Editing Book of Daniel (section)

== Historical background ==
[[File:Daniel refuse kingsfood.jpg|thumb|Daniel refusing to eat at the King's table, early-1900s Bible illustration]]

The visions of chapters 7–12 reflect the crisis which took place in Judea in 167–164 BC when [[Antiochus IV Epiphanes]], the Greek king of the [[Seleucid Empire]], threatened to destroy traditional Jewish worship in Jerusalem.{{sfn|Harrington|1999|pp=109–110}} When Antiochus came to the throne in 175 BC the Jews were largely pro-Seleucid. The High Priestly family was split by rivalry, and one member, Jason, offered the king a large sum to be made High Priest. Jason also asked—or more accurately, paid—to be allowed to make Jerusalem a ''[[polis]]'', or Greek city. This meant, among other things, that city government would be in the hands of the citizens, which meant in turn that citizenship would be a valuable commodity, to be purchased from Jason. None of this threatened the Jewish religion, and the reforms were widely welcomed, especially among the Jerusalem aristocracy and the leading priests. Three years later Jason was deposed when another priest, Menelaus, offered Antiochus an even larger sum for the post of High Priest.{{sfn|Grabbe|2010|pp=6–13}}

Antiochus invaded Egypt twice, in 169 BC with success, but on the second incursion, in late 168 BC, he was forced to withdraw by the Romans.{{sfn|Grabbe|2010|pp=13–16}} Jason, hearing a rumour that Antiochus was dead, attacked Menelaus to take back the High Priesthood.{{sfn|Grabbe|2010|pp=13–16}} Antiochus drove Jason out of Jerusalem, plundered the Temple, and introduced measures to pacify his Egyptian border by imposing complete Hellenization: the Jewish Book of the Law was prohibited and on 15 December 167 BC an "abomination of desolation", probably a Greek altar, was introduced into the Temple.{{sfn|Sacchi|2004|pp=225–226}} With the Jewish religion now clearly under threat a resistance movement sprang up, led by the Maccabee brothers, and over the next three years it won sufficient victories over Antiochus to take back and purify the Temple.{{sfn|Grabbe|2010|pp=13–16}}

The crisis which the author of Daniel addresses is the defilement of the altar in Jerusalem in 167 BC (first introduced in chapter 8:11): the daily offering which used to take place twice a day, at morning and evening, stopped, and the phrase "evenings and mornings" recurs through the following chapters as a reminder of the missed sacrifices.{{sfn|Davies|2006|p=407}} But whereas the events leading up to the sacking of the Temple in 167 BC and the immediate aftermath are remarkably accurate, the predicted war between the Syrians and the Egyptians (11:40–43) never took place, and the prophecy that Antiochus would die in Palestine (11:44–45) was inaccurate (he died in Persia).{{sfn|Seow|2003|pp=6–7}} The most probable conclusion is that the account must have been completed near the end of the reign of Antiochus but before his death in December 164 BC, or at least before news of it reached Jerusalem, and the consensus of modern scholarship<ref>{{Bulleted list|{{harvnb|Dunn|2003|p=730 fn. 99}}|{{harvnb|Portier-Young|2016|p=229}}|{{harvnb|Theophilos|2012|p=163}}|{{harvnb|Lester|2015|p=23}}|{{harvnb|Ryken|Longman|2010|p=unpaginated|ps=: "The consensus of modern biblical scholarship is that the book was composed in the second century B.C., that it is a pseudonymous work, and that it is indeed an example of prophecy after the fact."}}|{{harvnb|Tucker Jr.|2020|p=unpaginated|ps=: "a near consensus view of a Maccabean date"}}|{{harvnb|Collins|1998|p=88}}}}</ref> is accordingly that the book dates to the period 167–163 BC.{{sfn|Seow|2003|p=7}}{{sfn|Ryken|Longman|2010|p=325}}