In 1920, Montague Rhodes James published his precocious little volume on Lost Apocrypha\1/ In it, he attempted to catalog and describe briefly the extracanonical works, many of them no longer extant, associated with various individuals mantioned in Jewish scriptures. Although James was clearly talented as a storyteller as well as in his scholarly persona as an explorer of old manuscripts and texts, he only partly succeeded in combining those talents in the Lost Apocrypha volume, which is frustratingly heavy in opaque references to things ancient and medieval. Nevertheless, his idea was and remains useful -- to collect and organize little known information about "biblical" figures and their alleged writings in a sort of handbook for easy reference. He made an excellent start in the Lost Apocrypha volume, but did not pursue the same approach in his more famous Apocryphal New Testament collection that has dominated the study of extracanonical early Christian materials since it appeared in 1924 and remains accessible in its various parts on the internet.\2/
\1/The Lost Apocrypha of the Old Testament: their Titles and Fragments Collected, Translated and Discussed (London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge / NY: Macmillan) -- now available online in electronic form (see also the Philadelphia Seminar on Christian Origins web site = http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/psco) and the M.R.James project page.
\2/Oxford: Clarendon Press; supplemented edition in 1953. For internet use of James' ANT, see http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/
http://wesley.nnu.edu/noncanon/ (and related sites).
In exploring the topic "Parabiblical Literature" during the 2002-2003 academic year, the Philadelphia Seminar on Christian Origins recognized the value of returning to the approach taken by James in Lost Apocrypha and even extending it into the explicitly early Christian materials. This approach provided the framework for the PSCO presentations in 2003-2004, and promises to encourage further work along the lines already exhibited in the anthology edited by Theodore Bergren and Michael Stone, Biblical Figures Outside the Bible -- Adam and Eve, Seth, Enosh, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Melchizedek, Levi, Joseph, Baruch, Ezekiel, and Ezra/Nehemiah.\3/ The "New (electronic) James" envisioned here takes a flexible form anchored in an internet web page, easily expanded, corrected, and reshaped as needed. Its primary objective will be to serve as a collection point and pointer to relevant information of all sorts, including legendary developments as well as literary associations. It is in this context that I offer the following probe on Daniel, in recognition of the honoree's interests not only in Danielic literature, but in the broader questions of "canon" and "parabiblical materials" in general.
\3/Harrisburg PA: Trinity Press International 1998. A more popular endeavor focusing on the various texts has appeared more recently by J. R. Porter, The Lost Bible: Forgotten Scriptures Revealed (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2001), which provides excerpts from both "OT"-like and "NT"-like works, along with some striking pictures -- see the review at http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=1739.
Daniel draws a great deal of attention in encyclopedic articles, both as a famous person within the biblical tradition of Judaism and as associated with various writings and traditions of deuterocanonical and extracanonical location. The shadowy ur-figure of "Dan'el" (Ezek 14.14, 20; 28.3) forms the backdrop, while the relatively late apocalyptic traditions in various languages in the middle ages tend to close out the picture, if they are mentioned at all. I am not aware that Daniel has left a mark in Islamic circles, but would not be surprised to be corrected. Of course, such biblical stories as "the handwriting on the wall" (Dan 5) or "Daniel in the lions' den" (Dan 6) or even the "stone" cut out without hands (Dan 3.34) have made their way into modern folksong, art and elsewhere.\4/
\4/See, e.g. http://www.lyon.edu/wolfcollection/songs/caldwellhandwriting1266.html. [For a survey of Danielic texts, see Lorenzo DiTommaso, The Book of Daniel and the Apocryphal Daniel Literature (SVTP 20; Brill 2005), which appeared after the present article was published.]
