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Book of Daniel

April 16, 2023

For other uses, see Book of Daniel (disambiguation).

The Book of Daniel is a 2nd-century BC biblical apocalypse with a 6th century BC setting.[1] Ostensibly "an account of the activities and visions of Daniel, a noble Jew exiled at Babylon",[2] it combines a prophecy of history with an eschatology (a portrayal of end times) both cosmic in scope and political in focus,[1] and its message is that just as the God of Israel saves Daniel from his enemies, so he would save all Israel in their present oppression.[3]

Papyrus 967, a 3rd-century-AD manuscript of a Greek translation of Daniel

The Hebrew Bible includes Daniel in the Ketuvim (writings), while Christian biblical canons group the work with the Major Prophets.[4] It divides into two parts: a set of six court tales in chapters 1–6, written mostly in Aramaic, and four apocalyptic visions in chapters 7–12, written mostly in Hebrew;[5] the deuterocanonical books contain three additional sections, the Prayer of Azariah and Song of the Three Holy Children, Susanna, and Bel and the Dragon.[6]

The book's influence has resonated through later ages, from the community of the Dead Sea Scrolls and the authors of the canonical gospels and the Book of Revelation, to various movements from the 2nd century to the Protestant Reformation and modern millennialist movements—on which it continues to have a profound influence.[7]

Structure

 
Nebuchadnezzar's dream: the composite statue (France, 15th century)

Divisions

The Book of Daniel is divided between the court tales of chapters 1–6 and the apocalyptic visions of 7–12, and between the Hebrew of chapters 1 and 8–12 and the Aramaic of chapters 2–7.[8][9] The division is reinforced by the chiastic arrangement of the Aramaic chapters (see below), and by a chronological progression in chapters 1–6 from Babylonian to Median rule, and from Babylonian to Persian rule in chapters 7–12.[10] Various suggestions have been made by scholars to explain the fact that the genre division does not coincide with the other two, but it appears that the language division and concentric structure of chapters 2–6 are artificial literary devices designed to bind the two halves of the book together.[10] The following outline is provided by Collins in his commentary on Daniel:[11]

PART I: Tales (chapters 1:1–6:29)

  • 1: Introduction (1:1–21 – set in the Babylonian era, written in Hebrew)
  • 2: Nebuchadnezzar's dream of four kingdoms (2:1–49 – Babylonian era; Aramaic)
  • 3: The fiery furnace (3:1–30/3:1-23, 91-97 – Babylonian era; Aramaic)
  • 4: Nebuchadnezzar's madness (3:31/98–4:34/4:1-37 – Babylonian era; Aramaic)
  • 5: Belshazzar's feast (5:1–6:1 – Babylonian era; Aramaic)
  • 6: Daniel in the lions' den (6:2–29 – Median era with mention of Persia; Aramaic)

PART II: Visions (chapters 7:1–12:13)

  • 7: The beasts from the sea (7:1–28 – Babylonian era: Aramaic)
  • 8: The ram and the he-goat (8:1–27 – Babylonian era; Hebrew)
  • 9: Interpretation of Jeremiah's prophecy of the seventy weeks (9:1–27 – Median era; Hebrew)
  • 10: The angel's revelation: kings of the north and south (10:1–12:13 – Persian era, mention of Greek era; Hebrew)

Chiastic structure in the Aramaic section

There is a recognised chiasm (a concentric literary structure in which the main point of a passage is placed in the centre and framed by parallel elements on either side in "ABBA" fashion) in the chapter arrangement of the Aramaic section. The following is taken from Paul Redditt's "Introduction to the Prophets":[12]

  • A1 (2:4b-49) – A dream of four kingdoms replaced by a fifth
    • B1 (3:1–30) – Daniel's three friends in the fiery furnace
      • C1 (4:1–37) – Daniel interprets a dream for Nebuchadnezzar
      • C2 (5:1–31) – Daniel interprets the handwriting on the wall for Belshazzar
    • B2 (6:1–28) – Daniel in the lions' den
  • A2 (7:1–28) – A vision of four world kingdoms replaced by a fifth

Content

Introduction in Babylon (chapter 1)

Main article: Daniel 1

In the third year of King Jehoiakim, God allows Jerusalem to fall into the power of Nebuchadnezzar II, king of Babylon.[Notes 1] Young Israelites of noble and royal family, "without physical defect, and handsome," versed in wisdom and competent to serve in the palace of the king, are taken to Babylon to be taught the literature and language of that nation. Among them are Daniel and his three companions, who refuse to touch the royal food and wine. Their overseer fears for his life in case the health of his charges deteriorates, but Daniel suggests a trial and the four emerge healthier than their counterparts from ten days of consuming nothing but vegetables and water. They are allowed to continue to refrain from eating the king's food, and to Daniel, God gives insight into visions and dreams. When their training is done Nebuchadnezzar finds them 'ten times better' than all the wise men in his service and therefore keeps them at his court, where Daniel continues until the first year of King Cyrus.[13][Notes 2]

Nebuchadnezzar's dream of four kingdoms (chapter 2)

Main article: Daniel 2

In the second year of his reign, Nebuchadnezzar has a dream. When he wakes up, he realizes that the dream has some important message, so he consults his wise men. Wary of their potential to fabricate an explanation, the king refuses to tell the wise men what he saw in his dream. Rather, he demands that his wise men tell him what the content of the dream was, and then interpret it. When the wise men protest that this is beyond the power of any man, he sentences all, including Daniel and his friends, to death. Daniel receives an explanatory vision from God: Nebuchadnezzar had seen an enormous statue with a head of gold, breast and arms of silver, belly and thighs of bronze, legs of iron, and feet of mixed iron and clay, then saw the statue destroyed by a rock that turned into a mountain filling the whole earth. Daniel explains the dream to the king: the statue symbolized four successive kingdoms, starting with Nebuchadnezzar, all of which would be crushed by God's kingdom, which would endure forever. Nebuchadnezzar acknowledges the supremacy of Daniel's god, raises Daniel over all his wise men, and places Daniel and his companions over the province of Babylon.[14]

The fiery furnace (chapter 3)

Main article: Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego

Daniel's companions Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego refuse to bow to King Nebuchadnezzar's golden statue and are thrown into a fiery furnace. Nebuchadnezzar is astonished to see a fourth figure in the furnace with the three, one "with the appearance like a son of the gods." So the king calls the three to come out of the fire, blesses the God of Israel, and decrees that any who blaspheme against him shall be torn limb from limb.[15]

Nebuchadnezzar's madness (chapter 4)

Main article: Daniel 4
 
Nebuchadnezzar by William Blake (between c. 1795 and 1805)

Nebuchadnezzar recounts a dream of a huge tree that is suddenly cut down at the command of a heavenly messenger. Daniel is summoned and interprets the dream. The tree is Nebuchadnezzar himself, who for seven years will lose his mind and live like a wild beast. All of this comes to pass until, at the end of the specified time, Nebuchadnezzar acknowledges that "heaven rules" and his kingdom and sanity are restored.[16]

Belshazzar's feast (chapter 5)

Main article: Belshazzar's feast
See also: Fall of Babylon

Belshazzar and his nobles blasphemously drink from sacred Jewish temple vessels, offering praise to inanimate gods, until a hand mysteriously appears and writes upon the wall. The horrified king summons Daniel, who upbraids him for his lack of humility before God and interprets the message: Belshazzar's kingdom will be given to the Medes and Persians. Belshazzar rewards Daniel and raises him to be third in the kingdom, and that very night Belshazzar is slain and Darius the Mede takes the kingdom.[17][Notes 3]

Daniel in the lions' den (chapter 6)

 
Daniel's Answer to the King by Briton Rivière (1892)
Main article: Daniel in the lions' den

Darius elevates Daniel to high office, exciting the jealousy of other officials. Knowing of Daniel's devotion to his God, his enemies trick the king into issuing an edict forbidding worship of any other god or man for a 30-day period. Daniel continues to pray three times a day to God towards Jerusalem; he is accused and King Darius, forced by his own decree, throws Daniel into the lions' den. But God shuts up the mouths of the lions, and the next morning Darius rejoices to find him unharmed. The king casts Daniel's accusers into the lions' pit together with their wives and children to be instantly devoured, while he himself acknowledges Daniel's God as he whose kingdom shall never be destroyed.[18]

Vision of the beasts from the sea (chapter 7)

Main article: Daniel 7
See also: Four kingdoms of Daniel

In the first year of Belshazzar Daniel has a dream of four monstrous beasts arising from the sea.[Notes 4] The fourth, a beast with ten horns, devours the whole earth, treading it down and crushing it, and a further small horn appears and uproots three of the earlier horns. The Ancient of Days judges and destroys the beast, and "one like a son of man" is given everlasting kingship over the entire world. One of Daniel's attendants explains that the four beasts represent four kings, but that "the holy ones of the Most High" would receive the everlasting kingdom. The fourth beast would be a fourth kingdom with ten kings, and another king who would pull down three kings and make war on the "holy ones" for "a time, two times and a half," after which the heavenly judgment will be made against him and the "holy ones" will receive the everlasting kingdom.[19]

Vision of the ram and goat (chapter 8)

Main article: Daniel 8

In the third year of Belshazzar Daniel has a vision of a ram and goat. The ram has two mighty horns, one longer than the other, and it charges west, north and south, overpowering all other beasts. A goat with a single horn appears from the west and destroys the ram. The goat becomes very powerful until the horn breaks off and is replaced by four lesser horns. A small horn that grows very large, it stops the daily temple sacrifices and desecrates the sanctuary for two thousand three hundred "evening and mornings" (which could be either 1,150 or 2,300 days) until the temple is cleansed. The angel Gabriel informs him that the ram represents the Medes and Persians, the goat is Greece, and the "little horn" is a wicked king.[20]

Vision of the Seventy Weeks (chapter 9)

Main article: Prophecy of Seventy Weeks

In the first year of Darius the Mede, Daniel meditates on the word of Jeremiah that the desolation of Jerusalem would last seventy years; he confesses the sin of Israel and pleads for God to restore Israel and the "desolated sanctuary" of the Temple. The angel Gabriel explains that the seventy years stand for seventy "weeks" of years (490 years), during which the Temple will first be restored, then later defiled by a "prince who is to come," "until the decreed end is poured out."[21]

Vision of the kings of north and south (chapters 10–12)

Main article: Daniel's final vision

Daniel 10: In the third year of Cyrus[Notes 5] Daniel sees in his vision an angel (called "a man", but clearly a supernatural being) who explains that he is in the midst of a war with the "prince of Persia", assisted only by Michael, "your prince." The "prince of Greece" will shortly come, but first he will reveal what will happen to Daniel's people.

