Hebrew In Israel |Danel and Daniel- Ezekiel 14 – Learn Torah

Hebrew In Israel |Danel and Daniel- Ezekiel 14 – Learn Torah

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I was going over the book of Yechezkel (Ezekiel) today and I have always wanted to share the following thing.  In chapter 14 there are three people mentioned:  Noach, Iyov (Job), and Daniel.  When we think about it, all three are righteous men who lived in the past but one of them is not who we think he is.  Daniel is not the famous Daniel from the book with the same title but another person with the same name. Daniel of the book is only a child at this stage of history and was unknown.  Daniel here is the Daniel of ancient Ugarit mentioned in the stories of Aqhat who was a Judge and a righteous man.

I have several reasons to believe this is the case:

  1. His name is spelled in the text דנאל and there is a margin note known as Qri and Ktive where one is what we write in the text and the other is how we read it.  In the later accent it did not make sense to read the word as דנאל – dānēl but as דניאל – dānîyēl.  This shows that the text was transmitted with the correct name which happens to be the way it is spelled in the Ras el-Shamarah texts.
  2. The fact that he was unknown at the time, or in other words, too young to be known.
  3. All the characters are from the past and represent famous righteous people who were well known in the world.  This prophecy was to all mankind, so it would make sense that God would use names known to all and not the names of people who were known only to a certain group.  I say this because the prophet does not have an opening statement to Israel and also because he says “a land that sins against me” making it a prophecy to all.  The fact that it is in the middle of a chapter is irrelevant due to the problematic Christian chapters.
The above idea is taken from the writings of the late Prof. Cassuto
See also Margalit Baruch, The Ugaritic Poem of AQHT, Berlin-New York, 1989
Originally Published:  16 May 2016

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