Modern literature on various aspects of the Daniel materials is, understandably, massive. Most of it has to do with the biblical book and its place in Jewish and Christian interpretation. For some, the historicity of the Daniel materials is a major testing ground of religious rectitude, leading to a variety of claims and counterclaims. Apart from such polemical issues, Daniel is seen as an early example of developments in Jewish (and near eastern) apocalyptic literature as well as an example of the development of legends about various heroic persons. The Daniel entry for the "New James" attempts to summarize all these facets while providing guidance for further exploration. Although somewhat arbitrary, it also makes sense to use the Daniel of the book of that name as the pivotal point around which to organize the materials.
"Pre-biblical" Daniel/Danel traditions: Chronologically, however, the biblical book of Daniel is not the appropriate starting point for this entry. In 1920, James could not have known of the Ugaritic figure of "Danel" who appears in the "Tale of [his son] Aqhat."\5/ This ancient princely semi-divine Danel (meaning "God's judge"? also called Ghazir and Yadinel) "is upright, sitting before the gate, under a mighty tree on the threshing floor, doing justice for the widow and judging the case of the orphan" (A.5.5ff); he has no son but faithfully sacrifices to the deities, and is rewarded with a son Aqhat by his wife Danatiya through Baal's intercession. He gives special weaponry, a bow and darts, to his son, but the goddess Anat covets it and conspires with Yatpan and the vultures to kill Aqhat for it when the latter refuses her offer of eternal life as payment. Danel grieves and his daughter Paghat takes steps to avenge the deed. Nature is unproductive, and the text breaks off before resolution is achieved (presumably death to the murderous Yatpan, repentance by Anat, restoration of Aqhat and of nature). This Danel is also mentioned in the Ugaritic list of rulers. Probably traditions relating to this Danel lie somewhere in the background of the passing references in Ezekiel 14.14 and 20 (Danel is mentioned along with righteous Noah and Job), and 28.3 ("wiser than Danel").
\5/The Ugaritic materials were discovered at modern Ras Shamra (west Syria) in 1928, and began to be published soon after. For selections of these Ugaritic texts, see http://www.piney.com/BabDanelSon.html (from M. D. Coogan, Stories from Ancient Canaan [Philadelphia: Westminster, 1978], pp. 32-35) and http://www.piney.com/BabDanel.html (from George A. Barton, Archaeology and the Bible, 7th Edition, pp. 541-542). See also James B. Pritchard (ed), Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament (Princeton: Princeton University Press 1955\2) 149-155 "Tale of Aqhat" (ed H.L.Ginsberg), reproduced in Prichard (ed) The Ancient Near East: An Anthology of Texts and Pictures (Princeton: Princeton University Press 1958) 118-132.
On the other hand, an early "Dan'el" figure also appears in connection with the tradition of the "watchers" who came down ("fell") from heaven and wrought all sorts of mischief among human women and men (see the entry on "Watchers, Giants, etc."). The Enochic Book of the Watchers 6.7 (see also Enochic Parables 69.2) has a Danel among the leaders of this group. In the book of Jubilees, which otherwise has strong connections to the Enochic materials, a human "Danel" is named as an uncle, and father-in-law, to Enoch himself (father of Enoch's wife Edna; see Jubilees 4.20). It is possible that these are all variant reflections of the same archaic legendary figure, who is even repeatedly called "Danel the Rapha-man" in the Ugaritic text, which has led to the conjecture that perhaps he is connected to the legendary "tall" "Rephaim" of Deut 2.11 and 20 (see also the entry on the giant "Og," mentioned as the last of the Rephaim in Deut 3.11-14).\6/ In short, there seems to have been a rich store of "Daniel" traditions in the worlds within which the biblical Daniel took form, mixing somewhat freely with other materials.
\6/See Ginsberg in Pritchard ANE 118 n.2 "This Rapha is perhaps identical with the aboriginal giant race of Canaan." While J. Gray comments on the problem of what this terminology may mean (in D. Winton Thomas (ed), Documents from Old Testament Times: Translated with Introductions and Notes by Members of the Old Society for Old Testament Study [London: Thomas Nelson & Sons 1958] 126 n.2), he opts for "healing" in the sense of "restoration of fertility" (Gen 20.17 and 2 Kgs 2.21); but in his introduction to the excerpts he mentions "three fragments concerning the Rephaim, which probably belong to" the "Legend of Aqhat, son of Dan'el" (Winton Thomas 124), without further explanation. Other translations include "the Healer's man" (Coogan), and he "who cures Death" (Barton).
