A water feature in the garden of Ramat HaNadiv, at the southern end of the Mount Carmel range beside the Mediterranean sea. The action in the history of Susannah takes place, of course, not in Israel but in Babylon, which lay not far from what is now Baghdad in Iraq. Many Jews were forcibly deported there after Jerusalem was besieged by the Babylonian Empire’s ruler Nebuchadnezzar in 597 BC. The exiles were permitted to return in 539, after Babylon fell to the Persians.
Part 1 of 2
IN the days when Daniel lived in Babylon, a wealthy Jewish man named Joachim had a lovely young wife called Susannah. The Jews of Babylon visited the couple’s gracious home and garden daily, and when two new Babylonian judges were appointed, they held court sessions there.
Seeing her so often, the two judges were soon infatuated with Susannah, and used to watch her from the bushes in the private garden where she liked to bathe. One day, they lost all self-control, and burst out to demand that she give herself to them, or they would say they had caught her having an affair.
Susannah defied them. So they dragged her to a hastily assembled court and accused her of adultery. With their own eyes, they cried, they had seen a young man making love to Susannah beneath a tree, though (regrettably) he had overpowered them, and escaped.
Naturally, everyone believed their lordships, and Susannah was sentenced to death.
Précis
Susannah and her husband Joachim were well-to-do Jews in ancient Babylon. After Susannah spurned the advances of two Babylonian judges, they took revenge by accusing her of adultery, saying they had seen her lover with their own eyes. Their testimony was accepted without question, and Susannah was sentenced to death. (50 / 60 words)
Part Two
A holm or holly oak (quercus ilex) at Westbury Court Gardens in Gloucestershire, reputed to be at least 400 years old.
WHEN Daniel heard about the sentence passed on Susannah, he ran to her house and amid all the hubbub called out, ‘I am innocent of this woman’s blood!’
Asked to explain himself, he began by roundly scolding the Jews of that quarter of the city for passing judgment without due process in Jewish law. He then insisted on interviewing the two judges in the garden where it all happened, one at a time.
The first judge was brought in, grumbling, and Daniel said to him, ‘Under which tree did you see the young man?’. The judge pointed and replied, ‘Under that mastic tree’.* Daniel then sent him away, and put the same question to the other judge. ‘Under that holm oak’, was his lordship’s sworn testimony.*
When the people heard the two judges condemn themselves out of their own mouths, they changed their verdict. Susannah was discharged, but the two judges suffered the penalty laid down in the Law of Moses for bearing false witness.
The mastic tree (pistacia lentiscus) is native to the Mediterranean, and cultivated on the Greek island of Chios for its sweet-scented gum. Although it can be grown in England, it is not truly hardy. The mastic can grow to a height of around thirteen feet.
The holm oak (quercus ilex), sometimes called the evergreen or holly oak, is native to the Mediterranean, but has settled happily in Britain. Holm oaks have a grand, rounded crown and can grow to sixty feet.
Précis
Before Susannah’s sentence could be carried out, Daniel presented himself, and claimed the right to interrogate the two judges. He caught them in an inconsistency in their stories, proving that they had made up Susanah’s alleged affair, and as soon as Susannah’s name had been cleared the judges were charged with perjury. (52 / 60 words)
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