Bible book of Daniel introduction
DANIEL MAY HAVE BEEN A TEENAGER, likely from a Jerusalem family of nobles, when invaders took him away forever to what is now Iraq.
Babylonian invaders wanted “some of the best people Israel had to offer, especially from among the royal family and the nobles” (Daniel 1:3). They recognized Daniel’s potential and groomed him into an advisor for the king.
Daniel, dream reader
He survived to serve kings of two empires—Babylonian and Persian—for two main reasons.
- He could interpret dreams.
- He had dreams of his own and visions of the future.
Daniel’s night in the lion’s pit
Sixty-seven years or more after his arrest—when Persians were the new master of the region—he survived a night with lions. Soldiers dropped him into what sounds like a cistern—a large pit for storing water. His crime was praying to God during a month-long ban on praying to anyone but the king.
It was a trap set by jealous political enemies. They took advantage of the king’s vanity and Daniel’s religious faith by talking the king into the 30-day observance. His Highness figured that out later and ordered them and their families thrown to the lions.
Earlier in life, the anonymous writer of Daniel said the prophet interpreted a nightmare that terrified Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar—the king who ordered Jerusalem leveled. Daniel said the dream was about lesser kingdoms to come after Babylon.
King promotes Daniel
“The king rewarded Daniel with valuable gifts. And he made Daniel governor over the empire’s lead province of Babylon and put him in charge of all the royal sages who advised the king” (Daniel 2:48).
But after the king’s next nightmare, Daniel was afraid to tell him what it meant. The king had to coax it out of him. Daniel said,
“My king, I’m so sorry. I wish the dream applied to your enemies instead of you…. You will leave people and live among wild animals. You will graze on grass like cattle. You will wake up each morning, wet from dew” (Daniel 4:19, 25).
There’s a piece of evidence from history about Nebuchadnezzar suffering from mental illness. The implication is that Daniel’s description of the king tracks with one similar description from history that seems to be a way of saying “he’s crazy.” A bit like the demeaning phrase, “crazy as a loon.” In that case, we wouldn’t take Daniel’s description of the king literally. Instead, it would be a figurative way of saying he became mentally ill. (For more, see the footnote for Daniel 4:33.)
Visions of Israel’s history or our future?
Daniel’s story ends with visions of a glowing celestial being who talks about “the end.” The end of what? That’s the question.
There’s a lot of evidence from history that tracks perfectly with the prophecy in Daniel 11. That suggests the vision was about the end of Jewish persecution by a ruler who wanted to erase the Jewish religion: Antiochus IV Epiphanes.
Yet parts of the vision seem off the charts and outside of known history. That leads some to say Daniel was talking at least partly about The End, with the return of Jesus.
“I saw someone descending through the clouds.
He looked like one of us, coming from heaven” (Daniel 7:13).
Filling in the gaps between what we know
Scholars push back on each other about whether Daniel is talking about the end of humanity.
It’s not a settled matter except in the minds of those who have settled the matter—in fact or with creative presumption. We’re talking 2,600 years ago. So the search for the backstory and insight beyond the Bible writer’s words often requires presumption, educated guesses, fingers crossed. Others seem more comfortable living with some “I don’t know” as part of their faith package.
In the end, Daniel will die an old man, likely in what is now Iran, after serving kings of both the Babylonian and the Persian empires. As far as the record tells, he never saw his homeland again.
WRITER
Unknown. Daniel speaks for himself in the prophecies, chapters 7-12. Those chapters are written in Hebrew, the language of the Jews. But in the stories about him in chapters 1-6, someone else is writing. And they’re writing in Aramaic, the international language of the day, which was the native language of Babylonians and Persians.
Prophecies in chapter 11 track remarkably with Jewish and Persian history through the mid-100s BC. That’s four centuries after Daniel. And that’s why some say the book was written in perhaps the 100s BC.
The counterpoint is that Daniel shows up in Qumran’s sacred library, better known as the Jewish Dead Sea Scrolls. The oldest fragment of Daniel dates to about 125 BC.
The question is this: Would a story written just 25 years earlier get the scholarly go-ahead for placement in this library of sacred Jewish literature?
TIMELINE
Daniel’s story likely began in 605 BC, when Babylonians took some of Jerusalem’s royalty and leading citizens captive to Babylon, near Baghdad in Iraq. Persian King Cyrus absorbed Babylon in 539 BC. That’s about 66 years after Babylonians arrested Daniel. So, Daniel would have been well into his 70s by the time Cyrus arrived.
605 BC Young Daniel likely taken to Babylon (now Iraq)
605-539 BC Daniel advises Babylon kings
586 BC Babylon levels Jerusalem, exiles survivors
555 BC Daniel has vivid dreams of man descending from sky
552 BC Daniel has vision about a horrible future
539 BC Persians conquer Babylonians, Daniel serves King Cyrus
After 538 BC Elderly Daniel survives night with lions
LOCATION
Daniel’s story starts in Jerusalem, shifts to Babylon in what is now Iraq, and finishes in Susa, capital city in the Persian Empire, in what is now Iran. The last half of the book, visions and prophecies, take place along the Tigris River, which flows near Iraq’s border with Iran.
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