[As Christians/Messianics, we—Sinaites—must have studied the book of Daniel no less than a dozen times, because it had been drummed into our clueless minds that the only way we could and would and should understand the last prophetic NT book of Revelation is by understanding the OT book of Daniel, for the imagery of both are interconnected. Well, after attending endless updated teaching seminars and conferences on both books, we were still left clueless and we figured, as we have also been taught, that whatever we do not understand on this side of eternity, we will understand if we make it to heaven on the other side. The easiest fallback when one doesn’t want to give in and simply admit to oneself and others— “I don’t get it”—is to relegate it to the category of “mystery” . . . where you file such question marks as the Trinity, the human-divine nature of Jesus Christ, and the whole of the Old Testament which Christians hardly ever get to, since they’re told it is passe, obsolete, only for the Jews, etc.
- Daniel and his three friends
- Hananiah,
- Mishael,
- and Azariah.
The tales are linked by common motifs and literary imagery and by an apparent concentration on human affairs.
- All four men are introduced as young Judean nobles who were exiled by the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzae when he conquered Jerusalem in the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim, king of Judah.
- Because of their beauty, wisdom, and righteousness (chap. 3), they are chosen to serve at Nebuchadnezzar’s court.
- When Daniel successfully interprets the king’s enigmatic dream, he is elevated to a position of exceeding prominence (2:48), and at his request his three friends are also given high offices in the imperial administration (2:49).
- Daniel’s position is further strengthened when he interprets another dream of Nebuchadnezzar’s (chap. 4).
- Later, in the reign of Belshazzar, he explains a cryptic inscription which appears on a wall in the palace during a banquet given by the king (chap. 5; a vivid scene described by Xenophon in his Cyropaedia and captured by Rembrandt in his famous “Belshazzar’s Feast”).
- Belshazzar, for example, was not the son of Nebuchadnezzar, as stated in 5:2,
- but rather of Nabonidus, the last Babylonian king.
- No evidence is available to support the affirmation thatJerusalem was taken by the Babylonians in the third year of Jehoiakim’s reign (1:1). Nor is there a historical record of a King Darius the Mede, son of Ahasuerus, mentioned in 9:1,
- This datum was probably extrapolated from the report in 2 Chronicles 36:6 of the undated deportation of Jehoiakim by Nebuchadnezzar.
- or a Median empire between the fall of Babylon under Nabonidus
- and the rise of the Persian Empire under Cyrus the Great (chaps. 6 and 9).
- The first unit speaks of Daniel in the third person, These units, too, are conjoined by recurring motifs and expressions and by their apocalyptic character.
- whereas in the remaining three, Daniel himself is the narrator.
Both halves of the book contain poetic passages of varying length 4:23-26, 12:1-3 (Hebrew); 2:20-23; 4:10-12, 14-18; 6:27-28; 7:9-14; 8:23-26 (Aramaic).
- In the latter, which became the Bible of the Church, Daniel is regarded as a prophet, and his book follows that of Ezekiel, the last of the great prophets.
- This tradition shows in a florilegium of biblical passages from Qumran (4Q 174),
- in the New Testament texts (Matt. 24:15, Mark13:14),
- and in Josephus (The Antiquities of the Jews 10.11-12), all of which refer to “Daniel the Prophet.” This inclusion of Daniel among the prophets was suggested by the visionary character of chapters 7-10.
- The Jewish Sages expressly rejected the designation of Daniel as a prophet, declaring:
- “they [Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi] are prophets,
- while he [Daniel] is not a prophet” (Babylonian Talmud: Sanhendrin 93b-94a).
- Accordingly, in the Hebrew canon Daniel comes after Esther and before Ezra-Nehemiah, that is, between books which are considered historiographies.
- Maimonides, the most prominent Jewish authority in the Middle Ages, confirmed the correctness of this order: “the entire nation is agreed that the Book of Daniel should be placed among the Writings and not among the Prophets” (The Guide of the Perplexed 2.45).
- In this instance it was obviously the narrative character of chapters 1-6 which caused the book to be placed among the post-Exilic historiographies.
- who presumably lived in the second century B.C.E.,
- wove his tales and visionary dreams around a legendary figure,
- in a literary fashion popular in his time.
