THE STORY OF SUSANNA
The story of Daniel naturally attracted embellishments, and
the Story of Susanna is the first of three additions found in the
Greek but not in the Hebrew Bible. It is placed at the beginning
of the book because Daniel is still a youth in the story. The ca-
lumniation of a virtuous lady's innocence, its dramatic vindica-
tion, and the turning of the tables on the calumniators can be
accepted on its own merits as an admirably told and edjj5'ing
folk tale. But it may have been put to use to reinforce the juristic
principle that the two witnesses which Scripture requires for con-
demnation must be examined separately. The date of Susanna is
probably early first century B.C. The text commonly used for
translation is that of Theodotion, which is somewhat fuller than
the Septuagint text.