Daniel

Daniel is introduced in Daniel 1:1-6 as a youth of the royal or noble Judean line taken to Babylon in the first deportation under Nebuchadnezzar (traditionally dated 605 BCE per Daniel 1:1). He and three companions are trained in the Chaldean court and given new Babylonian names (Daniel 1:7). The book records his service through the reigns of Nebuchadnezzar and Belshazzar of Babylon and later under Darius the Mede and Cyrus the Persian (Daniel 1:21; 6:28; 10:1). Chapters 1-6 narrate court episodes including the refusal of the king's food (Daniel 1:8), the interpretation of Nebuchadnezzar's dream (Daniel 2), and the lions' den deliverance (Daniel 6:22), while chapters 7-12 contain apocalyptic visions including the vision of one like the Son of man receiving everlasting dominion (Daniel 7:13-14) and the seventy-weeks prophecy (Daniel 9:24-27). The Hebrew Bible places the book in the Writings (Ketuvim); the Septuagint and Christian canons place it among the prophets. Modern critical scholarship debates the composition date (6th vs. 2nd century BCE); Jewish and Christian tradition has historically affirmed a 6th-century setting. This page surfaces the text and the named debate without resolving it.