- He was probably acquainted with traditions to which the prophet Ezekiel alludes, about a Daniel unequaled in wisdom (Ezek. 28:3) and righteous like Noah and Job (Ezek. 14:13-14, 19-20).
These allusions are possibly the immediate cause for the replacement of Daniel after Ezekiel in the Greek canon. Further, the caves of Qumran have yielded not only fragments of the biblical Book of Daniel but also a fragment of a composition entitled by its editor “Prayer of Nabonidus.” The latter bears a telling resemblance to a central theme in Daniel 4 (which there, however, focuses on Nebuchadnezzar): King Nabonidus, plagued by maladies and exiled to the oasis of Taima, is exhorted by a Jewish sage to relinquish his “idols of gold, silver [bronze, iron], wood, stone, and clay” and embrace the faith in the once true God, so that he will he healed and reinstated to his royal office.
- The biblical Daniel may also be linked with the figure Dnil/Dnel known from the Ugaritic epic Aqht (not later than the fourteenth century B.C.E.).
- While no definite connection between the Ugaritic Dnil/Dnel and the biblical Daniel can be established, the combined evidence from the Book of Ezekiel, the “Prayer of Nabonidus,” and the epic Aqht makes it seem likely that the author of the biblical Book of Daniel knew of traditions concerning an antediluvian “wise and just Dnil/Dnel.”
- He shifted that figure from its original Mesopotamian or Phoenician-Canaanite setting into Palestine-Judea and made him the kingpin of his own literary creation.
- Such shifts in period and location are common in comparable specimens of apocryphal and pseudo-epigraphical literature,
- including the Book of Jubilees, in which Noah is the central dramatis persona;
- the Book of Enoch, ascribed to the godfearing ancient known from a tradition in Genesis 5:18;
- the “testaments” allegedly composed by the twelve sons the patriarch Jacob;
- and the Book of Baruch, said to have been composed by the ascribe of the prophet Jeremiah (Jer. 45).
By a similar literary maneuver,
- King Solomon was made the author of the apocryphal Book of Wisdom
- and of a collection of “psalms,”
- possibly in emulation of the ascription to him of Proverbs (Prov. 1:1; cf. 25:1),
- the Song of Songs (Song 1:1),
- and Ecclesiastes,
- said to have been written by “Koheleth the son of David, king in Jerusalem” (Eccles. 1:1).
- Likewise, rabbinic tradition saw King David as the author of the Book of Psalms.
- The expression kalah weneheratsah, “utter desolation” (9:27 [AT]), occurs only once elsewhere in the Hebrew Bible, in Isaiah 10:23.
- In Daniel 11:7, 10, and 36 we find still more expressions from Isaiah (11:1, 8:8, 10:25).
- Daniel10:14 is seemingly made up of phrases taken from Genesis 49:1 and Habakkuk 2:3.
- The opening paragraph in 11:30 is adapted from Balaam’s oracle in Numbers 24:24.
- “Daniel sat in the gate of the king” (2:49) echoes “Mordecai sat in the king’s gate” (Esther 2:21).
- Daniel and his fellow ministers are appointed to ensure proper taxation, so that “the king[‘s treasure] should have no damage” (6:2).
- Likewise, the Persian officials warn the king of the exiles who have returned to Judah lest their activities “damage the revenue of the kings” (Ezra 4:13).
- And Esther would acquiesce in anything but the destruction of her people, so as not to “cause damage to the king[‘s interest]” (Esther 7:4; compare 3:8-9).
- The humanlike figure that touches Daniel’s lips (10:16) is described in imagery that appears to be derived from the inauguration visions of Jeremiah (Jer. 1:9)), Ezekiel (Ezek. 1, esp. v. 26), and possibly Isaiah (Isa. 6:6-7).
- Folklore furnishes numerous parallels for a (world-) tree which provides nourishment to all beings and shelter to beast and fowl, such as that seen by Nebuchadnezzar in his dream (4:10-14).
- The image also shares striking details with the portrayal of the primeval Behemoth in Job 40:15-24.
- The tale of Daniel and his three friends immediately brings to mind the parallel tradition concerning Job and his three Friends. In both instances, the names of all four dramatis personae are carefully recorded (Dan. 1:6; Job 2:11, 42:9).
