Daniel among the Exiles, Gustave Doré, 1866. Public domain.
Old Testament · Book 27 of 66
Daniel
Daniel tells of a young man from Judah who served the kings of Babylon and Persia and stayed faithful to God. His visions show empires rising and falling and an everlasting kingdom given to one like a son of man.
Daniel tells of a young man from Judah who served the kings of Babylon and Persia and stayed faithful to God. His visions show empires rising and falling and an everlasting kingdom given to one like a son of man.
What is Daniel about?
Daniel is a young man of Judah taken to Babylon with three friends. The first six chapters tell how they serve foreign kings without bowing to their gods. They refuse the king's food, Daniel tells a dream no one else can, the three come out of a furnace unburned, a proud king is humbled, a feast ends with writing on the wall, and Daniel is kept safe from lions. The last six chapters are Daniel's own visions of empires rising and falling, of one like a son of man given a kingdom that lasts, and of the dead raised. The book teaches that God rules over every kingdom.
All 12 chapters
Every chapter of the book, in one grid. Each cell opens that chapter.
- The court of BabylonDaniel 1 to 6
- The visionsDaniel 7 to 12
The colour is the movement of the book the chapter stands in, and every cell opens that chapter's Study level. The language changes inside the colours: Hebrew from 1:1 to 2:4a, Aramaic from 2:4b to 7:28, and Hebrew again from chapter 8 to the end.
Who wrote it, where, when, for whom, and why?
The book tells Daniel's story in the third person through chapter 6. From chapter 7 the visions come in his own voice: he wrote down the dream (7:1), and the later visions open with I, Daniel (8:1; 9:2; 10:2). At the close he is told to shut up the words and seal the book until the time of the end (12:4). Ezekiel names a Daniel with Noah and Job as men of righteousness (Ezekiel 14:14), and Jesus speaks of the abomination of desolation described by the prophet Daniel (Matthew 24:15).
The book opens with Jerusalem under siege and the articles of the house of God carried to the land of Shinar (1:2). The young men are schooled at the king's court in Babylon, and the golden statue stands on the plain of Dura in the province of Babylon (3:1). Daniel prays toward Jerusalem from an upper room (6:10). In one vision he sees himself in the citadel of Susa beside the Ulai Canal (8:2), and his last vision comes on the bank of the Tigris (10:4).
The book dates itself by the kings it serves: the third year of Jehoiakim (1:1), the second year of Nebuchadnezzar (2:1), the first and third years of Belshazzar (7:1; 8:1), the first year of Darius the Mede (9:1), and the third year of Cyrus (10:1). Daniel remains until the first year of King Cyrus (1:21), so the story runs from the first deportation into the first years of Persia. When the book was written is set out under Where do readers disagree.
The book is written for Judah in exile and for the people of God living under foreign kings. Gabriel's word is for your people and your holy city (9:24), and the last promise is for the wise, who will understand what the wicked do not (12:10).
The book says why it was given in the watchers' decree against Nebuchadnezzar, set apart here, and the kings who learn it say it aloud: Nebuchadnezzar praises the God who lives forever (4:34) and Darius decrees that the God of Daniel is feared (6:26). It closes with the promise that Daniel will rest and arise to his inheritance at the end of the days (12:13).
This decision is the decree of the watchers, the verdict declared by the holy ones, so that the living will know that the Most High rules over the kingdom of mankind and gives it to whom He wishes, setting over it the lowliest of men.’
Daniel 4:17, Berean Standard Bible.
Sources. Daniel 1:1, 1:2, 1:21, 2:1, 3:1, 4:17, 4:34, 6:10, 6:26, 7:1, 8:1, 8:2, 9:1, 9:2, 9:24, 10:1, 10:2, 10:4, 12:4, 12:10 and 12:13; Ezekiel 14:14; Matthew 24:15. Every verse is read in the Berean Standard Bible.
How is Daniel arranged, and what is it for?
The two movements the book falls into, what it teaches and what it was written to do, and the four kingdoms it gives twice.
- The court of BabylonChapters 1 to 6, 196 verses
Six stories of Daniel and his three friends serving foreign kings, each ending with a king confessing their God.
The turn: The God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed (2:44).
- The visionsChapters 7 to 12, 161 verses
Four visions in Daniel's own voice of empires rising and falling until the saints receive the kingdom.
The turn: One like the Son of Man is given an everlasting dominion (7:13 and 14).
The theme
The God of Israel rules over the kingdoms of the world, even when his people are captives in one of them. The stories show him humbling the kings who hold them and keeping the servants who will not bow. The visions show the empires as beasts that rise and fall, and a kingdom given to one like a son of man and to the saints that will never pass away.
The purpose
Daniel was written so that the people of God under foreign rule would stay faithful and keep hope. The stories show where to serve and where to refuse. The visions tell them that suffering under the last kings has an appointed end, that the dead will rise, and that the kingdom will be theirs.
