The book of Daniel is named after the prophet of the same name who likely went into Babylonian captivity around 605 BC when the Babylonians first began to dominate Judah. The title for the book is the same in both the Hebrew version and the Greek Septuagint.
Author of Daniel
The book of Daniel nowhere makes a statement of who authors the book. The book is written in the third person, which does not preclude Daniel himself from being the author of the book, although this would be unusual. However, there are many scholars who date the book to the second century B.C. as opposed to the 6th century B.C., which would disqualify Daniel as the author. While some more liberal commentators have divided Daniel up into as many as nine different parts, most scholars of Daniel still see the work as being that of one individual. Others have suggested that one of the “wise ones,” sages from the time between the testaments, could have authored of the book.
Date of Daniel
There are two major viewpoints on the date of Daniel. The traditional viewpoint is that the book was composed during or not long after the events of Daniel’s life, perhaps around 530 B.C. The other viewpoint is that Daniel was written in the 2nd century about 150 BC after the Maccabean revolt.
The primary reason behind this later date has to do with chapters 8, 10, and 11, which give a relatively complete history of the Greek period in Israel with both the Seleucids (kings of the South) and the Ptolemies (kings of the North). What is argued by those who advocate a 2nd century date is that the history recorded is ex eventu (“after the fact”).
For those of an evangelical perspective, the ability of God to communicate the future to a mortal man is unproblematic. However, there are additional arguments that advocate for a 2nd century B.C. dating. First is the location of Daniel in the third section of the Hebrew canon, the Writings, as opposed to being in the prophets. It is thought that many of the Writings were composed later and accepted as canon later. Second, the pagan critic Porphyry, in his critique of Christians, denied that Daniel was the author. Third, the Aramaic of the book fits better with the 2nd century than the 6th century B.C. Fourth is the use of apocalyptic literature in the book which is usually more common from 200 B.C. to A.D. 200. Fifth, the appearance of three Greek words would suggest a later date. Finally, there are some possible historical issues with the book.
“The traditional viewpoint is that the book was composed during or not long after the events of Daniel’s life, perhaps around 530 B.C.”
While these challenges seem to be significant, at closer examination, none of them seem to hold much merit.
- The location of a book in the Writings section of the Hebrew Bible does not portend anything about its date. Some consider Job the oldest of the biblical books, and it is located in the Writings.
- Porphyry, the student of the Neo-Platonist Plotinus disliked Christians and wrote a variety of works against them and so has a certain bias.
- The Aramaic of the book now has been deemed to better match a sixth-century date than a second-century date.
- Apocalyptic literature, while most common between 200 B.C. to A.D. 200 can be found also in books like Ezekiel (a contemporary of Daniel), Joel, Isaiah, and Zechariah.
- The Greek words found in Daniel that supposedly suggest a late date are all musical instruments, and Herodotus mentioned that Greek musicians served in Nebuchadnezzar’s court.
- At least some of the historical issues have been resolved.
The most popular historical issue, regarding the historicity of the last king of Babylon, Belshazzar, has been resolved. Although the ancient historian Herodotus notes that Nabonidus was the last king of Babylon, a more recent look at the remains of Babylon have yielded some inscriptions mentioning Belshazzar who was the son of Nabonidus and was likely co-regent for a short time before the fall of the city to Cyrus.
Considering these answers to the objections, there seems to be no reason to discount that Daniel could have been written as early as the sixth century B.C. In fact, since the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls, which has a scroll of Daniel dating to 125 B.C. (a mere 25 years after its supposed second-century composition), the sixth-century date for the book seems much more likely.
“Considering these answers to the objections, there seems to be no reason to discount that Daniel could have been written as early as the sixth century B.C.”
Outline of Daniel
Daniel can be outlined in a variety of ways. Perhaps the simplest is the division between chapters 1 through 6 and 7 through 12, with the first part being mostly court tales about Daniel and his friends while the last chapters are prophecies.
Daniel and the Canon
Daniel is found in the third grouping of the Hebrew Bible known as the Chetubim (the Writings), but in the English Classification system he is one of the Major Prophets. So, is Daniel a prophet or not?
