A Primer on the Book of Daniel

A Primer on the Book of Daniel

Ted Noel

A Primer on the Book of Daniel

Copyright © 2009 Ted Noel All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in critical publications or reviews, no part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without prior written permission from the publisher. Write: Permissions, Wipf and Stock Publishers, 199 W. 8th Ave., Suite 3, Eugene, OR 97401.

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Scripture taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE®, Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.

Scripture taken from HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House.

Acknowledgments

This book springs from the work of those who have gone before me. Many students of scripture have had insights of one kind or another. Perhaps John of Salisbury said it best, back in the twelfth century.

We are like dwarves sitting on the shoulders of giants. We see more, and things that are more distant than they did, not because our sight is superior or because we are taller than they, but because they raise us up, and by their great stature add to ours.

As I prepared the manuscript, three people provided particularly noteworthy assistance. First, Brian Russell of Asbury Seminary gave encouragement to my observations about Nebuchadnezzar in Daniel 2. These help to emphasize the covenant theme that runs through the whole book.

As I moved to Daniel 7, historical researcher Nick Yarberough provided invaluable details of the era from Constantine through the Dark Ages. These led to a complete re-evaluation of the career of the little horn and the biblical language related to it. Roy Gane of Andrews University reviewed syntactical issues in Daniel 12:7. Again, this proved to be a crux interpretum.

Next I must thank my adult study class at Sabbath Grace Fellowship. We used the first draft of the Primer as a study guide. Our weekly discussions led to new insights that found their way into the text. They also led to better ways of saying things. In the Primer I’ve tried to be very casual and conversational. Our give-and-take refined my writing for members of other local church bodies. Even more, our conversations showed me what they thought was important.

I could not have prepared this book without the strong support of my wife Nancy. She saw the impact the study was having on our church members, and kept me moving when things bogged down.

In every step, I thank the Lord who led Daniel’s career. He gave Daniel reassurance in time of trouble, and that should reassure us. By listening to His voice, our hope for the future may be made secure.

Ted Noel

August 22, 2008

Introduction

The books of Daniel and Revelation are the core of all end-times Bible studies. Revelation is more fun, since its symbols let interpreters play with all sorts of sensational speculations. But that book doesn’t stand alone. It builds on the revelations God gave a humble captive Jew in Babylon during the sixth century BC.

Now, Daniel isn’t the only source Revelation draws from. It uses lots of good stuff from other books in the Old Testament. But Daniel is the most important single source. And that’s a good news/bad news story for interpreters.

The good news is that Daniel is the clearest of all the end-times prophecies. That’s the bad news, too. It doesn’t leave a lot of room for speculation, if you let the Bible interpret itself. We can’t let ourselves fall for sensational theories based on the New York Times or CNN.

Our first rule of interpretation is to let the Bible interpret itself. I know that sounds like I’m telling you that you’ll learn Hebrew by reading Hebrew. So let me explain what’s going on.

First, we’ll make sure we know what subject is being discussed. Next, we’ll check the words to make sure we understand all of them. Sometimes that means we’ll have to look up an original Hebrew or Aramaic word. Then we’ll look at unfamiliar expressions to see what they’d mean to Daniel. Finally we’ll look at how other Bible writers used them. Once we’ve done all this, we’ll have a pretty good idea of what’s going on. To illustrate, let me preview one item.

Daniel 11:41 mentions Edom, Moab, and the foremost of the sons of Ammon. None of those people exist today, so it’s easy to speculate that this means the current countries of Syria, Jordan, and so on, since that’s where those people lived. This gives some interpreters an excuse to use the morning newspaper to figure out what’s going on. But the Bible doesn’t work that way. Daniel knew what that term meant, because it was part of his heritage. If we look for that term in the Bible, we’ll know what he knew, and we can use that to tell us what the verse means.