The Biblical Daniel: The stories about Daniel (also known as Belteshazzar; 2.26 et passim) in the biblical book bearing his name are relatively well known -- as a young captive in Babylon, he and his companions flourish on a vegetable and water diet; he interprets king Nebuchadnezzar's dream about the rise and fall of kingdoms; his three friends survive the fiery furnace after refusing to worship the golden idol; Daniel interprets the king's dream about a tree cut down, after which the king reverts to an animal state for 7 years (see the entry on the prayer of Nabonidus); the new king, Belshazzar, sees the mysterious writing on the wall and Daniel interprets it (the king dies); Daniel defies the edict of Darius and is delivered from the lions. Chapters 7-12 are a series of visions and predictions narrated in Daniel's own first-person voice.
Daniel, Josephus, Greek Versions, and the Dead Sea Scrolls: Josephus (around 100 CE) is quite explicit that Daniel wrote "books" -- "For the books [ta\ bibli/a], as many as [o(/sa] he left when he had written them, are read by us even now, and we are persuaded from them [e)c au)tw=n] that Danielos spoke with God, for not only was he able to prophesy the future things, just as the other prophets, but he also established the time at which these things would happen. . . . And he left behind writings [gra/yaj] by which he made clear to us the accuracy and reliability of his prophecies" (Ant 10.267-269[11.7], see also 277). Elsewhere Josephus also refers to material that can be found in "the book [singular] of Danielos . . . among the sacred writings" (Ant 10.210[10.4]). So he knows both a special book, and at least some prophetic books associated with Daniel. Some details from Josephus' account of Daniel's life are included below with Rabbinic Jewish material.
The surviving Greek copies of the biblical book of Daniel create other complications through the presence of sections not found in the traditional Hebrew-Aramaic version that came to be included in the Jewish canon. Both the so-called "Septuagint" or Old Greek witnesses and the so-called "Theodotionic" Greek text of Daniel contain the "extra" materials dealing with Susanna, the prayer-hymn of Azarias followed by the hymn of praise by the three in the furnace (at 3.24), and the two short episodes of Daniel's clever victory over the idol Bel (Marduk) and over the snake/dragon supposedly worshipped by the Babylonians. In these materials, Daniel comes across as very wise in exposing the lecherous and lying judges (Susanna) and in trumping the trickery of the priests of Bel as well as sabotaging the meal of the revered snake. Daniel does not do "prophetic" things in these tales, and there is no reason to think that Josephus had this material in mind when he spoke of Daniel's "books."
Among the "Dead Sea Scrolls," where several fragments of the biblical Daniel have also been found, are some extracanonical fragments that can be associated with the person Daniel.\7/ That name is explicitly mentioned in a fragment of 4Q243 ("He asked Daniel, saying..."), and 4Q244 seems to be another copy of that same text (both are in Aramaic, as is about half of the biblical book of Daniel). The name "Daniel" also appears in a fragment of 4Q245 (also Aramaic), along with several other biblical names. What little can be deciphered of the content of these fragments is compatible with a Daniel identification -- warnings of punishment/exile of the sinners through Nebuchadnezzar and restoration after 70 years, perhaps also a historical summary as well as predictions of the future. It is possible that some other Aramaic DSS fragments that focus on the rise and fall of "kingdoms" -- like trees! (4Q552-553) -- and divine restoration and stability (4Q246)\8/ may have been connected to Daniel the visionary prophet of Josephus, but this is at present, simply conjecture. Some scholars also see a Susanna connection in the small scrap of 4Q551, but the evidence is far from compelling. The Nabonidus/Nebuchadnezzar tale (see 4Q242) is treated as a separate entry in the "New James."