There are prophecies in Daniel, but most of the material is personal stories about Daniel, much in the same line as Joseph, another dream interpreter serving a foreign court. From this perspective, Daniel’s place in the Writings seems understandable, as the Writings contain much of the Wisdom literature, and so stories about a wise man could fit naturally there.
Yet Jesus references the Abomination of Desolation from the book of Daniel in Matthew 24 and says that “as it was spoken by the prophet.” This would suggest that, at least during Jesus’ day, Daniel was considered a prophet. It has been suggested that the Jews might have “demoted” Daniel because Christians were making such good use of the book, though the evidence for this is uncertain.
“At least during Jesus’ day, Daniel was considered a prophet.”
Another complicating issue is the textual history of Daniel. There are several different texts of Daniel. The Hebrew/Aramaic version of Daniel is different from the Old Greek, which is different from the later Septuagint (particularly Theodotion’s) version.
The Septuagint version in particular has several additions that are not found in the Hebrew Bible. These additions include the Song of the Three Holy Children in chapter 3, the story of Susanna as an additional chapter 13, followed by Bel and the Dragon (i.e., chapter 14). These additions are found in Catholic and Orthodox Bibles as part of the Apocrypha. However, no text of Daniel found at Qumran (and there were at least six, as it was one of the more attested books) includes these additions. It seems the version of Daniel that was accepted as authoritative was the shorter text we find in the Hebrew/Aramaic Version and in the shorter Old Greek Version.
Overview of Daniel
Daniel 1-6
Daniel begins with the taking of Daniel, Hananiah, Azariah, and Mishael to Babylon from their home country of Judah in about 605 B.C. They are there to serve in the court of the Babylonian monarch Nebuchadnezzar II. They all undergo a period of training in Babylonian culture, language, and customs and are given Babylonian names.
However, Daniel, not wishing to defile himself with the king’s allotted food, asks for himself and his three friends to be tested for ten days on a diet of vegetables and water. After ten days, Daniel and his friends look healthier and stronger than the other students, and so they continue on this diet. At the end of the training period, Nebuchadnezzar tests the students and finds no one the equal of Daniel and his three friends.
We also learn that Daniel, like Joseph before him, has the ability to interpret dreams. This ability to interpret dreams will come in handy in chapter 2 as Nebuchadnezzar will have a dream of which no one can tell him both the dream and the interpretation. In frustration, he decides to kill all the wise men of Babylon. After asking for some time, Daniel and his three friends pray, and the dream and its interpretation are revealed to Daniel. Nebuchadnezzar’s rage turns to relief as Daniel relates the dream of the great statue made of four metals with clay in the feet. Then Daniel gives the interpretation. Nebuchadnezzar promotes Daniel and, at Daniel’s request, his three friends.
“Nebuchadnezzar promotes Daniel and, at Daniel’s request, his three friends.”
Daniel 3 has Nebuchadnezzar set up a golden statue (presumably in honor of the fact that he was the head of gold in Daniel 2’s dream) and orders everyone to worship. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego refuse even under threat of the being cast into the fiery furnace. They are thrown in but are delivered by a mysterious character who looks, according to Nebuchadnezzar, like a son of the god(s). Nebuchadnezzar is impressed and orders that no one should say anything bad about their God.
In Daniel 4, Nebuchadnezzar has another dream and has Daniel brought in. Daniel is distressed for the king, for it is not a good interpretation. The king will lose his throne due to his pride unless he repents. A year later, Nebuchadnezzars boasts about his kingdom and all that he has built, and in response, a voice comes from heaven stating that Nebuchadnezzar will be driven from his throne and will live like an animal for “seven times” until he recognizes that the Most High rules and gives kingdoms and authority to whomever He chooses. Nebuchadnezzar loses his mind (perhaps a disease called boanthropy?) and lives as if he were an animal for the seven times. His hair grows out and his fingernails become like talons. After this, his sanity is restored, and he acknowledges and praises the God Most High.
“Nebuchadnezzar has another dream and has Daniel brought in.”
Chapter 5 dates almost 25 years later. At this time, Belshazzar with Persian armies at his gates holds a great drunken feast and brings out the vessels of the LORD that Nebuchadnezzar had taken from Jerusalem and uses them for his party. He then praises the gods of gold, silver, bronze, wood, and stone. A disembodied hand appears and writes on the plaster of the wall, “Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin.” None of the Babylonian wise men can read the script, and so the queen mother tells Belshazzar to summon Daniel, who reads the oracle judgment against Belshazzar. That very night the Persian army breaks in and Belshazzar dies.
