DANIEL, BOOK OF. Daniel is usually spoken of as a prophet, and it might have been expected that the Book of Daniel would be found in the second division of the Hebrew Canon of the Old Testament (q.v.); but as a matter of fact the book is included among the Kethubim (or Hagiographa). The hook is really of a peculiar character, compared with the other books of the Old Testament. It is an example within the Canon of a class of literature which became very popular in later Judaism, Apocalyptic Literature (q.v.). The second part of the book records the visions of Daniel, which are supposed to have been seen in the time of Nebuchad nezzar (605-562 B.C.); the first part consists of ordinary narrative. Chapter i. tells how Daniel and his three friends were taken to Babylon in the reign of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, and were trained by command of Nebuchadnezzar in the language and learning of the Chaldeans. In chapter ii. we learn how by a kind of supernatural wisdom Daniel interpreted a dream which troubled Nebuchadnezzar and baffled his magicians. Chapter iii. describes how the three friends of Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah were cast into a burn ing fiery furnace for refusing to worship the golden image set up by Nebuchadnezzar, and how they were unharmed. In chapter iv. Daniel again appears as the successful interpreter of a dream which could not be interpreted by the Chaldeans. Chapter iv. describes an episode which has become proverbial. While Nebuchad nezzar was feasting, some mysterious handwriting ap peared on the wall of the banqueting-hall, which Daniel alone was able to explain. In chapter vi. we learn how Daniel fell a victim to a plot devised by the nobles of King Darius, and how Daniel was cast into a den of lions, but was unharmed. Chapter vii. gives Daniel's account of his vision of the " four beasts," which are explained to mean four kingdoms. Chapter vili. gives the " horn " vision, in which, it is thought, the " little horn " represents Antiochus Epiphanes. Chapter ix. gives first
a prayer of Daniel, and then the angel Gabriel's ex planation of the seventy years of desolation predicted by Jeremiah, which is that they denote seventy " weeks of years." The hook closes with a revelation concerning the future made to Daniel by an angel. Part of the Book of Daniel, as we have it, is in Aramaic (chapters ii. 4 b—vii. 28). This has suggested to some scholars that originally the whole book was in Aramaic. J. D. Prince, on the other hand, thinks that originally the whole book was written in Hebrew and translated into Aramaic. Then part of the Hebrew original was lost, and the gap was filled from the Aramaic translation. In any ease, the style of the Book of Daniel is late, and there are other indications, internal and external, of lateness of date. The book must have been composed some centuries after the time of Nebuchadnezzar (605 562 B.C.). " It is practically certain that it was com posed between the years 168 and 165 B.C., to encourage the faithful who were suffering in the persecution in augurated by Antiochus Epiphanes " (G. H. Box). A. Kamphausen points out (Kneed. Bibl.) that the name Daniel is rare in the Old Testament. It is curious that in Ezra's time there was a priest named Daniel who had as his contemporaries a Mishael, an Azariah, and a Hananiah. This is " a coincidence of rare names which led Bleek to conjecture that our author had thrown back the contemporaries of Ezra by more than a century in order that he might represent them as living in the time of the exile ' at a heathen court, and showing an example to his countrymen under the oppression of the heathen." See Encycl. Bibl.; S. R. Driver; C. Cornill; G. H. Box: O. C. Whitehouse; and the Commentaries by J. D. Prince (1899) and S. R. Driver (1900).