Jennie Grillo

The “apocryphal” version of the biblical book of Daniel is a prime example of how non-canonical scriptural texts have shaped Western culture. As the first monograph in English on this text and its afterlife, this book searches for the significant thematic clusters in the text’s history of interpretation, examining its impact on the development of six important constructs: martyrdom, resurrection, liturgy, idolatry, visuality, and judgment. Combining historical work with interpretive work, this study traces the history of the text’s reception from earliest Christian art to twentieth-century film and from rabbinic martyrdoms to Anglo-Saxon poetry, while also re-reading the text in the light of contemporary theoretical treatments of the six key thematic areas.