User:Til Eulenspiegel/Origins of the Book of Daniel: Timeline

NOTE: I will be using this user space to present a historical timeline, for convenience to assist myself in understanding all the confusion regarding various competing theories regarding the origin of the Book of Daniel (including conjectures about a "Proto-Daniel".) This is because, as the Oxford Bible Commentary put it, "It is therefore likely that the Book of Daniel has a long and complex history". Indeed, the complexity surrounding the entire issue is indeed quite liable to cause confusion. If anyone should see this userpage and wish to comment or suggest corrections, feel free to use the attached talkpage. Til Eulenspiegel (talk) 1 July 2010

A crucial scholarly point from a scholar

"Although the Greek tradition preserves both variant literary editions of Daniel, the OG translation and the recensional text mark Th`, rarely is the connection made that there must have been (at least) two Semitic editions of the text. The shorter Semitic edition is preserved in MT and the Qumran manuscripts, and the longer Semitic edition is reflected first in the text which the OG translated and later in the text toward which the recensionist revised the OG." -- Eugene Ulrich, "The Relevance of the Dead Sea Scrolls for Hexaplaric Studies" in Origen's Hexapla and fragments: papers presented at the Rich Seminar p. 405.

Timeline

597 BC: King Nebuchadnezzar II of Babylonia captures Jerusalem, replaces Judah's king Jehoiachin with a puppet Zedekiah, and begins deporting Jews to Babylon. Alleged setting of Daniel chap. 1.
587 BC: After Judah rebels, Nebuchadnezzar again captures Jerusalem, deposes Zedekiah, annexes Judah, and deports the remaining Jews.
586 BC: Second year of Nebuchadnezzar's personal reign over Judah - alleged setting of Daniel chap. 2. (the Statue Vision)
568 BC: 18th year of Nebuchadnezzar over Judah - alleged setting of Dan. chap. 3 and 4, according to extant Greek versions of Dan. 3:1 and 4:4.
556 BC: After a couple of intervening reigns, Nabonidus becomes King of Babylonia. He is the father of Belshazzar. Extant versions of Daniel ch. 4, however, incorrectly name Nebuchadnezzar as Belshazzar's father. This is sometimes explained as a later copyist's or dictationist's confusion in substituting the more famous name "Nebuchadnezzar" (Nabu-kuduri-utsur) in place of "Nabonidus" (Nabu-na'id)
553 BC: Belshazzar becomes co-regent with his father. Alleged setting of the vision in Dan. chap. 7. (the four great beasts)
551 BC: Third year of Belshazzar's regency - alleged setting of the vision in Dan. chap. 8 (the goat and the ram)
549-539 BC: Nabonidus, last king of Babylonia, spends the last 10 years of his reign living in desert, with Belshazzar as co-regent (a fact known to contemporaries, but soon utterly forgotten by historians until verified by archaeology.) The extant versions of Daniel 4 again say it was Nebuchadnezzar who lived alone in the desert for 7 years with Belshazzar as regent; but it is usually suggested that Nabonidus' reign is the correct setting that would have been alleged by Dan. 4 in its original form, see note above for 556 BC.
539 BC: Fall of Babylon, including Judah, to the Persian king Cyrus. Official language, Imperial Aramaic. Alleged setting of Dan. 5. Extant forms of Daniel incorrectly say it fell to "Darius"; in several chapters, the names of Cyrus and Darius often seem to be confused with one another in the extant early versions.
538 BC: Cyrus begins allowing exiled Jews to return to Judah. Aramaic is vernacular among Jews, Hebrew less so over time. Alleged setting of Dan. 6 (the lions' den) and the vision in Dan. 9; extant versions of both chapters again incorrectly say "Darius", where "Cyrus" would be correct.
536 BC: Third year of Cyrus - alleged setting of vision in Dan. chaps 10-12. Dan. 11:1 has "Darius" in the Hebrew, but the Greek still has "Cyrus" in this case.
