A guide to Daniel

Who wrote Daniel, and when?

Daniel, according to the book; some scholars date the final form later. Events from 605 BC to about 536 BC in Babylon and Persia.

The book presents Daniel, a young Jewish noble taken to Babylon in 605 BC, as the one who received its visions, and chapters 7 to 12 are written in his voice. Jewish and Christian tradition has taken Daniel as the author, writing in Babylon and Persia in the 500s BC. Many scholars date the book's final form much later, to the 160s BC, when Jews were being persecuted by the Greek king Antiochus IV, because the visions describe that period in close detail. Others reply that predictive prophecy is exactly what the book claims. Christians hold both views. The book is written in two languages, Hebrew and Aramaic, and Jesus referred to Daniel as a prophet (see Matthew 24:15).

Who was Daniel written to?

God’s people living under foreign powers, needing courage to stay faithful and confidence that God rules history.

Daniel was first read by God's people living under foreign rule, whether in Babylon and Persia or in the centuries after. They faced a daily question: how to serve a pagan state faithfully without giving up their faith. Some, like Daniel and his friends, held high office and had to decide when to obey and when to refuse. Others simply had to endure. Rulers demanded worship, prayer was banned, and the dream of an independent Jewish kingdom seemed dead. The book met these readers with stories of courage rewarded and visions that lifted their eyes above the current empire. Today it speaks to believers who feel like a minority in a culture that does not share their faith.

What was happening at the time?

Daniel and his friends were taken to Babylon as young men and rose to high office while refusing to compromise their faith. The first half tells their stories: the fiery furnace, the writing on the wall, the lions’ den. The second half records Daniel’s visions of four beasts, the Son of Man, seventy weeks and the end, written partly in Aramaic, the language of the empire.

Why was Daniel written?

To show that the Most High rules the kingdoms of men and to strengthen the faithful under persecution.

Daniel wants readers to know that the Most High rules over the kingdoms of the earth and gives them to whoever he chooses. The stories show that faithfulness under pressure is possible and that God can deliver from furnaces and lions, while also allowing that he might not (see chapter 3:17-18). The visions show that empires rise and fall in sequence but God's kingdom will never end, and that the dead will rise. The book therefore calls readers to courage, prayer, humility and patience. In the wider story of the Bible, Daniel's vision of one like a son of man receiving an everlasting kingdom (see chapter 7) supplies the title Jesus most often used for himself, and its imagery runs through Revelation.

How to read Daniel today

Read the stories in chapters 1 to 6 first; they are among the most memorable in the Bible and give you Daniel's character before his visions. Then read chapter 7, which sets up the rest. Watch for the contrast between kings who boast and the God who humbles them, and notice how often Daniel prays (see chapters 2, 6 and 9). When you reach chapters 8 to 12, do not force the numbers and symbols into a detailed timetable; Christians have read them in different ways, and the point is that God already knows how the story ends. As you read, pray for the quiet resolve Daniel showed in chapter 1, to do what is right in small things before the big tests come.

The key verse in Daniel

Then 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 the one Which shall not be destroyed.

Passages worth knowing in Daniel

• Daniel 1

  Daniel resolves not to defile himself

  Faithfulness in small things at the start of exile.

• Daniel 2

  Nebuchadnezzar’s statue

  A stone not cut by hands becomes a mountain.

• Daniel 3

  The fiery furnace

  Our God is able, but even if not, we will not bow.

• Daniel 6

  The lions’ den

  Daniel keeps praying and God shuts the lions’ mouths.

• Daniel 7

  The Son of Man

  The title Jesus took for himself.

• Daniel 9

  Daniel’s prayer and the seventy weeks

  Confession for the nation and a timetable of hope.

• Daniel 12

  Resurrection

  Many who sleep in the dust shall awake.

The main themes of Daniel

• God’s sovereignty over empires
• Faithfulness under pressure
• Prayer
• The Son of Man
• The end and resurrection

An outline of Daniel