The
book of Daniel has much to offer, since it gives us favorite Bible stories from
our childhood—Daniel and Lion’s Den and The Fiery Furnace as well as prophecies
that are remarkably detailed and accurate.
Daniel is probably the Old Testament book that is most referred to in
discussions of prophecy. Three reasons
(among others) for those references are
·
The
book contains several prophecies that present much of world history from
Daniel’s time down to last days of the age.
·
Jesus
referred to the book in Matthew 24:15.
·
The
book describes a world leader that has the characteristics of the
Antichrist/Beast or Man of Lawlessness who is described in II Thessalonians 2
and Revelation 13.
DANIEL AND THE CRITICS:
Daniel is also a target
of the skeptic and modern critic. Such
critics doubt the existence of Daniel the man and do not believe that a person
living in the 6th Century BC could have written Daniel. They base their conclusion on the detailed
prediction of events in the region of Syria and Egypt in the 4th
through the 2nd Centuries BC in Daniel 11. The complex maneuvers and developments that
are described in chapter 11 are so exact, accurate, and detailed that one must
conclude that the book is an amazing example of predictive prophecy or that it
was written after the fact by someone calling himself Daniel, the 6th-Century
Seer. The critics have come to the
second conclusion. They believe Daniel
was written in the 2nd Century BC, about the time of the Maccabees
to encourage the Jews during the time of Antiochus IV Epiphanes (Miller, 23).
Conservative scholars
have answered the skeptical critics with some very strong evidence. I am grateful to the NIV Study Bible and the
ESV Study Bible for the introduction to Daniel in each of those Bibles. I am also grateful to Stephen R. Miller, who
has written a very scholarly study of Daniel and presented excellent
scholarship that refutes the critics.
The following are major arguments against a late-dating of Daniel (drawn
from the three sources that I have just mentioned):
·
Four
world empires are predicted in Daniel 2 and 7.
From Daniel’s time forward, these would have to be the Babylonian, the
Medes and the Persians, the Grecian (Alexander’s empire), and the Roman. But if Daniel were written in the Maccabean
period, the Roman period was still in the future. Therefore, the critics maintain that the four
empires were the Babylonian, the empire of the Medes, the Persian, and the
Grecian. However, it is obvious that
Daniel does not separate the Medes from the Persians, since the two were
intertwined.
·
The
critics point to “loan” words in Daniel that are from the Persian and Greek
language as evidence that the book is influenced by cultures later than the 6th
Century. However, the linguistic
evidence is the opposite. The “loan”
words are so old that the Septuagint translators were not familiar with them
and mistranslated them. Since Babylon
was an international city, it is very likely that Greeks were present in the
city at the time of Daniel and had some impact on the language.
·
Daniel
was accepted by the Qumran community, which arose in the Maccabean period
around the time when critics believe Daniel was written, perhaps even before
the late date for Daniel. It is very
unlikely that these Jews would have accepted the book as a part of their canon
if it had just been written and claimed to be by the Daniel of the 6th
Century!
·
Belshazzar
(Daniel 5) was unknown for many years.
Eventually, archeological evidence revealed that Belshazzar was the son
of Nabonidus. Nabonidus chose to live in
Tema, far west of Babylon, and allow his son to act as co-regent, with his
headquarters in Babylon.
·
Darius
the Mede (5:31 and 6:26) is an unknown person and critics believe that he is
another historical mistake. Two
explanations have been given:
o
“Darius
the Mede” is the throne name of Cyrus the Persian as he reigned in
Babylon. Then, Daniel 6:26 should
read: “…Darius, that is, the reign of
Cyrus…”
o
“Darius
the Mede” is Gubaru, who is known to have been the governor over the Babylonian
territories under Cyrus.
·
Punishment
by fire under the Babylonians (Daniel 3) would not have been used under the
Medes and Persians, who used the lions’ den (Daniel 6) (Miller, 26).
·
Critics
had argued that, in Daniel, Nebuchadnezzar and Cyrus were types of Antiochus
Epiphanes, and that the accounts of the fiery furnace and the lions’ den
represented the persecutions of the Jews under Antiochus. However, the pagan rulers are generally
depicted as tolerant of the Jews, and Daniel even admired Nebuchadnezzar (as
well as being an official in his empire).