Daniel 11: A future king of Persia will make war on the king of Greece, a "mighty king" will arise and wield power until his empire is broken up and given to others, and finally the king of the south (identified in verse 8 as Egypt) will go to war with the "king of the north." After many battles (described in great detail) a "contemptible person" will become king of the north; this king will invade the south two times, the first time with success, but on his second he will be stopped by "ships of Kittim." He will turn back to his own country, and on the way his soldiers will desecrate the Temple, abolish the daily sacrifice, and set up the abomination of desolation. He will defeat and subjugate Libya and Egypt, but "reports from the east and north will alarm him," and he will meet his end "between the sea and the holy mountain."

Daniel 12: At this time Michael will come. It will be a time of great distress, but all those whose names are written will be delivered. "Multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake, some to everlasting life, others to shame and everlasting contempt; those who are wise will shine like the brightness of the heavens, and those who lead many to righteousness, like the stars for ever and ever." In the final verses the remaining time to the end is revealed: "a time, times and half a time" (three years and a half). Daniel fails to understand and asks again what will happen, and is told: "From the time that the daily sacrifice is abolished and the abomination that causes desolation is set up, there will be 1,290 days. Blessed is the one who waits for and reaches the end of the 1,335 days."

Additions to Daniel (Greek text tradition)

 
Susanna and the Elders by Guido Reni (1820–1825)
Main article: Additions to Daniel
See also: Deuterocanonical books

The Greek text of Daniel is considerably longer than the Hebrew, due to three additional stories: they remain in Catholic and Orthodox Bibles but were rejected by the Protestant movement in the 16th century on the basis that they were absent from the Hebrew Bible.[22]

Historical background

 
Daniel refusing to eat at the King's table, early-1900s Bible illustration

The visions of chapters 7–12 reflect the crisis which took place in Judea in 167–164 BC when Antiochus IV Epiphanes, the Greek king of the Seleucid Empire, threatened to destroy traditional Jewish worship in Jerusalem.[23] When Antiochus came to the throne in 175 BC the Jews were largely pro-Seleucid. The High Priestly family was split by rivalry, and one member, Jason, offered the king a large sum to be made High Priest. Jason also asked—or more accurately, paid—to be allowed to make Jerusalem a polis, or Greek city. This meant, among other things, that city government would be in the hands of the citizens, which meant in turn that citizenship would be a valuable commodity, to be purchased from Jason. None of this threatened the Jewish religion, and the reforms were widely welcomed, especially among the Jerusalem aristocracy and the leading priests. Three years later Jason was deposed when another priest, Menelaus, offered Antiochus an even larger sum for the post of High Priest.[24]

Antiochus invaded Egypt twice, in 169 BC with success, but on the second incursion, in late 168 BC, he was forced to withdraw by the Romans.[25] Jason, hearing a rumour that Antiochus was dead, attacked Menelaus to take back the High Priesthood.[25] Antiochus drove Jason out of Jerusalem, plundered the Temple, and introduced measures to pacify his Egyptian border by imposing complete Hellenization: the Jewish Book of the Law was prohibited and on 15 December 167 BC an "abomination of desolation", probably a Greek altar, was introduced into the Temple.[26] With the Jewish religion now clearly under threat a resistance movement sprang up, led by the Maccabee brothers, and over the next three years it won sufficient victories over Antiochus to take back and purify the Temple.[25]

The crisis which the author of Daniel addresses is the defilement of the altar in Jerusalem in 167 BC (first introduced in chapter 8:11): the daily offering which used to take place twice a day, at morning and evening, stopped, and the phrase "evenings and mornings" recurs through the following chapters as a reminder of the missed sacrifices.[27] But whereas the events leading up to the sacking of the Temple in 167 BC and the immediate aftermath are remarkably accurate, the predicted war between the Syrians and the Egyptians (11:40–43) never took place, and the prophecy that Antiochus would die in Palestine (11:44–45) was inaccurate (he died in Persia).[28] The most probable conclusion is that the account must have been completed near the end of the reign of Antiochus but before his death in December 164 BC, or at least before news of it reached Jerusalem, and the consensus of modern scholarship[29][30][31][32][33][34][35] is accordingly that the book dates to the period 167–163 BC.[36][37]

Composition

 
Nebuchadnezzar's dream: the felled tree (France, 15th century)

Development

It is generally accepted that Daniel originated as a collection of Aramaic court tales later expanded by the Hebrew revelations.[38] The court tales may have originally circulated independently, but the edited collection was probably composed in the third or early second-century BC.[39] Chapter 1 was composed (in Aramaic) at this time as a brief introduction to provide historical context, introduce the characters of the tales, and explain how Daniel and his friends came to Babylon.[40] The visions of chapters 7–12 were added and chapter 1 translated into Hebrew at the third stage when the final book was being drawn together;[40] this final stage, marking the composition of Daniel as a book, took place between the desecration of the Temple by Antiochus Epiphanies in 167 and his death in 164 BCE.[41]

Authorship

Daniel is a product of "Wisdom" circles, but the type of wisdom is mantic (the discovery of heavenly secrets from earthly signs) rather than the wisdom of learning—the main source of wisdom in Daniel is God's revelation.[42][43] It is one of a large number of Jewish apocalypses, all of them pseudonymous.[44] The stories of the first half are legendary in origin, and the visions of the second the product of anonymous authors in the Maccabean period (2nd century BC).[5] Chapters 1–6 are in the voice of an anonymous narrator, except for chapter 4 which is in the form of a letter from king Nebuchadnezzar; the second half (chapters 7–12) is presented by Daniel himself, introduced by the anonymous narrator in chapters 7 and 10.[45]

The author/editor was probably an educated Jew, knowledgeable in Greek learning, and of high standing in his own community. It is possible that the name of Daniel was chosen for the hero of the book because of his reputation as a wise seer in Hebrew tradition.[46] Ezekiel, who lived during the Babylonian exile, mentioned him in association with Noah and Job (Ezekiel 14:14) as a figure of legendary wisdom (28:3), and a hero named Daniel (more accurately Dan'el, but the spelling is close enough for the two to be regarded as identical) features in a late 2nd millennium myth from Ugarit.[47] "The legendary Daniel, known from long ago but still remembered as an exemplary character ... serves as the principal human 'hero' in the biblical book that now bears his name"; Daniel is the wise and righteous intermediary who is able to interpret dreams and thus convey the will of God to humans, the recipient of visions from on high that are interpreted to him by heavenly intermediaries.[48]

Dating

The prophecies of Daniel are accurate down to the career of Antiochus IV Epiphanes, king of Syria and oppressor of the Jews, but not in its prediction of his death: the author seems to know about Antiochus' two campaigns in Egypt (169 and 167 BC), the desecration of the Temple (the "abomination of desolation"), and the fortification of the Akra (a fortress built inside Jerusalem), but he seems to know nothing about the reconstruction of the Temple or about the actual circumstances of Antiochus' death in late 164 BC. Chapters 10–12 must therefore have been written between 167 and 164 BC. There is no evidence of a significant time lapse between those chapters and chapters 8 and 9, and chapter 7 may have been written just a few months earlier again.[49]

Further evidence of the book's date is in the fact that Daniel is excluded from the Hebrew Bible's canon of the prophets, which was closed around 200 BC, and the Wisdom of Sirach, a work dating from around 180 BC, draws on almost every book of the Old Testament except Daniel, leading scholars to suppose that its author was unaware of it. Daniel is, however, quoted in a section of the Sibylline Oracles commonly dated to the middle of the 2nd century BC, and was popular at Qumran at much the same time, suggesting that it was known from the middle of that century.[50]

Manuscripts

The Book of Daniel is preserved in the 12-chapter Masoretic Text and in two longer Greek versions, the original Septuagint version, c. 100 BC, and the later Theodotion version from c. 2nd century AD. Both Greek texts contain three additions to Daniel: The Prayer of Azariah and Song of the Three Holy Children; the story of Susannah and the Elders; and the story of Bel and the Dragon. Theodotion is much closer to the Masoretic Text and became so popular that it replaced the original Septuagint version in all but two manuscripts of the Septuagint itself.[51][52][8] The Greek additions were apparently never part of the Hebrew text.[53]

