BIBLE STUDY --- TANAKH --- HISTORICAL BOOKS

THE BOOK OF DANIEL --- PART 2

PURPOSE AND THEOLOGICAL TEACHING

The scriptural section of the Old Testament called the Writings served a variety of purposes. The psalms, for example, were used primarily in Israel’s worship. The proverbs may have been part of Israel’s school curriculum. The book of Job addressed a specific human and theological problem. The purpose of the book of Daniel is not so easy to determine, since it is essentially a story, a partial biography of Daniel. It is not strictly a prophetic book, nor is it history in the modern sense. Much of it is concerned with dreams and their interpretations. Nevertheless, the word “history” provides a clue to its purpose. Daniel seeks to provide theological understanding of history. The first six chapters talks about Daniel and his companions, not merely to satisfy historical curiosity but to teach the reader. Old Testament theology insisted that the YHVH of Israel participated in human life and history. To read biblical history therefore, is to discover YHVH’s participation in human affairs and to learn how YHVH and human beings relate to each other. In the opening chapters of Daniel, one reads of events in the life of a man of remarkable faith, the kind of history from which one may learn how to live. The last six chapters focus on Daniel’s dreams. Although neither the dreams nor the interpretations are easy to understand, it is possible to see the theme of history emerging again. The emphasis in chapters 7–12 is not on history as a record of past events but on the meaning of history and the world’s future. In the biblical perspective, the movements of human societies in the present and future matter as much as past history. Though Daniel’s visions are dominated by nations and superpowers, they have a more basic theme: YHVH’s power over human beings and nations. History often appears to be a conglomeration of chaos and human conflict. Yet YHVH ultimately controls history and moves it toward a goal. In spite of ambiguous details at the end of the book, Daniel provides hope for people living in a time of crisis. Even if what is said about the “time of the end” cannot be understood now {Daniel 12:9}, the end of history is full of hope for those with faith in YHVH {verse 13}. The purpose of the book of Daniel thus has to do with the meaning of history, both what can be learned from the past and what can be hoped for in the present and future. The book also contains specific theological statements on such matters as human faith, divine salvation, and the nature of revelation. One theological matter in Daniel deserves particular attention: the doctrine of resurrection. The New Testament’s clear doctrine of resurrection followed by judgment is not a central theme in the Old Testament. For the most part, the Hebrews’ faith was fixed on the realities of earthly life. Hope for life beyond the grave is hinted at in many texts but remains implicit. Only in the later writings of the Old Testament, especially those of Ezekiel and Daniel, does a more explicit doctrine of resurrection develop. The focal point of that doctrine in the book of Daniel is 12:2: “Many of those whose bodies lie dead and buried will rise up, some to everlasting life and some to shame and everlasting contempt”. The doctrine of personal resurrection provides a basis for individual hope within an understanding of present and future history. Nations move against nations in apparent turmoil. YHVH is believed to be in ultimate control, but what becomes of all the people who die while history is still in motion? The dead shall rise again, says Daniel, and in their resurrection, bodies shall be judged according to their deeds. Some will be rewarded with everlasting life, but others will be condemned to shame. To the readers of the book of Daniel, the doctrine of resurrection provided hope in an otherwise bleak and hopeless world. It was a reminder that the actions of earthly life are important -- they form the basis of future judgment. The world has a larger horizon of life beyond the body’s death. Ultimately, there will be justice, even though justice is rarely seen in the present existence. Evildoers may live without ever being punished. Yet beyond the death of the body lies a final judgment characterized by YHVH’s justice. So, the book of Daniel is about history and hope. Life must be lived now; for that, the book offers in the first six chapters the insight of Daniel’s experience. Life is lived in the context of war and international chaos; for that, chapters 7–12 depict YHVH’s sovereignty and his purposes in history. Individual life moves toward death; for that, the writer speaks of resurrection and judgment.

