Daniel: God reigns in a foreign land
Daniel tells of Daniel and his friends, faithful in the courts of Babylon and Persia, and of visions in which God's everlasting kingdom outlasts every empire. It shows one like a son of man coming with the clouds, and speaks of the resurrection more plainly than any other Old Testament book.
About the book
The name Daniel means ‘God is my judge’. Daniel was a young man taken to Babylon in 605 BC, the third year of King Jehoiakim, when Nebuchadnezzar besieged Jerusalem (Daniel 1:1), and he served at court until Babylon fell and "the first year of King Cyrus" (Daniel 1:21). The map under the Jesus tab places the book in the exile (586–539 BC). Daniel 2:4–7:28 is in Aramaic, the empire's common language; the rest is in Hebrew.
Jews and Christians have long received the book as Daniel's, written in the sixth century BC. The visions of chapters 7–12 are given in his own voice, "to me, Daniel" (Daniel 8:1), and Jesus spoke of what was "spoken of by the prophet Daniel" (Matthew 24:15). Many scholars, though, date the book in its present form to about 165 BC, when the Syrian king Antiochus IV defiled the temple in Jerusalem and persecuted the Jews. They note that chapters 8 and 11 trace the kings of Persia and Greece in ever closer detail up to Antiochus' wars and persecution, while the end foretold for him does not match the death that history records. On this view chapters 7–12 gave a persecuted people hope that God's kingdom would prevail, and the stories of chapters 1–6 may be older. Many others, among them evangelicals, who stress the authority of Scripture and the telling of the gospel, hold that the book is from the sixth century, God having shown Daniel things far ahead; they note too that its four kingdoms and the kingdom of the son of man reach beyond Antiochus to Christ. Has biblical prophecy been fulfilled? takes up the question.
Catholic and Orthodox Bibles also include passages found only in the Greek Daniel: the Prayer of Azariah and the Song of the Three Young Men, Susanna, and Bel and the Dragon.
How it unfolds
| Chapters | What happens |
|---|---|
| 1–6 | Faithful in a foreign court: the king's food, the great statue, the furnace, the writing on the wall, the lions' den |
| 7–12 | Visions: four beasts and one like a son of man, the ram and the goat, seventy weeks, the end and the resurrection |
Key passages
In chapters 1–6 God rules over pagan kings. Nebuchadnezzar's dream of a great statue foretold kingdoms to come, and Daniel told him that "the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed" (Daniel 2:44). Ordered to bow to a golden statue, his three friends answered:
If the God whom we serve exists, then He is able to deliver us from the blazing fiery furnace and from your hand, O king. But even if He does not, let it be known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the golden statue you have set up.
Daniel 3:17-18
Matthew Henry writes, "God will deliver us, either from death or in death" Matthew Henry. Daniel too knew of the decree, yet "three times a day he got down on his knees, prayed, and gave thanks to his God, just as he had done before" (Daniel 6:10).
Chapters 7–12 are apocalyptic: they unveil heaven's purposes in symbols and visions. In chapter 9 Daniel reads Jeremiah's word of seventy years (Daniel 9:2), confesses his people's sin, and receives the word of the seventy weeks, read in several ways. Many interpreters since the church fathers take each week as seven years, 490 years from the decree to rebuild Jerusalem to Christ, and see in "the Messiah will be cut off" (Daniel 9:26) the death of Christ; Matthew Henry writes, "The seventy weeks mean a day for a year, or 490 years" Matthew Henry. Dispensationalists, who see God dealing with Israel and the church distinctly, see sixty-nine weeks reaching to Christ and the last week as a seven-year tribulation still to come. Many scholars see the period ending in the crisis under Antiochus, when the temple was defiled; others read seventy sevens as a symbol of the full time God has set. Christ’s return and the millennium, in the doctrine course, sets out these readings.
The book and Christ
After four beasts from the sea, Daniel saw another:
I saw One like the Son of Man coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient of Days and was led into His presence. And He was given dominion, glory, and kingship, that the people of every nation and language should serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and His kingdom is one that will never be destroyed.
Daniel 7:13-14
‘Son of Man’ was the name Jesus used for himself most often. Before the high priest he said, "you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of Power and coming with the clouds of heaven" (Mark 14:62). In Ezekiel ‘son of man’ means a frail mortal; Daniel's one like a son of man receives an everlasting kingdom, the kingdom Jesus proclaimed: "The time is fulfilled," he said, "and the kingdom of God is near" (Mark 1:15).
Daniel 12 says, "many who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake, some to everlasting life" (Daniel 12:2). Jesus said that all in their graves will hear his voice and come out, "those who have done good to the resurrection of life" (John 5:29).
Reading it
Two chapters a day takes six days; begin with Daniel 1. Read chapters 1–6 as stories of serving God in a foreign land, as we must at work or school.
In chapters 7–12, do not try to calculate dates; hold to the great picture, that empires rise and fall and God's kingdom stands. You will hear Daniel again in Revelation (Revelation 1:13). Then go on to Hosea.
Practice
- Practice 1 of 6
In what languages is the book of Daniel written?
- Practice 2 of 6
What did the three friends mean by "But even if He does not"?
- Practice 3 of 6
Before the high priest, which picture from Daniel 7 did Jesus apply to himself?
- Practice 4 of 6
What does Daniel 12:2 say of the dead?
- Practice 5 of 6
Which view of when Daniel was written is paired with a reason its holders give?
- Practice 6 of 6
Which reading of Daniel's seventy weeks is paired with those who hold it?
Reading to the end marks it read; tap to switch it.
Related topics
Lessons from the Bible, the church's creeds and classic commentary. Each book's author and date are given as the church has received them, and scholars who see them otherwise are presented fairly. Scripture quotations: BSB.