\7/"4QPseudo Daniel Aramaic and the Pseudo-Danielic Literature" = pp 137-161 in Florentino Garcia Martinez, Qumran and Apocalyptic: Studies on the Aramaic Texts from Qumran (Leiden: Brill 1992).
\8/ "The eschatological figure of 4Q246" = pp 162-179 in Garcia Martinez, Qumran and Apocalyptic.
Daniel in Rabbinic and Medieval Jewish Tradition: James does not seem to have known Louis Ginzberg's Legends of the Jews, the main narrative body of which appeared in 1909-1913 (but without notes or index).\9/ Instead, James relied for information about rabbinic traditions on older compilations such as J. A. Eisenmenger's Entdecktes Judenthum (1700) and S. Baring-Gould's Legends of Old Testament Characters.\10/ The latter says nothing about Daniel. Ginzberg, on the other hand, is filled with pertinent information, much of it conflicting in typical rabbinic fashion.\11/ It needs to be separated out into its various strata and streams, but that will remain a task for the future. In what fallows, I will attempt only to note some of the features included in Ginzberg's synthesis. Perhaps most noteworthy is the impression that the rabbis, for all their differences, do not stray far from the anchors provided in the canonical claims and stories, except that some of them also know of the Susanna tale (n 79) and of Bel and the dragon -- perhaps also the prayer and praise associated with Daniel's three companions in the furnace episode (n 88).
\9/Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society of America. Volumes 5-6 contain the invaluable notes cited below, and appeared in 1925 and 1928. A detailed "Index" volume by Boaz Cohen was added in 1938.
\10/I take this to be the short title used by James for Baring-Gould's Legends of the Patriarchs and Prophets and other Old Testament Characters from Various Sources (New York: John B. Alden 1885).
\11/Ginzberg 4, 326-328 (nn. 76-82), 337-339 (nn 109-113), 343-350 (nn. 1-22), 378, 419 (see further the Index volume).
It is assumed that Daniel came from Judea, although one source has him born in Shushan (Jerachmeel 74.223-244 n.17). He was not simply from the sons of Judah (Dan 1.6) but a royal son in the line of Hezekiah (see Isa 39.7), offspring of king Sakkias (Josephus Ant 10.188), or perhaps of Jechoniah (Jehoiachin) (Bar Hebraeus Chron 27; Ma'aseh Daniel); or a priestly son of Abal (Bereshit Rabbete of R.Moses ha-Darshan [Ginzb 6.432 n.6]). He was also known not only as Belteshazzar (Dan 4.8 and passim) but as Memuchan, Hathach, and Sheshbazzar (see Ezra 1.8, 6.16 -- Daniel and Ezra are often juxtaposed, and perhaps confused). It is debated whether Daniel should be considered a "prophet" or not.\12/ Whether he and his three companions were actual, or only symbolic "eunuchs" was also debated (Ginzberg n.78) -- or perhaps they had been forcibly made eunuchs but were restored in the fiery furnace! There was even speculation that Daniel was the promised Messiah (Ginzberg n.77).
\12/Ginzberg n.76 (+n.18) "Palestinian sources, however, tannaitic as well as amoraic, count Daniel among the prophets."
