From: Daniel 1:1-6, 8-20
Arrival at the Court
Royal Fare — God’s Servants Tested
The Wisdom of the Three Young Men
1:1-6:29. These chapters deal with Daniel at the court of the kings of Babylon —
Nebuchadnezzar (1:1-4:37), Belshazzar (chap. 5) and Darius the Mede (chap. 6).
These three reigns, arranged in a line as if they really followed one another cover
the entire period from the start of the Babylonian captivity to the arrival of Cyrus
of Persia, who allowed the Jews to return to their homeland (cf. 1:21). The main
themes running through these chapters are: 1) divine protection afforded Daniel
and his companions; 2) the help that these young Jews render the kings; 3) their
faithfulness to the Lord despite trials and ordeals; 4) the acknowledgment of the
God of Israel by these pagan kings. In the overall context of the book, these first
six chapters introduce the God of Israel and Daniel, who will later receive a reve-
lation about the end of the world. They also provide the Jews of the Diaspora with
a model of how a Jew in a pagan society ought to live. For that reason, the
Church will read them with interest because she lives in the midst of the world
and “realizes that she is truly linked with mankind and its history by the deepest
of bonds” (Vatican II, “Gaudium Et Spes”, 1).
1:1-4:37 Nebuchadnezzar was the king who was responsible for the deportation
of the Jews, and the most famous of the Babylonian kings. That may explain why
he gets so much space in the book: Daniel interprets two dreams for him (2:1-49;
4:1-37), and the king three times acknowledges the God of Israel (2:46-49; 4:1-3;
4:37). Each episode in these chapters is an independent unit, and they all com-
bine to show the qualities that Daniel and these other Jews had: they were ac-
complished people, successful in life; at the same time they stayed true to God,
even when their religion was put to the test.
1:1-21. This chapter acts as an introduction to the whole book. It tells us who Da-
niel was and how he and his companions became members of Nebuchadnezzar’s
household. The dates given at the start and finish of the chapter (vv. 1, 21) show
that Daniel was connected with the whole period of the exile.
1:1-7. The third year of the reign of Jehoiakim was 606 BC, but the siege and
sack of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar took place in 597. The sacred writer is
content to use vague references like this; and it may well be that he is advancing
the date of the deportation because that is more in line with seventy years — the
length of the exile according to Jeremiah 25:11. The Hebrew word translated as
“eunuch” (v. 3) is “saris”, which could refer to any palace officials or guards, not
necessarily eunuchs. The country of Shinar is Babylonia, which is how the Greek
version translates the name. It was quite common in the ancient East for a victo-
rious king to appoint state officials from among the noblemen of subject peoples;
Jewish officials, for example, could be very useful in dealings with Jewish com-
munities.
1:8-16. The sacred writer extends Jewish regulations about food (cf. 1 Mac 1:62)
to wine, to show that keeping to the Jewish law was much better for the youths
than eating the king’s fare would have been. Besides, to eat and drink at the royal
table would have involved eating and drinking things offered to the gods; it would
have been a form of communing with pagan gods. As those young men saw it,
being good Jews was not incompatible with the performance of duties for which
they were trained. Similarly, “to remind a Christian that his life is meaningless
unless he obeys God’s will does not mean separating him from other men” (St.
Josemaria Escrivá, “Christ Is Passing By”, 21).
God can afford protection by making use of people’s good dispositions; here he
causes the chief eunuch to be well-disposed to the Jewish youths (v. 9). Thus,
“though often unconscious collaborators with God’s will, men can also enter de-
liberately into the divine plan by their actions, their prayers and their sufferings”
(”Catechism of the Catholic Church”, 307).
1:17-21. Although Daniel and his companions are given a very good Chaldean
education, their wisdom comes from God, not from that training (v. 17). It in-
cludes the understanding of all things human and, in Daniel’s case, the ability to
interpret dreams and visions. The king will soon see for himself that Daniel and
the Jews have greater wisdom than others, but he does not yet know where it
comes from (he will, later; cf. 2:47). But the Jewish or Christian reader of the
book does know what the source of this true wisdom is: “God’s truth is his wis-
dom which commands the whole created order and governs the world (cf. Wis
13:1-9). God who alone made heaven and earth (cf. Ps 115:15), can alone im-
part true knowledge of every created thing in relation to himself” (”Catechism of
the Catholic Church”, 216).
Summing up the career of these Jewish youths in Babylon, and aware that their
wisdom came from the Word of God, St Hippolytus of Rome comments: “It was
the Word who gave them wisdom and made them faithful witnesses [to him] in
Babylon, so that through them what was worshipped in Babylon would be scor-
ned. Nebuchadnezzar was defeated by three young men whose faith was tested
in the fires of the furnace; the holy woman Susanna was delivered from the jaws
of death; and the terrible depth of ancient evil was laid bare. These were the vic-
tories won by four young men in Babylon; they were beloved of God and nurtured
the fear of the Lord in their hearts” (”Commentarium In Danielem”, 1, 11).
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Source: “The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries”. Biblical text from the
Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of
the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.
Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.
From: Luke 21:1-4
The Widow’s Mite
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Commentary:
1-4. Our Lord, surrounded by His disciples, watches people putting offerings into
the treasury. This was a place in the women’s courtyard, where there were vari-
ous collection boxes for the offerings of the faithful. Just then, something hap-
pens whose significance Jesus wants His disciples to notice: a poor widow puts
in two small coins, of very little value. He describes this as the greatest offering
of all, praising the generosity of giving alms for this purpose, particularly that of
those people who give part of what they need. Our Lord is moved by this tiny of-
fering because in her case it implies a big sacrifice. “The Lord does not look”,
St. John Chrysostom comments, “at the amount offered but at the affection with
which it is offered” (”Hom. on Heb”, 1). Generosity is of the essence of almsgi-
ving. This woman teaches us that we can move God’s heart if we give Him all we
can, which will always amount to very little even if we give our very lives. “How lit-
tle a life is to offer to God!” (St. J. Escriva, “The Way”, 42).
*********************************************************************************************
Source: “The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries”. Biblical text from the
Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of
the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.
Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.