In that same place there was a great dragon which the people of Babylon worshiped. The king said to Daniel, “Will you also say that this is of brass? Behold, he lives, eats and drinks. You can’t say that he is no living god. Therefore worship him.” Then Daniel said, “I will worship the Lord my God; for he is a living God. But allow me, O king, and I will kill this dragon without sword or staff.” The king said, “I allow you.” Then Daniel took pitch, fat, and hair, and melted them together, and made lumps of them. He put these in the dragon’s mouth, so the dragon ate and burst apart. Daniel said, “Behold, these are the gods you all worship.”
A large reptile can be killed by feeding it cakes made of pitch, fat, and hair, which cause it to explode.
Zoology
38
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The cited passage
What current science says
No animal explodes from eating pitch, fat, and hair. Large reptiles like crocodilians have powerful digestive systems — Nile crocodiles can dissolve bones with stomach acid at pH 1-2. Pitch (bitumen) is indigestible but would simply pass through or cause a blockage. Fat is calorie-dense food. Hair is keratin and largely indigestible but harmless in small quantities. None of these ingredients are explosive or gas-producing in quantities sufficient to rupture an animal's body. The maximum pressure a reptile's stomach could generate from fermentation gases would be nowhere near enough to cause rupture — their muscular stomach walls are built to handle far worse than bad pastry.
What the text says
This comes from the deuterocanonical Book of Bel and the Dragon (an addition to Daniel). The Babylonians worshipped a 'great dragon,' and Daniel killed it by feeding it cakes made of pitch, fat, and hair — which caused the creature to 'burst asunder.' Ancient zoology meets ancient improvised explosives.
Three honest ways to read this passage
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As history
The text records how its authors understood the world with the knowledge they had. Read this way, a difference from modern science is a window into the ancient mind, not a failure.
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As accommodation
The text speaks to its first audience in their own terms, to make a point that isn't mainly about physics or biology. Read this way, the scientific detail is the vehicle, not the cargo.
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As contradiction
The text makes a claim about the physical world that modern findings dispute. Read this way, the difference is a genuine factual disagreement worth naming.
GEBible doesn't pick one of these for you. Each entry shows the passage, what it says, and what current science says — nothing more.