Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego are figures from chapter 3 of the biblical Book of Daniel. In the narrative, the three Jewish men are thrown into a fiery furnace by Nebuchadnezzar II, King of Babylon for refusing to bow to the king's image. The three are preserved from harm and the king sees four men walking in the flames, "the fourth... like a son of God". They are first mentioned in Daniel 1, where alongside Daniel they are brought to Babylon to study Chaldean Aramaic language and literature with a view to serving at the King's court, and their Hebrew names are replaced with Babylonian names.
The first six chapters of Daniel are stories dating from the late Persian/early Hellenistic period, and Daniel's absence from the story of the Hebrew children in the fiery furnace suggests that it may originally have been independent. It forms a pair with the story of Daniel in the lions' den, both making the point that the god of the Jews will deliver those who are faithful to him.

Summary

King Nebuchadnezzar set up a golden image in the plain of Dura and commanded that all his officials bow before it. All who failed to do so would be thrown into a furnace. Certain officials informed the king that the three Jewish youths Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, who bore the Babylonian names Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, and whom the king had appointed to high office in Babylon, were refusing to worship the golden statue. The three were brought before Nebuchadnezzar, where they informed the king that God would be with them. Nebuchadnezzar commanded that they be thrown into the fiery furnace, heated seven times hotter than normal, but when the king looked, he saw four figures walking unharmed in the flames, the fourth "like a son of God." Seeing this, Nebuchadnezzar brought the youths out of the flames, and the fire had not had any effect on their bodies. The hair of their heads was not singed, their cloaks were not harmed, and no smell of fire was on them. The king then promoted them to high office, decreeing that anyone who spoke against God should be torn limb from limb.

Composition and structure

Book of Daniel

It is generally accepted that the Book of Daniel originated as a collection of stories among the Jewish community in Babylon and Mesopotamia in the Persian and early Hellenistic periods, expanded by the visions of chapters 7–12 in the Maccabean era. Some researchers have concluded that Daniel is a legendary figure. It is possible that the name Daniel was chosen for the hero of the book because of his reputation as a wise seer in Hebrew tradition. The tales are in the voice of an anonymous narrator, except for chapter 4, which is in the form of a letter from king Nebuchadnezzar. Chapter 3 is unique in that Daniel does not appear in it.

Daniel 3

Daniel 3 forms part of a chiasmus within Daniel 2–7, paired with Daniel 6, the story of Daniel in the lions' den:

A. – A dream of four kingdoms replaced by a fifth
* B. – Daniel's three friends in the fiery furnace
** C. – Daniel interprets a dream for Nebuchadnezzar
** C'. – Daniel interprets the handwriting on the wall for Belshazzar
* B'. – Daniel in the lions' den
A'. – A vision of four world kingdoms replaced by a fifth

Chapters 3 and 6 contain significant differences. The story of the fiery furnace does not include Daniel, while the story of the lions' den does not include Daniel's friends; the first story takes place under Nebuchadnezzar and the second under Darius; and in the first story the disobedience to the earthly ruler takes place in public, while in the second Daniel petitions God in private. The stories thus supplement each other to make the point that the God of the Jews will deliver those who are faithful to him.

Genre and themes

The legendary nature of the story is revealed by the liberal use of hyperbole – the size of the statue, the use of every kind of music, the destruction of the executioners, and the king's rage followed by his confession of the superiority of the god of Israel. The plot is a type known in folklore as "the disgrace and rehabilitation of a minister," the plot of which involves a man in a state of prosperity who is sentenced to death or prison by the plots of his enemies but vindicated and restored to honour.
When Nebuchadnezzar confronts the defiant Jewish youths who refuse to submit to his will he asks them what god will deliver them from his hands. Their reply is the theological high point of the story: without addressing the king by his title, they tell him that the question is not whether they are willing to bow before the king's image, but whether God is present and willing to save. When the three are thrown into the furnace the king sees four men walking in the flames, the fourth like "a son of gods," a divine being.

Interpretation

Daniel's absence from the tale of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego suggests that it may originally have been an independent story. According to the Talmud, Daniel was out of the country at the time of the incident.
The Hebrew names of the three youths were Hananiah, "Yah is gracious", Mishael, "Who is what El is?" and Azariah, "Yah has helped", but by the king's decree they were assigned Chaldean names, so that Hananiah became Shadrach, Mishael became Meshach and Azariah became Abednego.
The Chaldean names are related to the Hebrew ones, with the names El and Yah replaced by Babylonian theonyms:
Šaḏraḵ may reflect Šudur Aku "Command of Aku ",
Mêšaḵ is probably a variation of Mi-ša-aku, meaning "Who is as Aku is?", and Abednego is either "Slave of the god Nebo/Nabu" or a variation of Abednergal, "Slave of the god Nergal."
The word "Dura" means simply "plain" or "fortress" and is not any specific place; the Greek historian Herodotus mentions a golden image of the god Bel in Babylon, but the gigantic size of this statue might suggest that its origins lie in folklore. The statue's dimensions are linked intertextually with those of Ezra–Nehemiah's Second Temple, suggesting that the king's image is contrasted with the post-exilic place of worship for faithful Jews like Daniel.

