The Book of Daniel

[Alexius]

Is it true that the Book of Daniel was written in the 600’s B.C. in Hebrew and Aramaic? Also, how do I explain why the Greek parts (Susanna, Bel and the Dragon, etc.) should be included? Is Daniel primarily an example of God’s sovereignty? Finally, what type of book is Daniel - apochalyptical, prophetic, historical, etc.?

Prayers and petitions,
Alexius

 

[paulCT]

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 adviser 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. Alternative modern views maintain that the book was written or redacted in the mid-second century BC and that most of the predictions of the book refer to events that had already occurred.%between%

 

[paulCT]

To continue…

Narratives in Daniel

The first part, the first six chapters, comprises a series of lightly connected court tales, connected instructive narratives, or miracle tales. The first story is in Hebrew; then Aramaic is used from ch. 2:4, beginning with the speech of the “Chaldeans” through chapter seven. Hebrew is then used from chapter eight through chapter twelve. Three additional sections are preserved only in the Septuagint, and are considered apocryphal by Protestant Christians and Jews, and deuterocanonical by Catholic and Orthodox Christians.

1. After being taken captive to Babylon, Daniel and friends choose to obey God and not eat unhealthy court required diet. After a trial period they were judged 10 times better than all others.
2. Nebuchadnezzar dreams of an idol made of four metals and a mixture of iron and clay. The image is destroyed by a rock that then dominates the world. Daniel interprets the idols composition as a series of successive empires that end with the set up of God’s kingdom.
3. The story of the fiery furnace, in which Ananias (Hananiah/Shadrach), Azariah (Abednego), and Mishael (Meshach) refuse to bow to a golden idol and are thrown into a furnace; God preserves them from the flames
4. Nebuchadnezzar tells of his dreams of a tall tree, and his pride led to losing his mind. Humble acceptance of God as God led to regaining his mind.
5. Belshazzar’s Feast, where Belshazzar insults God and Daniel interprets the writing mene mene tekel upharsin
6. Daniel in the lions’ den
7. Susanna and the elders (apocryphal to Jewish and Protestant canons)
8. Bel and the Dragon (apocryphal to Jewish and Protestant canons)

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 Roman 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.%between%

 

[paulCT]

Finally…

Apocalyptic visions in Daniel

The second part, the remaining six chapters, are visionary, an early example of apocalyptic literature, in which the author, now speaking in the first person, reveals a vision entrusted to him alone. The historical setting of the first chapters does not appear, except in briefest form, consisting of regnal dates. This section too consists of text from two languages, part (to 7:28) written in Aramaic, the rest (chapters 8-12) in Hebrew. The apocalyptic part of Daniel consists of three visions and one lengthened prophetic communication, mainly having to do with the destiny of Israel:

1. The vision in the first year of Belshazzar the king of Babylon (7:1) concerning four great beasts (7:3) representing four future kings (7:17) or kingdoms (7:23), the fourth of which devours the whole earth, treading it down and crushing it (7:23); this fourth kingdom produces ten kings, and then a special, eleventh person arises out of the fourth kingdom that subdues three of the ten kings (7:24), speaks against the Most High and the saints of the Most High, and intends to change the times and the law (7:25); after a time and times and half a time (three and a half years), this person is judged and his dominion is taken away (7:26); then, the kingdom and the dominion and the greatness of the kingdoms under the whole heaven are given to the people of the saints of the Most High (7:27)
2. The vision in the third year of Belshazzar concerning a ram and a male goat (8:1-27); Daniel interprets the goat as the “kingdom of Yawan” that is, the Hellenistic kingdom (8:21)
3. The vision in first year of Darius the son of Ahasuerus (9:1) concerning seventy weeks, or seventy “sevens”, apportioned for the history of the Israelites and of Jerusalem (9:24)
4. A lengthy vision in the third year of Cyrus king of Persia (10:1 - 12:13)

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.http://othello.alma.edu/~07tmhopk/bookofdaniel.html

 

[Alexius]

Thank you so much! So, why should the other parts be included in Daniel? Do you know why the Jews and Protestants reject them? I know Protestants use the Masoretic text (I use to be one), but how can I convince them to use the Septuagint? Thanks again!

