The Book of Daniel, written in Hebrew and Aramaic, is a book in both the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh) and the Christian Old Testament. The book is set during the Babylonian Captivity, a period when Jews were deported and exiled to Babylon. The book revolves around the figure of Daniel, an Israelite who becomes an advisor to Nebuchadnezzar, the ruler of Babylon from 605 BC - 562 BC.
The book has two distinct parts: a series of narratives and four apocalyptic visions. Three of the narratives involve Daniel, who has the gift of prophecy, interpreting the meaning of dreams and divine omens. Two other narratives feature Israelites who have been condemned for their piety being miraculously saved from execution. In the second part of the book, the author reveals and partially interprets a set of visions which are described in the first person.
The dating and authorship of Daniel has been a matter of great debate. The traditional view holds that the work was written by a prophet named Daniel who lived during the sixth century BC. Modern views generally regard the book as having been written much later, during the mid second century BC. According to these, the author gave the book the appearance of having been written some 400 years earlier in order to establish credibility by including correct "predictions" of numerous historical events which had occurred during the fifth to second centuries BC. A third view argues that while parts of Daniel were written during the second century BC, other parts may have been written by other authors at an earlier date.
Protestant and Jewish editions omit the sections that do not exist in the Masoretic text: in addition to the two chapters containing accounts of Daniel and Susanna and of Bel and the Dragon, a lengthy passage inserted into the middle of Daniel 3; this addition contains the prayer of Azariah while the three youths were in the fiery furnace, a brief account of the angel who met them in the furnace, and the hymn of praise they sang when they realized they were delivered. The Prayer of Azariah and Song of the Three Holy Children are retained in the Septuagint and in the Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, and Catholic canons; the "Song of the Three Holy Youths" is part of the Matins service in Orthodoxy, and of Lauds on Sundays and feast days in Catholicism.
The narratives are set in the period of the Babylonian captivity, first at the court of Nebuchadnezzar and later at the court of his successors Belshazzar and a 'King Darius' of unclear identity (see 'Historical Accuracy' and 'Date' below). Daniel is praised in Easton's Bible Dictionary, 1897, as "the historian of the Captivity, the writer who alone furnishes any series of events for that dark and dismal period during which the harp of Israel hung on the trees that grew by the Euphrates. His narrative may be said in general to intervene between Kings and Chronicles on the one hand and Ezra on the other, or (more strictly) to fill out the sketch which the author of the Chronicles gives in a single verse in his last chapter: 'And them that had escaped from the sword carried he (i.e., Nebuchadnezzar) away to Babylon; where they were servants to him and his sons until the reign of the kingdom of Persia' (2 Chr. 36:20)."
Daniel appears as an interpreter of dreams and visions in these narratives, though not as a prophet.
The prophetic and eschatological visions of Daniel, with those of Ezekiel and Isaiah, are the scriptural inspiration for much of the apocalyptic ideology and symbolism of the Qumran community's Dead Sea scrolls and the early literature of Christianity. "Daniel's clear association with the Maccabean Uprising in Palestine was undoubtedly one of the reasons why the Rabbis, following the uprisings against Rome, downgraded it from its position among the 'Prophets'" (Eisenman 1997, p 19f).
In Daniel are the first references to a "kingdom of God", and the most overt reference to the resurrection of the dead in the Tanakh.
The four objections given below represent, in order of significance, the major instances of error historians generally find in Daniel.
Three main views exist on the identity of Darius the Mede. The first, proposed by H.H. Rowley in Darius the Mede and the Four World Empires in the Book of Daniel, concludes that Darius is just another name for Cyrus the Great, who captured Babylon on October 15th, 539 B.C. Another view, promoted by John Whitcomb (though first proposed by Babelon in 1883) in his 1959 book, Darius the Mede says that Darius is another name for the historical figure of Gubaru (sometimes spelled as Ugbaru). This view is popular with more conservative segments of Christianity. The third view sees Darius as another name for Astyages, the last Median ruler of the empire who was ultimately deposed by Cyrus.
View of Cyrus: Beyond Gubaru and Astyages, Cyrus the Great was the king of the empire. Cyrus was also married to a Mede as well as having Median blood. An analysis of variant texts, particularly the Septuagint, reveals that the names "Darius" (DRYWS in Hebrew) and "Cyrus" (KRWS) are reversed in 11:1, and may have been miscopied elsewhere. The appellation "Mede" (Heb. MADAI) may have been used as an ethnic term to apply to Persians as well, who were of the same race.
View of Gubaru/Ugbaru: Gubaru is the historical figure known to have been the one who actually led the army to capture Babylon (see Pierre Briant below) according to the Nabonidus. Also, it is entirely possible that Cyrus would have rewarded Gubaru with a regional governorship for capturing the capital of the Babylonian Empire and virtually ending the war. Furthermore, the Bible claims that Darius ruled during the reign of Cyrus and was "made king" over the Chaldeans.
