Daniel 1 (the first chapter of the
Book of Daniel
The Book of Daniel is a 2nd-century BC biblical apocalypse with a 6th century BC setting. Ostensibly "an account of the activities and visions of Daniel, a noble Jew exiled at Babylon", it combines a prophecy of history with an eschatology (a ...
) tells how
Daniel
Daniel is a masculine given name and a surname of Hebrew origin. It means "God is my judge"Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 68. (cf. Gabriel—"God is my strength" ...
and his three companions were among captives taken by
Nebuchadnezzar II
Nebuchadnezzar II (Babylonian cuneiform: ''Nabû-kudurri-uṣur'', meaning "Nabu, watch over my heir"; Biblical Hebrew: ''Nəḇūḵaḏneʾṣṣar''), also spelled Nebuchadrezzar II, was the second king of the Neo-Babylonian Empire, ruling ...
from Jerusalem to Babylon to be trained in Babylonian wisdom. There they refused to take food and wine from the king and were given knowledge and insight into dreams and visions by God, and at the end of their training they proved ten times better than all the magicians and enchanters in the kingdom.
The overall theme of Daniel is God's sovereignty over history. Chapter 1 introduces God as the figure in control of all that happens, the possessor of sovereign will and power: it is he who gives
Jehoiakim
Jehoiakim, also sometimes spelled Jehoikim; la, Joakim was the eighteenth and antepenultimate king of Judah from 609 to 598 BC. He was the second son of king Josiah () and Zebidah, the daughter of Pedaiah of Rumah. His birth name was Eliakim.; ...
into Nebuchadnezzar's hands and takes Daniel and his friends into Babylonian exile, he gives Daniel "grace and mercies," and gives the four young Jews their "knowledge and skill."
The Book of Daniel is "a composite text of dubious
historicity
Historicity is the historical actuality of persons and events, meaning the quality of being part of history instead of being a historical myth, legend, or fiction. The historicity of a claim about the past is its factual status. Historicity denot ...
from various genres", and Daniel himself is a
legend
A legend is a Folklore genre, genre of folklore that consists of a narrative featuring human actions, believed or perceived, both by teller and listeners, to have taken place in human history. Narratives in this genre may demonstrate human valu ...
ary figure. The book of which he is the hero divides into two parts, a set of tales in chapters 1–6 from no earlier than the
Hellenistic period
In Classical antiquity, the Hellenistic period covers the time in Mediterranean history after Classical Greece, between the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC and the emergence of the Roman Empire, as signified by the Battle of Actium in 3 ...
(323–30 BCE), and the series of visions in chapters 7–12 from the
Maccabean
The Maccabees (), also spelled Machabees ( he, מַכַּבִּים, or , ; la, Machabaei or ; grc, Μακκαβαῖοι, ), were a group of Jewish rebel warriors who took control of Judea, which at the time was part of the Seleucid Empire ...
era (the mid-2nd century BCE). Chapter 1 was apparently added as an introduction to the tales when they were collected around the end of the 3rd century BCE.
Summary
In the third year of king
Jehoiakim
Jehoiakim, also sometimes spelled Jehoikim; la, Joakim was the eighteenth and antepenultimate king of Judah from 609 to 598 BC. He was the second son of king Josiah () and Zebidah, the daughter of Pedaiah of Rumah. His birth name was Eliakim.; ...
of Judah, God let the kingdom fall "into the hand" (Daniel 1:1) or under the influence of
Nebuchadnezzar II
Nebuchadnezzar II (Babylonian cuneiform: ''Nabû-kudurri-uṣur'', meaning "Nabu, watch over my heir"; Biblical Hebrew: ''Nəḇūḵaḏneʾṣṣar''), also spelled Nebuchadrezzar II, was the second king of the Neo-Babylonian Empire, ruling ...
, king of
Babylon
''Bābili(m)''
* sux, 𒆍𒀭𒊏𒆠
* arc, 𐡁𐡁𐡋 ''Bāḇel''
* syc, ܒܒܠ ''Bāḇel''
* grc-gre, Βαβυλών ''Babylṓn''
* he, בָּבֶל ''Bāvel''
* peo, 𐎲𐎠𐎲𐎡𐎽𐎢 ''Bābiru''
* elx, 𒀸𒁀𒉿𒇷 ''Babi ...
, who carried off some of the Temple vessels to Babylon. Some young Jews of royal and noble blood, already educated (Daniel 1:4), to be taught the literature and language of Babylon for three years, at the end of which they would be placed in the royal court. Among these young men were
Daniel
Daniel is a masculine given name and a surname of Hebrew origin. It means "God is my judge"Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 68. (cf. Gabriel—"God is my strength" ...
, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah, who were given new names (Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah became Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, while Daniel's Babylonian name was Belteshazzar) and allocated rations of food and wine. But Daniel resolved not to defile himself, and refused the royal food and wine, thriving instead on vegetables and water. God gave them knowledge and skill, and to Daniel he gave insight into visions and dreams, and when the three years of training were completed none were found to compare with them in wisdom and understanding.
Composition and structure
The Book of Daniel originated as a collection of
tale
Tale may refer to:
* Narrative, or story, a report of real or imaginary connected events
* TAL effector (TALE), a type of DNA binding protein
* Tale, Albania, a resort town
* Tale, Iran, a village
* Tale, Maharashtra, a village in Ratnagiri distri ...
s among the Jewish community in Babylon and Mesopotamia in the Persian and early
Hellenistic
In Classical antiquity, the Hellenistic period covers the time in Mediterranean history after Classical Greece, between the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC and the emergence of the Roman Empire, as signified by the Battle of Actium in ...
periods (5th to 3rd centuries BCE), before being expanded in the
Maccabean
The Maccabees (), also spelled Machabees ( he, מַכַּבִּים, or , ; la, Machabaei or ; grc, Μακκαβαῖοι, ), were a group of Jewish rebel warriors who took control of Judea, which at the time was part of the Seleucid Empire ...
era (mid-2nd century) by the addition of the visions in chapters 7–12. Daniel is a legendary figure, probably chosen for the book's hero because of his reputation as a wise seer in Hebrew tradition. The tales are in the voice of an anonymous narrator, except for chapter 4, which is in the form of a letter from king Nebuchadnezzar. Chapters 2–7 are in the form of a
chiasmus
In rhetoric, chiasmus ( ) or, less commonly, chiasm (Latin term from Greek , "crossing", from the Greek , , "to shape like the letter Χ"), is a "reversal of grammatical structures in successive phrases or clauses – but no repetition of wor ...
, a poetic structure in which the main point or message of a passage is placed in the centre and framed by further repetitions on either side:
* A. (2:4b-49) – A dream of four kingdoms replaced by a fifth
** B. (3:1–30) – Daniel's three friends in the fiery furnace
*** C. (4:1–37) – Daniel interprets a dream for Nebuchadnezzar
*** C'. (5:1–31) – Daniel interprets the handwriting on the wall for Belshazzar
** B'. (6:1–28) – Daniel in the lions' den
* A'. (7:1–28) – A vision of four world kingdoms replaced by a fifth
Daniel 1 serves as an introduction to the book, showing how God continues to move throughout history when men seem to have failed (i.e., how God stands for his people when they are in a foreign land and subject to an alien power). An interesting feature of the book is that the accounts of chapters 2–6 and the visions in chapter 7 are in
Aramaic
The Aramaic languages, short Aramaic ( syc, ܐܪܡܝܐ, Arāmāyā; oar, 𐤀𐤓𐤌𐤉𐤀; arc, 𐡀𐡓𐡌𐡉𐡀; tmr, אֲרָמִית), are a language family containing many varieties (languages and dialects) that originated in ...
(after the first few lines of chapter 2 in Hebrew). However, the visions of chapters 8–12 are in Hebrew, as is the introduction, chapter 1.
Genre and themes
Genre
The Book of Daniel is an
apocalypse
Apocalypse () is a literary genre in which a supernatural being reveals cosmic mysteries or the future to a human intermediary. The means of mediation include dreams, visions and heavenly journeys, and they typically feature symbolic imager ...
, a literary genre in which a heavenly reality is revealed to a human recipient; such works are characterized by visions, symbolism, an angelic interpreter, and an emphasis on end-time events. Apocalypses were common from 300 BCE to 100 CE, not only among Jews and Christians, but Greeks,
Romans
Roman or Romans most often refers to:
*Rome, the capital city of Italy
* Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD
*Roman people, the people of ancient Rome
*''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...
, Persians and
Egyptians
Egyptians ( arz, المَصرِيُون, translit=al-Maṣriyyūn, ; arz, المَصرِيِين, translit=al-Maṣriyyīn, ; cop, ⲣⲉⲙⲛ̀ⲭⲏⲙⲓ, remenkhēmi) are an ethnic group native to the Nile, Nile Valley in Egypt. Egyptian ...
. Daniel, the book's hero, is a representative apocalyptic seer, the recipient of the divine revelation. He refused to learn the wisdom of the Babylonian magicians and thus surpassed them, because his God is the true source of knowledge. The book is also an
eschatology
Eschatology (; ) concerns expectations of the end of the present age, human history, or of the world itself. The end of the world or end times is predicted by several world religions (both Abrahamic and non-Abrahamic), which teach that negati ...