Eight copies of the Book of Daniel, all incomplete, have been found at Qumran, two in Cave 1, five in Cave 4, and one in Cave 6. Between them, they preserve text from eleven of Daniel's twelve chapters, and the twelfth is quoted in the Florilegium (a compilation scroll) 4Q174, showing that the book at Qumran did not lack this conclusion. All eight manuscripts were copied between 125 BC (4QDanc) and about 50 AD (4QDanb), showing that Daniel was being read at Qumran only about 40 years after its composition. All appear to preserve the 12-chapter Masoretic version rather than the longer Greek text. None reveal any major disagreements against the Masoretic, and the four scrolls that preserve the relevant sections (1QDana, 4QDana, 4QDanb, and 4QDand) all follow the bilingual nature of Daniel where the book opens in Hebrew, switches to Aramaic at 2:4b, then reverts to Hebrew at 8:1.[54]

Genre, meaning, symbolism and chronology

 
Daniel in the lions' den saved by Habakkuk (France, 15th century)

(This section deals with modern scholarly reconstructions of the meaning of Daniel to its original authors and audience)

Genre

The Book of Daniel is an apocalypse, a literary genre in which a heavenly reality is revealed to a human recipient; such works are characterized by visions, symbolism, an other-worldly mediator, an emphasis on cosmic events, angels and demons, and pseudonymity (false authorship).[55] The production of apocalypses occurred commonly from 300 BC to 100 AD, not only among Jews and Christians, but also among Greeks, Romans, Persians and Egyptians, and Daniel is a representative apocalyptic seer, the recipient of divine revelation: he has learned the wisdom of the Babylonian magicians and surpassed them, because his God is the true source of knowledge; he is one of the maskilim (משכלים), the wise ones, who have the task of teaching righteousness and whose number may be considered to include the authors of the book itself.[56] The book is also an eschatology, as the divine revelation concerns the end of the present age, a predicted moment in which God will intervene in history to usher in the final kingdom.[57] It gives no real details of the end-time, but it seems that God's kingdom will be on this earth, that it will be governed by justice and righteousness, and that the tables will be turned on the Seleucids and those Jews who have cooperated with them.[58]

Meaning, symbolism and chronology

The message of the Book of Daniel is that, just as the God of Israel saved Daniel and his friends from their enemies, so he would save all Israel in their present oppression.[3] The book is filled with monsters, angels, and numerology, drawn from a wide range of sources, both biblical and non-biblical, that would have had meaning in the context of 2nd-century Jewish culture, and while Christian interpreters have always viewed these as predicting events in the New Testament—"the Son of God", "the Son of Man", Christ and the Antichrist—the book's intended audience is the Jews of the 2nd century BC.[59] The following explains a few of these predictions, as understood by modern biblical scholars.

  • The four kingdoms and the little horn (Daniel 2 and 7): The concept of four successive world empires stems from Greek theories of mythological history.[60] Most modern interpreters agree that the four represent Babylon, the Medes, Persia and the Greeks, ending with Hellenistic Seleucid Syria and with Hellenistic Ptolemaic Egypt.[61] The traditional interpretation of the dream identifies the four empires as the Babylonian (the head), Medo-Persian (arms and shoulders), Greek (thighs and legs), and Roman (the feet) empires.[62] The symbolism of four metals in the statue in chapter 2 comes from Persian writings,[60] while the four "beasts from the sea" in chapter 7 reflect Hosea 13:7–8, in which God threatens that he will be to Israel like a lion, a leopard, a bear or a wild beast.[63] The consensus among scholars is that the four beasts of chapter 7 symbolise the same four world empires.[64] The modern interpretation views Antiochus IV (reigned 175–164 BC) as the "small horn" that uproots three others (Antiochus usurped the rights of several other claimants to become king of the Seleucid Empire).[64]
  • The Ancient of Days and the one like a son of man (Daniel 7): The portrayal of God in Daniel 7:13 resembles the portrayal of the Canaanite god El as an ancient divine king presiding over the divine court.[65] The "Ancient of Days" gives dominion over the earth to "one like a son of man", and then in Daniel 7:27 to "the people of the holy ones of the Most High", whom scholars consider the son of man to represent. These people can be understood as the maskilim (sages), or as the Jewish people broadly.[66][Notes 6]
  • The ram and he-goat (Daniel 8) as conventional astrological symbols represent Persia and Syria, as the text explains. The "mighty horn" stands for Alexander the Great (reigned 336–323 BC) and the "four lesser horns" represent the four principal generals (Diadochi) who fought over the Greek empire following Alexander's death. The "little horn" again represents Antiochus IV. The key to the symbols lies in the description of the little horn's actions: he ends the continual burnt offering and overthrows the Sanctuary, a clear reference to Antiochus' desecration of the Temple.[67]
  • The anointed ones and the seventy years (Chapter 9): Daniel reinterprets Jeremiah's "seventy years" prophecy regarding the period Israel would spend in bondage to Babylon. From the point of view of the Maccabean era, Jeremiah's promise was obviously not true—the gentiles still oppressed the Jews, and the "desolation of Jerusalem" had not ended. Daniel therefore reinterprets the seventy years as seventy "weeks" of years, making up 490 years. The 70 weeks/490 years are subdivided, with seven "weeks" from the "going forth of the word to rebuild and restore Jerusalem" to the coming of an "anointed one", while the final "week" is marked by the violent death of another "anointed one", probably the High Priest Onias III (ousted to make way for Jason and murdered in 171 BC), and the profanation of the Temple. The point of this for Daniel is that the period of gentile power is predetermined, and is coming to an end.[68][69]
  • Kings of north and south: Chapters 10 to 12 concern the war between these kings, the events leading up to it, and its heavenly meaning. In chapter 10 the angel (Gabriel?) explains that there is currently a war in heaven between Michael, the angelic protector of Israel, and the "princes" (angels) of Persia and Greece; then, in chapter 11, he outlines the human wars which accompany this—the mythological concept sees standing behind every nation a god/angel who does battle on behalf of his people, so that earthly events reflect what happens in heaven. The wars of the Ptolemies ("kings of the south") against the Seleucids ("kings of the north") are reviewed down to the career of Antiochus the Great (Antiochus III (reigned 222–187 BC), father of Antiochus IV), but the main focus is Antiochus IV, to whom more than half the chapter is devoted. The accuracy of these predictions lends credibility to the real prophecy with which the passage ends, the death of Antiochus—which, in the event, was not accurate.[70]
  • Predicting the end-time (Daniel 8:14 and 12:7–12): Biblical eschatology does not generally give precise information as to when the end will come,[71] and Daniel's attempts to specify the number of days remaining is a rare exception.[72] Daniel asks the angel how long the "little horn" will be triumphant, and the angel replies that the Temple will be reconsecrated after 2,300 "evenings and mornings" have passed (Daniel 8:14). The angel is counting the two daily sacrifices, so the period is 1,150 days from the desecration in December 167. In chapter 12 the angel gives three more dates: the desolation will last "for a time, times and half a time", or a year, two years, and a half a year (Daniel 12:8); then that the "desolation" will last for 1,290 days (12:11); and finally, 1,335 days (12:12). Verse 12:11 was presumably added after the lapse of the 1,150 days of chapter 8, and 12:12 after the lapse of the number in 12:11.[73]

Influence

 
Engraving of Daniel's vision of the four beasts in chapter 7 by Matthäus Merian, 1630

The concepts of immortality and resurrection, with rewards for the righteous and punishment for the wicked, have roots much deeper than Daniel, but the first clear statement is found in the final chapter of that book: "Many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to everlasting shame and contempt."[74] According to Daniel R. Schwartz, without the resurrection of Jesus, Christianity would have disappeared like the movements following other charismatic Jewish figures of the 1st century.[75]

Daniel was quoted and referenced by both Jews and Christians in the 1st century AD as predicting the imminent end-time.[76] Moments of national and cultural crisis continually reawakened the apocalyptic spirit, through the Montanists of the 2nd/3rd centuries, persecuted for their millennialism, to the more extreme elements of the 16th-century Reformation such as the Zwickau prophets and the Münster Rebellion.[77] During the English Civil War, the Fifth Monarchy Men took their name and political program from Daniel 7, demanding that Oliver Cromwell allow them to form a "government of saints" in preparation for the coming of the Messiah; when Cromwell refused, they identified him instead as the Beast usurping the rightful place of King Jesus.[78] For modern popularizers, the visions and revelations of Daniel remain a guide to the future, when the Antichrist will be destroyed by Jesus Christ at the Second Coming.[79]

The influence of Daniel has not been confined to Judaism and Christianity: In the Middle Ages Muslims created horoscopes whose authority was attributed to Daniel. More recently the Baháʼí Faith, which originated in Persian Shi'ite Islam, justified its existence on the 1,260-day prophecy of Daniel, holding that it foretold the coming of the Twelfth Imam and an age of peace and justice in the year 1844, which is the year 1260 of the Muslim era.[80]

Daniel belongs not only to the religious tradition but also to the wider Western intellectual and artistic heritage. It was easily the most popular of the prophetic books for the Anglo-Saxons, who nevertheless treated it not as prophecy but as a historical book, "a repository of dramatic stories about confrontations between God and a series of emperor-figures who represent the highest reach of man".[81] Isaac Newton paid special attention to it, Francis Bacon borrowed a motto from it for his work Novum Organum, Baruch Spinoza drew on it, its apocalyptic second half attracted the attention of Carl Jung, and it inspired musicians from medieval liturgical drama to Darius Milhaud and artists including Michelangelo, Rembrandt and Eugène Delacroix.[80]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Jehoiakim: King of Judah 608–598 BC; his third year would be either 606 or 605, depending how years are counted.
  2. ^ Cyrus: Persian conqueror of Babylon, 539 BC.
  3. ^ Darius the Mede: No such person is known to history (see Levine, 2010, p. 1245, footnote 31). "Darius" is in any case a Persian, not a Median, name. The Persian army which captured Babylon was under the command of a certain Gobryas (or Gubaru), a Babylonian and former provincial governor who turned against his royal master, on behalf of Cyrus, the Persian king. The author of Daniel may have introduced the reference to a Mede in order to fulfill Isaiah and Jeremiah, who prophesied that the Medes would overthrow Babylon, and confused the events of 539 with those of 520 BC, when Darius I captured Babylon after an uprising. See Hammer, 1976, pp. 65–66.
  4. ^ First year of Belshazzar: Probably 553 BC, when Belshazzar was given royal power by his father, Nabonidus. See Levine, 2010, p. 1248, footnote 7.1–8.
  5. ^ "Third year of Cyrus": 536 BC. The author has apparently counted back seventy years to the "third year of Jehoiakim," 606 BC, to round out Daniel's prophetic ministry. See Towner, p. 149.
  6. ^ "Son of man" (bar 'enaš in Hebrew) simply means "a human being", but in the context of Daniel 7 it may be a heavenly figure, possibly the archangel Michael functioning as a representative of the Jewish people (Collins 1977:144–46; opposed by Davies 1985:105–106). Scholars almost universally agree that this human figure represents "the people of the holy ones of the Most High" of Daniel 7:27, originally the maskilim community or group responsible for the composition of Daniel, but in later interpretation it is taken to mean the Jewish people as a whole. See Grabbe 2002a.

