SOURCE: Boutflower, Charles. Introduction to In and around the Book of Daniel, pp. 1-12. London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 1923.

In the following excerpt, Boutflower considers the problem of the composition date of The Book of Daniel, asserting that the book does offer prophetic descriptions and that it was not written after the events described took place.

With the spread of learning and the issue from time to time of fresh commentaries on the Book of Daniel, it is now a matter of common knowledge that two very different views are held respecting that Book, which, for the sake of a name, may be styled respectively the orthodox and the critical—not that all critics are on the same side, but simply that the majority of modern critics incline to the latter view. They may also be styled the Roman and the Grecian, according to the scheme of...