words. Read the original at the link below.The Revised Version with Apocrypha (1895), public domain · Public Domain

King Cyrus loved to boast about the idol Bel, the great god of Babylon. Every single day the priests carried in twelve measures of fine flour, forty sheep, and six jars of wine, and every morning the food was gone. Surely, the king reasoned, only a living god could eat so much. Daniel just laughed. This is clay within and bronze without, and it has never tasted a thing.

The seventy priests were furious and bet their lives on the idol. Set out the feast tonight, they said, seal the doors with your own ring, and see for yourself in the morning whether Bel has eaten. What they never mentioned was the hidden trapdoor beneath the table, where they and their wives and children crept in each night to feast in the dark.

Daniel was ready for them. After the food was laid out and the priests had gone, he had his servants quietly sift fine ashes across the whole temple floor, with only the king watching. Then the doors were sealed.

At dawn the seals were unbroken and the plates were bare. The king shouted his praise to Bel. Daniel caught his arm before he could step inside and said simply, Look at the floor. There, pressed into the ash, were the footprints of men, of women, and of little children, leading straight to the secret door. The king saw the fraud for himself, and Bel and his temple were torn down.

Full source
Bel and the Dragon 1:23-27Additions to Daniel

Retold in our words. Read the original at the link below.The Revised Version with Apocrypha (1895), public domain · Public Domain

With Bel reduced to rubble, the king of Babylon had one argument left. In the same temple precinct lived an enormous serpent, a living dragon the city worshipped. Surely this one Daniel could not call hollow metal. It breathes, it eats, it drinks, the king pressed him. Here is a god you cannot deny. Worship it.

Daniel refused without hesitation. I worship the living God, the Maker of heaven and earth, not a beast that swallows whatever is thrown to it. Then he made the king an offer that must have sounded reckless. Give me your permission, and I will kill this dragon with no sword and no staff in my hand. The king, certain the creature was untouchable, agreed at once.

Daniel went to work like a cook rather than a warrior. He took pitch, fat, and hair and boiled them together, then shaped the sticky mixture into thick cakes. He fed them to the dragon, one after another. The beast gulped them down greedily, and the heavy mass swelled and choked inside it until the great serpent split open and died.

Daniel stood over the burst carcass and turned to the watching crowd. Look well, he said. These are the gods you have been bowing to. A creature that could be undone by a handful of tar had never been divine at all.

Full source