Overview of Daniel

The Book of Daniel is a well-structured literary work. It is not a collection of folk stories or random and unrelated visions. Its key themes are presented in brief at the start of the Book. They are described in detail in the Book’s subsequent chapters as each new vision builds on the preceding ones.

The historical stories in the first six chapters lay the foundation for the visions and their interpretations in the last six chapters. For example, King Nebuchadnezzar’s dream of the “great image” composed of four materials anticipates the vision of the “four beasts ascending from the sea” in Chapter 7.

[Photo by Jakob Braun on Unsplash]

Each vision includes one or more common subjects. For example, the cessation of the daily sacrifice is mentioned in the visions of the Ram and the Goat, the Seventy Weeks, and the Kings of the North and South, as well as in the conclusion to the Book - (Daniel 8:10-13, 9:26-27, 11:31, 12:11).

The name ‘Daniel’ means “God is my judge.” He first appears as a young Jewish exile just arrived in Babylon from Jerusalem.  No information is provided about his family history. He was from the nobility - “Of the seed royal and the nobles.”

Daniel was probably in his teenage years when he was deported. He received his final vision in the third year after the overthrow of Babylon by the “Medes and Persians.”  That means his prophetic “career” spanned over seventy years. There is no record of him ever returning to Judah. Presumably, he died in Babylon at an advanced age.

Daniel was given the Babylonian name ‘Belteshazzar,’ which means “Bel protects [the king].” ‘Bel’ is the Akkadian form of ‘Ba’al’ (“lord, master”) applied in Mesopotamia to the patron deity of Babylon, Marduk.

Daniel is classified as a prophet in Jewish and Christian tradition. In the Book, he is a “wise man” with great “discernment.” In the royal court, he was noted as a great interpreter of dreams - (Daniel 1:17, 2:13, 5:11-12).

He was a devout Jew living in a pagan culture. At times, certain members of the inner court were hostile to him, though he remained loyal to the God of Israel. His ability to interpret dreams won him high praise and an important position in the civil service of the Empire. Later, he served in the court of “Darius the Mede” after the fall of the Neo-Babylonian Empire - (Daniel 5:31-6:1).

DANIEL AND POLITICAL POWER

The Book describes the role of the prophet in affecting events in the affairs of the Babylonian and Persian empires. His visions concerned the changing World Empire and the control of the God of Israel over History.

Daniel epitomized the faithful Jew who lived by Divine grace in a pagan society. He persevered despite the downfall of the Jewish nation and his vulnerability to powerful forces. Yahweh provided him with wisdom to confound his opponents. Though powerless, God used his pronouncements to kings to change the course of history.

Daniel served the governments of Nebuchadnezzar, Belshazzar, and “Darius the Mede.” Nebuchadnezzar made him the “chief of the wise men” and governor of the province of Babylon. Belshazzar appointed him as the third ruler of his kingdom. After Babylon fell, “Darius the Mede” placed him over the provincial governors of his domain - (Daniel 2:48, 5:29, 6:1-3).

All the events portrayed in the Book occurred during the Seventy-Year Captivity of the Jewish nation, a judgment of Yahweh to punish Judah for her sins.

Nebuchadnezzar defeated the remnants of the Assyrian Empire, and he subjugated the nations of northern Palestine, around 605 B.C. This conquest included the Kingdom of Judah. The region was known as the “Hatti-land” by the Babylonians (“All the kings of the Hatti-land came before Nebuchadnezzar and he received their heavy tribute” – from the Chaldean Chronicle, quoted from Exile and Return by Charles Pfeiffer, Baker Books, 1962, p. 12).

In the case of Judah, “heavy tribute” was imposed including the deportation of many Jews to serve in Babylon’s civil service. In the assessment of the Book of Daniel, the Seventy-Year Captivity of the Jews began with the subjugation of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar - (Daniel 1:1-4).

The rise of Nabopolassar to the Babylonian throne in 626 B.C. marked the start of the Neo-Babylonian Empire. It endured until 539 B.C. when it was overthrown by the “Kingdom of the Medes and the Persians,” the Achaemenid Empire under the rule of Cyrus the Great. Daniel includes chronological references that coordinate key events with the reigns of the kings of Judah, Babylon, Persia, and Greece - (Daniel 1:1-2, 1:21, 6:28-31, 11:1-4).

The Book applies a theologically loaded term to the period it covers, the “indignation,” the divinely ordained period of correction. When Daniel spoke of the “time of the end,” he meant the end of the “indignation,” not the end of History or the world. The “indignation” also provides another chronological marker that connects several of his visions - (Daniel 8:17-19, 11:36).

