Did Hippolytus support prayer to saints?

Roman Catholics and Eastern Orthodox have been citing him in support of the practice for a long time, including in response to Gavin Ortlund's recent video on praying to saints. Few Protestants have addressed Hippolytus' view to any significant extent. I've been writing about it for many years, like here. You can go there for an overview of some relevant material in Hippolytus, some of the arguments involved, and so forth. For the purposes of this post, I'll just quote one passage, the one advocates of prayer to saints keep bringing up:

"Tell me, you three boys, remember me, I entreat you, that I also may obtain the same lot of martyrdom with you, who was the fourth person with you who was walking in the midst of the furnace and who was hymning to God with you as from one mouth? Describe to us his form and beauty so that we also, seeing him in the flesh, may recognize him. Who was he who in this way orderly described all creation through your mouth, so that you omitted nothing of which is and has been? Having done this for one hour in the furnace, you taught the workmanship of creation. For the Word was with you and was speaking through you, the Word who understands the workmanship of creation." (Commentary On Daniel, 2.30.1-3, found on page 73 of Tom Schmidt's translation here)

I recently saw an advocate of prayer to saints acknowledge one of the points I've been making, that there are other places in Hippolytus' commentary on Daniel in which he uses the sort of rhetorical devices I discussed in my last post. This individual argued, however, that the passage normally cited as evidence for Hippolytus' belief in praying to saints, the one quoted above, is different. Supposedly, Hippolytus' request that Daniel's companions pray for him distinguishes that passage from the others in which he speaks to Nebuchadnezzar, addresses inanimate objects, speaks as if he were alive at the time of Daniel, etc. But my previous posts on Hippolytus explain why that sort of distinction doesn't work. I want to reiterate and expand upon what I said in those other posts.

You have to ask why Hippolytus requested prayer from Daniel's companions. My post here explains why Hippolytus likely did it. He associated Daniel's companions with prayer as an activity that set them apart during their earthly lives. In multiple passages, he refers to how they prayed with Daniel and prayed while in Nebuchadnezzar's furnace. In fact, that latter reference comes in section 2.29 of the commentary, just before the section being cited as alleged support for prayer to saints (2.30). In other words, Hippolytus' request for prayer from them is due to their earthly behavior, much as he addresses other sources (Nebuchadnezzar, etc.) with regard to their earthly behavior. Since their earthly behavior adequately explains Hippolytus' comments and is mentioned just before the passage in question, it's a more complicated and less likely interpretation to conclude that Hippolytus is moving from their earthly behavior to activity in heaven.

And Hippolytus' pattern of addressing other sources with the sort of rhetorical device I'm suggesting he has in mind gives us further reason to think he's doing the same in section 2.30. When advocates of prayer to saints tell us to distinguish 2.30 from the other passages, they're arguing for discontinuity, which is less likely than continuity.

As I've explained in my earlier posts on this subject over the years, Hippolytus asks Daniel's companions for information in the passage under consideration. Do Catholics and Orthodox (and others who support prayer to saints) do that? Hippolytus surely wasn't expecting Daniel's companions to give him the information in question. That's further evidence that he was using a rhetorical device and wasn't praying to Daniel's companions.

Furthermore, the passage in question refers to the companions of Daniel as "boys". That makes more sense in an earthly setting than a heavenly one. You probably wouldn't refer to people as "boys" who lived several centuries before you and had so long to mature later in their earthly lives and in heaven if you were addressing their current state. The term makes more sense if he's speaking to them in an earthly context, as if he's one of their earthly contemporaries, as he does with other figures from the book of Daniel elsewhere.

Hippolytus says a lot about prayer in his commentary. However, the prayers are directed to God, not deceased individuals. It's highly unlikely that he believed in prayer to saints (and angels), yet never expressed that view in the contexts most obviously about prayer and only expressed the view so seldom and in a way that looks so much more like a rhetorical device than a prayer.

As with their abuse of the material on angels in the Psalms, discussed in my last post, the abuse of this passage in Hippolytus reflects the weakness of the position of advocates of praying to saints and angels. If the practice had actually been handed down from sources like the Old Testament authors and the apostles, we'd expect there to be far better evidence for it. Advocates of the practice wouldn't have to resort to material like Psalm 103:20 and section 2.30 in Hippolytus' commentary.