This would not be a message against Antiochus (Miller, 27).
·
Moreover,
in chapter 11, the prophecies concerning the Syrian rulers, including Antiochus
Epiphanes, are not as detailed as one would expect if they were being written
at the same time as they were happening.
There is no mention of the Maccabean heroes. So, chapter 11 is an amazing set of
prophecies, if they it were written in the 6th Century BC. If, on the other hand it was written in the 2nd
Century BC, it strangely omits many details that one would expect if the
persecution under Antiochus Epiphanes is the major focus of the book (Miller,
27).
·
The
critics have used language in arguments to support a late date for Daniel.
o
They
cite Persian loan words. However, Daniel
uses Old Persian words. Old Persian
ended around the time of Alexander, and Middle Persian became predominant. This would argue for an early date for
Daniel.
o
The
Septuagint (the Greek translation of the Old Testament) was written about 130
BC, which is about 30 years after the late date for Daniel. However, the Septuagint translates four of
the Persian loan words so inaccurately that it is obvious that those ancient
words were not known when the Septuagint was written (Miller, 28).
o
Three
Greek words (for musical instruments) are cited by critics as evidence that
Daniel was written after Hellenization during and after Alexander the
Great. Miller refers to the work of K.
A. Kitchen (Miller, 28-29) which concludes that these arguments are not strong
at all. One of the three words occurs in
Homer (no later than 700 BC).
o
There
is archeological and other evidence that Greeks were active throughout the
Middle East in the time of the Babylonian Empire and earlier. Greek loan words could certainly have been
known by Daniel in the 6th Century BC (Miller 29). Moreover, the paucity of Greek terms in
Daniel argues against a late date, since the Middle East was thoroughly
Hellenized by the 2nd Century BC (Miller, 29-30).
o
Early
critics had made inferences regarding the Aramaic in Daniel (about half of
Daniel is Aramaic) along two lines.
First, the Aramaic was thought to be a western dialect, typical of
Palestine. Second, the Aramaic was
believed to be a late version of the language.
However, scholars have disproved both of these arguments. The Aramaic is the “Imperial” variety, which
was used throughout the Near East. Also,
the Aramaic is consistent with an early date.
In fact, Daniel and Ezra contain Aramaic that is very similar to that found
in papyrus documents that date to the fifth and sixth century BC. (Miller, 30-31)
o
Study
of the Hebrew that is used in Daniel has confirmed that it is consistent with
Hebrew in other books of the Bible of the same or earlier dates. It is also noticeably different from Hebrew
that is used in some of the Dead Sea Scrolls by writers in the Qumran community
in the first or second century BC.
(Miller, 31-32)
ARAMAIC IN DANIEL
Daniel
is written in two languages—Hebrew and Aramaic.
The languages are used in the following way:
·
Hebrew
in 1:1-2:4a and chapters 8-12
·
Aramaic
in 2:4b-7:28
The Aramaic portion is especially
pertinent to Gentile nations. It
includes the statue formed from a series of metals (succession of empires), the
image of gold and the fiery furnace, Nebuchadnezzar’s fall because of his
pride, the fall of Babylon to the Medes and Persians, Daniel and the lion’s
den, the four beasts (succession of empires).
The Hebrew portion is pertinent to the Hebrews. It includes the success of Daniel and his
friends when they refused the king’s meat, the ram and the goat (rise of
Antiochus Epiphanes and the Antichrist), the Seventy Weeks, the complex destiny
of the successors to Alexander the Great, the future destiny of the
righteous.
