Book of the Bible
The Book of Daniel is a 2nd-century BCE biblical apocalypse with a sixth century BCE set. apparently “ an explanation of the activities and visions of Daniel, a baronial Jew exiled at Babylon “, it combines a prophecy of history with an eschatology ( a portrayal of end times ) both cosmic in scope and political in focus, and its message is that equitable as the God of Israel saves Daniel from his enemies, so he would save all Israel in their give oppression. The Hebrew Bible includes Daniel in the Ketuvim ( writings ), while christian Bibles group the work with the Major Prophets. It divides into two parts : a typeset of six motor hotel tales in chapters 1–6, written largely in Aramaic, and four apocalyptic visions in chapters 7–12, written by and large in Hebrew ; the deuterocanon contains three extra sections, the Song of the Three Holy Children, Susanna, and Bel and the Dragon. The book ‘s influence has resonated through late ages, from the residential district of the Dead Sea Scrolls and the authors of the gospels and of Revelation, to diverse movements from the second hundred to the Protestant Reformation and modern millennialist movements—on which it continues to have a heavy influence.

Reading: Book of Daniel

structure [edit ]

Nebuchadnezzar ‘s dream : the composite statue ( France, fifteenth hundred )

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. The division is reinforced by the chiastic arrangement of the Aramaic chapters ( see below ), and by a chronological progress in chapters 1–6 from babylonian to median rule, and from babylonian to iranian rule in chapters 7–12. respective suggestions have been made by scholars to explain the fact that the music genre division does not coincide with the other two, but it appears that the language part and concentric structure of chapters 2–6 are artificial literary devices designed to bind the two halves of the book together. The succeed draft is provided by Collins in his comment on Daniel : 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)

separate 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 recognize chiasma ( a concentric literary structure in which the main point of a passing is placed in the center and framed by parallel elements on either side in “ ABBA ” fashion ) in the chapter musical arrangement of the Aramaic department. The follow is taken from Paul Redditt ‘s “ Introduction to the Prophets ” :

  • 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

capacity [edit ]

insertion in Babylon ( chapter 1 ) [edit ]

In the third base year of King Jehoiakim, God allows Jerusalem to fall into the might of Nebuchadnezzar II, king of Babylon. [ Notes 1 ] Young Israelites of baronial and royal family, “ without physical defect, and big, ” versed in wisdom and competent to serve in the palace of the king, are taken to Babylon to be taught the literature and speech of that state. Among them are Daniel and his three companions, who refuse to touch the royal food and wine. Their overseer fears for his life in encase 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 prepare is done Nebuchadnezzar finds them ‘ten time better ‘ than all the wise men in his serve and therefore keeps them at his court, where Daniel continues until the beginning year of King Cyrus. [ Notes 2 ]

Nebuchadnezzar ‘s dream of four kingdoms ( chapter 2 ) [edit ]

In the second year of his reign, Nebuchadnezzar has a dream. When he wakes up, he realizes that the dream has some significant message, so he consults his wise men. Wary of their likely to fabricate an explanation, the king refuses to tell the wise men what he saw in his pipe dream. quite, he demands that his fresh men tell him what the content of the dream was, and then interpret it. When the knowing men protest that this is beyond the world power of any man, he sentences wholly, including Daniel and his friends, to end. Daniel receives an explanatory vision from God : Nebuchadnezzar had seen an enormous statue with a head of gold, breast and arms of silver medal, belly and thighs of tan, legs of iron, and feet of mix iron and clay, then saw the statue destroyed by a rock ‘n’ roll that turned into a mountain filling the unharmed ground. Daniel explains the dream to the king : the statue symbolized four consecutive kingdoms, starting with Nebuchadnezzar, all of which would be crushed by God ‘s kingdom, which would endure constantly. Nebuchadnezzar acknowledges the domination of Daniel ‘s god, raises Daniel over all his judicious men, and places Daniel and his companions over the state of Babylon .

The fiery furnace ( chapter 3 ) [edit ]

Daniel ‘s companions Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego refuse to bow to King Nebuchadnezzar ‘s fortunate statue and are thrown into a ardent 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 arm from limb .

