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  • From: <tladatsi AT charter.net>
  • To: <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [b-hebrew] Dating Daniel
  • Date: Thu, 7 Jul 2005 1:52:37 -0400

Dr. Furuli et al.

I do not have an opinion on the actual dating of cthe
omposition of Daniel. However I do have an opinion on the
relevant
methodology.

1) There is an assumption that there was single author of
Daniel who wrote the entire work at one time. This
assumption may not be accurate. Parts of Daniel may have
been written by different authors at different times and
places. So portions may be 6th century BCE and others 2nd
century BCE, or indeed some time between. The assumption
of an *either / or* approach to assigning a specific period
of composition of the entire work needs to demonstrated and
not assumed.

2) The proposal that Daniel was composed mid-2nd century
mainly lies in the fact that apocalyptic literature was in
not produced much in the 6th century BCE but was produced
much more extensively in the centuries following the 3rd
century BCE. This argument may be wrong, but it is not
circular.

3) Just as there is not textual claim in the book of Job
that Job wrote the book of Job, nowhere in Daniel is it
claimed that Daniel wrote to book of Daniel, or even that
there was a single author. This of course contrasted with
Jeremiah were it is explicitly stated that the text is the
?words of Jeremiah?, although there is no claim it was he
who wrote them down or that they were written down by one
individual.

4) Dating Daniel to either the 6th century or 2nd century
does not in any way depend on the objective existence of
God, the subjective acknowledgement of the existence of
God, the acceptance of divine inspiration of the Biblical
authors, or even the belief in prophecy. It is quite
possible to believe that Daniel was divinely inspired and
prophetic and that it was written in the 2nd century BCE,
the 6th century BCE, both, in some other century, or in
more than one century.

One?s personal principles of faith are not diagnostic as to
the dating Daniel.


Jack Tladatsi




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