The book of the prophet Daniel

, consisting of 14 chapters, and written by the prophet Daniel himself, is placed in the Hebrew text among the Ketuvim (Writings), that is, among the writings whose distinguishing character is their divine origin, rather than in the canon of the prophetic books, and Sirach makes no mention of it; but notwithstanding this, it has always been regarded as a truly canonical, sacred book, both among the Jews and among Christians. The clearest traces of the existence of this book date to Maccabean times (1 Macc. 2:59, 60); the circumstance that this prophetic book was shown to Alexander of Macedon, when he took Jerusalem and entered it (332 B.C.), and that it contains the prophecy of Daniel that the Greek king would overthrow the Persian kingdom (Josephus, Antiquities, Book 11, ch. 8, §5), as well as peculiarities of language corresponding to the period of the Babylonian captivity — all this presents undoubted evidence of the authenticity of the book of Daniel.

It is written partly in Hebrew and partly in pure Chaldean [Aramaic]. As for verses 24–90 of the third chapter, and the whole of chapters 13 and 14, as found both in the Slavonic Bible and in the Vulgate, these passages are found neither in the Hebrew nor in the Chaldean — they exist only in Greek. A distinctive feature of Daniel’s prophecies is that he not only foretold the future, but indicated the very time at which his prophecies were to be fulfilled, as, for example, the prophecy of the seventy weeks (9:24–27).

Here is this remarkable prophecy: “Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy” (9:24). This prophecy, in which the coming of the Savior and His death on the cross, and the destruction of the Temple and Jerusalem that followed it, and the cessation of the Old Testament sacrifices, were foretold, was fulfilled in due time with astonishing, literal precision. In the Slavonic and Russian Bibles, Daniel is not infrequently called, among other things, “a man greatly beloved.”