Dungeons and Dragons: History and Truth in Readings of Daniel 6 and 14

Abstract What is the role of historical reference in the functioning of scriptural narrative? This broad question is overly beholden to theoretical reflections on what “must” (theologically) be the case, but I proceed instead by exploring two interestingly related examples: Dan 6 and the story of divine providence in the lion’s den, and Dan 14 (Greek) and the story of the prophet Daniel in the lion’s den after the killing of the “dragon.” In contrast to approaches to Dan 6 that appear to invite maximal historical interpretation, approaches to the additions to Daniel tend to assume that they cannot be historically referential. I propose that the (deutero-)canonical status of the Apocrypha offers an interesting test case in laying bare how interpreters think scriptural narrative functions truthfully. Such truthfulness is better understood theoretically not in terms of historical reference but by way of J. R. R. Tolkien’s idea of a secondary world into which author and reader enter to seek theological illumination. A concluding reflection suggests that criteria for theological truth may be found as much in the reception of a text as canonical as in historical reference to the world behind the text, perhaps even more so.