Who is the author? “Jude” was a quite common name in Israel in New Testament times.

Definitely “top ten” in the list of most popular baby names for boys in this era. Variants include “Judah” (the Hebrew root) and “Judas” (the Greek derivative). Even if this man’s given name was “Jude” it is likely to have been pronounced “Judah,” as there really isn’t a “silent e” concept in Hebrew or Aramaic. The name itself means “God be praised.”

Chapter 9’s events bring us closer to the time frame we left in Chapter 6; Daniel identifies this episode takes place just as the Persians are assuming power over Babylon. In other words, this is happening at the same time as the events in Chapter 6 (probably shortly before the episode with the Lion’s den).

Chapter 8 provides the shift we talked of earlier, from the Aramaic in chapters 2 through 7, now going to back to Hebrew for the rest of the book. Like Chapter 7, the events of Chapter 8 precede what happens in Chapter 5, but verse 1 specifically puts this event two years after the events of Chapter 7.