Jesus' Words Only

Is Daniel a true 6th century BC prophet? How to respond to skeptics.

Jul 11, 2022

Video Description

We provide a quote from the Jewish Encyclopedia (1905) Vol. 11, page 652 on the Great Synagogue Synod, led by Ezra, decided to "include Ezekiel, Daniel, etc., in the Biblical canon" in 444 BC.

You can find at this link:

https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Jewish_Encyclopedia_Samson_Talmid_Ha/XVZLAQAAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0

The critics of Daniel all contend the prophecies are too uncanny, and must be after the events happened -- placing Daniel in the 2d Century BC -- mid-100s BC.

We also summarize and present Justin Rogers, Ph.d., article "The Date of Daniel: Does it Matter?" from 2016, in the Apologetics Press. It is at this link:

https://apologeticspress.org/the-date-of-daniel-does-it-matter-5359/

He addresses the skeptics' claims that the Aramaic and Hebrew in Daniel is not 6th Century BC, not 2d Century BC, and scholarship has caught up with them, now showing Daniel's Aramaic and Hebrew fit well into the 6th Century BC.

Mr. Rogers also addresses whether in fact the book of Daniel was originally in the prophets section of the Bible, but moved by the 100s. Even the quote above from the Jewish Encyclopedia does not specify which section of the Bible that the Great Synagogue Synod assigned in 444 BC to Daniel's book. But judging from Josephus, and Intertestamental authors, Justin Rogers concludes it appears certain that Daniel was in the Prophets section initially. Later it was moved, which Mr. Rogers attributes to Daniel not being a normal prophet, as he served foreign monarchs, did not preach to Jewish people, and was a seer more than a prophet with messages. So he surmises the Jewish authorities reconsidered, and moved it to the writings section by the 100s AD.

Most of the critics' motivation is to debunk as prophecy Daniel's prophecy of four successive major kingdoms that it has Greece in there. Mr. Rogers shows that this is contrary to the text, for the last kingdom is expressly Greece. Mr. Rogers explains:

"Second, the context makes clear that the third empire (and not the fourth) is Greece: 'And the male goat is the kingdom of Greece. The large horn that is between its eyes is the first king. As for the broken horn and the four that stood up in its place, four kingdoms shall arise out of that nation, but not with its power' (Daniel 8:21-22). The large horn would be none other than Alexander the Great, and the four kingdoms the subsequent divisions of his empire among his four generals (the “Diadochoi”)."

Also, Mr. Rogers rebuts as outdated the arguments that Daniel's Aramaic section beginning at 2:7, as well as his own Hebrew, dates from the second century BC.

First, he says:

"More recent discoveries of so-called “Imperial” Aramaic texts prove that the Aramaic of Daniel actually fits more closely the Aramaic of the fifth century B.C. than the much later Aramaic texts preserved among the Dead Sea Scrolls.18

Fn. 18 :

Edwin M. Yamauchi (1967), Greece and Babylon: Early Contacts Between the Aegean and the Near East (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker); Zdravko Stefanovic (1992), The Aramaic of Daniel in the Light of Old Aramaic (Sheffield: Journal for the Study of the Old Testament Supplement 129)

Likewise, Mr. Rogers explains the Hebrew matches the prior prophets' Hebrew -- older than 5th Century BC:

"The Dead Sea Scrolls have also assisted us in determining that the Hebrew sections of Daniel are far closer to the Hebrew of the biblical prophets [e.g., Isaiah, Jeremiah, etc] than that of the later Hebrew compositions preserved in the Dead Sea Scrolls.19 The Hebrew and Aramaic sections of Daniel are certainly at home in the late sixth century."

Fn. 19 Cf. R.K. Harrison (1979), Introduction to the Old Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans), p. 1125; Gleason L. Archer Jr. (1985), Daniel (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan), pp. 23-24.

It even appears Daniel was in the prophets section initially. Justin Rodgers explains:

"But we have no clear statement on exactly which books were included in the latter two divisions until late in the first century A.D. Josephus, our earliest author to comment on the individual books in the Hebrew canon, seems to include Daniel among the Prophets. …. Josephus [b. 37AD-d.100 AD] states … “the prophets after Moses wrote the history of what took place in their own times in thirteen books.”…(Against Apion, 1.38-40)…. It is virtually certain that Josephus includes Daniel among the 13 Prophets, and not among the four books of the 'Writings.'"

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