The Old Testament Book of Daniel plays a very important role in Christian theology. It is viewed by many Christians as a reliable source of information foretelling future events thereby greatly enhancing Bible credibility. In fact, Christian apologists maintain that because it mentions the coming of an "anointed prince," Daniel 9:24-26 actually foretell the coming of Jesus. Also, the Book of Daniel served as a model for the writers of the New Testament Book of Revelation as well as for the "Olivet Discourse" found in the 24th chapter of the Gospel of Matthew. But just how reliable is the Book of Daniel?

According to the story, the book was written by the prophet Daniel who, as a young man, was among the captives taken to Babylon following the defeat of Judah by King Nebuchadnezzar in the 6th century2 (1:6.) Daniel, again according to the story, remained in Babylon for the rest of his life where he eventually rose to a high government position as a result of his God-given ability to interpret dreams and visions (1:17.) He went on to serve under four kings: Nebuchadnezzar, Belshazzar, Darius the Mead, and the Persian conqueror, Cyrus the Great.

While in Babylon, Daniel claims to have experienced a series of mysterious visions revealing the future of the Jewish people and the tribulation they were to face. These prophetic visions span the time from 587 to the period of Jewish persecution under Antiochus IV (174-164). However, some investigators maintain that the Book of Daniel is a forgery written by an unknown author or authors between 168 and 164 long after the events "foretold" in the alleged prophetic visions had already occurred³. It is also widely believed that the "prophet Daniel" is a fictitious character who, in reality, never existed. The purpose of this paper is to present a summary of the evidence supporting these charges. But, first, let us briefly review of the history of that period.

Nebuchadnezzar, the second king of the Babylonian empire, ruled from 605 to 562. In 587 he defeated Judah. As a result many Jews were carried off into exile in Babylon. However, in 539 the Persians under Cyrus the Great defeated Babylon and allowed the Jewish exiles to return to their homeland thus ending the period known as "The Babylonian Exile." For the next 200 years the Jews enjoyed a period of religious freedom.

In 334 Alexander the Great of Macedonia defeated the Persians, and the conquered lands became a part of Greek empire. Following Alexander's sudden death in 312, the Greek empire split into four smaller realms. Palestine came under the domination of the Ptolemies. In 198 the Seleucids, under the leadership on Antiochus the Great, took control of Palestine from the Ptolemies. The subsequent imposition of Greek Hellenism threatened traditional Jewish culture and religion. This development, along with increased taxation, led to widespread unrest and resentment among the Jewish people throughout the region.

Antiochus IV, known to the Jews as Epiphanes (the madman), ascended to the throne in 174 and decreed that all Jews must accept Hellenization. The Jewish religion was outlawed, Jewish scripture was forbidden, and unclean swine were sacrificed to the Greek god, Zeus, on the alter of the Jerusalem temple. This provocation became known as the "abomination that maketh desolate" (Daniel 11:31). As a result, the Jews revolted under the leadership of Judas Maccabaeus in what became known as the Macabean Revolt. Antiochus was defeated, and in 164 traditional Jewish worship was restored throughout Palestine. Thus ended the period covered by the so-called prophetic visions of Daniel.

The claim that the Book of Daniel was not written until after these events had already occurred is very convincing. The later date is evident from its contents and style, and from comparison to other ancient data. The evidence is given below in summary4:

Literary Style: The Book of Daniel is written in both Hebrew and Aramaic. These language did not came in to general use among the Jewish people until long after the Babylonian exile. Also, the book contains several Persian and Greek words that were not known in ancient Babylon.

In Daniel 9:2, Daniel is pictured studying "the books," wherein the prophecies of Jeremiah are contained. There was no such collection of sacred books in the alleged time of Daniel.

Daniel Not Among the Prophets: In the Christian Bible Daniel is considered a major prophet. In the Hebrew Bible, however, Daniel is not included among the prophets. This exclusion indicates that both the book and its author were unknown as recently as 200 when the prophetic canon was fixed.

Daniel is not mentioned in the Old Testament: Outside of the Book of Daniel the name "Daniel" never appears in the Old Testament. There are, however, several references to a Dan'el. These references point, not to the Babylonian Daniel, but to a very ancient king who is classified with the likes of Noah and Job. Scholars suggest that these references are most likely based on King Dan'el mentioned in the Canaanite Ras Shamra tablets of the fourteenth century.

No Reference to Daniel Before 200: There is no reference to Daniel in any non-canonical literature before the second century. There is also no reference to Daniel on Babylonian, Median, or Persian monuments and inscriptions. This is an odd omission indeed considering Daniel's purported high rank plus his alleged service under four kings as is claimed in the Book of Daniel.

