Another Look at the Redaction History of the Book of Daniel,or,Reading Daniel from Left to Right

Abstract

Chapter 7 of the book of Daniel has been described as a pivotal chapter. This chapter is the last of six written in Aramaic, while it is also the first of four visions concluding Daniel in the Masoretic text. The change of literary type as well as the change in language has puzzled commentators, primarily because the change from one literary type to another (court tales in Dan. 1–6 and visions in Dan. 7–12) does not match the dissimilarity in language (Hebrew in Dan. 1 and Dan. 8–12, and Aramaic in Dan. 2–7). Many resourceful proposals to solve the puzzle have been made, but no single one has gained ascendancy and thus outright acceptance among scholars. This article seeks to rethink these matters by arguing that the visions written in Hebrew in the second century constituted the ‘original’ prophetic book of Daniel. It is proposed that it was only after the rededication of the temple that the legendary stories, available in Aramaic, were added to the visions. This suggestion offers some answers to questions about the bilingual nature of the book as well as the different literary genres it contains.