CONTENT: STORIES ABOUT DANIEL {1–6}

DANIEL AND HIS COMPANIONS {1:1-21}

Daniel and his companions -- Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah -- were exiled to Babylon some 19 years before the main exile following the destruction of Jerusalem. The four healthy young men, selected from among many Jewish exiles, were at the command of King Nebuchadnezzar assigned to a special three-year training program to make them court aides. As soon as the four Jewish youths entered Babylon’s high society, they faced a dietary problem. The king provided them with the best food and wine from the royal kitchens, but a Jew’s diet was restricted by the Laws of YHVH {see Deuteronomy 14}. The four asked for a diet of vegetables and water, not to be fussy or ungrateful, but to remain faithful to their YHVH. The story tells how the dietary situation worked out and sees them through their education and Daniel’s appointment as a royal counsellor. The first episode thus focuses on a key issue faced by all Jewish exiles: How could one live in a foreign land, with foreign food and customs, yet remain faithful to YHVH and his Laws? Daniel provided a model. He was courageous enough not to compromise, but wise enough to seek a solution acceptable to all. His faithfulness was rewarded by YHVH. By the end of the episode, Daniel is seen as a person with special wisdom and gifts from YHVH. The rest of his life was marked by the exercise of those gifts.

NEBUCHADNEZZAR’S DREAM {2:1-49}

The king had a dream and, although he could not remember its substance, it weighed heavily on his mind. When his corps of professional interpreters could do nothing for him, he ordered that they be executed. The king’s order included Daniel and his companions, whose training qualified them as interpreters. Daniel obtained a stay of execution by offering to interpret the dream. After prayer, Daniel received from YHVH both the substance of the dream and its interpretation, which he relayed to the king. The grateful Nebuchadnezzar promoted Daniel and his companions to important positions in Babylon. Although the writer recorded both the king’s dream and Daniel’s interpretation, the problem for a modern reader is how to interpret the interpretation. The king saw in his dream a statue, with head of gold, chest and arms of silver, belly and thighs of brass, legs of iron, and feet of part iron and part clay. The interpretation identified Nebuchadnezzar as the head of gold. His kingdom would be followed by three other kingdoms, each represented by the statue’s parts and substances. At that point modern interpretations begin to diverge. A common interpretation of the four sequential kingdoms is as follows: Chaldean Empire {gold}, Medo-Persian Empire {silver}, Greece {brass}, Rome {iron and clay}. Others suggest an alternative interpretation: Chaldean Empire {gold}, Media {silver}, Persia {brass}, Greece {iron and clay}. To focus too much attention on identifying the four kingdoms can result in failure to see the chapter’s key feature. From the midst of those human kingdoms, “During the reigns of those kings, the YHVH of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed; no one will ever conquer it. It will shatter all these kingdoms into nothingness, but it will stand forever” {2:44}. The Babylonian king’s dream anticipated the coming of a greater kingdom, that of Yeshua Moshiach.

THE FIERY FURNACE {3:1-30}

The story continues, focusing on Daniel’s three friends and using their Babylonian names -- Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. King Nebuchadnezzar constructed a massive gold statue, 90 feet {27.4 meters} high. At its dedication ceremony everyone was required to bow down and worship as a band began to play. The three young Hebrews, who refused to worship, were summoned before the king. Their continued firm refusal led to a sentence of execution, and they were thrown into a fiercely burning furnace. Remarkably, they did not burn, and a fourth being appeared with them in the furnace. As they emerged unharmed from the ordeal, the king acknowledged YHVH’s power of salvation and rewarded them. The story illustrates a second dilemma of the Jews in exile. Faithfulness to YHVH’s first Commandment, “You shall have no other gods before me” {Deuteronomy 5:7}, could lead to death. The three young men were faithful -- not out of confidence that YHVH would rescue them, but whether or not he chose to spare their lives {Daniel 3:17-18}. As it happened, YHVH delivered them; they were tossed into the furnace bound, but they came out free men. The message was profound: certainly, the Jews should believe in a YHVH able to deliver from the flames of persecution, but they should believe and hold fast even if no deliverance could be seen beyond the trial.

NEBUCHADNEZZAR’S SECOND DREAM AND MADNESS {4:1-37}

On two occasions Nebuchadnezzar had confessed faith in the living YHVH: when Daniel had interpreted his dream of the statue {2:47}, and on the release of Daniel’s three companions from the furnace {3:28}. Nonetheless, the king’s faith was shallow. The story in chapter 4 recounts a lapse of faith that brought terrible consequences. After eight years, when those consequences had run their course, the king again acknowledged YHVH {4:37}. The entire story is presented in the form of a proclamation, written by Nebuchadnezzar and widely circulated after the events in the story had transpired. The king dreamed of a tall tree growing in a field to ever greater heights. A divine messenger ordered the tree cut down, with only a stump and roots left in the ground. The stump and roots then took the form of a man, but the man’s mind was replaced with that of an animal. For seven years that semi-human creature behaved like a beast. Daniel showed the king how the dream applied to the king himself. Nebuchadnezzar was the great tree that would be cut down; he would behave like a beast in the field for seven years. One year after the king had been told that interpretation, the judgment came. For seven years he behaved like an animal until his sanity returned. The moral of the king’s story is that his madness was no accident but rather divine judgment. His arrogant belief that he had the power of YHVH led to heavy retribution {4:30}. The king was probably afflicted with a rare and peculiar form of mental illness today called “boanthropy.” The true meaning of the story lies at a deeper level: to think that one is YHVH, having absolute power and control of one’s own life, is madness. That kind of madness can be cured and overcome only with the realization that absolute power and authority belong to YHVH alone.

