Heidegger's Bible Handbook: Daniel: Authority

4. The authority of the book asserted against the Hebrews and Porphyry.

But they are worthy of greater detestation, who either disparage the authority of the book, as some more recent Jews do, sufficiently indirect towards Daniel, who hence also abstain from the reading of it; or oppose it in open War, as did Celsus[1] of old, and before him Porphyry, the disciple of Plotinus, who, out of his fifteen books written adversus Christianos, set the twelfth against Daniel, not dreading to affirm, that this book was not composed by Daniel, but by another, in the time of Antiochus Epiphanes; and that in it not so much future things are declared, as past things are narrated: to whose ravings Methodius,[2] Eusebius, and Apollinaris[3] responded. Of the most holy and sacred authority of this Prophet certainly many are the κριτήρια/criteria, both internal, the light of the Holy Spirit moving and convincing in an extraordinary way both the writer and the readers: and external, harmonious consent with the other canonical writings, the gravity of the things set forth, the signs that God conjoined, and the fulfillments of those most exquisite prophecies descending to those points of time: which things GOD Himself prescribes to be observed, Deuteronomy 18:22: in addition, testimonies, both of God the Father, Ezekiel 14:14; 28:3, where the holiness and wisdom of Daniel is declared; and of the Son, Matthew 24:15; Mark 13:14 (compare with Hebrews 11:33, 34, where an allusion to this history appears); and human testimonies, serving the divine, as of the ancient Church of God, Jewish and Christian, Josephus in book 2 contra Apion, where he affirms that the books that were written in the Church by men of God to the times of Artaxerxes had divine authority, while this one was written long before that time; then also of the older Rabbis, like Abarbanel, refuting those things that were written by Maimonides unto the depreciation of the book. Of Jacchiades, whose words we reported above: of Maimonidies himself, who in his Fundamento Legis, chapter 7, confesses, that Daniel had the gifts of a true Prophet: of the ancient Rabbis, who in Bava Batra number this book among the כתובים/Ketubim/ Hagiographa, and regard its authority as equal to the Psalms, Proverbs, and Lamentations. Capable of being added are the testimonies of those Kings and nations, among whom these matters were conducted and consigned to public annals. So also the Holy Spirit wrote in the Chaldean tongue those histories, which pertain to the public demonstration of the authority of this Prophecy, so that He might show that He produces those foreign nations and their annals as witnesses.

[1] Celsus was a second century Greek philosopher and opponent of Christianity. Excerpts from his The True Word are found in Origen’s Contra Celsum. [2] Methodius (died c. 311) was bishop of Olympus in Lycia, and an opponent of Origen, ending his course in martyrdom. His work against Porphyry is no longer extant. [3] That is, Apollinaris of Laodicea.