Daniel heals Nebuchadnezzar's injury (broken leg?) incurred when the latter attempted to sit on Solomon's throne (Ginzberg n.80). Various solutions are offered for the detail that Daniel was not consigned to the furnace with his three companions/kinsmen; e.g. after Daniel interprets Nebuchadnezzar's dream, he is sent away, and builds a canal at Tiberias, brings food to cattle in Babylon and pigs from Alexandria (Sanhed 93a; Ginzberg n.82); meanwhile Daniel's three companions (having received advice through Daniel and Ezekiel) are put into the fiery furnace but are rescued directly by God (n 86) or through an angel (Dan 3.28, Prayer of Azariah 26f) namely Gabriel. The "son of God" reference by Nebuchadnezzar in Dan 3.25 (so MT and Greek "Theodotion"; Old Greek has "angel of God") is much discussed, as might be expected in light of the conflicts with Christianity (Ginzberg n.90); Nebuchadnezzar's period living as an animal and its general repercussions, including the desecration of his body after his death/burial (n 116 etc); Daniel's victory over Nebuchadnezzar's tetragrammaton talking idol (n 111); various versions (including in Hebrew) of contests with Bel and dragons (n.112, nn.8 + 13); Daniel and Belshazzar, Darius and Cyrus; lion's den & testing of lions (Josephus); Daniel shows Cyrus the Isaiah text predicting his rule (n.18; compare Josephus Ant 11.5[1.2]); Daniel's death (where?) & monuments (n.20; Josephus Ant 10.264[11.7] on an impressive tower built by Daniel -- see the reference in Dan 8.2 "Theodotion" to the "fortress" at Susa?); synagogue of Ezekiel-Daniel-Ezra-Baruch (n.75) See also below on the Persian-Hebrew "History of Daniel."
Daniel in Christian Tradition: As with the rabbis, Christians tended to anchor their treatments of the stories about Daniel in what came to be the accepted scriptural framework. Some Christians such as Jerome (ca 400 CE) were familiar with Jewish elaborations and variations (see Ginzberg, passim), and Josephus became a mainstay for Christian historical awareness, thus slightly broadening the basis of understanding/discussion. As early as Origen and Julius Africanus (ca 230 CE), the composition history of the Susanna story was debated, with implications as to its acceptability as a scriptural/authoritative text. As has been noted, two Greek versions of the biblical book of Daniel (including the "additions") were in circulation, with the one associated with "Theodotion" emerging as standard by the fourth century if not before. As persecution of Christians took place, models such as the fiery furnace and Daniel with the lions left their impression (as already in 4 Macc 13.9, 16.3+21, 18.12f).\13/
\13/Ginzberg 6.435 n.13 observes that "legends about saints being spared by ferocious beasts are very common in Christian literature, but extremely rare with the Jews," and points to the story in the Gospel of "pseudo-Matthew" 35 as an example.
But another aspect of the Daniel story seems to have been very productive in Christian circles, namely his function as a predicter of the future with focus both on the times of the curent adaptation and on the future end times (much like the biblical book!). Many texts in many versions and languages circulated in his name, often building on some biblically based enumeration of his "visions" (six or thirteen or whatever; see below) to which yet another was added. And Daniel's talent for detailing contemporary events in the context of his prophetic projections was retained in much of this literature, so that he could warn of the arrival of Muhammad, or of struggles between Byzantine-Roman rulers much as the biblical Daniel had predicted the emergence of Greece and Rome prior to the cataclysmic end. Daniel was identified with a sort of eschatological farmer's almanac, updated as time went on, and almost invariably ending with descriptions of the "antichrist" and the final consummation. These texts are succinctly described by Florentino Garcia Martinez, on whose work the following thumbnail sketches are largely based (see above, n.7). It is also at this point that we can revert to the original text of M.R. James' Lost Apocrypha (p.70 ):
Of Daniel I will take leave to say but little. Imbedded somewhere in the apocryphal Seventh Vision or Apocalypse, of which we have versions in Greek, Coptic, Armenian and other tongues, there may hark quite old elements: but, as we have them, the texts are of very late complexion. There are legendary lives of Daniel, too, e. g. one in Persian: and there is a Passion of Daniel and the Three Children in Greek, which tells how all four were beheaded by a tyrant Atticus, a successor of Nebuchadnezzar. It is a curious tale, to which little attention has been paid. There is an abstract of it, with a picture, in the great illustrated Menology of Basil in the Vatican.\14/
If I am asked which of these documents is meant by the "pseudepigrapha of Daniel" in the lists, I should hazard the answer that it is an old form of the Seventh Vision.\15/
\14/Typically, James gives almost no help to his inquisitive reader on how to find this material, short of visiting the Vatican! In the entry for "Daniel" in F. Halkin's Bibliotheca Hagiographica Graeca (Brussels: Bollandists 1957\3) a text is listed (#484*) that mentions "another Persian king named Attikos," with a string of related texts dealing with the "passio et inventio" of Daniel and the three companions. For a closer description, Halkin refers to R. Devreesse, Fonds Coislin (Bibliothéque nationale, Catalogue des mss grecs II; Paris 1945) 92.
