Daniel is a "pseudonymous author" who wrote what is euphemistically called
ex eventu prophecy.
This means the story, according to such modern Biblical commentary, apparently should be that Daniel was no prophet of the LORD, because he wrote his book at the time of the Maccabees, around 165 BC, or about 400 years later than the time of the Babylonian exile in 586 BC.
Rather than being a first-hand historical account by the eye-witness testimony of a Daniel carried from his homeland by King Nebuchadnezzar, this later "Daniel" wrote
after the event. His prophecies are not supernaturally revealed by a God who declares the end from the beginning.
His "prophecies" are in fact, past history masquerading as prophecy. Daniel, we are invited to believe, wrote his book as a "parable" in the form of the apocalyptic genres we find in Jewish apocalyptic literature typically composed during the Maccabean revolts.
However, we are further assured by this commentary, we are not to be alarmed. The goal of this later Daniel, like that of the rest of that crop of inter-testament writers, was worthy enough. The writers of those books such as
1 Ezra, 2 Baruch, 4 Enoch, et al wished to encourage God's suffering people with the message that their God would at last break the heathen nations and so give His saints their reward.
To achieve their literary goal such apocalyptic writers simply looked back at previous histories of their people, and re-interpreted such past history in the light of their current sufferings, even passing off such past history as prophecy. And so most "scholars" and "commentators" today place Daniel in this same category.
Traditionally, these modern scholars have justified their arguments under four headings. They allege Daniel has historical inaccuracies, or possibly more fairly, anachronisms. They allege linguistic irreconcilables (e.g. Daniel uses Greek words, and wrote in a later Hebrew and Aramaic style).
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WHEN Was the Book of Daniel Written?
