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THE BOOK OF DANIEL IN THE HEBREW SCRIPTURES (OLD TESTAMENT)
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THE BOOK OF DANIEL
IN THE HEBREW SCRIPTURES (OLD TESTAMENT)
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Daniel's Life:
In 605 BCE, as a teenager, Daniel was captured by the Babylonian army, during its first
attack on Jerusalem. He had been a member of the royal house or of the nobility. Daniel
survived a castration operation and spent the rest of his long life in the city of
Babylon, in the service of the royal court. He went by two names: Daniel and
Belteschazzar.
That city was generally regarded as the most beautiful in the known world. Ancient
authorities, not known for accuracy, claimed that its walls were 60 miles long, 300 feet
high and 80 feet thick. The Euphrates river divided the city in to two roughly equal
parts.
Isaiah 13:17-22 described it as "Babylon, fairest of
kingdoms, proud beauty of the Chaldeans" It contained one of the seven
wonders of the world: the hanging gardens of Babylon, which Nebuchadnezzar build for his
Queen. Both a passage in Isaiah and Jeremiah 51:37-43 prophesized that
Babylon would be destroyed and never occupied again. The prophecy was partly correct: the
city was destroyed. But part of it has been inhabited in recent years. It is now being
rebuilt by the Government of Iraq.
Daniel is described as living in Babylon for the entire duration of the Babylonian
empire, a period of 72 years. He arrived during the last year in the reign of
Nabopolassar, stayed through the entire 45 year reign of Nebuchadnezzar, assisted 5
succeeding kings, survived through the occupation by the Medes and into the occupation of
the Persians. He was present as Israel was taken into captivity; he died two years after a
fragment of the Jews were allowed to return to Jerusalem.
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Overview of the Book of Daniel:
The first part of the book, chapters 1 to 6, contains five well known stories:
 Daniel's interpretation of King Nebuchadnezzar's dream: The king demanded that
his magicians, exorcists, sorcerers, etc. describe the dream to him, and to interpret its
meaning. He might have withheld information about the dream from them in order to test
their psychic abilities. Alternatively, he may not have been able to recall the details of
the dream. (Many people are unable to recollect dreams after wakening.) Understandably,
they failed. Daniel then described the dream, and explained that the metals that the king
dreamed of (gold, silver, bronze and iron) each represented one earthly kingdom: his own and three
to come in the future.
The attempted execution of Daniel's three friends in the fiery furnace: The
king had made a gold image, some 90 feet tall and ordered the people to prostrate
themselves and worship the image whenever certain music was played. Any who refused was to
be thrown into a blazing furnace. Three Jewish friends of Daniel: Shadrach, Meschach and
Aben-nego, refused to worship the statue and were thrown into a fiery furnace that had
been heated "to seven times its normal heat." Not only were they
unharmed, but they were accompanied by a fourth figure who "looks like a god"
and was later identified by Nebuchadnezzar as an angel.
Nebuchadnezzar's madness: He has a dream in which he is overcome by a mental
illness and roamed like an animal through the parks surrounding the palace for 42 months.
Daniel interprets the dream, which comes to pass a year later. The king was restored to
his right mind after 42 months of living with wild beasts and feeding on grass like oxen.
At the end of that time, he acknowledged the sovereignty of Jehovah and was made whole.
The handwriting on the wall of King Belshazzar's banquet hall: Nebuchadnezzar
had stolen the gold and silver vessels from the temple at Jerusalem. When his son,
Belshazzar, became king, he ordered that the vessels be brought out and used at a party by
the nobility, himself and his concubines and courtesans. Suddenly, the fingers of a hand
appeared, and wrote a message on the wall of the palace. The king's magicians, sorcerers,
etc. were unable to decode the words. Daniel translated the message as saying that God has
brought his kingdom to a close. That night, Belshazzar was killed and "Darius the
Mede" took over. The Babylonian empire ended and the Medes occupied the land.
Daniel surviving in the den of lions: "Darius" appointed Daniel as
one of three chief ministers of the new kingdom of the Medes. Some jealous ministers and
satraps conspired to kill Daniel. They persuaded the king to write an edict stating that
anyone who petitions any god or human being other than the king during the following 30
days would be thrown into the lions' den. The conspirators caught Daniel praying to God,
and presented him to the king for execution. The king tried to think of a way to avoid
executing Daniel, but was unsuccessful. (He probably didn't think too hard, because there
was a simple solution to the problem. If the lions were over-feed, they would have lost
interest in munching on Daniel). Daniel was thrown in to the pit, but survived. He
credited an angel with shutting the lions' mouths.
The remainder of the book deals mainly with Daniel's visions:
A dream of 4 beasts (lion with eagles' wings, bear, leopard with four wings like a bird,
and a terrible beast with 10 horns, which later became 8 horns). Again, these four animals
each symbolized an earthly kingdom.
