Revelation Study - Lesson 10

Week 10: Daniel - part 1

Of the two biblical apocalypses, Daniel and Revelation have a few things in common. Each book was written in response to a specific crisis - Daniel to the persecution of the Jews by Antiochus IV Epiphanes in the second century BCE, and Revelation to what the writer believed to be impending persecution of true Christians by the Roman Empire in the first century BCE. Each text provides apocalyptic solutions to a crisis. In each, a human seer tells of visions of the supernatural world. The visions are partially interpreted by an angel. What occurs in the supernatural world determines what happens in the human world and in human history. The earthly adversary of God's people (God's people being the Jews in Daniel and Christians in Revelation) will be defeated by God through God's intervention, and God's people will live with God forever after. Both texts anticipate resurrection, and both attempt to convince the reader of the same. Because both texts reveal insight into the heavenly realm and God's decisions, they are considered "divine revelations."₁ All of these points should sound familiar since we've talked about them all in previous lessons.

Daniel: An Overview

Daniel is considered by many to be the most unusual book of the Hebrew Bible (our Old Testament), in part because there are problems with the text that cannot be easily resolved. It is also a "notoriously dangerous book that has fueled religious speculation as well as contributing to social unrest and even revolution," especially during the English civil war, but also at many other times throughout history. People who believe the world is not as it should be are drawn to Daniel because the book shares that same conviction.₂

The book of Daniel severely judges human rulers and empires, and assumes that people of faith will always and eventually find themselves at odds with the state, its "political loyalties and idolatrous patriotism."₃ It is a subversive text and leaves no space for "good citizenship." Daniel calls for loyalty to God which will result in treason.₄

But this subversiveness raises some interesting questions for us. Although we usually read Daniel assuming that we are the underdogs, we must ask ourselves if we are the oppressed, or if, in reality, we are the oppressors. "If the Christian faith is to be one that challenges the modern world, then it must accept a certain alienation from the dominant culture and its religious traditions of dominance."₅ Do we embrace or reject our society and culture? Do we live in the kingdom of God or in Babylon? If we want to live in the kingdom of God, we must embrace a theology of Christ over and against culture, especially when culture is based on the economic abuse of other peoples or nations, or on military might.₆ This is something you might want to think about further.

It is hard to overestimate the importance of Daniel to early Jewish and Christian literature. First, in the Hebrew Scriptures, Daniel is the only text that "contains an explicit expression of resurrection hope."₇ Second, Daniel's vision of the Son of Man influences the ideas of apocalyptic messianism for both Jews and Christians. Third, Daniel's vision of the four kingdoms are reflected and reused throughout Jewish literature and in the book of Revelation.₈

Although one book, the book of Daniel is in two parts. Chapters 1-6 form a prologue to chapters 7-12, while chapters 7-12 form the apocalypse proper. The first half of the book has 6 stories about Daniel told in the third person. Chapters 7-12 are Daniel's visions told in the first person.₉ At this moment, we're not really concerned about the first six chapters of Daniel, but we do want to take a look at Daniel's visions so we can try to understand what is going on in them and compare Daniel to Revelation.

When Was Daniel Written?

Antiochus IV Epiphanes

 Initially, we must understand this about the Book of Daniel--it was not written when it appears to have been written. It appears to have been written during the Babylonian exile in the sixth century BCE, but it was not. The Babylonian exile merely creates a literary setting for the stories. Although parts of Daniel were probably written in the fourth through third centuries BCE and circulated independently, these writings were redacted (brought together, edited, added to and finalized) in the mid-second century BCE. Scholars believe this because Daniel specifically speaks of Antiochus IV Epiphanes, a Seleucid ruler from Syria, who was responsible for a focused persecution of the Jews in Judea. Persecution of the Jews under Antiochus began with the desecration of the Temple in 167 B.C.E., therefore, scholars assume that the book of Daniel came into its final form around the mid 100s BCE.₁₀

Understanding when Daniel was written makes another issue clear: although Daniel appears to be making predictions about the future, the writer (or redactor) of Daniel already knows about what Daniel is predicting, because the predicted events occur in the writer's past. It would be like one of us writing a novel about the Civil War and making a character accurately predict the future. We know what happened, so our character would appear very wise or spiritual indeed when his or her prophesies came true. The writer or redactor gives accurate predictions to Daniel as a literary character. However, the writer does not know what will occur in his own future. When the writer tries to do this, he errs in inaccurately predicting the end of Antiochus' reign and death. This inaccuracy helps scholars pinpoint a short span of several years when Daniel most likely first appeared as a text in its entirety. The change from accurate predictions to inaccurate ones indicate that Daniel appeared as a completed text slightly before 164 BCE.₉ This puts Daniel smack dab in the middle of the Jewish persecution under Antiochus IV Epiphanes, after the desecration of the Temple but before the death of Antiochus.₁₁

Why is this so important? Because if apocalyptic literature was written as a message of hope as well as to convince a community of something, then the assumption must be made that Daniel is a text that spoke to the writer/redactor's contemporary Jewish community which found itself under persecution in the mid-second century. We will approach our survey of Daniel with this in mind.

