Literary Lions with Real Bite: Re-examining the Intertextual Rhetoric in Daniel 6

Abstract

The story of Daniel in the lion s pit (Dan 6) is still one of the most well-known stories in the HB. The way the story has been captured in visual form by the Old Masters as well as contemporary depictions thereof in children s Bibles are indicative of its ability to captivate the imagination. In scholarly circles the story has also received "considerable attention, most of which relates to issues of historical" "and/or literary nature. Thus, it has been proposed that the story in" the HB may be the result of a mistaken literalization of a Babylonian literary motif. The present paper seeks to address the issue of "such a symbolic understanding of the lions in the story. However," "instead of looking to the Babylonian context for a literary antecedent," it is proposed that Israel s own literary tradition may shed light into this dark pit. The study of the metaphor of teeth in the Psalter points to a literary connection between the malicious accusations of the presidents and satraps (in Dan 6) and Daniel's eventual fate among the lions.