BEL AND THE DRAGON (THE HISTORY OF)

An apocryphal and uncanonical book of Scripture. It was always rejected by the Jewish Church, and is extant neither in the Hebrew nor the Chaldee language, nor is there any proof that it ever was so. St. Jerome gives it no better title than “the fable of Bel and the Dragon.” It is, however, permitted to be read, as well as the other apocryphal writings, for the instruction and improvement of manners. Selden ( De Diis Syris, Syntagma ii. cap. 17) thinks, this little history ought rather to be considered as a sacred poem or fiction, than a true account. As to the Dragon, he observes, that serpents ( dracones ) made a part of the hidden mysteries of the Pagan religion; as appears from Clemens Alex and rin us, Julius Firmicus, Justin Martyr, and others. And Aristotle relates, that, in Me so pot am i a, there were serpents which would not hurt the natives of the country, and infested only strangers. Whence it is not improbable that both the Me so pot am i ans themselves and the neighbouring people might worship a serpent, the former to avert the evil arising from those reptiles, the latter out of a principle of gratitude. But of this there is no clear proof, nor is it certain that the Babylonians worshipped a dragon or serpent.— Aristot. περὶ θαυμασιων ἀκουσματων .