References

Citations

  1. ^ a b Collins 1984, pp. 34–36.
  2. ^ Reid 2000, p. 315.
  3. ^ a b Brettler 2005, p. 218.
  4. ^ Bandstra 2008, p. 445.
  5. ^ a b Collins 2002, p. 2.
  6. ^ Cross & Livingstone 2005, p. 452.
  7. ^ Towner 1984, p. 2-3.
  8. ^ a b Collins 1984, p. 28.
  9. ^ Provan 2003, p. 665.
  10. ^ a b Collins 1984, pp. 30–31.
  11. ^ Collins 1984, p. 31.
  12. ^ Redditt 2008, p. 177.
  13. ^ Seow 2003, pp. 19–20.
  14. ^ Seow 2003, pp. 31–33.
  15. ^ Seow 2003, pp. 50–51.
  16. ^ Levine 2010, p. 1241.
  17. ^ Hammer 1976, pp. 57–60.
  18. ^ Levine 2010, pp. 1245–1247.
  19. ^ Levine 2010, pp. 1248–1249.
  20. ^ Levine 2010, pp. 1249–1251.
  21. ^ Levine 2010, pp. 1251–1252.
  22. ^ McDonald 2012, p. 57.
  23. ^ Harrington 1999, pp. 109–110.
  24. ^ Grabbe 2010, pp. 6–13.
  25. ^ a b c Grabbe 2010, pp. 13–16.
  26. ^ Sacchi 2004, pp. 225–226.
  27. ^ Davies 2006, p. 407.
  28. ^ Seow 2003, pp. 6–7.
  29. ^ Dunn 2003, p. 730 fn. 99.
  30. ^ Portier-Young 2016, p. 229.
  31. ^ Theophilos 2012, p. 163.
  32. ^ Lester 2015, p. 23.
  33. ^ Ryken & Longman 2010, p. unpaginated: "The consensus of modern biblical scholarship is that the book was composed in the second century B.C., that it is a pseudonymous work, and that it is indeed an example of prophecy after the fact."
  34. ^ Tucker Jr. 2020, p. unpaginated: "a near consensus view of a Maccabean date"
  35. ^ Collins 1998, p. 88.
  36. ^ Seow 2003, p. 7.
  37. ^ Ryken & Longman 2010, p. 325.
  38. ^ Collins 1993, p. 42.
  39. ^ Collins 1984, p. 34.
  40. ^ a b Redditt 2008, pp. 176–177.
  41. ^ Collins 1984, p. 36.
  42. ^ Grabbe 2002b, pp. 229–230, 243.
  43. ^ Davies 2006, p. 340.
  44. ^ Hammer 1976, p. 2.
  45. ^ Wesselius 2002, p. 295.
  46. ^ Redditt 2008, p. 180.
  47. ^ Collins 2003, p. 69.
  48. ^ Seow 2003, p. 4.
  49. ^ Collins 1984, p. 101.
  50. ^ Hammer 1976, pp. 1–2.
  51. ^ Harrington 1999, pp. 119–120.
  52. ^ Spencer 2002, p. 89.
  53. ^ Seow 2003, p. 3.
  54. ^ VanderKam & Flint 2013, pp. 137–138.
  55. ^ Crawford 2000, p. 73.
  56. ^ Davies 2006, pp. 397–406.
  57. ^ Carroll 2000, pp. 420–421.
  58. ^ Redditt 2008, p. 187.
  59. ^ Seow 2003, pp. 1–2.
  60. ^ a b Niskanen 2004, pp. 27, 31.
  61. ^ Towner 1984, pp. 34–36.
  62. ^ Miller 1994, p. 96.
  63. ^ Collins 1984, p. 80.
  64. ^ a b Matthews & Moyer 2012, pp. 260, 269.
  65. ^ Seow 2003, pp. 3–4.
  66. ^ Grabbe 2002a, pp. 60–61, 282.
  67. ^ Collins 1984, p. 87.
  68. ^ Collins 1998, pp. 108–109.
  69. ^ Matthews & Moyer 2012, p. 260.
  70. ^ Collins 1998, pp. 110–111.
  71. ^ Carroll 2000, p. 420.
  72. ^ Collins 1998, p. 114.
  73. ^ Collins 1998, p. 99.
  74. ^ Cohen 2002, pp. 86–87.
  75. ^ Schwartz 1992, p. 2.
  76. ^ Grabbe 2002b, p. 244.
  77. ^ Towner 1984, pp. 2–3.
  78. ^ Weber 2007, p. 374.
  79. ^ Boyer 1992, pp. 24, 30–31.
  80. ^ a b Doukhan 2000, p. 11.
  81. ^ Godden 2013, p. 231.

