The Book of Daniel

The book of Daniel divides into two clearly distinct sections:

(1) Daniel 1-6: The Court Narratives, Daniel and his three friends in Babylon. These six chapters are narrative and largely accessible: Daniel's refusal to eat the king's food (chapter 1); Nebuchadnezzar's statue dream (chapter 2); the fiery furnace, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego (chapter 3); Nebuchadnezzar's humiliation and tree-dream (chapter 4); Belshazzar's feast and the writing on the wall "mene mene tekel upharsin" (chapter 5); Daniel in the lions' den (chapter 6).

(2) Daniel 7-12: The Apocalyptic Visions, Daniel's own visions. These six chapters are among the most debated in all of Scripture: the four beasts (chapter 7); the ram and the goat (chapter 8); Daniel's prayer and the 70 weeks (chapter 9); the final vision of a great war (chapters 10-12).

The book is also notable for its bilingual composition: Daniel 1:1-2:4a and chapters 8-12 are in Hebrew; Daniel 2:4b-7:28 is in Aramaic (the international lingua franca of the Persian empire period). The language shift is generally explained by content: the Aramaic section concerns Gentile kingdoms; the Hebrew sections concern Israel's specific future.

The question of authorship and dating is disputed: traditional view (6th century BC, Daniel as author, during the Babylonian and Persian periods) vs. critical consensus (2nd century BC, pseudonymous author during the Maccabean crisis under Antiochus IV Epiphanes 175-164 BC, explaining the "predictions" of events as history-written-as-prophecy). The NT's Jesus uses Daniel as genuine predictive prophecy (Matthew 24:15, "the abomination of desolation spoken of by the prophet Daniel").

Nebuchadnezzar dreams of a great statue with a head of gold, chest and arms of silver, belly and thighs of bronze, and legs of iron, with feet of iron mixed with clay. A stone cut without human hands strikes the statue at the feet, destroys it completely, and grows to fill the whole earth (2:31-35).

Daniel's interpretation: four successive kingdoms, each inferior to the one before (in terms of quality of the metal):

(1) The head of gold = Babylon (Nebuchadnezzar himself, "you are the head of gold" 2:38)

(2) The chest of silver = Medo-Persia (the empire that conquered Babylon)

(3) The belly of bronze = Greece (Alexander the Great's empire)

(4) The legs of iron + feet of iron/clay = Rome (or, in some readings, a divided post-Greek empire)

The stone that destroys the statue and becomes a great mountain: "And in the days of those kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that shall never be destroyed... It shall break in pieces all these kingdoms and bring them to an end, and it shall stand forever" (2:44). This is the fifth, eternal kingdom of YHWH, the one to which Daniel 7's Son of Man vision gives a face.

Daniel 7 is the most theologically significant chapter in the book and the foundation of Jesus's self-designation:

Daniel sees four beasts (a lion with eagle's wings / a bear with three ribs / a four-headed leopard / a dreadful beast with iron teeth and ten horns and a little horn speaking great things), the same four kingdoms of chapter 2 presented in their terrifying character. The little horn wars against the saints (7:21).

The throne room vision (7:9-10): "As I looked, thrones were placed, and the Ancient of Days took his seat; his clothing was white as snow, and the hair of his head like pure wool; his throne was fiery flames; its wheels were burning fire... the court sat in judgment, and the books were opened." The divine tribunal opens; the fourth beast is judged and destroyed.

The Son of Man vision (7:13-14): "I saw in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man, and he came to the Ancient of Days and was presented before him. And to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed."

The interpretation (7:18, 27): "the saints of the Most High shall receive the kingdom and possess the kingdom forever." The Son of Man and the saints are linked: the human-like figure who receives the kingdom is the representative of YHWH's people.

Jesus uses "Son of Man" as his primary self-designation (80+ occurrences in the Gospels, almost always from his own lips). At his trial before the Sanhedrin (Matthew 26:63-65), Jesus cites Daniel 7:13 directly: "But I tell you, from now on you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of Power and coming on the clouds of heaven." The High Priest tears his robes, not because Jesus claimed to be human (son of man) but because he claimed to be Daniel's Son of Man, presented before the Ancient of Days, receiving the everlasting kingdom. That was the blasphemy: claiming divine status and cosmic dominion.

The Sanctum reads Daniel as the book that gave Jesus his preferred title and shaped his self-understanding. The Son of Man in Daniel 7 is not merely a human being but a heavenly figure presented before the Ancient of Days and receiving the everlasting kingdom. When Jesus called himself the Son of Man, he was not claiming humility but cosmic authority: "The Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many" (Mark 10:45), the one who will come on the clouds of heaven voluntarily walks toward the cross. The glory of Daniel 7 and the suffering of Isaiah 53 converge in the same person.