Christian liturgy

The Greek Septuagint version of Daniel 3 includes the deuterocanonical Prayer of Azariah and Song of the Three Holy Children. The song is alluded to in odes seven and eight of the canon, a hymn sung in the matins service and on other occasions in the Eastern Orthodox Church and Byzantine Catholic Church. The reading of the story of the fiery furnace, including the song, is prescribed for the vesperal Divine Liturgy celebrated by the Orthodox and Byzantine Catholics on Holy Saturday. The Latin canticle Benedicite, opera omnia Domini is based on the "song of the three youths". In the Roman Catholic Church, it is used at Lauds for Sundays and feast days. In the Anglican Book of Common Prayer, it is an alternative to the Te Deum at Morning Prayer, and is often used during Lent and Advent.
In the Byzantine Churches, Orthodox and Catholic, the feast day of the three youths, along with Daniel, is 17 December. The Orthodox and Byzantine Catholics also commemorate them on the two Sundays before the Nativity of Christ.
In the Armenian Apostolic Church, one of the Oriental Orthodox or ancient non-Chalcedonian churches, the feast day of the three youths, along with Daniel, is commemorated on the Tuesday after the fourth Sunday of Pentecost.
The Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod also includes Daniel and the three youths in the Calendar of Saints on 17 December.

In modern Western culture

Literature

1762: Tristram Shandy by Laurence Sterne contains a fanciful anecdote about Francis I of France deciding to grant a favour to Switzerland by allowing the "republick" to stand as godparent to his next child: the names proposed by the Swiss for the child are "Shadrach, Mesech, and Abed-nego". Judith Hawley's note in the Norton Critical Edition suggests that this is because the three defied the power of a king.
1865: In Anthony Trollope's novel Miss Mackenzie, the protagonist John Ball is a director of two ironically named insurance companies, the Shadrach Fire Assurance Office and the Abednego Life Office. Literary scholar A. O. J. Cockshut called this "Another example of Trollope's fondness for jokes about names." The Spectator in its original unsigned review of the novel in 1865 noted "how happy is Mr. Trollope's humor in inventing names!"
1954: Flannery O’Connor’s short story “A Circle in the Fire” closes with an allusion that explains the story’s title: “…a few wild high shrieks of joy as if the prophets were dancing in the fiery furnace, in the circle the angel had cleared for them.”
1963: Martin Luther King Jr. references them in his "Letter from Birmingham Jail".
1915–1974: Bertie Wooster, a central character in many novels and short stories by British comic author P. G. Wodehouse, makes occasional reference to the three figures, having learned about them in school in the course of winning a prize for scripture knowledge.
1961: R. F. Delderfield wrote a novel called Stop at a Winner about Abednego Pascoe who survives the furnace of World War II; his two older brothers were named Shadrach and Meshach.
1976: Robert Silverberg wrote a novel based on this story, called Shadrach in the Furnace.
1989: "Scintillant Orange", a story in William Vollmann's collection The Rainbow Stories, is an elaboration of the S, M, & A tale.

Music

1734, revised 1774: Il Cantico de' tre fanciulli, cantata by Johann Adolph Hasse
1885: The Three Holy Children, oratorio by Charles Villiers Stanford
1930s: "Shadrack", popular song by Robert MacGimsey, performed by several singers including Louis Armstrong
1955–1956: Gesang der Jünglinge, electronic music by Karlheinz Stockhausen
1966: The Burning Fiery Furnace, a music drama by Benjamin Britten
1968: A song, "The Fourth Man in the Fire", by Arthur "Guitar Boogie" Smith, recorded by The Statler Brothers and by Johnny Cash
1972: It's Cool in the Furnace, an album of songs written by Buryl Red and Grace Hawthorne followed by a 1973 musical still performed by churches and religious schools
1974: "Loose Booty", recorded by Sly and the Family Stone
1976: "Abendigo", recorded by The Abyssinians
1979: "Survival", recorded by Bob Marley and the Wailers, "...like Shadrach, Mishrach and Abednego, thrown in the fire but they never get burn..."
1980: "Never Get Burn", recorded by The Twinkle Brothers
1989: "Shadrach" by Beastie Boys
1999: "Never Bow Down", recorded by Third Day
2005: "Abendigo", cover by Sinéad O'Connor of original by The Abyssinians
2007: "Burn Us Up", recorded by Shane and Shane
2010: "A Good Name" by Shad
2010: "Onward" by Greydon Square
2011: Meshach Dreams Back by Jane Siberry
2012: "Into the Fire" by Foy Vance
2019: "Another in the Fire", recorded by Hillsong United
2021: "Fye Fye", recorded by Tobe Nwigwe
2023: "Khalas", recorded by Swizz Beats feat. Jay Electronica
2024: "That's Who I Praise" by Brandon Lake

Film and television

1995: "Rack, Shack & Benny", an animated video in the VeggieTales franchise. In this version, to keep it child friendly and simplify the story, the title characters – whose names are shortened versions of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, respectively – work in a chocolate factory, and they refuse to worship a giant chocolate bunny or sing "The Bunny Song", which declares that the chocolate bunny is more important than anything else. They are thrown into the factory's furnace but survive, similarly to how the biblical story tells the tale. This video also marks the first appearance of one of series’ main cast, Mr. Nezzer, who appears in the video as the main antagonist. His full name, “Nebby K. Nezzer”, is a pun on the name of Nebuchadnezzar II, and it has remained as his official name.
1945: "Ivan the Terrible (1945 film)", a soviet film by the director Sergei Eisenstein. On the minute 2:13:08 the Boyars, and clergy who oppose the Czar Ivan IV have staged a theatrical performance of this biblical story inside a cathedral, in order to spite the Czar by implying that he has become a tyrant, just like the biblical king Nebuchadnezzar.