Heidegger's Bible Handbook: Daniel: Daniel among the Prophets

3. His wisdom. He was a Prophet, contrary to what the Hebrews teach. The harmonization of Junius less apt.

The wisdom of Daniel GOD Himself sets forth as the perfect exemplar among men of the Prince of Tyre, thus addressing him: Behold, thou art wiser than Daniel; there is no secret that they can hide from thee, Ezekiel 28:3.[1] Whence it also follows that he was a Prophet, since to him God revealed סְתֻמִים, things hidden;[2] Which his prophecies, so evident that even the point of time of the advent of Christ is expressed, and that on account of their clarity and evidence alone Porphyry,[3] that rabid dog, undertook to write against him, manifestly argue; so that Josephus not unworthily distinguished him as a Προφήτην/ Prophet, as did our Savior also and more importantly, Matthew 24:15. Hence the Hebrews grievously err, who deny him to be a Prophet, even removing him from the register of the Prophets, and attaching him to the Hagiagrapha, which they call the כתובים/Ketubim/Writings, as if those Hagiographers were not also Prophets. The Most Learned Junius does indeed attempt to soften their judgment, Prolegomenis in Danielem, where he says that it is called a Holy Writing by the Hebrews, as opposed to books ἐνδιαθήκους, committed to writing, that is, those that were written before the captivity, kept before the ark. But, whether or not that is solid, is able to be doubted, since to the Hagiagrapha or כתובים/Ketubim/Writings the Hebrews also attach the Psalms and the Proverbs, written before the captivity. Moreover, trifling are the reasons of the Hebrews, whereby the attempt to thrust Daniel from the school of the Prophets: of which sort are, that he led, not a Prophetic, but satrapic, life, as David did a Royal; as if the life makes one a Prophet, and not divine inspiration: that he did not attain to the latter degrees of Prophecy; as if less degrees fell to him, than either to Jeremiah, or Ezekiel, or others: that the Prophetic Holy Spirit is not given outside the holy land; as if neither Jeremiah nor Ezekiel prophesied outside the holy land in Egypt and Chaldea. But undoubtedly one reason above the reasons moved them, the vividness of the Prophecy of Daniel concerning the time of the Messiah. At the same time, Maimonides, More Nevochim, part II, chapter 45, numbers Daniel among the נביאי בכלל, Prophets in general; and Jacchiades on Daniel 1:18 acknowledges, that לקצת הגבול הנבואה, he reaches to the furthest limit of Prophecy.

[1] Ezekiel 28:3: “Behold, thou art wiser than Daniel; there is no secret (סָתוּם) that they can hide from thee…” [2] Daniel 12:9: “And he said, Go thy way, Daniel: for the words are closed up and sealed (כִּֽי־סְתֻמִ֧ים וַחֲתֻמִ֛ים הַדְּבָרִ֖ים) till the time of the end.” [3] Porphyry (c. 232-c. 304) studied in Rome under Plotinus. He endeavored to make the obscure Neoplatonism of Plotinus intelligible to the popular reader.