Hippolytus of Rome : For these, having acquired the fear of God from boyhood, did not want to partake from the table of the king nor to drink from the wine which he drank. O blessed boys, who guarded the covenant of the fathers and did not transgress the law which was given through Moses, but who feared God on account of his preaching! These captives who were in a strange land were not beguiled by the many foods nor enslaved by the pleasure of the wine, nor enticed by the kingly glory. They who were plundered kept their mouths undefiled and pure, as a pure word, which comes forth from a pure mouth, hymns through the mouth to the heavenly Father, just as it is written, "If you shall bring forth honor from worthlessness you will be as my mouth." [Jeremiah 15:19] And so, you know, O man, what has been spoken. A mouth brings forth the paternal honorable Word from itself, so that again a second time the Word is shown as being begotten by the saints, which always begets the saints and itself is begotten by the saints. And so Scripture says, "And Daniel set in his heart not to be defiled with what was on the table of the king and with the wine which he drank and he asked the chief eunuch to give them vegetables", so that it may be shown that a man does not live by bread alone. [Matthew 4:4; Deuteronomy 8:3] — Commentary on Daniel 1.10.2-11.1 Jerome : Verse 8. "Daniel, however, purposed in his heart that he would not be defiled by food from the king's table, nor by the wine which he drank, and he asked the chief of the eunuchs that he might not be polluted." He who would not eat or drink of the king's food or wine lest he be denied (especially if he should be aware that the wisdom and teaching of the Babylonians is mistaken), would never consent to utter what was wrong. On the contrary they speak it forth, not that they may follow it themselves, but in order to pass judgment upon it and refute it. Just as anyone would expose himself to ridicule if he being untrained in mathematics should desire to write in confutation of mathematicians, or, being ignorant of the teachings of philosophers should desire to write in opposition to philosophers. Hence they study the teaching of the Chaldeans with the same intention as Moses studied the wisdom of the Egyptians. — St. Jerome, Commentary on Daniel, CHAPTER ONE Theodoret of Cyrus : For those who love God do not seek after the God of all in just one place, but even in the midst of this misfortune they worshiped as if in the house of the Creator. In that place there are many wondrous moments to be found. For having been reared on the teachings of the Jews and having learned the customary service to God, they now were dwelling in a foreign land and were being forced into slavery exactly at the prime of their life. They were forced to abide under the foreign customs. But having seen the Babylonians offer defiled meat to the idols and the polluted libations at the temple, they took heed and, neglecting their own safety, rejected the king's banquet, beseeching the chief eunuch to allow them to be excused from partaking of the king's food. — COMMENTARY ON Daniel 1:8