\15/Lost Apocrypha begins with references to Christian lists of suspect literature. The reference to "pseudepigrapha of Daniel" occurs in the Stichometry of Nicephorus (early 9th century)and the virtually identical pseudo-Athanasian Synopsis. The Seventh Vision of Daniel is included in the list of Mechithar of Airivank (cir. 1290) under "Secret Books of the Jews." For further details about Greek forms of the "Visio(nes) Danielis" see Halkin under that heading. The choice of "seventh" for this visionary material is based on the division of the canonical Daniel into six parts in the Armenian tradition (and perhaps elsewhere?). There is a Coptic tradition that finds thirteen (di)visions in the canonical material (with "Bel" as 12 and "the Dragon" as 13), and doubtless other ways of distinguishing sections.
Indeed, let us be a bit more analytical with this mass of material! Perhaps the most interesting, and least Christian, is the Persian "History of Daniel" (Qissayi Daniyal) which is preserved in Hebrew characters and is, according to Garcia Martinez, "clearly a Jewish composition" (158). It has two parts, somewhat like the biblical book of Daniel, with various stories followed by an apocalypse revealed to Daniel by an angel. It even has two Messiahs in the last days, one a son of Joseph, followed by the son of David. Although typically "late" in its final composition (11th century?), it deserves much closer attention for present purposes! Another late Persian text, in Hebrew letters and poetic form, basically paraphrases the biblical Daniel under the title "Daniyal-nama" ("Book of Daniel") and thus seems less interesting for present purposes.
According to Garcia Martinez (158ff), "the most important, most ancient and least known of the pseudo-Danielic compositions is a work which has been preserved only in a Syriac MS of the 12th century under the title: 'From the young Daniel on our Lord and the end.'"\16/ Here also, there are two parts, the first dealing breifly with the "son of man" and associated worship, and the second part being a somewhat typical cosmic apocalypse including descriptions of the "antichrist" and of another endtimes pseudo-Messianic figure, "the son of damnation." Possibly this work, or some variation thereof, was known to the Nestorian Syriac author Ebedjesu (ca 1300) under the title "the little Daniel."
\16/British Museum Cod Add 18715, fol 239v-241v; see H. Schmoldt, Die Schrift 'Vom Jungen Daniel' und 'Daniels Letzte Vision': Herausgabe und Interpretation zweier apokalyptischer Texts (Hamburg Dissertation 1972), 25-27.
There is a brief and fragmentary "Vision of Daniel" in Hebrew from the Cairo Geniza discoveries, which counts itself as Daniel's fourteenth vision (! see n.15 above), in the days of Cyrus. It is typical of other medieval/byzantine Danielic works in commencing with a "historical" section identifying various important personages (especially emperors) followed by some standard apocalyptic language. More extensive, but also counting itself as Daniel's fourteenth vision, is a work known in Coptic and Arabic using that title. It also contextualizes itself in medieval/byzantine historical events before it moves to more specific apocalyptic themes such as the victory of the "son of man" over the "antichrist." There is another somewhat similar Arabic apocalypse attributed to Daniel, with strong affinities to a Syriac apocalypse of Ezra. (Connections between Danielic and Ezra traditions are not infrequent in these materials.)
An Armenian text entitled "the seventh vision of Daniel" "on the end of the world" reflects a different way of counting the biblical visions (see n.15, above), but is similar in pattern: Gabriel reveals to Daniel details of history leading to the appearence of the "antichrist." As already noted, this work seems to have been known to Mechithar of Airivank, in the thirteenth century, and probably derives from a Greek original. The Slavonic "Vision of Daniel" probably had a similar background, although it is different enough from extant Greek Danielic materials to deserve separate mention. There are also Slavonic versions of some of the Greek materials that have survived.
