Book of Daniel
The Book of Daniel is a biblical apocalypse authored during the 2nd century BC, and set during the 6th century BC.[1] The work describes "the activities and visions of Daniel, a noble Jew exiled at Babylon";[2] in doing so, it interpolates a portrayal of a historical prophecy being fulfilled with a prediction of future cosmic and political upheaval. This eschatology ultimately affirms that the God of Israel's previous deliverance of Daniel from his enemies prefigures his future deliverance of the people of Israel from their present oppression.[3]
For other uses, see Book of Daniel (disambiguation).
The Hebrew Bible includes Daniel as one of the Ketuvim, while Christian biblical canons group the work with the Major Prophets.[4] It divides into two parts: a set of six court tales in chapters 1–6, written mostly in Aramaic, and four apocalyptic visions in chapters 7–12, written mostly in Hebrew;[5] the deuterocanonical books contain three additional sections, the Prayer of Azariah and Song of the Three Holy Children, Susanna, and Bel and the Dragon.[6]
The book's themes have resonated throughout the ages, including with the community of the Dead Sea Scrolls and the authors of the canonical gospels and the Book of Revelation. From the 2nd century to the modern era, religious movements including the Protestant Reformation and later millennialist movements have been deeply influenced by it.[7]
Structure[edit]
Divisions[edit]
The Book of Daniel is divided between the court tales of chapters 1–6 and the apocalyptic visions of 7–12, and between the Hebrew of chapters 1 and 8–12 and the Aramaic of chapters 2–7.[8][9] The division is reinforced by the chiastic arrangement of the Aramaic chapters (see below), and by a chronological progression in chapters 1–6 from Babylonian to Median rule, and from Babylonian to Persian rule in chapters 7–12.[10] Various suggestions have been made by scholars to explain the fact that the genre division does not coincide with the other two, but it appears that the language division and concentric structure of chapters 2–6 are artificial literary devices designed to bind the two halves of the book together.[10] The following outline is provided by Collins in his commentary on Daniel:[11]
PART I: Tales (chapters 1:1–6:29)
Manuscripts[edit]
The Book of Daniel is preserved in the 12-chapter Masoretic Text and in two longer Greek versions, the original Septuagint version, c. 100 BC, and the later Theodotion version from c. 2nd century AD. Both Greek texts contain three additions to Daniel: The Prayer of Azariah and Song of the Three Holy Children; the story of Susannah and the Elders; and the story of Bel and the Dragon. 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.[53][54][8] The Greek additions were apparently never part of the Hebrew text.[55]
Eight copies of the Book of Daniel, all incomplete, have been found at Qumran, two in Cave 1, five in Cave 4, and one in Cave 6. Between them, they preserve text from eleven of Daniel's twelve chapters, and the twelfth is quoted in the Florilegium (a compilation scroll) 4Q174, showing that the book at Qumran did not lack this conclusion. All eight manuscripts were copied between 125 BC (4QDanc) and about 50 AD (4QDanb), showing that Daniel was being read at Qumran only about 40 years after its composition. All appear to preserve the 12-chapter Masoretic version rather than the longer Greek text. None reveal any major disagreements against the Masoretic, and the four scrolls that preserve the relevant sections (1QDana, 4QDana, 4QDanb, and 4QDand) all follow the bilingual nature of Daniel where the book opens in Hebrew, switches to Aramaic at 2:4b, then reverts to Hebrew at 8:1.[56]
