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Daniel
• Daniel (like Ezekiel) was one of the early exiles to Babylon.
• Daniel was selected to serve as a provincial administrator in the Babylonian – and later Persian – court.
• The book of Daniel was written toward the end of the sixth century BC (520 BC), although many have suggested it dates from the early second century (165 BC).
Daniel
• In the Hebrew Bible, the book of Daniel is included among the Writings rather than the Prophets.
• The intent of the book is to inspire and encourage God’s people living under foreign domination.
Daniel
• Daniel’s message is not a call to repent in light of God’s coming judgments and, therefore, he is never called a prophet (and is not one in the more traditional sense).
• Instead, Daniel is one who reveals God’s mysteries and, therefore, is more accurately called a “seer”. – In the Hebrew Bible, Daniel is included among
the Writings rather than the Prophets.
Daniel’s Themes
• God’s sovereignty over all nations.
• God’s care for the Jews in exile.
• God’s promises of final restoration.
• God’s present overruling of and final victory over human evil.
Daniel’s Outline
• The book of Daniel comes in two clear parts: (1-6 and 7-12).
• The first half (1-6) contains stories of: – How God brings honor to himself through Daniel and
his three friends (Shadrach Meshach and Abednego) in Babylon.
– Gentile kings’ acknowledging the greatness of Israel’s God.
– Daniel as the God-gifted interpreter of dreams.
– God’s sovereignty over all things.
Chapters 1-6
Chapter 1 – Daniel and friends in Nebuchadnezzar’s court.
Chapter 2 – Nebuchadnezzar’s Dream interpreted by Daniel.
Chapter 3 – Three men saved from the fiery furnace.
Chapter 4 – Nebuchadnezzar brags and God makes him go insane.
Chapters 1-6
Chapter 5 – Belshazzar’s feast, the demise of Babylon, and the writing on the wall.
Chapter 6 – Daniel in the lion’s den (Babylon now under Persian rule – Darius).
Daniel’s Outline
• The second half (7-12) includes four apocalyptic visions about the rise and fall of succeeding empires, in each case involving a coming tyrannical ruler.
• Apocalyptic features: Visions and dreams; the images are those of fantasy symbolizing reality.
Chapters 7-12
Chapter 7 – The vision of the beast from the sea.
Chapter 8 – The vision of the Ram and the goat.
– Pictured are Alexander the Great’s victory over Persia (6,8,21) and the subsequent fourfold division of his empire among his four generals (8,22), from whom eventually would come the little horn (9-13, 23-25).
Chapters 7-12
Chapter 9 – The Interpretation of Jeremiah’s Prophecy
Chapters 10-12 – The angel’s revelation of the future. – Everything leads to the rise and fall of Antiochus IV (Dan.
11:21-45), concentrating especially on his devastation of Jerusalem but also again predicting his end.
– Antiochus IV’s demise is set against the backdrop of the end (12:1-4), which will have the resurrection of the dead and eternal reward of the righteous as its centerpiece.
– “Resurrection” was not interpreted by many in Israel as having to do with “life after death”, but as Israel’s return to their land under a new Davidic king.
History
• The fall of Jerusalem, when the first captives from Judah were brought to Babylon.
• The demise of the Babylonians Empire in 539 BC.
Babylonian - 605-539 BC
History
• The long lived Persian Empire (539-330 BC).
Medo/Persian - 539-331 BC
History
• The long lived Persian Empire (539-330 BC).
• The short-lived Greek Empire of Alexander the Great (333-323 BC), which at his death was divided among four generals. (9:19-22).
Greek (Alexander the Great) 331-323 BC
History
• The Seleucid Empire and the Ptolemaic Empire, 2 of the 4 successor states to Alexander the Great's empire
• Intertestamental Jewish history is the long contest for Palestine between the Seleucids and the Ptolemies (alluded to in the vision of Daniel 11).
Greek - 331-168 BC
History
• Crucial for Daniel is the rise of Antiochus IV, described in 11:21-32 who in fact set out to crush Jewishness in Jerusalem by forcing them to adopt his policy of Hellenizing his lands.
• Antiochus IV was a Hellenistic (Greek) king of the Seleucid Empire from 175 BC until his death in 164 BC.
History
• Antiochus IV (Epiphanes) become the first in a series of antichrist figures in Jewish and Christian literature because of his desolation of Jerusalem and sacrilege of the temple.
• The abomination of desolation is a term found in the Book of Daniel regarding the re-dedication of the Temple to Zeus by Antiochus IV Epiphanes in 167 BC.
• Daniel 9:27 The ruler will make a treaty with the people for a period of one set of seven, but after half this time, he will put an end to the sacrifices and offerings. And as a climax to all his terrible deeds, he will set up a sacrilegious object that causes desecration, until the fate decreed for this defiler is finally poured out on him.” (NLT).
• Daniel 11:31 "His army will take over the Temple fortress, pollute the sanctuary, put a stop to the daily sacrifices, and set up the sacrilegious object that causes desecration. (NLT).
• Daniel 12:11 "From the time the daily sacrifice is stopped and the sacrilegious object that causes desecration is set up to be worshiped, there will be 1,290 days. (NLT).
History
• Antiochus IV desecrating of the Holy Place by erecting a statue of Zeus (envisioned in Daniel 7-11) eventually led to the Maccabean revolt recorded in the apocryphal books of 1 and 2 Maccabees.
"Now the fifteenth day of the month Casleu, in the hundred forty and fifth year, they set up the abomination of desolation upon the altar, and built idol altars throughout the cities of Juda on every side.”
- 1 Maccabees 1:54
“When these happenings were reported to the king, he thought that Judea was in revolt. Raging like a wild animal, he set out from Egypt and took Jerusalem by storm. He ordered his soldiers to cut down without mercy those whom they met and to slay those who took refuge in their houses. There was a massacre of young and old, a killing of women and children, a slaughter of virgins and infants. In the space of three days, eighty thousand were lost, forty thousand meeting a violent death, and the same number being sold into slavery.”
— 2 Maccabees 5:11–14
History
• The coming of the messianic kingdom is pictured as taking place following the overthrow of Antiochus.
• During the Roman empire will come the Messiah and the establishment of the Messiah’s kingdom. - Daniel 2:44-45.
Rome – 168 BC – 476 AD
Empires
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_lTduTwqtjY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pkV7XPh20ng
Conclusion
The book of Daniel, though focusing primarily on one period in Israel’s history, looks forward to the great eternal reign of God inaugurated by Jesus Christ; as such it had great influence
on the imagery of John’s Revelation.