The four kingdoms, told twice
A reading: The traditional reading
- 1. Babylon
- 2. Medo-Persia
- 3. Greece
- 4. Rome
Held by Jerome, Commentary on Daniel, and Calvin, Commentaries on Daniel.
A reading: The Maccabean reading
- 1. Babylon
- 2. Media
- 3. Persia
- 4. Greece
Held by Rowley, Darius the Mede and the Four World Empires, and Collins, Daniel.
The court of Babylon, Daniel 1 to 6
What the text says in these 6 chapters, and the pages they open on.
Nebuchadnezzar takes young men of Judah's royal line to Babylon, and Daniel and his three friends are given new names and a place at the king's table. They refuse the king's food, and after ten days they are healthier than the rest. The king dreams of a great statue of gold, silver, bronze and iron, broken by a stone cut out without hands, and only Daniel can tell the dream. The three friends will not bow to a golden statue and are thrown into a furnace, and a fourth figure walks with them in the fire. The king dreams of a great tree cut down, loses his mind for seven periods of time, and praises the Most High when his sanity returns. Belshazzar drinks from the temple vessels, a hand writes on the wall, and that night the kingdom passes to Darius the Mede. Under Darius, Daniel keeps praying toward Jerusalem, is thrown to the lions, and comes out unhurt.
In the days of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed, nor will it be left to another people. It will shatter all these kingdoms and bring them to an end, but will itself stand forever.
- Study
Daniel 1carried to Babylon, given new names, the king's food refusedShow the summary and 4 pagesShow summary, 4 pagesHide the summary
Nebuchadnezzar besieges Jerusalem and carries off both temple vessels and promising youths, to be taught the learning and the tongue of the Chaldeans. Four are renamed for Babylonian gods (Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah becoming Belteshazzar, Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego) and the renaming is not resisted. The food is. 'But Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the king's dainties,' and asks a ten-day trial of vegetables and water; at its end their countenances are fairer than all who ate the royal portion. God gives the four knowledge and skill, and Daniel understanding in all visions and dreams; the king finds them ten times better than all his magicians.
On this chapter (4)
- The exile and return
The deportations to Babylon and the road home.
- When was Daniel written, in the sixth century or the second?
Answered under Where do readers disagree, lower on this page, with each reading and who holds it.
- What are the Greek additions (Susanna, Bel and the Dragon, the Song of the Three)?
Answered under Where do readers disagree, lower on this page, with each reading and who holds it.
- Daniel 1:8
The verse on its own page, with the commentators on it by era.
- The exile and return
- Study
Daniel 2the king's dream, the statue of four metals, and the stoneShow the summary and 4 pagesShow summary, 4 pagesHide the summary
Nebuchadnezzar demands the dream itself, not only its interpretation, and when his wise men protest that no one on earth can do it 'except the gods, whose dwelling is not with flesh,' he decrees their death. Daniel receives the secret in a night vision and answers with a doxology: God 'changeth the times and the seasons; he removeth kings, and setteth up kings.' The dream is a colossus (head of gold, breast of silver, belly of brass, legs of iron, feet mixed with clay) struck by a stone cut out without hands that grinds it to chaff and becomes a mountain filling the earth. 'In the days of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed' (2:44).
On this chapter (4)
- The statue and the stone
The four metals, the stone and the kingdom of Daniel 2 and 7.
- What are the four kingdoms?
Answered under Where do readers disagree, lower on this page, with each reading and who holds it.
- Why is part of the book in Aramaic?
Answered under Where do readers disagree, lower on this page, with each reading and who holds it.
- Daniel 2:44
The verse on its own page, with the commentators on it by era.
- The statue and the stone
- Study
Daniel 3the golden statue on Dura, the furnace, and the fourth manShow the summary and 3 pagesShow summary, 3 pagesHide the summary
The king who heard about a head of gold builds an image entirely of gold, sixty cubits by six, on the plain of Dura, and orders every people to fall down at the sound of the cornet, flute, harp, sackbut, psaltery and dulcimer. Three refuse, and answer the furnace with the highest note in the book: 'If the God whom we serve exists, then He is able to deliver us … But even if He does not, let it be known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the golden statue you have set up.' The furnace, heated seven times hotter, kills the men who carry them, but Nebuchadnezzar rises astonished: 'I see four men, unbound and unharmed … and the fourth looks like a son of the gods!' Not a hair singed.
- The three answer that God is able to deliver them, and that they will not bow even if he does not.
- The furnace kills the men who throw them in, and a fourth figure walks with them in the fire.
- Nebuchadnezzar blesses their God and decrees that no one may speak against him.
On this chapter (3)
- The furnace
The three who would not bow, and the fire that did not burn them.
- Christophany
The appearings of God before the incarnation, the fourth man among them.
- Daniel 3:25
The verse on its own page, with the commentators on it by era.