We’ll see the Bible interpret itself over and over. If we throw the newspaper away and open God’s word, His message will come through. Now, please don’t think I’m saying that geography and politics are completely unimportant. That’s not true. What I’m saying is that those aren’t God’s main interest. They’re in prophecy in a limited way because that’s the world man inhabits. They give us concrete pillars to build our understanding on. Just call them landmarks.

There’s going to be some technical stuff. I’ll try to keep it as simple as I can. Sometimes I’ll put technical things in footnotes. Other times I’ll put them in boxes or graphics.

Next, there will be a lot of text citations in parentheses. Texts from Daniel will be just numbers—chapter and verse. After all, that’s the book we’re exploring. Citations outside Daniel will include the book name, using standard abbreviations.

A citation after a scripture quote tells where that scripture was found. Other citations will tell where to find texts that support the point I’m making. Sometimes a citation will begin with cf. That’s the abbreviation for the Latin word confer, meaning compare. Texts beginning with cf. are there to give a comparison to the text I’m using to make my point. Occasionally I’ll use ff. after a citation. That means I’m giving you the starting text. If you read on, you’ll get the full picture of what I’m talking about.

I use the New American Standard Bible for most of my text quotes. In the interest of clarity, I frequently make slight changes to match the voice of the sentence I’m using the quote in. None of these adjustments make material changes to the meaning of the text.

Sometimes I’ll use the literal reading of a text, since the literal wording is important. I’ll make it clear when I do that. Look for the lit. abbreviation.

I don’t expect anyone to take my word for anything, because that would be dangerous. After all, God is the authority, not me. I’m trying to be careful to talk about the same things God talks about in the Bible. So if you have a question, go back to the Bible. You don’t need to stop there. Use all the tools in your library, including lexicons and commentaries. Be careful. Commentaries are the ideas of men, just like this book is. Everything has to be compared to God’s word.

The Bible is True

This study accepts the Bible as God’s word. That is, the Bible’s true. I’m not going to go into a lot of the arguments about whether the Bible was written when it says it was, whether it was truly inspired by God, and so on. Those arguments would distract us from Daniel’s message. For those who simply must talk about this, let’s look at one item.

Many skeptics argue that the book of Daniel was written in the second century BC in a literary form called vaticinium ex eventu. The term means that it looks and sounds like prophecy, but it’s really history, written to look like prophecy. This idea runs into big problems in 5:1 where we find Belshazzar the king. Nobody in the second century BC knew about Belshazzar. For a long time, even archeologists thought he was an invented character. Then in 1924 the Nabonidus Chronicle was discovered.

Nabonidus was the real king, but he wasn’t interested in the day-to-day management of Babylon. He preferred to be off on military expeditions against Egypt. So Nabonidus left his son Belshazzar to take care of things at home. The crown prince became the melek. This word is often translated king, but simply means ruler. It can apply to just about any political boss from the local mayor on up, depending on context.

Belshazzar, the ruler nobody knew about in the second century, was real. In 5:16, Belshazzar promises Daniel the third position in the kingdom if he can read the handwriting on the wall. If a second century writer invented Belshazzar, offering Daniel the third place in the kingdom would be very strange. The normal offer would be the number two spot. Only the true king would be higher than the honoree. But Belshazzar’s the number two guy. He can’t go any higher with his offer than number three.

The accuracy of this account, both in the names and actions, tells us that the author was exactly who he said he was—a member of the royal court of Babylon in the sixth century BC. Nobody else would have a prayer of getting the story right.

There are lots of other bits to support our conclusion, but we won’t bother with them here. The book of Daniel is exactly what it says it is—an accurate account of events and revelations in Babylon in the sixth century BC.

Context First, then Prophecy

I have to disappoint some of you. I’m not going to jump into juicy prophecies right away. We’ll get to them, but I’m going to go through the historical part of the book first. This will set the stage for the prophecies. It will tell us about the things Daniel thought were really important. We’ll use that focus when the prophecies get interesting. I’ll try not to take too much time on history. It’s interesting, but we’re ultimately here for the prophecies.

