Old Testament

Daniel

Daniel tells of a young Jewish exile who served faithfully in the courts of Babylon and Persia, and records the visions God gave him of empires rising and falling until God sets up a kingdom that will never be destroyed. Its first half is stories of faithfulness under pressure, from the king's food to the fiery furnace and the lions' den; its second half is visions of beasts, a heavenly court, one like a son of man, seventy weeks, and the resurrection of the dead. It belongs in the Bible because it declares that the Most High rules over the kingdoms of men (), and it supplies the title Jesus used most for Himself, the Son of Man.

Author: The visions are told in Daniel's own voice (7:2; 8:1; 9:2; 10:2), and Jewish and Christian tradition held that Daniel wrote the book in the sixth century BC; Jesus refers to 'the prophet Daniel' (Matthew 24:15). Many modern scholars think the book's final form was written by faithful Jews during the persecution under Antiochus IV around 167–164 BC, drawing on older stories about Daniel.
Audience: Jews living under foreign empires who were pressed to give up their worship, whether in the exile or during later persecution. The book teaches them that God is sovereign, that faithfulness is worth death, and that resurrection lies ahead.
When: The stories run from 605 BC, the third year of Jehoiakim (1:1), to the third year of Cyrus, about 536 BC (10:1). The date of writing is the book's great debate: the sixth century on the traditional view, the 160s BC on the critical view.
Where: Babylon and the Persian court, including Susa (8:2), with Daniel's eyes always on Jerusalem, toward which he prays (6:10) and whose desolation he mourns (9:2, 17–19).
Genre: Daniel combines two kinds of writing. Chapters 1–6 are court stories in which faithful exiles are tested and vindicated before pagan kings. Chapters 7–12 are apocalyptic visions, full of symbolic beasts, angels and numbered times, that pull back the curtain on history and its end; the symbols are usually explained in part by an angel, and they are meant to be read as pictures, not literal descriptions. The book is also written in two languages: 2:4b–7:28 is in Aramaic, the international language of the empire, and the rest in Hebrew. Read the stories for the faith they model and the visions for the sovereignty and final victory of God.

Shape of the book

Faithful in Babylon · ch 1The Lord gives Jerusalem into Nebuchadnezzar's hand; Daniel and his three friends are trained for royal service, refuse to defile themselves with the king's food, and are given wisdom by God.
The Most High Rules the Kingdoms of Men · ch 2–6A statue of four metals smashed by a stone, three men in the furnace, Nebuchadnezzar humbled and restored, Belshazzar weighed and found wanting, and Daniel in the lions' den: in each, kings learn that God's kingdom endures.
Four Beasts and the Son of Man · ch 7The hinge of the book: four beasts rise from the sea, the Ancient of Days sits in judgment, and one like a son of man receives an everlasting kingdom shared with the saints.
The Ram and Goat, and Seventy Weeks · ch 8–9A vision of Persia and Greece and a little horn that defiles the sanctuary, then Daniel's prayer of confession over Jeremiah's seventy years and Gabriel's answer of seventy 'sevens' leading to an anointed one cut off.
The Final Vision: Conflict, Distress and Resurrection · ch 10–12A glorious man in linen reveals unseen spiritual conflict and a detailed sequence of kings of the North and South, ending in a time of distress, the deliverance of those written in the book, and the resurrection of many who sleep in the dust.

Themes

God's Sovereignty Over Empires. The book's thesis is that the Most High rules over the kingdom of mankind and gives it to whom He wishes (, 25, 32). Even Jerusalem's fall is His act (). Empires rise and fall on His schedule, and pagan kings from Nebuchadnezzar to Darius are made to confess it (; ; ).
Faithfulness Under Foreign Rule. Daniel and his friends accept new names and serve the king, yet draw clear lines at defilement, idolatry and giving up prayer (; ; ). Their answer, that God is able to deliver them, 'But even if He does not,' they will not bow (), shows faith that trusts God without dictating the outcome.
The Kingdom That Will Never Be Destroyed. The stone cut without hands becomes a mountain filling the earth (, 44), and the kingdom given to one like a son of man is everlasting (). Human kingdoms look like a splendid statue to kings and like ravenous beasts to God's prophet ( and 7); God's kingdom replaces them all.
Prayer, Confession and God's Word. Daniel reads Jeremiah, believes it, and confesses the people's sin, pleading not on their righteousness but on God's great mercy (). The book links prayer to the unseen conflict of heaven, where his prayer is heard from the first day ().
Suffering, Vindication and Resurrection. The visions do not promise escape from persecution; the wise will stumble and be refined (). But the book ends with the clearest Old Testament promise of bodily resurrection, some to everlasting life and others to everlasting contempt (), and a personal promise that Daniel will rise to his inheritance ().

Where Christ is

Daniel stands close to the center of the New Testament's picture of Christ. Jesus calls Himself the Son of Man and at His trial applies to Himself; He announces the kingdom of God foretold in ; He speaks of the abomination of desolation and of resurrection in Daniel's words. Some links, especially the seventy weeks, are read in different ways, and those differences should be stated fairly.

