DANIEL, BOOK OF, derives its name from the chief person whose history it narrates, and who is generally regarded as its author. The close correspondence of its predic tions with historical events has, indeed, led some writers to assert that it was written by some unknown person about 175 years n.c. Porphyry, in the 3d c., held this opin ion, and, in modern times, Collins, De Wette, and others. Among the answers to them are: 1. That however plausible, in Porphyry'r day, the assertion may have seemed that the so-called predictions of the book were written after the events in the life of Antiochus, to which some of them refer, there is no force in it now, after the progres• sive accomplishment, which lies since been witnessed, of many predictions then unful filled. 2. The first book of Maccabees refers to the book of D. in the same manner as to other books of the Old Testament: saying that the enemies of the Jews "set up the abomination of desolation upon the altar:" that " Ananias, Azarias, and 3lisael, by believing, were saved out of the flame," and that " Daniel, for his innocency, was deliv ered out of the mouth of lions." 3. It was translated into Greek, B.C. 2S0-250, before the date which Porphyry assigned to it. 4. At a still earlier date it was received into the Hebrew canon. 5. Its diction, partly Hebrew and partly Chaldaic, proves that its author was master of both languages; its acquaintance with Chaldean manners, cus toms, and religion, indicates his long residence in the midst of them; and its descrip tions of public affairs after the conquest by the Medes and Persians could have been given only by one who had full knowledge of the conquerors and was in favor with them. Daniel, a Jew of noble birth, familiar with the Hebrew as his Dative tongue, educated from his youth in all that the Chaldeans could teach, and high in office and favor with the successive kings through the whole captivity of 70 years, fulfills all these conditions, and he alone. 6. The great favors which Alexander, in the midst of his career of conquest, conferred on the Jews at Jerusalem, are rationally accounted for by the statement in Josephus that when, at the temple, the book of Daniel was shown to him, wherein Daniel declared that one of the Greeks would destroy the empire of the Persians, he supposed himself to be the person intended, and in his joy called on the people to ask of him any favors which they chose. 7. The testimony of Christ is emphatically given to the book of Daniel, to its prophetic character, and to the approach ing fulfillment of things written therein. Its place in the Hebrew canon is not among " the prophets" strictly so called, but in the same division with " the Psalms." The prophets were God's ministers among the people at large to instruct, comfort, and reprove, as well as to foretell the future. Daniel's office, as has been seen, was rather that of a statesman, clothed with vice-royal authority by the kings who held him cap tive, and made conspicuous by the manifest wisdom and power of God. He ranks with Moses and David rather than with Isaiah. His personal prosperity, the miracles wrought around him, and the revelations given him, were designed to show, among other things, that although God had allowed the Jews to be carried captive for their sins, his power, as great as it ever had been, was concentrated on Daniel as their repre sentative, and as a pledge that he would restore them to their own laud. Their release by Cyrus at the end of their 70 years is without rational explanation if Daniel's life and influence as described in the book are stricken out. The book is partly historical and partly prophetical, and portions of the history are prophecies fulfilled.
I. The historical part narrates: 1. The captivity of Daniel and his three friends, their education at the court of the king, and their superiority over the rest of the Hebrew youth. 2. The king's dream, Daniel's interpretation of it, and the consequent
exaltations of him and his friends. 3. The golden image, the fiery furnace, and the deliverance. 4. The king's second dream and its interpretation, his pride, loss of rea son, expulsion, and restoration. 5. Belshazzar's feast, the writing on the wall, the doom declared the city captured, and the king slain. 6. Daniel's exaltation in the kingdom of Darius, the conspiracy against him, the den of lions and his safety there. 7. Ills prosperity continued during the reign of Cyrus. II. The prophecies in the book are. 1. Concerning the four kingdoms under the emblem of the image in Nebuchadnez zar's dream: its golden head representing the Babylonian; its silver arms and breast, the Medes and Persians, becoming one; its brazen loins and thighs, the Greeks under Alex ander, divided after him into two eastern kingdoms, Egypt and Syria; its iron legs, the Romans, consisting of two parts—the senate and people, and led by two consuls; its toes of iron and clay, the kingdoms of Europe, having both the strength of Rome and the weakness of barbarous tribes; the stone cut out without hands and smiting the image, the kingdom of Christ commenced and advanced without human power and destined to subdue the world and continue forever. 2. These kingdoms were represented again in Daniel's vision by four wild beasts coming out of the sea, and explained by the angel as denoting four kingdoms rising out of tumults and wars: (1) The lion with eagle's wings was an emblem of Babylon; (2) The bear with three ribs between its teeth denoted the Medes and Persians conquering Babylon, Lydia, and Egypt; (3) The leopard with four wings and four heads represented the .kingdom of Alexander, famous for the swiftness with which it was conquered, and divided after his death into four parts; (4) The fourth beast was great, terrible, and strong, and represented the fourth kingdom, diverse from all others, devouring the whole earth, treading it clown, and breaking it to pieces; but finally to be judged and destroyed. and to be followed by the kingciom of the Most high that shall endure forever. 3. The vision of a rain, attacked by a goat rushing from the w. without touching the ground, represented the kingdom of the Medes and Persians overthrown by Alexander advancing from Macedonia with une qualed swiftness. When the goat was strong its horn was broken, and in its place came up four, pointing towards the four winds. And when Alexander was at the height of his power he suddenly died, and four kingdoms were formed out of his dominions. 4 The prophecy concerning the 70 weeks—interpreted as 490 years, each day signifying a year—revealed to Daniel by the angel Gabriel, measured off the time between the going forth of the commandment to rebuild Jerusalem and the coining and death of the Messiah. This period is subdivided into three-7 weeks, 62 weeks, and 1 week. During the first the city and wall,:would.be rebuilt; at the end of the see and the Messiah would come, and in the middle of the third be would be cut off. During the third period, both before his death and after it, he would establish the covenant with many; and afterwards desolation would come on the temple and city. 5. The final revelation given to Daniel was from the lips of the Son of God appearing in the similitude of a man. Beginning at, the point of time where Daniel then stood, be w numbered the kings of Persia who were afterwards to arise, announced the expedition of Xerxes against Greece, and gave a condensed summary of human history onward to the resurrection of the dead to everlasting life or everlasting shame.