Daniel #27

Daniel, deported to Babylon as a young man, rises to high office under successive pagan empires through steady faithfulness to God, and also receives some of Scripture’s most detailed apocalyptic visions of future kingdoms and the end of the age.

Read Daniel in the King James Version →

Author and Date

Tradition attributes the book to Daniel, an exile from 605 BC who served through the reign of Cyrus (c. 605-536 BC) and is told to seal up his visions (Daniel 12:4). Many scholars date the final form to the 160s BC, during the persecution under Antiochus IV, while others defend a sixth-century date. The dating is disputed. The book is written partly in Hebrew and partly in Aramaic (2:4-7:28), and the Hebrew Bible places it among the Writings.

Background and Audience

The book addresses Jews living under foreign rule, first in Babylon and then Persia. It shows how to remain faithful in a pagan court and assures them that God governs the rise and fall of empires.

Outline

• Chapter 1: Daniel and his friends in Nebuchadnezzar’s court
• Chapter 2: The king’s dream of a statue of four metals
• Chapters 3-4: The fiery furnace, and Nebuchadnezzar’s humbling and restoration
• Chapters 5-6: Belshazzar’s feast and the handwriting on the wall, and Daniel in the lions’ den
• Chapter 7: Vision of four beasts and one like a son of man
• Chapter 8: Vision of the ram and the goat
• Chapter 9: Daniel’s prayer and the seventy weeks
• Chapters 10-12: Final vision of conflict between kingdoms, and resurrection

Key Themes

God is sovereign over kings and empires, and his kingdom will outlast them. Faithfulness may cost a great deal, yet God can deliver, and whether or not he does, the faithful will not bow to idols. The visions promise a final kingdom and resurrection.

Key Verses

• Daniel 1:8 — Daniel resolves not to defile himself with the king’s food
• Daniel 3:16-18 — three friends refuse to worship the image, trusting God whether or not he rescues them
• Daniel 7:13-14 — one like a son of man receives an everlasting kingdom
• Daniel 9:24-27 — the seventy weeks, interpreted in several ways
• Daniel 12:2-3 — one of the Old Testament’s clearest expectations of resurrection, some to everlasting life and some to contempt

How It Fits the Bible

Daniel stands after Ezekiel, another exile prophet, and its imagery of beasts and thrones shapes Revelation. Jesus’ frequent self-designation “Son of Man” is often linked to Daniel 7, and readers differ on how the four kingdoms and the seventy weeks map onto history.