We shall see in later pages that the supreme value and importance of the Book of Daniel, rightly understood, consists in this--that "it is the first attempt at a Philosophy, or rather at a Theology of History."[151] Its main object was to teach the crushed and afflicted to place unshaken confidence in God.
[143] The description of God as "the Ancient of Days" with garments white as snow, and of His throne of flames on burning wheels, is found again in the Book of Enoch, written about B.C. 141 (Enoch xiv.).
[144] See Dan. xii. 2. Comp. Jos., _B. J._, II. viii. 14; Enoch xxii. 13, lx. 1-5, etc.
[145] Comp. Smend, _Alttest. Relig. Gesch._, p. 530. For references to angels in Old Testament see Job i. 6, xxxviii. 7; Jer. xxiii. 18; Psalm lxxxix. 7; Josh. v. 13-15; Zech. i. 12, iii. 1. See further Behrmann, _Dan._, p. xxiii.
[146] Dan. iv. 14, ix. 21, x. 13, 20.
[147] See Enoch lxxi. 17, lxviii. 10, and the six archangels Uriel, Raphael, Reguel, Michael, Saragael, and Gabriel in Enoch xx.-xxxvi. See _Rosh Hashanah_, f. 56, 1; _Bereshîth Rabba_, c. 48; Hamburger, i. 305-312.
[148] _Berachôth_, f. 31; Dan. vi. 11. Comp. Psalm lv. 18; 1 Kings viii. 38-48.
[149] 1 Macc. i. 62; Dan. i. 8; 2 Macc. v. 27, vi. 18-vii. 42.
[150] Introd., p. 477. Comp. 2 Esdras xiii. 41-45, and _passim_; Enoch xl., xlv., xlvi., xlix., and _passim_; Hamburger, _Real-Encycl._, ii. 267 ff. With "the time of the end" and the numerical calculations comp. 2 Esdras vi. 6, 7.
[151] Roszmann, _Die Makkabäische Erhebung_, p. 45. See Wellhausen, _Die Pharis. u. d. Sadd._, 77 ff.