Author and Date The long-standing position of Jewish and Christian tradition holds that the Book of Daniel was written by the prophet Daniel himself in the sixth century B.C. This view was mainly unquestioned until modern times, which have witnessed vigorous challenges to the Danielic authorship and sixth-century dating of the book along with new proposals about its origin and time of composition. Both positions have defenders today. (1) Danielic authorship, sixth-century date.