522 BC: After a couple of intervening reigns, the historical Darius begins to rule. Some extant versions of "Bel and the Dragon" (Dan. 13 or 14 in Greek) state (incorrectly) that "Darius" was followed by "Cyrus" (verse 1), in whose reign Daniel spent another 7 days in the lion den. A nearly identical verse also stating that "Darius" came before "Cyrus" is added to the end of chapter 6 in the Greek, where Daniel spent 1 day in the lion den. The fact that the Greek verses at the end of Ch. 6 and beginning of Ch. 14 are nearly identical, has suggested a theory that "Bel and the Dragon" was originally appended to the stories section following chapter 6 - with the names "Darius" and "Cyrus" again transposed over time.
332 BC: Alexander the Great of Macedon defeats Persia and conquers the Middle East; allegedly (according to later historian Flavius Josephus) he spares Jerusalem from destruction at this time after being shown Daniel's end-time prophecies. Greek becomes the official language, and the vernacular in Egypt and several other areas, though Jews, and their neighbours, also continue to speak Aramaic.
250 BC: Traditional date that the council of 70 elders with knowledge of Hebrew, translated the Jewish scriptures into Greek, producing the original LXX or Septuagint version.
180 BC: Ben Sira names several famous Bible figures in Wisdom of Sirach, but Daniel does not appear; it is debated whether Daniel was unknown to him, and/or was written later.
175 BC: Antiochus IV Epiphanes becomes ruler in the Seleucid Empire, one of the Hellenistic Greek states.
167 BC: Non-Hellenized Jews (who still prefer speaking a later dialect of Aramaic, over Greek) revolt under the Maccabees, in response to Antiochus' harsh attempts to outlaw Judaism.
164 BC: Antiochus suddenly dies of a disease. The main critical theory places composition of all or most of Daniel just before this death, as a pseudepigrapha pretending to have been written 597-522 BC, and 'predicting' past events more or less accurately from that time until 164 BC, but then to be immediately followed (according to the prophecy) by Judgement Day, the Resurrection, and the Eternal Messianic Kingdom, or at least something along that scale.
158 BC: Apparently by this time Maccabee revolt has militarily succeeded in some measure of autonomy from the Hellenistic world; also study of Hebrew has now made a resurgence, having formerly been eclipsed by Aramaic and Greek.
150 BC: Accepted as approximate date when the extensive Qumran Scrolls library, eventually including most of the Jewish Scriptures, began to be written out on parchments in Hebrew and Aramaic.
142 BC: Maccabee rulers recognized by Seleucids, as the "semi-autonomous" Hasmonean Kingdom of Israel.
139 BC: Hasmonean Kingdom is formally recognised by its semi-ally Rome.
c. 135 BC: 1 Maccabees is written by an author who is familiar with, and who quotes Daniel, and who may believe that the prophecies in Dan. 11 and 8 applied to his own time.
128 BC: Antiochus VII, who had been reasserting Seleucid domination over Israel, slain in Parthian battle, allowing Israel to expand and again become a fully independent state for a time.
c. 125 BC: Considered to be approximate age of oldest copy of Dan. at Qumran (QDan).
c. 100 BC: Approximate date of 4 Maccabees which again mentions Daniel.
67-64 BC: Conflict erupts between Pharisee and Sadduccee sects of Jews.
63 BC: Roman general Pompey captures Jerusalem and makes Judaea a vassal of Rome.
ca. AD 33: Rabbi Yeshua allegedly tells his many followers in Judaea, that the prophecies in Daniel's book have yet to be fulfilled, and that they still pertain to the future "end times" immediately preceding the Resurrection, Judgement and Eternal Messianic Kingdom.
ca. AD 34: Jewish Sanhedrin allegedly forbids any further preaching in name of recently-crucified Rabbi Yeshua. Despite this and other reactions, the movement grows fast, especially spreading among non-Jews. Most of these new converts being Greek speakers, the Greek Bible, including the Original LXX version of Daniel, is the one they use. Approximate date of 1-3 Meqabyan which mention Daniel, and suggest Antiochus Epiphanes was the crushing iron foreseen in Dan. 2.