- This is also the case in one strand of tradition which records David as the youngest of his father’s sons, who, despite his youth, outranks his three oldest brothers:
“the three eldest sons of Jesse went and followed Saul to the battle: and the names of his three sons that went to the battle were Eliab the firstborn, and next unto him Abinadab, and the third Shamma. And David was the youngest” (1 Sam. 17:13-14a).
- Solomon is the fourth of David’s sons who were born to him in Jerusalem(2 Sam. 5:14). Solomon vies for the succession to the throne and prevails over his three older brothers, Amnon, Absalom, and Adonijah.
- Again, after two of the four sons of Aaron the high priest, Nadab and Abihu, are consumed by a fire from heaven (Lev. 10:1-2), and Ebiathar, a descendant of the third, Ithamar, is banished to Anatoth (1 Kings 2:26-27; cf. 1 Chron. 24:1-5), the priestly office at the Temple in Jerusalem reverts to the fourth son, Eleazar, and his descendants.
- The 3 + 1 pattern also underlies the episode of Daniel’s appointment by Darius as the first of “three presidents” whom the king put in charge of 120 princes who oversaw the affairs of his kingdom (6:2). We are specifically told that “Daniel was preferred above the presidents and princes, because an excellent spirit was in him; and the king thought to set him over the whole realm” (6:3).
- Building on Jeremiah’s divinely inspired assurance that Israel would experience a restoration of its fortunes seventy years after the destruction of the Temple(Jer. 25:11-12; 29:10; cf. Zech. 1:12, 7:5; Ezra 1:2; 2 Chron. 36:21-23),
- he foresees a new redemption of his people after seven times seventy years (9:2, 25-26).
- But his pronouncements are intentionally veiled, as if to prevent his readers from fully fathoming the apocalyptic visions.
- In this he appears to imitate Ezekiel’s equally mystifying description of his vision of the heavenly chariot (Ezek. 1).
- He takes from Ezekiel 3:1-2 and Zechariah 5:1-4 the motif of a celestial scroll in which are spelled out divinatory matters that the prophet is commanded to assimilate or even to ingest, though with an interesting and significant variation.
- Ezekiel digests the contents of the scroll by physically eating it.
- To the post-Exilic prophet Zechariah, the content of the scroll he sees is explained by a heavenly interpreter (Zech. 5:1-4), probably identical with the angel who interprets for him the ensuing visions (Zech. 5:5-6:8) as in Zechariah 1-4.
- Daniel, too, is enlightened by a heavenly messenger:
- the angel Gabriel explains the meaning of what he has read in “books” of an obviously revelatory nature (chap. 9) and later interprets a vision of Daniel’s (chap. 10).
- But revealed matters of ultimate significance must remain unintelligible to Daniel (12:8) and to other men, securely hidden away in sealed books until the appointed time of revelation (12:4, 9).
- In the biblical past, a prophet could bring God’s word to man.
- Now, the seer requires a celestial interpreter to explain his visions to him.
- Mediator upon mediator intervenes between man and God.
- And even then the meaning of the revelation may remain hidden.
- Joseph in Egypt,
- of Esther and Mordecai,
- and of Nehemiah and Ezra at the Persian court
- are unmistakably reflected in the alleged life history of Daniel and his friends. the expatriate Daniel wins the goodwill of the Babylonian courtiers charged with his education (1:3-18).
- Like Joseph, who was “stolen away out of the land of the Hebrews” (Gen. 40:15) and found favor with his master, an Egyptian official (Gen. 39:1-4),
- and the orphaned Esther (Esther 2:7), who gained the support of the overseer of Ahasuerus’ harem (Esther 2:9),
- Because of their good looks, intelligence (cf. Ezra 7:25), and modesty (Gen. 39:2-12; Esther 2:8-10, 15-16; Dan. 1:4; cf. Neh. 2:5-8), all three attract the attention of those in authority and ultimately of the ruler of the foreign land into which they have been abducted (Gen. 41:37-39; Esther 2:17; Dan. 1:6-7, 19-20).
- They soon attain the highest positions in the realm: Likewise, Nebuchadnezzar elevates Daniel to the rank of “ruler over the whole province of Babylon, and chief of the governors over all the wise men of Babylon” (2:48); and Belshazzar makes “a proclamation concerning him, that he should be the third ruler in the kingdom” (5:29).
