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Book of Daniel
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== Content == {{Daniel chapters}} === Introduction in Babylon (chapter 1) === {{main|Daniel 1}} [[File:Songe Nabuchodonosor statue.jpg|thumb|upright|Nebuchadnezzar's dream: the composite statue (France, 15th century)]] In the third year of King [[Jehoiakim]], God allows Jerusalem to fall into the power of [[Nebuchadnezzar II]], king of Babylon.<ref group="Notes" name="Jehoiakim">Jehoiakim: King of Judah 608β598 BC; his third year would be either 606 or 605, depending how years are counted.</ref> Young Israelites of noble and royal family, "without physical defect, and handsome," versed in wisdom and competent to serve in the palace of the king, are taken to Babylon to be taught the literature and language of that nation. Among them are Daniel and his three companions, who refuse to touch the royal food and wine. Their overseer fears for his life in case the health of his charges deteriorates, but Daniel suggests a trial and the four emerge healthier than their counterparts from ten days of consuming nothing but vegetables and water. They are allowed to continue to refrain from eating the king's food, and to Daniel, God gives insight into visions and dreams. When their training is done Nebuchadnezzar finds them 'ten times better' than all the wise men in his service and therefore keeps them at his court, where Daniel continues until the first year of King [[Cyrus the Great|Cyrus]].{{sfn|Seow|2003|pp=19β20}}<ref group="Notes" name="Cyrus">Cyrus: Persian conqueror of Babylon, 539 BC.</ref> === Nebuchadnezzar's dream of four kingdoms (chapter 2) === {{Main|Daniel 2}} In the second year of his reign, Nebuchadnezzar has a dream. When he wakes up, he realizes that the dream has some important message, so he consults his wise men. Wary of their potential to fabricate an explanation, the king refuses to tell the wise men what he saw in his dream. Rather, he demands that his wise men tell him what the content of the dream was, and then interpret it. When the wise men protest that this is beyond the power of any man, he sentences all, including Daniel and his friends, to death. Daniel receives an explanatory vision from God: Nebuchadnezzar had seen an enormous statue with a head of gold, breast and arms of silver, belly and thighs of bronze, legs of iron, and feet of mixed iron and clay, then saw the statue destroyed by a rock that turned into a mountain filling the whole earth. Daniel explains the dream to the king: the statue symbolized four successive kingdoms, starting with Nebuchadnezzar, all of which would be crushed by God's kingdom, which would endure forever. Nebuchadnezzar acknowledges the supremacy of Daniel's god, raises Daniel over all his wise men, and places Daniel and his companions over the province of Babylon.{{sfn|Seow|2003|pp=31β33}} === The fiery furnace (chapter 3) === {{Main|Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego}} Daniel's companions Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego refuse to bow to King Nebuchadnezzar's golden statue and are thrown into a fiery furnace. Nebuchadnezzar is astonished to see a fourth figure in the furnace with the three, one "with the appearance like a son of the gods." So the king calls the three to come out of the fire, blesses the God of Israel, and decrees that any who blaspheme against him shall be torn limb from limb.{{sfn|Seow|2003|pp=50β51}} === Nebuchadnezzar's madness (chapter 4) === {{main|Daniel 4}} [[File:William Blake - Nebuchadnezzar (Tate Britain).jpg|upright=1.3|thumb|''Nebuchadnezzar'' by [[William Blake]] (between {{circa|1795}} and 1805)]] Nebuchadnezzar recounts a dream of a huge tree that is suddenly cut down at the command of a heavenly messenger. Daniel is summoned and interprets the dream. The tree is Nebuchadnezzar himself, who for seven years will lose his mind and live like a wild beast. All of this comes to pass until, at the end of the specified time, Nebuchadnezzar acknowledges that "heaven rules" and his kingdom and sanity are restored.{{sfn|Levine|2010|p=1241}} === Belshazzar's feast (chapter 5) === {{main|Belshazzar's feast}} {{see also|Fall of Babylon}} [[Belshazzar]] and his nobles blasphemously drink from sacred Jewish temple vessels, offering praise to inanimate gods, until a mysterious hand suddenly appears and [[Belshazzar's feast|writes upon the wall]]. The horrified king summons Daniel, who upbraids him for his lack of humility before God and interprets the message: Belshazzar's kingdom will be given to the Medes and Persians. Belshazzar rewards Daniel and raises him to be third in the kingdom, and that very night Belshazzar is slain and [[Darius the Mede]] takes the kingdom.