ABSTRACT
The book of Daniel is written from the assumed standpoint of contemporary knowledge of the Jewish captivity in Babylon. On the other hand, it has been customary to maintain that Daniel is a very late composition from four centuries after the exile, on some views having little if any historical value. The Persian and Babylonian records contemporary with the last phase of the Babylonian kingdom and Cyrus are relevant regarding Nabonidus and the use of terms for 'king' and 'son'. The absence of the abstract noun-form ‘kingship’ from Biblical Aramaic does not necessarily create a gap in Aramaic vocabulary. In other words, the sense of kingship might be covered by the word for king because the usage of ‘king’ is often extended to indicate the institution of being king, or kingship. The most important feature of the text is that its language is parallel at points with aspects of the Aramaic of the book of Daniel.