- Study
Daniel 4the great tree cut down, the king's madness, and his praiseShow the summary and 2 pagesShow summary, 2 pagesHide the summary
A chapter written as a pagan emperor's own testimony to all peoples and nations. Nebuchadnezzar dreams of a tree in the midst of the earth whose height reaches to heaven, feeding and sheltering all flesh: until a watcher and a holy one cries, 'Hew down the tree,' leaving the stump bound with iron and brass, its portion with the beasts, till seven times pass over him, 'to the intent that the living may know that the Most High ruleth in the kingdom of men.' Daniel counsels him to break off his sins. Twelve months later, boasting on his roof over great Babylon, he is driven to the beasts. And at the end of the days lifts his eyes to heaven, and his reason returns.
On this chapter (2)
- Faith under fire
The furnace and the lions' den read together.
- Daniel 4:17
The verse on its own page, with the commentators on it by era.
- Faith under fire
- Study
Daniel 5Belshazzar's feast, the writing on the wall, the kingdom takenShow the summary and 3 pagesShow summary, 3 pagesHide the summary
Belshazzar makes a feast for a thousand of his lords and calls for the vessels taken from the house of God, and they drink from them while praising gods of gold and silver, brass, iron, wood and stone. Then the fingers of a man's hand write on the plaster of the wall, and the king's knees smite one against another. The queen remembers Daniel, who refuses the gifts and delivers the sharpest sermon in the book: you knew what happened to Nebuchadnezzar, yet 'you have failed to glorify the God who holds in His hand your very breath and all your ways.' MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN, numbered, weighed and found wanting, divided to the Medes and Persians. 'That very night Belshazzar king of the Chaldeans was slain'.
On this chapter (3)
- Belshazzar's feast
The temple vessels, the writing and the fall of Babylon.
- Who was Darius the Mede?
Answered under Where do readers disagree, lower on this page, with each reading and who holds it.
- Daniel 5:25
The verse on its own page, with the commentators on it by era.
- Belshazzar's feast
- Study
Daniel 6the decree against prayer, the den of lions, Daniel unhurtShow the summary and 3 pagesShow summary, 3 pagesHide the summary
Under Darius the Mede, Daniel is set over a hundred and twenty satraps and marked for promotion over the whole realm 'by his extraordinary spirit'. His rivals can find no fault in his administration and conclude they must attack his religion, so they flatter the king into an interdict against petitioning any god or man for thirty days: irrevocable under the law of the Medes and Persians. Daniel goes home, and with his windows open toward Jerusalem kneels upon his knees three times a day, as he had always done. The king spends a sleepless night and calls at dawn; the answer echoes in Hebrews 11: 'My God sent His angel and shut the mouths of the lions.'
On this chapter (3)
- Daniel in the lions' den
The decree, the prayer and the den.
- Who was Darius the Mede?
Answered under Where do readers disagree, lower on this page, with each reading and who holds it.
- Daniel 6:10
The verse on its own page, with the commentators on it by era.
- Daniel in the lions' den
Six stories at the court, and the book's two languages
- Daniel 1NebuchadnezzarThe king's food and wineAfter ten days the four look healthier, and the king finds them ten times better than his magicians. 1:20
- Daniel 2NebuchadnezzarA dream no one can tellThe mystery is revealed to Daniel in a night vision, and the king honours his God. 2:19
- Daniel 3NebuchadnezzarBow to the golden statue or burnThe fire has no power on the three, and the king blesses their God. 3:27
- Daniel 4NebuchadnezzarThe tree cut down, the king made like a beastThe king's sanity returns, and he praises the King of heaven. 4:34
- Daniel 5BelshazzarThe writing on the wall at the feastNo rescue for the king: Belshazzar is slain that night, and Darius the Mede receives the kingdom. 5:30
- Daniel 6Darius the MedePray to no god but the king for thirty daysGod shuts the lions' mouths, and the king decrees that all fear the God of Daniel. 6:22
Characters (5)
Who the text follows. A name with a page carries its door.
- Daniel
A young man of Judah renamed Belteshazzar, who serves Babylon and Persia and sees the visions.
- Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah
Daniel's three friends, renamed Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, who will not bow to the statue.
- Nebuchadnezzar
King of Babylon, who besieges Jerusalem, dreams of the statue and is humbled.
- Belshazzar
King of the Chaldeans, whose feast ends with the writing on the wall.
Show the next 1
- Darius the Mede
Receives the kingdom at sixty-two and signs the decree that sends Daniel to the lions.
Places (3)
Where the chapters stand.
Themes (4)
What these chapters raise, each on its own page where one stands.
- Faithfulness in exile
Serving a foreign king and refusing his gods, at the cost of fire and lions.
- God's rule over kings
God sets up kings and removes them, and gives the kingdom to whom he wishes.
- The kingdom of God
The kingdom that will never be destroyed, set up by the God of heaven.
- The fourth man in the fire
The one like a son of the gods who walks with the three in the furnace.
