daniel commentary Archives » The Kingdom of Heaven

The Book of Daniel is a scriptural end of the world, joining a prediction of history with an eschatology (the investigation of last things) which is both enormous in degree and political in its focus.

In more commonplace dialect, it is “a record of the exercises and dreams of Daniel, a respectable Jew ousted at Babylon.” In the Hebrew Bible it is found in the Ketuvim (compositions), while in Bibles it is gathered with the Major Prophets. Its message is that similarly as the God of Israel spared Daniel and his companions from their foes, so he would spare all of Israel in their present oppression.

The book isolates into two sections, an arrangement of six court stories in parts 1–6 taken after by four whole-world destroying dreams in parts 7–12.

Structure Book of Daniel

Nebuchadnezzar’s fantasy: the composite statue (France, fifteenth century).

Divisions Book of Daniel

The artistic structure of the book of Daniel is set apart by three conspicuous components. The most key is a class division between the court stories of parts 1–6 and the whole-world destroying dreams of 7–12.

The second is a dialect division between the Hebrew of parts 1 and 8–12, and the Aramaic of sections 2–7. This dialect division is strengthened by the chiastic game plan of the Aramaic sections (see underneath).

The dialect division and concentric structure of parts 2-6 are fake artistic gadgets intended to tie the two parts of the book together.

It ought to likewise be noticed that the time settings of parts 1–6 demonstrate a movement from Babylonian to Median circumstances, which is rehashed (Babylonian to Persian) in sections 7–12.

The accompanying diagram is given by Collins in his discourse on Daniel:

PART I: Tales (sections 1:1–6:29)

1. Introduction (1:1–21 set in the Babylonian period, written in Hebrew)
2. Nebuchadnezzar’s fantasy of four kingdoms (2:1–49 – Babylonian period; Aramaic)
3. The red hot heater (3:1–30 – Babylonian period; Aramaic)
4. Nebuchadnezzar’s frenzy (3:31–4:34 – Babylonian period; Aramaic)
5. Belshazzar’s devour (5:1–6:1 – Babylonian period; Aramaic)
6. Daniel in the lions’ cave (6:2–29 – Median period with say of Persia; Aramaic)

PART II: Visions (sections 7:1–12:13)

The monsters from the ocean and the Son of Man (7:1–28 – Babylonian period: Aramaic)
The slam and the he-goat (8:1–27 – Babylonian period; Hebrew)
Interpretation of Jeremiah’s prescience of the seventy weeks (9:1–27 – Median period; Hebrew)
The blessed messenger’s disclosure: rulers of the north and south (10:1–12:13 – Persian time, say of Greek time; Hebrew)