Book of Daniel: Chapter 7

When we look at chapter 7 of Daniel, were confronted with some interesting ideas. Some of Daniel's visions are actually explained later on in the same chapter, so trying to decipher what these visions are becomes a little bit easier. Of course, scholars cannot determine exactly what everything means because small pieces of history remain unknown to us, but they do have a pretty good idea based on what appears later on in the writing. Let's quickly go through Chapter 7 and explain what some of this vision more than likely means. We won't discuss everything that happens in this vision but we will hit the main ideas.

One of the first things we encounter in chapter 7 are four winds of heaven stirring up out of the sea. More than likely the four winds represent a chaotic world state. Winds usually come from one direction,₁₂ but here are presented as coming from all four directions at once. These winds may set the stage by presenting something out of the ordinary, something that is not normal, blowing up from the sea. The sea is also something else that we need to pay attention to. For the Israelites, the sea was not something to go to for a relaxing time. The ocean was viewed as dark and filled with beasts and creatures that made them afraid. The Israelites are not generally thought of as an ocean-going people although at times in their past they had used the sea for trade. The ocean was associated with foreboding and darkness. Heavenly winds stirring the seas created a chaotic and fearful setting, perhaps alluding to spiritual/mythical warfare.₁₃

If you turn to verse 15 of chapter 7, you will see Daniel's vision of four beasts coming from the sea. The fourth beast is described, as are the horns. The fourth kingdom is of great concern because it is the kingdom that the writer lives in, complete with a meniacle king bent on either subduing and changing the Jews or destroying them.₁₄

The Four Beasts or Four Kingdoms



The Four Beasts of Daniel

If we turn back to the fourth verse of chapter 7, we will see the beginning of descriptions concerning the four beasts who arise from the sea. "The sea is the enemy, chaos, the realm of Leviathan."₁₅ Therefore the beast are interpreted as world powers, empires or kingdoms associated with chaos and at odds with the power of heaven. The beast arise one by one to do battle and theologically represent the battle between good and evil.₁₆

The first beast is a lion with eagles wings who achieves a human mind. This first beast is thought to represent the Babylonian empire or kingdom. Winged lions are well known from Assyro-Babylonian art.

The second beast, appearing as a bear, represents the Midian empire or kingdom. This beast is associated with threats to human life from wild animals, and is already devouring something because it has ribs in its teeth. The question that arises concerning this beast is, who is telling the bear to devour many bodies? Many presume that this is being accomplished at God's command, however, God never speaks in this vision. If the writer is implying that God is the one commanding the bear, then he is also implying that the destructiveness of this empire is also under God's direction.

The third beast appears like a leopard and represents the Persian empire or kingdom. It is unknown what the four heads and four wings represent but it is believed they somehow represent the four Persian kings--Darius, Cyrus, Xerxes, and Artaxerxes. The text states that dominion, or sovereignty, is given to the leopard. This image seems to be more neutral than the other three, however, this leopard is hardly benign.₁₇

The last beast represents the empire or kingdom of Alexander the great. It is it is described as, "terrifying, dreadful, exceedingly strong, and devouring," and is therefore different from all the other beasts that have preceded it in regards to its level of malevolence. This beast has 10 horns, believed to represent the line of rulers in the Seleucid dynasty that ruled Syria after the death of Alexander. The first Seleucid kings had coins decorated with horns, symbols of their "divine" power. Also, verse 24 states that the ten horns represent ten kings, with the eleventh horn representing one that is different from the others.₁₈





The Little Horn

As Daniel watches, a little horn appears and uproots three other horns. This horn is different from the others not simply in appearance, but in that it has powers the other horns do not. This horn has eyes and speaks arrogantly. There is little doubt that this horn represents Antiochus IV Epiphanies. Although it is unknown exactly who the three plucked out horns represent, the most likely suggestion is that these represent the three men in line for the throne upon the death of Antiochus III--Seleucus IV Philopater and his sons, Demetrius and Antiochus. We know that Antiochus IV killed his young nephew Antiochus. History is unclear whether Antiochus IV had anything to do with the death of the other two. Even though Christians would later interpret Rome as the fourth and final beast,₁₉ it is pretty clear that it represents Alexander's empire and the Seleucid line of kings, culminating in Antiochus IV.₂₀

