Traditionally believed to have been written by Daniel himself in the sixth century B.C and called by one early twentieth century authority "a genuine literary product of the exile" (Guidebook to the Biblical Literature by John F. Genung, p. 281), the book of Daniel is generally taken today to belong to a much later date, probably about 164 B.C. Despite certain historical inaccuracies in its account, it covers a period of wide historical interest, from the sixth to the second centuries B.C. The book divides into two parts of almost equal length. Its earlier section, narrative in form (Chap. 1-6), deals with the time of the exile of the Jews in Babylon, in which Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and others also figured. The narrative is written in the third person, representing Daniel as an exile, an expert seer and interpreter of dreams. The latter portion (Chap. 7-12), reported in Daniel's name and in the first person, is apocalyptic and prophetic in character.
Unlike the earlier prophetic books, which had warned of approaching exile and had preached reformation and redemption, the book of Daniel adopts the perspective of the past. By recounting events in their history as if seen or foretold from an earlier point of time, when the Jews were in the midst of persecution in a foreign land, it seeks to comfort and encourage its readers in their steadfast loyalty to the God of their fathers. This message of loyalty at all costs was especially needed in the second century B.C. at a time when heathenism and Greek culture were being imposed upon the Hebrew people and their own religion suppressed.
According to the book as it now appears, it was in the reign of Jehoiakim, king of Judah (609 to 598 B. C.), that Nebuchadnezzar (elsewhere spelled Nebuchadrezzar), the Babylonian, or Chaldean, monarch, besieged Jerusalem, capturing many of its inhabitants, deporting to Babylon Daniel (meaning "God has judged") and his three friends Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, among others who would be of value in the court of the invader.