Bibliography

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Book of Daniel
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April 16, 2023
book, daniel, other, uses, disambiguation, century, biblical, apocalypse, with, century, setting, ostensibly, account, activities, visions, daniel, noble, exiled, babylon, combines, prophecy, history, with, eschatology, portrayal, times, both, cosmic, scope, p. For other uses see Book of Daniel disambiguation The Book of Daniel is a 2nd century BC biblical apocalypse with a 6th century BC setting 1 Ostensibly an account of the activities and visions of Daniel a noble Jew exiled at Babylon 2 it combines a prophecy of history with an eschatology a portrayal of end times both cosmic in scope and political in focus 1 and its message is that just as the God of Israel saves Daniel from his enemies so he would save all Israel in their present oppression 3 Daniel in the Lions Den by Rubens Papyrus 967 a 3rd century AD manuscript of a Greek translation of Daniel The Hebrew Bible includes Daniel in the Ketuvim writings while Christian biblical canons group the work with the Major Prophets 4 It divides into two parts a set of six court tales in chapters 1 6 written mostly in Aramaic and four apocalyptic visions in chapters 7 12 written mostly in Hebrew 5 the deuterocanonical books contain three additional sections the Prayer of Azariah and Song of the Three Holy Children Susanna and Bel and the Dragon 6 The book s influence has resonated through later ages from the community of the Dead Sea Scrolls and the authors of the canonical gospels and the Book of Revelation to various movements from the 2nd century to the Protestant Reformation and modern millennialist movements on which it continues to have a profound influence 7 Contents 1 Structure 1 1 Divisions 1 2 Chiastic structure in the Aramaic section 2 Content 2 1 Introduction in Babylon chapter 1 2 2 Nebuchadnezzar s dream of four kingdoms chapter 2 2 3 The fiery furnace chapter 3 2 4 Nebuchadnezzar s madness chapter 4 2 5 Belshazzar s feast chapter 5 2 6 Daniel in the lions den chapter 6 2 7 Vision of the beasts from the sea chapter 7 2 8 Vision of the ram and goat chapter 8 2 9 Vision of the Seventy Weeks chapter 9 2 10 Vision of the kings of north and south chapters 10 12 2 11 Additions to Daniel Greek text tradition 3 Historical background 4 Composition 4 1 Development 4 2 Authorship 4 3 Dating 5 Manuscripts 6 Genre meaning symbolism and chronology 6 1 Genre 6 2 Meaning symbolism and chronology 7 Influence 8 See also 9 Notes 10 References 10 1 Citations 10 2 Bibliography 11 External linksStructure Edit Nebuchadnezzar s dream the composite statue France 15th century Divisions Edit The Book of Daniel is divided between the court tales of chapters 1 6 and the apocalyptic visions of 7 12 and between the Hebrew of chapters 1 and 8 12 and the Aramaic of chapters 2 7 8 9 The division is reinforced by the chiastic arrangement of the Aramaic chapters see below and by a chronological progression in chapters 1 6 from Babylonian to Median rule and from Babylonian to Persian rule in chapters 7 12 10 Various suggestions have been made by scholars to explain the fact that the genre division does not coincide with the other two but it appears that the language division and concentric structure of chapters 2 6 are artificial literary devices designed to bind the two halves of the book together 10 The following outline is provided by Collins in his commentary on Daniel 11 PART I Tales chapters 1 1 6 29 1 Introduction 1 1 21 set in the Babylonian era written in Hebrew 2 Nebuchadnezzar s dream of four kingdoms 2 1 49 Babylonian era Aramaic 3 The fiery furnace 3 1 30 3 1 23 91 97 Babylonian era Aramaic 4 Nebuchadnezzar s madness 3 31 98 4 34 4 1 37 Babylonian era Aramaic 5 Belshazzar s feast 5 1 6 1 Babylonian era Aramaic 6 Daniel in the lions den 6 2 29 Median era with mention of Persia Aramaic PART II Visions chapters 7 1 12 13 7 The beasts from the sea 7 1 28 Babylonian era Aramaic 8 The ram and the he goat 8 1 27 Babylonian era Hebrew 9 Interpretation of Jeremiah s prophecy of the seventy weeks 9 1 27 Median era Hebrew 10 The angel s revelation kings of the north and south 10 1 12 13 Persian era mention of Greek era Hebrew Chiastic structure in the Aramaic section Edit There is a recognised chiasm a concentric literary structure in which the main point of a passage is placed in the centre and framed by parallel elements on either side in ABBA fashion in the chapter arrangement of the Aramaic section The following is taken from Paul Redditt s Introduction to the Prophets 12 A1 2 4b 49 A dream of four kingdoms replaced by a fifth B1 3 1 30 Daniel s three friends in the fiery furnace C1 4 1 37 Daniel interprets a dream for Nebuchadnezzar C2 5 1 31 Daniel interprets the handwriting on the wall for Belshazzar B2 6 1 28 Daniel in the lions den A2 7 1 28 A vision of four world kingdoms replaced by a fifthContent EditIntroduction in Babylon chapter 1 Edit Main article Daniel 1 In the third year of King Jehoiakim God allows Jerusalem to fall into the power of Nebuchadnezzar II king of Babylon Notes 1 Young Israelites of noble and royal family without physical defect and handsome versed in wisdom and competent to serve in the palace of the king are taken to Babylon to be taught the literature and language of that nation Among them are Daniel and his three companions who refuse to touch the royal food and wine Their overseer fears for his life in case the health of his charges deteriorates but Daniel suggests a trial and the four emerge healthier than their counterparts from ten days of consuming nothing but vegetables and water They are allowed to continue to refrain from eating the king s food and to Daniel God gives insight into visions and dreams When their training is done Nebuchadnezzar finds them ten times better than all the wise men in his service and therefore keeps them at his court where Daniel continues until the first year of King Cyrus 13 Notes 2 Nebuchadnezzar s dream of four kingdoms chapter 2 Edit Main article Daniel 2 In the second year of his reign Nebuchadnezzar has a dream When he wakes up he realizes that the dream has some important message so he consults his wise men Wary of their potential to fabricate an explanation the king refuses to tell the wise men what he saw in his dream Rather he demands that his wise men tell him what the content of the dream was and then interpret it When the wise men protest that this is beyond the power of any man he sentences all including Daniel and his friends to death Daniel receives an explanatory vision from God Nebuchadnezzar had seen an enormous statue with a head of gold breast and arms of silver belly and thighs of bronze legs of iron and feet of mixed iron and clay then saw the statue destroyed by a rock that turned into a mountain filling the whole earth Daniel explains the dream to the king the statue symbolized four successive kingdoms starting with Nebuchadnezzar all of which would be crushed by God s kingdom which would endure forever Nebuchadnezzar acknowledges the supremacy of Daniel s god raises Daniel over all his wise men and places Daniel and his companions over the province of Babylon 14 The fiery furnace chapter 3 Edit Main article Shadrach Meshach and Abednego Daniel s companions Shadrach Meshach and Abednego refuse to bow to King Nebuchadnezzar s golden statue and are thrown into a fiery furnace Nebuchadnezzar is astonished to see a fourth figure in the furnace with the three one with the appearance like a son of the gods So the king calls the three to come out of the fire blesses the God of Israel and decrees that any who blaspheme against him shall be torn limb from limb 15 Nebuchadnezzar s madness chapter 4 Edit Main article Daniel 4 Nebuchadnezzar by William Blake between c 1795 and 1805 Nebuchadnezzar recounts a dream of a huge tree that is suddenly cut down at the command of a heavenly messenger Daniel is summoned and interprets the dream The tree is Nebuchadnezzar himself who for seven years will lose his mind and live like a wild beast All of this comes to pass until at the end of the specified time Nebuchadnezzar acknowledges that heaven rules and his kingdom and sanity are restored 16 Belshazzar s feast chapter 5 Edit Main article Belshazzar s feast See also Fall of Babylon Belshazzar and his nobles blasphemously drink from sacred Jewish temple vessels offering praise to inanimate gods until a hand mysteriously appears and writes upon the wall The horrified king summons Daniel who upbraids him for his lack of humility before God and interprets the message Belshazzar s kingdom will be given to the Medes and Persians Belshazzar rewards Daniel and raises him to be third in the kingdom and that very night Belshazzar is slain and Darius the Mede takes the kingdom 17 Notes 3 Daniel in the lions den chapter 6 Edit Daniel s Answer to the King by Briton Riviere 1892 Main article Daniel in the lions den Darius elevates Daniel to high office exciting the jealousy of other officials Knowing of Daniel s devotion to his God his enemies trick the king into issuing an edict forbidding worship of any other god or man for a 30 day period Daniel continues to pray three times a day to God towards Jerusalem he is accused and King Darius forced by his own decree throws Daniel into the lions den But God shuts up the mouths of the lions and the next morning Darius rejoices to find him unharmed The king casts Daniel s accusers into the lions pit together with their wives and children to be instantly devoured while he himself acknowledges Daniel s God as he whose kingdom shall never be destroyed 18 Vision of the beasts from the sea chapter 7 Edit Main article Daniel 7 See also Four kingdoms of Daniel In the first year of Belshazzar Daniel has a dream of four monstrous beasts arising from the sea Notes 4 The fourth a beast with ten horns devours the whole earth treading it down and crushing it and a further small horn appears and uproots three of the earlier horns The Ancient of Days judges and destroys the beast and one like a son of man is given everlasting kingship over the entire world One of Daniel s attendants explains that the four beasts represent four kings but that the holy ones of the Most High would receive the everlasting kingdom The fourth beast would be a fourth kingdom with ten kings and another king who would pull down three kings and make war on the holy ones for a time two times and a half after which the heavenly judgment will be made against him and the holy ones will receive the everlasting kingdom 19 Vision of the ram and goat chapter 8 Edit Main article Daniel 8 In the third year of Belshazzar Daniel has a vision of a ram and goat The ram has two mighty horns one longer than the other and it charges west north and south overpowering all other beasts A goat with a single horn appears from the west and destroys the ram The goat becomes very powerful until the horn breaks off and is replaced by four lesser horns A small horn that grows very large it stops the daily temple sacrifices and desecrates the sanctuary for two thousand three hundred evening and mornings which could be either 1 150 or 2 300 days until the temple is cleansed The angel Gabriel informs him that the ram