The Book of Daniel (content)

Daniel is written from the perspective of someone living at the time of the Babylonian Captivity, and the first half is about the author keeping his faith despite many tribulations. The second half, from chapter nine onwards, are a supposed prophesy detailing what will befall Israel in the next five centuries. This prophesy is amazingly accurate up to a point, then suddenly gets a lot wrong, and most modern scholars date the book to that point, about 167 BC.

Context

At the time Daniel was written (assuming a later dating), Israel was ruled by Antiochus IV Epiphanes, of the Seleucid Empire. The Jews were split between those who embraced Hellenisation and those who did not. Rumours had circulate Jerusalem that Antiochus had died in battle in Egypt, and the traditionalist Jews took the opportunity to seize power. The rumours were untrue, and when Antiochus returned, he sided with the Hellenised Jews, and set about stopping the traditional practices of Judaism, and among other things prevented offering and sacrifices in the temple. Later he defiled it further (possibly setting up an idol to Zeus or sacrificing an unclean animal). This was the "the abomination that causes desolation", and the motivation to write the Book of Daniel. These events are related in 1 and 2 Maccabees.

Daniel predicted the end times within just a few years of that event, and that clearly failed to happen. The later Jews - including Jesus - reinterpreted the text to refer to a future event, so for Jesus, the "the abomination that causes desolation" was yet to come - the first sign of the apocalypse.

Chapters 1 to 8

The first chapters relate a series of stories designed to show how great God is and the importance of keeping to his laws, especially when oppressed by foreign rulers. These may well be older stories, but they all have the same message for Jews living under Antiochus - keep the faith.

It is notable that in these chapters Daniel is the brilliant interpreter of dreams, whilst in the rest of the book, Daniel needs an angel to guide him when interpreting.

Chapter 9

Much of chapter nine is prayer that I will not discuss.

Chapter 9 also refers to Jeremiah's prophecy (Jeremiah 25:11) that the Jews would be freed in seventy years, referring to the Babylonian Captivity. Although they did get freed, Israel never became great again, and was subsequently ruled over by Medea, then Persia, then Greece and then the Seleucids. So now that prophesy is recast as seven times seventy (an alternative view is that Jeremiah's seventy years have expired when Daniel is supposedly talking). The seven years refers to the 7-year sabbatical cycles (some Bibles translate it as weeks).

Daniel 9:24 “Seventy ‘sevens’[c] are decreed for your people and your holy city to finish transgression, to put an end to sin, to atone for wickedness, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy and to anoint the Most Holy Place.[e]

The temple was destroyed in 587 BC. Seventy times seven years would take us to 97 BC. There is some wriggle room, as it is not certain what the starting point is, and they had 360 days in a year, which could have affected the figure. However, there is no simple solution, and most people say he was just using a vague approximation, or got it wrong. Seven was considered a divine number, and starting from Jeremiah's seventy years, just multiplying by seven to get a long time was, I guess, all the author intended.

This verse also lays out the six objectives for Israel:

to finish transgression
to put an end to sin
to atone for wickedness
to bring in everlasting righteousness
to seal up vision and prophecy
to anoint the Most Holy Place.

I would suggest that achieving some of those objectives was the driving force behind the Pharisees belief that the Jews had to follow every Biblical law precisely (which is to say that Daniel reflects what the objectives were, not that it was necessarily the sole source of those objectives). This is also part of the message of Jubilees (written perhaps 10 years later).

Verse 24 also describes how the book of Daniel, the vision and prophecy, was supposedly sealed up.

25 So you are to know and understand that from the issuing of a decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem, until Messiah the Prince, there will be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks; it will be built again, with streets and moat, even in times of distress. ​

The issuing of the decree refers to Cyrus the Great saying they could rebuild the temple.

The messiah was "predicted" 69 weeks after that, i.e., 483 years, or seven years prior to the "unsealing" of Daniel. So this messiah had already appeared by the this time.

This is Onias III, a high priest. As high priest, he was anointed; hence a messiah.

26 Then after the sixty-two weeks, the Messiah will be cut off and have nothing, and the people of the prince who is to come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. And its end will come with a flood; even to the end there will be war; desolations are determined. ​

When it says the messiah will be cut off, this is the murder of Onias III. This happened around 170 BC.

That puts the decree of Cyrus in 654 BC, which is well off 539 BC, but the author needed to fudge the figures to get all the sevens.

The people of the prince were the Seleucids; Josephus reports that troops were sent and they defiled the temple and sealed it shut ca. 167 BC. The defilement of the temple was the desolation.

27 And he will confirm a covenant with the many for one week, but in the middle of the week he will put a stop to sacrifice and grain offering; and on the wing of abominations will come the one who makes desolate, until a complete destruction, one that is decreed, gushes forth on the one who makes desolate.”​

The "he" is Antiochus IV Epiphanes. The week referred to here is from about 171 BC to 164 BC, with the middle of the week being around 167 BC, when the temple was desecrated.

Daniel was written just after that event, prophesising that with three and a half years the end times would be here. As is usually the case, a prophecy about the apocalypse says it will be any minute now.