Nebuchadnezzar ‘s madness ( chapter 4 ) [edit ]

Nebuchadnezzar recounts a dream of a huge corner that is abruptly 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 take care and live like a barbarian beast. All of this comes to pass until, at the end of the assign time, Nebuchadnezzar acknowledges that “ heaven rules ” and his kingdom and sanity are restored .

Belshazzar ‘s feast ( chapter 5 ) [edit ]

Belshazzar and his nobles blasphemously drink from hallowed jewish synagogue vessels, offering praise to inanimate gods, until a hand cryptically appears and writes upon the wall. The horrified king summons Daniel, who upbraids him for his miss 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 murder and Darius the Mede takes the kingdom. [ Notes 3 ]

Daniel in the lions ‘ den ( chapter 6 ) [edit ]

Darius elevates Daniel to gamey position, exciting the jealousy of early officials. Knowing of Daniel ‘s devotion to his God, his enemies trick the king into issuing an decree forbidding worship of any other god or serviceman 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 rule, throws Daniel into the lions ‘ den. But God shuts up the mouths of the lions, and the future dawn Darius rejoices to find him unharmed. The king casts Daniel ‘s accusers into the lions ‘ pit together with their wives and children to be immediately devoured, while he himself acknowledges Daniel ‘s God as he whose kingdom shall never be destroyed .

vision of the beasts from the sea ( chapter 7 ) [edit ]

In the foremost year of Belshazzar Daniel has a dream of four monstrous beasts arising from the sea. [ Notes 4 ] The one-fourth, a animal with ten-spot horns, devours the whole earth, treading it down and crushing it, and a far minor horn appears and uproot 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 global. A divine being explains that the four beasts represent four kings, but that “ the holy ones of the Most High ” would receive the arrant kingdom. The fourth animal would be a one-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 celestial opinion will be made against him and the “ holy place ones ” will receive the ageless kingdom .

vision of the aries and capricorn ( chapter 8 ) [edit ]

In the third base year of Belshazzar Daniel has a vision of a ram and goat. The aries has two mighty horns, one longer than the other, and it charges west, north and confederacy, overpowering all other beasts. A capricorn with a single automobile horn appears from the west and destroys the jam. The capricorn becomes very knock-down until the horn breaks off and is replaced by four lesser horns. A small cornet 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 aries represents the Medes and Persians, the butt is Greece, and the “ little automobile horn ” is a wicked king .

vision of the Seventy Weeks ( chapter 9 ) [edit ]

In the first class of Darius the Mede, Daniel meditates on the news of Jeremiah that the forlornness of Jerusalem would last seventy years ; he confesses the sin of Israel and pleads for God to restore Israel and the “ desolated chancel ” 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 late defiled by a “ prince who is to come, ” “ until the rule end is poured out. ”

vision of the kings of north and south ( chapters 10–12 ) [edit ]

Daniel 10 : In the third base class of Cyrus [ Notes 5 ] Daniel sees in his vision an angel ( called “ a valet ”, but intelligibly 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 concisely 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 exponent until his empire is broken up and given to others, and ultimately the king of the confederacy ( 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 nation, and on the direction his soldiers will desecrate the Temple, abolish the day by day forfeit, and set up the abomination of devastation. He will defeat and subjugate Libya and Egypt, but “ reports from the east and union will alarm him, ” and he will meet his conclusion “ between the sea and the holy mountain. ” Daniel 12 : At this time Michael will come. It will be a fourth dimension 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 ageless life, others to shame and everlasting contempt ; those who are judicious will shine like the brightness of the heavens, and those who lead many to righteousness, like the stars for ever and always. ” In the final verses the remaining fourth dimension 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 fourth dimension that the daily sacrifice is abolished and the abomination that causes bleakness 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 custom ) [edit ]

The Greek text of Daniel is well longer than the Hebrew, due to three extra stories : they remain in Catholic and Orthodox Bibles but were rejected by the Protestant campaign in the sixteenth century on the footing that they were lacking from the Hebrew Bible .

