First Three Faithfuls in the Fire

Daniel 3:24-25

Amichai Lau-Lavie (he/him)

Apr 14, 2025

“There was three children from the land of Israel... . Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego...”

In 1952 Louis Armstrong recorded a familiar and beloved gospel song that sings about the first narrative of martyrdom that shows up in today’s chapter. Armstrong was not the first to sing about this weird and heroic story. Traditions about a song that celebrates this miracle of survival are already found in the Greek Septuagint version of Daniel 3, that include The Song of the Three Holy Children.

In some Christian traditions, this song is sung on Holy Saturday - coming up this Easter Weekend, while other denominations often use versions of it during Lent. The common theme is the survival of the soul despite torture and hardship, and the resurrection of spirit and hope over the body’s death and the cruelty of kings.

Who are these three children, what’s the story and why did so many singers over the ages, even the Beastie_Boys, chose to sing about it?

Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego are the Babylonian names of Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah - three young Judean boys who were brought to Babylon as exiles, alongside Daniel, and were trained to be elite servants in the palace.

They are mentioned in the first chapter of Daniel but in this chapter - they are the heroes and Daniel is not mentioned. Most scholars believe that this story is originally its own saga and was only later inserted into this book.

This story begins with Nebuchadnezzar II, King of Babylon, who creates an enormous statue of himself and demands that all bow to him, with grand music to accompany the ritual. The court obliges, with music blaring on, but the three young men refuse to do so on religious grounds. This refusal echoes the act of Mordechai in the Scroll of Esther. In that case he refused to bow before a human, no matter how important. In this case - the king’s statue and the ritual of bowing before him is seen as idolatry - and is strictly forbidden in Judaism.

The furious king decides to punish the three by throwing them into a furnace, heated seven times more than usual. The men who throw them into the furnace go up in flames because of the excessive heat.

But these pious and brave boys, setting the stage for generations of faithful servants of the one true god in the face of lesser deities and ego-driven rulers, miraculously survive. The king is able to peek into the furnace, shocked to see that they are not only still alive - they are also not alone:

^{אֱדַיִן נְבוּכַדְנֶצַּר מַלְכָּא תְּוַהּ וְקָם בְּהִתְבְּהָלָה עָנֵה וְאָמַר לְהַדָּבְרוֹהִי הֲלָא גֻבְרִין תְּלָתָה רְמֵינָא לְגוֹא־נוּרָא מְכַפְּתִין עָנַיִן וְאָמְרִין לְמַלְכָּא יַצִּיבָא מַלְכָּא׃ עָנֵה וְאָמַר הָא־אֲנָה חָזֵה גֻּבְרִין אַרְבְּעָה שְׁרַיִן מַהְלְכִין בְּגוֹא־נוּרָא וַחֲבָל לָא־אִיתַי בְּהוֹן וְרֵוֵהּ דִּי [רְבִיעָאָה] דָּמֵה לְבַר־אֱלָהִין׃}

^{Then King Nebuchadnezzar was astonished and, rising in haste, addressed his companions, saying, “Did we not throw three men, bound, into the fire?” They spoke in reply, “Surely, O king.”}

^{He answered, “But I see four figures walking about unbound and unharmed in the fire and the fourth looks like a divine being.”}

^{Daniel 3:24-25}

^{Who is this mysterious fourth figure? The rabbis debated whether it was the archangel Michael who went down into the furnace to cool down the flames - or whether it was actually God.}

^{Christian theologians claimed it was Jesus - trailblazing the choice to stand up to the empire, to defend faith at all costs, preparing the path to the countless martyrs who would be brutally executed by Rome for their own refusal to bow down to pagan gods.}

^{Back in Babylon -- when the king realizes the boys’ superpower to resist the flames - the furnace doors open and the three boys emerge - unharmed. Even their clothing is still pristine. They are honored and their court positions are restored. They will also attain the reputation of being the first to offer up their lives for their religion - as martyrs, although technically, no one dies in this story, and it's sometimes referred to as"proto-martyrdom" - the first dramatic confrontation between idolatrous state power and religious fidelity with potential fatal consequences.}

^{In Dying for God: Martyrdom and the Making of Christianity and Judaism, Daniel Boyarin writes:}

^{“The story of the furnace is less about death and more about identity: a refusal to be absorbed into the dominant culture at the cost of self.”}