The vision of a powerful ram and a male goat who fight each other. The goat conquers the
ram.
A prayer of confession to, and trust in, God.
A momentous vision of Israel's future, leading to the end of the age some 1,335 days
later. Some of the dead will awake "to everlasting life and some to the reproach
of eternal abhorrence. The wise leaders will shine like the bright vault of heaven, and
those who have guarded the people in the true path will be like the stars for ever and
ever." This implies a resurrection of the dead, a judgement and transfer of the
resurrected Jews to heaven or hell.
Author and Date of the Book:
Conservative Christians generally believe that the book was written by
Daniel himself in the 6th century. This is confirmed in a number of verses. e.g.
 Daniel 7:1: "Then he wrote down the dream. and here his
account begins."
Daniel 7:28: "...as for me, Daniel, my thoughts dismayed me
greatly...."
Daniel 8:1: "...a vision appeared to me, Daniel, following my
earlier vision."
Daniel 9:2: "I, Daniel, was reading the scriptures..."
Daniel 10:2: "At that time I, Daniel, mourned for thee whole
weeks..."
Daniel 12:5: "I, Daniel, looked and saw two others standing..."
Jesus verified that the book was written by Daniel. In Matthew 24:15,
he states "So, when you see the 'abomination of desolation,' of which the prophet
Daniel spoke, standing in the holy place...then those who are in Judea must take to
the hills."
The early Christian church generally accepted the authorship of Daniel in the 6th
century without question. Essentially all Fundamentalist and other Evangelical Christians
believe the same today.
Many Liberal Christians believe that the book was really written many
centuries after Daniel's time, during the Maccabean revolt against the Greek occupying
forces in 168-164 BCE. They regard the book as pseudepigraphic - written by an anonymous
author or authors and attributed to Daniel. They conclude this for a number of reasons:
The text contains a number of Greek words; yet the Greek occupation of the area did not
occur until the 4th century BCE.
One of the musical instruments mentioned in Daniel 3:5 and in
subsequent passages did not exist until developed in 2nd century BCE Greece.
Daniel 1:4 refers to the "Chaldeans" as a priestly class in
Babylon. This term did not attain this meaning until much later than the 6th century.
About 180 BCE, Jeshua ben Sira listed the heroes of the Jewish faith, including "Enoch,
Noah and Abraham through to Nehemiah;" 2 Daniel is
not mentioned - presumably because Jeshua is unaware of him. This would indicate that the
book of Daniel was written after that time.
Chapter 12 discusses the dead being resurrected, judged, and taken to
either heaven and hell. At the time of Daniel, the Jews believed that all persons went to Sheol after death. The concept of heaven
and hell was introduced centuries later by the Greeks. It did not appear in Israel
until the time of the Maccabean revolt.
Daniel 11:31 (and elsewhere) refers to "the abominable thing
that causes desolation." This appears to refer to the erection of a statue of
Zeus in the Jerusalem temple in 167 BCE, and would indicate that the book was written
later than that date.
Prior to Daniel 11:40, the author(s) has been recording past events
under the Babylonian, Median, Persian and Greek empires. In Daniel 11:40-45,
he really attempts to predict the future. He prophesizes that a king of the south (of the
Ptolemaic dynasty) will attack the Greeks in Palestine, under Antiochus. The Greeks will
win, will lay spoil to all of northeast Africa, and return to Palestine where Antiochus
will die. The end of history will then occur. The author(s) appeared to be a poor psychic
because none of these events actually happened. Antiochus did die in 164 BCE, but it was
in Persia. Thus, the book was apparently completed before 164.
Many liberal Christians believe that the Book of Daniel is a work of
fiction. Fables and myths about a non-existent ancient hero, Daniel's, were passed down orally
for centuries, and then finally written down by an unknown
author(s),
sometime between 167 and 164 BCE. At the end of the book, the author(s) then unsuccessfully attempted to predict
the future.
Interpretation of the Dreams, Visions and End of the World:
Conservative Christians generally believe that the 4
earthly kingdoms mentioned
in different places in the book represent the empires of:
Babylon (represented by the lion/eagle symbol and gold)
Medo-Persia (considered as a single empire; represented as the bear,
and silver)
Greece (represented as the leopard and bronze)
Rome (represented as the terrible beast, and iron). Since the end of
the world and resurrection of the dead in Daniel 12 has not happened yet,
then it must be in our future. Most conservative Christians look upon the fourth empire as
existing in two parts:
 the first is the historical Roman Empire;
the second phase has not yet risen to power. It will be the Kingdom of the Antichrist.
Many conservative Christians believe that the Antichrist will be a European and that the
revived Roman Empire will evolve out of the European Community.