historical background [edit ]

Daniel refusing to eat at the King ‘s board, early-1900s Bible exemplification The visions of chapters 7–12 reflect the crisis which took place in Judea in 167–164 BCE when Antiochus IV Epiphanes, the Greek king of the Seleucid Empire, threatened to destroy traditional jewish worship in Jerusalem. When Antiochus came to the throne in 175 BCE the Jews were largely pro-Seleucid. The High Priestly class was split by competition, and one member, Jason, offered the king a large union to be made High Priest. Jason besides asked—or more accurately, paid—to be allowed to make Jerusalem a polis, or greek city. This intend, among other things, that city government would be in the hands of the citizens, which meant in flex that citizenship would be a valuable commodity, to be purchased from Jason. The reforms were widely welcomed, specially among the Jerusalem nobility and the leadership priests. Three years later Jason was deposed when another priest, Menelaus, offered Antiochus an tied larger sum for the post of High Priest. Antiochus invaded Egypt doubly, in 169 BCE with success, but on the second gear incursion, in late 168 BCE, he was forced to withdraw by the Romans. Jason, hearing a rumor that Antiochus was dead, attacked Menelaus to take back the High Priesthood. Antiochus drove Jason out of Jerusalem, plundered the Temple, and introduced measures to pacify his egyptian edge by imposing accomplished Hellenisation : the jewish Book of the Law was prohibited and on 15 December 167 BCE an “ abhorrence of forlornness ”, credibly a greek altar, was introduced into the Temple. With the jewish religion immediately clearly under menace a resistance apparent motion 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. The crisis which the generator of Daniel addresses is the befoulment of the altar in Jerusalem in 167 BCE ( first introduced in chapter 8:11 ) : the day by day offer which used to take plaza twice a day, at dawn and even, stopped, and the phrase “ evenings and mornings ” recurs through the follow chapters as a reminder of the lost sacrifices. But whereas the events leading up to the sack of the Temple in 167 BCE and the immediate aftermath are signally accurate, the predict war between the Syrians and the Egyptians ( 11:40–43 ) never took seat, and the prophecy that Antiochus would die in Palestine ( 11:44–45 ) was inaccurate ( he died in Persia ). The obvious conclusion is that the account must have been completed near the end of the reign of Antiochus but before his death in December 164 BCE, or at least before news program of it reached Jerusalem, and the consensus of modern eruditeness is consequently that the bible dates to the period 167–163 BCE .

composition [edit ]

Nebuchadnezzar ‘s ambition : the fell corner ( France, fifteenth century )

Development [edit ]

It is broadly accepted that Daniel originated as a collection of Aramaic motor hotel tales later expanded by the Hebrew revelations. The court tales may have primitively circulated independently, but the edit collection was credibly composed in the third or early second-century BCE. chapter 1 was composed ( in Aramaic ) at this time as a abbreviated presentation to provide diachronic context, introduce the characters of the tales, and explain how Daniel and his friends came to Babylon. The visions of chapters 7–12 were added and chapter 1 translated into Hebrew at the third stage when the final examination book was being drawn together .

authorship [edit ]

Daniel is a product of “ Wisdom ” circles, but the type of wisdom is divinatory ( the discovery of celestial secrets from earthly signs ) quite than the wisdom of learning—the main source of wisdom in Daniel is God ‘s revelation. It is one of a large count of jewish apocalypses, all of them pseudonymous. The stories of the first half are legendary in origin, and the visions of the second the merchandise of anonymous authors in the Maccabean period ( second hundred BCE ). Chapters 1–6 are in the part of an anonymous narrator, except for chapter 4 which is in the form of a letter from king Nebuchadnezzar ; the second one-half ( chapters 7–12 ) is presented by Daniel himself, introduced by the anonymous narrator in chapters 7 and 10.

