Today’s Scripture Reading (May 21,
2014): Ezekiel 28
One of the
enduring mysteries of the Book of Ezekiel centers around the identity of this
wise man named Daniel. For some, the identity of Daniel can be no other than
the wise man of Judah who was carried into exile at the beginning of the
Babylonian exile. But the struggle with that identification is that Daniel was
a contemporary of Ezekiel. While it is possible, and maybe even probable that
the legend of Daniel would have been on the rise during the exile, especially
within the community of exiles of which Ezekiel was one, the question is how
fast did that happen? By the end of Daniel’s life this was likely, but at the
beginning of the exile, Daniel was a very young man, and it seems that many of
his early exploits were originally kept secret and did not become part of the
lore of the people until much later. Even the famous incident of Daniel in Lion’s
Den did not happen until at least 40 or 50 years after the exile began. And that
would seem to be too late for this prophecy.
An
alternative explanation is that it is not Daniel, but Danel, a man known from
ancient times (possibly even someone who lived in the same era as Abraham.) In
the ancient Ugaritic texts, Danel is known as a judge, a discerning man who was
known for his compassion, judging the cause of the widow and the case of the
fatherless. But the case for Danel is also not without its problems. First,
critics argue that Danel is never described as righteous man, or even a wise
man (although the wisdom of Danel would seem to be assumed by his ability to
judge and his compassion for the weak of his society.) Secondly, Danel was a
worshipper of Ba’al, and so some consider it very unlikely that Ezekiel would ever
have considered him worthy of mention. A final argument against the
identification of Danel is that there is over 800 years difference between the
text that describes Danel and the writing of Ezekiel – but nowhere else in the
various Hebrew texts is Danel mentioned. But that assumes that there are no
other undiscovered texts that mention Danel - and it also assumes that all of
the stories that the people of Judah knew and told to each other are written
down in the Holy Texts. But neither of these conditions would seem likely.
In spite of
the arguments against the identity of Ezekiel’s wise man being Danel, Danel
would still seem to be the best option that we currently have available to us.
But no matter who the identity of the man is, he was a universally known man of
wisdom to the people of the exile. And he had become the model of a wise man,
someone who was identified throughout the stories told by the culture – and
stories that were taught to the children describing what real wisdom looked
like.
Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Ezekiel
29
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