DANIEL, BOOKS OF

DANIEL, BOOKS OF (Apocryphal) , additions to the biblical Book of Daniel. Among the fragments found at *Qumran were three manuscripts (4QpsDan a, b, c) containing works pertaining to the Danielic literature. Two of these (a and b) are copies of the same composition, while the third may represent a different one. The texts are very fragmentary, but the work dealt, at least, with the Flood, the Exodus, sin and the first exile, the first of the four kingdoms (cf. Dan. 2:7, etc.), the Greek period, and the eschatological age. Another Dead Sea text associated with the Danielic literature is the Prayer of Nabonidus which presents a tradition close to, but in some respects earlier than, that found in the canonical Daniel.

A Daniel apocryphon is mentioned in early Christian lists, and extant Christian Daniel books include various forms of the work called in Armenian The Seventh Vision of Daniel. This is an apocalypse particularly noted for its description of the Antichrist. Texts are known in Armenian, Greek, Coptic, and Slavonic. The Greek and Armenian forms differ from one another in many respects, but their common source is quite apparent. The Slavonic represents the same text form as the Greek. A Persian work called The History of Daniel also contains similar materials, and further Daniel books also exist.

bibliography:

Milik, in: rb, 63 (1956), 407–15; Freedman, in: basor, 145 (1957), 31–32; C.V. Tischendorf, Apocalypses Apocryphae (1860), xxx–xxxiii; E. Klosterman, Analecta zur Septuaginta, Hexapla und Patristik (1895), 113ff.; Kalemkiar, in: wzkm, 6 (1892), 109ff.; W. Bousset, The Antichrist Legend (1896), 66–72, 109–12; M.R. James, Lost Apocrypha of the Old Testament (1920), 70.

[Michael E. Stone]