Scripture Daily

Context No. 69 of 4322 · Daniel (Greek)

Context · Reflection

Daniel (Greek) 13:47-54: in context

47Then all the people turned them toward him, and said, “What do these words that you have spoken mean?” 48So he, standing in the midst of them, said, “Are you all such fools, you sons of Israel, that without examination or knowledge of the truth you have condemned a daughter of Israel? 49Return again to the place of judgment; for these have testified falsely against her.” 50Therefore all the people turned again in haste, and the elders said to him, “Come, sit down among us, and show it to us, seeing God has given you the honor of an elder.” 51Then Daniel said to them, “Put them far apart from each another, and I will examine them.” 52So when they were put apart one from another, he called one of them, and said to him, “O you who have become old in wickedness, now your sins have returned which you have committed before, 53in pronouncing unjust judgment, condemning the innocent, and letting the guilty go free; although the Lord says, ‘You shall not kill the innocent and righteous.’ 54Now then, if you saw her, tell me, under which tree did you see them companying together?” He answered, “Under a mastick tree.”

This is from the story of Susanna, one of the Greek additions to Daniel kept in the Catholic Bible. Susanna, a married woman of good standing in the Jewish community in Babylon, is bathing in her garden when two respected elders, judges of the community, corner her and demand she sleep with them. She refuses and cries out. They accuse her publicly of adultery with a young man, and on the word of two elders the assembly condemns her to death without questioning anything.

This passage is the young Daniel stopping the execution as she is led out. He calls the crowd fools for condemning a daughter of Israel without examination, and sends them back to the place of judgment. Then he does something procedural. Separate these two from each other, he says, and I will question them apart.

He asks each the same question. Under what tree did you see them? One says a mastic tree, the other says an evergreen oak. Two different trees, and the case collapses. The story is cited in legal history as an early argument for cross-examining witnesses separately and punishing perjury, and the law of Deuteronomy already required judges to inquire diligently. Two men of standing agreed, and the agreement was worth nothing. What have I accepted lately because two people I respect said the same thing, without asking either of them separately?

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