, meaning a divine revelation concerning the end of the present age, a moment in which God will intervene in history to usher in the final kingdom.
Themes
The overall theme of the Book of Daniel is God's sovereignty over history, and the theme of the tales in chapters 1–6 is that God is sovereign over all earthly kings. Daniel 1 introduces the fundamental question that runs through the entire book, how God may continue to work his plans when all seems lost. Chapter 1 introduces God as the figure in control of all that happens, the possessor of sovereign will and power: he "gives" Jehoiachim into Nebuchadnezzar's hands, he "gives" Daniel "grace and mercies", and it is he who gives the four young Jews their "knowledge and skill". It was God who took Daniel and his friends into Babylonian exile, and it is God who is the source of their gifts and salvation.
Interpretation
Daniel 1 and history
According to the opening verses of Daniel 1 the hero's captivity began when Nebuchadnezzar "besieged" Jerusalem in the third year of King Jehoiakim (606 BCE), but it is difficult to harmonise these verses with known history:
* According to other sources in the Bible, Nebuchadnezzar did not begin to reign until the fourth year of Jehoiakim (Jeremiah 25:1);
* The Babylonian chronicles note Nebuchadnezzar's campaigns in Palestine as Crown Prince before this, but none are on Jerusalem;
* All the sources, Biblical and Babylonian, mention an attack on Jerusalem in 597, but none prior.
Daniel's story ends with his
final vision in the third year of
Cyrus
Cyrus ( Persian: کوروش) is a male given name. It is the given name of a number of Persian kings. Most notably it refers to Cyrus the Great ( BC). Cyrus is also the name of Cyrus I of Anshan ( BC), King of Persia and the grandfather of Cyrus ...
(Daniel 10:1 – chapters 11 and 12 of the book are the continuation of the same final vision). The third year of Cyrus was 536 BCE, and the although the fact that this falls exactly 70 years after 586 may not be significant (the author never draws attention to it), it strikes a chord with
Daniel 9 09 may refer to:
* 2009, the year, or any year ending with 09, which may be written as '09
* September, the ninth month
* 9 (number)
* Ariège (department) (postal code), a French department
* Auckland
Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki M ...
, where he introduces the prophecy of a 70-year time-span for the exile. He has apparently drawn his history from
2 Chronicles 36:5–7, which says that Nebuchadnezzar took Jehoiakim to Babylon (he took Zedekiah, who became king on his death), and
2 Kings 24:1, which says that Jehoiakim served Nebuchadnezzar three years and then rebelled. The story of the noble Daniel and his friends being taken off to Babylon could be viewed as a fulfillment of the prophet
Isaiah's warning to King
Hezekiah
Hezekiah (; hbo, , Ḥīzqīyyahū), or Ezekias); grc, Ἐζεκίας 'Ezekías; la, Ezechias; also transliterated as or ; meaning "Yahweh, Yah shall strengthen" (born , sole ruler ), was the son of Ahaz and the 13th king of Kingdom of Jud ...
that his sons would become eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon (Isaiah 39:7), although this does not mean that the story was inspired by this verse.
Daniel's refusal of the royal food
There has been much scholarly discussion of the reasons for Daniel's refusal of the king's ration. The explanation perhaps most commonly found is that Daniel and his friends wished to avoid breaking the Jewish religious laws regarding ritual slaughter (the
kosher
(also or , ) is a set of dietary laws dealing with the foods that Jewish people are permitted to eat and how those foods must be prepared according to Jewish law. Food that may be consumed is deemed kosher ( in English, yi, כּשר), fro ...
laws); alternatively, they may have wished to avoid meat and wine as these, unlike vegetables and water, were regularly used in offerings to gods (in this case, the gods of Babylon). In either case, the theological point being made is that the Jewish youths are remaining loyal to the God of Israel while still serving the foreign king.
The authors of the Book of Daniel
The portrayal of Daniel and his companions as noble and educated youths may reflect the circle of the book's authors: the Jewish youths serve a foreign king while remaining true to the Jewish law. This circle are identified later in the book, in chapters 11 and 12, as the ''maskilim'', "the wise", teachers who will "give understanding" and "lead many to righteousness," despite the suffering they will endure in the end-time of persecution. It is these 2nd-century BCE teachers of wisdom who stand behind the author of the book of Daniel.
References
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{{Book of Daniel
Biblical dreams and visions
01
Seventh-day Adventist theology
Nebuchadnezzar II