On the pedestal of history, holding the flame of freedom—that’s how the Book of Daniel has stood since it first appeared, more than 2500 years ago, and how it continues to stand today. It is a divinely inspired introduction to the book of Revelation, and together they represent the extension of the gospel beyond the apostolic generation up until the return of Christ, a biblical revelation of the promise of the triumph of the persecuted.
Daniel was perhaps the most controversial but also the most loved prophet of the Hebrew era. Jews, Christians and Muslims alike claim him as their own.
The Jewish Daniel
The first Jewish author to mention Daniel was the priest Yehezkel ben Buzí (Ezekiel), a prophet contemporary with Daniel, who praised his intercession and wisdom in two separate oracles. Ezekiel wrote them between 592-587 BC (Ezekiel 14:14, 20; 28:3), shortly after the events recounted in the first three chapters of Daniel (605-593 BC). Almost a century and a half later, the priest Ezra’ ben Seraya, “master scribe” (c. 457 BC), and Nehemiah ben Hacaliah, “honourable Pasha” of the repatriated Jews (c. 444 BC), used Daniel’s prayer[1] as a model of intercession.
Yeshu’ ben Sira’ (“Ecclesiasticus”), who wrote in Hebrew c. 180-175 BC, has a curious passage in which he ignores Daniel and Ezra where we would expect him to mention them. Ben Sira writes that Ezekiel “also mentioned Job who held fast to all the ways of justice” (Sira 49:8-9 / 9-10)[2], and that “the memory of Nehemiah also is lasting” (Sira 49:13/15). Since the author was engaged in a review of biblical and national heroes, with a little commentary on each, the possibility that the great scribes Daniel and Ezra were omitted by mistake is excluded. Whoever speaks of Nehemiah cannot ignore Ezra (“the second Moses”). Anyone who refers to the text in which Ezekiel mentions Job cannot fail to see that in the same text (Ezek 14:14.20) Daniel is also placed in the middle, between two righteous non-Jews (Noah and Job), as an example of a saint who prays for friend and foe alike, Jew and non-Jew.[3] Now this seems to have been Ben Sira’s problem: both sages had been scribes in Babylon, both their writings mix “holy” Hebrew with “pagan” Aramaic, and Ben Sira had a different mindset (cf. Sira 50:27-28). So Daniel was deliberately excluded. Another sign of Daniel’s historicity in Ben Sira’s Hebrew text is to be found in chap. 43:8-9, which mirrors the expression in Daniel 12:3, with four words in common.
Even before 100 BC, the prophet’s fame had materialised in legends about “Bel and the dragon”. They were added by Alexandrian Jews to the Book of Daniel, which was translated into Greek before 100 BC and included in the collection of prophets. The first book of Maccabees (135-90 BC) also mentions Daniel and describes the fulfilment of some of his prophecies.[4] At the same time, Jewish scribes at Qumran copied the Aramaic-Hebrew text of the Book of Daniel, in which they showed great interest. Many fragments have been discovered from eight different manuscripts of the book, copied at different times between 125 BC and 50 AD, covering almost all the prophecies of Daniel.[5]
But the Book of Daniel has not only inspired copies, but also various apocalyptic commentaries, allusions and imitations, such as the Book of “Enoch” (c. 300 BC), the Book of Jubilees (c. 160 BC), the Apocalypse of Ezra (or 2/4 Ezra, c. 90 AD), or the Apocalypse of Baruch (c. 100 AD). In the fragment known as the Florilegium or Midrash of the Last Days (4Q174 4:3), the Qumran author even uses words and expressions specific to Daniel: “That will be the time of which it is written in the book of the prophet Daniel, ‘the wicked will continue to be wicked but the righteous will be purified, made spotless and refined’, and ‘the people who know their God will firmly resist him’ [Daniel 11:32; 12:10]”.
The historian Yosef ben Mattityahu—a Jewish priest, Pharisee and military man known by his Romanised name Flavius Josephus—a contemporary of the Apostle John, who wrote his work around 90-95 AD, wrote extensively and in praise of Daniel.[6] He says that the prophet was an illustrious sage, honoured by kings and crowds, that he was related to King Zedekiah, that he built a famous tower in Media (Hamadan), which is said to have been used as a funerary monument for Iranian monarchs as late as the first century.
“….And now he is dead he retains a remembrance that will never fail,” says the Jewish historian, “…For the several books that he wrote and left behind him, are still read by us, till this time. And from them we believe that Daniel conversed with God. For he did not only prophesy of future events, as did the other Prophets; but he also determined the time of their accomplishment. And while Prophets used to foretell misfortunes; and on that account were disagreeable both to the Kings, and to the multitude: Daniel was to them a Prophet of good things: and this to such a degree, that by the agreeable nature of his predictions, he procured the good will of all men; and by the accomplishment of them, he procured the belief of their truth, and the opinion of [a sort of] divinity for himself, among the multitude. He also wrote and left behind him what made manifest the accuracy and undeniable veracity of his predictions.”
