Introduction to Daniel

Even though Daniel wrote thousands of years ago, his book provides clarity and relevance for today — a prophetic book you need to understand. In the middle of Jesus’ private briefing to his disciples on the end of the age (Matthew 24), Matthew inserts a parenthetical statement “Let the reader understand” — you should understand prophecy for the clarity and understanding it provides current events.

Yet some fear Daniel’s book (and Revelation), viewing end times as scary, fearful events. Yet they should not be. God gives us knowledge for a reason — if He didn’t want us to understand, He would not have revealed it.

On the other side, others devote too much time to prophecy, derailing other more profitable studies. Every time a war breaks out in the Middle East “experts” appear starting a debate on whether it’s the beginning of Armageddon. But who really cares? Yes, we should know and understand times and events, but not be consumed by them; we don’t know if any specific event triggers the final week of Daniel’s prophecy, so understand but don’t obsess.

Daniel’s writing thousands of years ago provide euphemisms still in use today (even in secular circles):

• “handwriting on the wall”
• “your numbers up”
• “idol has clay feet”
• “thrown to the lions”

Daniel’s prophecy and narratives provide many learning opportunities — not as stories for entertainment, but events which should change our actions.

For whatever things were written in earlier times were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope. (Romans 15:4 KJV)

But most importantly, Daniel provides the antidote for one of the biggest heresies heard today — God no longer involves the Jews in His plan. Some teach since the Jews didn’t accept their Messiah the promises made to Abraham transferred to the church; the Church replaced the Jews in Bible prophecy. Is this scriptural? Does the Bible contain any such teaching? Never — the promises made in Genesis are unilateral and irrevocable:

And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee. (Genesis 12:3 KJV)

That’s something we need to understand as we mess around with foreign policy (and it’s a promise still in effect which should guide how we handle the Middle East mess). It’s bizarre to imagine, but the creator of the universe parceled out a tract of land He calls His own, and when we mess around with Middle East policy we’re poking a finger in the eye of God — God’s covenant with Abraham in Genesis 15:1–18 is unilateral.

And he said unto him, I am the LORD that brought thee out of Ur of the Chaldees, to give thee this land to inherit it. And he said, Lord GOD, whereby shall I know that I shall inherit it? And he said unto him, Take me an heifer of three years old, and a she goat of three years old, and a ram of three years old, and a turtledove, and a young pigeon. And he took unto him all these, and divided them in the midst, and laid each piece one against another: but the birds divided he not. And when the fowls came down upon the carcases, Abram drove them away. And when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and, lo, an horror of great darkness fell upon him.

And it came to pass, that, when the sun went down, and it was dark, behold a smoking furnace, and a burning lamp that passed between those pieces. In the same day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates: (Genesis 15:7–12,17–18 KJV)

To make a contract they divided an animal in half, and both parties passed between the pieces to seal the deal. Since Abraham fell asleep, he never passed between the pieces and God passed through by Himself — Abraham received a unilateral and irrevocable contract from God alone. That by itself should be sufficient to establish the certainty of the Jewish future, but consider Daniel and the famous 70 weeks.

Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy. (Daniel 9:24 KJV)

Two things become immediately and obviously clear by even a casual reading of that passage.

1. It’s about the Jews — “thy people and thy holy city”. Daniel’s 70 weeks involves Jewish history, not Gentile.
2. It hasn’t happened yet — finishing transgression, the end of sins, reconciliation for iniquity and everlasting righteousness.

The Jews still have a future yet to be revealed. Right now we’re in the period between the 69th and 70th week; while Daniel speaks of all end times, he doesn’t give much detail; Revelation details the 70th week.

Daniel means “God is my judge”. Daniel began captivity in Babylon in his early teen years under Nebuchadnezzar, spending most of his life in Babylon. As to the date of his writing, critics try to “late-date” the book to the second century BC, and not by Daniel’s pen as the clarity (and obviously fulfilled) nature of the prophecies require skeptics doubting the existence of God to insist no man could be so accurate regarding future events; they favor a date about 165 BC, by someone other than Daniel.

Unfortunately, modern research has shown convincingly that the Book of Daniel was written in about 165 BCE.

Although according to the text the book of Daniel belongs to the 6th century BC, most scholars do not believe the book was written then. They opt for a 2nd-century BC writer, drawing on well-known stories. (Zondervan “Handbook to the Bible” page 473)

Notice the use of the terms “believe” and “opt” — even the terms used hint of their refusal to believe Daniel foretold future events. Since they start with a preconceived bias of doubting God’s existence, the only other possibility denies Daniel’s authorship, and not during the time the events took place. Is this so-called “modern scholarship” correct? They may have PhD’s, fancy titles and sound intelligent, but are they right? They miss two obvious facts.

1. Alexander the Great visits Jerusalem in 332 BC. The historian Josephus in “Antiquities of the Jews” (Book 11, chapter 8, section 5) relates a story of Alexander in Jerusalem as they showed him a copy of Daniel. Thus, it had to exist in 332 BC. Alexander dies in 323 BC so even if the Jerusalem date is off a bit, Daniel’s writing had to exist before 323 BC.
2. The completion of the Septuagint (Greek translation of the Hebrew Old Testament) occurred about 285–246 BC. Again, scholars debate exact dates, but let’s approximate to the middle of the third century and round off to the period 300–200 BC. Since the Old Testament contains Daniel (and included in the Septuagint), it’s quite impossible for the writing to be as late as 165 BC.

