The descent of praise. A Literary Structure of the Song of the Three Jews (Dan 3:52–90)
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.21906/rbl.3807Keywords:
Daniel 3, Canticle of the Three Young Men, Benedicite, Septuagint, Theodotion, biblical poetry, hymn structure, deuterocanonical additions, Greek Daniel, biblical cosmologyAbstract
This article proposes a poetic and structural analysis of the Canticle of the Three Young Men (Greek Dan 3:52–90) in the Theodotion version, the recension most widely attested in the manuscript tradition and most commonly used in ecclesial liturgy. Working from the critical text of Ziegler (1999), the study identifies a four-stanza structure organised around two main sections – a Blessing (vv. 52–56) and a Cosmic Exhortation (vv. 57–90) – and argues for a chiastic macrostructure governing the composition as a whole. In the Blessing, praise ascends from the historical-earthly sphere (the God of the Fathers and his Name) through the Temple to the cosmic-universal realm (God’s throne and the firmament of heaven). In the Exhortation, an inverse movement unfolds: beginning from the heavenly realm above and below the skies (vv. 57–73), praise descends progressively through the earthly creation (vv. 74–81) to humanity in its various categories (vv. 82–88), culminating in the three protagonists whose personal experience of salvation both grounds and motivates the universal demand for praise. The analysis draws on lexical, grammatical and intertextual arguments, with particular attention to key terms such as ἄβυσσος, δρόσος, ὄμβρος and σεβόμενοι, and situates the Canticle within the broader tradition of biblical cosmological hymnody. The article concludes that the poetic trajectory of the Canticle – earth to heaven, heaven to earth – serves to inscribe every historical prayer within the unending cosmic praise that resounds before God.
References
Alonso Schökel, L., & Sicre Díaz, J. L. (1996). I profeti (G. Ravasi, Ed.; T. Tosatti & P. Brugnoli, Trans.; 3rd ed.). Borla.
Amara, D. (2017). Septuagint. In A. Lange & E. Tov (Eds.), Textual history of the Bible: Vol. 1C. The Hebrew Bible: Writings (pp. 542–554). Brill.
Bauer, W. (2010). A Greek-English lexicon of the New Testament and other early Christian literature (F. W. Danker, Ed.; 3rd ed.). University of Chicago Press. https://doi.org/10.7208/chicago/9780226028958.001.0001
Beentjes, P. C. (2020). “Bless the Lord, winter cold and summer heat”: Cosmos and creation in Greek Daniel 3:52–90. In M. W. Duggan, R. Egger-Wenzel, & S. C. Reif (Eds.), Cosmos and creation: Second Temple perspectives (pp. 91–110). De Gruyter. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110677041-009
Bietenhard, H. (1967). ὄνομα, ὀνομάζω, ἐπονομάζω, ψευδώνυμος. In G. Friedrich (Ed.), Theological dictionary of the New Testament (G. W. Bromiley, Ed. & Trans.; Vol. 5, pp. 242–283). William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company.
Blass, F., & Debrunner, A. (1976). Grammatik des neutestamentlichen Griechisch (F. Rehkopf, Ed.; 14th rev. and expanded ed.). Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht.
Bogaert, P.-M. (1993). Daniel 3 LXX et son supplément grec. In A. S. van der Woude (Ed.), The book of Daniel in the light of new findings (pp. 13–37). Peeters.
Chirilă, I., & Kreuzer, S. (2023). Odai / Das Buch der Oden. In S. Kreuzer (Ed.), Einleitung in die Septuaginta (pp. 354–360). Gütersloher Verlagshaus. https://doi.org/10.14315/9783641310936-031
Christie, E. B. (1928). The strophic arrangement of the Benedicite. Journal of Biblical Literature, 47(1/2), 188–193. https://doi.org/10.2307/3259525
Collins, J. J. (1993). Daniel: A commentary on the book of Daniel (F. M. Cross, Ed.). Fortress Press.
Davis Bledsoe, A. M. (2015). The relationship of the different editions of Daniel: A history of scholarship. Currents in Biblical Research, 13(2), 175–190. https://doi.org/10.1177/1476993X14524431
Delcor, M. (1971). Le livre de Daniel. J. Gabalda et Cie.