Theology is too Advanced: The theological ideals and conceptions of Daniel more closely resemble Jewish teachings and writings of the second and first centuries than of the time of the exile. For example Daniel's idea of a heavenly kingdom more closely resembling that of the New Testament.

Historical Inaccuracies: The historical blunders evident in the Book of Daniel are not only numerous they are also very revealing because they are ones that a person living in that age would never have made. For example, Daniel gives the succession of Babylonian kings as 1) Nebuchadnezzar 2) Belshazzar, whom he misidentifies as the son of Nebuchadnezzar, 3) Darius the Mede, and 4) Cyrus the Great. The historically accurate sequence is 1) Nebuchadnezzar, 2) Evil-Merodach, 3) Neriglassar, 4) Nabonidus, 5) Belshazzar, son of Nabonidus, and 6) Cyrus the Great⁵. Nebuchadnezzar's reign was not succeeded by that of Belshazzar's as Daniel claims.

The most obvious historical error, however, concerns the fictitious Darius the Mede^5a. The writer of Daniel mistakenly inserts Darius the Mede as king of Babylon between the reigns of Belshazzar and Cyrus the Great (Daniel 5:30-31). All efforts to identify Darius the Mede as an actual historical person have thus far failed. There were Babylonian kings known as Darius but they came after Cyrus.

Daniel's Predictions Analyzed: The most conclusive evidence for a Maccabean date for the writing of the Book of Daniel is found in the analysis of Daniel's visions and the prophecies arising from them. The visions pertaining to events between the fifth and third centuries are brief, sketchy, and historically unreliable. Actually, they amount to no more than clumsy attempts to portray known historical events in a prophetic style. The writer did not predict the future so much as he reiterated the past. As the author approaches his own era, however, the details in the visions and the events they claim to prophesy become much more precise. The events immediately prior to and including the reign of Antiochus IV (175-164) and his persecution of the Jews are historically accurate. But, events extending into the author's immediate future do not agree at all with known history. For example, instead of dieing in a battle somewhere between Jerusalem and the Mediterranean Sea as the writer predicted (11:40-45), Antiochus IV actually died far to the east in modern day Iran⁶.

Some Glaring Omissions: The writer of the Book of Daniel was convinced that he was living in the "last days". But he was obviously wrong about that. In fact, the most trying days of tribulation for the Jewish people lay ahead. The Judao/Roman war, still considered the most devastation war ever to have occurred in the middle east, began in 67 CE and ended in 70 CE with the total defeat of the Jewish people and the destruction of the Temple. No Judas Maccabaeus arose to lead them in a successful revolt against the Romans as had happened in the Maccabean period. Yet Daniel, the self-proclaimed prophet of Jewish tribulation, said nothing about this tragedy. Nor did he mention the Nazi Holocaust, another devastating atrocity for the Jewish people. Both of these historically documented episodes far surpassed the persecution perpetrated upon them by Antiochus IV.

Some famous stories from the Book of Daniel analized7:

In addition to it's lurid visions and amazing "predictions," the Book of Daniel contains several astounding stories tirelessly repeated by Christian clergy. These stories are widely known throughout Christendom and enjoy great popularity. Included are, "The Golden Image", "The Fiery Furnace", and "Daniel in the Lions' Den". So, let us now take and objective look at these stories.

The Golden Image

Daniel 3:1 ~ Nebuchadnezzar the king made an image of gold, whose height was threescore cubits, and the breadth thereof six cubits: he set it up in the plain of Dura, in the province of Babylon.

No clergy person, as far as I know, has ever sat down and computed the volume of the king's golden image. So, let's see just what we are dealing with here. At eighteen inches per cubit the image would be 90 feet tall by nine feet wide. Although the depth is not given, a conservative estimate would be nine feet because in order to be stable when set upright the structure's depth would have to be at least equal to its breadth.

The total volume of the image is a whopping 270 cubic yards of gold. Not only would that be more gold than possibly could have been in Nebuchadnezzar's royal treasury, it is probably more gold than was in the combined treasuries of all the kingdoms in the middle east of that time. But, another astonishing factor to consider is the weight of such a structure.

I called several jewelers regarding this question and got a figure of 3 ounces for one cubic inch of gold. From there I figured that if there are 1728 cubic inches in one cubic foot, a cubic foot of gold would weigh 324 pounds. A cubic yard of gold, which consists of twenty seven cubic feet, would weigh 8748 pounds. Therefore, a structure comprised of 270 cubic yards of gold would weigh a whopping 1181 tons.