As we look further in this chapter, we see in verse 21 the little horn has not only gained great power, it wages war against the holy ones and soon starts to prevail over them. This statement marks the beginning of Antiochus IV persecution of the Jews. In verse 25, he speaks against the Most High and attempts to change the sacred seasons and law. It is known that Antiochus IV banned the observance of the Sabbath and Jewish feast days.₂₁

The Fifth Kingdom

Because it is not specifically stated, we should note that there is actually a Fifth kingdom that follows the other four. The symbol for this kingdom is a human figure. This contrasts with the first four kingdoms who are represented by animal symbols from the sea, or abyss, and is associated with the heavenly realm.₂₂ Although verses 9-14 have to do with heavenly judgment, not all of the symbolism is well understood. Why is thrones plural? Perhaps a heavenly counsel is suggested. What is clear is that we are in the realm of political sovereignty once again, but this throne room is the one that possesses the true authority. The one referred to as, "Ancient of Days" has the greatest authority. His description resembles that of the Canaanite God, El, as well as other biblical images representing God. Thousands attend him, many more than attended Belshazzar in an earlier story. A court is held and the beasts are dispatched. The fourth beast with the horns is not only dispatched, but is immediately burned in judgment. Take note that there is no emphasis on a Great Battle; when the ancient of days arrives, judgment is dealt out. (Likewise note that in the book of Revelation, the "Great Battle" is also easily missed because it is not the emphasis of the text, although modern Christians seem to try to make it so.) Those not destroyed or allowed to live without power because a "Son of Man" is given authority to rule, and those whom he rules over follow his wishes. New Testament writers drew on this image as a powerful authority under God. Irrespective of the precise origin or meaning of the "Son of Man" figure, what is important is that he is a heavenly representative, appointed by the Ancient of Days. This person comes from heaven but rules as an earthly figure.₂₃ Some scholars believe this figure represents the whole of Israel₂₄ and current day readers assume this figure is Jesus. However, the majority of scholars believe this figure represents the Angel Michael, a figure who does battle for Israel in later visions. Michael is also well known in the New Testament (see Matt 16:27; 25:31; Rev 12) and in the Dead Sea Scrolls, so he was known to ancient believers. It is through this person that heaven claims the right to rule on earth.₂₅

In verses 15 to 18, Daniel is distressed by the visions and is therefore given a simple summary of the vision. The gist of it is this: earthly powers will arise, God will conquer them, and God's reign will last forever. The fate of the holy ones reflects the fate of the Jewish people themselves. Although it appears that the fourth beast is about to conquer the holy ones, the holy ones will triumph and rule in God's everlasting kingdom. All nations will bow to them. This final kingdom will be one of peace and worldwide healing. Enemies will worship together and share equally in the blessings of God, side by side with the Israelites.₂₆

Thinking About It

We'll talk about the last remaining chapters of Daniel in the next posting. If you haven't already, read chapter 7-14 of Daniel. What do you find that supports what we've talked about concerning apocalyptic literature in general. You should see apocalyptic themes present throughout the last 6 chapters of Daniel. What ones are the most obvious? Was anything in today's posting new for you? Post your thoughts, ideas or feelings and please feel free to comment on someone else's posting.

I'll attempt to cover the remaining chapters of Daniel in the next lesson, unless they become to unwieldy. The goal is to progress to Revelation, the heart of our study. Please encourage each other to continue with this study. Our next lessons will hopefully be interesting as well as enlightening.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      Notes                                                                                                                                                              

₁Murphy, Frederick J. "Introduction to Apocalyptic Literature," The New Interpreter's Bible, Vol. VII. Nashville: Abingdon, 1996. p. 8.
₂Ibid, 33.
₃Ibid, 34.
₄Ibid, 34.
₅Ibid, 34.
₆Ibid, 34.
₇Carey, Greg. Ultimate Things. St. Louis: Chalice Press, 2005. p. 38.
₈Ibid, 38.
₉Murphy, 8.
₁₀Meeks, Wayne A. et al, editors. The HarperCollins Study Bible. New York:HarperCollins, 2006. p.1168-1169.
₁₁Meeks, 1168-1169.
₁₂Ibid, 1182.
₁₃Murphy, 100-101.
₁₄Meeks, 1168-1169.
₁₅Murphy, 101.
₁₆Ibid, 101.
₁₇Ibid, 102.
₁₈Meeks, 1183-1184.
₁₉Murphy, 102.
₂₀Meeks, 1183.
₂₁Ibid, 1183-1184.
₂₂Ibid, 1183.
₂₃Murphy, 103-104.
₂₄Meeks, 1183.
₂₅Murphy, 104.
₂₆Ibid, 104-106.