M. Lenormant says in The Magic of the Chaldees: "The more one advances in the understanding of the cuneiform text, the more one sees the necessity of revising the condemnation too prematurely uttered against the Book of Daniel by the German Exegetical School. Without doubt, the use of certain Greek words serves to show that it has passed through the hands of some editor since the time of Alexander. But the substance of it is much more ancient – is imprinted with a perfectly distinct Babylonian tinge, and the picture of life in the court of Nabuchodonosor and his successors has an equal truthfulness which could not have been attained at a later period."
3
Lightfoot, in his notes on Luke iii., maintains this theory, and quotes in support of it three passages from the Jerusalem Talmud, folio 77, 4, where Mary the mother of Jesus is denounced as the daughter of Heli, and mother of a pretender. The same view is sustained by Paulus, Spanheim, and Lange.
4
These passages are quoted and commented on by Hilgenfeld on the Apocalyptic Literature of the Hebrews, and Lücke on the Apocalypse of St. John.
