Jensens survey of the old testament adam 224
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3. He served in the courts of kings.
4. He prophesied much about Gentile
nations.
5. He was the only Old Testament prophet
whose book is classified as apocalyptic.
6. His book is the key to the interpretation
of all other biblical prophecies of the last
days.
IV. THE BOOK OF DANIEL
A. AUTHENTICITY
The Daniel referred to by Ezekiel (Ezek
14:14, 20; 28:3) and by Jesus (Matt 24:15;
Mark 13:14) is the author of this book. From
7:2
onward,
the
book
uses
the
autobiographical
rst
person;
and,
considering the unity of the book, God’s
words to Daniel in 12:4 imply authorship of
the entire book by Daniel. Liberal critics
have denied its genuineness, mainly because
of (1) its fantastic miracles (e.g., Daniel’s
deliverance from the lions); (2) its explicit
prophecies (many of which were ful lled in
the centuries before Christ); and (3) alleged
historical
inaccuracies.
Despite
such
objections, the book’s authenticity has
endured through the centuries.
B. PLACE IN THE CANON
In our English Bibles, Daniel appears as
the last of the ve major prophetical books
(Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel,
Daniel). In the Hebrew Bibles, Daniel is not
grouped with the prophetical books, but
appears as a historical book in the Hebrew
section called Writings. That it was not
included among the prophetical books is
explained by the fact that while Daniel had
the gift and function of prophet (cf. Matt
24:15), his position was that of a
government o cial. That his book was
placed in the Writings as a historical book
can be explained by its content, with its
apocalyptic visions of world history.
C. DATE WRITTEN
Daniel probably wrote his book soon after
the last dated event occurred (10:1; 536
B.C.). An approximate date would be 530 B.C.,
or when the prophet was around ninety
years of age.
D. TYPE OF LITERATURE
Daniel is an apocalyptic book, the only
Old Testament book so classi ed.5
Revelation is the one New Testament
Apocalypse.6 The word apocalypse in its
Greek form is translated as “revelation” in
Revelation 1:1. Apocalypse is a revelation,
an unveiling of secret purposes of God not
known before that unveiling. Those purposes
concern particularly world events leading up
to the Messianic Kingdom and the
consummation of things in the end of the
world. The manner in which these events
are unveiled is mainly by visions, where
imagery and symbolism appear throughout.
In Daniel the word “vision” appears twentytwo times; and “visions,” ten times.
Usually apocalyptic literature is written as
prose, but because so much picture language
is involved, the prose at places looks very
much like poetry. In the Westminster Study
