They were refusing imperial claims to ultimacy, by whatever means those claims were asserted.20 In Kirkpatrick’s analysis of the tales in Daniel, the rejection of food stands for the rejection of an entire social system. But in fact, Daniel and his friends reject the food even as they begin to occupy and maneuver within a social system structured by the Babylonians. Rather than rejecting the Babylonian tradition, they master it.21 They refuse one form of royal patronage, but accept others, evincing