Hello everyone,

I have a question on a topic that fascinates me for some reason. However, my searching for an answer has hit a dead end and I can find very little addressing it.

The generally accepted understanding (as I understand it) of the book of Daniel is that it was not written in the time period it pretends to be written in and is a much newer text (written in the Hellenic period). It was written to address circumstances during the Hellenic period but was projected onto an earlier period in Judaism’s history.

My question is: is there any evidence at all that Daniel was some kind of pre-existing Hebrew folk hero (some kind of already known character) prior to the book named after him or did the author(s) of the book of Daniel make the person of Daniel up out of whole cloth simply as a literary device to express a specific viewpoint? (I’m not asking if Daniel was a real person)

I can’t find much about this nuanced reflection on Daniel. Lots of info about the time frame, and whether scholars think he was a real person or not but I can’t find anything about whether Daniel may have been some kind of folk hero co-opted by the Book of Daniel that pre-exists the book itself.

Thanks