c. AD 50: Considered to be approximate age of latest copy of Dan. at Qumran.
AD 70: Romans under Titus quell Jewish revolt by demolishing Jerusalem Temple, including the official Hebrew copies of the manuscripts (unless theory that they were hidden at Qumran is correct).
c. AD 90: Around this time, several more controversial books that had appeared in the LXX and or Qumran versions, seem to have been dropped from the official Hebrew canon by the Sanhedrin, though they continue to be used and quoted by Christian writers. (Agapius the Historian penned a lengthy explanation.) Daniel (in some form) is one of those books retained as part of the Hebrew canon, however.
AD 94: Josephus, a Jewish historian, asserts the view that Daniel's prophecy concerned Antiochus Epiphanes, at least in part.
c. AD 112: Roman Emperor Trajan makes first policy distinguishing between Christians and Jews, showing that these two groups have become distinct to Roman intelligence.
c. AD 130: The Jewish scholar Aquila produces a new Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible, around the same time when the exact official Hebrew text as found in today's Masoretic Bible is said to have been more or less finalized. Aquila's Greek version is only partly extant.
AD 132-136: Bar Kokhba revolt; Jews dispersed from Judea, renamed Palestina by Romans.
c. AD 150: Another Jewish scholar, Theodotion, produces an entirely new Greek translation of the Scriptures. His version of Daniel seems to represent a major reworking to the Hebrew text behind the Original LXX, and one that that must have occured some time after the Qumran version.
c. AD 170: With the proliferation of new religious texts in the Empire creating confusion about the correct Christian canon, Christian teacher Melito travels to Palestina and reports that the official Hebrew scriptures currently consist of only 22 books, including Daniel. (This will eventually create controversy within Christendom about those books formerly in the LXX and / or Qumran canons, that grows over time and finally boils over in the 1540s.)
c. AD 178: A pagan philosopher, Celsus, publishes an attack on Christianity, mocks story of Daniel in lions' den.
AD 204: Christian leader Hippolytus writes Commentary stating view that Antiochus Epiphanes was a prototype of a future antichrist appearing in Dan. chap. 8
c. AD 220: Christian historian Julius Africanus interprets Daniel's "70 weeks" as predicting the time of Yeshua's birth.
c. AD 240: Origen's Six version Parallel Translation, the Hexapla is in existence by this time (now only extant in fragments.) Jerome, in AD 407, states that the Hexapla has notations in it, indicating numerous significant differences in content between its Hebrew text and the Theodotion Daniel.
c. AD 270: The pagan scholar Porphyry publishes an attack on Christianity (widespread though still illegal); asserts the theory that Daniel is a forgery written in time of Antiochus Epiphanes.
AD 311: Roman Emperor Galerius legalizes Christianity on his deathbed.
AD 321: Emperor Constantine declares Sunday as universal day of rest in the Empire.
AD 325: Constantine convenes 1st Council of Nicea. Coins up to this point had pagan imagery; this was now replaced with the chi-ro.
AD 336: Constantine is baptised a Christian near his death
AD 363: Council of Laodicea attacks 'Judaizing Christians' who maintain Sabbath on Saturday, etc.
AD 367: Church leader Athanasius accepts Hebrew canon, with non-Hebrew parts including Additions to Daniel in a separate category. Ironically, this may be called a 'Judaized canon' of the Old Testament.
AD 380: Rome-based Christianity becomes state religion of Rome.
AD 402: Christian scholar Jerome defends the 14 chapter Greek Daniel against a 12 chapter version being used by Jews.
AD 407: Jerome's preface to Daniel alludes to the Original Greek Daniel being ripped out of nearly all LXX Bibles, and replaced with Theodotion's translation.
c. AD 920: Aleppo Codex is the oldest surviving complete copy of the Hebrew Masoretic Text.