View of Astyages: The opening line of "Bel and the Dragon" references Astyages, who was indeed the last king of the Medes before Cyrus, but a nearly identical verse is added in the Greek after the end of chapter 6, only reading "Darius" in place of "Astyages". More obviously, Astyages is the only one of the three we know in fact to be both a Mede and a king.
On the difficulty of ascertaining the correct view, Rowley admits: "*he references to Darius the Mede in the book of Daniel have long been recognized as providing the most serious historical problems in the book." Rowley refers to the personage whom Daniel describes as taking control of Babylon after Belshazzar is deposed. Daniel describes this personage as Darius the Mede, who rules over Babylon in chapters 6 and 9. Daniel reports that Darius was 'about 62 years old' when he was 'made king over Babylon'
Secular historians have criticized this account for three reasons. First, no secular history speaks of any 'Darius the Mede,' and second, the Persians at that point in history had the upper hand in their ongoing war with the Medes. Third, the contemporary history given from cuneiform documents of the period, such as the Cyrus Cylinder and the Babylonian Chronicle leave no room for any Mede occupation of Babylon before the Persians under Cyrus conquered it.
Christian historians counter by claiming that the kingdom of Darius is mentioned as only containing the Chaldeans-the area around the city of Babylon. This would then make Darius a vassal king under the reign of Cyrus; something not uncommon for the Persians to do. Second, even though the Persians had defeated and absorbed the Median empire, many Medes were still in positions of power in the Persian empire. Aystages the Mede was Cyrus' grandfather afterall, and many Medes became satraps, governors, and generals (See Medes).
From that time new evidence from Babylon has verified the existence of Belshazzar as well as his co-regency during the absence of his father, Nabonidus, in Temâ. For example, In the Nabonidus Cylinder, Nabonidus petitions the god Sin as follows: “And as for Belshazzar my firstborn son, my own child, let the fear of your great divinity be in his heart, and may he commit no sin; may he enjoy happiness in life". In addition, The Verse Account of Nabonidus (British Museum tablet 38299) states, “* entrusted the army (?) to his oldest son, his first born, the troops in the country he ordered under his command. He let everything go, entrusted the kingship to him, and, himself, he started out for a long journey. The military forces of Akkad marching with him, he turned to Temâ deep in the west” (Col. II, lines 18 - 29. 18). In line with the statement that Nabonidus "entrusted the kingship" to Belshazzar in his absence, there is evidence that Belshazzar's name was used with his father's in oath formulas, that he was able to pass edicts, lease farmlands, and receive the "royal privilege" to eat the food offered to the gods.
The available information concerning Belshazzar's co-regency goes silent after Nabonidus' fourteenth year. According to the Nabonidus Chronicle, Nabonidus was back from Temâ by his seventeenth year and celebrated the New Year’s Festival (Akk. Akitu). Whether Belshazzar continued his co-regency with his father after his return or not cannot be demonstrated from the available documents. Some have claimed that the non-observance of the Akitu during Nabonidus' absence demonstrates that Belshazzar should not be called "king" since it shows that he could not officiate over the festival. However, The Verse Account of Nabonidus says, "Nabonidus said: 'I shall build a temple for him (the Moon god Sin)...till I have achieved this, till I have obtained what is my desire, I shall omit all festivals, I shall order even the New Year's festival to cease!'" Thus, the halting of the Akitu seems to have been done by the king's command rather an inability on the part of Belshazzar. Some have also stated that he should not be called "king" as he is never designated as such in the available documents. While it is true that none of the documents explicitly call Belshazzar "king," the preceding paragraph shows that the documents do show Belshazzar acting in the capacity of king. Further, the Aramaic term מלך (mlk, king) could be used to translate titles of lesser high ranking officials as can be seen in the case of a 9th century BCE Akkadian/Aramaic bilinguagal inscription found at Tell Fekheriyeh in 1979 which reads "king" for the Akkadian "governor".
No known extrabiblical text indicates a blood relation between Nebuchadnezzar and Belshazzar. Historians have objected to this aspect of the record in Daniel. There were several rulers over Babylon between the death of Nebuchadnezzar and the rulership of Nabonidus/Belshazzar. Many scholars have attributed the lack of mention of these rulers as indicating the author mistakenly thought that the two rulerships were consecutive. As the editors of the Jewish Encyclopedia (1901-1906) put it, indicating the belief that Daniel was written much later (see 'Date'), "during the long period of oral tradition the unimportant kings of Babylon might easily have been forgotten, and the last king, who was vanquished by Cyrus, would have been taken as the successor of the well-known Nebuchadnezzar." Based on this reasoning, historians have considered the reference to Belshazzar's relationship to Nebuchadnezzar simply an error based on the above misconception.
This appears to be a description of the first siege of Jerusalem in 597 BC, which occurred in the twelfth year of Jehoiakim and into the reign of his son Jehoiachin. (see 2 Kings 24 and 2 Chronicles 36). The third year of Jehoiakim (606 BC), saw Nebuchadrezzar not yet King of Babylon, and the Egyptians still dominant in the region. Advocates of an early date of Daniel generally explain this by positing an additional, otherwise unmentioned, siege of Jerusalem in 605 BC, shortly after the Battle of Carchemish.
