SHADRACH, MESHACH, ABED-NEGO

SHADRACH, MESHACH, ABED-NEGO (Heb. עֲבֵד נְגוֹ ,מֵישַׁךְ ,שַׁדְרַךְ), three young men of aristocratic Judahite stock whose Hebrew names were respectively Hananiah ("The Lord was gracious"), Mishael (perhaps "Who is what God is?"), and Azariah ("The Lord helped"). Together with Daniel they were taken into the Babylonian court of nebuchadnezzar because of their handsome appearance, wisdom, and ability to learn. In accordance with known practice they were assigned Babylonian names and taught the language and literature of the Chaldeans (probably Akkadian). Refusing to be defiled by eating pagan food, the youths providentially throve on a diet of grains and greatly surpassed the wisdom of all the king's magicians (Dan. 1). They quickly rose in rank, Daniel attaining the position in the "King's Gate" and the other three being put in charge of the "administration" of the province of Babylon (Dan. 2:49). The three refused to worship the pagan image erected by Nebuchadnezzar, were cast into a fiery furnace, and miraculously emerged alive. Nebuchadnezzar acknowledged the greatness of their God and confirmed their rule in Babylonia (Dan. 3). "The Three Children" thus became a paradigm of faithfulness to God (cf. I Macc. 2:59). (Bezalel Porton) In the ancient Greek and Latin versions of Daniel there is an addition inserted between 3:23 and 3:24. This addition consists of 68 verses and may have been composed in either Hebrew or Aramaic. In the Apocrypha it appears as "The Prayer of Azariah and The Song of the Three Young Men." It is possible that Hananiah-Shadrach (Gr. Sedrach) is the Sedrach to whom the Christian Apocalypse of Sedrach was attributed (M.R. James, Apocrypha Anecdota (1893), 127–37). The Hebrew names of the three companions are quite common in the period of the Second Temple and occur both in biblical and post-biblical sources. There is no certain etymology for the Babylonian names Shadrach and Meshach but it has been suggested that Abed-Nego is a variation of Abed-Nebo ("Servant of Nab"). (Michael E. Stone) -BIBLIOGRAPHY: W.H. Bennett, in: Charles, Apocrypha, 1 (1913), 625–37; Schuerer, Gesch, 3 (19094), 452ff.; Klausner, Bayit Sheni, 1 (19512), 80; O. Eissfeldt, The Old Testament, an Introduction (1965), 588–90 (incl. bibl.).