Septuagint: Shadrach

The Book of Shadrach is more difficult to date, as it could be interpreted as written between 880 and 870 BCE, or between 609 and 605 BCE. The Book of Shadrach predicts the fall of the Egyptian Empire and the end of Assyrian influence, meaning they must have still been around at the time. The book also lists Sidon and Tyre as having defences, meaning it was before the cities were conquered by Cambyses. The book included a prophecy that Damascus would be sacrificed, suggesting it may have been earlier than 853 BC, when Damascus was independent and led a coalition of Levantine states against Neo-Assyrian expansion.

However, the same set of variables was present briefly between 609 and 605 BCE. The remnants of the Assyrian military were being systematically hunted by the Babylonians, after the fall of the Neo-Assyrian Empire, and Canaan briefly fell under the dominion of Egypt. Judah had been a tributary of the Neo-Assyrian Empire until the “western usurper” led a failed coup d’état in 622 BCE. After the rebellion spread to the Levant, King Josiah switched sides and later attacked the Egyptian army as it traveled north to assist the Assyrians. King Josiah died in this attack on the Egyptians in 609 BCE, and King Necho II made Judah a tributary of Egypt.

The Book of Shadrach is generally included in the Book of Zakharian, due to a transcription error in the Hebrew translation, which rendered Šadrak as Ḥadrāk. The error most likely took place in an earlier Demotic Egyptian version of the book, as both the sounds "s" and "ḥ" were represented by the same letter in the Demotic script. It doesn’t seem likely that the name Šdrk could have been misread as Ḥdrk in the Phoenician or Aramaic script, as the "š," "ś," "ṣ," and "ḥ" sounds were represented by very different letters.

The name is rendered as Sedrak in the Codex Washingtonianus from the 3ʳᵈ century CE, and Sedrach in the Codex Alexandrinus from the 5ᵗʰ century. Sedrach is also the most common Greek transliteration of Šadrak from the Book(s) of Daniel. The Coptic manuscripts also use Sedrakh as both the name in the introduction to this prophecy and the friend of Daniel.

The Shadrach in Daniel was first mentioned as interpreting a dream for King Nebuchadnezzar in 604 BCE, after being taken captive in Jerusalem. Therefore, this may have been the same Shadrach. However, Šadrak was also listed as being the Babylonian version of the Canaanite name Ḥănanyâ, which was a common name at the time in Judah. The Book of Daniel also refers to Shadrach as being a young man at the time, suggesting he was probably not the same Shadrach who made an important prophecy in 609 BCE. In any event, this Shadrach was executed in 587 BCE, when Judah rebelled from being a Babylonian tributary.