Daniel

The Book of Daniel presents a collection of popular stories about Daniel, a loyal Jew, and the record of visions granted to him, with the Babylonian Exile of the 6th century bce as their background. The book, however, was written in a later time of national crisis—when the Jews were suffering severe persecution under Antiochus IV Epiphanes (reigned 175–164/163 bce), the second Seleucid ruler of Palestine.

The exiled Jews had been permitted to return to their homeland by Cyrus II the Great, master of the Medes and Persians, who captured Babylon in 539 bce from its last king, Nabonidus, and his son Belshazzar. The ancient Near East was then ruled by the Persians until Alexander the Great brought it under his control in 331. After Alexander’s death in 323, his empire was divided among his generals, with Palestine coming under the dominion of the Ptolemies until 198, when the Seleucids won control. Under the Persian and Ptolemaic rulers the Jews seem to have enjoyed some political autonomy and complete religious liberty. But under Antiochus IV Jewish fortunes changed dramatically. In his effort to Hellenize the Jews of Palestine, Antiochus attempted to force them to abandon their religion and practice the common pagan worship of his realm. Increasingly sterner restrictions were imposed upon the Jews, the city of Jerusalem was pillaged, and, finally, in December 167 the Temple was desecrated. The outcome of this persecution was the open rebellion among the Jews, as described in the books of Maccabees. This period of Hellenistic Judaism is treated more fully in Judaism: Hellenistic Judaism (4th century bce–2nd century ce).

The conflict between the religion of the Jews and the paganism of their foreign rulers is also the basic theme of the Book of Daniel. In Daniel, however, it is regarded as foreseen and permitted by God to show the superiority of Hebrew wisdom over pagan wisdom and to demonstrate that the God of Israel will triumph over all earthly kings and will rescue his faithful ones from their persecutors. To develop this theme the author makes use of a literary and theological form known as apocalypse (from the Greek apokalypsis, “revelation” or “unveiling”), which was widely diffused in Judaism and then in Christianity from 200 bce to 200 ce. Apocalyptic literature professes to be a revelation of future events, particularly the time and manner of the coming of the final age when the powers of evil will be routed in bloody combat and God’s kingdom will be established. This revelation usually occurs as a vision expressed in complicated, often bizarre symbolism. The literature is generally pseudonymous, proposed under the name of some authoritative figure of the distant past, such as Daniel, Moses, Enoch, or Ezra. This allows the author to present events that are past history to him as prophecies of future happenings.

The Book of Daniel, the first of the apocalyptic writings, did not represent an entirely new type of literature. Apocalypse had its beginnings in passages in the works of the prophets. In fact, it has been said that the apocalyptic was really an attempt to rationalize and systematize the predictive side of prophecy. There were significant differences, however. The prophet, for the most part, declared his message by word of mouth, which might subsequently be recorded in writing. The apocalyptist, on the other hand, remained completely hidden behind his message, which he wrote down for the faithful to read. The prophets normally spoke in their own name a message for their own day. The apocalyptists normally wrote in the name of some notable man of the past a message for the time of the age to come.

Like the prophets before them, the apocalyptists saw in the working out of history, which they divided into well-defined periods, a purpose and a goal. The evil in the world might lead men to despair, but God’s predetermined purpose could not be frustrated. A future age of righteousness would replace the present age of ungodliness, fulfilling God’s purpose. This literature, then, is a mixture of pessimism—times would become worse and worse, and God would destroy this present evil world—and of optimism—out of turmoil and confusion God would bring in his kingdom, the goal of history.

For many centuries the apocalyptic character of the Book of Daniel was overlooked, and it was generally considered to be true history, containing genuine prophecy. In fact, the book was included among the prophetic books in the Greek canon. It is now recognized, however, that the writer’s knowledge of the exilic times was sketchy and inaccurate. His date for the fall of Jerusalem, for example, is wrong; Belshazzar is represented as the son of Nebuchadrezzar and the last king of Babylon, whereas he was actually the son of Nabonidus and, though a powerful figure, was never king; Darius the Mede, a fictitious character perhaps confused with Darius I of Persia, is made the successor of Belshazzar instead of Cyrus. By contrast, the book is a not inconsiderable historical source for the Greek period. It refers to the desecration of the Temple in 167 and possibly to the beginning of the Maccabean revolt. Only when the narrative reaches the latter part of the reign of Antiochus do notable inaccuracies appear—an indication of a transition from history to prediction. The book is thus dated between 167 and 164 bce.

