Tho LAt. dominiu * lord,' was coDCract«d in old French in ▼ariouB ways, of which one waa dans, and was thence adopted lato £ng. in the form dan. Spenser, F. Q, iv, ii, 32, has —
* Dan Chaucer, well of English undefyld.'
Chaucer himself uses 'dan' freely as a title of respect = sir. from this word was formed dawjer (first in late Lat. or Fr., and then adopted into Eng.) by adding the t«rm. get, seen in pftasenger, messenger. This 'danger' became a great legal
word In medisval Eng., signifying a lord's rights or sway, the extent of his Jurisdiction. Hence ^poi . . —
PnL 863 (Oxf. ed.
"power,' • control,' ae Chaucer,
* In daunger hadde he at his owne gyse The yonge girles of the diocyse.'
Cf. More, Utopia, p. 116, 1. 6 (Lumby), 'so disdaining to be in her daunger, that he renouncetb and refuseth all her benefltes ' ; and Shalu. Uer. o/ Fm. it. i. ISO—
' Tou stand within his danger, do you notT '
Thus ' to be in one's danger ' passed easily into the meaning of * be liable to ' punishment or the like, anil then ' be exposed to ' any harm, the mod. meaning. J. HASTINGS.
DANIEL, Sk-j^i (in Ezk 14>*- » 28' Sun, ker^ Sx-n), meaning 'God is my judge,' occurs in OT as the name of three (or four) persons.
1. David's second son, ' bom unto him in Heb- ron' 'of Abigail the Carmelitess ' (1 Ch 3'). In the parallel passage, 2 S 3^, the name is Chileab (^K^j) J and since this is the evident source of the chronicler's list, the name D. probably arose from a corruption of the text. This apparently can be traced through the LXX, which in each pa.ssage has AoXowd (B Aa/iviTiX in 1 Ch 3') (ax'js, .ikSi, Sn-n) (Kittel on 1 Ch 3' in Haupt's OT).
2. A priest of the lino of Itliamar who returned in the time of Artaxerxes with Ezra to Judaea (Ezr 8'), and sealed the covenant drawn up by Nehemiah (Neh 10°), unless two distinct persons are mentioned.
3. The hero and traditional author of the Bk. of Daniel. According to this took, D. was a youth of noble descent and high physical and intellectual endowments, carried by Nebuchadnezzar in the third year of Jehoiakim from .Jems, to Babylon, and with other Jewish youths, esp. three companions, Hananiah, Mi.shac'l, and Azariah, a-ssigned for education at the king's court (Un I'"'). D. and his companions refused to dctilo themselves with the royal food, and for their fidelity were rewarded by being fairer in appearance ' than all the youths which ciid eat of the king's meat,' and in their final examination before the king by licing superior
in understanding and wisdom to all tho magicians and enchanters of the realm (Dn l**). In the second year of Nebuchadnezzar, D. revealed and in- terpreted, on the failure of all the other wise men, the king's dream of the composite image, and was made ruler over the whole pro^Tnce of Babylon and chief ruler over all the wise men (Dn 2). He also interpreted the king's dream of the tree (Dn 4). After the death of Nebucli. he seems to have lost his higli office and gone into retirement ; but when the handwriting appeared on tlie wall of the palace during Belshazzar's feast (Dn 5'-°), again D. was, on the failure of the other magicians, sum- moned at the instigation of the queen (vv.'""'-). He interpreted the writing, and was then clothed with purple, decked with a chain, and proclaimed the third ruler in the kingdom (v.^). Under Darius tlie Mede, D. was appointed one of three presidents over 120 satraps, and was distinguished above all the others ; ' and the king thought to set him over the whole realm ' (Dn 6'). Through this favour he incurred the enmity of his fellow-officers, who, find- ing no occasion of accusing him, persuaded Darius to pass a decree that for 30 days no one should present a petition unto any god or man except himself on pain of being cast into a den of lions. As they expected, D. faithfully continued his custom of praying unto his God three times a day. Thus an accusation was brought against D. ; and although the king tried to rescue him, yet he was cast into the den of lions (w.'^"'°), but was miracu- lously saved (v.'''"). D.'s accusers were then cast into the den and quickly devoured, and the king decreed that all men should fear and tremble before the God of D. (w.^'"). ' So this D. prospered in the reign of Darius and the reign of Cyrus the Persian' (v.'*). This is the story of D. in Dn 1-6. In chs. 7-12 he appears as the recipient of a series of divine apocalyptic revelations respecting the future of Israel, for whose welfare he is extremely concerned. Two additional stories, that of Bel and the Dragon and that of Susanna, are also related concerning him in the Apocrypha.
This narrative of D. is evidently an example of Jewish Ilaggadoth (see next art.). Whether I), represents in any way a real hist, character cannot be absolutely determined. In Ezk 14"- * a D. is mentioned with Noah and Job as a pre-eminently righteous character, and in Ezk 28' as an example of the highest wisdom. This association and allusion imply that the D. in the mind of the prophet was an ancient worthy in the traditions of Israel. (We can with difficulty conceive of Ezekiel speaking thus of a younger contemporary. See Cheyne in Ei-po.iilor, July 1897, p. 25.) Of tliis D. of Jewish tradition we are entirely ignorant ; yet probably lie was the prototype of the D. of the Exile, and many features of this ancient character probably reappear in the later one. Ewald supposed that the D. of Ezk was a Jewish exile of the ten tribes who lived at the court of Nineveh and had acquired there a reputation for wisdom and right- eousness, and whom later Jewisli tradition trans- ferred to Babylon. Or it is possible that there was such a aistinguished Jew at Babylon, who enjoyed the favour first of Nebuch. and then of the Persian conquerors, who was actually named D., or owing to his wisilom and righteousness was so called by his countrymen after the ancient worthy alluded to by Ezk, and thus a real historical character may have been the basisof theheroof the Bk. of Daniel."