Control of Babylon now passes to the Persians under a somewhat mysterious character, Darius. Darius will appoint various governors to oversee the empire, but Daniel will quickly rise to the top as being the most faithful. However, Daniel’s success causes jealousy to arise among the other officials, and they try to find some way to tear him down in the eyes of Darius.
Since Daniel remains faithful in all his work, the other officials turn their attention to trying to catch Daniel in regard to the law of his God. These officials trick Darius into issuing a law forbidding praying to anyone but the king. Daniel, of course, cannot abide this law and is soon caught praying. Daniel is cast into the lion’s den for execution, though Darius is heartbroken about losing Daniel. However, Daniel is delivered by an angel in the night who closes the mouths of the lions. When Darius finds Daniel alive and well, he brings him out and executes the officials (and their families) who tried to get rid of Daniel.
Daniel 7-12
The second part of Daniel begins in chapter 7. This section of Daniel is composed of many vision reports. Chapter 7 begins with a vision of four beasts (which parallels the metals of the statue in chapter 2). These four beasts symbolize different world empires that will rise and fall before the God’s great intervention in human history.
Chapter 8 describes two other beasts, a two-horned ram with one longer horn which seems to run over all the earth. However, it is put down by a he-goat with a single prominent horn. This longer horn is broken into 4 smaller horns, of which out of one of those smaller horns grows another horn that blasphemes.
In Chapter 9, Daniel is reading in Jeremiah about the seventy-year captivity. Noting that this should be about to end causes Daniel to offer a prayer of confession and repentance. In response to Daniel’s prayer, the angel Gabriel tells Daniel the famous seventy-week prophecy which involves the appearance of the Messiah and—for some systems of the end times—the Antichrist. We will give a possibility of interpretation of this famed and difficult passage in the next section.
“In response to Daniel’s prayer, the angel Gabriel tells Daniel the famous seventy-week prophecy which involves the appearance of the Messiah.”
Chapter 10 recounts of a vision Daniel has that disturbs him. His prayer for guidance ends up with a three-week delay in which finally an angelic messenger comes to explain to Daniel what is coming in the future days. The angel explains that he was in combat against the “prince of Persia” which is likely a demon and was held up until the archangel Michael intervened.
In chapter 11, the angel explains various events of the history between the Old and New Testaments starting with the Persian period and then the rise of Alexander the Great, followed by the division of Alexander’s kingdom. The focus of the chapter is on the kings of the North (Seleucids) and the kings of the South (Ptolemies) and their conflicts and their interactions with the Jews. Reference is made to the desecration of the Jewish temple by Antiochus Epiphanies and the subsequent Maccabean Revolt.
Chapter 12 ends with Daniel’s asking for more clarification when these things will be, and the angel tells him to seal the book and go his way until the resurrection from the dead.
Key Passages
Daniel is a complex book, and its complexity is only magnified by the fact that different systems of eschatology (end times) use the book in different ways.
Daniel 2
Daniel 2 and 7 parallel each other in that they both speak of the future ruling empires/kings. The debate of chapter 2 concerns the “stone cut without human hands.” For those who take a premillennial view, this stone is the Millennial kingdom of the Christ as some have argued that Revelation 20 speaks of. However, this “kingdom” is set up during the period of the kingdom of “iron,” which most view as the Roman Empire. For this millennial interpretation to be correct, some form of revived Roman empire would be necessary. For those who take a more Amillennial approach, the iron kingdom is the Roman empire, with the stone representing the church as the “stone cut without human hands.”
“Daniel 2 and 7 parallel each other in that they both speak of the future ruling empires/kings.”
Daniel 7
Interpretation of Daniel 7 tends to focus on the last beast, a terrifying beast that swallows up the previous three beasts. This beast has a particular detail of having ten horns (with the horn usually symbolic of power or kings). One of those horns will uproot three others. In the premillennial view, this little horn is probably a reference to the Antichrist in the renewed Roman Empire.
