Interestingly enough the historian Josephus claims in his writings that Daniel wrote several books, which his people accepted and read. (see: Antiquities 10.11.7 {267} ) So obviously we are missing something here in Jewish history. Perhaps there were competing schools of thought, then as now?
Read the Josephus quote on this here:
carllebron.blogspot.com/search/label/Daniel%20the%20Prophet
Unfortunately your reading of this information and thinking that something may be missing in Jewish history is a conclusion based on reading things from a Gentile Christian’s point of view.
The fact that the additions to Daniel were written by Jews and included in the Greek Septuagint shows that many Jews have traditionally attributed these to Daniel (at least as far as the Greek additions are concerned). That’s why they are included in the LXX, due to that Jewish view. Jews composed them and Jews collected them and read them during the Second Temple era. So there is nothing “missing” here.
The problem is that Gentile Christians tend to see a “canon” in the LXX where none exists.
From the Jewish perspective the Scriptures are divided from the other writings based on
language and
era. The additions to Daniel are believed to have originated during the time of the Second Temple era and were composed in Septuagint/Koine Greek. The earlier form of the book is composed in Hebrew with sections in Aramaic transliterated with Hebrew characters.
So when the Jews speak of the Hebrew Scriptures they mean just that, namely the Scriptures
composed in Hebrew. The additions to Daniel were not inscribed in Hebrew and thus are not found in the Tanakh (what Christians call the “Old Testament”). Again this is a division by language as the additions are included in the Septuagint because they are Greek.
Now because they are included in the LXX does this mean that they are “inspired” as Christians use the term? Not exactly. You see the questions about inspiration have to do with the Christian writings, not the Jewish writings. The Jewish writings were always viewed by the Christians as inspired of God because they believed the worship of the Jews came directly from God. (2 Timothy 3:16) The worship of the God of Abraham did not originate with fables, pagan gods, or even the writings of the Scriptures themselves. The religion of the Jews is a product of a series of theophanies, and in turn their Scriptures are the product of their God-inspired religion.
The Tanakh and the LXX have different lists, but they are collections of holy texts with different purposes. They are not “canons” of texts that have met some agreed upon standards like the New Testament writings are. The Tanakh or Hebrew Scriptures has the collection of Hebrew books that are a cornerstone of Judaism, whereas the LXX contains these and other writings composed in Greek that met the needs of Greek-speaking Jews and contained works read among the Diaspora.
Since the apostles and early Church used the LXX as their accepted version of the Jewish Scriptures, that version was canonized
by the Church. Such canonization is not to be mistaken as claiming that the Jews did the same thing with these writings.
Just because Josephus made mention of Daniel being the composer of books that Catholics accept as canonical does not mean that Jews were canonizing anything by the same standards. He is just repeating what the Jews who composed and constructed the LXX did. The implication that canonization by Christian standards does not exist.
