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in Palestine. References to the book of Judith in Clement of Rome’s Epistle to the Corinthians (1 Clement, ca. 90 CE)¹¹ provide a secure terminus ad quem for its present Greek version.

      The fictional narrative refers to the events shortly after the Babylonian Exile, looking back on the crisis under Antiochus IV. It is necessary to understand its references to older biblical books. These books are constantly reinterpreted for changing times. Individual figures, episodes, motifs, and stories (identity-creating threat-and-rescue stories in particular) are taken up and linked together as a historical construct with contrasting individual actors and scenes.

      Given the signs of fabrication in the designation of the ruler of the Neo-Babylonian Empire as king of the Assyrians in Nineveh (1:6), along with the imaginary geography and chronology, the narrative is presented from the outset as a parabolic condensation of events. Its speeches and prayers emphasize its didactic character.

      In Judith, the narrator brings together features of great women of the biblical tradition. In her courageous rescue act she fulfills the will of God; by her programmatic name she becomes a type for all God-fearing Jews. The story of Judith’s resistance and her resolute faith in God is a literary expression of the conflict between the God of Israel and the anti-divine powers, in other words between the endangered Judeans and the foreign peoples and rulers around them.

      The book of Judith asserts the encouraging message that there is no need for the godly to despair as they persevere in the Jewish faith—even in troubled times. This time of tribulation could, instead, be interpreted as a test on the part of Almighty God, who can utilize anything, even things that are opposed to him, but never abandons his people to their enemies.

      Part of the Greek version of the book of Esther, namely the traditional text of the Septuagint, contains six additions, which vary in terms of form and content.¹² These supplementary embellishments, totaling approximately 100 verses, use an edifying, novelistic style to enhance the religious content of the biblical book of Esther. They also correct the omission of any explicit mention of God in the book.

      • Addition A (dream vision of the Judean Mordechai and discovery of the conspiracy) before 1:1 (MT);

      • Addition B (text of the anti-Jewish decree of the Persian king) after 3:13 (MT);

      • Addition C (long prayers by Mordechai and Esther composed from different elements of biblical literature) after 4:17 (MT);

      • Addition D (detailed dramatic account of the course of Esther’s audience with the king, during which she pleads for the lives of her people) in place of 5:1–2 (MT);

      • Addition E (counter-decree of the Persian king to protect his righteous Jewish subjects) after 8:12 (MT);

      • Addition F (interpretation of Mordechai’s dream and authenticating signature to the Greek book of Esther) after 10:3 (MT).

      The additions to Esther probably came into being during the Second Temple period; Josephus already seems to have been familiar with them (Ant. XI 184–296). As the book of Esther enjoyed great popularity in ancient Judaism, a narrative pool of different haggadic units seems to have been created from which the individual strands of the tradition drew.

      The Greek version of the book of Daniel¹³ and the versions that depend on it include three major blocks of text not found in the Aramaic and Hebrew book:

      • Susanna;

      • Bel and the Dragon;

      • Prayer of Azariah; the three men in the fiery furnace.

      All the texts have been preserved in the Christian transmission of the Septuagint, while not handed down in rabbinic tradition. As additions to the Greek book of Daniel, the two edifying narratives, the lament and the hymn, show with what freedom they were initially handed down.¹⁴ Whether these haggadic pieces go back to Semitic originals can no longer be determined.

      The story of the rescue of Susanna by Daniel is transmitted only in the two versions of the Greek book of Daniel. It tells of how a beautiful and godly woman is sexually harassed by two Jewish elders, and then falsely accused of adultery and sentenced to death. Young Daniel, imbued by the spirit of God, saves her by convicting the miscreants in skillful interrogation. The narrative is extant in an older version (SusLXX) and a younger one (SusTh). In SusLXX (ca. 125–75 BCE) it is found after ch. 12 in the »appendix« to the book of Daniel, while in SusTh (origin ca. 25 BCE—25 CE) it comes before Dan 1–12.

      The Susanna story is a »haggadic midrash« on Dan 1:1–6, which gives an account of Daniel’s and his friends’ education at the Babylonian court. Numerous factual and chronological difficulties are clarified in this expansion of the Daniel material. The didactic, parenetic narrative also contains motifs from popular tradition. The story takes place within a Jewish community with its own administration and jurisdiction. Unlike in Dan 1–12, here it is not foreign rulers that prove unlawful and ungodly, but the Jews’ own authorities. Discernible in the text of SusLXX is implied criticism of the governance and behavior of the ruling Hasmonean dynasty.

      The placing of the younger version of the Susanna narrative before Dan 1–12 in SusTh gives the narrative the character of a »childhood story.« The expansion of SusTh 1–6 situates the characters in a remote location and a back in the past. The new version SusTh reflects Palestinian Judaism’s changed historical situation vis-à-vis the origins of SusLXX, since the country came under direct Roman administration. In this period, neither politics nor jurisdiction was still in Jewish hands. The older authority-critical narrative in SusLXX is presented in SusTh as an edifying example story, the aim of which is to teach virtue and emphasize Daniel’s prophetic gift.

      The narrative of Daniel and Bel and the Dragon/Serpent is found only in the Greek Daniel. The text consists of three parts, the first of which has Daniel uncover the deceit of the priests of Bel (BelDr 1–22), while the second depicts his victorious fight against the dragon in Babylon (BelDr 23–27), and the third deals with his miraculous deliverance from the lions’ den (BelDr 28–42). BelDr is extant in two versions (LXX and Th). The fact that the non-Jewish ruler is portrayed positively suggests that the narrative emerged before the crisis under Antiochus IV (175–164 BCE).

      In the first two episodes, Daniel demonstrates the deficiencies of the divinity worshiped by the Babylonians. Indigenous cults are ridiculed. The image of Bel (i.e. Marduk) proves lifeless and powerless and is ultimately destroyed. The dragon can consume food but having eaten, it, too, dies.

      Foodstuffs and the ability to distinguish between beneficial and unhealthy foods also plays an important role on the narrative margin of the confrontation stories: the priests who secretly eat the gifts for Bel are judged and found guilty by Daniel. The lions that are supposed to devour Daniel spare him. Daniel is saved from starvation by the prophet Habakkuk and is presented as a model of faith, keeping Jewish food laws even in a non-Jewish environment under the continued pressures of assimilation. The narrative of BelDr illustrates the identity-forming significance of individual piety even in the Babylonian exile.

      In Dan 3, the prayers of Azariah and his friends are inserted between vv. 23 and 24 (MT) together with a short narrative about their miraculous fortunes in the fiery furnace. The 66-verse text, absent from the Hebrew and Aramaic book of Daniel, consists of an introductory remark about the praise of God by the three men (vv. 24f.) and a communal lament (vv. 24–45). The Prayer of Azariah interrupts the narrative context of the Aramaic text; the men suffer there precisely because of their uncompromising faith and therefore have no need of repentance and confession of sin. After a narrative transition (vv. 46–51) canticle of praise by the three men follows (vv. 52–90)—a hymn to the Creator God.

      The religious persecution under Antiochus IV is the assumed background to the Prayer of Azariah. The sacking of the city and the desecration of the Temple are interpreted as a just punishment. It is not the iniquities of foreign rulers that cause the suffering of the pious but the sins of the people of Israel itself, its failure to honor the covenant and its disregard for the Torah. All that is left for the pious, in the face of the impending calamity, is to seek refuge

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