Whats going on with that beastie boys “shadrach” song?
The story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego comes from chapter three of the Book of Daniel. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were Jews who lived under the reign of King Nebuchadnezzar in Babylon. Whenever the official sacred music was played, all the subjects of the king had to bow down to a golden statue. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego refused to worship any such idol because they were Jews. Furious, Nebuchadnezzar had them cast into a burning furnace. The three Jews did not protest, trusting that God would save them. To the king’s astonishment, the fire left them unscathed, as they danced happily in the flames. Nebuchadnezzar ordered the flames extinguished, and commanded all of his subject to obey the God of the Jews. To understand what this story had to do with the Beasties, we turned to do the Web where we found “A Postmodern Analysis of Beastie Boys’ “Shadrach”” by David Sklar (for the full text see www.sklar.com/shadrach.html). In Sklar’s reading, the Beastie Boys are similar t
