Daniel the Man. 

        If not of royal blood, Daniel belonged to one of the best families of Judah (1:3). After Nebuchadnezzar’s victory in 605 B.C. at Carchemish, Jehoiakim had to become a vassal of Babylon (this was Jehoiakim’s fourth year according to the Jewish, but third according to the Babylonian style of reckon­ing, 1:1). Nebuchadnezzar carried off children of the best families, probably as hostages, Daniel among them. The story creates the impression that he will have been about fourteen.

        It seems likely that Daniel was made a eunuch (see 1:3, and much early Jewish tradition). He rapidly rose to high office (2:48f), which he probably retained until the death of the king (562 B.C.). The impression created by ch. 5 is that he then was either retired — he will have been nearly sixty — or moved to a subordinate post, the former being the more likely. When Cyrus conquered Babylon (539 B.C). Daniel was an old man of over eighty, and it is easy to see why his work in the reorganization of the kingdom (ch. 6) probably lasted only a year (1:21). The last recorded date in his life is two years later (10:1), and it is probable he died not long after. It is too little realized that it was a white-haired old man who was thrown to the lions. Daniel’s age is sufficient explanation of his not returning to Palestine.

        Apart from legends of no value, we have no knowledge of Daniel apart from his book. The man mentioned by Ezekiel (14:14, 20; 28:3) is a figure of hoar antiquity, probably mentioned in tablets discovered at Ras Shamra, dating from before 1400 B.C. His name is spelled Dani’el (or more likely Dan’el), while the hero of our book spells his Daniyye’l, and this is true also of two other persons of the same name, IChron. 3:1 and Ezra 8:2 (Neh. 10:6). A spelling error by Ezekiel is hardly credible.

        We have not even the outline of an autobiography. The stories of Daniel and his friends are told us to reveal the sovereign power of God in action, so that we may the more readily believe the all-sovereignty of God over the future. Not Daniel and his friends, but the sovereign power of God is the topic of each story (cf. especially 2:47; 3:28f; 4:2, 3, 37; 6:25ff).