SOURCE: Talmon, Shemaryahu. “Daniel.” In The Literary Guide to the Bible, edited by Robert Alter and Frank Kermode, pp. 343-55. Cambridge, Mass.: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1987.

In the following essay, Talmon argues that, because of its historical inaccuracies, The Book of Daniel should be regarded as a fictional work, and proceeds to explore the book's style, imagery, phraseology, motifs, literary allusions, and plot.

The linguistic and literary diversity of Daniel reveals a composite structure. The opening and concluding parts (1:1-2:4a and 8-12), in Hebrew, frame a portion in Aramaic which is itself a composite (2:4b-6:28 and 7:1-28). A smooth transition from the opening Hebrew section to the Aramaic part is deftly achieved by the introduction in Hebrew (2:4b), of some Chaldean soothsayers who speak Aramaic: “Then spake the Chaldeans to the king in Syriack [Aramaic].” This linguistic structure resembles that of Ezra; there, too...