What has always facinated me about Daniel is the evangelical church’s reliance on it as prophecy of end times events when clearly that section of the book mirrors popular apocalyptic literature (Revelation, anyone?). I could never understand why the church classified it as part of the "Prophets" when the Jewish Scriptures classified the book as "Literature" (one would think that actual Jews would be best qualified to determine the classification their own writings). Perhaps this was done because it was assumed that I wasn’t intelligent enough to understand that a later dating (for at least the 2nd half of the book) is probable. Afterall, how can it be considered the "inspired Word of God" if this was written during God’s "400 silent years"?