Heathen,
CityFan--- I gather you are saying saying you don't believe that Daniel wrote that part ? If he did it was written in the 6th or 7th century bce . I don't know why anyone would want to tamper with that part of the bible so think Daniel did write it while in babylonian captivity.
When I first left the JWs I started looking at bible prophecies to see if they actually came true or not. For example if Daniel really did predict the Roman Empire and Anglo-American world power then surely I would not be able to disregard these bible writers.
The first book I looked at was Daniel. What I found in this book, especially in the later chapters, was that it was far more accurate about the history of the 2nd century BC than it was of the 6th century BC. Take the chapter on the King of the North. Daniel 10:31 says that the KOTN will "take away the continual burnt offering. And they shall set up the abomination that makes desolate."
Now look at 1 Maccabees 1:54 which states "On the fifteenth day of the month Casleu, in the hundred and forty-fifth year, king Antiochus set up the abominable idol of desolation upon the altar of God?. That was in December 167 BC. If you compare chapter 10 of Daniel with the Syrian Wars between the Seleucids and the Ptolemies, it is identical, at least up to verse 40 where the writer tries to predict the death of Antiochus in a third Egyptian campaign which never happened. He died in Persis before he could return to Judea. The writer must have been unaware of the death of Epiphanes when this chapter was written around 164 BC.
Daniel 12:9 is a literary device used to explain why the book had been unknown until the time of composition. The work was presented as written by Daniel 400 years earlier but had been kept secret and sealed.
CF.
