From: Shoshanna Walker <rosewalk AT concentric.net>
To: b-hebrew <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Daniel
Date: Sun, 3 Sep 2006 00:24:05 -0500
It don't think he was "demoted", because he's in Vilna Gaon's list of
the 48 male prophets of Israel (prophet number 44) - and apparently
there was some disagreement.
Rashi doesn't include him in his list, and I posted where the Talmud
says he was not a prophet.
I think that the best, most common sense and non-religious reason
why he would not be considered a prophet, is because he didn't
receive his visions directly from G-d.
Very simple. Whether he was rejected by Sanhedrin, or even APPLIED
to Sanhedrin, I don't know - the literature is too vast for me to
figure out where to look it up.
But now I'm very curious.
Shoshanna
As for why Daniel was/is not considered a prophet, there are more than
one reasons given, the most important I heard was because he was a
court official in an enslaving kingdom. Peterö's suggestion that he
was "demoted" as a reaction to Christian citing of his prophecies
probably also played a part.