Where the New Testament uses these chapters (1)each marked as a quotation or an allusion, with the evidence
- Probable allusionThe lions' mouths shut and the fire quenched, Daniel 3:27 and 6:22 at Hebrews 11:33 and 34. Hebrews counts among the faithful those who shut the mouths of lions and quenched the raging fire, without naming Daniel or his friends. Held by the store's cross-reference floor, which links 6:22 to Hebrews 11:33 with 21 votes and 3:27 to Hebrews 11:34 with 8.
The visions, Daniel 7 to 12
What the text says in these 6 chapters, and the pages they open on.
In the first year of Belshazzar, Daniel sees four beasts rise from the sea, the Ancient of Days take his seat, and one like a son of man come with the clouds to receive a kingdom that will not pass away. Two years later he sees a ram with two horns trampled by a goat from the west, and a little horn that removes the daily sacrifice; Gabriel names the ram Media and Persia and the goat Greece. In the first year of Darius, Daniel reads in Jeremiah that the desolation of Jerusalem will last seventy years, confesses his people's sin, and Gabriel brings a word of seventy weeks. In the third year of Cyrus, after three weeks of mourning, a man dressed in linen tells him of the kings of Persia and Greece and of the long war between the king of the North and the king of the South. At the end Michael rises, the dead awake, and Daniel is told to seal the book and rest.
And He was given dominion, glory, and kingship, that the people of every nation and language should serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and His kingdom is one that will never be destroyed.
- Study
Daniel 7four beasts, the Ancient of Days, one like a son of manShow the summary and 4 pagesShow summary, 4 pagesHide the summary
The book's pivot, a night vision in the first year of Belshazzar. Four winds strive on the great sea, and four beasts come up: a lion with eagle's wings that are plucked; a bear with three ribs in its mouth; a leopard with four heads; and a fourth, dreadful and terrible, with iron teeth and ten horns, among which a little horn rises speaking great things. Then the throne room: 'the Ancient of Days took His seat. His clothing was white as snow,' with a fiery stream and thousands ministering. 'One like the Son of Man coming with the clouds of heaven … And He was given dominion': Jesus' own answer to the high priest. The kingdom is given to the saints.
On this chapter (4)
- The Son of Man
The figure of Daniel 7:13 and the title Jesus took.
- What are the four kingdoms?
Answered under Where do readers disagree, lower on this page, with each reading and who holds it.
- Who is the little horn of 7 and of 8?
Answered under Where do readers disagree, lower on this page, with each reading and who holds it.
- Daniel 7:13
The verse on its own page, with the commentators on it by era.
- The Son of Man
- Study
Daniel 8the ram and the goat by the Ulai, and the little hornShow the summary and 2 pagesShow summary, 2 pagesHide the summary
Two years later, in vision at Shushan by the river Ulai, Daniel sees a ram with two horns, the higher coming up last, pushing west and north and south with none to deliver: Media and Persia, named outright in the interpretation. Then a he-goat from the west that crosses the earth without touching the ground, with a notable horn between his eyes; he shatters the ram, and at his strength the great horn is broken and four come up in its place. From one of them a little horn grows exceeding great toward the glorious land, taking away the continual burnt-offering and casting down the sanctuary. Gabriel explains, 'for the vision belongeth to the time of the end,' and Daniel is left sick.
On this chapter (2)
- Who is the little horn of 7 and of 8?
Answered under Where do readers disagree, lower on this page, with each reading and who holds it.
- Daniel 8:20
The verse on its own page, with the commentators on it by era.
- Who is the little horn of 7 and of 8?
- Study
Daniel 9Daniel's prayer over Jeremiah's seventy years, and Gabriel's seventy weeksShow the summary and 3 pagesShow summary, 3 pagesHide the summary
Reading Jeremiah, Daniel understands the seventy years decreed for the desolations of Jerusalem. And responds not by waiting but by praying, in fasting and ashes. The prayer is unbroken confession: 'we have sinned … this day we are covered with shame', ending 'O Lord, listen! O Lord, forgive! … For Your sake, O my God, do not delay, because Your city and Your people bear Your name.' At the evening oblation Gabriel answers: 'you are highly precious.' Seventy weeks are decreed to finish transgression, bring in everlasting righteousness and anoint the most holy. After sixty-nine, 'the Messiah will be cut off and will have nothing'; the prince to come destroys city and sanctuary; and a covenant for one week is broken in its midst by the abomination that makes desolate: that final week still future.
On this chapter (3)
- The seventy weeks
Gabriel's weeks, the Anointed One and the readings of the count.
- How are the seventy weeks counted, and who is the Anointed One cut off?
Answered under Where do readers disagree, lower on this page, with each reading and who holds it.
- Daniel 9:24
The verse on its own page, with the commentators on it by era.
- The seventy weeks
- Study
Daniel 10three weeks of mourning, the man in linen, the princes of PersiaShow the summary and 2 pagesShow summary, 2 pagesHide the summary
In the third year of Cyrus, Daniel mourns three full weeks, eating no pleasant bread, and by the river Hiddekel sees a man clothed in linen, his body like beryl, his face as the appearance of lightning, his eyes as flaming torches, his arms and feet like burnished brass, the vision John reworks in Revelation 1. The men with him flee; his own strength fails; a hand touches him. Then the curtain lifts on the unseen realm: his words were heard from the first day he set his heart to understand, 'but the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me one and twenty days,' until Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help. Prayer answered, delivery contested.