- Joseph becomes viceroy of Egypt (Gen. 41:40-44);
- Esther is made queen of the realm (Esther 2:17);
- Mordecai (Esther 2:21-23, 6:3, 10:2),
- Ezra (Ezra 7:6, 11-26), and Nehemiah (Neh. 1:1, 2:1-9) are given important appointments at court.
- “Then commanded Belshazzar, and they clothed Daniel with scarlet, and put a chain of gold about his neck” (5:29);
- “Pharaoh said unto Joseph, See I have set three over all the land of Egypt. And Pharaoh took off his ring from his hand, and put it upon Joseph’s hand, and arrayed him in vestures of fine linen, and put a gold chain about his neck; And he made him to ride in the viceroy’s chariot [AR]; and they cried before him,
- Haman to conduct the ceremony exactly as the latter has specified, erroneously assuming that he himself is to receive these honors:
“For the man whom the king delighteth to honour, Let the royal apparel be brought which the king useth to wear, and the horse that the king rideth upon, and the crown royal which is set upon his head … Then took Haman the apparel and the horse, and arrayed Mordecai, and brought him on horseback through the street of the city, and proclaimed before him, Thus shall it be done unto the man whom the king delighteth to honour” (Esther 6:7-11; cf. Esther 8:15).
- Joseph starts out as a dreamer (Gen. 37:5-11) to become a successful interpreter of dreams (Gen. 40). Thanks to this faculty he achieves highest distinction in the Egyptian kingdom (Gen. 41).
- Likewise, Daniel makes his way to the top in Babylon by convincingly explaining the dreams of Nebuchadnezzar (chaps. 2, 4) and the mysterious writing which appears on the wall during Belshazzar’s feast (chap. 5). But in contrast to the story of Joseph, he starts out as an interpreter of dreams and only later becomes a dreamer and a visionary (chaps. 7, 8, 10-12).
- Both Joseph and Daniel succeed where all Egyptian and Chaldean wise men fail. (cf. Gen. 41:8 with Dan. 2:1-13; 4:1-4, 15).
- Similarly, in the final event, Mordecai and Esther prove to be wiser than the scheming Haman (Esther 6:13, 9:24-25).
- The Judean Hadassah takes on the pagan name Esther (Esther 2:7);
- Pharaoh confers upon Joseph the Hebrew (Gen. 40:15) the meaningful appellation Zaphenath-paneah, interpreted by tradition to mean “Riddle Solver” (Gen. 41:45);
- and a high-ranking official at Nebuchadnezzar’s court renames Daniel and his friends Belteshazzar, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego (1:7).
- Joseph,
- Mordecai,
- and Nehemiah.
Like Ahasuerus (Esther 3), Nebuchadnezzar is easily persuaded by his advisers and has Daniel’s three friends thrown into the blazing furnace (3:19-23). They are saved, however, by divine intervention (3:24-27), while their tormentors are consumed by the flames that leap out of the furnace (3:22).
- Shepherds tremble before the lion’s roar (for example, Isa. 31:4; Amos 3:4, 8; Zech. 11:3; Ps. 22:13; Job 4:10),
- which is compared to the noise made by armies on the march (Isa. 5:29-30)
- and to the tempest which manifests God’s intervention in nature and history (for example, Jer. 25:30, Hos. 11:10, Joel 3:16, Amos 1:2, Job 37:4).
- Lions mete out divine punishment, ravaging transgressors and recalcitrants (1 Kings 13:24-28,20:36; 2 Kings 17:24-26; Jer. 50:17).
- Only exceptional men can vanquish a lion (2 Sam. 23:20), like the divinely inspired Samson (Judges 14:5-9) and David (1 Sam. 17:34-37).
- They recall Isaiah’s visionary lion that in a future ideal age “shall eat straw like the ox” and forage together with calves, a little child leading them to the pasture (Isa. 11:6-9, 65:25). The depiction of that era of universal peace is enfolded by means of ring composition between two sections of a complementary vision of the future ruler of the appeased world, “a rod out of stem of Jesse” (Isa. 11:1-5, 10) on the other hand, and on the other the restitution of Israel’s fortune and its victory over its historical enemies (Isa. 11:11-16).
