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DANIEL, BOOK OF

The account of the activity and visions of Daniel, a noble Jew exiled at Babylon.

Contents

The book of Daniel contains two collections of material: (1) stories that describe the pious wisdom of four of the exiles (Dan. 2–6) and (2) vision reports ascribed to Daniel (chs. 7–12). Both the narratives and the vision reports give expression to the conflict of cultures.

The book sets the stage for these stories by reporting on the deportation of prominent citizens by Nebuchadnezzar. Even in this first story one notices the clash between the cultures of the Jews and their captors. This remains an element in the plots in subsequent stories — accounts which have become some of the most treasured Bible stories, such as the narratives of the fiery furnace (ch. 3) and the lions’ den (ch. 6). The cultural and theological conflict manifests itself in the description of the pagan rulers. Reports regarding the king who wanted a dream interpreted but refused to recount it for the interpreters (ch. 2) and Nebuchadnezzar’s bizarre display of eating grass like a cow (ch. 4) depict eccentric behavior. The most pointed critique of the Babylonian captors comes in ch. 5, from which we get the phrase “handwriting on the wall” from the description of the unexpected event at Belshazzar’s feast.

Themes of conflict continue in the vision reports. Now, however, the interplay between history and the celestial players becomes more explicit. Each report provides a cryptic version of the history of the empires and predicts a demise of the colonial system to be replaced by the reign of God and those faithful to God. The first vision report (ch. 7) recounts the passing of the world empires and the coming on the clouds of “one like a son of man” (7:13) who receives power from “the Ancient of Days.” A parallel can be drawn between this chapter and ch. 2, which also speaks of the end of empires replaced with a new reign of God. The first two vision reports use animal depictions for the empires. Just as ch. 4 portrays the king as not acting human, the vision reports categorize the empire as the pinnacle of humanity which is anything but human. The first vision features four beasts, the second (ch. 8) a ram and a goat. The vision reports are interrupted by prayer and a prediction of the future (ch. 9). The last and longest report (chs. 10–11) recounts the conflict between the Seleucid and Ptolemaic empires. The conclusion of the book describes Daniel receiving instruction from an angel interpreter, which occurs in the other vision reports as well. In this instruction, however, the text gives one of the earliest and most explicit biblical references to resurrection, life after death. The instruction also counsels secrecy until the proper time.

Problem of Bilingualism

The book of Daniel moves from Hebrew (1:1–2:4a) into Aramaic, which was the language of diplomatic activity at this time (2:4b–7:28), and returns to Hebrew (8:1–12:13). Even the materials from Qumran indicate the bilingual nature of the book. Scholars have offered a number of suggestions to explain this phenomenon.

Such proposals typically try to explain the bilingual character of the book through reconstruction of its redaction or composition. The shift in language becomes more acutely problematic because it does not fall at the change in literary form. One theory is that there was an Aramaic text to the entire book which is no longer available. However, the retroversion of the present Hebrew text into Aramaic yields this thesis unlikely. Hence a more complex redaction history must be offered. The narratives were circulated as individual stories brought together first in a collection encompassing 3:31 through 6:28 sometime during the 3rd century b.c.e. This collection was expanded by adding ch. 2. Ch. 7 was added to the Aramaic collection probably during the early Seleucid persecution. While still in the context of persecution chs. 8–12 were affixed. It is difficult to determine whether ch. 1 was written in Hebrew to act as an inclusio for the Aramaic collection (chs. 2–7) or whether it was composed in Hebrew as an introduction to the entire book as we have it.

Another strategy for understanding the bilingual nature of the book focuses on sociological parallels. This approach asks the question: How does bilingualism work in communities with disproportionate power? These scholars argue that bilingualism in the book of Daniel is a reflection of the colonial system. Colonized peoples maintain an indigenous language as well as the colonial language. The book of Daniel reflects this political function of language.

Both approaches provide clues about the function of bilingualism as both rhetorical strategy and an outgrowth of a redactional history.

Date

The debated data come in three categories: linguistic, historical allusions, and knowledge of Persian and Hellenistic customs. While the narratives describe a Babylonian setting, only a minority of scholars accept this assertion at face value. The majority claim that the data suggest more realistically a 2nd-century Hellenistic context. Although the linguistic evidence is meager, the presence of Greek and Persian loanwords would seem to indicate a Hellenistic context. Historical problems plague chs. 1–6. The date of Nebuchadnezzar’s campaign into Jerusalem in 606 seems unlikely according to Babylonian sources, but rather seems to be dependent on 2 Chr. 36:6. The designation of Belshazzar as king seems to be less than accurate; he was rather co-regent with his father but never king in his own right. Another problem is Darius the Mede. A number of rulers of the Persian Empire were named Darius, but none of them a Mede. No Median Empire reigned over Babylon between the Neo-Babylonian and Persian empires. While the narratives contain a number of problems with regard to historical allusions, the references in ch. 11 seem very accurate up to the description of the persecution in 167. However, the prediction about the death of Antiochus IV Epiphanes in 164 does not conform with other sources, which indicate a date a little after 167. If one understands ch. 11 as vaticinia ex eventu (prophecy after the fact), then a 2nd-century date seems most appropriate. However, if one accepts the possibility of detailed forecasting, then the setting depicted in the text is viable (the problems of historical accuracy alluded to above persist, nonetheless).

Placement in the Canon

The book of Daniel maintains a different placement in the Hebrew Bible than in the Christian OT. Both arrangements were informed by the location of the story line in history. The Hebrew Bible places Daniel in the collection of Writings (Ketubim) between Esther and Ezra-Nehemiah. This is because according to the narrative the events follow the intrigues described in the book of Esther and precede the reconstruction efforts of Ezra and Nehemiah. The Christian canon takes its order from the books of the Greek OT (LXX), in which Daniel follows Ezekiel, the last of the Major Prophets. It precedes the Book of the Twelve (the Minor Prophets).

While the Christian canon agrees on the placement of the book, there is no agreement on its scope. The Protestant Bible includes only those portions of Daniel contained in the Hebrew Bible, but Roman Catholic tradition follows the Greek text, including the Prayer of Azariah and the Song of the Three Young Men (or Children) in ch. 3 between vv. 23 and 24 and adding the stories of Susannah and Bel and the Dragon as chs. 13 and 14. In the Protestant Bible these are seen as additions and are regarded among the Apocrypha or Deuterocanonicals.

Bibliography. J. J. Collins, Daniel. Herm (Minneapolis, 1993); T. Craven, “Daniel and Its Additions,” in The Women’s Bible Commentary, ed. C. A. Newsom and S. H. Ringe (Louisville, 1992), 191-94; D. N. Fewell, Circle of Sovereignty: Plotting Politics in the Book of Daniel (Nashville, 1991); André Lacocque, The Book of Daniel (Atlanta, 1979); D. Smith, The Religion of the Landless (Bloomington, Ind., 1989).

Stephen Breck Reid

Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

DANIEL, BOOK OF

Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible (2000)