Who wrote what in Daniel Chapter 4

[Eoghan]

I found help in an online commentary by Warren Wiersbe who agrees with me that Daniel is the likely author of a central passage.
1-18 I believe are written by Nebuchadnezzar,
19-33 by Daniel
34-37 by Nebuchadnezzar. T

There seems to be clear evidence in the first person narration that Nebuchadnezzar wrote 1-18 and 34-37. The question of who wrote verses 19-33 is open to debate. Wiersbe sees a transition in verse 28 from Neb. to Daniel. I cannot see it as clearly and am quite happy to attribute it all to Daniel.

It give me pause to realsie that the king of Babylon has contributed to Scripture. However as Wiersbe reminds me a similar situation occurs in the NT too - Acts 23:26-30!

 

[Eoghan]

Writing in the third person - not just science investigations

We request all our science students to write in the third person. Why I am unsure but we do.

Daniel writes for Nebuchadnezzar to do the same. In writing the opening verses in the first person he introduces a larger document. Would he not have had to include all the information of the whole chapter to make sense of the events?

If this was a court document might it not have been a Neb/Daniel collaboration? If he was a changed man would it have been beneath his dignity to use Daniel to help.

Instead of looking at what is in the first person (where I started)we should perhaps look at what must have been included in the original letter from Neb (where I am now).


I am just amazed that no commentator seems to consider this question worthy of study. If the whole of chapter 4 was sent out as a entire document then that alters our exposition of the text!