The questions of authorship, date, place of writing, and language, are all practically answered by what has been said; it was written by a Pharisee, during the last quarter of the first century B.C., in Jerusalem (or, at any rate, in Palestine); the language was in all probability Hebrew. The judicial acumen of the “young man” who examined the false witnesses, and upon whom “a spirit of discernment” (verse 45, Septuagint) was bestowed, was probably the reason of the name of Daniel (“My judge is El”) being given to him. Thus would sufficiently explain why it became prefixed, or added, to the Book of Daniel, with which it has otherwise no connection. V. BEL AND THE DRAGON This addition follows the preceding one in all the Greek manuscripts by which it is treated as an integral part of the canonical Daniel. The story tells how Daniel proved to the king (called “Cyrus the Persian” in Theodotion’s Version, but not specified by name in the Septuagint manuscript) that the Babylonian idol Bel was not a living god. The king is convinced that Daniel is mistaken, and as proof thereof points to the food which the god demolishes daily. But Daniel undertakes to show the king that not Bel, but his priests, with their wives and children, are those who daily consume the food which they place before him. Daniel and the king, then, go into the temple and watch the food being set before Bel; thereupon the king’s seal is set upon the entrance to the temple, but not before Daniel has managed to get the ashes of wood strewn all over the floor of the temple. During the night the priests with their families enter the temple, as is their wont, by secret doors and enjoy the food set before Bel. The next morning the king, accompanied by Daniel, enter the temple; the king, seeing the footprints of men, women and children in the ashes on the floor, realizes the fraud of which he has been the victim, and which has now been exposed by the wisdom of Daniel. The image of Bel is destroyed, and his priests put to death.