On this chapter (2)
- The divine council
The princes of Persia and Greece and Michael your prince.
- Daniel 10:13
The verse on its own page, with the commentators on it by era.
- The divine council
- Study
Daniel 11the kings of Persia and Greece, then north against southShow the summary and 3 pagesShow summary, 3 pagesHide the summary
The longest sustained prophecy in the Old Testament, given as plain history written in advance. Three more kings rise in Persia, then a fourth who stirs up all against Greece; a mighty king rules, and his kingdom is broken toward the four winds, not to his posterity. Then decades of war between the king of the south and the king of the north: failed marriage alliances, the contemptible person who obtains the kingdom by flatteries, and forces that profane the sanctuary and set up the abomination that maketh desolate. Yet 'the people who know their God will firmly resist him' (11:32). The last section turns to a king who exalts himself above every god (read here as the Antichrist) who comes to his end with none to help.
On this chapter (3)
- The abomination of desolation
The desecration Daniel names and Jesus points forward.
- Is 11:36 to 45 about Antiochus or about a king still to come?
Answered under Where do readers disagree, lower on this page, with each reading and who holds it.
- Daniel 11:31
The verse on its own page, with the commentators on it by era.
- The abomination of desolation
- Study
Daniel 12Michael rises, the dead awake, and the book is sealedShow the summary and 2 pagesShow summary, 2 pagesHide the summary
'At that time Michael, the great prince who stands watch over your people, will rise up. There will be a time of distress, the likes of which will not have occurred from the beginning of nations', the tribulation Jesus echoes in the Olivet Discourse. Then the clearest resurrection verse in the Old Testament: 'many who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake, some to everlasting life, but others to shame and everlasting contempt.' The wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament. The man clothed in linen swears by him that liveth for ever: a time, times, and a half. The words are sealed till the time of the end; 1290 and 1335 days stand unexplained, with a blessing on him that waiteth.
On this chapter (2)
- The two resurrections
The dead raised to life and to judgment.
- Daniel 12:2
The verse on its own page, with the commentators on it by era.
- The two resurrections
The seventy weeks as the text divides them
- The decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem, where the count begins (9:25)
- Rebuilt with streets and a trench, in times of distress (9:25)
- Until the Messiah, the Prince, at the end of seven weeks and sixty-two (9:25)
- After the sixty-two weeks the Messiah is cut off and has nothing (9:26)
- The people of the prince who is to come destroy the city and the sanctuary (9:26)
- He confirms a covenant with many for one week (9:27)
- In the middle of the week he puts an end to sacrifice and offering (9:27)
- On the wing of the temple, the abomination that causes desolation (9:27)
A reading: Sixty-nine weeks to Christ, the seventieth still to come
The count runs from the decree of Artaxerxes to Christ, and a gap stands before the last week.
Held by Anderson, The Coming Prince.
A reading: Seventy weeks unbroken to Christ
The Messiah is cut off in the middle of the last week, and his death ends the sacrifices.
Held by Calvin, Commentaries on Daniel, and Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Book of Daniel.
A reading: The weeks end with Antiochus IV
The anointed one cut off is the high priest Onias III, and the covenant breaker is Antiochus.
Held by Collins, Daniel.
The kings of the north and the south, in the text's order
- Persia
- Greece
- The king of the North
- The king of the South
- North and South together
- Persia11:2Three more kings in Persia, then a fourth richer than all
- Greece11:3 to 4A mighty king whose kingdom is broken toward the four winds
- The king of the South11:5The king of the South grows strong
- North and South together11:6The daughter of the South goes to the North, and is given up
- The king of the South11:7 to 9One from her family line enters the North's fortress
- The king of the North11:10The North's sons sweep through like a flood
- The king of the South11:11 to 12The South marches out in a rage and casts down tens of thousands
- The king of the North11:13 to 19The North returns, takes a fortified city, stands in the Beautiful Land
- The king of the North11:20One who sends out a tax collector, destroyed within a few days
- The king of the North11:21 to 35A despicable person, the holy covenant attacked, the abomination set up
- The king of the North11:36 to 39The king exalts himself above every god
- North and South together11:40 to 45At the time of the end the South attacks, the North sweeps through, and he meets his end
Characters (6)
Who the text follows. A name with a page carries its door.
- Daniel
A young man of Judah renamed Belteshazzar, who serves Babylon and Persia and sees the visions.
- The Son of Man
One like a son of man who comes with the clouds and is given an everlasting dominion.
- The little horn
The horn that speaks arrogant words in chapter 7 and removes the daily sacrifice in chapter 8.
- Gabriel
The angel who explains the vision of the ram and the goat and brings the seventy weeks.