- The thematic similarity with Isaiah spells out the “message” contained in the episode of Daniel in the lion’s den. At the same time, it links the narrative part of the book, which centers on the person of Daniel (chaps. 1-6), with the series of dreams and visions (chaps. 7-12) which center on world history and, in this framework, on the fate of the people of Israel and their ultimate redemption (12:1-3). It is because of this message that the two tales of Daniel’s and his friends’ rescue from the blazing furnace and the ferocious lions became paradigms of divine deliverance in the repertoire of Western literature and visual art inspired by the Hebrew Scriptures.
- The Book of Esther in particular is, in certain respects, quite unlike the other specimens of the presumed genre in that it is almost totally devoid of specifically Israelite historical reminiscences and religious-cultic traditions.
- Esther is the only book of the Hebrew Bible in which the name of God is not evoked even once. God is, in fact, altogether absent from the scene on which the drama is acted out by human antagonists to the best of their skill and cunning.
- There is no mention of prayers, which one would have expected Esther, Mordecai, and the Jews of Persia to have uttered in times of mortal distress. Such prayers were, not unexpectedly, supplied by the author of the additions to the Greek translation of the Hebrew book. Mordecai, Esther, and probably also some of their compatriots revel at the king’s table, seemingly without paying attention to the dietary prescriptions which regulate the consumption of food in Jewish tradition.
- In view of the post-Exilic date of the book, when Israel certainly abided by a particular religious-cultic code, the silence on such matters is highly significant. It may be explained by the Wisdom coloring of the Esther tale, which accentuates the human and the general rather than the religious and the particular.
- The Joseph story similarly exhibits conspicuous Wisdom traits.
- But in this instance the “Land of the Hebrew” serves throughout as a visible backdrop of scene,
- and the God of Israel determines the progress of events in the unfolding drama.
- This presence is fully explicated by Joseph when he reveals to his brothers the hidden propitious significance of their evil deed:
“Now therefore be not grieved, nor angry with yourselves, that ye sold me hither: for God did send me before you to preserve life” (Gen. 45:5; see also Gen. 45:6-8; 50:19-20; 41:16, 32).
The absence of any mention of the observance of food taboos or any other cultic prescriptions by Joseph or, for the matter, by Moses while at Pharaoh’s court, is in keeping with the setting of these traditions in the pre-Sinai (revelation) period, that is before the issuance of the laws, beginning with Exodus 20, which pertain to these matters.
- Ezra-Nehemiah is pervaded by
- an awareness of Jewish history,
- a wholly Jewish religious outlook,
- and an unrelenting endeavor to make tradition the mainstay of the reconstituted community’s public and private life.
- The civic and cultic leaders offer prayers of confession and thanksgiving to Israel’s God (Ezra 9:3—10:1; Neh. 2:4, 9:4-37).
- Life is regulated by the ordinances of “the Law” (for example, Ezra 10:4-44; Neh. 8:1-3, 10:1-39, 12:44-47).
- There is no mistaking the Jewish character of the book and of the community whose history it portrays.
- The divine immanence, the young men’s reliance on Israel’s God, and their trust in his efficacy pervade the narrative.
- The young men meticulously observe the food taboos, subsist—even flourish—on a diet of seeds and water rather than partake of the king’s provision of unclean meat and wine (1:5-16).
- Daniel prays three times a day, “his windows being open in his chamber toward Jerusalem” (6:10), and makes supplication for his people (9:3-19), like Ezra (Ezra 9:6-15) and the Levites or the entire community (Neh. 9:4-37).
- Whereas the Chronicler’s outlook is altogether retrospective, and the compiler of Ezra-Nehemiah records contemporaneous events, the author of Daniel professes to be concerned with “prospective” history.
- It is presumably this visionary perspective that made the motifs, imagery, and episodes of Daniel a source of inspiration to writers and artists of much later generations.
- The apocalyptic, utopian—that is, nonhistorical—character of the visions facilitates their use as prototypes.
- By applying, in essence, the same technique so well known from the Qumran pesher writings, the ad hoc interpretation of prophetic pronouncements which the author of Daniel had himself practiced, later readers could discern their own situations prefigured in the ancient tales and visions of Daniel.