Prayers and petitions,
Alexius

 

[paulCT]

At the time the Christian Bible was being formed, a Greek translation of Jewish Scripture, the Septuagint, was in common use and Christians adopted it as the Old Testament of the Christian Bible. However, around 100 A.D., Jewish rabbis revised their Scripture and established an official canon of Judaism which excluded some portions of the Greek Septuagint. The material excluded was a group of 15 late Jewish books, written during the period 170 B.C. to 70 A.D., that were not found in Hebrew versions of the Jewish Scripture. Christians did not follow the revisions of Judaism and continued to use the text of the Septuagint.

Jewish opposition to the additional books of the second collection was due to the circumstances in which the Jews lived and to the spirit of the times. During the last centuries which preceded the coming of Christ the Jews - because of the captivities, persecutions and antagonisms from outside nations became more and more conservative and looked with increasing suspicion on anything that was new. Since the additional books were of comparatively recent origin and since some of them were written in Greek - the language of paganism - they naturally aroused the opposition of the Jews. The fact, too, that the early Christians used the Septuagint in their controversies with the Jews only served to confirm the latter in their opposition to this translation of the Old Testament.

Protestant reformers in the 1500s decided to follow the official canon of Judaism for the Old Testament rather than the Septuagint, and the excluded material was placed in a separate section of the Bible called the Apocrypha. Protestant Bibles included the Apocrypha until the mid 1800s, but it was eventually dropped from most Protestant editions.

The Roman Catholic and Orthodox Churches continue to base their Old Testament on the Septuagint. The result is that these versions of the the Bible have more Old Testament books than Protestant versions. Catholic Old Testaments include 1st and 2nd Maccabees, Baruch, Tobit, Judith, The Wisdom of Solomon, Sirach (Ecclesiasticus), additions to Esther, and Susanna and Bel and the Dragon which are included in Daniel. Orthodox Old Testaments include these plus 1st and 2nd Esdras, Prayer of Manasseh, Psalm 151 and 3rd Maccabees.

The Protestant, Catholic and Orthodox New Testaments are identical.

I hope that may answer your question.

 

[Alexius]

At the time the Christian Bible was being formed, a Greek translation of Jewish Scripture, the Septuagint, was in common use and Christians adopted it as the Old Testament of the Christian Bible. However, around 100 A.D., Jewish rabbis revised their Scripture and established an official canon of Judaism which excluded some portions of the Greek Septuagint. The material excluded was a group of 15 late Jewish books, written during the period 170 B.C. to 70 A.D., that were not found in Hebrew versions of the Jewish Scripture. Christians did not follow the revisions of Judaism and continued to use the text of the Septuagint.

Jewish opposition to the additional books of the second collection was due to the circumstances in which the Jews lived and to the spirit of the times. During the last centuries which preceded the coming of Christ the Jews - because of the captivities, persecutions and antagonisms from outside nations became more and more conservative and looked with increasing suspicion on anything that was new. Since the additional books were of comparatively recent origin and since some of them were written in Greek - the language of paganism - they naturally aroused the opposition of the Jews. The fact, too, that the early Christians used the Septuagint in their controversies with the Jews only served to confirm the latter in their opposition to this translation of the Old Testament.

Protestant reformers in the 1500s decided to follow the official canon of Judaism for the Old Testament rather than the Septuagint, and the excluded material was placed in a separate section of the Bible called the Apocrypha. Protestant Bibles included the Apocrypha until the mid 1800s, but it was eventually dropped from most Protestant editions.

The Roman Catholic and Orthodox Churches continue to base their Old Testament on the Septuagint. The result is that these versions of the the Bible have more Old Testament books than Protestant versions. Catholic Old Testaments include 1st and 2nd Maccabees, Baruch, Tobit, Judith, The Wisdom of Solomon, Sirach (Ecclesiasticus), additions to Esther, and Susanna and Bel and the Dragon which are included in Daniel. Orthodox Old Testaments include these plus 1st and 2nd Esdras, Prayer of Manasseh, Psalm 151 and 3rd Maccabees.

The Protestant, Catholic and Orthodox New Testaments are identical.

I hope that may answer your question.

I wasn’t sure when the Jews put together their canon, so thank you for that information. My Apologetics teacher doesn’t believe that Christ and his apostles used the Septuagint (and the Deuterocanonicals). Obviously, history contradicts this…Thanks again!