"Pre-millenialist Christians" believe that this
second phase of the Roman Empire will come to an end at the second coming of Christ and
the war of Armageddon. Many conservative Christians interpret the book of Daniel and
describe the end of the world as happening in our immediate
future - perhaps about 2000 CE. This book is one of the most important sections of the
Hebrew Scriptures because of the prophecies based on 4 earthly kingdoms.
Many Liberal Christians point to the actual foreign countries which
occupied Palestine between the 6th century and 2nd century BCE:
Babylon (represented by the lion/eagle symbol and gold). They attacked
the Southern Kingdom in the 580's BCE
The Median empire under (bear and silver). Daniel 5-31
records how "Darius the Mede" conquered Babylon and killed king
Belshazzar. This belief probably arose out of many predictions in Isaiah and Jeremiah that
Babylon would fall to the Medes. In reality, the Median and Babylonian kingdoms coexisted
until the Medians were conquered about 550 BCE and the Babylonians were conquered in 539,
both by the Persians. Darius was not a Median king. Apparently the later Persian king
"Darius the Great" was confused by the author(s) with
Astyages, the
last Median king.
The Persian empire (symbolized by a leopard and bronze)
The Greek empire (terrible beast and iron). They conquered Judeah in
332 BCE. Daniel 2:41 and 11:3 described it as a kingdom
ruled by a warrior king that is divided into 4 sections after his death. None of the 4
sections will be ruled by his descendents. This fits precisely with the structure of
the Macedonian-Greek empire of Alexander the Great. After his death, it was divided among
four of his generals, none of whom were his sons. Daniel 2:43 refers to
the mixing of families by intermarriage, and mentions that these arrangements would not be
stable. Again, this fits well with the attempts that the Seleucid (the King of the North
in Daniel 11:7) and Ptolemaic (the King of the South in Daniel
11:5) dynasties to achieve peace and stability through intermarriage. The
attempts were unsuccessful.
At the time of the writing of the book of Daniel, circa 164 BCE, the Greek empire
occupied Palestine. Since the book was written after the rise of the
final empire, the author had the advantage of hindsight. The book is mainly a history of
past events, not a prophecy of the future. The author wrote the book almost
a century before the Roman Empire invaded Palestine. Since he had no
knowledge or expectation of this invasion, it was not mentioned in the book.
In the final chapter of Daniel, the author describes the "end of history"
- a resurrection of the dead, judgment and transfer the resurrected dead to heaven or
hell. According to Daniel 12:12, these events would happen during approximately three
years following the "abomination of desolation" (the erection of a statue of
Zeus in the Jewish temple in 167 BCE). Some Bible scholars have interpreted this period of
time as occupying many millennia. But this is clearly not a valid interpretation, because
Daniel 12:12 refers to people who "wait and live to see the completion of the
interval."
If the author(s) could have accurately predicted the future after 164 BCE, he would
have prophesized some additional earthly empires which controlled Palestine:
5. The Roman Empire (from 63
BCE)
6. Byzantine Empire (from 313 CE)
7. Arab conquest; control of Palestine by Muslim groups (from 636 CE)
8. Christian Crusaders from Europe (from 1099 CE)
9. Mamluks under Saladin reinstate Muslim rule (from 1291 CE)
10. Ottoman rule (from 1517 CE)
11. British Empire rule (from 1917 CE)
12. The State of Israel (1948 CE
to the present time)
From the time of Daniel to the present day, Palestine has been controlled by 11 foreign
empires until Israel finally attained independence in 1948 CE. The author(s) of the book
of Daniel, apparently writing about 166 CE, was unable to predict his future.
Many religious liberals classify this book as apocalyptic literature. This writing
style was quite common in Israel from the 2nd century BCE to the 2nd century CE. The book
of Revelation in the Christian Scriptures (New Testament) is perhaps the
best known example. The writings are often attributed to a famous historical hero in order
to give them credibility.
References
Farrell Till, "Bible Inerrancy: A Belief Without Evidence," available
at: http://www.infidels.org/library/magazines/tsr/1992/4/4evide92.html
G.A.F. Knight, "The Book of Daniel," part of "The
Interpreter's One-volume Commentary on the Bible," Abingdon Press, Nashville TN,
(1991).
A.E. Hill & J.H. Walton, "A Survey of the Old Testament,"
Zondervan, Grand Rapids MI, (1991), Pages 349 to 356.
H.H Halley, "Halley's Bible Handbook," Zondervan, Grand Rapids MI,
(1997) Pages 336 to 352.
J.D. Douglas, Ed., "New Commentary on the Whole Bible, Old Testament Volume,"
Tyndale, Wheaton, IL, (1990), Pages 1165 to 1204.
Copyright © 1998 to 2006 by Ontario
Consultants on Religious Tolerance
Latest update 2006-APR-16
Author: B.A. Robinson
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