The Expositor's Bible: The Book of DanielFarrar, F. W. (Frederic William)
Religion
The Expositor's Bible: The Book of Daniel
Farrar, F. W. (Frederic William)
Bible. Daniel -- Commentaries
[131] So Bertholdt, Von Lengerke, Auberlen. It is decidedly rejected
by Schrader (Riehm, _Handwörterb._, i. 259). Even Cicero said,
"Cyrus ille a Xenophonte non ad historiæ fidem scriptus est" (_Ad
Quint. Fratr._, Ep. i. 3). Niebuhr called the _Cyropædia_ "einen
_elenden_ und läppischen Roman" (_Alt. Gesch._, i. 116). He classes
it with _Télémaque_ or _Rasselas_. Xenophon was probably the ultimate
authority for the statement of Josephus (_Antt._, X. xi. 4), which
has no weight. Herodotus and Ktesias know nothing of the existence of
any Cyaxares II., nor does the Second Isaiah (xlv.), who evidently
contemplates Cyrus as the conqueror and the first king of Babylon.
Are we to set a professed romancer like Xenophon, and a late compiler
like Josephus, against these authorities?
[132] T. W. Pinches, in Smith's _Bibl. Dict._, i. 716, 2nd edn. Into
this theory are pressed the general expressions that Darius "received
the kingdom" and was "made king," which have not the least bearing
on it. They may simply mean that he became king by conquest, and not
in the ordinary course--so Rosenmüller, Hitzig, Von Lengerke, etc.;
or perhaps the words show some sense of uncertainty as to the exact
course of events. The sequence of Persian kings in _Seder Olam_,
28-30, and in Rashi on Dan. v. 1, ix. 1, is equally unhistorical.
[133] This is supported by the remark that this three-months viceroy
"appointed governors in Babylon"!
[134] Herod., iii. 89; _Records of the Past_, viii. 88.
[135] See, too, Meinhold (_Beiträge_, p. 46), who concludes his
survey with the words, "Sprachliche wie sachliche Gründe machen
es _nicht nur wahrscheinlich sondern gewiss_ dass an danielsche
Autorschaft von Dan. ii.-vi., überhanpt an die Entstehung zur Zeit
der jüdischen Verbannung nicht zu denken ist." He adds that almost
all scholars believe the chapters to be no older than the age of the
Maccabees, and that even Kahnis (_Dogmatik_, i. 376) and Delitzsch
(Herzog, _s.v._ "Dan.") give up their genuineness. He himself
believes that these Aramaic chapters were _incorporated_ by a later
writer, who wrote the introduction.
[136] Sayce. _l.c._, p. 529.
[137] Kamphausen, p. 45.
[138] Sayce, _l.c._ The author of the Book of Daniel seems only
to have known of _three_ kings of Persia after Cyrus (xi. 2). But
five are mentioned in the Old Testament--Cyrus, Darius, Artaxerxes,
Xerxes, and Darius III. (Codomannus, Neh. xii. 22). There were three
Dariuses and three Artaxerxes, but he only knows one of each name
(Kamphausen, p. 32). He might easily have overlooked the fact that
the Darius of Neh. xii. 22 was a wholly different person from the
Darius of Ezra vi. 1.
CHAPTER IV
_GENERAL STRUCTURE OF THE BOOK_
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