Other considerations that point to this 2nd-century date are the omission of the book from the prophetic portion of the Hebrew canon, the absence of Daniel’s name in the list of Israel’s great men in Ecclesiasticus, the book’s linguistic characteristics, and its religious thought, especially the belief in the resurrection of the dead with consequent rewards and punishments.

The name Daniel would appear to refer to a legendary hero who was used in different ways at different times and who became particularly popular in the storytelling of the Persian and Greek Diaspora as a personification of the practical and theological problems faced by the Jews in that environment. Whether there is any connection between the Daniel of this book and the one mentioned as a wise man without equal and as a righteous man in the tale of Aqhat, a Ugaritic text dated from about the middle of the 14th century, is uncertain.

The book is written in two languages: the beginning (1:1–2:4a) and the final chapters (8–12) in Hebrew and the rest in Aramaic. This offers no proof of multiple authorship, however, because the linguistic divisions do not correspond to the division by literary form: chapters 1–6 are stories of Daniel and his friends in exile, and chapters 7–12 are Daniel’s apocalyptic visions. Furthermore, there is a singleness of religious outlook, spirit, and purpose throughout. Nevertheless, the problem of the languages has never been satisfactorily answered.

The stories of the first six chapters, which probably existed in oral tradition before the author set them down, begin with the account of how Daniel and his three companions (Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, who were given the names Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego by the Babylonians) came to be living at the Babylonian court and how they remained faithful to the laws of their religion. This is followed by five dramatic episodes calculated to demonstrate the wisdom and might of Israel’s God and the unconquerable steadfastness of his loyal people. Thus, through God’s gift of wisdom, Daniel excels the professional sages of the pagan court by revealing and interpreting Nebuchadrezzar’s dream of a great image, made of four metals, which was shattered by a stone cut without human hand, and then the King’s further dream of a tree reduced to a stump, which presaged the punishment of his arrogance by madness, and, finally, the writing on the wall, which spelled Belshazzar’s doom at his sacrilegious feast. By trust in God, Daniel’s companions, who refused to worship Nebuchadrezzar’s golden idol, are miraculously delivered from a fiery furnace, and Daniel himself, thrown into a den of lions for holding fast to his tradition of prayer, is divinely protected.

The last six chapters of the book are apocalyptic. In chapter 7 Daniel is granted a vision of four beasts from the abyss, which are brought under divine judgment, and of “one like a son of man,” who is brought before God to be invested with his universal and everlasting sovereignty. The mythological beasts are interpreted as four empires (the Babylonian Empire, the kingdom of the Medes, the Persian Empire, and the empire of Alexander) and the manlike figure as Israel. The vision of a battle between the ram (Medes and Persians) and the goat (the Greek Empire) in chapter 8 introduces the iniquities of Antiochus IV Epiphanes and is an assurance to the stricken Jews that the end of their tribulation is near. In chapter 9 the author reinterprets the prophecy of Jeremiah that Jerusalem’s desolation would end after 70 years. By making these 70 years mean 70 “weeks of years” (i.e., 490 years), the author is again able to focus attention on the period of Antiochus’s persecution in the 2nd century and on the imminence of his determined doom. A precise understanding of the author’s scheme is not possible, however, because 490 years calculated from the beginning of the exile extends far beyond the time of Antiochus. The remaining chapters provide the fourth commentary on the crisis provoked by the Seleucid tyrant. The greater part of this vision is a sketch of the events that affected the Jews from the Persian period to the time of Antiochus and prepared for his reign of terror. After chapter 11, verse 39, the account of Antiochus’s life ceases to correspond with historical fact; an inaccurate prediction of his end is the prelude to the announcement of the end of Israel’s tribulation and the inauguration of God’s kingdom.

The purpose of the whole book, stories and visions alike, is to encourage Israel to endure under the threat of annihilation and to strengthen its faith that “the Most High rules the kingdom of men” and will in the end give victory to his people and establish his kingdom.