The book of Daniel in our Old Testament Canon, which follows the Greek translation known as the Septuagint, places this book as the last of the Major Prophets. The Hebrew Bible doesn’t place this book among the prophets but rather places it in the last section among the Writings. While Daniel is called a prophet by Jesus in Matthew 24:15 his ministry is quite different from the other major prophets. In Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel we read ‘the word of the Lord came to’ or ‘the Lord spoke to’ but we never read where the Lord spoke directly to Daniel. Also, the other major prophets had a message given to them for Israel. Daniel seems never to get a message to be delivered to his people. Rather than from a direct word from the Lord, Daniel is given visions and dreams. Many of these dreams and visions are then explained to him by an angelic being who on occasion is referred to as Gabriel. This is the same angel that brought the news predicting John the Baptist and Jesus’ birth in the first chapter of Luke. The Bible Project video summary of Daniel may be found here. A second Bible Project video on Daniel may be found here.
Daniel along with his three friends were among the first Israelites taken to Babylon in 605 B.C. The book contains historical information, prophecy, and apocalyptic literature. The apocalyptic genre is found in the last half of the book. The Holman Concise Bible Commentary has an article on apocalyptic literature on page 659 that you might want to read to better understand this genre. The book of Daniel was written in both Aramaic and Hebrew. The Aramaic section is from 2:4b to 7:28. The fall of Babylon to Persia is covered in chapter 5. Daniel clearly teaches that God is sovereign and rules over the nations. Nebuchadnezzar the King of Babylon and Darius the King of Persia both acknowledged Daniel’s God, see Dan. 2:47 and 6:26.
Like Jeremiah, the arrangement of Daniel is not always in chronological order. The visions of chapters 7 and 8 occur between chapters 4 and 5. In the Old Testament the dating of events is often given with respect to the year of a king’s reign. This can be confusing as different nations counted the reigns of their kings differently. The Babylonian system seems to be what is used by Daniel (he was trained and schooled in Babylon). Taking our calendar system as an example, in the Babylonian system if a king began to reign in August of 2022 that would be considered his ascension year and his first year would begin in January of 2023. The Jewish system of dating would have his first year in 2022. To see an example of this in the Bible compare Dan. 1:1 with Jer. 25:1.
In the first six chapters of Daniel the question to be answered is how can a faithful Israelite live under pagan rule? Chapter 1 finds Daniel and his three friends tested with regard to the food laws. Ezekiel 4:13 states, “The Lord said, “This is how the Israelites will eat their bread—ceremonially unclean—among the nations where I will banish them.”” [1] Daniel and his friends were faithful to God and still followed the advice of Jeremiah that they should make a new life for themselves in Babylon. They trusted God and did not eat ceremonially unclean food and God honored their faithfulness. In chapter 3 Daniel’s three friends are tested with regard to worshipping idols. They refused and by doing so were thrown into a burning furnace. Again, God honored their faithfulness by rescuing them from the furnace. Dan. 3:12 implies that many of the Jews in exile would have worshiped the idol. In Chapter 6 Daniel is tested as to whether or not he will remain faithful to his God under the threat of death. He also remained faithful. The results of these tests were that the true and only God of Daniel and his three friends received glory. In these first six chapters we also learn that God is sovereign over the kings and rulers on the earth.
Chapters 7-12 deal with visions of the future from Daniel’s perspective. There is general agreement as to the fulfillment of some of these visions such as the male goat in Dan. 8:5 referring to Alexandar the Great. Since this is history and not prophecy for us it’s pretty easy to interpret. With other visions that are not yet fulfilled there is considerable debate. We must read them with humility and grace for those who differ with our interpretations.
[1] Christian Standard Bible. 2020. Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers.