represents the Medes and Persians the goat is Greece and the little horn is a wicked king 20 Vision of the Seventy Weeks chapter 9 Edit Main article Prophecy of Seventy Weeks In the first year of Darius the Mede Daniel meditates on the word of Jeremiah that the desolation of Jerusalem would last seventy years he confesses the sin of Israel and pleads for God to restore Israel and the desolated sanctuary of the Temple The angel Gabriel explains that the seventy years stand for seventy weeks of years 490 years during which the Temple will first be restored then later defiled by a prince who is to come until the decreed end is poured out 21 Vision of the kings of north and south chapters 10 12 Edit Main article Daniel s final vision Daniel 10 In the third year of Cyrus Notes 5 Daniel sees in his vision an angel called a man but clearly a supernatural being who explains that he is in the midst of a war with the prince of Persia assisted only by Michael your prince The prince of Greece will shortly come but first he will reveal what will happen to Daniel s people Daniel 11 A future king of Persia will make war on the king of Greece a mighty king will arise and wield power until his empire is broken up and given to others and finally the king of the south identified in verse 8 as Egypt will go to war with the king of the north After many battles described in great detail a contemptible person will become king of the north this king will invade the south two times the first time with success but on his second he will be stopped by ships of Kittim He will turn back to his own country and on the way his soldiers will desecrate the Temple abolish the daily sacrifice and set up the abomination of desolation He will defeat and subjugate Libya and Egypt but reports from the east and north will alarm him and he will meet his end between the sea and the holy mountain Daniel 12 At this time Michael will come It will be a time of great distress but all those whose names are written will be delivered Multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake some to everlasting life others to shame and everlasting contempt those who are wise will shine like the brightness of the heavens and those who lead many to righteousness like the stars for ever and ever In the final verses the remaining time to the end is revealed a time times and half a time three years and a half Daniel fails to understand and asks again what will happen and is told From the time that the daily sacrifice is abolished and the abomination that causes desolation is set up there will be 1 290 days Blessed is the one who waits for and reaches the end of the 1 335 days Additions to Daniel Greek text tradition Edit Susanna and the Elders by Guido Reni 1820 1825 Main article Additions to DanielSee also Deuterocanonical books The Greek text of Daniel is considerably longer than the Hebrew due to three additional stories they remain in Catholic and Orthodox Bibles but were rejected by the Protestant movement in the 16th century on the basis that they were absent from the Hebrew Bible 22 The Prayer of Azariah and Song of the Three Holy Children placed after Daniel 3 23 The story of Susanna and the Elders placed before chapter 1 in some Greek versions and after chapter 12 in others The story of Bel and the Dragon placed at the end of the book Historical background Edit Daniel refusing to eat at the King s table early 1900s Bible illustration The visions of chapters 7 12 reflect the crisis which took place in Judea in 167 164 BC when Antiochus IV Epiphanes the Greek king of the Seleucid Empire threatened to destroy traditional Jewish worship in Jerusalem 23 When Antiochus came to the throne in 175 BC the Jews were largely pro Seleucid The High Priestly family was split by rivalry and one member Jason offered the king a large sum to be made High Priest Jason also asked or more accurately paid to be allowed to make Jerusalem a polis or Greek city This meant among other things that city government would be in the hands of the citizens which meant in turn that citizenship would be a valuable commodity to be purchased from Jason None of this threatened the Jewish religion and the reforms were widely welcomed especially among the Jerusalem aristocracy and the leading priests Three years later Jason was deposed when another priest Menelaus offered Antiochus an even larger sum for the post of High Priest 24 Antiochus invaded Egypt twice in 169 BC with success but on the second incursion in late 168 BC he was forced to withdraw by the Romans 25 Jason hearing a rumour that Antiochus was dead attacked Menelaus to take back the High Priesthood 25 Antiochus drove Jason out of Jerusalem plundered the Temple and introduced measures to pacify his Egyptian border by imposing complete Hellenization the Jewish Book of the Law was prohibited and on 15 December 167 BC an abomination of desolation probably a Greek altar was introduced into the Temple 26 With the Jewish religion now clearly under threat a resistance movement sprang up led by the Maccabee brothers and over the next three years it won sufficient victories over Antiochus to take back and purify the Temple 25 The crisis which the author of Daniel addresses is the defilement of the altar in Jerusalem in 167 BC first introduced in chapter 8 11 the daily offering which used to take place twice a day at morning and evening stopped and the phrase evenings and mornings recurs through the following chapters as a reminder of the missed sacrifices 27 But whereas the events leading up to the sacking of the Temple in 167 BC and the immediate aftermath are remarkably accurate the predicted war between the Syrians and the Egyptians 11 40 43 never took place and the prophecy that Antiochus would die in Palestine 11 44 45 was inaccurate he died in Persia 28 The most probable conclusion is that the account must have been completed near the end of the reign of Antiochus but before his death in December 164 BC or at least before news of it reached Jerusalem and the consensus of modern scholarship 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 is accordingly that the book dates to the period 167 163 BC 36 37 Composition Edit Nebuchadnezzar s dream the felled tree France 15th century Development Edit It is generally accepted that Daniel originated as a collection of Aramaic court tales later expanded by the Hebrew revelations 38 The court tales may have originally circulated independently but the edited collection was probably composed in the third or early second century BC 39 Chapter 1 was composed in Aramaic at this time as a brief introduction to provide historical context introduce the characters of the tales and explain how Daniel and his friends came to Babylon 40 The visions of chapters 7 12 were added and chapter 1 translated into Hebrew at the third stage when the final book was being drawn together 40 this final stage marking the composition of Daniel as a book took place between the desecration of the Temple by Antiochus Epiphanies in 167 and his death in 164 BCE 41 Authorship Edit Daniel is a product of Wisdom circles but the type of wisdom is mantic the discovery of heavenly secrets from earthly signs rather than the wisdom of learning the main source of wisdom in Daniel is God s revelation 42 43 It is one of a large number of Jewish apocalypses all of them pseudonymous 44 The stories of the first half are legendary in origin and the visions of the second the product of anonymous authors in the Maccabean period 2nd century BC 5 Chapters 1 6 are in the voice of an anonymous narrator except for chapter 4 which is in the form of a letter from king Nebuchadnezzar the second half chapters 7 12 is presented by Daniel himself introduced by the anonymous narrator in chapters 7 and 10 45 The author editor was probably an educated Jew knowledgeable in Greek learning and of high standing in his own community It is possible that the name of Daniel was chosen for the hero of the book because of his reputation as a wise seer in Hebrew tradition 46 Ezekiel who lived during the Babylonian exile mentioned him in association with Noah and Job Ezekiel 14 14 as a figure of legendary wisdom 28 3 and a hero named Daniel more accurately Dan el but the spelling is close enough for the two to be regarded as identical features in a late 2nd millennium myth from Ugarit 47 The legendary Daniel known from long ago but still remembered as an exemplary character serves as the principal human hero in the biblical book that now bears his name Daniel is the wise and righteous intermediary who is able to interpret dreams and thus convey the will of God to humans the recipient of visions from on high that are interpreted to him by heavenly intermediaries 48 Dating Edit The prophecies of Daniel are accurate down to the career of Antiochus IV Epiphanes king of Syria and oppressor of the Jews but not in its prediction of his death the author seems to know about Antiochus two campaigns in Egypt 169 and 167 BC the desecration of the Temple the abomination of desolation and the fortification of the Akra a fortress built inside Jerusalem but he seems to know nothing about the reconstruction of the Temple or about the actual circumstances of Antiochus death in late 164 BC Chapters 10 12 must therefore have been written between 167 and 164 BC There is no evidence of a significant time lapse between those chapters and chapters 8 and 9 and chapter 7 may have been written just a few months earlier again 49 Further evidence of the book s date is in the fact that Daniel is excluded from the Hebrew Bible s canon of the prophets which was closed around 200 BC and the Wisdom of Sirach a work dating from around 180 BC draws on almost every book of the Old Testament except Daniel leading scholars to suppose that its author was unaware of it Daniel is however quoted in a section of the Sibylline Oracles commonly dated to the middle of the 2nd century BC and was popular at Qumran at much the same time suggesting that it was known from the middle of that century 50 Manuscripts EditThe Book of Daniel is preserved in the 12 chapter Masoretic Text and in two longer Greek versions the original Septuagint version c 100 BC and the later Theodotion version from c 2nd century AD Both Greek texts contain three additions to Daniel The Prayer of Azariah and Song of the Three Holy Children the story of Susannah and the Elders and the story of Bel and the Dragon Theodotion is much closer to the Masoretic Text and became so popular that it replaced the original Septuagint version in all but two manuscripts of the Septuagint itself 51 52 8 The Greek additions were apparently never part of the Hebrew text 53 Eight copies of the Book of Daniel all incomplete have been found at Qumran two in Cave 1 five in Cave 4 and one in Cave 6 Between them they preserve text from eleven of Daniel s twelve chapters and the twelfth is quoted in the Florilegium a compilation scroll 4Q174 showing that the book at Qumran did not lack this conclusion All eight manuscripts were copied between 125 BC 4QDanc and about 50 AD 4QDanb showing that Daniel was being read at Qumran only about 40 years after its composition All appear to preserve the 12 chapter Masoretic version rather than the longer Greek text None reveal any major disagreements