One of the ongoing debates in biblical studies is the date of the book of Daniel. Conservative scholars take the historical information in the book at face value and place the writing of Daniel in the early Persian period, shortly after the fall of Babylon to Cyrus the Great in 539 BC. There are a number of dates given in Daniel, the latest being the third year of Cyrus, king of Persia (10:1), suggesting a date of ca. 530 BC for the composition of Daniel. Most Bible scholars agree that the “little horn” in 8:9 and the “contemptible person” in 11:21 are references to Antiochus IV Epiphanes, the eighth ruler of the Seleucid Empire, which lasted from 311 to 65 BC and at its height controlled much of the ancient Near East. Antiochus IV ruled from 175 to 164 BC. The name means “opposer,” and “Epiphanes” means “manifest” to indicate that he was the manifestation of a deity. He unified his empire by imposing Hellenistic culture on his subjects and requiring them to worship him as Zeus. These policies brought Antiochus IV into sharp conflict with the Jews of Palestine. He is infamous for instituting pagan worship in the Jerusalem temple, referred to as the “abomination of desolation” (Daniel 9:27, 11:31, 12:11; Matthew 24:15). The allusions to Antiochus IV in Daniel are so accurate that liberal scholars maintain that the book must have been written after the death of the ruler in 164 BC. New dating of the Dead Sea Scrolls (DSS), however, has ruled out that hypothesis, making divine prophecy the only viable alternative.
Daniel was a favorite biblical book of the DSS community at Qumran. Fragments of eight different scrolls of Daniel were recovered: two from Cave 1, five from Cave 4, and one from Cave 6.
Cave 1 is famous for being the place where the Dead Sea Scrolls were first discovered by Bedouin shepherds in 1946. In addition to fragments from the two Daniel scrolls (scroll 1Q71, fragments of chapters 1 and 2, and scroll 1Q72, a fragment of chapter 3), seven intact scrolls were found in clay jars.
Of the ca. 15,000 fragments from ca. 800 scrolls retrieved from the Qumran caves, about 75% came from Cave 4, a man-made cave dug into a marl ridge across a ravine on the west side of the Qumran settlement. Excavation of the settlement began in 1951, with help from Bedouin tribesmen. When the archaeologists were absent from the site, the Bedouin workers searched nearby caves for scroll fragments, which they would sell to the Rockefeller Museum in Jerusalem. In August of 1952 they came upon Cave 4, the “mother lode” of the Qumran caves. When the archaeologists learned where the large number of texts were coming from, they put an end to the clandestine digging and initiated an official excavation in September of 1952. Although the Bedouins had already excavated the majority of the scroll fragments in Cave 4, the archaeologists still recovered nearly 1,000 pieces from approximately 100 manuscripts. The Daniel fragments were as follows: scroll 4Q112, portions of chapters 1–5, 7, 8, 10, and 11; scroll 4Q113, portions of chapters 5–8; scroll 4Q114, portions of chapters 10 and 11; scroll 4Q115, portions of chapters 3, 4, and 7; and scroll 4Q116, portions of chapter 9.
Cave 6 was also discovered in 1952, shortly after the discovery of Cave 4. Thirteen papyrus fragments of Daniel 8:20–21, 10:8–16, 11:33–36, 11:38, and 8:16–17 were uncovered.
Altogether, significant portions of Daniel 1–11 were found in Caves 1, 4, and 6. Even though no fragments from chapter 12 were found, Daniel 12:10 is quoted in scroll 4Q174, an eschatological commentary referred to as “the Florilegium.”
Cave 4 as seen from the Qumran settlement. The majority of the DSS fragments were found here, implying that it was a repository for scrolls. Fragments from five different scrolls of Daniel were excavated from this cave. Recently, one was subjected to radiocarbon testing that all but excludes it from having been written after the death of Antiochus IV Epiphanes, as previously maintained by liberal scholars. Photo credit: Todd Bolen/BiblePlaces.com.
The Dead Sea Scrolls traditionally have been dated by paleography (the study of ancient handwriting) and historical considerations. Recently, however, a more precise dating method using radiocarbon testing and artificial intelligence was carried out on 25 DSS fragments.1 For most of the fragments, the radiocarbon date was older than the date based on paleography and history, including one from the book of Daniel. Scroll 4Q114 was previously dated to after 164 BC, the death date of Antiochus IV. The new radiocarbon date, however, is 230–160 (mean 195) BC, making it highly improbable that Daniel was written after the death of Antiochus IV. In the fourth appendix of the radiocarbon article, the authors say, “Because of its scribal errors, it is unlikely that the scribe of 4Q114 was the author.”2 This indicates that the original date for the writing of Daniel was even earlier than the date of scroll 4Q114.
Endnotes
1 Mladen Popović, Maruf A. Dhali, Lambert Schomaker, Johannes van der Plicht, Kaare Lund Rasmussen, Jacopo La Nasa, Ilaria Degano, Maria Perla Colombini, and Eibert Tigchelaar, “Dating Ancient Manuscripts Using Radiocarbon and AI-Based Writing Style Analysis,” PLOS One 20, no. 6 (2025): e0323185. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0323185.
2 S4 Appendix, “Palaeography and Radiocarbon Dating of the Dead Sea Scrolls,” p. 7, https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0323185.s004.
