Daniel 12

More literally, “the great prince.” From Daniel’s day forward, Michael, became one of the leading celestial beings in ancient Jewish writings, showing up as an archangel. He appears in the Qumran library better known as the Dead Sea Scrolls, which were rediscovered in the 1940s. He’s also in the ancient Jewish book of Enoch, which is included in some Christian Bibles, as “Deuterocanonical.” Meaning, not as reliable.

Some see this chapter as a glimpse into our terrifying future. Others see it as a glimpse into the future of Daniel’s people, the Jews—but into our past. Antiochus IV Epiphanes, based in Syria, outlawed the Jewish religion. He tried to kill their way of life. He wanted everyone to fit nicely into his way of life, the Greek culture. Greek historians report that he erected idols in the Temple courtyard. He also reportedly sacrificed on the Temple altar a pig—an animal ritually unclean to Jews (Deuteronomy 14:8). It’s a fair guess the sacrifice was to Zeus. Oddly, Antiochus claimed he was the human incarnation of Zeus. He executed many Jews. They chose death over his way of life.

The writer of the last book in the Bible apparently refers to this book, calling it the Lamb’s Book of Life. Most Bible experts seem to agree that the Book of Life isn’t a celestial book. It’s a metaphor, a way of identifying people devoted to God. This word picture may have begun centuries before New Testament times—in Daniel’s day perhaps, or earlier, when palace scribes kept records of the king’s enemies and his loyal servants. Kings generally rewarded the loyal souls with life and other perks. People who betrayed the king weren’t so lucky.

Some scholars say this verse refers to resurrection as Christians teach it today, based on the reported death and resurrection of Jesus. Others say the Jewish view of an afterlife did not involve going to heaven. The dead went to an underworld place Jews called Sheol, where they were cut off from the living. This was where the dead spirits—good and bad—go and tend not to come back (Genesis 37:35; Ecclesiastes 9:2). Samuel was an exception. A medium temporarily conjured his spirit up from the dead (1 Samuel 28:15). God wasn’t in Sheol; he was in the heavens. So, the dead didn’t get to see God. Most Israelite ancestors of today’s Jewish people didn’t seem to believe in an afterlife where good people get rewarded and bad people get punished. Some Jewish scholars say Isaiah 26:19 helped convince Jews in Medieval times—a thousand years after Jesus—that there is a resurrection. Rabbinic Judaism, like much of Christianity, teaches that all people will rise from the dead.

Tigris River (Daniel 10:4).

More literally, “a time, times, half a time,” or “a period, periods, and half a period.” This is vague enough that it’s possible for creative or insightful people to work out some intriguing possibilities. But the time didn’t seem important enough for the celestial servant to bother explaining in a way that made sense to Daniel, so he could write it in a way that makes sense to us.

Some Christians say Daniel’s prophecies are previews of our future. Others say if that’s true, Daniel didn’t keep his secret. Someone unsealed his book. If he released his book and yet honored his promise, the events in the book reflect history, not the future, it would seem. Still others ask, why not both. Prophecy often double dips, pointing to the prophet’s moment in time and to the future. Perhaps the most famous is the “suffering servant” passage of Isaiah 53. It talks about someone suffering in Isaiah’s day. But it also seems to accurately describe some of the torture and the crucifixion of Jesus 700 years ahead of time.

We’re still waiting on a solid explanation for the 3.5 years represented in the 1,290 days of verse 11 and the extra 45 days totaling as 1,335, which Daniel reports in verse 12. Did these numbers mark important moments in the suffering Antiochus imposed on the Jewish people? As that story unfolds in the book of 1 Maccabees, which is included in some Christian Bibles, there were three years between the time Antiochus desecrated the Temple with a pagan sacrifice and the time Jewish priests cleansed and rededicated it. But what calendar or calendar’s did Daniel use? Jews worked with a lunar calendar of 354 days. Greeks and Persians used a combo luni-solar calendar of 360 days. Daniel was in Persia. Those numbers make a difference to people looking for clue in them. But so far, playing with those numbers seem most useful for practicing math.