Page 25 - Daniel

The “traditional saint” mentioned by Montgomery refers to a “Daniel”
who apparently lived about 1400 B.C. In 1930, several years after
Montgomery wrote his commentary, archeologists digging at ancient

Ugarit (modern Ras Shamra) found some clay tablets detailing a legend
of a Canaanite by the name of Aqhat who was the father of a man called
Daniel. In the tablet, Daniel is portrayed as being a friend of widows and
orphans, and as a man who was unusually wise and righteous in his
judgments. This is the one who Montgomery asserts is referred to in
Ezekiel 14:14, 20 as a worthy ancient character on the same plane as

Noah and Job. Daniel, the son of Aqhat, however, was a Baal worshiper
who prayed to Baal and partook of food in the house of Baal. He is
pictured as worshiping his ancestral gods and offering sacrifices to idols.
He was also guilty of cursing his enemies and living without a real hope
22
in God. It is hard to imagine that Ezekiel, writing by inspiration, would
hold up such a character as an example of a godly man. Such a judgment
is hardly in keeping with the facts. 23

If the Ezekiel references are insufficient, certainly Christ’s clear
attestation to the genuineness of Daniel (Matt. 24:15) should be

admitted as valid. Boutflower writes,

Now, what is the witness of Christ respecting this Book of Daniel, for
it is evident from His position as a teacher, His tastes, and the time at
which He lived, that He must know the truth of the matter; whilst
from His lofty morality we are sure that He will tell us the truth, the
whole truth, and nothing but the truth? How does Christ treat this
Book, of which the critics form so low an estimate, regarding it as a
religious romance with a pseudonymous title, and its prophetic

portion as a Jewish apocalypse, a vaticinium post eventum [a
“prediction” written with the knowledge that the event has already
occurred]? The answer is that this is the Book which Christ specially
delights to honour. To Him its title is no pseudonym, but the name of
a real person, “Daniel the prophet”—“the prophet” in the sense of one
inspired of God to foretell the future, “what shall come to pass

hereafter.” Our Saviour in His own great Advent prophecy—Matt. 24
—uttered on the eve of His death, quotes this Book of Daniel no less
than three times [Matt. 24:15, 21; cp. Dan. 12:1; Matt. 24:30; cp. Dan.