I also have another book by Abingdon Press, one called The Abingdon Bible Commentary
Edited by Eiselen, Lewis, and Downey [Copyright 1929. The book says
"Although the contributors were requested to have before them the
English Revised Version, reference is made to important variations from
the American Standard Version, especially as noted in marginal readings,
so that the COMMENTARY will be equally available with any of the
English translations.] In the article "By Professor HERBERT T. WILLETT" about the book of Daniel, pages 746-747 of
the commentary book say the following.
'Daniel appears to have been written
in the days of the bitter persecution of the Jews by Antiochus
Epiphanes, king of Syria, who reigned from 175 to 164 B.C. In his
efforts to compel the faithful in Jerusalem to abandon their practice of
the Mosaic precepts and their worship at the Temple, he partially
destroyed the city, defiled the sanctuary, and rendered the maintenance
of service impossible until it was cleansed. ... The Maccabaean movement
was a patriotic effort to save the national faith. ... Another effort
was made by the author or authors of the book of Daniel. ... They
believed firmly that within a brief time (referred to often as three
years and a half) the trouble would be over, the tyrant dead, and the
happy age of deliverance and triumph for the Jewish people would come.
In setting forth this hope and making this appeal, they employed the
venerable figure of Daniel, a Jew of ancient days ....
The second
section, chs. 7-12, is devoted to a series of visions ... in which ..
the four kingdoms--the Babylonian, the Median, the Persian, and the
Macedonian or Grecian--are described in terms which leave no doubt of
their object, the description and doom of the "little horn," Antiochus
the tyrant. The author employs the device of having the hero of the book
predict the events of the years from his own time in the past to the
period in which the book was prepared, that device being explained by
the sealing up of the revelation till the events predicted were about to
be fulfilled. This plan of pseudepigraphic authorship and the
employment of the form of prediction for the narration of history was
common with the apocalyptic writers, and was a most effective means of
accomplishing their purposes (see p. 188a).
Type of Literature.
The book of Daniel belongs to the apocalyptic literature of the Bible, a
type of writing that took form in the later periods of persecution of
the Jews and Christians, from about 200 B.C. to 150 A.D. ...
Perhaps
no book in the O.T. contains more definite indications of its date than
does the book of Daniel. ... (The arguments commonly used to prove that
Daniel is the author are outlined and criticized in Eiselen, The Pslams and Other Sacred Writings, pp. 256-263.)
At the present time scholars are generally agreed that the arguments usually brought forward to establish the claim that Daniel wrote the book are in no sense conclusive. On the other hand, they have discovered evidence of various kinds to convince them that the book is a product of the Maccabaean crisis, during the reign of Antiochus Epiphanes, who, as has been pointed out, sought to stamp out Judaism.'
Page 747 of the book says something which scholar would likely appreciate. There the book says the following. "The principle idea of the book is the ultimate triumph of the kingdom of God." [The use of italics in that quote is that the book for the quoted sentence.]