Di Lella, A. A. (1995). Il libro di Daniele (1–6) (P. Pasolini, Trans.). Città Nuova.
Di Lella, A. A. (2008). A textual and literary analysis of the Song of the Three Jews in Greek Daniel 3:52–90. In J. Corley & V. Skemp (Eds.), Studies in the Greek Bible: Essays in honor of Francis T. Gignac, S.J. (pp. 49–64). Catholic Biblical Association of America.
DiTommaso, L. (2021). The additions to Daniel. In G. S. Oegema (Ed.), The Oxford handbook of the Apocrypha (pp. 363–386). Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190689643.013.18
Engel, H., & Lattke, M. (2012). Oden. In Das wissenschaftliche Bibellexikon im Internet (WiBiLex). Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft. https://www.die-bibel.de/ressourcen/wibilex/altes-testament/oden
Frizzell, L. E. (1981). A hymn of creation in Daniel. In A. Finkel & L. E. Frizzell (Eds.), Standing before God: Studies on prayer in scriptures and in tradition with essays in honor of John M. Oesterreicher (pp. 41–52). Ktav Publishing House.
Gloger, S. (2024). Ein Tempel aus Lobgesang: Das dritte Kapitel des griechischen Danielbuches. Peter Lang. https://doi.org/10.3726/b21800
Jeremias, J. (1964). ἄβυσσος. In G. Kittel (Ed.), Theological dictionary of the New Testament (G. W. Bromiley, Ed. & Trans.; Vol. 1, pp. 9–10). William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company.
Jerome. (1845). Praefatio in Danielem prophetam. In J.-P. Migne (Ed.), Patrologiae cursus completus: Series Latina (Vol. 28, cols. 1291–1294). Migne. https://mlat.uzh.ch/browser/7197:1
Keel, O. (1972). Die Welt der altorientalischen Bildsymbolik und das Alte Testament: Am Beispiel der Psalmen. Benziger; Neukirchener Verlag.
Kittel, G., & von Rad, G. (1964). δοκέω, δόξα, δοξάζω, συνδοξάζω, ἔνδοξος, ἐνδοξάζω, παράδοξος. In G. Kittel (Ed.), Theological dictionary of the New Testament (G. W. Bromiley, Ed. & Trans.; Vol. 2, pp. 232–255). William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company.
Klein, R. W. (2013). The messages of the Prayer of Azariah and the Song of the Three Jews. In A. H. Cadwallader & P. L. Trudinger (Eds.), Where the wild ox roams: Biblical essays in honour of Norman C. Habel (pp. 255–269). Sheffield Phoenix Press.
Montanari, F. (2025). GI: Vocabolario della lingua greca (4th ed.). Loescher Editore.
Moore, C. A. (1977). Daniel, Esther, and Jeremiah: The additions. Doubleday.
Palmisano, M. C. (2016). Siracide: Introduzione, traduzione e commento. San Paolo.
Rahlfs, A. (Ed.). (1979). Psalmi cum Odis (3rd ed.). Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht.
Ravasi, G. (1985). Il libro dei Salmi: Commento e attualizzazione (Vols. 1–3). Edizioni Dehoniane.
Rinaldi, G. (1962). Daniele (4th rev. and expanded ed.). Marietti.
Schmitz, O. (1965). θρόνος. In G. Kittel (Ed.), Theological dictionary of the New Testament (G. W. Bromiley, Ed. & Trans.; Vol. 3, pp. 160–167). William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company.
Settembrini, M. (2019). Daniele: Introduzione, traduzione e commento. San Paolo.
Skehan, P. W., & Di Lella, A. A. (1987). The wisdom of Ben Sira: A new translation with notes. Doubleday.
Ziegler, J. (Ed.). (1999). Susanna, Daniel, Bel et Draco (2nd rev. ed.; Old Greek text established by O. Munnich; Theodotionic fragments edited by D. Fraenkel). Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht.
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
Copyright (c) 2026 Raffaele Vannini
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
- Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License
that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal. - Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).
