THE BOOK OF DANIEL fascinates people and rightly so. It is sui generis in the Old Testament and even among its noncanonical competitors (Knibb 2001:34). But that assertion must be defined and qualified in various ways, for it is also like other books in the Old Testament: The Joseph narrative in Genesis and portions of Esther are similar to the first six chapters of Daniel; certain prophetic passages (e.g., Isa 24–27; Zech 9–14) have the ambiance and style (basic genre) of
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