THE SETTING OF DANIEL
KING
|
REIGN BEGAN
|
REIGN ENDED
|
SON(S)
|
COMMENTS
|
|
Josiah
|
640
|
609
|
Jehoahaz
Eliakim
Mattaniah
|
||
Jehoahaz
|
609 (3 months)
|
||||
Jehoiakim
(= Eliakim)
|
609
|
598
|
Jehoiachin
|
In 605 Neb. conquered Judah and took
many captives to Babylon, including
Daniel.
|
FIRST
CAPTIVITY
|
Jehoiachin
|
598
|
597 (3 months)
|
Siege of Jerusalem, many exiles taken
to Babylon, ended Jehoiachin’s reign
|
SECOND
CAPTIVITY
|
|
Zedekiah
(Mattaniah)
|
597
|
586
|
A second siege resulted in the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple.
|
THIRD
CAPTIVITY
|
The
accompanying table, based on material in the NIV Study Bible, lists the five
last kings of Judah. During this time,
the dominating foreign power changed from Egypt to Babylon. In 605 BC, Nebuchadnezzar, the crown prince,
became king after his father’s death.
(Some scholars use a different basis for dating. Their dates would be about a year different
from the ones followed by the NIV Study Bible.)
During that year he defeated the Egyptians and invaded Judah. He took a number of the nobility from Judah
back to Babylon. Among these captives
was Daniel. The last date that is given
in Daniel is 537 BC (Daniel 10:1), so the narrative covers a period of about 68
years. Thus, Daniel was probably a
teenager when he arrived in Babylon. He
remained there throughout the reigns of Nebuchadnezzar, Nabonidus, and his son,
Belshazzar, as well during the defeat of Babylon by the Medes and Persians and
the early part of the reign of Cyrus.
We
do not have to have much imagination to picture the psychological shock
experienced by a young man from Judah, uprooted from his homeland and spending
(probably) the rest of his life in Babylon and the nearby area. He no longer had a king, a Temple, or the
strong cultural environment that had nurtured his people for 900 years. He was now living in a world dominated by a
pagan empire. The question for him
was: How do I remain a faithful Jew?
We
recognize that Daniel’s experience was a close parallel to the experience of
the Hebrew nation. Many had been
uprooted from their homeland and taken into Babylonian captivity. The nation no longer had a king, a Temple, or
many of the elements of its culture. The
nation—whether living in the Babylon area or remaining behind in Judah—was now
living in a world dominated by a pagan empire.
The question for the entire nation was:
How do we remain faithful Jews?
The
book of Daniel provides some of the answers to these questions. In the biographical sections, Daniel and his
friends demonstrated that they could live faithful lives in this new situation. They could eat kosher (chapter 1). They could resist idolatry (chapters 3 and
6). At the same time, they were able to
be contributing members of the society in which they lived. The implication is that the Jews of that era
could continue to be faithful Jews.
Not
only does Daniel point to the answer of how to live faithfully, it also
provides some answers to unasked questions that may have been in the hearts of
Jews of that time. What is God up
to? Has God abandoned Israel? What does the future hold? Daniel and his friends provided examples of
what it is to be faithful Jews. God
provided answers that demonstrate His faithfulness. Even though Israel had seemingly been
stripped of all that was precious to her, she still served a living God. Their God could see beyond the glory and
power of any one empire. In fact, God
showed Daniel that there would be a whole series of empires that would rise and
fall. He also showed Daniel that there
would someday be a Kingdom that would never fall, a Kingdom that would destroy
all the pagan empires and would fill the world. Although at the present the nation was an
insignificant province in the vast Babylonian Empire, it someday would play a
role in God’s great future.
I
think that, not only does Daniel speak to the Hebrew nation, but it also speaks
to the Christian today. We, also, live
in a world dominated by godless culture.
Though we once lived in a “Christian” western culture, we no longer are
under any illusions that we have been stripped of the prerogatives of
power. The question for us is: How do we remain faithful Christians? Just as Daniel and his friends were able to
live faithfully (but with considerable risk), we also have that same calling. Moreover, God has given us visions of the
future, in even greater clarity than Daniel’s visions. We can be assured that God has not abandoned
us and that God has a great future that we will be a part of.
Crossway Bibles (2009-04-09). ESV
Study Bible. Good News Publishers. Kindle Edition.
Miller, Stephen R. The New
American Commentary. Vol. 18. Daniel.
Nashville: Broadman &
Holman
Publ., 1994.
Zondervan Publishing. The NIV
Study Bible. Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publ., 2002.
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