Josephus also comments on the prophecies of Daniel. After describing the vision in Daniel 8, the historian adds: “And indeed it so came to pass, that our nation suffered these things under Antiochus Epiphanes, according to Daniel’s vision; and what he wrote many years before they came to pass. In the very same manner Daniel also wrote concerning the Roman government; and that our country should be made desolate by them.[7] All these things did this man leave in writing, as God had shewed them to him. Insomuch that such as read his prophecies, and see how they have been fulfilled, would wonder at the honour wherewith God honoured Daniel; and may thence discover how the Epicureans[8] are in an error, who cast providence out of human life; and do not believe that God takes care of the affairs of the world; nor that the universe is governed and continued in being by that blessed and immortal nature: but say, that the world is carried along of its own accord, without a ruler and a curator: which were it destitute of a guide, to conduct it, as they imagine, it would be like ships without pilots; which we see drowned by the winds: or like chariots without drivers, which are overturned: so would the world be dashed to pieces by its being carried without a providence, and so perish and come to nought.”
The Jewish historian adds other information that was still available in the first century: that Alexander the Great, on his way to Egypt, passed through Jerusalem, where he was impressed by the Temple, and the high priest Jaddua, at the head of the people, hailed him as a victor and showed him the book of Daniel, translating the prophecies it had made about the famous Macedonian. Alexander then made a gesture of obeisance to the Jewish archpriest, which provoked mutterings from his comrades-in-arms. Alexander promised the Jews that he would listen to their demands for social and cultural independence (both in Judea and in the Diaspora), tax exemption during the Sabbatical years, respect for the religion of Jewish mercenaries, etc.
The tensions that arose between Judaism and Christianity led to a definitive split into two religious communities around 100 AD. The Jews introduced into the synagogue service prayers with curses against sectarians (“minnim”), i.e. Jews who had become Christians or Gnostics, and all Christians who disturbed the Jewish communities with their gospel. The use of Daniel’s prophecies in Christian apologetics provoked a self-protective reaction from Judaism. It is said that Moshe ben Maimun (RaMBaM), the Spanish rabbi known as Maimonides (11th century), worried that “the unlearned crowd might be led astray” by trying to calculate the time of the Messiah’s coming, added a curse: “Cursed is the man who sets an end-time.” Rabbi Judah Loew ben Bezalel (16th century) complained that the time for the fulfilment of Daniel’s prophecy was long overdue (Sanhedrin 98b, 97a).
However, the medieval rabbis continued to be tempted by the prophecies of Daniel, in which they saw the destruction of Jerusalem, the ravages of Rome or Mohammedanism, and the hope of Messianic restoration. Notable among them were the Karaite[9] scholars Nahawendi (Iran, 9th century) and Ibn Ali (Israel, 10th century); the philosopher, linguist, and exegete Saadia (Baghdad, 10th century); the great biblical commentator Rashi (France, 11th century); the philosopher, astronomer, linguist, poet, and exegete Ibn Ezra (Spain, 12th century); the physician and philosopher Nahmanides (Catalonia, Israel, 13th century); the physician, mathematician, and astronomer Rashbaz (Balearic Islands, Algeria, 14th century); and the financier and philosopher Abarbanel (Portugal, Spain, Venice, 15th century).
In modern times, in addition to the orthodox “Rashian” approach and the “Epicurean” approach, which has more and more exponents, Judaism also has exegetes of Daniel who worship the true Messiah, Jesus of Nazareth. These are usually either Messianic or Jewish converts, such as the great British missionary Joseph Wolff († 1862), or the contemporary American theologians Jacques Doukhan and Clifford Goldstein.
For Islam, Daniel is a great prophet, or at least a saint. Although he is not mentioned in the Qur’an, there are traditions (“hadith”) that preserve his memory. As in Judaism and Christianity, in some Islamic traditions Daniel was thrown into a lion’s den by Nebuchadnezzar. But Allah sent the prophet Jeremiah from Judea to bring Daniel food and drink. This story mirrors the Jewish apocrypha in which Daniel is ministered to by the prophet Habakkuk.
Some traditions say that Cyrus made Daniel a grand vizier and commissioned him to preach monotheism in Babylonian Iraq. According to those, Cyrus allowed the reconstruction of the temple at Daniel’s request, but would not allow him to return home because he valued the wise man’s services. Other traditions say that Daniel revived through prayer thousands of people who had died of the plague in a city several years earlier. Others say that Daniel was king of the Jews after the exile. Plausible scenarios thus meet exaggerated fantasies, but they all show that the image of Daniel remained influential in the East, hence the interest in Daniel’s tomb, which is disputed by six different locations: in Iran (Shush, Malamir), Iraq (Kirkuk, Muqdadiya, Babylon) and Uzbekistan (Samarkand).
