SOURCE: LaCocque, André. The Book of Daniel, translated by David Pellauer, pp. I-XX. Atlanta, Ga.: John Knox Press, 1979.

In the following essay, LaCocque explores problematic issues relating to The Book of Daniel, discussing its authorship, status as apocalyptic literature, chronology, composition, canonical status, bilingualism, and structure.

In the wide variety of literature which makes up Scripture, the Book of Daniel occupies a unique place.¹ Its twelve chapters—in its present form—are divided into two major parts: the first six are ‘midrashim’ and the last five are ‘apocalypses’, while chapter seven serves as a transition between these two genres and participates in both of them.

Manifestly, with the Book of Daniel we are in a period of exploitation of ‘canonized’ material (or, in any case, material which is considered as having authority) and not in a time of pure creation. ‘Midrash’ is an expansion of a known text...