Fairy Tale Spotlight: The Extra Bits of the Catholic Bible [Review]

After wrapping up the extra books that only appear in the Catholic Bible, [I was reading from the Douay-Rheims version which is a very old one] I decided to go back and check books I had already read in the King James Version but that had chapters and verses added to it. These only seemed to exist within the book of Esther and the book of Daniel. I almost did not read these, because I did not want to have to reread the entire book for context, but I found out that these bits can be read mostly on their own.

The additions to "Esther" were passable. They were more about Mordecai and a vision he had about the destruction of his people. Esther has a moment that reminded me a lot of Judith where she humbles herself before God. She even put dung on her head. Back then, people knew how to do the humbling thing. We're terrible at it these days! All in all, the additions were okay but not really as interesting as what came next.

The additions to Daniel were a blast! They show Daniel doing early police interrogations and CSI work. I'm not even joking! I felt like I was watching an episode of Forensic Files. In the first part, two old men who were also judges accuses a woman named Susanna of cheating on her husband. They do this because she wouldn't have a threesome with them. Because they were so well respected in the community, the people immediately called for her death.

This was sort of a "group think" situation where elites were able to control a mob of ignorant people through their gained influence. It happens even today. Anyways, Daniel shows up and accuses them of lying and says he can prove it, but he has to separate them first. He then conducts an interrogation of each, asking where Susanna and the unknown man was lying. Each man says it was under a different tree, and since their stories did not line up, they were obviously lying from the beginning.

This is actually how real interrogations are conducted in the modern age. I actually spend a bit of time watching law enforcement videos, and I enjoy watching interrogation stuff as well. Watching Daniel use modern interrogation techniques in the Biblical era was extremely satisfying for me.

But wait! It gets better!

One of the heathen kings that Daniel worked for worshiped a great idol called Bel that could apparently eat real food. Because it seemed to be able to eat like living people, the king believed that it justly deserved worship as a god. But Daniel refused and said that idols cannot eat. So he staked his life on the fact that he could prove it.

So Daniel actually performs some clever forensics here. The food really was disappearing in the room where the idle was locked in, so Daniel placed some dust all over the room before it was locked, and the next day when he entered in with the king, the food was gone... but there was also footprints everywhere. These same footprints also led to the secret entryway where all the 70 priests and their families were taking the food to be eaten. It was brilliant.

There was a third part about a dragon which Daniel destroys, but it was not as clear as the first two adventures, so I'll just mention it and move on. Additionally, there was an extension of the furnace scene where they out rightly say that the forth figure was an angel, and they all say a really long and kind of boring prayer. It wasn't as cool as the forensic stuff though.

Now that I am done with the Catholic extras, I guess it might be cool to pick a favorite. The most entertaining to me is probably "Judith." I just enjoyed that story more than anything. But come on now. I'm not being fair to myself. All that forensic stuff with Daniel blew my mind. I'm actually a bit annoyed that the Protestant's Bible knocked those extras out. Even though it is only part of the book, I think those little stories with Daniel were the best. So even though I didn't read the whole book, I am just too tempted to say "Daniel," but I'll put "Judith" as a hard second place.

By the way, if you want to read those great extra chapters of Daniel, get ahold of a Douay-Rheims Bible and flip to Daniel 13-14. It is all about a 15 min read. I highly recommend them!

This blog was written on May 18, 2022.

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