against the Masoretic and the four scrolls that preserve the relevant sections 1QDana 4QDana 4QDanb and 4QDand all follow the bilingual nature of Daniel where the book opens in Hebrew switches to Aramaic at 2 4b then reverts to Hebrew at 8 1 54 Genre meaning symbolism and chronology Edit Daniel in the lions den saved by Habakkuk France 15th century This section deals with modern scholarly reconstructions of the meaning of Daniel to its original authors and audience Genre Edit The Book of Daniel is an apocalypse a literary genre in which a heavenly reality is revealed to a human recipient such works are characterized by visions symbolism an other worldly mediator an emphasis on cosmic events angels and demons and pseudonymity false authorship 55 The production of apocalypses occurred commonly from 300 BC to 100 AD not only among Jews and Christians but also among Greeks Romans Persians and Egyptians and Daniel is a representative apocalyptic seer the recipient of divine revelation he has learned the wisdom of the Babylonian magicians and surpassed them because his God is the true source of knowledge he is one of the maskilim משכלים the wise ones who have the task of teaching righteousness and whose number may be considered to include the authors of the book itself 56 The book is also an eschatology as the divine revelation concerns the end of the present age a predicted moment in which God will intervene in history to usher in the final kingdom 57 It gives no real details of the end time but it seems that God s kingdom will be on this earth that it will be governed by justice and righteousness and that the tables will be turned on the Seleucids and those Jews who have cooperated with them 58 Meaning symbolism and chronology Edit The message of the Book of Daniel is that just as the God of Israel saved Daniel and his friends from their enemies so he would save all Israel in their present oppression 3 The book is filled with monsters angels and numerology drawn from a wide range of sources both biblical and non biblical that would have had meaning in the context of 2nd century Jewish culture and while Christian interpreters have always viewed these as predicting events in the New Testament the Son of God the Son of Man Christ and the Antichrist the book s intended audience is the Jews of the 2nd century BC 59 The following explains a few of these predictions as understood by modern biblical scholars The four kingdoms and the little horn Daniel 2 and 7 The concept of four successive world empires stems from Greek theories of mythological history 60 Most modern interpreters agree that the four represent Babylon the Medes Persia and the Greeks ending with Hellenistic Seleucid Syria and with Hellenistic Ptolemaic Egypt 61 The traditional interpretation of the dream identifies the four empires as the Babylonian the head Medo Persian arms and shoulders Greek thighs and legs and Roman the feet empires 62 The symbolism of four metals in the statue in chapter 2 comes from Persian writings 60 while the four beasts from the sea in chapter 7 reflect Hosea 13 7 8 in which God threatens that he will be to Israel like a lion a leopard a bear or a wild beast 63 The consensus among scholars is that the four beasts of chapter 7 symbolise the same four world empires 64 The modern interpretation views Antiochus IV reigned 175 164 BC as the small horn that uproots three others Antiochus usurped the rights of several other claimants to become king of the Seleucid Empire 64 The Ancient of Days and the one like a son of man Daniel 7 The portrayal of God in Daniel 7 13 resembles the portrayal of the Canaanite god El as an ancient divine king presiding over the divine court 65 The Ancient of Days gives dominion over the earth to one like a son of man and then in Daniel 7 27 to the people of the holy ones of the Most High whom scholars consider the son of man to represent These people can be understood as the maskilim sages or as the Jewish people broadly 66 Notes 6 The ram and he goat Daniel 8 as conventional astrological symbols represent Persia and Syria as the text explains The mighty horn stands for Alexander the Great reigned 336 323 BC and the four lesser horns represent the four principal generals Diadochi who fought over the Greek empire following Alexander s death The little horn again represents Antiochus IV The key to the symbols lies in the description of the little horn s actions he ends the continual burnt offering and overthrows the Sanctuary a clear reference to Antiochus desecration of the Temple 67 The anointed ones and the seventy years Chapter 9 Daniel reinterprets Jeremiah s seventy years prophecy regarding the period Israel would spend in bondage to Babylon From the point of view of the Maccabean era Jeremiah s promise was obviously not true the gentiles still oppressed the Jews and the desolation of Jerusalem had not ended Daniel therefore reinterprets the seventy years as seventy weeks of years making up 490 years The 70 weeks 490 years are subdivided with seven weeks from the going forth of the word to rebuild and restore Jerusalem to the coming of an anointed one while the final week is marked by the violent death of another anointed one probably the High Priest Onias III ousted to make way for Jason and murdered in 171 BC and the profanation of the Temple The point of this for Daniel is that the period of gentile power is predetermined and is coming to an end 68 69 Kings of north and south Chapters 10 to 12 concern the war between these kings the events leading up to it and its heavenly meaning In chapter 10 the angel Gabriel explains that there is currently a war in heaven between Michael the angelic protector of Israel and the princes angels of Persia and Greece then in chapter 11 he outlines the human wars which accompany this the mythological concept sees standing behind every nation a god angel who does battle on behalf of his people so that earthly events reflect what happens in heaven The wars of the Ptolemies kings of the south against the Seleucids kings of the north are reviewed down to the career of Antiochus the Great Antiochus III reigned 222 187 BC father of Antiochus IV but the main focus is Antiochus IV to whom more than half the chapter is devoted The accuracy of these predictions lends credibility to the real prophecy with which the passage ends the death of Antiochus which in the event was not accurate 70 Predicting the end time Daniel 8 14 and 12 7 12 Biblical eschatology does not generally give precise information as to when the end will come 71 and Daniel s attempts to specify the number of days remaining is a rare exception 72 Daniel asks the angel how long the little horn will be triumphant and the angel replies that the Temple will be reconsecrated after 2 300 evenings and mornings have passed Daniel 8 14 The angel is counting the two daily sacrifices so the period is 1 150 days from the desecration in December 167 In chapter 12 the angel gives three more dates the desolation will last for a time times and half a time or a year two years and a half a year Daniel 12 8 then that the desolation will last for 1 290 days 12 11 and finally 1 335 days 12 12 Verse 12 11 was presumably added after the lapse of the 1 150 days of chapter 8 and 12 12 after the lapse of the number in 12 11 73 Influence Edit Engraving of Daniel s vision of the four beasts in chapter 7 by Matthaus Merian 1630 The concepts of immortality and resurrection with rewards for the righteous and punishment for the wicked have roots much deeper than Daniel but the first clear statement is found in the final chapter of that book Many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake some to everlasting life and some to everlasting shame and contempt 74 According to Daniel R Schwartz without the resurrection of Jesus Christianity would have disappeared like the movements following other charismatic Jewish figures of the 1st century 75 Daniel was quoted and referenced by both Jews and Christians in the 1st century AD as predicting the imminent end time 76 Moments of national and cultural crisis continually reawakened the apocalyptic spirit through the Montanists of the 2nd 3rd centuries persecuted for their millennialism to the more extreme elements of the 16th century Reformation such as the Zwickau prophets and the Munster Rebellion 77 During the English Civil War the Fifth Monarchy Men took their name and political program from Daniel 7 demanding that Oliver Cromwell allow them to form a government of saints in preparation for the coming of the Messiah when Cromwell refused they identified him instead as the Beast usurping the rightful place of King Jesus 78 For modern popularizers the visions and revelations of Daniel remain a guide to the future when the Antichrist will be destroyed by Jesus Christ at the Second Coming 79 The influence of Daniel has not been confined to Judaism and Christianity In the Middle Ages Muslims created horoscopes whose authority was attributed to Daniel More recently the Bahaʼi Faith which originated in Persian Shi ite Islam justified its existence on the 1 260 day prophecy of Daniel holding that it foretold the coming of the Twelfth Imam and an age of peace and justice in the year 1844 which is the year 1260 of the Muslim era 80 Daniel belongs not only to the religious tradition but also to the wider Western intellectual and artistic heritage It was easily the most popular of the prophetic books for the Anglo Saxons who nevertheless treated it not as prophecy but as a historical book a repository of dramatic stories about confrontations between God and a series of emperor figures who represent the highest reach of man 81 Isaac Newton paid special attention to it Francis Bacon borrowed a motto from it for his work Novum Organum Baruch Spinoza drew on it its apocalyptic second half attracted the attention of Carl Jung and it inspired musicians from medieval liturgical drama to Darius Milhaud and artists including Michelangelo Rembrandt and Eugene Delacroix 80 See also EditBiblical numerology Christian eschatology Daniel Old English poem Greek Apocalypse of Daniel Historicist interpretations of the Book of DanielNotes Edit Jehoiakim King of Judah 608 598 BC his third year would be either 606 or 605 depending how years are counted Cyrus Persian conqueror of Babylon 539 BC Darius the Mede No such person is known to history see Levine 2010 p 1245 footnote 31 Darius is in any case a Persian not a Median name The Persian army which captured Babylon was under the command of a certain Gobryas or Gubaru a Babylonian and former provincial governor who turned against his royal master on behalf of Cyrus the Persian king The author of Daniel may have introduced the reference to a Mede in order to fulfill Isaiah and Jeremiah who prophesied that the Medes would overthrow Babylon and confused the events of 539 with those of 520 BC when Darius I captured Babylon after an uprising See Hammer 1976 pp 65 66 First year of Belshazzar Probably 553 BC when Belshazzar was given royal power by his father Nabonidus See Levine 2010 p 1248 footnote 7 1 8 Third year of Cyrus 536 BC The author has apparently counted back seventy years to the third year of Jehoiakim 606 BC to round out Daniel s prophetic ministry See Towner p 149 Son of man bar