The origin of the Baha’i faith, a form of universalism born on Muslim soil, is still attributed by its apologists to the prophecies of Daniel, who is said to have foretold the coming and death of Christ and the appearance of Bab and Baha’u’llah, figures with messianic pretensions.[10]
The Christian Daniel
Jesus and the apostles directly or indirectly quoted Daniel as a prophet, and the messianic terms “Son of Man” and “Kingdom of Heaven”[11] often used by Jesus are developed from Daniel’s prophecy.[12] A perusal of the pages of the critical edition of the original Greek text of the New Testament reveals many more images, echoes and reminiscences of Daniel. The Gospel is the expression of Daniel’s apocalyptic view. If we were to remove the book of Daniel from Scripture, we would be destroying the foundations of Christianity.
It is not surprising, therefore, that the pastors (bishops), teachers (doctors) and lay scholars of the ancient Church have left us exegeses of Daniel’s prophecy with various Christian overtones.[13] In antiquity, the greatest challenge to believers in Daniel, whether Jewish or Christian, were the writings of the sophist Porphyry († 304). A professor of philosophy in Rome, a syncretistic pagan who had incorporated some Jewish and Christian elements into his system, he launched the rationalist interpretation that Daniel’s prophecy was vaticinium post eventum (“prediction” after the event). Christian theologians of Porphyry’s time fought back in droves: some thirty different authors responded in hundreds and thousands of pages, defending the Christian faith and the book of Daniel. Little did they dream that in the end times their followers would embrace the faith of Porphyry.
With Eusebius of Caesarea, Augustine, Gregory the Great († 604) and others, Daniel’s prophecies, intended to uphold the supreme authority of Scripture and the torch of liberty, began to serve the politics of church and state. The rock of the prophetic dream (Daniel 2) was preferred as a symbol of the appearance of Jesus during the Roman Empire, simultaneously representing the Church, whose head would be St. Peter (“the rock”), and which overcame the Empire and replaced it, growing like a mountain that filled the earth. During the Middle Ages, however, a new series of commentators on Daniel appeared: the priest Pierre Comestor († 1178), the abbot Gioacchino da Fiore († 1202), the archbishop Eberhard II of Salzburg († 1246), the abbot Peter John Olivi († 1298), the theologian Jean de Paris († 1306), and the physician Arnold de Villanova († 1313).
In the following period, the exegesis of the Book of Daniel, increasingly used as an apologetic weapon against totalitarian and pseudo-Christian paganism, became a rule of faith among the believers of great oppositional movements such as: Waldensians, Wycliffites (Lollards, Hussites), Protestant reformers of the 16th century, representatives of the Radical Reformation, etc. The struggle for Christ and truth, for freedom or power, became more and more acute after the Reformation. There were mistakes on both sides, but it is no secret that the torch of freedom was to be carried by the sons of the Reformation. In the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries, the most numerous and influential commentators on the prophecies of Daniel were Protestants. Especially in Western Europe, in England and America, a real passion for the book of Daniel developed, so that not only theologians, but also scientists like John Napier († 1617) and Isaac Newton († 1727), or men of law like Sir Robert Anderson († 1918), a security officer and chief of the London police, wrote commentaries with important theological contributions.
In parallel with this development, Catholic exegetes, in the service of the Counter-Reformation, turned to new systems of interpretation to defend themselves against the opposition’s claim that the Antichrist “little horn” of Daniel 7 was the papacy. Some, such as the Jesuit Manuel de Lacunza († 1801), tried less Catholic and risky interpretations. Towards the end of the 19th century, and especially in the 20th and 21st centuries, the interpretation of Daniel became increasingly “Epicurean”, to use the language of Josephus. A large proportion of Old Protestants and Catholics regard the book of Daniel as any other apocalyptic apocrypha. This is an unfortunate conclusion that, in essence, affects all the books of the Bible. Modern theology does not want to hear about miracles or the supernatural—and prophecy is as supernatural as the survival of the three young men in the fiery furnace. No wonder these atheologians no longer believe in the virgin birth of Jesus or the resurrection of Christ.
But tradition gives Daniel a place, not only in the Bible canon of the historical churches, but also in the calendar. The Orthodox honour him on the Sunday before Christmas. Daniel’s prophecy (2:34-35) about the rock that crushed the statue often appears in Orthodox hymns as a metaphor for the incarnation of Jesus (the Rock), who was born from the mountain (the Virgin Mary) “without seed” (without the participation of a man; virgin conception). As such, the “God-bearer” is sung in hymns as “the holy and uncut mountain”. The Coptic (Egyptian) Church also celebrates him as a prophet on 23 Baramhat. In the West, the Roman Church commemorates Daniel on 21 July, and Lutherans on 17 December.
The prophecy of Daniel itself is stronger than the ripples left in history by his person, and smarter than the arguments about the historicity or the system of interpretation. The book ends, however, with the (somewhat optimistic) assertion that it is the wise and not the wicked who will understand its sealed message.
