Daniel (man)

See also Daniel


DANIEL (MAN) (דָּֽנִיֵּ֜אל, God is my judge, LXX Δανιήλ, G1248, Daniēl).

1. The second son of David (1 Chron 3:1, the Chileab of 2 Sam 3:3).

2. A priest of the postexilic period (Ezra 8:2; Neh 10:6).

3. The exilic seer traditionally credited with authorship of the Book of Daniel. This man is commonly accorded the status of a prophet, but this is technically incorrect. His life experiences show that he was more of a statesman in a foreign court than a mediator of divine revelation to a theocratic community. Yet it is also true that his outlook contains elements which are in full accord with the highest spiritual traditions of Heb. prophecy generally.

The Ugaritic Legend of Aqht referred to an ancient Phoenician king named Dnil (vocalized as Dan’el or Dani’el) who was reputedly wise and upright. The reference to “Daniel” in Ezekiel 14:14 may point to some such antediluvian person, and not a contemporary of Ezekiel. So also in Ezekiel 28:3 where the prophet also mocked Tyre sarcastically because she was “wiser than Daniel.”

Bibliography

E. J. Young, The Prophecy of Daniel (1949); E. W. Heaton, The Book of Daniel (1956).