enas in Hebrew simply means a human being but in the context of Daniel 7 it may be a heavenly figure possibly the archangel Michael functioning as a representative of the Jewish people Collins 1977 144 46 opposed by Davies 1985 105 106 Scholars almost universally agree that this human figure represents the people of the holy ones of the Most High of Daniel 7 27 originally the maskilim community or group responsible for the composition of Daniel but in later interpretation it is taken to mean the Jewish people as a whole See Grabbe 2002a References EditCitations Edit a b Collins 1984 pp 34 36 Reid 2000 p 315 a b Brettler 2005 p 218 Bandstra 2008 p 445 a b Collins 2002 p 2 Cross amp Livingstone 2005 p 452 Towner 1984 p 2 3 a b Collins 1984 p 28 Provan 2003 p 665 a b Collins 1984 pp 30 31 Collins 1984 p 31 Redditt 2008 p 177 Seow 2003 pp 19 20 Seow 2003 pp 31 33 Seow 2003 pp 50 51 Levine 2010 p 1241 Hammer 1976 pp 57 60 Levine 2010 pp 1245 1247 Levine 2010 pp 1248 1249 Levine 2010 pp 1249 1251 Levine 2010 pp 1251 1252 McDonald 2012 p 57 Harrington 1999 pp 109 110 Grabbe 2010 pp 6 13 a b c Grabbe 2010 pp 13 16 Sacchi 2004 pp 225 226 Davies 2006 p 407 Seow 2003 pp 6 7 Dunn 2003 p 730 fn 99 Portier Young 2016 p 229 Theophilos 2012 p 163 Lester 2015 p 23 Ryken amp Longman 2010 p unpaginated The consensus of modern biblical scholarship is that the book was composed in the second century B C that it is a pseudonymous work and that it is indeed an example of prophecy after the fact Tucker Jr 2020 p unpaginated a near consensus view of a Maccabean date Collins 1998 p 88 Seow 2003 p 7 Ryken amp Longman 2010 p 325 Collins 1993 p 42 Collins 1984 p 34 a b Redditt 2008 pp 176 177 Collins 1984 p 36 Grabbe 2002b pp 229 230 243 Davies 2006 p 340 Hammer 1976 p 2 Wesselius 2002 p 295 Redditt 2008 p 180 Collins 2003 p 69 Seow 2003 p 4 Collins 1984 p 101 Hammer 1976 pp 1 2 Harrington 1999 pp 119 120 Spencer 2002 p 89 Seow 2003 p 3 VanderKam amp Flint 2013 pp 137 138 Crawford 2000 p 73 Davies 2006 pp 397 406 Carroll 2000 pp 420 421 Redditt 2008 p 187 Seow 2003 pp 1 2 a b Niskanen 2004 pp 27 31 Towner 1984 pp 34 36 Miller 1994 p 96 Collins 1984 p 80 a b Matthews amp Moyer 2012 pp 260 269 Seow 2003 pp 3 4 Grabbe 2002a pp 60 61 282 Collins 1984 p 87 Collins 1998 pp 108 109 Matthews amp Moyer 2012 p 260 Collins 1998 pp 110 111 Carroll 2000 p 420 Collins 1998 p 114 Collins 1998 p 99 Cohen 2002 pp 86 87 Schwartz 1992 p 2 Grabbe 2002b p 244 Towner 1984 pp 2 3 Weber 2007 p 374 Boyer 1992 pp 24 30 31 a b Doukhan 2000 p 11 Godden 2013 p 231 Bibliography Edit Bandstra Barry L 2008 Reading the Old Testament An Introduction to the Hebrew Bible Wadsworth Publishing Company ISBN 978 0495391050 Bar Shaul 2001 A Letter That Has Not Been Read Dreams in the Hebrew Bible Cincinnati Hebrew Union College Press ISBN 978 0 87820 424 3 Boyer Paul S 1992 When Time Shall Be No More Prophecy Belief in Modern American Culture Harvard University Press ISBN 978 0 674 95129 7 Brettler Mark Zvi 2005 How To Read the Bible Jewish Publication Society ISBN 9780827610019 Carroll John T 2000 Eschatology In Freedman David Noel Myers Allen C eds Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible Eerdmans ISBN 9789053565032 Cohen Shaye J D 2002 From the Maccabees to the Mishnah Westminster John Knox Press ISBN 9780664227432 Collins John J 1984 Daniel With an Introduction to Apocalyptic Literature Eerdmans ISBN 9780802800206 Collins John J 1993 Daniel Fortress ISBN 9780800660406 Collins John J 1998 The Apocalyptic Imagination An Introduction to Jewish Apocalyptic Literature Eerdmans ISBN 9780802843715 Collins John J 2001 Seers Sibyls and Sages in Hellenistic Roman Judaism BRILL ISBN 9780391041103 Collins John J 2002 Current Issues in the Study of Daniel In Collins John J Flint Peter W VanEpps Cameron eds The Book of Daniel Composition and Reception BRILL ISBN 978 9004116757 Collins John J 2003 From Prophecy to Apocalypticism The Expectation of the End In McGinn Bernard Collins John J Stein Stephen J eds The Continuum History of Apocalypticism Continuum ISBN 9780826415202 Collins John J 2013 Daniel In Lieb Michael Mason Emma Roberts Jonathan eds The Oxford Handbook of the Reception History of the Bible Oxford UNiversity Press ISBN 9780191649189 Crawford Sidnie White 2000 Apocalyptic In Freedman David Noel Myers Allen C eds Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible Eerdmans ISBN 9789053565032 Cross Frank Leslie Livingstone Elizabeth A 2005 The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church Oxford University Press ISBN 9780192802903 Davies Philip 2006 Apocalyptic In Rogerson J W Lieu Judith M eds The Oxford Handbook of Biblical Studies Oxford Handbooks Online ISBN 9780199254255 DeChant Dell 2009 Apocalyptic Communities In Neusner Jacob ed World Religions in America An Introduction Westminster John Knox Press ISBN 9781611640472 Doukhan Jacques 2000 Secrets of Daniel wisdom and dreams of a Jewish prince in exile Review and Herald Pub Assoc ISBN 9780828014243 Dunn James D G 2002 The Danilic Son of Man in the New Testament In Collins John J Flint Peter W VanEpps Cameron eds The Book of Daniel Composition and Reception BRILL ISBN 978 0391041288 Dunn James Douglas Grant 2003 Jesus Remembered Christianity in the Making Volume 1 Christianity in the making Eerdmans Publishing Company p 730 ISBN 978 0 8028 3931 2 Godden Malcolm 2013 Biblical Literature The Old Testament In Godden and Malcolm Lapidge Michael eds The Cambridge Companion to Old English Literature Cambridge University Press ISBN 9781107469211 Grabbe Lester L 2002a Judaic Religion in the Second Temple Period Belief and Practice from the Exile to Yavneh Routledge ISBN 9780203461013 Grabbe Lester L 2002b A Dan iel For All Seasons In Collins John J Flint Peter W VanEpps Cameron eds The Book of Daniel Composition and Reception BRILL ISBN 978 9004116757 Grabbe Lester L 2010 An Introduction to Second Temple Judaism History and Religion of the Jews in the Time of Nehemiah the Maccabees Hillel and Jesus Continuum ISBN 9780567552488 Hammer Raymond 1976 The Book of Daniel Cambridge University Press ISBN 9780521097659 Harrington Daniel J 1999 Invitation to the Apocrypha Eerdmans ISBN 9780802846334 Hill Andrew E 2009 Daniel In Garland David E Longman Tremper eds Daniel Malachi Zondervan ISBN 9780310590545 Hill Charles E 2000 Antichrist In Freedman David Noel Myers Allen C eds Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible Eerdmans ISBN 9789053565032 Horsley Richard A 2007 Scribes Visionaries and the Politics of Second Temple Judea Presbyterian Publishing Corp ISBN 9780664229917 Knibb Michael 2002 The Book of Daniel in its Context In Collins John J Flint Peter W VanEpps Cameron eds The Book of Daniel Composition and Reception BRILL ISBN 978 9004116757 Lester G Brooke 2015 Daniel Evokes Isaiah Allusive Characterization of Foreign Rule in the Hebrew Aramaic Book of Daniel The Library of Hebrew Bible Old Testament Studies Bloomsbury Publishing p 23 ISBN 978 0 567 65856 2 Levine Amy Jill 2010 Daniel In Coogan Michael D Brettler Marc Z Newsom Carol A eds The new Oxford annotated Bible with the Apocryphal Deuterocanonical books New Revised Standard Version Oxford University Press ISBN 9780199370504 Lucas Ernest C 2005 Daniel Book of In Vanhoozer Kevin J Bartholomew Craig G Treier Daniel J eds Dictionary for Theological Interpretation of the Bible Baker Academic ISBN 9780801026942 Matthews Victor H Moyer James C 2012 The Old Testament Text and Context Baker Books ISBN 9780801048357 McDonald Lee Martin 2012 Formation of the Bible the Story of the Church s Canon Peabody MA Hendrickson Publishers p 57 ISBN 978 1 59856 838 7 Miller Steven R 1994 Daniel B amp H Publishing Group ISBN 9780805401189 Niskanen Paul 2004 The Human and the Divine in History Herodotus and the Book of Daniel Continuum ISBN 9780567082138 Portier Young Anathea E 2016 Sharp Carolyn ed The Oxford Handbook of the Prophets Oxford Handbooks Oxford University Press p 229 ISBN 978 0 19 985956 6 Provan Iain 2003 Daniel In Dunn James D G Rogerson John William eds Eerdmans Commentary on the Bible Eerdmans ISBN 978 0 8028 3711 0 Redditt Paul L 2008 Introduction to the Prophets Eerdmans ISBN 9780802828965 Reid Stephen Breck 2000 Daniel Book of In Freedman David Noel Myers Allen C eds Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible Eerdmans ISBN 9789053565032 Rowland Christopher 2007 Apocalyptic Literature In Hass Andrew Jasper David Jay Elisabeth eds The Oxford Handbook of English Literature and Theology Oxford University Press ISBN 9780199271979 Ryken Leland Wilhoit Jim Longman Tremper 1998 Dictionary of Biblical Imagery InterVarsity Press ISBN 9780830867332 Ryken Leland Longman Tremper 2010 The Complete Literary Guide to the Bible Zondervan ISBN 9780310877424 Sacchi Paolo 2004 The History of the Second Temple Period Continuum ISBN 9780567044501 Schwartz Daniel R 1992 Studies in the Jewish Background of Christianity Mohr Siebeck ISBN 9783161457982 Seow C L 2003 Daniel Westminster John Knox Press ISBN 9780664256753 Schiffman Lawrence H 1991 From Text to Tradition A History of Second Temple and Rabbinic Judaism KTAV Publishing House ISBN 9780881253726 Spencer Richard A 2002 Additions to Daniel In Mills Watson E Wilson Richard F eds The Deuterocanonicals Apocrypha Mercer University Press ISBN 9780865545106 Theophilos Michael P 2012 The Abomination of Desolation in Matthew 24 15 T amp T Clark library of biblical studies Bloomsbury Academic p 163 ISBN 978 0 567 55468 0 Towner W Sibley 1984 Daniel Westminster John Knox Press ISBN 9780664237561 Tucker Jr W D 2020 2012 Daniel History of Interpretation In McConville Gordon J Boda Mark J eds Dictionary of the Old Testament Prophets A Compendium Of Contemporary Biblical Scholarship Inter Varsity Press p unpaginated ISBN 978 1 78974 038 7 VanderKam James C 2010 The Dead Sea Scrolls Today Eerdmans ISBN 9780802864352 VanderKam James C Flint Peter 2013 The meaning of the Dead Sea scrolls their significance for understanding the Bible Judaism Jesus and Christianity HarperCollins ISBN 9780062243300 Waters Matt 2014 Ancient Persia A Concise History of the Achaemenid Empire 550 330 BC Cambridge University Press ISBN 9781107652729 Weber Timothy P 2007 Millennialism In Walls Jerry L ed The Oxford Handbook of Eschatology Oxford University Press ISBN 9780199742486 Wesselius Jan Wim 2002 The Writing of Daniel In Collins John J Flint Peter W VanEpps Cameron eds The Book of Daniel Composition and Reception BRILL ISBN 978 0391041288 External links Edit Wikimedia Commons has media related to Book of Daniel Wikisource has original text related to this article Daniel Wikiquote has quotations related to Book of Daniel Daniel Judaica Press translation with Rashi s commentary at Chabad org Bible King James Version Bible King James Version quod lib umich edu Retrieved 2016 01 17 Book of Daniel Daniel at The Great Books New Revised Standard Version Bible Daniel public domain audiobook at LibriVox Various versionsBook of DanielMajor prophetsPreceded byEsther Hebrew Bible Succeeded byEzra NehemiahPreceded byEzekiel ChristianOld Testament Succeeded byHosea Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Book of Daniel amp oldid 1149629073, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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