© Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2013 DOI: 10.1163/15700631-12340390 Journal for the Study of Judaism 44 (2013) 481-496 brill.com/jsj Journal for the Study of Judaism Another Stage in the Redactional History of the Bel Story (Dan 14:1-22): The Evidence of Polemic against Foreign Priests and the Focus on Daniel in the Old Greek1 Jonathan R. Trotter University of Notre Dame jtrotte1@nd.edu Abstract It is the contention of this paper that a comparison between the Theodotion and Old Greek versions of the Bel narrative (Dan 14:1-22) gives indications about some specific stages of the textual history of the story. Many of the distinctive elements in the Old Greek story suggest that in its core narrative the Old Greek represents a more thoroughly modified version of the story and even a variant literary edition. In the Old Greek, evidence of the development of the Bel narrative can be seen in its very concentrated focus on (1) the deception of the priests of Bel and (2) the centrality and cunning of Daniel. Both of these emphases in the Old Greek are interconnected and, it will be argued, result in a more pronounced tension between Daniel and the priests of Bel as well as a concentration of control almost exclu- sively with Daniel in the Old Greek. Keywords additions to Daniel, Bel and the Dragon, polemic against foreign priests 1. Introduction It has long been thought that there were a variety of traditions circulating about the figure of Daniel prior to their inclusion into the Book of Daniel. 1) A version of this paper was presented at the 2012 Annual Meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature in Chicago in the section on Textual Growth. I would like to thank all of those who participated in this group as well as John J. Collins and Michael Segal for their helpful comments.