Of monsters and men: Reading Daniel with the Liber de Morte (Metz Epitome)

Abstract

Daniel sees Antiochus IV Epiphanes as a latter-day Alexander. When interpreting Antiochus’s death, the author draws on a Ptolemaic court tale of an animal prodigy that foreshadowed Alexander’s own demise ( Liber de Morte Testamentumque Alexandri Magni). Extensive and specific commonalities between Daniel and Liber de Morte suggest that MT Daniel, no less than the OG version, originated in Egypt. Intended readers are the maśkîlîm who fled there during and after the Antiochene crisis. While the visions interpret the death of Antiochus, the tales speak to the maśkîlîm’s hopes for a new life under Ptolemy VI. This paper advances scholarship by proposing that inspiration for Daniel’s Babylonian court setting, and for its apocalyptic imagery, came to our author courtesy of the Ptolemies, a Greek dynasty who used a birth anomaly tale set in Babylon to drive their political agenda in Egypt.