• The remote possibility that B. was a gnvndson of N. on hia mother's side has been uri^^ed as an explanation of the author's statements. This, however, is highly improbable, and an un- natural interpretAtion (cf. Bar inf-).
t They have given four different accounts of the origin of Cynis and his relation to the last king of Media, no one of which is entirely correct (art. 'Cyrus,' Kncy. Brit. !tth ed.).
1 Ch. fi implies no peaceable surrender of Babylon, but its capture by assault or stratagem. That Darius should be called a Mede may have arisen from is 1317, Jer 6111- '^, where it is predicted that the Medes will coiKjuor Babylon. The Medes also were allies of Cyrus, and Gobryos, to whom the city sur- rendered, and whom Cyrtis placed in command, was governor of ' Qutiuin,' a Median province (lintrdge z. Ass]/riiUo<jie, l»elit/.sch and Haupt, vol. ii. p. 223). Tlie older commentators generally saw in Darius, Cyaxares 11. of Xenophon's Cyrrnxxdia. "This proli- ably was the view of Jos. {Ant. x. xi. 4). But the Cyyuptt'tlia is a romance, and modern hist, investigation has failed to find a place for this king. The story of festivities at the time of the fall of Babylon is given in Herodotus, i. 1113. The cuneiform tablets mention a religious festival in connexion with the ac- count of the capture of Babylon, but earlier than the entraiii'e of Cyrus or tJobryoa into the city.
§ 'i'he writer perhaps drew his statement from a combination of 2 K 24if- and 2 Ch 30'1, misunderstanding the three years in Kings and reckoning them from the beginning of Jehoiakim's reign, or by reckoning backwani he may have reganied the 3rd year of Jeboiukim as the beginning of the 70 years of cal>ti^ ity. ^at the author of Dn, both here and elsewhere, does not si-eiu to have rightly apprehended or presented recordiil facts of tiT history, is no more surprising than the similar variations lietween the stiitcnients of Kings and Ch, and esp. the departures in NT from the Heb. text. Cf. Cn 11" 121- * (Haran) with Ac T> (Ur), Dt Wf ("0 souls) with Ac 7" (76), On •J3(i:phron in Hebron) with Ac 710 (Ilauior in Shechem), Kx r2-i" (1311 years in Kgypt) with Oal 3'" (430 years in Canaan and Egypt).
[I The word n'DlK"'ln Aramaic' (v.* KVm), may be a gloss Bo Lenormant, Bevan, Kautzsch-Marti, P. Uaupt {Bk. oj IM Crit. Heb. Text, p. Ifl). rt ill
554 DANIEL, THE BOOK OJb
DAXIEL, THE BOOK OE
implies that the prophecies of Jer. belonged to a well-known collection of sacred books, and sug- gests (this is the prevailing interpretation) the second division of the Heb. Canon, which was formed a century or more after the Exile. See art. Canon.
Thus the Bk. of Dn contains a series of historical statements which imply a misconception of the exilic period, and that their author lived consider- ably later, and may well have written during the reign of Antiochua Epiphanes.
3. TKe Language of Dn points likewise in the same direction.* The Heb. is distinguished from that of the exilic Ezk and the immediately following Hag and Zee, and resembles more nearly that of 1 and 2 Ch WTitten about B.C. 300, and certainly does not belong to an earlier period. The Aram, also, as far as can be determined, is of the same late date. Persian words appear in both sections, some in connexion with the description of Bab. institutions before the conquest of Cyrus (see list, LOT p. 469). This indicates a period long enough after that conq uest for Persian words to have become a part of the Jewish language. Three Gr. words, the names of musical instruments (Din-p, KlBapit, flute ; I'VDCB, yj/aKHipiov, psaltery ; and .tjBOio, avij.tpu>vLa, dulcimer or bagpipe, 3'- '• '"• "), also occur. One of these, avuipuvla, as the name of a musical instrument, is peciiliar to late Gr., and according to Polybius was a favourite instrument with Antiochus Epiphanes (Bevan, p. 41). This evidence brings the composition of Dn to a date at least later than the conquest of Alexander, unless the supposition be made that the Gr. musical instruments had at an earlier period through channels of trade found their way into the East, and their names become domesticated in the Aram, language. This, how- ever, is unlikely, t
4. The. Doctrines of Dn with respect to angels and the resurrection are the most developed in the OT. Angels have special personal names (8" 9'-' 10"- -' 12'), special ranks (lO''-*' 12'), and the guardian- ship of diflerent countries (10"- ^- '"). These repre- sentations go far beyond those of Ezk and Zee, and are relatively identical with those of Tobit and other Jewish writings of the 1st cent. B.C. Dn plainly teaches a personal resurrection both of the righteous and the wicked (12-). This also is a decided advance upon the doctrine elsewhere in OT, and is mentioned by later Jewish tradition in con- nexion with the Maccabees (cf. 2 Mac 12^'''-). Thus, while the determination of the date of an OT writing from its religious doctrines is always a delicate procedure, yet, as far as a doctrinal de- velopment can be found in OT, the Bk. of Dn comes after all the other OT writings, and approxi- mates most closely to the Jewish literature of the 1st cent. B.C.