Of the surviving Greek materials, Garcia Martinez identifies the following four as "most important" if also fairly similar in content and organization (153ff): 1. Apocalypse of the Prophet Daniel on the end of the world, or, The Last Vision of the Prophet Daniel. 2. The "monk" Daniel on the "Seven Hills" and on the Islands and their Future.\17/ 3. Visions of Daniel on the Last Times and on the End of the World and the closely related Discourses of the Holy Father John Chrysostom on the Vision of Daniel. 4. Narrative of Daniel, sometimes attributed to Methodius and thus also known as "pseudo-Methodius" "on the Last Days and on the Antichrist." All of these works contain "predictions" that scholars identify with historical events of the medieval/byzantine period, followed by the discussions of "antichrist" and his apocalyptic fate. It is worth noting that already in the third century, Hippolytus "of Rome" (but probably originally from the eastern Mediterranean) is credited with a commentary on Daniel and also a treatise on the Antichrist. These works give early evidence of significant variation in wording within the Danielic tradition, and the continual readaptation of "Daniel's Visions" as a key to understanding one's own history and fate is not surprising at any stage (including the biblical!) in the long development of such materials.
\17/The reference to a "monk" named Daniel will confuse issues, although this material seems to be clearly related to our biblical Daniel and his corpus. Halkin's supplementary volume 3 has a section on a 6th century monastic ("Abbot") named Daniel from Scetis, with whom several texts are associated. Nevertheless, the text discussed by Garcia Martinez is included with other materials associated with the biblical Daniel in Halkin 2.315 (Visio Danielis prophetae).
James concludes his brief treatment of Daniel with another undocumented reference to a different type of item in the Danielic corpus (p.70):
The Dreambook or Somniarium of this prophet is also quite old: it exists in many forms and languages. Usually it is an alphabetical list of objects that are likely (in the compiler's opinion) to be dreamt about, with an indication of the meaning of each. A short preface opens it, the gist of which is that the princes and all the people of Babylon begged Daniel to explain to them the dreams which they saw, and he sat down and wrote this book.\18/
\18/See Moritz Steinschneider, "Das Traumbuch Daniels und die oneirokritische Literatur des Mittelalters: Eine bibliographische Studie," Serapeum 24 (1863), 193-216, now available on the internet at http://docserver.digizeitschriften.de/digi_docs/63494TABLE_OF_CONTENTS.html. This work (or at least the genre) apparently has connections with both medieval Hebrew and Muslim traditions, and also with the partiarch Joseph (as another dream visionary).
Clearly there is much more that could and should be said of the stories and writings associated with "Daniel" in Jewish and Christian (and Muslim?) traditions,\19/ but this must suffice for the present, as an introductory "probe" illustrating some of the goals and procedures of the "New (electronic) James" project. A major value of internet publication is the ability to correct and expand the basic material, and with that in mind, I'll draw this portion to its temporary close. Contributions and suggestions are most welcome!
\19/One obvious task is to explore and incorporate relevant materials from the extensive bibliography on "Daniel Pseudepigrapha" provided by Lorenzo DiTommaso, A Bibliography of Pseudepigrapha Research 1850-1999 (Journal for the Study of the Pseudepigrapha, Supplementary Series 39; Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press 2001) 307-335. [More recently, see Lorenzo DiTommaso, The Book of Daniel and the Apocryphal Daniel Literature (SVTP 20; Brill 2005).]
[[addendum from an older version:
Extracanonical Literature Associated with Daniel:
Modern Sources:
Ancient sources (see also Prayer of Nabonidus [4Q242]):
[above, 59, on Antichrist] The Armenian Seventh Vision of Daniel (tr. Issaverdens p. 345) says: "The joints of his knees are stiff, he is crippled in body, smooth-browed, crooked-fingered, long-headed, charming, boastful, intelligent, etc., etc."
Apocalypse of Daniel (Ginz to 4,334) ]]
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