The Probert Encyclopaedia of People

DANIEL

In Jewish legend, Daniel was a prophet. He was a contemporary of Ezekiel, and was born of a distinguished Hebrew family. In his youth, in 605 BC, he was carried captive to Babylon, and educated in the Babylonish court for the service of King Nebuchadnezzar. Thrown into the lions' den for conscientiously refusing to obey the king he was allegedly miraculously preserved, and finally made prime-minister in the court of the Persian king Darius. He ranks with what are called the 'greater prophets.' The book of the Old Testament which bears his name is divided into a historical and a prophetic part. Modern criticism generally regards it as written during the oppression of the Jews under Antiochus, about 170 BC. It is partly in Chaldee.
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