I might have more questions, so stand by!

Prayers and petitions,
Alexius

 

[Spirithound]

I wasn’t sure when the Jews put together their canon, so thank you for that information. My Apologetics teacher doesn’t believe that Christ and his apostles used the Septuagint (and the Deuterocanonicals). Obviously, history contradicts this…Thanks again!

The “Council of Jamnia” did not settle the Jewish canon. There was an article in This Rock on this issue, and it turns out the “council” was not actually a council, it had no binding authority on Judaism as a whole, and it didn’t even address many of the deuterocanonical books. Look it up. it’s a good article.

 

[Alexius]

The “Council of Jamnia” did not settle the Jewish canon. There was an article in This Rock on this issue, and it turns out the “council” was not actually a council, it had no binding authority on Judaism as a whole, and it didn’t even address many of the deuterocanonical books. Look it up. it’s a good article.

Yes, I realize this…had to explain this to somebody else…

Prayers and petitions,
Alexius

 

[Gottle_of_Geer]

Is it true that the Book of Daniel was written in the 600’s B.C. in Hebrew and Aramaic? Also, how do I explain why the Greek parts (Susanna, Bel and the Dragon, etc.) should be included? Is Daniel primarily an example of God’s sovereignty? Finally, what type of book is Daniel - apochalyptical, prophetic, historical, etc.?

Prayers and petitions,
Alexius

If by “apochalyptical”, you mean “apocalyptic” (rather than “apocryphal”) ; it’s apocalyptic. Apocalyptic is a post-Exilic development; it has roots in the Exile (as in the Book of Ezekiel), but it developed once prophecy had more or less ceased. ##

 

[Alexius]

If by “apochalyptical”, you mean “apocalyptic” (rather than “apocryphal”) ; it’s apocalyptic. Apocalyptic is a post-Exilic development; it has roots in the Exile (as in the Book of Ezekiel), but it developed once prophecy had more or less ceased. ##

Yes, I mean apocalyptic . Thank you!

Prayers and petitions,
Alexius

 

[spauline]

Note also, Alexius, that the texts of Daniel 9 are translated differently between the more liberal NAB and the Douhay Rheims. The NAB footnotes assume the modern assumption that Daniel was not prophetic in the sense of foretelling the future. And so the original words of Scripture that clearly showed the prophetic nature of the “70 weeks of years” from the beginnig of the word to rebuild the Temple until Christ’s entry of Jerusalem are deliberately twisted to fit a bogus Rationalist interpretation that is a complete a joke, because the rationalists imply that “70 weeks” was just a half-*** attempt of the author to approximate the time from then until the Maccabean struggle around 165 BC, when, using the model of 70 weeks of Jewish years (360 days per year instead of Roman 365.25 days per yer), the text nails to the tee the exact period from Artaxerces (I think it was 444 BC) right up to the month of Christ’s entry into Jerusalem.

Look for yourself: from the Douhay Rheims in Chapter 9:

24 Seventy weeks are shortened upon thy people, and upon thy holy city, that transgression may be finished, and sin may have an end, and iniquity may be abolished; and everlasting justice may be brought; and vision and prophecy may be fulfilled; and the saint of saints may be anointed. 25 Know thou therefore, and take notice: that from the going forth of the word, to build up Jerusalem again, unto Christ the prince, there shall be seven weeks, and sixty-two weeks: and the street shall be built again, and the walls in straitness of times. *

…

26* And after sixty-two weeks Christ shall be slain: and the people that shall deny him shall not be his. And a people with their leader that shall come, shall destroy the city and the sanctuary: and the end thereof shall be waste, and after the end of the war the appointed desolation. 27 And he shall confirm the covenant with many, in one week: and in the half of the week the victim and the sacrifice shall fall: and there shall be in the temple the abomination of desolation: and the desolation shall continue even to the consummation, and to the end.

Here is the Douhay Rheims explanation of the text, which admits of prophecy:

24

“Seventy weeks”… Viz., of years, (or seventy times seven, that is, 490 years,) are shortened; that is, fixed and determined, so that the time shall be no longer.