Gold smelters normally are rather small things because they usual process relatively small amounts of the precious metal. So, no gold smelter in the world could have handled such a project. Even if they had, it would have been impossible to have moved it with the primitive technology of that day, let alone sat it upright.

Christian apologists might offer as an explanation the possibility that the image was made in small pieces like a jigsaw puzzle and assembled at the site. But, even if the amount of gold needed for was somehow make available, such a project would have tied up the best craftsmen in the entire middle east and would have required many years to complete. The cost, in addition to that of the gold, would have been outlandishly enormous. Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego would, in all probability, have died of old age before the subject image was completed.

It should also be noted that in all the royal Babylonian archives that archaeologists have so far discovered not a single reference to such an image as this, or any decree to worship it, has ever been found8.

The Fiery Furnace

Daniel 3:27 ~ And the princes, governors, and captains, and the king's counsellors, being gathered together, saw these men, upon whose bodies the fire had no power, nor was an hair of their head singed, neither were their coats changed, nor the smell of fire had passed on them.

First, if the story of the golden image is debunked, that of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego (hereafter referred to as "the three stooges") surviving the fiery furnace is debunked also. But let us consider some of the more preposterous aspects of that outlandish story.

Because they refused to obey the king's order to worship the golden image, the three stooges, who had only a short time earlier been appointed by the king to "rule over the affairs of the province" (vs 49), were to be cast immediately into a fiery furnace. In his rage, the king directed that the furnace be heated to seven times hotter than normal. They were then cast in. By that time the furnace was so hot until the king's men carrying out the order were killed.

The king, however, was astonished to see not only the three stooges standing unharmed amidst the flames but a fourth stooge had mysteriously appeared and was standing with them. The king was so amazed that he went right up to the mouth of the furnace to get a better look. Although the intensity of the heat had killed his men, he somehow remained unharmed. About that time the three stooges came walking out, probably arm-in-arm, completely unharmed.

We later learn (vs 28) that the fourth stooge is an angel - a "guardian" angel, no doubt. Anyway, the king was so impressed that he issued a decree that "every people, nation, and language, which speak anything amiss against the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, shall be cut in pieces, and their houses shall be made a dunghills: because there is no other God that can deliver after this sort". He then promoted the three stooges, but to what is anybody's guess.

So much for the fiery furnace episode.

Daniel in the Lions' Den

Daniel 6:22 ~ My God hath sent his angel, and hath shut the lions' mouths, that they have not hurt me".

In this story the non-existent King Darius was informed by certain of his followers that Daniel had been caught worshiping a god other than that of the Babylonians. Because this was a capital offense, Daniel was cast into a den of hungry lions. But, God protected him. When King Darius saw what had happened he was so impressed that he decided it was time for a little reverse justice. Whereupon he ordered that those who had informed on Daniel be thrown into the lion's den along with their wives and children.

As noted above there is absolutely no historical, archaeological, or literary data to prove that there ever was a "King Darius" of Babylon. Darius is a myth, therefore, the story of Daniel in the lion's den is just another Bible hoax.

It might be of interest to note that Daniel 8:14 reads, “And he said unto me, unto two thousand and three hundred days; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed.” When William Miller, an incorrigible Bible reader and religious zealot, read this passage back in 1831, he interpreted it to mean that the world would was going to end with the second coming of Jesus on October 22, 1844. Many people took him seriously and became his followers. They were known as “Millerites.” They in fact became so convinced by Miller’s preaching that they sold or gave away most of their possessions and didn’t bother to plant crops for coming year. However, it didn’t end with the uneventful passing of that designated date. Following Miller’s death in 1949 his remaining followers banded together and founded The Advent Christian Church which survives today as The Seventh Day Adventist Church⁹. ____________________________________________________________________________

1 Compiled by Louis W. Cable.

2 All dates are BCE (Before the Christian Era) unless otherwise noted.

3 Greenberg, Gary; 101 Myths of the Bible, 2002, pages 287-289.

4 Shepherd, Brodrick D., Beasts, Horns and the Antichrist, Cliffside Publishing House, 1994, p. 21.

5 Greenberg, Gary, 101 Myths of the Bible, 2002, pages 287-289.

5a Shepherd, Brodrick D., Beasts, Horns and the Antichrist, Cliffside Publishing House, 1994, p. 23.

6 Encyclopedia Britannica  2002  Deluxe Edition.

7 Till, Farrell, "Silliness in the Book of Daniel"; The Skeptical Review, vol. 9, no. 6; Nov/Dec 1998.

8 Benson, Andrew D., The True Origins of Christianity and the Bible, Prudential Publishing Co., 1997, p.17.

9 Stewart, R. B. Jr., On the Origin of Gods, 2003, pg 173.