In the Hebrew Bible, “indignation” refers to the Indignation of God with Israel for her sins and the resultant punishment. It began with the overthrow and captivity of Judah. This period is called the “desolations of Jerusalem.” During this period, the “Little Horn” waged war against the “saints” for “time, times, and part of a time,” and desecrated the Temple of Jerusalem with the “Abomination that Desolates” - (Daniel 7:24-28, 9:1-3, 9:18-27, 12:1-7).

The Book was composed after the start of the Captivity and completed by the early years of the Persian Empire. The range provided is from the “third year of the reign of King Jehoiakim” (606 B.C.) to the “third year of Cyrus king of Persia” or 536 B.C. - (Daniel 1:1-2, 1:21, 5:31-6:1, 10:1).

The Babylonian Captivity developed over several stages, beginning in 605 B.C. with the subjugation of Jerusalem in the first year of Nebuchadnezzar’s reign. It culminated in the destruction of the city and Temple in 587-586 B.C. There were at least three deportations of Jewish exiles to Babylon - (606, 598, 587 B.C.).

The historical sections describe events in the lives of Daniel and three of his companions. The visions of the Book’s second half were received between the first year of Belshazzar’s reign and the third year of Cyrus the Great.

FOURFOLD PATTERN

The visions are built on a framework of four successive kingdoms that would precede the inauguration of the Kingdom of God. Three of the four kingdoms are identified by name - Babylon, the “Medes and Persians”, and Greece. Though not named, the fourth kingdom was one of the four divisions of the Greek Empire that arose after the death of its first king, Alexander the Great - (Daniel 2:24-45, 8:20-25, 11:1-4).

The theme of the Book is that God rules over the kingdoms of this world and gives rulership to whomever He pleases, “even to the lowest of men.” Despite appearances and human machinations, His purposes are not thwarted by even the mightiest of empires.

Chapters 1, and 8 through 12, were written in the Hebrew Language. The section in Chapters 2 through 7 was composed in the Aramaic dialect of the Persian Empire. The switch to Aramaic occurs in Daniel 2:4 when the “Chaldeans spoke to the king in the Syrian language,” meaning Aramaic. The change back to Hebrew occurs in Daniel 8:1. The change is too specific to be accidental.

The Hebrew and Aramaic sections point to a date of composition during the Babylonian Captivity. The man who wrote the book was familiar with both languages and used grammatical and idiomatic features peculiar to the Mesopotamian region and its Aramaic dialect.

The several stories in the Aramaic section show how God gave Daniel “knowledge and skill in all learning and wisdom,” and enabled him to use the language and learning of the Chaldeans to prove that Yahweh rules over the political realms of the world.

The use of the Aramaic language fits the historical setting. By the time of Nebuchadnezzar, it was the de facto language of diplomacy and commerce among the nations of the Near East, and it became the common tongue of many Jews by the end of Judah’s Captivity - (2 Kings 18:17-37, Ezra 4:11-22, 5:7-17, 6:6-12, 7:11-26, Nehemiah 8:8).

The contents of the Aramaic section concern events that occurred during the Babylonian Empire, and in the first years of the “Kingdom of the Medes and the Persians.” The visions described in Hebrew were about events that would transpire after the fall of the Neo-Babylonian Empire.

IN REVELATION

Verbal allusions from Daniel are used repeatedly in the Book of Revelation, and that source material often sheds light on the symbolism of Revelation.

For example, the “Little Horn” that “made war with the saints and prevailed against them” is echoed in the visions of the “Beast from the Sea” that waged war “against the saints.” John’s single “Beast” combined the characteristics of all four of Daniel’s “Beasts from the Sea” - (Daniel 7:1-8, Revelation 11:7, 13:1-2).

However, Revelation does not simply quote verses from Daniel. It reinterprets them in consideration of the Death and Resurrection of Jesus. Events predicted in Daniel for “latter days” become “what things much come to pass soon” in Revelation.

Daniel was told to “seal” the Book “until the time of the end,” whereas, John was commanded not “to seal the Scroll, for the season is at hand” - (Daniel 2:27-28, 12:4, Revelation 1:1-3, 22:10).

Thus, the events Daniel foresaw that would occur in the future, John witnessed unfolding in his day. In Revelation, descriptions of visions are often accompanied by explicit and more detailed explanations than those provided in Daniel.

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SEE ALSO:

• Land of Shinar - (The arrogant acts of Nebuchadnezzar in the Book of Daniel parallel the incident at the Tower of Babel in Genesis)

• Empires Rise and Fall - (Imperial arrogance is the legacy of the Tower of Babel, humanity’s first but certainly not last attempt to establish the World Empire)

• God Gave - (God gave the kingdom of Judah into the hands of Nebuchadnezzar, but He also equipped Daniel and his companions for service in the court of Babylon)