25 “From the going forth of the word”… That is, from the twentieth year of king Artaxerxes, when by his commandment Nehemias rebuilt the walls of Jerusalem, 2 Esd. 2. From which time, according to the best chronology, there were just sixty-nine weeks of years, that is, 483 years to the baptism of Christ, when he first began to preach and execute the office of Messias.-- Ibid.

25 “In straitness of times”… angustia temporum: which may allude both to the difficulties and opposition they met with in building: and to the shortness of the time in which they finished the wall, viz., fifty-two days.

26 “A people with their leader”… The Romans under Titus.

27 “In the half of the week”… or, in the middle of the week, etc. Because Christ preached three years and a half: and then by his sacrifice upon the cross abolished all the sacrifices of the law.-- Ibid.

27 “The abomination of desolation”… Some understand this of the profanation of the temple by the crimes of the Jews, and by the bloody faction of the zealots. Others of the bringing in thither the ensigns and standard of the pagan Romans. Others, in fine, distinguish three different times of desolation: viz., that under Antiochus; that when the temple was destroyed by the Romans; and the last near the end of the world under Antichrist. To all which, as they suppose, this prophecy may have a relation.

…
*

 

[spauline]

Now here’s the BS of the liberal trash NAB “scholars”:

2 [2] Seventy years: the prophet Jeremiah (Jeremiah 25:11; 29:10) prophesied a Babylonian captivity of seventy years, a round number signifying the complete passing away of the existing generation. Jeremiah’s prophecy was fulfilled in the capture of Babylon by Cyrus and the subsequent return of the Jews to Palestine. However, the author of Daniel, living during the persecution of Antiochus, sees the conditions of the exile still existing; therefore, in his meditation he extends Jeremiah’s number to seventy weeks of years (Daniel 9:24), i.e., seven times seventy years, to characterize the Jewish victory over the Seleucids as the ultimate fulfillment of the prophecy.
3 [13] As it is written: the first time that this formula of Scriptural citation is used in the Bible. The reference (Daniel 9:11) is to the sanctions of Lev 26:14-16; Deut 28:15-17.
4 [21] At the time of the evening sacrifice: between three and four in the afternoon.
5 [24] Seventy weeks: i.e., of years. Just as Jeremiah’s seventy years was an approximation (see note on Daniel 9:2), the four hundred and ninety years here is not to be taken literally. Similarly, the distribution of the “weeks” in the following verses indicates only relative proportions of the total figure. A most holy: an expression used almost always of an object, the altar or the temple, but once (1 Chron 23:13) of Aaron the high priest. The author sees the definitive establishment of the kingdom of God, realized in the reconsecration of the temple after Antiochus’ desecration, or personified in the holy community (like the Son of Man of Daniel 7). The Fathers of the Church almost unanimously understood the reference to be to Christ, the final realization of the prophecy.
6 [25] From the utterance . . . to be rebuilt: from the time of Jeremiah’s prophecy. One . . . anointed and a leader: either Cyrus, who was called the anointed of the Lord to end the exile (Isaiah 45:1), or the high priest Joshua who presided over the rebuilding of the altar of sacrifice after the exile (Ezra 3:2). Seven weeks: forty-nine years, an approximation of the time of the exile. During sixty-two weeks . . . rebuilt: a period of 434 years, roughly approximating the interval between the rebuilding of Jerusalem after the exile and the beginning of the Seleucid persecution.
7 [26] An anointed: doubtless the high priest Onias III, murdered in 171 B.C., from which the author dates the beginning of the persecution. Onias was in exile when he was killed. A leader: Antiochus IV.
8 [27] One week: the final phase of the period in view, the time of Antiochus’ persecution; he is Antiochus himself. The many: the faithless Jews who allied themselves with the heathen; cf 1 Macc 1:11-13. Half the week: three and a half years; see note on 1 Macc 7:25. The temple was desecrated by Antiochus from 167 to 165 B.C. The temple wing: probably the main portal. The horrible abomination: see note on Daniel 8:13. Perhaps an inscription was placed on the portal of the temple dedicating it to the Olympian Zeus. Our Lord referred to this passage in his own prediction of the destruction of Jerusalem (Matthew 24:15).

“Oh, but of course, there really is no true evidence for prophecy. We now know that either God doesn’t know the future, or else he would never reveal it in any sense.”