Introduction to Daniel

Daniel – Intro

Today we start the study of the book of Daniel. The Bible can be divided into various sections. In the simplest division, there is the Old Testament and  the New Testament.  Within the Old there are the first five books called the Pentateuch (or law books), then the historical books (which detail history), the Poetic books, and lastly the Prophetic books which can be further sub-divided into the major and minor prophets.  Daniel is considered (along with Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel) to be a major prophet. 

Authorship

Although there is some disagreement in academic circles, all conservative biblical scholars agree Daniel was the author of the book. Daniel claims authorship in Dan 12:4, and Jesus himself quotes Daniel in Mt 24:15 alluding to his authorship.

Historical Context

Daniel’s life spanned a turbulent period in the history of Israel and the World. To understand the book requires a knowledge of ancient history well beyond what the average person knows.  So, part of what we will endeavor to do over the next several weeks is to understand these times so we can make sense of the prophetic sections of the book.  It is not always easy, and there is a lot to unpack, but hopefully I can make it clear for you.

We will start with the Assyrians. The Assyrian empire can be traced back to almost 2600 BC when it started as a city state with the name of Assur located in the upper Tigris-Euphrates valley. Though under the influence of many other neighboring powers, Assur became a regional power in 1300 BC and developed into a dominating empire by 900 BC controlling what is now Syria, Iraq, and parts of Iran. By 650 BC it had extended to controlling what is now Lebanon, Jordan, the northern part of Israel, and parts of Saudi Arabia and Egypt.   Assyria is widely considered the world’s first super-power and reached the height of its power from 669-631 BC under king Ashurbanipal. Following his death in 631, the empire began to unravel, due to an internal power vacuum and a resulting civil war, and multiple rebellions along its borders. The most important thing to note here is the rise of a rebellious vassal state during this time by the name of Babylon. As Assyria continued to weaken, Babylon gained strength.  To stave off the advancing Babylonians, Egypt who was a vital trading partner and ally of Assyria, joined with the Assyrians to defeat the Babylonians.  Both armies engaged with the Babylonians over a period of about 11 years when they were both finally defeated at the battle of Carchemish in 605 BC by the Babylonians led by a man named Nebuchadnezzar. This battle ended the Assyrian empire and started the Babylonian empire.

Now let us try to relate this to Biblical history.  Remember by the time of Solomon’s death in 931 BC, 1 K 4:21 tells us the nation of Israel extended northward into Lebanon, southward to the Egyptian border, and eastward to the Euphrates River.  Once the kingdom divided, and because of persistent idolatry, God used the Assyrian’s, the Egyptians, and those kingdoms to the east (Moab, Ammon) to nibble away at Israels borders, and the country shrank dramatically.  Idolatry was so severe and persistent in the Northern Kingdom that God finally allowed it to be conquered by the Assyrian empire in 722 BC (see 2 K 17).  Its inhabitants were dispersed throughout the Assyrian empire and foreigners were brought to the land to repopulate it.  These foreigners intermarried with the remaining inhabitants and the result was the Samaritans of Jesus’s day.  Judah remained an independent but small and vulnerable country between Egypt and Assyria.  As you know, Judah had some good and godly kings and some evil ones.  Josiah, the last of the good kings ascended the throne at the age of 8, in 641 BC.  In 609 BC Josiah attempted to prevent King Neco of Egypt from transversing Judah as he was on his way to assist the Assyrians against Babylon. This resulted in Josiah’s death ( at the battle of Megiddo) and his son Jehoahaz ascended the throne and lasted 3 months.  2 K 23:32 says he did evil, and Pharaoh Neco removed him from office and made Jehoiakim king. After the battle of Carchemish (in northwest Syria) Nebuchadnezzar moved south and laid siege to Jerusalem, at which time he conquered Judah and made Jehoiakim a vassal king (2 K 24:1).  It is at this time that Neb makes the first deportation of exiles to Babylon. Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah were included in this group.  Three years later (602 BC) Jehoiakim rebelled.  2 K 24:2 tells us the Lord initially sent bands of Arameans, Moabites, and Ammonites to destroy Judah on account of its previous and current sins.  Then Neb came himself in 597 BC  and laid siege again to the country.  While Neb laid siege to Jerusalem, Jehoiakim died and his son, Jehoiachin took the throne but ruled only three months before Neb took the city.  Neb then made the second deportation as described in 2 K 24:10-16. This is the time when Ezekiel the prophet was deported. Neb appointed Jehoiachin’s uncle, Mattaniah (whose name was changed to Zedekiah by Neb) as a puppet king. The third and last siege occurred in 586 BC, when the city was sacked and destroyed resulting in the third deportation as described in 2 K 25. Daniel had already been in Babylon for 19 years before Jerusalem was destroyed. In Dan 1:1 and Dan 10:1 we see the scope of Daniels life and ministry.  He spanned the years 605 BC (Dan1:1) to 536 BC (Dan 10:1), a time of 69 years!

