DANIEL THE DETECTIVE

I love a good mystery whether it is a book written by masters such as Rex Stout, Ngaio Marsh or Raymond Chandler or TV shows such as Bones, New Tricks or CSI: Miami. Many treatises on mystery fiction will state that the first true detective was Monsieur C. August Dupin, the creation of Edgar Allan Poe featured in the short stories “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” and “The Mystery of Marie Roget.”

I hate to bust that myth, but the prophet Daniel beat Dupin to that title by over 2,000 years. You are certainly acquainted with Daniel's career as a receiver and interpreter of prophetic messages from God, longtime adviser to kings, and the strength of his faith even in the jaws of death, but you may not know about his side occupations as a dragon-slayer and amateur detective. Before you start racking your brain trying to figure out what I am talking about, let me hasten to explain that the stories will not actually be found in your Bible unless you happen to be reading a Catholic version such as The Jerusalem Bible or an ecumenical Bible such as the NEB or RSV with Apocrypha.

The Apocrypha is a collection of Jewish writings dating from about the 1^st and 2^nd centuries BC. Some are stand-alone books such as Judith, 1&2 Esdras, and the Wisdom of Solomon. But others are shorter works meant to be sandwiched into the canonical books at appropriate places. These include Baruch and The Letter of Jeremiah (belonging with the Book of Jeremiah), miscellaneous Additions to Esther, and The Prayer of Manasseh (placed at the end of II Chronicles). Also are the additions to the Book of Daniel including The Song of the Three Young Men and The Prayer of Azariah (belonging with Daniel 3), Susanna (Daniel 13), and Bel and the Dragon (Daniel 14).

Since the Books of the Apocrypha were included in the Greek Septuagint, they naturally passed into the Latin Vulgate and are now accepted to one degree or another as canonical or semi-canonical by the Roman Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox churches, and the Anglican Church. Although I personally do not feel that they are inspired writings in the same way that the canonical books are, they certainly are good examples of ancient Jewish writings which are interesting to read as such. And two of the additions to Daniel make intriguing mystery short stories.

The story of Susanna (also called Susanna and the Elders) was a favorite subject of Renaissance painters since it gave them a good excuse to portray a naked woman without being accused of prurient motives. The plot concerns a pious and beautiful Jewish wife in Babylon named Susanna who is lusted after by two elders of the people. They know that she is in the habit of bathing in her garden without her maids present. And so they spy on her and then accost her with a proposition: either have sex with us or we will tell everyone that you were committing adultery with a young man.

Of course, Susanna refuses to give in to their demands and the elders accuse her as they had threatened. But before she is executed for her supposed crime, God calls for Daniel and he advises the people to reconsider. He takes each of the two elders to separate areas before they have time to rehearse their stories and questions them one by one. He asks each one where they were when they saw this happening. One says that it was under a mastic tree while the other one says it was under an evergreen tree. Daniel exposes this inconsistency to the people and the elders are executed in place of Susanna.

Anyone who has viewed a procedural detective show or legal drama from NCIS to Law and Order will readily recognize that ancient plot device since it reflects a police interrogation technique widely used even today. And, by the way, “Susanna” is also the precursor to all those mystery stories in which the fun (as in the old TV show Columbo) or suspense (as in most Hitchcock movies) consists not in figuring out who-done-it but how the villain is going to meet his or her just deserts.

The second example comes from Bel and the Dragon, which actually consists of two short stories. We will only concern ourselves with “Bel” since the story of the dragon is a fanciful one involving the formulation of a magic potion that makes the beast explode when he eats it. By contrast, “Bel” is a well-written little mystery with a clever example of detective work by Daniel.

The story takes place during the Persian period and concerns the king's devotion to the Babylonian god Bel, probably a variation on “Baal.” The king tries to convince Daniel, his close friend, that Bel is a not just a statue but a living god who each night eats up all the food and drink that the people leave in his temple as offerings. Daniel refuses to believe the story and so the king tells him that he had better prove otherwise or suffer the consequences.

Since the temple is locked every night, Daniel is faced with the first “locked room” mystery. This again has become a standard plot device in mystery stories, and it is one that grows old rather quickly, as anyone who has watched the English TV series “Death in Paradise” realizes. Daniel sets about uncovering the mystery and immediately suspects that the 70 priests of Bel are the ones who are somehow eating the offerings.

When it is time to lock up the temple for the night, Daniel in the presence of the king alone scatters ashes on the floor of the temple and then locks up. The next morning, lo and behold, there are all sorts of footprints on the ground left by the priests and their families as they came in and out of the secret entrance to the temple. The king kills the priests and destroys the temple and all ends happily.

I have actually seen that same clever method used in an old Red Skelton comedy-mystery movie. He thinks that maybe he has been sleepwalking and committing crimes in the middle of the night. So he spreads flour on the floor of his bedroom to see if it is true. When the crimes continue even though he has proved that he had not left his bed, he realizes that someone else is the perpetrator.

Now you know more than you needed to know about the prophet Daniel.