While I’m talking about history, I have to point you to two other Old Testament prophets: Jeremiah and Ezekiel. Jeremiah prophesied for about thirty years before Jerusalem fell to Babylon. Chapters 2–38 of his book are a constant drumbeat of, You’ve broken the covenant. Come back to Yahweh or you’re in deep trouble. After Nebuchadnezzar conquered Jerusalem, Jeremiah continued his work, but the Jews didn’t listen, and this time the city was completely destroyed.

Ezekiel was also taken to Babylon as a hostage. His prophecies parallel the second part of Jeremiah’s. He warned the Jews that God’s glory would leave the Temple if they didn’t straighten up and fly right. The Jews ignored him, too.

The Bible is the Final Authority

There will be times when I say something that sounds different from what you’ve been taught. Before you throw this book away, ask yourself if I supported my comments from scripture. If I did, keep reading. If I didn’t, feel free to use it for firewood.

Ted Noel

1

A Royal Hostage in Babylon

Six hundred eight BC was a bad year for the Jews. Josiah had ruled for eighteen years as God’s faithful servant. Then he went against God’s direction and died at Megiddo fighting Pharaoh Neco (2 Chron 20—24). His son Jehoahaz took over, but after three months Neco deposed him and made his brother Eliakim the king and changed his name to Jehoiakim. Next, to keep Jehoiakim in line, Jehoahaz and some of his family were taken to Egypt as royal hostages (2 Chron 36:1–4). They’d be comfortable as long as Jehoiakim behaved, but if the Jews rebelled, they’d be roadkill. This arrangement let Neco to keep Judah in line without leaving his army there. As long as they paid the tribute money, he didn’t bother them (2 Chron 35:22—36:12, 2 Kgs 23:35).¹

Then Nebuchadnezzar showed up.² In 605 he defeated the Egyptian army at Carchemish, making it non-existent.³ He marched south through Lebanon intending to finish the job in Egypt. Judea just happened to be in his way.

Nebuchadnezzar didn’t have any particular beef with the Jews, so when he arrived, he made them an offer they couldn’t refuse. Pay tribute to Babylon instead of Egypt, and everything would be fine. Refuse, and be destroyed. One look at Nebuchadnezzar’s army sealed the deal. The Jews switched sides. What did they have to lose?

Israel and the Covenant

Before we go any further, we need to review God’s covenant promises to Israel. When they entered the Promised Land (Deut 28:1–14), God promised that if they followed Him, He’d defeat all their enemies (v. 7). The whole world would see how powerful Yahweh was, and would be afraid (v. 10). God would bless the Hebrews so much that everybody would come to them to borrow (v. 12). Of course, anyone else who followed God would be blessed, too (Exod 12:48).

But the Hebrews constantly rebelled. This led to trouble from the Philistines, Amalekites, Moabites, Edomites, and any other unfriendly neighbors. The northern ten tribes were so evil that God finally disowned them (Hos 1:9). In the eighth century BC Assyria relocated the northern tribes and brought in outsiders.⁴

The Jews weren’t all that much better. Before long, God ran out of patience with them. Jeremiah told the Jews they’d better straighten up and fly right. If they didn’t, they’d be in real trouble.

The word that came to Jeremiah concerning all the people of Judah . . . these twenty-three years the word of the Lord has come to me, and I have spoken to you again and again, but you have not listened . . . ‘Turn now everyone from his evil way and from the evil of your deeds, and dwell on the land which the Lord has given to you and your forefathers forever and ever; and do not go after other gods to serve them and to worship them, and do not provoke Me to anger with the work of your hands, and I will do you no harm. Yet you have not listened to Me, declares the Lord, ‘. . . Therefore thus says the Lord of hosts, ‘Because you have not obeyed My words, behold, I will send and take all the families of the north,’ declares the Lord, ‘and