Daniel prayed

[Elijah John]

So goes the Ralph Stanley song.

Daniel prayed to God, not the Messiah.

And Daniel's prayers were answered, by all accounts. The lions did not eat him.

Daniel did not appeal to the the intercession of any Messiah, nor did Daniel pray in the Messiah's name.

For debate, since direct prayer to YHVH was effective for Daniel, (and other OT heroes) why wouldn't direct prayer work for us?

[onewithhim]

So goes the Ralph Stanley song.

Daniel prayed to God, not the Messiah.

And Daniel's prayers were answered, by all accounts. The lions did not eat him.

Daniel did not appeal to the the intercession of any Messiah, nor did Daniel pray in the Messiah's name.

For debate, since direct prayer to YHVH was effective for Daniel, (and other OT heroes) why wouldn't direct prayer work for us?

RESPONSE:

"The book of Daniel is replete with historical inaccuracies regarding the Babylonian and Persian periods, indicating it was written quite some time after those eras. Between this point, and the independent nature of the court tales, the person of 'Daniel' appears to be a literary fabrication, not a historical figure (and hence, not the author of the book). Davies suggests this 'Daniel' character may not have been a well-known figure in Jewish culture before the book was completed, and Collins is one scholar to suggest the very name 'Daniel' was chosen for the anonymous Jewish sage of the folklore out of inspiration from the ancient sage 'Danel', mentioned by Ezekiel and Ugaritic texts."

See references:

Philip R. Davies, Daniel, 42.

John J. Collins, The Apocalyptic Imagination, Chapter 3. (Kindle edition.)

Historically Daniel may not be fully true, but spirtualy it is. God was not interested to write us earthly histories (He probably trusted man's ability to do it), but only used some of it some of the time to teach some spirtual truths.

I have studied Daniel extensivly and have found that it follows history quite well. Before anyone dismisses the book of Daniel, they ought to read an amazing book called Pay Attention to Daniel's Prophecy by the Watchtower Society. It shows how closely Daniel sticks to historic events, and way before they happened.