The interpretation timeline

Dan 3:13

How this passage has been read — the sources, oldest to newest.

From the early Church Fathers to now.

Dan 3:13 · Douay-Rheims
“Then Nabuchodonosor in fury, and in wrath, commanded that Sidrach, Misach, and Abdenago should be brought: who immediately were brought before the king.”
Patristic before A.D. 750
235
A.D.
Hippolytus of Rome Patristic
c. A.D. 170–235
“Behold the Holy Spirit as it is manifest in the martyrs' eloquent speech, comforting them and consoling them and encouraging them to disregard death.… A person deprived of the Holy Spirit would be frightened and hide in fear, taking precautions against this death.… He is terrified as he stands before the blade, panicked at the idea of torment and seeing only the world below. This man is consoled with the life below, as he prefers to have a wife and the love of his children and to see only wealth. This man, who does not possess the power of heaven, readily is lost. Thus, whoever is close to the Word hears the command of the King ng and Lord of the sky: "Whoever does not take up his cross and follow me is not worthy of me, and whoever does not give up all of his possessions will not become my disciple."”
Source
172 years pass — nothing from this stretch is hosted yet
407
A.D.
John Chrysostom Patristic
A.D. 347–407
“Then the youths alone are led into the midst; in order that from this also the conquest may become even more illustrious, they alone conquering and being proclaimed victors among so vast a multitude. This courage would not have been so surprising if they had acted courageously at the outset, when no one had fallen prostrate. But the greatest and most astonishing fact was that the multitude of those who fell down neither made them frightened nor made them weak. They did not say to themselves such things as many often do, "If we were first, and the only persons to worship the image, this would have been a sin; but if we do this with so many persons, who will not make allowance? Who will not think us worthy of defense?" But nothing of this sort did they say or think when they beheld the shapes of so many princes.… What does the king do at this point? He commands that they should be brought into the midst, so that he may make them scared in every way. But nothing dismayed them, neither the wrath of the king, nor their being left alone in the midst of so many, nor the sight of the fire, nor the sound of the trumpet nor the whole multitude looking wrathfully at them; for deriding all these things, as if they were about to be cast into a cool fountain of water, they entered the furnace uttering that blessed sentence, "We will not serve your gods." … I have told you this history with good reason that you may learn that whether it is the wrath of a king, or the violence of soldiers, or the envy of enemies, or captivity, or destitution, or fire, or furnace or ten thousand terrors, nothing will work to shame or terrify a righteous person.”
Source
Modern · 1953 →

The in-app commentary runs from the Fathers to the early-modern record, then stops — that's where the public-domain sources end, not where the reading does. For the modern reading, follow the sources directly.