The Book of Daniel

When was the book of Daniel in the Old Testament written? Many modern scholars are dogmatic atheists who refuse to admit the possibility of prophecy, of accurate prediction of future events. Once one rules something out absolutely, evidence favoring it must be eliminated. Since the book of Daniel contains many prophecies that subsequently came true, and since these "scholars" absolutely cannot allow for the existence of accurate predictions, they find it necessary to redate the book of Daniel, claiming it was written after the events occurred. Thus, rather than being written around 530 B.C. by Daniel himself, as a straightforward understanding demonstrates, it is declared to be from the 2nd century B.C.

Keep in mind this is based on no direct evidence, merely on the necessity of maintaining their belief system by presumption. Here are a few problems with this presumption, commonly taught as "fact." These are drawn from the Zondervan NIV Study Bible, intro. to Daniel.

1. Those who assume a late date claim the four empires of chapters 2 and 7 are those of Babylon, Media, Persia and Greece. However, Daniel 5:28 makes it clear the Medes and the Persians together constituted the second empire (the Medo-Persian Empire). This makes the Roman Empire the fourth and final empire, which would force the late-daters to push the date of Daniel even farther forward, if they could, to avoid predictive prophecy.

2. The language of the Hebrew and Aramaic sections of Daniel demand an early date, and more recent linguistic work has demonstrated that the Greek and Persian words found therein are compatible with the traditional date. The Dead Sea Scrolls have been a great help in this regard. Some terms in chapter 3 were so old they were already being misunderstood and mistranslated by the Hebrew scholars themselves when they translated it into Greek in the 3rd century, in the Septuagint. [Comment: Hmmm... how can late-daters put any book of the OT in the 2nd century B.C. if the OT was already being translated in the middle of the 3rd century B.C. in the Septuagint??]

3. Since the Roman Empire did not seize control of Syro-Palestine until 63 B.C., the late date of the 2nd century B.C. is still too early to eliminate predictions. Likewise, the prophetic appearance of Christ, the Anointed One, coming 483 years after the order to rebuild Jerusalem (Daniel 9:25), is still unresolved by the late date.


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(Created: 22 April 1997 - Last Update: 22 April 1997)