In the Amillennial perspective, these horns are typically seen as Roman emperors. The little horn that blasphemes may be Domitian. During the year of the four emperors after Nero died (A.D. 68), Domitian’s father, Vespasian, eventually became emperor in the year that three previous emperors had been deposed, which fits well with the details of Daniel 7. Domitian ruled as proxy for Vespasian for a brief time.
Later Domitian would be emperor in his own right and would demand worship as a god (which was a new development for Roman emperors while they were yet living). This would serve as context for the first great empire-wide persecution of Christians. It was likely at Domitian’s order that John was put into exile on the isle of Patmos where John saw the vision that became the book of Revelation.
“Interpretation of Daniel 7 tends to focus on the last beast, a terrifying beast that swallows up the previous three beasts.”
The Seventy Weeks
Perhaps the most challenging passage to interpret in Daniel—and some believe in the whole of Scripture—is the seventy-weeks prophecy of Daniel 9:24-27. There are more than a dozen different ways in which interpreters have suggested this prophecy should be understood. There is not space here to go over all of them, but an outline of one of the more popular views is possible.
Daniel 9:24 tells us that “seventy weeks” are declared for God’s people to put an end to transgressions and the sealing of visions and prophecy. It is understood by just about every interpretation that these “weeks” are “weeks of years,” so in this case 490 years. The start date of these 490 years is found in verse 25 where it begins with a decree to rebuild Jerusalem. Three possible dates could be suggested: 539 B.C., 458 B.C., and 444 B.C. (the returns of Zerubbabel, Ezra, and Nehemiah respectively). Of these, 458 B.C. seems to match up the best with the rest of the information given.
Verse 25 also states that there will be 7 weeks and then 62 weeks (or 69 weeks total) until the anointed one (Messiah) appears. The total of 69 weeks of years (7 multiplied by 69) works out to be 483 years. 458 B.C. plus 483 years (remember that there is no year 0) puts us at a date of A.D. 26 which corresponds to the beginning of Jesus’ earthly ministry. We learn in verse 26 that the Messiah will be cut off and the prince who is to come (Roman general Titus) will destroy the city.
“Perhaps the most challenging passage to interpret in Daniel—and some believe in the whole of Scripture—is the seventy-weeks prophecy of Daniel 9:24-27.”
Some difficulty involves understanding verse 27. Who makes the covenant for a week, but in the middle of it puts a stop to the sacrifices and grain offering? While some see the Roman general Titus who destroys the city in A.D. 70, and others see an Antichrist figure, it could be that Christ Himself ends the sacrifices. The “half a week” or three-and-a-half years added to A.D. 26 would bring us to A.D. 30, the likely date of Christ’s crucifixion.
There are a variety of opinions concerning that last “half week” (3.5 years) of this seventy-week prophecy. If we are looking at A.D. 30-34, one possibility is that A.D. 34 is when the first Gentiles enter the church as well as perhaps the conversion of Paul. Some, however, look to the dates A.D. 66-70 which correspond to the first Jewish revolt. Still others look to the far future during a Tribulation period brought forth by an Antichrist.
Archaeological Insights
There are a variety of archaeological remains that corroborate at least some of the events and places of Daniel. Both Babylon and Susa, locations where Daniel saw his visions have long been excavated. Nebuchadnezzar left his name on many of the bricks that built Babylon, and the Babylonian Chronicles mentioned much of the events of his reign. Jehoiachin, the exiled king of Judah is mentioned by some Babylonian ration tablets. Belshazzar, the last “king” of Babylon is mentioned in a few inscriptions. Finally, Cyrus’s grave is known as well as the Cyrus Cylinder, in which is found the proclamation to allow captive peoples to return to their homeland.
For Further Reading
Daniel is a fairly popular book to write commentaries on, likely due to both its Messianic content and at least some perceived eschatological (end times) material. However, it is bit challenging to find well-done conservative treatments of Daniel that are not overwhelmed with premillennial dispensationalism. For a conservative Amillennial viewpoint, Edward Young’s dated but well-written book is a good starting point. Tremper Longman’s NIV Application Commentary is a more up-to-date work, though he does not argue as strongly a more conservative stance. If one prefers a premillennial perspective on Daniel, then the New American Commentary on Daniel by Stephen Miller would be an excellent choice.
