Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from The Composition of the Book of Daniel
Before passing in review the contents of Daniel, a word should be said with reference to the languages in which it is written. As is well known, the portion of the book between ch. 24 and 728 is in Aramaic, while the rest exists in Hebrew. This Aramaic section crosses the line between ch. 6 and 7, where the division in the book has usually been made by critics, and cannot well be made an ele ment in the analysis. Chapter 7, which belongs to the visions, is written in the Aramaic tongue, in which the history is narrated.
On the whole, the best explanation of the presence of the two languages is that now accepted by several scholars 2 who hold that it was written in Hebrew, and that then the author, or some friend of his, issued an Aramaic edition. Later, when a part of the Hebrew was in time of persecution lost, its deficiency was supplied from the Aramaic ver51on, hence the present bi-lingual form of the book.
It is, however, in this Aramaic portion that those expressions occur upon which most writers rely for those earmarks of style by which they prove unity of authorship.21 If, however, it should appear that the so-called author, who may have made the Aramaic version, was simply an editor who compiled the work and wrote the preface (ch. The marks of style might then conceivably be due to the liberty which the translator allowed himself. Some features of the case, which will appear more clearly at a later point, render this supposition improbable.
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