Will Vaus

Today in our journey through the 66 books of the Bible we come to the book of Daniel.   Author   The figure of Daniel is known from the  Aqhat Epic  (c. 1350 BCE) found at Ugarit in 1930/31. Daniel is also mentioned in Ezekiel 14:14 and 28:3. In Ezekiel 14:14 Daniel is mentioned alongside Noah and Job, two ancient non-Israelite heroes. This wise and righteous hero of the ancient past becomes in the book of Daniel a new model of Jewish faithfulness to God. As the story unfolds, we see Daniel as a member of the Jewish exile community in Babylonia. He eventually rises to become an important Jewish figure in the Babylonian court.   Traditionally, the authorship of the book of Daniel was attributed to Daniel himself. However, most modern scholars think that this book was written by some anonymous Jew of a later period, using the period of the exile as a setting to address the challenging issues of Jews living under foreign rule—something the Jewish people had to contend with long after the

  Today in our journey through the 66 books of the Bible we come to the prophetic book of Ezekiel.   Author   This book presents the words of Ezekiel, son of Buzi. Ezekiel was a prophet and priest and one of the citizens of Jerusalem exiled to Babylon with King Jehoiachin in 597 BCE by King Nebuchadnezzar. (See 2 Kings 24:8-17.) Like Jeremiah, Ezekiel lived through the time of the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple in 586, as well as enduring the Babylonian Exile. What is known of Ezekiel comes solely from the book that bears his name. He received his call to be a prophet when he was 30 years old, living in exile on the Chebar River in Babylonia (1:1-2). Ezekiel was married (24:15-18) and he lived in a house of his own (3:24; 8:1). Along with his fellow exiles he had a relatively free existence, albeit separated from his home country. More than any other prophet, Ezekiel acts out some of his prophecies in a symbolic fashion.   As the work of a priest and a prophet Ezekiel’s writin

Today in our journey along Route 66 we come to the book of Lamentations. In Hebrew the book is called “ekhah”, which translates into English as “alas”, which is also the first word of the text of Lamentations. This book commemorates the destruction of the First Temple in 586 BCE.   Author   Internal evidence does not ascribe this book to any author. However, ancient Jewish and Christian tradition ascribes the authorship of this book to Jeremiah. This is based partly on such texts as 2 Chronicles 35:25 which refers to Jeremiah composing laments. There are also references to lament in the book of Jeremiah (7:29; 8:21; 9:1,10,20). The traditional attribution to Jeremiah is also based on the similarity of vocabulary and style between the books of Jeremiah and Lamentations. And finally, since Jeremiah was a witness to the destruction of Jerusalem, it seems reasonable to conclude that he might be the author of the book that so vividly describes that event.   However, modern scholars do not a