Daniel (God's Judge) was one of the princes of the royal family of Judah, and was made a eunuch in the palace of the King of Babylon, and became President of the Council. He was not a priest, but a civil governor. Carried captive at the age of from twelve to eighteen, in the fourth year of Jehoiakim (eight years before Ezekiel), he prophesied during the whole period of the Captivity, and even two years after the Return. He did not accompany the Jews back to Jerusalem, but died in exile when more than ninety years of age. B.C. 603 he interprets Nebuchadnezzar's dream, which brings him into notice. B.C. 580 (23 years later), the three children are, in his absence, saved from the fiery furnace. Ten years afterwards he interprets the king's second dream, and acts as viceroy during the seven years of that monarch's madness. He lives in retirement during the reign of Belshaz-zar, who prefers younger counsellors, till the writing on the wall calls him forth (B.C. 538); after which he is promoted to the highest post of government by Darius, which he retains under Cyrus (536), thus serving under three dynasties —the Chaldean, Median, and Persian.

His book consists of two distinct volumes, the prophecies of the latter being synchronous with some of the historical events narrated in the former: e.g. the first vision occurred in the first year of Belshazzar (B.C. 555); the second in 553; the third in the first year of Darius (538); the last in the third of Cyrus (534). The historical part (chaps, ii. 4—vii.) is in Chaldee; the prophetical in Hebrew. In the former Daniel is spoken of in the third person, in the latter in the first; but of both portions he is allowed to have been the author. Our Lord speaks of him as a prophet (Matt. xxiv. 15). An allusion is made to him in Heb. xi. 33, 34; and his language

21-

is copied in the Revelation of John the Divine, which is the counterpart of his hook in the New Testament.

Chap. ii. predicts the course of the Five Great Empires of the world, which should succeed each other in supremacy—viz. the Babylonian, Persian, Grecian, Roman, and Christian. In chap, vii. the four worldly empires, under the figure of four beasts, are viewed in their religious aspect. In chap. viii. is predicted the struggle between the Persian and Grecian powers, and tire rise of the corrupting influence of Antiochus Epiphanes (the "little horn"), which prepared the way for the final overthrow of the Jews by the Romans. Then follow the precise prophecies regarding the Messiah. In seven weeks (forty-nine years) the city would be rebuilt; in sixty-two weeks (434 years) Christ would begin His ministry, and in the middle of one week (three and a half years) He would be cut off. Chap. x. foretells the opposition of the Persian power to the restoration of the Jews; while chap. xi. more minutely predicts the history of the four Persian kings, that of Alexander and his successors, till the conquest of Syria by Rome, followed by a forecast of the growth of the supremacy of Christ's kingdom to the end of the world.

This book is the first of a series of apocalyptic writings, which culminate in the Revelation of John* the Divine. It has exercised far greater influence on Christian theology than any other writing of the Old Testament, depicting as it does, not merely the Advent of the Messiah, but the effect and influence of His human existence upon the whole future of the human race. Hence, his writings are not forewarnings of coming events, or divine threats of punishment, neither are they strictly prophetic, but have a far wider range, disclosing the philosophy of history, both sacred and profane, revealing to the Jews the great mission destined for them in the regeneration of mankind. Thus, with Ezekiel, the latter portion of the Book of Daniel forms the connecting link between the prophecies of the Jewish dispensation and the more universal revelation of Christ and His followers.

This traditional interpretation (which dates hack as far as II. Esdras and the Epistle of Barnabas) is rejected by some modern commentators, because it is thought to lose sight of the cyclic development of history; so that the Divine utterance, which has its first fulfilment in one period, receives a further and more complete one in the corresponding part of some other period. According to them, the four empires are, the Babylonian, Median, Persian, and Greek; while the fifth (the Christian), striking the feet of the composite image, crushed the foundations of them all (viz., heathen mythology), and prepared the way for its own supremacy over all future dominions. Each of these has its antitype in the Christian era,—Babylon in Rome, Media in Byzantium, Persia, with its divided power, in the Teutonic races, while the great Northern nations may hereafter rival the conquests of Alexander;—all these being eventually superseded in the triumph of Christ's second Kingdom, as the former empires were by His first Advent. In this way the Book of Daniel is hoth a prophecy and a revelation.

Date and Authorship. No doubt was expressed as to the authorship of Daniel, or as to the reality of the events contained in the book, until the fourth century A.D., when Porphyry denied the truth of the prophecies concerning Antiochus Epiphanes (in whose reign he supposed the work to have been written), while affirming the historical accuracy of the preceding ones. A considerable number of modern German critics have rejected the whole book as spurious, on the ground that the earlier chapters record miracles surpassing belief and that the prophetic portion represents historic events in such minute detail as to preclude the possibility of their being written anterior to those events. These objections are founded on a disbelief in miraculous power, and in prophetic inspiration; and those who advanced them assign the composition of the book to the period between B.C. 170 and 164. But it is impossible to believe that an impostor would have written what professed to be one continuous book, partly in Chaldee and partly in Hebrew, intermingled with Greek words. The tone of the whole is thoroughly Eastern, and the Jewish tradition is most reasonable, that each historical event was written at the time it happened, and each vision also, by Daniel himself; that these documents were conveyed, with other sacred works, from Babylon to Jerusalem, at the time of "the Return," and that they (as well as the Visions of Ezekiel) were compiled in their later form by the "Great Synagogue." Dr. Pusey says, "that neither its language, nor its historical references, nor its doctrines, imply any later date than that of Daniel himself; but that, contrariwise, the character of its Hebrew exactly fits with the period of Daniel, that of its Chaldee excludes any later period. That the minute, fearless touches, involving details of customs, state-institutions, history, belong to a contemporary," &c.

Canonicity. This was never doubted until the last two centuries, though the exceptional nature of the book caused it to be isolated by the Jewish canonists, who hesitated to give it a place among the prophets, but arranged it with the Babylonish documents between Esther and Nehemiah. It formed so powerful a weapon in the hands of Christians in their controversy with the Jews {Athan. de Inc. Verbi, c. 39), that the latter corrupted the LXX. text, until it became entirely discredited, and was superseded by that of Theo-dotion. which was also, in its turn, corrupted, and the old LXX. was lost, so that it is difficult now to reproduce its original.