This division is mainly one due to theology: conservative Bible scholars accept the Bible's claim that prophets can see into the future and then describe what they saw in spoken or written language. Liberal Bible scholars, who descend from the school of German Higher Criticism, reject the Bible's notion that prophets can see visions of the future, that in fact Daniel had no such vision. This raises more issues than it solves. Many of the metaphors used in Daniel's visions are quite vivid, pointing to specific individuals and kingdoms. The specificity of these visions is the dividing line between the two camps. Liberal scholars must then, to get around the issue of Daniel's specificity, date the writing of the book of Daniel much later (see below) and attribute it to an unknown author who posed Daniel as the author of the book bearing his name.
Liberal scholarship on the dating of the Book of Daniel largely falls into two camps, one dating the book in its entirety to a single author during the desecration of the Jerusalem Temple (168-165 BC) under the Seleucid ruler Antiochus IV Epiphanes (ruled 175-164 BC), the other seeing it as a collection of stories dating from different times throughout the Hellenistic period (with some of the material possibly going back to the latest Persian period), with the visions in chapters 7-12 having been added during the desecration of Antiochus. John Collins finds it impossible for the "court tales" portion of Daniel to have been written in second Century BC due to textual analysis. In his 1992 Anchor Bible Dictionary entry for the Book of Daniel, he states "it is clear that the court-tales in chapters 1-6 were 'not written in Maccabean times'. It is not even possible to isolate a single verse which betrays an editorial insertion from that period." Some scholars disagree with this, and still date this section to the Maccabean revolt along with the vision chapters.
There are also nineteen Persian loan-words in the book, most of them having to do with governmental positions.
Those who hold to a unified Daniel claim that their opponents fail to find any consensus in their various theories of where divisions exist. Montgomery is particularly harsh to his colleagues, stating that the proliferation of theories without agreement showed a "bankruptcy of criticism." They also charge that composite theories fail to account for the consistent thematic portrayal of Daniel's life throughout the book of Daniel.
The various episodes in the first half of the book are used by Christians as moral stories, and are often seen to foreshadow events in the gospels.
The apocalyptic section is primarily important to Christians for the image of the "Son of Man" (Dan. 7:13). According to the gospels, Jesus used this title as his preferred name for himself. The connection with Daniel's vision (as opposed to the usage in the Book of Ezekiel) is made explicit in the Gospels of Matthew and Mark (Matt 27:64; Mk 14:62). Christians see this as a direct claim by Jesus that he is the Messiah.
The Book of Daniel is included in the Hebrew Bible, the Tanakh, in the section known as the Ketuvim (Hagiographa, or the "Writings") . Daniel was considered a prophet at Qumran (4Q174 and later by Josephus (Antiquity of the Jews 10.11.7 §266) and the author (the "Pseudo-Philo") of Liber antiquitatum biblicarum (L.A.B. ["Book of Biblical antiquities" 4.6, 8), and was grouped among the prophets in the Septuagint, the Jewish Greek Old Testament, and by Christians, who place the book among the prophets. However, Daniel is not currently included by the Jews in the section of the prophets, the Nebiim.
The Jewish exegete Rabbi Moses Ben Maimon, sometimes called simply RaMBaM and later called Maimonides, was so concerned that the "untutored populace would be led astray" if they attempted to calculate the timing of the Messiah that it was decreed that "Cursed be those who predict the end times." This verbiage can be both found in his letter IGERET TEIMAN and in his booklet The Statutes and Wars of the Messiah-King.
Rabbi Judah Loew ben Bezalel lamented that the times for the fulfillment of the prophecy of Daniel "were over long ago" (Sanhedrin 98b, 97a).
Traditional Christians have embraced the prophecies of Daniel, as they believe they clearly illustrate that Jesus Christ of Nazareth must be the Messiah, and also because in Matthew 24 Jesus himself is quoted as describing Daniel's prophecies as applying to future events immediately preceding Judgement Day, and not to Epiphanes who had lived some 175 years earlier. They consider the Prophecy of Seventy Weeks to be particularly compelling due to what they interpret to be prophetic accuracy. Many Orthodox Jews believe that the prophecy refers to the destruction of the Second Temple by the Romans in 70 AD. Secular scholars however, believe that the prophecy better fits the reign of Antiochus, and that it is an example of vaticinium ex eventu (prophecy after the fact).
Medieval study of angels was also affected by this book, as it is the only Old Testament source for the names of two of the archangels, Gabriel and Michael (Dan 9:21; 12:1). The only other angel given a name in the Old Testament is Raphael, mentioned in the deuterocanoncial Book of Tobit.
Related Articles:
Christian eschatology | Ketuvim | Old Testament books
Kniha Daniel | Daniel (Buch) | Danielin kirja | Kitab Daniel | ダニエル書 | Het boek Daniël | Księga Daniela | Livro de Daniel | Daniel | 但以理書 | דניאל
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