Show the next 2
- Michael
One of the chief princes, the great prince who stands watch over Daniel's people.
- Cyrus
King of Persia, in whose first year Daniel's service ends and in whose third he sees his last vision.
Places (4)
Where the chapters stand.
- Babylon
The capital of the empire, where the exiles are schooled and the court stories stand.
- Susa
The citadel in the province of Elam where Daniel sees himself in the vision of the ram and the goat.
- The Ulai
The canal beside which the ram stands and Gabriel is told to explain the vision.
- The river Tigris
The great river on whose bank Daniel sees the man dressed in linen.
Themes (4)
What these chapters raise, each on its own page where one stands.
- The kingdom of God
The kingdom that will never be destroyed, set up by the God of heaven.
- The seventy weeks
Gabriel's answer to Daniel's prayer over Jeremiah's seventy years.
- The resurrection
Many who sleep in the dust will awake, to life or to contempt.
- The time of the end
The sealed words, the time of distress and the numbered days of the last chapter.
Where the New Testament uses these chapters (6)each marked as a quotation or an allusion, with the evidence
- Explicit quotationThe Son of Man coming with the clouds, Daniel 7:13 at Matthew 24:30 and 26:64; Mark 14:62. Jesus speaks of the Son of Man coming with the clouds of heaven in the words of the vision, once on the Mount of Olives and once under oath before the high priest. Held by the store's cross-reference floor, which links the verse to Matthew 26:64 with 81 votes, to Matthew 24:30 with 52 and to Mark 14:61 and 62 with 45.
- Probable allusionOne like the Son of Man in Revelation, Daniel 7:13 at Revelation 1:7 and 1:13. John sees him coming with the clouds and sees One like the Son of Man among the lampstands, without naming Daniel. Held by the store's cross-reference floor, with 74 votes for Revelation 1:7 and 21 for Revelation 1:13.
- Probable allusionThe court seated and the books opened, Daniel 7:9 and 10 at Revelation 20:11 and 12. A throne, the dead standing before it, and books opened for judgment, as in the court of the Ancient of Days. Held by the store's cross-reference floor, which links Revelation 20:12 to Daniel 7:10 with 25 votes.
- Explicit quotationThe abomination of desolation, Daniel 9:27, 11:31 and 12:11 at Matthew 24:15; Mark 13:14. Jesus names the abomination of desolation described by the prophet Daniel and tells the reader to understand. Held by the store's cross-reference floor, which links Matthew 24:15 to 9:27 with 57 votes, to 12:11 with 37 and to 11:31 with 23.
- Probable allusionMichael and the book of the living, Daniel 12:1 at Revelation 12:7 and 20:12. Michael fights the dragon in heaven, and the Book of Life is opened before the throne. Held by the store's cross-reference floor, which links Revelation 12:7 to the verse with 19 votes.
- Probable allusionThe dead raised to life and to judgment, Daniel 12:2 at John 5:28 and 29. All in their graves come out, some to the resurrection of life and some to the resurrection of judgment, the two ends Daniel names. Held by the store's cross-reference floor, which links the verse to John 5:28 and 29 with 40 votes.
- Author
- Daniel (traditional, Jesus cites ‘Daniel the prophet’ in Matt 24:15); critical scholarship dates composition to the 2nd c. BC Maccabean period (both positions surfaced)
- Date
- Traditional: 6th c. BC. Critical: c. 165 BC. Site default: traditional; critical view surfaced at depth 2
- Audience
- Jewish exiles in Babylon; the inter-testamental Jewish community; all readers facing empires they did not choose
Where do readers disagree?
Eight questions: the readings with their holders, and what the evidence does not settle.
When was Daniel written, in the sixth century or the second?
- In the sixth century BC, by Daniel. Held by Edward J. Young, The Prophecy of Daniel, and Joyce Baldwin, Daniel, Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries.
- Around 167 to 164 BC, under Antiochus IV. Held by John J. Collins, Daniel, Hermeneia, after Porphyry, whose argument Jerome preserved in his Commentary on Daniel.
What the evidence does not settle: Whether the precision of chapter 11 is prediction or history told as prophecy; the manuscripts fix a latest date and no earliest one.
The argument in full
In the sixth century BC, by Daniel. The visions are given in Daniel's own voice, Jesus names him as the prophet, the Aramaic is the court language of the Persian empire, and the eight Qumran copies stand within decades of the later date.
Around 167 to 164 BC, under Antiochus IV. Chapter 11 follows the wars of the Ptolemies and Seleucids closely down to Antiochus and then reads differently, three Greek instrument names stand at 3:5, and the Hebrew Bible places the book among the Writings.
Who was Darius the Mede?
- Gubaru, the governor Cyrus set over Babylon. Held by John C. Whitcomb, Darius the Mede.
- Cyrus himself, under a second name. Held by D. J. Wiseman, in Notes on Some Problems in the Book of Daniel.
