1. _Ezekiel:_ "The author of this book was a native of Jerusalem, and, like Jeremiah, of priestly descent, a member of a family of some standing in the city. When, as would appear, about twenty-five years of age, and after he had seen some service as a priest, he was carried away captive to Babylon along with Jehoiachin and other noble Jews in 599 B. C., and before the destruction of Jerusalem (II Kings xxiv: 15). He must have been a witness of the plundering of the temple by Nebuchadnezzar, as recorded in II Kings xxiv: 13, and his prophecies give evidence of a familiar acquaintance with its structure (chap. viii: 5-16, etc.) His place of banishment was Tel-Abib, on the banks of the river Chebar, about 200 miles north of Babylon. Here he settled with his family, and here he established himself as the prophet of the captivity, his house being the rendezvous of all who mourned over the dispersion and sought for the restoration of Israel." (Bagster Bible Helps, p. 39.) 2. _The Book of Daniel._ Perhaps no book of prophecy is more bitterly criticised than the Book of Daniel, and certainly no book is of more prophetic value.. Its prophecies concerning the rise and fall of empires, with the final supremacy of the kingdom of God as a universal empire, renders it at once one of the most important of prophetic books. "Porphyry, the assailant of Christianity in the third century, asserted that the book of Daniel was a forgery of the time of the Maccabees (170-164 B. C.), a time when confessedly there were no prophets, written after the events as to Antiochus Epiphanes, which it professes to foretell; so accurate are the details. A conclusive proof of Daniel's inspiration, if his prophecies can be shown to have been before the events. Now we know, from Josephus, that the Jews in Christ's days, recognized Daniel as in the canon. Zachariah, Ezra, and Nehemiah, centuries before Antiochus, refer to it. Jesus refers to it in his characteristic designation, 'Son of man,' Matthew xxiv: 30; Daniel vii: 13); also expressly by name, and as a prophet, in Matthew xxiv: 15 (cf. Matthew xxiv: 21, with Daniel xii: 1, etc.); and in the moment that decided his life (Matthew xxvi: 64) or death, when the high priest adjured him by the living God. Also, in Luke 1:19-26, 'Gabriel' is mentioned, whose name occurs nowhere else in scripture, save Daniel viii: 16; ix: 21. Besides the references to it in Revelation, Paul confirms the prophetical part of it, as to the blasphemous king (Daniel vii: 8, 25; xi: 36), in I Corinthians 6:2; II Thessalonians ii: 3, 4; the narrative part, as to the miraculous deliverances from 'the lions' and 'the fire,' in Hebrews xi: 33, 34. Thus the book is expressly attested by the New Testament on the three points made the stumbling block of neologists--the predictions, the narratives of miracles, and the manifestations of angels." (Commentary, Explanatory and Critical, p. 620.)