SOURCE: Clifford, Richard J. “History and Myth in Daniel 10-12.” Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research 220 (December 1975): 23-26.

In the following essay, Clifford argues that the author of The Book of Daniel selected and structured historical details to present a new interpretation of history and mythical narrative.

Chapters 10-12 of the book of Daniel, by consensus of modern commentators a single apocalypse parallel to the apocalypses of Daniel 7 and 8, is a unique combination of historical narrative¹ and prediction of the future. To be sure, the whole of Dan 11:2b-12:1-3 is, in form, a revelation of future events. But the author of Daniel, writing between 168 and 163 b.c.e., i.e. after the second campaign against Egypt of Antiochus IV and before his death in Persia, is living in the crisis period of 11:29-35, while describing events future to him (Dan 11:40-12:3). This essay attempts to...