One Like a Son of Man. Fulfillment, named by Jesus. One like a son of man comes with the clouds to the Ancient of Days and receives everlasting dominion (). Jesus takes the title for Himself, applies the verse to Himself before the high priest, and after His resurrection says all authority has been given to Him. (; ; ; )
The Stone and the Everlasting Kingdom. Fulfillment. A stone cut out without human hands crushes the statue of human empires and fills the earth (, 44–45). Jesus announces that the kingdom of God has come near, and His warning that the stone will crush anyone on whom it falls is widely read as an allusion to this chapter. (; ; ; ; )
The Seventy Weeks and the Anointed One Cut Off. Debated. A long Christian tradition counts from a Persian decree to rebuild Jerusalem to the time of Jesus, seeing the anointed one cut off in His death, which atones for iniquity and brings in everlasting righteousness (). Many modern scholars place the fulfillment in the Maccabean crisis, and dispensational readers expect a final seventieth week still to come. Jesus' own reference to the abomination of desolation shows He read Daniel as reaching to His generation. (; ; ; )
Faithful Servants Delivered. Echo. Hebrews counts among the faithful those who quenched the raging fire and shut the mouths of lions. Daniel, found blameless, sealed in by a stone and found alive at dawn, echoes Christ's passion and resurrection, though the New Testament does not draw the parallel itself. (; ; ; )
Many Who Sleep Will Awake. Fulfillment. Jesus echoes when He says all in the graves will come out, some to the resurrection of life and others to judgment, and He speaks of a tribulation unequaled since the world began (). Christ's own resurrection is the firstfruits of that harvest. (; ; ; ; )

Voices

Jerome. In his commentary on Daniel he answered the pagan critic Porphyry, who argued that the book was written in the time of Antiochus Epiphanes; Jerome defended it as true prophecy, took the fourth kingdom as Rome, and read the stone cut without hands as Christ. More from Jerome at CCEL ↗

Reading well, key terms and common misreadings

Read it well

Notice the two halves and the two languages. Chapters 2–7 in Aramaic are arranged in matching pairs: four kingdoms (2 and 7), deliverance from death (3 and 6), and kings judged (4 and 5).
Read chapters 2 and 7 side by side. The same four-kingdom history is seen first through a king's eyes as a splendid statue and then through God's eyes as beasts.
Let the angelic explanations guide you. Where the text names Media, Persia and Greece (8:20–21), start there before fitting symbols to later events.
Know the main readings of the four kingdoms. Many Jewish and Christian interpreters take them as Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece and Rome; many modern scholars as Babylon, Media, Persia and Greece. On either view, God's kingdom outlasts them all.
Some details are historical puzzles, such as the identity of Darius the Mede (5:31; 6:1) and the 'third year' of 1:1 beside Jeremiah's 'fourth year' (Jeremiah 25:1). Proposed solutions exist, and readers should hold them with humility.

Key terms

Son of Man בַּר אֱנָשׁ (bar enash) — Aramaic for 'a human being.' In 7:13 one 'like a son of man' comes with the clouds of heaven, a human figure given divine dominion. Jesus made it His chief title for Himself.
Ancient of Days עַתִּיק יוֹמִין (attiq yomin) — The title of God enthroned as judge in 7:9, 13 and 22, with white clothing and hair like wool. Revelation uses the same imagery for the risen Christ (Revelation 1:14).
Mystery רָז (raz) — Aramaic for a secret, a hidden plan of God known only if He reveals it. Daniel calls God the Revealer of mysteries (2:28–29, 47).
Seventy weeks שָׁבֻעִים שִׁבְעִים (shavuim shivim) — Literally 'seventy sevens' (9:24), usually understood as seventy periods of seven years, extending Jeremiah's seventy years. How they are counted is one of the most debated questions in the Bible.
Abomination of desolation הַשִּׁקּוּץ מְשׁוֹמֵם (hashshiqquts meshomem) — A detestable thing that makes the sanctuary desolate (9:27; 11:31; 12:11). Historically linked with the pagan altar set up in the temple in 167 BC; Jesus spoke of it again for a coming crisis (Matthew 24:15).
The wise מַשְׂכִּילִים (maskilim) — Those with insight who instruct many and are refined through suffering (11:33–35), and who will shine like the brightness of the heavens (12:3).

Easy to misread

Turning Daniel into a puzzle for charting the end times. The visions do reach to the end, but their first purpose is pastoral: to strengthen God's people under persecution with the knowledge that God has set limits on every tyrant (11:27, 35).
Reading the stories as tales of human heroism. The text keeps crediting God: He gave favor, wisdom and deliverance (1:9, 17; 6:22). The heroes are faithful because they trust Him, not because they are impressive.
Treating Daniel 1 as a diet plan. The issue is not vegetables but defilement and loyalty in a foreign court; the text does not even say exactly why the king's food was refused.
Ignoring the dating debate or caricaturing either side. Traditional readers see detailed predictive prophecy from the sixth century; many scholars, noting the precision up to the 160s BC, Greek loanwords in chapter 3, and the book's place among the Writings in the Hebrew Bible, date its final form then. Both readings agree that God rules history and will raise the dead.

Further reading: David Guzik, Enduring Word · Matthew Henry on CCEL · BibleProject overview video