authorship and pseudepigraphy in early christian literature 35
book of enoch it is rejected by many. nevertheless by age and use it has
gained authority and is reckoned among the holy scriptures.
Jerome, Commentarius in danielem pr.
according to Jerome’s Commentary on Daniel (407 ce), the pagan philoso-
pher Porphyry (233–305 ce), a disciple of the neo-Platonist Plotinus, denied
the authenticity of the prophecies contained in the Book of daniel. his
assessment shows that Porphyry read the Book of daniel as presenting the
prophecies of the sixth century prophet daniel and that he regarded this
historical claim as incorrect and deceptive.44
Porphyry wrote his twelfth book against the prophecy of daniel, denying
that it was composed by the person to whom it is ascribed in its title, but
rather by some individual living in Judaea at the time of antiochus who
was surnamed epiphanes. he furthermore alleged that “daniel” did not fore-
tell the future so much as he related the past, and lastly that whatever he
spoke of up till the time of antiochus contained authentic history, whereas
anything he may have conjectured beyond that point was false, inasmuch
as he would not have foreknown the future. eusebius, Bishop of Caesarea,
made a most able reply to these allegations in three volumes, that is, the
eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth. apollinarius did likewise, in a sin-
gle large book, namely his twenty-sixth. Prior to these authors Methodius
made a partial reply.
Jerome, Commentarius in danielem pr.
Prophyry regarded the Book of daniel explicitly as a literary forgery that
could not have canonical status.45
among other things we should recognize that Porphyry makes this objec-
tion to us concerning the Book of daniel, that it is clearly a forgery not
to be considered as belonging to the hebrew scriptures but an invention
composed in greek.
Jerome, Commentarius in danielem on Dan 4:1–3
Jerome himself rejected Porphyry’s interpretation and considered the
Book of daniel to be an authentic work, written by the old testament
prophet in the sixth century bce.46
44 trans. by g. l. archer, Jerome’s Commentary on Daniel (grand rapids: Baker, 1977), 15.
45 trans. by archer, Jerome’s Commentary on Daniel, 16.
46 trans. by archer, Jerome’s Commentary on Daniel, 46.