Both of these historical events shred the “scholarship” stating the book bearing Daniel’s name wasn’t written as claimed, but much later — you don’t have to examine their arguments (no matter how scholarly sounding) to dismiss them completely. They waste years debating arguments which simply can not be true due to historical events — events which completely eliminate their theories from rational discussion. By continuing to hold to meritless theories, they discredit themselves from any serious discussion.

If a later forger wrote Daniel, the Septuagint doesn’t exist (or at least was done much later), and neither did Alexander’s visit to Jerusalem. Interestingly, you can find “scholarship” doubting both events — not because it makes sense, but because it must be to fit preconceived ideas about Daniel’s writing. Be careful with “scholars” sounding sophisticated; they attempt to cause doubt even though they miss obvious facts rendering their scholarship in error. Let’s boil it down to what J Vernon McGee said.

These arguments clearly contradict the liberal critics; yet there are those who blindly ignore them. It is not in the purview of these brief comments to enter into useless argument and fight again about that which has already been settled. … that the man Daniel was not a deceiver and that his book was not a forgery. (McGee, “Thru the Bible”, page 525)

Let’s skip all the pseudo-scholarship and settle the matter once and for all — in Matthew 24:5 Jesus says “When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet”. That statement tells you two things: Daniel authored the book bearing his name, and he was a prophet. If the Bible is the inerrant Word of God it settles the authorship and date of Daniel (if you don’t believe Jesus is God then you’ve got much bigger issues than the authorship of Daniel).

Anyone claiming a forger wrote Daniel in 165 BC tells you one thing — they deny the inerrancy of God’s Word, and don’t believe Jesus is God. That doesn’t immediately discredit their theories, but it should give you insight into their bias and show you no matter what their scholarship says, they base it on preconceived bias and lack an open mind.

The endorsement of the Lord Jesus Christ is valid and sufficient for every believer, whether or not he has examined the arguments of the critics, and it satisfies the sincere saint without his having to study the answers of conservative scholarship. (McGee, “Thru the Bible”, page 525)

After all that, Daniel wrote between 605 BC and 537 BC during captivity in Babylon. Carried off as a captive in his early teen years, he lived and wrote during that time. He spent much of his life in service to the government of Babylon, receiving incredible prophecies and revelations from God.

The theme of Daniel’s life appears early in chapter one with Daniel saying he “purposed in his heart not to defile himself”. Even as a young teenager far from home, Daniel maintained his devotion to God; Daniel refused to defile himself in several ways.

• With Food (1:8) — He stayed kosher to Jewish law. Who would know if he had a ham sandwich? He’s in Babylon with nobody around to know otherwise.
• From Fear (2:16–18) — After none of the other officials could tell Nebuchadnezzar his dream, the king places the entire group under death penalty for failure to perform. But Daniel prays to God for understanding of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream and reveals to the King not only the dream, but its interpretation.
• Power/gifts (5:17) — After he interprets the handwriting on the wall, the king wants to give gifts and third place in kingdom to Daniel, but he tells the king “Let thy gifts be to thyself, and give thy rewards to another”; Daniel will not be swayed by money or power.
• From corrupt laws (6:5–7) — A law made no petitions legal for 30 days to any god or man but the King (a law made specifically to trap Daniel). Yet he refuses to yield, and God protects him in the lion’s den.

We can sum up the character of Daniel from chapter six.

Then this Daniel was preferred above the presidents and princes, because an excellent spirit was in him; and the king thought to set him over the whole realm. Then the presidents and princes sought to find occasion against Daniel concerning the kingdom; but they could find none occasion nor fault; forasmuch as he was faithful, neither was there any error or fault found in him. Then said these men, We shall not find any occasion against this Daniel, except we find it against him concerning the law of his God. (Daniel 6:3–5 KJV)

Daniel had no skeletons in his closet; no way to attack him for “youthful indiscretions”, “wardrobe malfunctions”, or anything else. The only way to attack Daniel came from his devotion to God; as the book shows from youth to old age, Daniel refused to compromise.

Contrast Daniel’s commitment with today — Daniel refused to defile himself even though nobody was watching; would anybody care if he had a ham sandwich? Would anybody even know? Yet people today scorn and ignore Daniel’s model; people corrupt themselves because people are watching, as events in late 2006 and early 2007 provide the following illustrations:

• Pop-tart Britney Spears has problems dressing herself — on multiple occasions. Her “wardrobe malfunctions” caught by waiting photographers eager to publicize the situation.
• Miss USA in rehab after allegedly having a drinking problem.
• Miss Nevada removed of her title after inappropriate pictures of her appeared on the Internet.
• Actress Lindsay Lohan joins Alcoholic Anonymous at the age of 20, and enters rehab in early 2007.

It’s become a race to the bottom, perhaps not because they have no morals or ethics (I don’t know any of them and can not judge their intentions), but because it’s all good publicity. But in this disastrous race, it’s only a race to the bottom as each tries to top the other by sinking to previously unheard of depths. Truly, our society slouches toward Gomorrah.

Yet Daniel maintains his character even though no one expected (or cared) him to. You could imagine other government officials didn’t like Daniel, so they set a trap that for 30 days no one could petition any god or man but the king — and Daniel responds.

Now when Daniel knew that the writing was signed, he went into his house; and his windows being open in his chamber toward Jerusalem, he kneeled upon his knees three times a day, and prayed, and gave thanks before his God, as he did previously. (Daniel 6:10 KJV)

That’s Daniel’s character. Bold, dedicated, uncompromising and refusing to defile himself.