Greatest of the Prophets (1955)

The Greatest Of The Prophets www.maranathamedia.com A New Commentary on the Book of Daniel by GEORGE McCREADY PRICE PACIFIC PRESS PUBLISHING ASSOCIATION MOUNTAIN VIEW, CALIFORNIA Copyright, 1955. Library of Congress Catalogue Card No. 55-7093 The Greatest Of The Prophets PREFACE No words of mine are needed to prove the vast importance of the two books of Daniel and the Revelation for the final generation of mankind, who will be living on earth just before the second advent. If, as I believe, we are that final generation, then these books were designed by God especially for us. The present work was begun in the latter part of 1937, while I was still teaching at Walla Walla College. Of course, I was not beginning my study of these two books then, but at that time I first began to write out a verse-by-verse examination of them. After I had prepared a fairly complete manuscript of about six hundred pages, other subjects demanded my attention; so that it would not be correct to say that the present work has occupied my mind continuously since then. Yet there is no denying that it does represent an immense amount of labor, for large parts have been revised and rewritten many times. Essentially all the chief scholarly works along these lines have been consulted in the completion of this work. No one can build up a work like this by his own unaided efforts; we of this day stand on the shoulders of those who have gone before. A few of them are quoted or referred to here and there in the following pages; but it would be useless and merely pedantic to make a formal list of them here. A correct understanding of the marvelous visions of Daniel and the Revelation would most assuredly work a reform in the thinking and in the lives of the people of our day. That such a transformation may be accomplished for many is the earnest prayer of - THEAUTHOR. 2 www.maranathamedia.com.au The Greatest Of The Prophets CONTENTS Preface Introduction 1. The Making of a Prophet 2. The Great Image 3. The Faithful Three 4. The King’s Madness 5. Belshazzar’s Feast 6. In the Lion’s Den 7. The Four Great Beasts 8. The Career of the Little Horn 9. The Times of the Messiah 10. By the Banks of the Hiddekel 11. A Detailed History 12. Final Explanations “Gabriel, make this man to understand the vision.” Daniel 8:16. “Daniel’s fourth kingdom is the Roman power: first in its earlier stage as a consular and imperial power, and then in its later stage, when as the ‘little horn’ it depicts the papacy. Yet in both these points the critics hold entirely different views: i.e., they are wiser than Christ: Christ the Teacher of the Gospel pages, Christ the Revealer of the Revelation! Now that higher criticism which, consciously or unconsciously, claims to be higher than Christ, comes to us really from beneath. It is the dragon who gives it ‘his power and his throne and great authority.’ “-Charles Boutflower, In and Around the Book of Daniel, page 293. 1923. “When the books of Daniel and Revelation are better understood, believers will have an entirely different religious experience.” - Testimonies to Ministers, page 114. “When we as a people understand what this book [the Revelation] means to us, there will be seen among us a great revival.” Ibid., p. 113. 3 www.maranathamedia.com.au The Greatest Of The Prophets INTRODUCTION I. General Characteristics of the Book The position of each of the books of the Holy Scriptures may not seem a matter of much importance; yet it is well to note that an argument has been urged against the authenticity of the book of Daniel because in the Jewish version it is not found with the major prophets, as in the English Bible, but in the fifth place from the end. In the Massoretic Hebrew Bible it is essentially in the same place, though because of a combination of some of the books in the Hebrew, Daniel appears as the third from the last of the Ketubim, or the Haglographa, the latter being itself the third or last large division, the preceding large divisions being termed the Law and the Prophets. The argument against Daniel because of its position in the Hagiographa and not among the major prophets will be considered later. The book comes down to us partly in Hebrew and partly in Aramaic, the first part and the last being in Hebrew, but the middle portion being Aramaic, from the middle of the fourth verse of chapter 2 to the end of chapter 7. This very peculiar language division has been the occasion of much discussion, as it does not in the least correspond to the literary contents of the book. For there is a clear literary division of the book into two parts, the first six chapters being composed of narratives or anecdotes, while the latter half of the book comprises three distinct visions. [1] Thus the visions are mostly in Hebrew (except chapter 7); while the narratives are mostly in Aramaic (except chapter 1 and the first part of chapter 2). 1. Chapter 9 is merely a supplement to the vision of chapter 8; while chapters 10, 11, and 12 are in reality all one vision. Accordingly, scholars have had no end of difficulty in trying to account for these peculiarities of language and of literary classification. For there can be no doubt that this identical division into Hebrew and Aramaic, if not as old as the book itself, does date from the very earliest period of the book’s history of which we have any record. Many good scholars think that the book was originally written thus, partly in the one language and partly in the other. Pusey declared that it could have been thus written in the two languages in the period at the downfall of Babylonia, but could not possibly have been written in these two languages at the times of the Maccabees. Some contend that the one part or the other must be a translation from the prime original; but whether this original was Hebrew or Aramaic scholars are not agreed. On this point more will be given later. The student of any book of the Bible, including, of course, this one of Daniel, should always remember that the present division into chapters and verses is not a part of the original, and in reality is not very ancient. It is said to have been first made by Stephen Langdon, who became archbishop of Canterbury; he died in 1228. This division into chapters obscures the fact that the last three chapters of Daniel are only parts of one vision. Moreover, the English division into chapters is not always followed exactly in the modern Jewish version. R. H. Charles, archdeacon of Westminster and author of A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Book of Daniel (Oxford University Press, 1929), has pointed out that the book is divided into ten natural sections, each dated in one way or another by the author, usually at the beginning of each section. Not all of these dates appear in our English versions. The third and the fourth, however, have dates assigned them in the Septuagint, while the fifth is dated by the events at the end, or the day of Belshazzar’s death, in 539 BC. The others are dated in the English versions in terms of the reigns of certain kings, this being one of the many evidences that the book must have been written, not in Palestine, but somewhere in the East, either in Babylonia or in Persia. My personal opinion is that the book consists of personal private documents left by Daniel, but assembled somewhat later, probably by Ezra or Nehemiah. The latter, we know, collected a “library” of the holy books, and doubtless was divinely inspired in so doing. Undoubtedly this collection of documents left by Daniel was then among the other books which now constitute most of the Old Testament. The difficulties regarding the authorship of the book which arise from the two languages in which it comes to us, are still further complicated by the fact that in the first six chapters Daniel is spoken of in the third person, while in the remaining six he is generally (though not always) represented as speaking in the first person. When the pseudo-scholarly vogue of questioning the authorship of the books of the Bible became 4 www.maranathamedia.com.au The Greatest Of The Prophets a favorite pastime a century and a half ago, the book of Daniel fared like the rest, and was confidently cut up and assigned to several authors. This dissection of Daniel has now gone entirely out of style; all modern scholars agree that the book is a unity, in spite of its two languages, and in spite of the further remarkable fact that it covers a period of almost seventy years. An exceedingly small number of authors have ever written anything worth while at both ends of any such period. But was the book originally written in Hebrew, or in Aramaic? Or was it composed by the author at widely different times, part of it being written in the one language and part in the other? No other book in the Bible exhibits this duality of language. Ezra has two sections in Aramaic; but these are readily accounted for as being royal documents (proclamations, etc.) which, with some accompanying narrative matter written also in Aramaic, are incorporated into these Hebrew books in their original language.

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