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Book of Daniel |
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Book of DanielThe Book of Daniel, written in Hebrew and Aramaic (most of chapters 2-7) and revolving around the Jewish prophet Daniel, is a book of the Tanakh, in the section known as the Ketuvim (Hagiographa), or the Writings in the Christian Old Testament. Daniel was considered a prophet at Qumran (4Q174 [4QFlorilegium]) and later by Josephus (Antiquity of the Jews 10.11.7 §266) and Liber antiquitatum biblicarum (L.A.B. [Lives of the prophets] 4.6, 8), and grouped among the prophets in the Septuagint, the Jewish Greek Old Testament, and by Christians who place his book, among the prophets. However, his book is not included by the Jews in the section of the prophets, the Nebiim. The book grew in stages, beginning as separate Persian and Hellenistic period Aramaic stories that were collected and then had a vision added possibly in the 3rd century B.C.E., forming the Aramaic chapters 2-7, to which were added the three 2nd century B.C.E. (see "Date" below) visions of chapters 8-12, and the introduction to the book, chapter 1. The book now has two distinct parts, a series of narratives and four apocalyptic visions. Narratives in DanielThe first part, consisting of the first six chapters, comprises a series of lightly connected court tales, connected instructive narratives, or miracle tales, of the kind that would be parables save for their miraculous content. Only the first story is in Hebrew, the rest in Aramaic from ch. 2:4, beginning with the speech of the "Chaldeans". Three sections are preserved only in the Septuagint, and are considered apocryphal by Protestant Christians and Jews, and deuterocanonical by Catholic and Orthodox Christians.
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 the Persian king Darius. 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. Historical accuracyModern secular historians of Babylonia or Achaemenid Persia do not adduce the narratives of Daniel as source materials. As the editors of the Jewish Encyclopedia (1901-1906) put it, "they contain many details that cannot be harmonized with the data furnished in other historical sources." and that "during the long period of oral tradition the unimportant kings of Babylon might easily have been forgotten, and the last king, who was vanquished by Cyrus, would have been taken as the successor of the well-known Nebuchadnezzar." The intended identity of "Darius the Mede" (from the narrative of the lions' den) is disputed among the various Persian rulers named Darius. Secular histories state that the Median kingdom had been conquered by Cyrus II of Persia before he conquered Babylon, so that there was never a Median rulership of this city. Some suggest that the character is based on Darius the Great, who ruled Persia from 522-486 BC, that is, after the end of the Jewish Exile in Babylon. Fundamentalist Christians, however, find ample reason to accept the historicity of the Book of Daniel, pointing to the following: Apocalyptic visions in DanielThe 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. It too consists of text from two sources, 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 prophetical communication, mainly having to do with the destiny of Israel:
Christian uses of DanielAs mentioned above, the prayer of Azariah and the Song of the Three Children from the deuterocanonical parts of Daniel are widely used in Orthodox and Catholic prayer. The various episodes in the first half of the book are used by Christians as moral stories, and are often seen to foreshadow events in the gospels. The apocalyptic section is primarily important to Christians for the image of the "Son of Man" (Dan. 7:13). According to the gospels, Jesus used this title as his preferred name for himself. The connection with Daniel's vision (as opposed to the usage in the Book of Ezekiel) is made explicit in the Gospels of Matthew and Mark (Matt 27:64; Mk 14:62). Christians see this as a direct claim by Jesus that he is the Messiah. Medieval study of angels was also affected by this book, as it is the only Old Testament source for the names of two of the archangels, Gabriel and Michael (Dan 9:21; 12:1). The only other angel given a name in the Old Testament is Raphael, mentioned in the deuterocanoncial Book of Tobit. External links
Related articles: ReferenceE. J. Bickerman, Four Strange Books of the Bible, 1967 A standard analysis.
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