JAA commentary to Bel and the Dragon

Abstract

The stories about Daniel preserved in Bel and the Dragon resurface in rabbinic literature. In the midrashic collection Genesis Rabbah ( Gen. Rab.), for example, Daniel hides nails in straw and feeds the straw to a dragon, who is killed when its bowels are pierced by the nails (Gen. Rab. 68.14). In the tenth-century work of Josippon, moreover, Daniel ties iron combs together and covers the combs’ teeth with flesh, fat, pitch, and sulfur. He throws the combs into the mouth of the dragon, whose insides are pierced by their teeth. The Talmud likewise refers to a snake that lived during the time of the Persian king Shapur, which was so big that it swallowed thirteen bundles of straw (b. Ned. 25a).