The author/editor was credibly an educated Jew, intimate in Greek memorize, and of eminent stand in his own residential district. It is possible that the name of Daniel was chosen for the champion of the book because of his repute as a wise visionary in Hebrew custom. Ezekiel, who lived during the Babylonian exile, mentioned him in affiliation with Noah and Job ( Ezekiel 14:14 ) as a calculate of legendary wisdom of solomon ( 28:3 ), and a hero named Daniel ( more accurately Dan’el, but the spell is close adequate for the two to be regarded as identical ) features in a late 2nd millennium myth from Ugarit. “ The legendary Daniel, known from hanker ago but even remembered as an emblematic character … serves as the principal homo ‘hero ‘ in the biblical book that nowadays bears his name ” ; Daniel is the judicious and righteous mediator who is able to interpret dreams and therefore convey the will of God to humans, the recipient role of visions from on high that are interpreted to him by celestial intermediaries .

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 generator seems to know about Antiochus ‘ two campaigns in Egypt ( 169 and 167 BCE ), the profanation of the Temple ( the “ abomination of forlornness ” ), 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 BCE. Chapters 10–12 must therefore have been written between 167 and 164 BCE. There is no evidence of a meaning time backsliding between those chapters and chapters 8 and 9, and chapter 7 may have been written just a few months early again. far evidence of the book ‘s go steady is in the fact that Daniel is excluded from the Hebrew Bible ‘s canon of the prophets, which was closed around 200 BCE, and the Wisdom of Sirach, a employment dating from around 180 BCE, draw on about every book of the Old Testament except Daniel, leading scholars to suppose that its writer was unaware of it. Daniel is, however, quoted in a section of the Sibylline Oracles normally dated to the middle of the second century BCE, and was popular at Qumran at a lot the same fourth dimension, suggesting that it was known from the in-between of that century .

Manuscripts [edit ]

The Book of Daniel is preserved in the 12-chapter Masoretic Text and in two longer greek versions, the original Septuagint adaptation, c. 100 BCE, and the belated Theodotion adaptation from c. second hundred CE. Both greek text check three additions to Daniel : The Prayer of Azariah and Song of the Three Holy Children ; the floor of Susannah and the Elders ; and the fib of Bel and the Dragon. Theodotion is a lot closer to the Masoretic Text and became therefore popular that it replaced the master Septuagint version in all but two manuscripts of the Septuagint itself. The greek additions were apparently never separate of the Hebrew text. 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 BCE ( 4QDanc ) and about 50 CE ( 4QDanb ), showing that Daniel was being read at Qumran only about 40 years after its constitution. All appear to preserve the 12-chapter Masoretic translation preferably 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 koran opens in Hebrew, switches to Aramaic at 2:4b, then reverts to Hebrew at 8:1 .

Genre, intend, symbolism and chronology [edit ]

Daniel in the lions ‘ lair saved by Habakkuk ( France, fifteenth century ) (This section deals with modern scholarly reconstructions of the meaning of Daniel to its original authors and audience)

writing style [edit ]

The Book of Daniel is an revelation, a literary music genre in which a heavenly world 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 ). The production of apocalypses occurred normally from 300 BCE to 100 CE, not only among Jews and Christians, but besides among Greeks, Romans, Persians and Egyptians, and Daniel is a spokesperson apocalyptic prophet, the recipient of cleric revelation : he has learned the wisdom of the babylonian magicians and surpassed them, because his God is the true source of cognition ; he is one of the maskilim ( משכלים ), the fresh ones, who have the task of teaching righteousness and whose count may be considered to include the authors of the book itself. The book is besides an eschatology, as the divine revelation concerns the end of the present old age, a predict moment in which God will intervene in history to usher in the concluding kingdom. It gives no real details of the end-time, but it seems that God ‘s kingdom will be on this worldly concern, 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 .

