Daniel

DANIEL, one of the four great prophets (Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel). From the first chapter of the book of this prophet we learn that he was of the tribe of Judah ; that when a child he was carried captive to Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar, in the third year of the reign of Jeholakim, king of Judah, n.e. 606; and that he was ouo of the "children (verse 4) In whom was no blemish, but welhfavoured, and skilful in all wisdom, and cunning in knowledge, nod understanding science;' who were chosen by the master of the king of Babylon's eunuchs to be taught " the learning and the tongue of the Chnldeaus," and to stand before the king. It appears to have been required of these children to hero countenances fair and fat iu flesh, and that they might acquire these qualities they were furnished with "a daily pro vie.on of the king's meat and wine ;" but Daniel, otherwise Belteshazzar, and his three companions,Shadrach, Meshed], and Abednego, purpoeing not to defile themselves with the royal meat, obtained permission to adept a diet of pulse and water instead, and partaking of this food they excelled in appearance all the other children who were being trained in the palace. "Daniel had understanding in all visions and dreams, and in all matters of wisdom and understanding the king found him and his three companions ten times better than all the magicians and astrologers that were in all his realm" (17, 20). In reward for the interpretation of a dream related in chapter 2, " King Nebuchadnezzar not only gave Daniel many valuable gifts, and made him ruler over the whole province of Babylon, and chief of the governors over all the wise men of Babylon, but he fell upon his face and worshipped him, and com manded an oblation and sweet odours to be offered unto him " (46, 48). Daniel's Chnldman name of Belteshazzar was that of a Babylonian deity, the god of Nebuchadnezzar; and the prophet is repeatedly said to bare possessed the spirit of the holy gods, and to have been made master of the magicians, astrologers, Chalcheans, and soothsayers (iv. 8, 9; v. 11). For interpreting the mysterious writing on the well, king Belshazzar clothed him in scarlet, put n chain of gold about his neck. and made him third ruler iu the kingdom. Daniel also prospered in the reign of the Median monarch Darius (probably the Cyaxares of the Greek historians), who appointed him the first of three presidents over 120 princes, whom he set over the whole kingdom (vi. 2). Having escaped unhurt from the lions' den into which he was thrown by Darius, he continued to prosper In the reign of Cyrus the Persian (2S). lie did not return to Judea on the termination of the captivity, but remained with the large portion of his countrymeti who continued at Babylon, where he is generally supposed to have died. Some however state that he diet at Susa, on the Lukens. lie was contemporary with Ezekiel (xis'. 14, 20; xxviii. 3). Among the Rabbis it is generally maintained that Damel was not a true prophet; that he did not dwell iu the Holy Laud, out of which they say the spirit of prophecy does not raids; that be spent his life, not as the other Jewish prophets, in solitude, poverty, and abstinence, but amid the grandeur, pomp, and luxury of a royal palace; that he was a eunuch (2 Kings, xx. 18), one of a elailawho are excluded from the congregation of the Lord (Dent. xxiri 1). Some place his writings among the mere llsglographia, as Laving less authority than the canonical books. They account for the fact of his not being mentioned when his three eompauious were cast into the furnace, by saying that ho was absent from Babylon on an expedition to Egypt, for the purpose of stealing hogs (Calmet's ' Diet of the Bible); and they object. to his prophecies that they all 'Onto to dreams and riskins, which they consider the most imperfect modes of revelation. However It is said by Josephua (' Ant. JucL,' L x. c. 12), that Daniel was a great and true prophet, who was favoured with oummumeatious from Jehovah; he says also that Daniel built a fatuous palace at Suaa, or Ecbatana. Dr. Adam Clarke and others think that Zoroaater was Danish The twelve chapters of the canonical book of Daniel are partly In the Hebrew and partly in the Chaldaic language. The uncanoulcal or apocryphal books attributed to this prophet, oonalstIng of the stories of Susannah and Bel and the Dragon, and the Song of the Three Children, are extant only in the Greek of Theodotlan, which is adopted iu all the Greek churches of the East, the version of the Septuagint being lost. Tho following are the principal prophetical subjects of the canonical book of Daniel. Chapter 2 contains the account of Nebu chadnetzaie dream of the great image of gold, silver, braes, iron, and clay, with Daniel's interpretation. Tho stone which became a great mountain is considered as prophetic, of the Mush& Chapter 4 relates the same monarch's dream of the great tree, representing himself, as interpreted by Daniel, and which 1,68 speedily fulfilled. In chapter 5