- A figure formed from later memory. Held by H. H. Rowley, Darius the Mede and the Four World Empires in the Book of Daniel.
What the evidence does not settle: No cuneiform text names him; Belshazzar was once held to be an error of the same kind until the Nabonidus Cylinder named him.
The argument in full
Gubaru, the governor Cyrus set over Babylon. Darius is a title or throne name for the man the Nabonidus Chronicle records taking the city and appointing its governors.
Cyrus himself, under a second name. The Aramaic of 6:28 can be read as one reign under two names: the reign of Darius, that is, the reign of Cyrus the Persian.
A figure formed from later memory. No record outside the book names a Median king of Babylon between Nabonidus and Cyrus, so the name shows distance from the events.
What are the four kingdoms?
The Statue and the Stone→- Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece and Rome. Held by Jerome, in Commentary on Daniel, and John Calvin, Commentaries on Daniel.
- Babylon, Media, Persia and Greece. Held by H. H. Rowley, Darius the Mede and the Four World Empires in the Book of Daniel, and John J. Collins, Daniel, Hermeneia.
What the evidence does not settle: The text names only the head of gold (2:38) in chapter 2 and gives Media and Persia and Greece only in chapter 8; which kingdom is the fourth is the reader's inference either way.
The argument in full
Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece and Rome. The ram of chapter 8 is one kingdom of Media and Persia with two horns, so the second kingdom is one, and the fourth is the empire in whose days Christ's kingdom begins.
Babylon, Media, Persia and Greece. The book gives Darius the Mede a reign before Cyrus the Persian, and the little horn of the fourth beast matches the Greek king of chapter 8.
How are the seventy weeks counted, and who is the Anointed One cut off?
The Seventy Weeks→- Sixty-nine weeks to Christ, then a gap. Held by Sir Robert Anderson, The Coming Prince.
- Seventy weeks unbroken to Christ. Held by John Calvin, Commentaries on Daniel, and Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Book of Daniel.
- The weeks end with Antiochus IV. Held by John J. Collins, Daniel, Hermeneia, and Louis Hartman and Alexander Di Lella, The Book of Daniel, Anchor Bible.
What the evidence does not settle: Which decree starts the count, whether the years are solar or of 360 days, and whether the last week follows the sixty-two at once; the text gives the divisions and not the dates.
The argument in full
Sixty-nine weeks to Christ, then a gap. The count of 483 years of 360 days runs from the decree of Artaxerxes to the entry into Jerusalem; the Anointed One is Christ, and the last week is still to come.
Seventy weeks unbroken to Christ. Christ is cut off in the middle of the last week and ends the sacrifices by fulfilling them; the city falls to Rome after him.
The weeks end with Antiochus IV. The Anointed One cut off is the high priest Onias III, murdered in 171 BC, and the covenant breaker is Antiochus.
Who is the little horn of 7 and of 8?
Antichrist→- Two figures: Antiochus in chapter 8, a later king in chapter 7. Held by Jerome, in Commentary on Daniel, and Edward J. Young, The Prophecy of Daniel.
- One figure, Antiochus IV, in both chapters. Held by S. R. Driver, The Book of Daniel, Cambridge Bible, and John J. Collins, Daniel, Hermeneia.
What the evidence does not settle: Whether the fourth beast is Greece or a kingdom after it, which is the question of the four kingdoms again.
The argument in full
Two figures: Antiochus in chapter 8, a later king in chapter 7. The horn of chapter 8 grows from the Greek goat, while the horn of chapter 7 grows from the fourth beast, a kingdom after Greece, and speaks against God until the court sits.
One figure, Antiochus IV, in both chapters. Both horns are little, both speak arrogantly and both oppress the holy people for a set time, so both describe the Seleucid king.
Is 11:36 to 45 about Antiochus or about a king still to come?
- Antiochus IV throughout. Held by John J. Collins, Daniel, Hermeneia.
- A king still to come, of whom Antiochus is a type. Held by Jerome, in Commentary on Daniel, and Edward J. Young, The Prophecy of Daniel.
- The Roman power. Held by John Calvin, Commentaries on Daniel.
What the evidence does not settle: Where the account of Antiochus ends, since the text marks no change of king at 11:36.
The argument in full
Antiochus IV throughout. The verses continue the same king without a break, and 11:40 to 45 is a forecast of his end written before it came.
A king still to come, of whom Antiochus is a type. From 11:36 the king exalts himself above every god and the time of the end begins, which Antiochus did not fulfil in the way he died.
The Roman power. The king who does as he pleases is Rome, which followed the Seleucids in the land and ruled it in the time of Christ.
Why is part of the book in Aramaic?
- A design: the language of the nations for the chapters about the nations. Held by A. Lenglet, 'La structure littéraire de Daniel 2 à 7', Biblica 53, and Joyce Baldwin, Daniel, Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries.
- A trace of how the book was put together. Held by H. L. Ginsberg, Studies in Daniel.
