The narrative of Bel and the Dragon is incorporated as chapter 14 of the extended Book of Daniel. The original Septuagint text in Greek survives in a single manuscript, Codex Chisianus, while the standard text is due to Theodotion, the 2nd-century AD revisor.

This chapter, along with chapter 13, is considered deuterocanonical: it was unknown to early Rabbinic Judaism, and while it is viewed as canonical by both Catholic and Orthodox Christians, it is considered non-canonical by most Protestants and is found in the Apocrypha section of 80 Protestant Bibles.