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 introduce oppression. The book is filled with monsters, angels, and numerology, careworn from a wide compass of sources, both biblical and non-biblical, that would have had mean 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 mean audience is the Jews of the second century BCE. The comply explains a few of these predictions, as understand 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. 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. 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. The symbolism of four metals in the statue in chapter 2 comes from Persian writings, 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. The consensus among scholars is that the four beasts of chapter 7 symbolise the same four world empires. The modern interpretation views Antiochus IV (reigned 175–164 BCE) as the “small horn” that uproots three others (Antiochus usurped the rights of several other claimants to become king of the Seleucid Empire).
  • 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. 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.[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 BCE) 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.
  • 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 BCE), 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.
  • 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 BCE), 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.
  • 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, and Daniel’s attempts to specify the number of days remaining is a rare exception. 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.

charm [edit ]

engrave of Daniel ‘s imagination 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 arch, have roots much deeper than Daniel, but the first clear affirmation is found in the concluding chapter of that koran : “ many of those who sleep in the debris of the land shall awake, some to ageless life, and some to everlasting shame and contempt. ” Without this belief, Christianity, in which the resurrection of Jesus plays a central role, would have disappeared, like the movements following other charismatic jewish figures of the first hundred. Jesus quotes the Book of Daniel during his Olivet Discourse. [ 70 ] Daniel was quoted and referenced by both Jews and Christians in the first century CE as predicting the at hand end-time. Moments of national and cultural crisis continually reawakened the apocalyptic liveliness, 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. During the English Civil War, the Fifth Monarchy Men took their name and political platform from Daniel 7, demanding that Oliver Cromwell allow them to form a “ politics of saints ” in preparation for the coming of the Messiah ; when Cromwell refused, they identified him alternatively as the Beast usurping the true place of King Jesus. 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. 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 being on the 1,260-day prophecy of Daniel, holding that it foretold the coming of the Twelfth Imam and an historic period of peace and department of justice in the year 1844, which is the year 1260 of the Muslim era. Daniel belongs not only to the religious tradition but besides to the broad Western intellectual and artistic heritage. It was well the most popular of the prophetic books for the Anglo-Saxons, who however treated it not as prophecy but as a diachronic script, “ a repository of dramatic stories about confrontations between God and a series of emperor-figures who represent the highest achieve of man ”. Isaac Newton paid particular 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 .

See besides [edit ]

Notes [edit ]

  1. ^ Jehoiakim : King of Judah 608–598 BCE ; his third year would be either 606 or 605, depending how years are counted .
  2. ^ cyrus : persian conqueror of Babylon, 539 BCE .
  3. ^ Darius the Mede : No such person is known to history ( see Levine, 2010, p. 1245, footnote 31 ). “ Darius ” is in any lawsuit a Persian, not a median, identify. The persian army which captured Babylon was under the command of a certain Gobryas ( or Gubaru ), a babylonian and early provincial governor who turned against his royal overlord, on behalf of Cyrus, the iranian king. The writer of Daniel may have introduced the reference to a Mede in orderliness to fulfill Isaiah and Jeremiah, who prophesied that the Medes would overthrow Babylon, and confused the events of 539 with those of 520 BCE, when Darius I captured Babylon after an resurrect. See Hammer, 1976, pp. 65–66 .
  4. ^ foremost class of Belshazzar : credibly 553 BCE, when Belshazzar was given royal exponent by his founder, Nabonidus. See Levine, 2010, p. 1248, footnote 7.1–8 .
  5. ^ “ one-third class of Cyrus ” : 536 BCE. The writer has obviously counted back seventy years to the “ one-third year of Jehoiakim, ” 606 BCE, to round out Daniel ‘s prophetic ministry. See Towner, p. 149 .
  6. ^ “ son of man ” ( bar ‘enaš in Hebrew ) just means “ a human being ”, but in the context of Daniel 7 it may be a heavenly trope, possibly the archangel Michael operation as a spokesperson of the jewish people ( Collins 1977:144–46 ; opposed by Davies 1985:105–106 ). Scholars about universally agree that this human calculate represents “ the people of the holy place ones of the Most High ” of Daniel 7:27, in the first place the maskilim community or group responsible for the typography of Daniel, but in former rendition it is taken to mean the jewish people as a whole. See Grabbe 2002a .

References [edit ]

Citations [edit ]

bibliography [edit ]