Thursday, January 25, 2024

Stephen R. Miller on the Hebrew of the Book of Daniel

  

Hebrew of Daniel. Driver claimed that the Hebrew of Daniel suggests a second-century date. (Driver, Literature, 504-8; also Jeffrey, “Book of Daniel,” 349) He contended that the Hebrew of the book is not as polished as preexilic or even early postexilic biblical material. (Driver, Literature, 505)

 

Concerning spelling, place names, and the like, the Hebrew of the book would have been modernized throughout the centuries as was the Aramaic, although there is nothing in the language that would preclude authorship by Daniel in the sixth century B.C. (cf. Young, Introduction, 371) The Hebrew portion contains words, phrases, and grammar common throughout the Hebrew Bible.

 

Moreover, the Hebrew of Daniel resembles that of Ezekiel, Haggai, Ezra, and Chronicles more than that of the later Qumran scrolls. (cf. Harrison, Introduction, 1125) In one study Archer exampled sample Hebrew texts from Qumran (1QS and 1QM) and determined on the basis of the language that Daniel’s Hebrew came from an earlier period. (G. L. Archer, Jr., “Daniel,” EBC [Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1995], 23-24) Thus to insist that the Book of Daniel is late on the basis of the Hebrew is not in accordance with the available data. (For a further discussion of Hebrew and the date of the Book of Daniel, see R. D. Wilson, “Evidence in Hebrew Diction for the Dates of Documents,” PTR 25 [1927]: 353-88) (Stephen R. Miller, Daniel: An Exegetical and Theological Exposition of Holy Scripture [The New American Commentary 18; Broadman and Holman Publishers, 1994], 31-32)