25% 
tofhorten labour. If this imperfeé& 
fketch fhould have any of thefe effecis, 
its author will be very content with the 
character of Horace’s whetftone : 
Acutum ; 
Reddere que ferrum valet, exfors ipfa fecandi. 
~ AUR b7 QT Ni EB. 
—e 
Por the Monthly Magazine. , 
CHRONGLOGICAL REMARK KS ON ‘THE 
Time OF DANIEL. 
rEAHE author of the book concerning 
-- Daniel, whether he © wrote before, 
under, or after Antiochus  Epiphanes, 
whether he wrote origimatly m Greek, 
Chaldean, or Hebrew, was evidently a 
few, acquainted with Babylon, and with 
the hiftorical epinions current there; 
and endeavours to make lis narrative 
correfpond with the real cireumfances of 
his hero. “The natural events deferibed 
im this book, may, therefore, be ufed in 
poof of the true hiftory of thofe times. 
With the fupernatural occurrences, not 
the hiftorian, but the theologian, is 
concerned. 
Now this writer afferts (i. 1.) that in 
the third (read the evghth) year of Je- 
hoiakim, Nebuchadnezzar befieged and 
took Jerufalem, and. configned fome 
children of the leading families (i. 3) te 
Melzer, (i. 11) and other mafters, to be 
inftructed in the learning and tongue of 
the Chaldees. Of thefe children, Da=’ 
niel, named at Babylon Beltefhazzar, 
and Ezra, named at Babylon Abednego, 
afterwards diftinguithed*  themfelves 
greatly. We are next told, that Daniel 
(i 21) continued even unto the Arf year 
of king Cyrus; and immediately after, 
that, in the fecomd year of Nebuchad- 
nezzar (as if Cyrus was. himfelf this 
prince, Nebuchadnezzar being a title 
common to many fovereigns) Daniel ap- 
phed to Artoch, the archimage, to be 
employed in the interpretation of fome 
unufual dream for the fovereign. It is 
next faid (iv. 29) that at the end of 
twelve months, or in the third year of 
Nebuchadnezzar, this. monarch went 
from among'men, and had his dwelling 

* Jofephus (Ant. x. 6) places Ezechiel in 
his firft batch of captives; and (xi. 5) fays, 
that Nehemiah was one of thofe taken prifoner 
in Judea, The fecond temple was undertaken 
in the 25th, and finifhed in the 28th year of 
Artaxerxes Longimanus (xi. 5, 6); now of 
this. temple Ezechiel had feen the defign, and 
Nehemiah fuperintended the execution: the 
captivity, therefore, cannot have begun much 
above feventy years before this period. 
s 
ChronoloxyRemarks on Daniel. 
pee and 
(OG: 
with the wild beafts, an 1 orientalifm, ne 
doubt, defcriptive of fome military ex- 
pedition againft favages. 
Ar the end. of ‘the fourth chapter, ) 
there is an apparent chafiw. 
“In the fitth, Belfhazzar ts not only 
become fovereign, but is befieged in his 
metropolis $; notwithftanding which, he 
proclaims a feftival, and calls Daniel to 
it.’ (v.13) We ae incidentally, that 
this Belfhazzar ts fon to the primce who- 
brought Daniel out of Jewry. The city 
is taken on the night of the feftival : 
Belfhazzar is killed = and agree rth e 2S 
rius the Median, becomes mafter OF the 
kingdom. ‘Fhe nesv monarch fill fhows 
favour to Daniel, who is faid (vi. 28) to 
have profpered in the ‘reign of Darius, 
as in that of Cyrus. Belthazzar appears 
to have reigned more than two Years ; 
fince the feventh and erghth chapters 
€which fhouid apparently. precede the 
rth) mention (vit. 2} the firft ” dnd - 
(vill, 1) the third year ‘of the retgu of 
Belfhazzar, during which, Daniel vifit- 
ed Shufhan, on the banks of ‘the Ulai, a 
refidence of many Perfian kings. 
The py chapter alfo” is out “of its 
forms probably a fragment of 
vhat onée occupied the ‘cham at ‘the 
end of the fourth chapter. The ele- 
venth refumes the natural chronological 
order, and informs us, (xi. 2) that there 
were yet to be ¢bree kings of Perfia 
(Xerxes, Bag as and At rtaxerxes) ; 
but that the foxrb (Darius) fhould fir 
up againft him all the realm of Grecia : 
and that a mi, shry “king (Alexander) 
would ftand up, and rule with great do- 
minion ; but that his kingdom thould be 
divided, and not defcend te his pofie- 
rity. 
This paffage renders: it_ inaHputable, 
thar the Darius of our Daniel is Darius 
the fon of Hyftafpes.s and confequently, 
that the ficge of Baby lon, alluded to In 
the fifth chapter, is that ftege to which 
he was nee in the feéond year of 
his reign, by the *Maeian™ party, who 
had e| lewated Smerdis to ‘the empire.— 
This is farther corroborated by the ace 
count of the new divifion’ of! rte pro- 
vinces (vi 1),’ which” Herodorus alfo 
afcribes to Darius (Thalia, Ixxxix) the 
ufurper. 
Daniel then, who muff have been 
nearly fifteen years of age, in’ the third 
year of Jehoiakim, continued to flourtfh 
under Darius, the fon of Hyftafpeé: 
another proof that the commencement of 
the captivity of the Jews muft be placed 
during the campaigns of Cambyfes in 
Syria, 
J 
~ . 
OE 