^{Like Joseph, Esther and Mordechai, Daniel and his three friends depict different strategies of dealing with minority existence in the diaspora - on the spectrum from assimilation to resistance. The furnace story is about faith over survival -- and that will become an important and painful part of Jewish history during the Second Temple period - and beyond. Whoever wrote these stories down, during a time in Jewish history of severe persecution and religious restrictions - needed to hand down a vision of defiance, endurance and strength beyond the harsh reality of the moment.}

^{The three boys who survived the furnace would go on to become symbols of survival in the face of tyranny far beyond the Jewish world. Check out one more version of the story-song in}^{Bob Marley and the Wailers hit ' 'Survival'}^-

^{“Yeah! we're the survivors, like Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego}

^{(Black survivors), thrown in the fire, but never get burn.”}

^{Defiance of tyrants continued - Pharaohs will fail - then and now, sing on, with courage. this story continues.}

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Below the Bible Belt

First Three Faithfuls in the Fire

Daniel 3:24-25

“There was three children from the land of Israel... . Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego...”

Who are these three children, what’s the story and why did so many singers over the ages, even the Beastie_Boys, chose to sing about it?

Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego are the Babylonian names of Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah - three young Judean boys who were brought to Babylon as exiles, alongside Daniel, and were trained to be elite servants in the palace.

They are mentioned in the first chapter of Daniel but in this chapter - they are the heroes and Daniel is not mentioned. Most scholars believe that this story is originally its own saga and was only later inserted into this book.

The furious king decides to punish the three by throwing them into a furnace, heated seven times more than usual. The men who throw them into the furnace go up in flames because of the excessive heat.

Then King Nebuchadnezzar was astonished and, rising in haste, addressed his companions, saying, “Did we not throw three men, bound, into the fire?” They spoke in reply, “Surely, O king.”

He answered, “But I see four figures walking about unbound and unharmed in the fire and the fourth looks like a divine being.”

Daniel 3:24-25

Who is this mysterious fourth figure? The rabbis debated whether it was the archangel Michael who went down into the furnace to cool down the flames - or whether it was actually God.

Christian theologians claimed it was Jesus - trailblazing the choice to stand up to the empire, to defend faith at all costs, preparing the path to the countless martyrs who would be brutally executed by Rome for their own refusal to bow down to pagan gods.

In Dying for God: Martyrdom and the Making of Christianity and Judaism, Daniel Boyarin writes:

“The story of the furnace is less about death and more about identity: a refusal to be absorbed into the dominant culture at the cost of self.”

The three boys who survived the furnace would go on to become symbols of survival in the face of tyranny far beyond the Jewish world. Check out one more version of the story-song in Bob Marley and the Wailers hit ' 'Survival' -

“Yeah! we're the survivors, like Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego

(Black survivors), thrown in the fire, but never get burn.”

Defiance of tyrants continued - Pharaohs will fail - then and now, sing on, with courage. this story continues.

Discussion about this post

^{Then King Nebuchadnezzar was astonished and, rising in haste, addressed his companions, saying, “Did we not throw three men, bound, into the fire?” They spoke in reply, “Surely, O king.”}

^{He answered, “But I see four figures walking about unbound and unharmed in the fire and the fourth looks like a divine being.”}

^{Daniel 3:24-25}

^{Who is this mysterious fourth figure? The rabbis debated whether it was the archangel Michael who went down into the furnace to cool down the flames - or whether it was actually God.}

^{Christian theologians claimed it was Jesus - trailblazing the choice to stand up to the empire, to defend faith at all costs, preparing the path to the countless martyrs who would be brutally executed by Rome for their own refusal to bow down to pagan gods.}

^{In Dying for God: Martyrdom and the Making of Christianity and Judaism, Daniel Boyarin writes:}

^{“The story of the furnace is less about death and more about identity: a refusal to be absorbed into the dominant culture at the cost of self.”}

^{The three boys who survived the furnace would go on to become symbols of survival in the face of tyranny far beyond the Jewish world. Check out one more version of the story-song in}^{Bob Marley and the Wailers hit ' 'Survival'}^-

^{“Yeah! we're the survivors, like Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego}

^{(Black survivors), thrown in the fire, but never get burn.”}

^{Defiance of tyrants continued - Pharaohs will fail - then and now, sing on, with courage. this story continues.}