THE THREE CHILDREN. - Ancient Christian art often depicted the two episodes narrated by the prophet Daniel concerning the three young Jews Hananiah, Azariah and Mishael (Dan. 3:13-50). The two moments are distinguished also in the Commendatio animae: "Libera Domine... sicut liberasti tres pueros de camino ignis et de manu impli regis". But even before art, Pope Clement, recalling the three young men, warned that persecutors do not know that the Most High is the protector and defender of those who in purity of conscience serve his most powerful name (I Cor. 45: PG 1, 301).
Origen identifies in Nebuchadnezzar the precursor of the persecutors of the faithful of Christ; not only then did Nebuchadnezzar have the golden statue erected; not only then did he threaten Hananiah, Azariah and Mishael with casting them into the furnace if they refused to adore the statue. Even today Nebuchadnezzar speaks the same language to us who are the true Hebrews (Exhortatio ad martyr., 33: PG 11, 604). The t. f. therefore symbolize the victims of persecutions; for this reason this scene was painted in the cubiculum of the cemetery of Priscilla where the martyr Crescention was laid, martyred in 304 (Wilpert, Pitture, pl. 123, 1). The same scene was seen by Bosio in the vault of an arcosolium in the cemetery today called that of Mark, Marcellinus and Damasus, to the right of the Appian Way, rediscovered at the beginning of 1948 (A. Bosio, Roma sotterranea, Rome 1634, p. 279).
More frequently the representation is found on sarcophagi, generally carved on the lids (Wilpert, Sarcofagi, p. 261 ff.). In some examples Nebuchadnezzar brandishes a lance (Wilpert, Sarcofagi, pls. 199, 3, 200, 2 and 3); in others he is flanked by a soldier and a centurion (id., op. cit., pls. 176, 1 and 6; 199, 2 and 5); sometimes instead of seated he stands (id., op. cit., pl. 195, 4). The representation of the t. f. unharmed in the furnace is found as early as the middle of the 2nd century in the so-called Greek chapel in Priscilla (Wilpert, Pitture, pl. 13). They are in an attitude of prayer, with hands raised on high laudantes Deum, et benedicentes Domino (Dan. 3:24). Generally they wear the Phrygian cap or the tiara on their heads, they are always clothed, sometimes in green (in Priscilla: Wilpert, Pitture, pl. 78, 1; in Bassilla: ibid., pl. 114; in the Giordani: E. Josi, Le pitture rinvenute nel cimitero dei Giordani, in Riv. di archeol. crist., 5 [1928], pp. 202-203, fig. 27). In Christian sarcophagi the representation is sometimes accompanied by other persons, or there is an attendant stoking the fire (Wilpert, Sarcofagi, pls. 170, 4, 170, 2), or there is a figure in a pallium with columns whom Wilpert explains in some cases as one of the Chaldean accusers (Dan. 3:8) or as the angel of the Lord or God himself assisting the t. f. A sarcophagus lid contains in the upper register the date of the year 334 (Wilpert, op. cit., p. 22 and pl. 181, 2). Two bas-reliefs of the Byzantine age with the three young men among the flames are in the Museum of Constantinople (A. Muñoz, Sculture bizantine, in N. Bull. di arch. crist., 12 [1906], pp. 111-113, fig. 1 and pl. 4, 1 where the angel is also present). The scene is also found graffito in an inscription of the cemetery of Praetextatus (E. Josi, Note sul cimitero di Pretestato, III, in Riv. di arch. crist., 12 [1935], p. 15 and fig. 8). At Carthage, in the basilica of Damoux-et-Karita in a mosaic inscription one reads: trei orantes pueri and below, also in mosaic, are the busts of the three (P. Monceaux, Enquête sur l'épigraphie chrétienne de l'Afrique, Paris 1907, p. 63, n. 261). Some lamps from Rome and Africa present the refusal to adore the statue (R. Garrucci, Storia dell'arte cristiana, VI, Prato 1886, pls. 473, 3, 476, 6 and 8; A. Toulotte, Le roi Nabochodunogar sur des monuments africains, in N. Bull. arch. crist., 6 [1900], pp. 113-19); others show the three young men among the flames and the angel in their midst; likewise on a lamp from Sulmona (R. Garrucci, loc. cit., pl. 475, 7; B. Manna, Di un'antica lucerna cristiana di Sulmona rappresentante i t. f. di Babilonia, in N. Bull. di arch. crist., 27 [1921], pp. 101-105 and pl. 16).
The three young Jews among the flames recur on the glass cup of Podgoritza (G. B. De Rossi, Podgoritza in Albania, Insique tazza vitrea, in Bull. arch. crist., 2nd series, 5 [1874], pp. 133-35). They are also found on some ivories such as the capsella of Brescia, on the cover of a gospel book at Ravenna (R. Garrucci, Storia, VI, pl. 421), on the capsella of Brivio, now in the Louvre (Ph. Lauer, La capsella de Brivio, in Fondation E. Piot, XIII, 1906, pp. 220-40). The t. f. were also venerated in Egypt, where a church arose in their honor at Alexandria; in Africa at Guelma the memoriae (s) (a) (c) (or) (m) tris(m) Puerom(m) were placed on an altar (P. Monceaux, Enquête sur l'épigraphie chrétienne d'Afrique, Paris 1907, p. 63, n. 261).
Bibliography4 works
Enrico Josi