The Pulpit Commentary — Daniel — Section 9

roe11ns "the Divine Judge," nncl such names as Gabriel support this view. On this eupposiUon the book is still less like one written up to the nBme. In the story of Susnnn11 and the elders wo see what the imagination of the Jew produced when writing up to that idea; indeed, so well does the story suit the name, that M. Remm is sure that this represents the original form of the Daniel legend--:m opinion that is a reductio ad abBurduin of this view. The canonical Book of Daniel cannot be written up to the name. Has the book been written up to the references to Daniel in Ezek. xiv. 14.-20 and xxviii. 3? In the first of these references D,miel is put on a par in righteousness with Noah and Job. 'l'ho ideas of righteousness prevalent at the time when, according to the critical school, Daniel was written can be learned from Ecclesiasticus, e.!], xvii. 22, "The alms of a man is as a signet with him, and he will keep the good deeds of man as the apple of the eye, and give repentance to his sons and daughters." That Daniel gave alms is probable, but not a word is said of this in the Book of Daniel. Zeal for the cause of Jehovah is, somewhat later than the days of the Maccabees, a token of righteousness, as we may see in 2 Mace. vi., vii. Daniel's three friends mani- fest that zeal much more than he ; when they are threatened with the fiery furnace he is elsewhere, and no explanation of his absence is given. If he were the ideal righteous man, his absence would be explained. If we turn to the Book of Tobit, we see the ·Jewish ideal of a date, as it seems to us, somewhat earlier than that of the Maccabees. Tobit gives alms, buries the dead of his people, and what he does himself he urges on his son. Before be became a captive, he proclaims, as a special evidence of bis righteousness, the fact that he went from Naphtali to Jerusalem to offer at the altar in Jerusalem. Daniel, on the other hand, makes no effort to go to Jerusalem, even when the people are permitted by the decree of Cyrus to return. So far, then, as righteousness is concerned, Daniel has not the obtrusive righteousness we should expect in a character written especially to illustrate this. The other characteristic ascribed to Daniel in Ezekiel is wisdom. The wisdom of the period of the Maccabees, if we may judge by Ecclesiasticus, was largely gnomic and proverbial. 'l'here is no trace of that in Daniel. Another characteristic of the Jewish wise me.n was the solution of hard questions or riddles. This was one of the special proofs of Solomon's wisdom, that all the riddles of the Queen of Sheba. he could solve. This is e. character given to Daniel in the Massoretic text of eh. v. 12-a verse that is quite omitted from the Septuagint. In Job it is the solution of the moral problems of the universe. The only characteristic of Jewish wisdom that Daniel possesses is the interpretation of dreams, and in rege.rd to this he expressly disclaims the credit of this power, e.ttributing it to God. His apocalyptic visions, which occupy so large a space in the book, a.re in no sense connected with Hebrew wisdom. It seems impossible to imagine the Book of Daniel to be written up to the character of a wise man from whom no secret is hid, and yet only one of the special characteristics of the Hebrew wise man being attributed to its hero. If we look at the purpose alleged e. little more ce.refully, we think it will be seen the.t the Book of Daniel could not have been written merely to encourage the Jews in their struggle against Epipbanes. The incidents narrated are not such as would be naturally fitted to fire people to resist the behests of a tyrant with force of arms. For that purpose the stories of the Bock of Judges were far better fitted. If anything may be supposed to be inculcated by the incidents in the Book of Daniel, it is passive rcsititance. We learn from 1 Mace. ii. 29-36 how certain Jews followed the lines of passive resistance, and were all destroyed. The course followed by Mattathias and bis sons we.s in direct contrast with this, and they deprecated any such suicidal policy.  xii INTRODUC'l'ION TO