What the evidence does not settle: Why the change comes in the middle of 2:4 and runs past the speech it begins; K. A. Kitchen, The Aramaic of Daniel, judged the Aramaic itself undatable within the Persian period.
The argument in full
A design: the language of the nations for the chapters about the nations. The Aramaic chapters form a ring from the four kingdoms of chapter 2 to the four kingdoms of chapter 7, addressed to the world, and the Hebrew chapters speak to Israel.
A trace of how the book was put together. The Hebrew chapters were translated from an Aramaic original, and the book was left in two languages when it was joined.
What are the Greek additions (Susanna, Bel and the Dragon, the Song of the Three)?
The Jewish writings, read in full→- Part of the book of Daniel. Held by Origen, in Letter to Africanus, and by the Council of Trent, Decree on the Canonical Scriptures.
- Useful to read, outside the canon. Held by Jerome, in Preface to Daniel, and the Church of England, Thirty-Nine Articles, Article VI.
What the evidence does not settle: Whether the additions were written in Greek or translated from a lost Semitic text; no copy in Hebrew or Aramaic has been found.
The argument in full
Part of the book of Daniel. The Greek Daniel the early church read carried the Prayer of Azariah and the Song of the Three in chapter 3, with Susanna and Bel and the Dragon beside it, and the Orthodox churches read it still.
Useful to read, outside the canon. The additions stand in no Hebrew or Aramaic copy and in none of the Daniel manuscripts found at Qumran.
The pages Daniel opens on
Studies88
- The Statue and the Stone
- The Son of Man
- The Seventy Weeks
- Faith Under Fire
- The Furnace
- Daniel in the Lions' Den
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- Belshazzar's Feast
- Christophany
- The Abomination of Desolation
- Antichrist
- Apocalyptic Literature
- The Two Resurrections
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- The Exile and Return
- The Son of Man in 1 Enoch
- Judas Maccabeus, the Hammer
- 2 Thessalonians: the Study Guide
- Archaeology and the Bible
- The Idol Who Ate Nothing
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- The Major Prophets
- Revelation, the Canon's Closing Scroll
- Chiasmus: the Bible's Mirror Writing
- Daniel the Prophet
- The Divine Council
- Esther: the Study Guide
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- Daniel in Babylon
- Jeremiah, the Study Guide
- Michael the archangel
- Providence Hidden: the God Who Is Never Named: Esther
- The Fourth Man in the Fire: Daniel 3
- Susanna and the Two Judges
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- The Four Beasts and the Little Horn
- The Horn
- The Intertestamental Period
- The Maccabean Revolt
- King of Kings
- The Ransom: Mark 10:45
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- Messianic Psalms
- Jeremiah: the Study Guide
- Christ / Messiah
- The Restrainer: 2 Thessalonians 2:6-7
- Nimrod and the First Kingdoms
- The Kingdom and Culture: Dominion, Transformation and Separation
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- The Seventy Years
- Dreams in Scripture and in Egypt
- Gold, Silver, Bronze & Iron
- Rome
- The Kingdom Is at Hand
- The Mountain
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- The Stone
- Men Who Read the Sky: The Wise Men and the Star, Matthew 2
- The Times of the Gentiles
- Fire
- The Song in the Furnace
- Babylon
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Show the next 6 titles
- The Beast and the False Prophet
- Jesus on Himself
- Jesus: Titles & Roles
- John on Patmos, Revelation 1
- Stephen, the First Martyr: Acts 6-7
- The Ascension: Acts 1:1-11 · Luke 24:50-53
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People and groups3
Words6
Books beside it5
Sources for this page
The painting in the band is Daniel among the Exiles, Gustave Doré, 1866. Public domain. The movements, the chapter entries, the figures and the Context are read off the text of Daniel, and every count is the store's verse count. The New Testament uses are marked as the store's cross-reference floor holds them, from OpenBible and the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge. The works behind the readings under Where do readers disagree are Origen, Letter to Africanus (240); Jerome, Preface to Daniel (392) and Commentary on Daniel (407); the Council of Trent, Decree on the Canonical Scriptures (1546); John Calvin, Commentaries on Daniel (1561); the Thirty-Nine Articles (1571); Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Book of Daniel (1872); Robert Anderson, The Coming Prince (1894); S. R. Driver, The Book of Daniel (1900); H. H. Rowley, Darius the Mede and the Four World Empires in the Book of Daniel (1935); H. L. Ginsberg, Studies in Daniel (1948); Edward J. Young, The Prophecy of Daniel (1949); John C. Whitcomb, Darius the Mede (1959); D. J. Wiseman, Some Historical Problems in the Book of Daniel (1965); K. A. Kitchen, The Aramaic of Daniel (1965); A. Lenglet, La structure littéraire de Daniel 2 à 7 (1972); Joyce Baldwin, Daniel (1978); Louis Hartman and Alexander Di Lella, The Book of Daniel (1978); and John J. Collins, Daniel (1993). Every verse quoted on this page is the Berean Standard Bible, read from the store.