THE
PULPIT COMMENTARY, EDlTED BY THE
VERY REV. H. D. M. SPENCE, D.D., DEAN OF GLOUCESTER;
AND BY THE
REV. JOSEPH S, EXELL, M.A.
WITH
INTRODUCTIONS BY THE
VERY REV. F. W. FARRAR, D.D., F.R.S., DEAN OF CANTERBURY. RIGHT REV. H. COTTERILL, D.D., F.R.S.E. VERY REV. PRINCIPAL J. TULLOCH, D.D. REV. CANON G. RAWLINSON, M.A. REV. A. PLUMMER, M.A., D.D.
NEW EDITION.
FUNK & WAGNALLS COMPANY LONDON AND NEW YORK 1907 PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND so~s. LIMITED, LONDON AND BECCLES.
(lie rirJ,,u ef lr11,ufation and oj rejroduetion are r11en1ed.) THE
PULPIT COMMENTARY, EDITJl:D BY THE
VERY REV. H. D. M. SPENCE, D.D., DR.UI 011' S 1,0UOESTBB ;
,um BY THB
REV. JOSEPH S. EXELL, M.A.
DANIEL. ~xposftfon BY REV. J. E. H. THOMSON, D.D.
1!1omflttfcs BY REV. PROFESSOR W. F . .A.DENEY, M.A.
1i1omflfts b12 Wadous ~utbots. REV. 11 T. ROBJOHNS, l\I.A. REV. J. D. DAVIES, 111.A.
NEW EDITION.
FUNK & WAGNALLS COMPANY LONDON AND NEW YORK 1907 THE BOOK OF DANIEL.
INTRODUCTION.
THE subject of Biblical Introduction is one that has become growingly important. It is the study of the human side of the document of Divine revelation. The Scripture has been divinely inspired, but human instruments have been employed to record the Divine message. The Holy Spirit has not used them as mechanical instruments; the human authors have not been mere automata; their whole personality was used for the Divine purpose. The work of the Divine Spirit in inspiration has been compared to that of a musician with an instrument. Yet the music drawn from an organ by an organist is conditioned by the material, the shape, and length of the various pipes he brings into play; the reeds, the keys, the trackers, have all their effect, and colour the music. Introduction is laying down the elements that go to this colouring of the message. The contents of the book under consideration is of necessity the first subject to be taken up. The historical background, actual or assumed, is next. Then its relation as a book to other books.
I. THE CHARACTER AND CoNTENTS 01!' THE BOOK 01!' DANIEL. In perusing a book, the first thing we master is the matters treated, and the succes- sion of topics brought under review. .Although the reader apprehends in a general way the literary form the work he is studying assumes, whether it is prose or poetry, narrative or reasoning, and also recognizes the language or languages in which it is written-studying these matters, as distinct from simply apprehending what they are, comes after the general contents of the book have thus been grasped. Next there may be an investigation of the literary form of the book. Only after that has been studied does the mind direct itself to linguistic peculiarities. 1. The contents of the Book of Daniel. In the first verse we have Nebuchadnezzar, the young conqueror, receiving the submission of the city of Jerusalem and of its king Jehoiakim. Among the hostages of noble and royal blood which he takes to be sent to Babylon, there a.re a number of youths. From these he wishes to select certain to be educated so as to be fit attendants on his court. These are committed to the care of Ashpenaz, or, to give him the name he has in the Septuagint Version, Abiesclri. '.['hese youths ar!3 divided off into messes of four. In one of these there is a youth DANIEL, /)
512 D IN1'RODUC'l'ION TO