| AN OVERVIEW OF DANIEL
VIA ITS LITERARY STRUCTURE The format of Daniel’s book presents two sections as fundamentally separate: chapters 1-7 and chapters 8-12. Consider the following distinctions:
The first half forms a unit and was intentionally arranged in a chiastic pattern:
The revelations in the second section are far more specific in detail and are more spectacular and striking than those in the first. The revelations in the first section come through dreams; in the second, supernatural visions while awake. There is greater revelation in the second section than in the first. For example: In the second section, an angel appears before Daniel and speaks directly without taking the prophet off in vision. In the first, a hand appears and writes a message on the wall of the king’s palace. Actually, the book of Daniel begins in Hebrew but soon changes with the words “in Aramaic” in 2:4. Another exception: The first section contains some material written in the first person. These fragments seem to have been inserted as quotations. Please read 4:1-18, 34-37 and 7:1,2 ff. Do you see the editorial work? Is it possible that Daniel is not the author or compiler of the first section? In chapter 2, God gave to Nebuchadnezzar a dream about future world empires. Daniel, in an answer to prayer, dreams the same dream so he could, by his understanding in such matters, interpret it for the king. Again in chapter 4, it is Nebuchadnezzar who is given a dream; Daniel only interprets! It concerned an unusual calamity that would fall upon the king if he continued in his cherished sin. Chapter 5 occurs many years later. Then Belshazzar, the grandson of Nebuchadnezzar, sat on the throne. During a riotous feast, a mysterious hand appeared before him as it began writing on the wall. Daniel was remembered and summoned before the king. He interpreted the inscription. The message announced God’s judgment of Babylon and its fall to the Medes and Persians. That same night, Belshazzar the Chaldean king was slain and his kingdom conquered. So the first section generally deals with the history of Babylonian kings and the revelations they received. There, Daniel serves them as the interpreter of dreams. The emphasis of the second half is prophecy that deals more directly with Daniel’s people. The book of Daniel has been purposely arranged to this end. This is clear from the fact that chapters 5 and 6, which concern historical events that occurred after the vision of chapter 8 and should have followed chapter 8 in the book chronologically, have instead been inserted into the first section. All agree that Daniel 9:24-27 is a prophecy about the Jews and that this prophecy explains Daniel 8. Since Daniel 8 parallels Daniel 9:24-27 and since the explanation is all about literal Jews, then Daniel 8 is all about literal Jews. When the angel messenger spoke to Daniel saying: “Seventy weeks are determined upon your people and your holy city” (9:24), Daniel could have only thought of his people as literal Jews. The message was about them. So when Gabriel returned later on in Daniel 10 saying: “Now I have come to give you an understanding of what will happen to your people in the latter days” (10:14); It means just that! In Daniel’s mind, his people are literal Jews. The descendants of his people could only be literal Jews! And the prophecy of the latter days refers to them specifically: “Now at that time Michael, the great prince who stands guard over the sons of your people, will arise. And there will be a time of distress such as never occurred since there was a nation until that time; and at that time your people, everyone who is found written in the book, will be rescued” (12:1). Similarly, “the many” in 9:27 refers to ‘the Jews’ and there is no hint or reason to suspect that the expression means something else when repeated in 11:33,39; 12:3. In contrast to all of these unmistakable references to the Jews in the second section, and in favor of a weighted imbalance in the choice of words used to denote the people of God, we find that the above phrases are omitted in the first section. Instead, the word “saints” (literally, “the holy ones”) is employed — six times in Daniel 7. Significantly, this terminology was carried over into the early Christian Church, whose members called themselves, “hoi hagioi,” the holy ones, the saints. The world view is silent regarding
a desecrated temple or interrupted sacrifices. These are of chief concern however in the
“Jewish” section of Daniel. Hypothesis The book of Daniel is naturally
divided into two parts. The perspective in each half is different. The first section
(chapters 1-7) concerns by type and direct revelation the world and the Christian church.
It is a world view in a gentile perspective. The second section (chapters 8-12) is Jewish
in perspective. Its prophecies of the world are in terms of the Jewish nation as the
people of God. Additional Confirmation Nearly all of Daniel’s eschatology that is mentioned in the gospels and in the epistles is drawn from the second section of Daniel. The time-frame of nearly all of that is first century fulfillment. On the other hand, the time-frame in the book of Revelation is far beyond first century (Revelation 8-22) and it is based on the setting and prophecies of Daniel 1-7. There, no obvious appeal to any prophetic event of Daniel 8-12 is made yet much of the imagery and all of the key prophetic events in the Revelation arises almost exclusively from Daniel 1-7. Here are a few examples to ponder. The composite beast power of Revelation 13 is a straightforward update on the little horn of Daniel 7. The court scene of Revelation 4-5 is also based upon Daniel 7. The image of the beast and its required worship in Revelation 13 parallels the required worship of Nebuchadnezzar’s image in Daniel 3. Is it possible, as many suppose, that future lobbyists, who despise the faithful, will push for laws that oppose God’s law? (Daniel 6:5). Babylon falls in Daniel 5 because Belshazzar, who knew the Lord’s will but did not humble his heart, has exalted himself against God (Daniel 5:21-23). That’s exactly the sin and downfall of spiritual Babylon (Revelation 18).
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