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Major prophets · Old Testament · 12 chapters

The book of Daniel

The Most High rules over the kingdoms of men

Author
Daniel (according to tradition; Jesus speaks of “Daniel the prophet,” Matt 24:15)
Written
Around 530 BC, near the end of Daniel’s life
Time covered
From the first deportation to Babylon (605 BC) to the third year of Cyrus, king of Persia (around 536 BC)
Key word
Sovereignty

Deported to Babylon, the young Daniel refuses to defile himself with the king’s food (1). God reveals to him the dream of the statue: four empires, then an eternal kingdom pictured by a stone (2). His three companions come out of the furnace alive (3); Nebuchadnezzar, humbled, acknowledges the Most High (4). Belshazzar sees a hand write his sentence on the wall and dies that very night (5). Daniel, who prays in spite of the ban, is kept safe in the lions’ den (6). The second half records his visions: four beasts and the Son of Man (7), the ram and the goat (8), the seventy weeks (9), and the future up to the final resurrection (10–12).

Main theme

God rules over history: he raises up and brings down empires, keeps those who remain faithful to him in pagan lands, and will at the end establish the everlasting kingdom of the Son of Man.

Outline

  1. Daniel 1 — Faithful in Babylon

    Daniel and his three companions refuse to defile themselves, and God gives them wisdom.

  2. Daniel 2-6 — God rules over the kings of the nations

    The statue, the furnace, the felled tree, the writing on the wall and the lions’ den.

  3. Daniel 7-9 — Visions of the empires

    The four beasts and the Son of Man, the ram and the goat, the seventy weeks.

  4. Daniel 10-12 — The last vision

    The unseen battle, history foretold in advance, the great distress and the resurrection.

Key points

  • Daniel “purposed in his heart” not to defile himself (1:8): a loyalty settled in his youth and lived out with respect and wisdom in a pagan land (1:9-16).
  • The great message of the book: “the most High ruleth in the kingdom of men” (4:17, 25, 32); Nebuchadnezzar, Belshazzar and Darius must all acknowledge him.
  • The statue (2) and the four beasts (7) describe the same succession of kingdoms; the book names Babylon (2:38), the Medes and Persians (8:20) and Greece (8:21), and the classic evangelical interpretation sees Rome in the fourth.
  • The faith of the three Hebrews does not depend on the miracle: “he will deliver us… But if not… we will not serve thy gods” (3:17-18).
  • Daniel prays three times a day, with his windows open toward Jerusalem, even when prayer is punishable by death (6:10).
  • The Son of Man receives an everlasting dominion from the Ancient of days (7:13-14): the title Jesus claims for himself before the Sanhedrin (Matt 26:64).
  • The seventy weeks foretell the coming of the Anointed One, his being cut off, and then the destruction of the city and the sanctuary (9:24-26).
  • Daniel 12:2 is the clearest Old Testament announcement of the resurrection of both the righteous and the wicked (cf. John 5:28-29).
But Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king’s meat, nor with the wine which he drank: therefore he requested of the prince of the eunuchs that he might not defile himself.
Daniel 1:8 — The inner decision on which all of Daniel’s faithfulness rests.
And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever.
Daniel 2:44 — God’s kingdom, which will never be destroyed, will replace all empires.
And at the end of the days I Nebuchadnezzar lifted up mine eyes unto heaven, and mine understanding returned unto me, and I blessed the most High, and I praised and honoured him that liveth for ever, whose dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom is from generation to generation:
Daniel 4:34 — The testimony of the humbled king: God’s dominion is everlasting.

Jesus in Daniel

Christ is the stone cut out “without hands” that shatters the empires and fills the earth (2:34-35, 44). Many see in the “fourth man” in the furnace an appearance of the Son of God (3:25). Jesus identifies himself with the Son of Man who comes on the clouds (7:13-14; Matt 26:64), and the seventy weeks announce the Anointed One who will be “cut off” (9:26), that is, put to death. The man clothed in linen with eyes of fire (10:5-6) resembles the glorified Christ of Revelation 1:13-15.

Did you know?

  • The book is bilingual: from 2:4 to 7:28 it is written in Aramaic, the international language of the day, and the rest in Hebrew.
  • For a long time Belshazzar was known only from the Bible. In the nineteenth century, cylinders of King Nabonidus revealed him: the eldest son of Nabonidus, he ruled in Babylon while his father was away. This explains why he could offer Daniel only the position of “third ruler in the kingdom” (5:7, 16).
  • Gabriel and Michael, the only two angels named in the Old Testament, both appear in Daniel (8:16; 10:13); they reappear in the New Testament (Luke 1:19; Jude 9).

Quiz on Daniel

What Babylonian name did the chief of the eunuchs give Daniel?

What did Daniel and his companions ask to eat during the ten-day test?

How many men did Nebuchadnezzar see walking in the furnace?

There are many more questions like these in Bible Academy, each with its explanation and verse. Start your free trial.