When Was Daniel Written?
In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim king of Judah Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came to Jerusalem and besieged it.Daniel 1:1 · World English Bible
Original Language & Text
Daniel is unusual among biblical books for its bilingual composition: chapters 1:1-2:4a and 8-12 are in Hebrew, while 2:4b-7:28 are in Aramaic. The Aramaic section contains a number of Persian loanwords (e.g., terms for officials and administrative concepts) and at least a few apparent Greek loanwords for musical instruments (commonly identified as Greek-derived terms for the lyre, harp, and bagpipe/symphony in Daniel 3:5). Linguists have debated whether this vocabulary better fits a 6th-century BCE Babylonian/Persian setting or a later 2nd-century BCE Hellenistic one; the presence of Greek loanwords in particular has been a major argument for later dating, since sustained Greek cultural contact with the Near East is most readily explained after Alexander's conquests (4th century BCE onward), though defenders of early dating note Greek mercenaries and trade contacts existed earlier too.
Key Terms in the Original Language
Aramaic, “son of man” (Dan. 7:13) — literally “a son of humanity,” i.e. a human figure
Daniel's vision of “one like a bar enash” coming with the clouds became a key title Jesus applies to himself in the Gospels; whether Daniel's figure is an individual (angelic or messianic) or a symbol for “the saints” collectively, as Dan. 7:27 suggests, is debated independently of the book's dating.
History & Authorship
The pagan philosopher Porphyry (3rd century CE), in a work known only through Jerome's rebuttal, was the first to argue Daniel was written not by a 6th-century exile but around 167-164 BCE, during the Maccabean revolt against the Seleucid king Antiochus IV Epiphanes, noting that the book's 'predictions' are detailed and accurate up through Antiochus IV's reign (Daniel 11) but become vague and historically inaccurate regarding his death and what follows. Modern critical scholarship revived this argument from the 18th-19th centuries onward, citing apparent historical errors (such as the figure of 'Belshazzar' as Babylon's last king and 'Darius the Mede,' neither straightforwardly attested in extra-biblical records in the roles Daniel describes) as consistent with a later author working from imperfect knowledge of the Babylonian period centuries earlier. Fragments of Daniel found among the Dead Sea Scrolls (4QDan-a, etc., 2nd century BCE-1st century CE) confirm the book was known and considered authoritative by the Qumran community shortly after the Maccabean-era date proposed by critics, which some cite as compatible with either dating position depending on how quickly a new work could attain scriptural status.
How This Debate Developed
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3rd c. AD
Porphyry's critique
The earliest known writer to argue Daniel was composed in the 2nd century BC, during the crisis under Antiochus IV Epiphanes, known to us only through Jerome's rebuttal.
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18th–20th c.
Critical dating mainstreamed
Enlightenment and modern scholarship revive and generally accept a 2nd-century BC date for the book's final form.
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1947 onward
Dead Sea Scrolls
Daniel fragments among the scrolls provide new textual evidence relevant to the book's history and dating.
The Popular / Mainstream View
The traditional Jewish and Christian view holds that Daniel was a real historical figure who lived through the Babylonian exile in the 6th century BCE, and that he wrote the book bearing his name (or at least its visionary chapters) during or shortly after that period, including genuine predictive prophecies of empires and events centuries in advance—material Christians have often connected to later historical figures and, in some interpretive traditions, to end-times prophecy. This remains the standard position of Orthodox Judaism, Catholic and Orthodox Christianity, and most evangelical Protestant scholarship.
Minority & Alternative Views
Maccabean-era (2nd century BCE) composition
The dominant view among historical-critical scholars, tracing back to Porphyry and solidified in modern academic biblical studies, holds Daniel was composed around 167-164 BCE to encourage Jews suffering persecution under Antiochus IV Epiphanes. On this view, the visions describing events up to Antiochus's reign in remarkably specific detail (Daniel 11) are 'prophecy after the fact' (vaticinium ex eventu), a recognized ancient literary convention, while the actual predictions about the future (Antiochus's death and the end times) are vague or historically inaccurate—consistent with an author writing near, not centuries before, those events.
Composite/multi-stage composition
Some scholars propose Daniel developed in stages: older court tales (chapters 1-6) may reflect genuine older Babylonian/Persian-period traditions or folklore, while the apocalyptic visions (chapters 7-12) were composed or heavily edited later, during the Maccabean crisis, explaining the book's linguistic and thematic diversity.
What Scholars Say
Mainstream historical-critical scholarship dates the final form of Daniel, particularly its apocalyptic visions, to the Maccabean period (2nd century BCE), based on Greek and Persian loanwords, apparent historical inaccuracies about the 6th-century setting, and the remarkably precise 'predictions' up to but not beyond Antiochus IV's reign—a classic pattern of ex eventu prophecy in ancient apocalyptic literature. This is close to a consensus position in academic biblical studies and among mainline seminaries. Conservative scholars maintain a 6th-century date, arguing the 'historical inaccuracies' may reflect gaps in extra-biblical records rather than errors in Daniel, and that the book's canonical status and presence at Qumran fit an early date better. This remains one of the most sharply contested dating questions in the Hebrew Bible.
Sources & Further Reading
- John J. Collins, Daniel, Hermeneia commentary series
- Porphyry, Against the Christians (preserved via Jerome's Commentary on Daniel)
- Dead Sea Scrolls, Daniel fragments (4QDan a-e), Qumran
- Joyce G. Baldwin, "Daniel" (Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries, 1978)
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- What is the core evidence for a Maccabean-era (2nd century BCE) composition of Daniel, and how does it relate to the book's uncannily precise descriptions of events under Antiochus IV?
- How do conservative scholars who defend a 6th-century BCE date, like Joyce Baldwin, respond to the linguistic evidence — Persian and Greek loanwords — often cited for a later date?
- What did the 3rd-century critic Porphyry argue about Daniel's date, and why is his argument historically significant even though he wrote as an opponent of Christianity?
- If Daniel is read as a composite, multi-stage composition, what does that do to how the book's predictive prophecies are typically understood?
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