Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Yigal Levin <leviny1 AT mail.biu.ac.il>]

Peter,

Whether the man Daniel was or was not a "prophet" depends on your definition 
of the word. However it is clear, that the rabbis did not consider the book 
of Daniel to have prophetic status (just like they considered Jeremiah, 
author of Lamentations, to have been a prophet, but did not consider the 
book of Lamentations to be a work of prophecy). The early followers of 
Jesus, however, felt that Jesus fulfilled many of Daniel's "prophecies", and 
it was thus critical that the book be considered authoritative.

As far as Malachi, it was the "re-orderers" who placed the prophetic books 
last in the OT, making them lead directly into the New. As I wrote, this was 
not by chance.

Yigal Levin
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Peter Kirk" <peter AT qaya.org>
To: "Yigal Levin" <leviny1 AT mail.biu.ac.il>
Cc: "b-hebrew" <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Friday, September 01, 2006 1:56 PM
Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Tanach book order - different in Christian Bibles


> On 01/09/2006 13:46, Yigal Levin wrote:
> > In some cases, the different order results from Christian theological 
> > considerations. For example, "upgrading" Daniel to the status of prophet. 
> > Another example is that of the end of Malachi, foretelling the coming of 
> > Elijah to bring word of the Lord's Great and Terrible Day, leading into 
> > Matthew's annunciation (of course disregarding the Apocrypha). I refuse 
> > to believe that this happened by chance.
> I think our discussions have made it clear that there are good grounds for 
> considering Daniel a prophet quite apart from any Christian 
> interpretations. And it is a Jewish, not a Christian, teaching that 
> Malachi was the last of the prophets and chronologically the end of the 
> Tanakh. So I don't think you can attribute this ordering to Christian 
> ideology.
>
> It is unfortunate that Harold's article does not give a date for this new 
> ordering or state whether it came from Jewish or Christian sources.
>
> Peter
>
> --
> Peter Kirk
> E-mail:  peter AT qaya.org
> Blog:    http://speakertruth.blogspot.com/
> Website: http://www.qaya.org/