BELSHAZZAR’S FEAST {5:1-31}

The scene shifts to the reign of a later king in Babylon, Belshazzar. The son of Nabonidus, he was probably co-regent with Nabonidus {555 – 539 BC}, with special authority in the region of Babylon. The theme of his story is similar to that of chapter 4. Belshazzar, in the course of an enormous feast, called for the sacred vessels captured from the temple in Jerusalem. With the sacred vessels the Babylonians toasted the local gods, a sacrilegious act that invited divine judgment. It came in the form of words written on the wall by a hand, which Daniel interpreted for the king as words of judgment {5:26-28}. Although he praised Daniel for the interpretation, the king missed both the true meaning of the words and the lesson taught to Nebuchadnezzar, his predecessor {verses 18-22}. Belshazzar was killed that very night when Darius the Mede entered the city and captured it. The theme continues remorselessly: human pride and arrogance do not pass unnoticed by the YHVH of history, who controls and directs human events toward the fulfilment of his purpose.

THE DEN OF LIONS {6:1-28}

The theme of chapter 6 is similar to that of chapter 3, but with Daniel as the story’s central figure. He is portrayed as one unwilling to compromise, fully obedient to Darius as long as that was possible, but unwilling to disobey the Law of YHVH. Hence, Daniel knowingly disobeyed a royal decree that prohibited prayer to anyone other than the king himself. Although he was aware of the consequences, Daniel remained faithful to YHVH. The immediate outcome, when his enemies reported him, was an order of execution -- Daniel was thrown to the lions. He was delivered from the hungry cats, and the king, relieved of a terrible predicament, had the plotters punished. A double message emerges from the story. On the one hand, YHVH’s servant must be faithful in prayer and worship, regardless of the outcome; YHVH delivers, and in that case did deliver Daniel from disaster. On the other hand, the effect of Daniel’s faithfulness was that the king, who had ordered his subjects to worship him, learned about true worship {6:25-27}. The effects of faithfulness, like ripples from a pebble tossed in a pool, spread far beyond the one who is faithful.

CONTENT: DANIEL’S VISIONS {7–12}

With the beginning of chapter 7 the chronological sequence of the book of Daniel changes; Daniel’s first vision goes back to the first year of Belshazzar {7:1}, but subsequent visions take place as late as the reign of Cyrus, the Persian king {10:1}. Chapters 7–12 emphasize the meaning of history and YHVH’s sovereignty in history, expressed in the mysterious symbolism of dreams. The whole section can be divided as follows:

1 -- vision of four beasts {7:1-28};
2 -- vision of the ram and the goat {8:1-27};
3 -- Daniel’s prayer {9:1-27};
4 -- vision of the end times {10:1–12:13}.

The first vision again takes up the theme of four kingdoms, already seen in Nebuchadnezzar’s dream {chapter 2}. In the second vision the focus is narrowed down to two kingdoms, Persia and Greece. Much of the final vision of the end times deals with events occurring during the reign of Antiochus Epiphanes in the second century BC. All the visions play on the same theme. Although human kingdoms may exert their might in a chaotic world, the sovereign YHVH acts through history’s apparent chaos toward an ultimate goal of salvation. The primary interpretation of the visions can be perceived in past historical events, but a further messianic dimension can be seen in the light of the New Testament. That dimension is most evident in chapter 7. In the context of the four kingdoms, a divine court of judgment is established, presided over by the “Ancient of Days” -- the almighty YHVH {7:9}. Then Daniel sees the arrival of “one like a Son of Man” {7:13}. Though the phrase “Son of Man” was later perceived to be a messianic title, it did not technically have that meaning in the book of Daniel. Daniel 7:13 is a principal source for the title “Son of Man,” which Yeshua commonly used to designate himself. His most significant use of that term was at his trial, where he directly associated his title with Daniel 7 {Matthew 26:63-64}.