{{sfn|Hammer|1976|pp=57β60}}<ref group="Notes" name="Darius the Mede">Darius the Mede: No such person is known to history (see Levine, 2010, p. 1245, footnote 31). "Darius" is in any case a Persian, not a Median, name. The Persian army which captured Babylon was under the command of a certain [[Gobryas (general)|Gobryas]] (or Gubaru), a Babylonian and former provincial governor who turned against his royal master, on behalf of Cyrus, the Persian king. The author of Daniel may have introduced the reference to a Mede in order to fulfill Isaiah and Jeremiah, who prophesied that the Medes would overthrow Babylon, and confused the events of 539 with those of 520 BC, when Darius I captured Babylon after an uprising. See Hammer, 1976, pp. 65β66.</ref> === Daniel in the lions' den (chapter 6) === [[File:Daniel's Answer to the King, by Briton Riviere, GMIII MCAG 1937 123-001.jpg|thumb|upright=1.3|''Daniel's Answer to the King'' by [[Briton RiviΓ¨re]] (1892)]] {{Main|Daniel in the lions' den}} Darius elevates Daniel to high office, exciting the jealousy of other officials. Knowing of Daniel's devotion to his God, his enemies trick the king into issuing an edict forbidding worship of any other god or man for a 30-day period. Daniel continues [[Jewish prayer|to pray three times a day]] to God towards Jerusalem; he is accused and King Darius, forced by his own decree, throws Daniel into the lions' den. But God shuts up the mouths of the lions, and the next morning Darius rejoices to find him unharmed. The king casts Daniel's accusers into the lions' pit together with their wives and children to be instantly devoured, while he himself acknowledges Daniel's God as he whose kingdom shall never be destroyed.{{sfn|Levine|2010|pp=1245β1247}} === Vision of the beasts from the sea (chapter 7) === {{Main|Daniel 7}} {{See also|Four kingdoms of Daniel}} In the first year of [[Belshazzar]] Daniel has a dream of four monstrous beasts arising from the sea.<ref group="Notes" name="First year of Belshazzar">First year of Belshazzar: Probably 553 BC, when Belshazzar was given royal power by his father, [[Nabonidus]]. See Levine, 2010, p. 1248, footnote 7.1β8.</ref> The fourth, a beast with ten horns, devours the whole earth, treading it down and crushing it, and a further small horn appears and uproots three of the earlier horns. The [[Ancient of Days]] judges and destroys the beast, and "one like a [[son of man]]" is given everlasting kingship over the entire world. One of Daniel's attendants explains that the four beasts represent four kings, but that "the holy ones of the Most High" would receive the everlasting kingdom. The fourth beast would be a fourth kingdom with ten kings, and another king who would pull down three kings and make war on the "holy ones" for "a time, two times and a half," after which the heavenly judgment will be made against him and the "holy ones" will receive the everlasting kingdom.{{sfn|Levine|2010|pp=1248β1249}} === Vision of the ram and goat (chapter 8) === {{Main|Daniel 8}} In the third year of Belshazzar Daniel has a vision of a ram and goat. The ram has two mighty horns, one longer than the other, and it charges west, north and south, overpowering all other beasts. A goat with a single horn appears from the west and destroys the ram. The goat becomes very powerful until the horn breaks off and is replaced by four lesser horns. A small horn that grows very large, it stops the daily temple sacrifices and desecrates the sanctuary for two thousand three hundred "evenings and mornings" (which could be either 1,150 or 2,300 days) until the temple is cleansed. The [[angel Gabriel]] informs him that the ram represents the Medes and Persians, the goat is Greece, and the "little horn" is a wicked king.{{sfn|Levine|2010|pp=1249β1251}} === Vision of the Seventy Weeks (chapter 9) === {{Main|Prophecy of Seventy Weeks}} In the first year of Darius the Mede, Daniel meditates on the word of [[Book of Jeremiah|Jeremiah]] that the desolation of Jerusalem would last seventy years; he confesses the [[sin of Israel]] and pleads for God to restore Israel and the "desolated sanctuary" of the Temple. The angel [[Gabriel]] explains that the seventy years stand for seventy "weeks" of years (490 years), during which the Temple will first be restored, then later defiled by a "prince who is to come," "until the decreed end is poured out."