Chapters Ten and Eleven

These are mostly a history (pretending to be prophesy) of Israel as it is take in conquest by one nation after another, Midea, Persia then Greece, under Alexander the Great. When Alexander died, his empire was split up into four, and chapter eleven is mostly concerned with the Ptolemies, the kingdom to the south, and the Seleucids, the kingdom to the north.

And some verses we get to.

29 “At the appointed time he will return and come into the South, but this last time it will not turn out the way it did before. 30 For ships of Kittim will come against him; therefore he will withdraw in fear and will return and curse the holy covenant and take action; so he will come back and pay attention to those who abandon the holy covenant. 31 Forces from him will arise, desecrate the sanctuary fortress, and do away with the regular sacrifice. And they will set up the abomination of desolation.

This is describing the same event as 9:26-27, when Antiochus' army flooded the city, shut the temple and Antiochus set up something profane in the temple.

 32 And by smooth words he will turn to godlessness those who act wickedly toward the covenant, but the people who know their God will be strong and take action.

The whole point of Daniel is to attack those Jews who support Antiochus ("those who act wickedly toward the covenant"), while reassuring those who stand against him ("the people who know their God will be strong and take action").

33 And those who have insight among the people will give understanding to the many; yet they will fall by sword and by flame, by captivity and by plunder for many days. 34 Now when they fall they will be granted a little help, and many will join with them in hypocrisy. 35 And some of those who have insight will fall, to refine, purge, and cleanse them until the end time; because it is still to come at the appointed time.

Clearly the faith were getting killed a lot, so here Daniel is reassuring them that ultimately Israel will prevail.

36 “Then the king will do as he pleases, and he will exalt himself and boast against every god and will speak dreadful things against the God of gods; and he will be successful until the indignation is finished, because that which is determined will be done. 37 And he will show no regard for the gods of his fathers or for the desire of women, nor will he show regard for any other god; for he will boast against them all. 38 But instead he will honor a god of fortresses, a god whom his fathers did not know; he will honor him with gold, silver, precious stones, and treasures. 39 And he will take action against the strongest of fortresses with the help of a foreign god; he will give great honor to those who acknowledge him and will make them rulers over the many, and will parcel out land for a price.

More about how awful Antiochus was worshipping another god.

This was happened at the time Daniel was written. we have arrived at verse 40 of chapter eleven, the point where it moves from history to speculation and wishful thinking.

40 “And at the end time the king of the South will wage war with him, and the king of the North will storm against him with chariots, horsemen, and with many ships; and he will enter countries, overflow them, and pass through. 41 He will also enter the Beautiful Land, and many countries will fall; but these will be rescued out of his hand: Edom, Moab, and the foremost of the sons of Ammon. 42 Then he will reach out with his hand against other countries, and the land of Egypt will not escape. 43 But he will gain control over the hidden treasures of gold and silver, and over all the precious things of Egypt; and Libyans and Ethiopians will follow at his heels. 44 But rumors from the East and from the North will terrify him, and he will go out with great wrath to eliminate and annihilate many. 45 And he will pitch the tents of his royal pavilion between the seas and the beautiful Holy Mountain; yet he will come to his end, and no one will help him.

This is claiming Antiochus would conquer Egypt, Libia and Ethiopia, but that he will eventually be defeated. In reality, Antiochus did not conquer Egypt, and was struck by a sudden disease in 164 AD from which he later died (described in 2 Maccabees).

Chapter Twelve

The last chapter describes the apocalypse which was expected to follow from Antiochus death. This would be when God's kingdom came to earth, when the dead would rise, the righteous to everlasting life:

12:1 “At that time Michael, the great prince who protects your people, will arise. There will be a time of distress such as has not happened from the beginning of nations until then. But at that time your people—everyone whose name is found written in the book—will be delivered. 2 Multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake: some to everlasting life, others to shame and everlasting contempt. 3 Those who are wise[a] will shine like the brightness of the heavens, and those who lead many to righteousness, like the stars for ever and ever. 4 But you, Daniel, roll up and seal the words of the scroll until the time of the end. Many will go here and there to increase knowledge.”

This general resurrection has been pretty much abandoned by Christianity, but is very much what Paul was writing about, for example in 1 Cor 15.

The chapter ends with a very specific prediction:

11 “From the time that the daily sacrifice is abolished and the abomination that causes desolation is set up, there will be 1,290 days. 12 Blessed is the one who waits for and reaches the end of the 1,335 days.

Clearly this failed to happen, and now many Christians and Jews consider it to mean years (as a year is but a day to God). Most select a start day that is slightly less than 1290 years ago (from whatever year it is now), which then has the end times just around the corner.

That is almost certainly not what the author meant. Note that 1290 days is slightly more than three and a half years (1278 days), i.e., half a 7-year cycle (and remember those 7-year cycles are important to Daniel). What he is saying is there were three and a half years from Antiochus stopping sacrifices in the temple and the event Daniel calls the desolation.

This was made clear earlier:

9:27 And he will confirm a covenant with the many for one week, but in the middle of the week he will put a stop to sacrifice and grain offering; and on the wing of abominations will come the one who makes desolate, until a complete destruction, one that is decreed, gushes forth on the one who makes desolate.”​

The desolation was in the middle of the week (seven years), hence three and a half years from there to the end times.