Daniel

What This Book Is

Six famous stories of courage under pressure, followed by six chapters of visions about the rise and fall of kingdoms.

Overview

Daniel divides neatly in half, and the two halves feel very different.

Chapters 1 to 6 are stories, and they are among the best known in the Bible. Four young men are deported, renamed, and put through a training programme designed to reshape their identity, and they negotiate carefully about what they will and will not do. A king's dream is interpreted when nobody else can. Three friends refuse to bow to a statue and say plainly that God is able to save them, but even if he does not, they will not bow. Writing appears on a palace wall during a banquet. Daniel, now an old man, keeps praying at his open window under a law designed to trap him, and spends a night with lions.

The common thread is not defiance for its own sake. These men serve their captors ably and rise high. They comply where they can and refuse where they must, and the refusals cost them.

Chapters 7 to 12 shift into visions: beasts rising from the sea, a ram and a goat, a figure like a son of man given everlasting dominion, and long stretches of history described in advance. This material is apocalyptic, dense with symbol, and Christians have interpreted its details in markedly different ways for a very long time. What all readings share is the central claim: the empires are temporary and God's kingdom is not.

Structure

• Chapters 1 to 3: PressureA training programme, a dream interpreted, and a furnace.
• Chapters 4 to 6: Kings humbledA king reduced to grass, writing on a wall, and a den of lions.
• Chapters 7 to 8: BeastsKingdoms as animals, and one like a son of man.
• Chapters 9 to 12: Prayer and visionA prayer of confession, and long visions of coming conflict.

Themes

Why It Matters

Daniel is the handbook for living as a minority under a power that assumes it is ultimate. It neither withdraws nor assimilates. The famous stories are not children's tales; they involve a furnace and a den, and the answer given in chapter 3, that God can save and we will not bow even if he does not, is one of the strongest statements of faith in Scripture. The son of man figure in chapter 7 is the title Jesus most often uses for himself.

How to Read It

• Read chapters 1 to 6 as stories about compromise and its limits, not just as rescues.
• Notice how much these men cooperate with the empire, and where exactly they draw the line.
• Hold the details of the visions loosely; sincere readers differ substantially.
• Read chapter 7:13-14 and then notice how Jesus uses that title.

Key Verse

Did You Know?

• Part of Daniel is written in Aramaic rather than Hebrew, roughly chapters 2 through 7.
• The phrase the writing on the wall comes from chapter 5.
• Daniel prays three times a day at an open window even after it is made illegal.

Where to Start Reading

Related in the Field Guide