{{sfn|Levine|2010|pp=1251β1252}} === Vision of the kings of north and south (chapters 10β12) === {{Main|Daniel's final vision}} Daniel 10: In the third year of [[Cyrus the Great|Cyrus]]<ref group="Notes" name="Third year of Cyrus">"Third year of Cyrus": 536 BC. The author has apparently counted back seventy years to the "third year of Jehoiakim," 606 BC, to round out Daniel's prophetic ministry. See Towner, p. 149.</ref> Daniel sees in his vision an angel (called "a man", but clearly a supernatural being) who explains that he is in the midst of a war with the "prince of Persia", assisted only by [[Michael (archangel)|Michael]], "your prince." The "prince of Greece" will shortly come, but first he will reveal what will happen to Daniel's people. Daniel 11: A future king of Persia will make war on the king of [[Ancient Greece|Greece]], a "mighty king" will arise and wield power until his empire is broken up and given to others, and finally the king of the south (identified in verse 8 as [[Ancient Egypt|Egypt]]) will go to war with the "king of the north." After many battles (described in great detail) a "contemptible person" will become king of the north; this king will invade the south two times, the first time with success, but on his second he will be stopped by "ships of Kittim." He will turn back to his own country, and on the way his soldiers will desecrate the Temple, abolish the daily sacrifice, and set up the [[abomination of desolation]]. He will defeat and subjugate [[Ancient Libya|Libya]] and Egypt, but "reports from the east and north will alarm him," and he will meet his end "between the sea and the holy mountain." Daniel 12: At this time Michael will come. It will be a time of great distress, but all those whose names are written will be delivered. "Multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake, some to everlasting life, others to shame and everlasting contempt; those who are wise will shine like the brightness of the heavens, and those who lead many to righteousness, like the stars for ever and ever." In the final verses the remaining time to the end is revealed: "a time, times and half a time" (three years and a half). Daniel fails to understand and asks again what will happen, and is told: "From the time that the daily sacrifice is abolished and the abomination that causes desolation is set up, there will be 1,290 days. Blessed is the one who waits for and reaches the end of the 1,335 days." === Additions to Daniel (Greek text tradition) === [[File:Guido Reni - Susanna and the Elders - WGA19296.jpg|thumb|upright=1.35|''Susanna and the Elders'' by [[Guido Reni]] (1820β1825)]] {{Main|Additions to Daniel}}{{see also|Deuterocanonical books}} The Greek text of Daniel is considerably longer than the Hebrew, due to three additional stories: they remain in [[Catholic Church|Catholic]] and [[Eastern Orthodox Church|Orthodox]] Christian Bibles but were rejected by the Christian Protestant movement in the 16th century on the basis that they were absent from the [[Hebrew Bible]].{{sfn|McDonald|2012|p=57}} * [[The Prayer of Azariah and Song of the Three Holy Children]], placed after Daniel 3:23; * The story of [[Susanna (Book of Daniel)|Susanna and the Elders]], placed before chapter 1 in some Greek versions and after chapter 12 in others; * The story of [[Bel and the Dragon]], placed at the end of the book. The Book of Daniel is preserved in the 12-chapter [[Masoretic Text]] and in two longer Greek versions, the original Septuagint version, {{Circa|100 BC|lk=no}}, and the later [[Theodotion]] version from {{Circa|2nd century CE}}. Both Greek texts contain the three additions to Daniel. Theodotion is much closer to the Masoretic Text and became so popular that it replaced the original Septuagint version in all but two manuscripts of the Septuagint itself.{{sfn|Harrington|1999|pp=119β120}}{{sfn|Spencer|2002|p=89}}{{sfn|Collins|1984|p=28}} The Greek additions were apparently never part of the Hebrew text.{{sfn|Seow|2003|p=3}} Several Old Greek texts of the Book of Daniel have been discovered, and the original form of the book is being reconstructed.{{sfn|Dines|2004}}
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