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
The omission of any express recognition of God's tender compassion
is due to the structure of these chapters; for it would hardly be
possible for heathen potentates to recognise that attribute in the
immediate presence of His judgments. It is somewhat remarkable that
the name "Jehovah" is avoided.[142] As the Jews purposely pronounced
it with wrong vowels, and the LXX. render it by κύριος, the Samaritan
by שימה, and the Rabbis by "the Name," so we find in the Book of
Daniel a similar avoidance of the awful Tetragrammaton.
FOOTNOTES:
[139] Literally, as in margin, "_most high things_" or "_places_."
[140] In iv. 5, 6; and _elohîn_ means "gods" in the mouth of a
heathen ("spirit of the holy gods").
[141] _Elohîn_ occurs repeatedly in chap. ix., and in x. 12, xi. 32, 37.
[142] It only occurs in Dan. ix.
CHAPTER V
_THE THEOLOGY OF THE BOOK OF DANIEL_
As regards the religious views of the Book of Daniel some of them at
any rate are in full accordance with the belief in the late origin of
the Book to which we are led by so many indications.[143]
I. Thus in Dan. xii. 2 (for we may here so far anticipate the
examination of the second section of the Book) we meet, for the first
time in Scripture, with a distinct recognition of the resurrection
of the individual dead.[144] This, as all know, is a doctrine of
which we only find the faintest indication in the earlier books of
the Canon. Although the doctrine is still but dimly formulated, it is
clearer in this respect than Isa. xxv. 8, xxvi. 19.
II. Still more remarkable is the special prominence of angels. It is
not God who goes forth to war (Judg. v. 13, 23), or takes personal
part in the deliverance or punishment of nations (Isa. v. 26, vii.
18). Throned in isolated and unapproachable transcendence, He uses
the agency of intermediate beings (Dan. iv. 14).[145]
In full accordance with late developments of Jewish opinion angels
are mentioned by special names, and appear as Princes and Protectors
of special lands.[146] In no other book in the Old Testament have
we any names given to angels, or any distinction between their
dignities, or any trace of their being in mutual rivalry as Princes
or Patrons of different nationalities. These remarkable features of
angelology only occur in the later epoch, and in the apocalyptic
literature to which this Book belongs. Thus they are found in the
LXX. translations of Deut. xxxii. 8 and Isa. xxx. 4, and in such
post-Maccabean books as those of Enoch and Esdras.[147]
III. Again, we have the fixed custom of three daily formal prayers,
uttered towards the Kibleh of Jerusalem. This may, possibly, have
begun during the Exile. It became a normal rule for later ages.[148]
The Book, however, like that of Jonah, is, as a whole, remarkably
free from any extravagant estimate of Levitical minutiæ.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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