Purpose

Daniel has three main purposes:

1. To show how a Jew should live in a Gentile world when the law was still in effect.
2. To reveal God is sovereign and in control, even though Israel had been defeated.  This needs a bit further explanation as in the ancient world if one nation defeated another it was viewed as one nation’s god defeating the other nation’s god: and since Babylon had defeated Israel, it was obvious to the Babylonians that their God was stronger than the God of Israel.  Yet Daniel shows the opposite is true.
3. To be a comfort and demonstrate God’s provision for his people despite their captivity. 

Theme

The theme of the book is the period known as the “Times of the Gentiles” (TOG).   It is the period of history dating from the fall of Jerusalem in 586 BC to the second coming sometime in the future.  This period is characterized by Gentile control of the land. Since 586 BC, Israel has at times regained its sovereignty (the Maccabean period 163-63 BC, the 1^st Jewish revolt 66-70 AD, the 2^nd Jewish Revolt 132-135 AD, and 1948 to present), but these periods have been transient and have eventually defaulted back to Gentile control.  We will examine the TOG in much greater detail as we progress, but the pertinent passages are Dan 2:31-45, Dan 7:1-28, Rev 13:1-10, and Rev 17:7-14. In short, Daniel speaks of the TOG in terms of the rise and fall of five great empires. The first is the Neo-Babylonian, the second the Medo-Persian, followed by the Hellenistic Empire, then Imperialism.  Imperialism is a state policy rather than an Empire, and since Imperialism started with Rome, many commentators call the fourth empire, Rome. However, imperialism did not end with Rome, so it is better to call this fourth period “imperialism.”  According to Dan 2 and 7, it will have five stages: the united stage (the Roman empire), a divided stage (east-west division of Rome), a one world government stage, a ten-division stage, and finally the anti-Christ stage. Then the fifth Empire begins, the Messianic Kingdom and the TOG ends. 

Characteristics of the Book

Style

The Book of Daniel is known as an apocalyptic work.  The Greek word apocalypse means to “unveil.” A book is apocalyptic when it has the following attributes:

1. It contains supernatural and symbolic visions.
2. The visions are given during times of oppression.
3. A Divine Interpreter explains the visions.
4. The visions are recorded as seen by the author.
5. The theological content is prophetic or eschatological.

Other Biblical books that fit these criteria are Ezekiel, Zechariah, and Revelation.

Language

Daniel is written in both Hebrew and Aramaic.  Aramaic was the language of Babylon and originated sometime in the 11th century BC, and by the 8^th century BC it had become the second language of the Assyrian Empire. Once Babylon came to power it became the official language of the new Empire and carried over to the Medes once they conquered Babylon in 536 BC.  As the Israelites were taken captive in 605, 597, and again in 586, Aramaic began to replace Hebrew as the common language of the captives. Daniel’s intention of writing in both languages was to address two different audiences.  The Hebrew portion of Daniel was intended for the Jews as a message of comfort and deliverance, while the Aramaic portion of Daniel was intended for a Gentile audience and carries a message of the prophetic history of the Gentiles.

Chronology

Daniel was not primarily writing history in his book; rather he was developing a theme (the TOG) hence the book is not written in chronological order.  Chronologically the book was written as follows:

1. Chapter 1
2. Chapter 2
3. Chapter 3
4. Chapter 4
5. Chapter 7
6. Chapter 8
7. Chapter 5
8. Chapter 9
9. Chapter 6
10. Chapter 10-12.

Miracles

God usually works through history within the framework of normal events, however, there have been periods where He demonstrated his power through supranatural events or miracles. These events usually occur in clusters and since creation there have been four such periods: the time of the Exodus and the wilderness wanderings, the time of Elijah and Elisha, the time of Daniel, and the period of the Gospels and Acts.  These periods were all associated with unique leaders (Moses, Elijah, Elisha, Daniel, Jesus, Peter, and Paul) who were called upon to perform miracles for specific purposes. As noted, Daniel is one such period and we will see God supernaturally display his power to bear witness to his Sovereignty and Preeminence. 

Outline

There are three ways in which scholars have divided the book. 

1. The traditional approach divides Daniel according to content.  The reason this method came to be is that chapters 1-6 deal with primarily historical events while chapters 7-12 deal with prophetic events.
2. The second approach is to divide the book linguistically, as the book is written in both Hebrew and Aramaic. In this case the Hebrew section can be viewed as intended for the Jew while the Aramaic section is intended for the Gentile. More specifically, Dan 1-2:3 is in Hebrew and contains an introduction and history of Daniel. Dan 2:4 through chapter 7 is in Aramaic and contains prophecy directed at Gentiles. Dan 8-12 is in Hebrew and details Israel’s history and deliverance during the times of the Gentiles.
3. The third approach is to divide the book topically, which is what we will do for our study. Each chapter has one topic, except for the last three chapters (which are a single vision). In this method we can outline the book as follows:

Chapter 1, Introduction and Daniels training in Babylon.

Chapter 2, The Dream of the Image.

Chapter 3, The Golden image of Nebuchadnezzar.

Chapter 4, The Dream of the Great Tree.

Chapter 5, The Feast of Belshazzar, and the fall of Babylon.

Chapter 6, Daniel in the Lion’s Den.

Chapter 7, The Four Beasts.

Chapter 8, The Ram, and the He-Goat

Chapter 9, The Seventy Sevens.

Chapter 10, 11,12, The Final Vision.