is recounted Daniel's interpretation of the writing on the wall at the feast of Belshazzar. Chapter 7 contains the prophet's description and interpretation of his own dream of the four great beasts. The com mentators state that the four kingdoms of the earth designed by these four beasts were the Babylonian, the Medo-Perainta the Macedo Oreoian, and the Roman. Tho ten horns of the fourth beast are said to be ten kingdoms, rising out of the Roman empire ; but what parti cular kingdoms aro meant appears rather difficult to determine, if we may judge from the conflicting opinions of different writers. The Rev. Hartwell Horne, in ' Introduction to the Bible,' has tabulated the theories of some of the most eminent commentators, which exhibit scarcely a single instance of agreement in any particular. Thus, hi explaining the meaning of the first horn, Machiavel applies it to the Ostrogoths, Dr. Diode to the Britons, Drs. Lloyd and Hales to the Huns, Sir Isaac Newton to the Vandals, and Bishop Newton to the senate of Rome. This dream has always been much insisted on by Protestant writers as a prophecy relating to the destinies of the Church of Rome. Daniel'e vision of the ram and the he-goat described in chapter 8 is considered to siguify the destruction of the Medo Persian empire by the Macedonians, who were ancieutly called .Egadat, or aEgeatee, that is, the gostepoople. The prophecy of the seventy week; communicated to Daniel by the angel called the man Gabriel iu chapter 9, is regarded by all Christians as a striking prediction of the advent of Jesus as the Messiah. Sir Team Newton, in hie 'Commentary ou Daniel,' declares it to be the foundation of the Christian religion. The weeks are understood as being prophetic weeks, conalstiug each of seven years. (Leviticus, xxv. 8.) No scriptural authority is to be fouud fur this interpretation (Le Clerc, iBiolioth.' tom. xv. p. 201); but en instance of this mode of reckoning occurs in Alacrobius, ' Sown. Seip.,' I. i. c. 6. In the 25th and 26th verses it is said that from the first year of the reign of Darius (yen 1, 3, 23) unto the Messiah the prince would be 69 weeks, or 483 years, and that thou Messiah would be cut off, which disagrees with the best chronologists, who make the first year of Darius 538 D.C. (A. Clarke'e 'Bib.') The chronological difficulties of this important prophecy have occasioned a great variety of interpretatious, and exercised the pens of the most learned of the fathers and of modern diviues. (' Improved Version of Daniel,' by the Rev. Thos. Wiutle, 8vo. 1836; Prideaux's 'Connect.' rot i. p. 306 ; Vossius, • De 70 Hebdomad. Dau.,' p. 183). In the 10th and 11th chapters other visions are described which relate chiefly to the conquests and revolutions of several Asiatic, nations. The prophecy in the 12th and last chapter extends to the end of time, and speaks of the resurrection and the day of judgment. In the time of Jerome some few rabbis admitted the story of Susannah es canonical, while others rejected it as such ; and Josephus, in speaking of Daniel, says nothing either of Susannah or of Bel and the Dragon. (Hieronymus, ' In Dan.') A learned dissertation on these books is given by Eichhorn in his Einleituug in die Apokriphishen Scriften: p. 419. Porphyry, in the twelfth of his fifteen books against the Christians, impugns the genuineness and authority of the prophecies of Daniel, contending that they are falsely ascribed to him, and that they are really historical, and were written after the occurrence of the trouts to which they relate. Dr. N. Larduer has collected some of these objections, and accompanied diem with the replies of Jerome (Larduer's • Works,' voL Oft tip. 185-204). Bishop Chandler, in his ' Vindication of the Defence of Christianity,' and Dr. Samuel Chandler, in is Vindication of the Prophecies of Daniel,' have elaborately discussed the subject of the genuiuene.6 and cauouical authority of this prophetical book. It is remarked by Mr. Home, that " Of all the old prophets Daniel is the easiest to be understood ;" and that "he writes more like nu historian their a prophet." Grotius, Le Clem, and several other learned critics, have maintained that all the prophecies of Daniel relate to and nated in the persecution of the Jews under Autiechus Epiphanes, in the age succeeding that of the prophet. In Mr. Horne's 'Introduction,' voL h. p. 792.3, an account is givcu of the principal commentators ou Dude], as Sir Isaac and Bishop Newton, Drs. Faber, Frere, Halos, 3:c., and of the numerous disquiaittoua on the particular prophecies, espe cially that of the seventy weeks. Numerous sermous uu texts, and commentaries on the book of Daniel, are named In the 'Bibliotheca Britannica' by Watts. The book of Daniel has greatly occupied the attentiun of recent British miters on the prophecies ; and especially iu connection with the church of Rome and the Millennium.