Topic 13 of 33 - Your Place in the Learning Journey
Daniel in Babylon
The book of Daniel is one of the most contested books in the Old Testament. Traditional interpretation holds that it was written by the historical Daniel, a Jewish exile in Babylon during the 6th century BCE, and that its visions are predictive prophecy about events centuries in the future. Critical scholarship, by contrast, argues that the book was written during the Maccabean period in the 2nd century BCE - specifically during the persecution of Antiochus IV Epiphanes (175-164 BCE) - and that its "predictions" are actually descriptions of events that had already occurred, written in the future tense as a literary device common in apocalyptic literature.
The scholarly case for a 2nd-century date rests on several observations. The visions of chapters 7-12 describe in extraordinary detail the history of the Hellenistic kingdoms from Alexander the Great through Antiochus IV - detail so precise that scholars refer to it as "history written as prophecy." The description of Antiochus's desecration of the Temple matches what we know from 1 Maccabees exactly. But then, at the point where Antiochus actually died (164 BCE), the predictions become less accurate - suggesting that the author was describing known history up to that point and then genuinely predicting from there. The book also contains Persian and Greek loanwords and historical details that fit the Hellenistic period better than the Babylonian period.
For readers of faith, the dating question does not determine the book's value or significance. Whether Daniel was written in the 6th century or the 2nd, its message is the same: God is sovereign over history, the faithful who resist compromise will be vindicated, and the powers that seem invincible will not have the last word. That message was urgently relevant to Jews facing Antiochus's persecution, and it has remained relevant to communities under pressure throughout the centuries since.
The New Testament's engagement with Daniel is extensive. Jesus's use of the phrase "Son of Man" in the Gospels draws directly on Daniel 7:13-14, where "one like a son of man" comes before the Ancient of Days and receives an everlasting kingdom. The "abomination of desolation" from Daniel 11:31 appears in Matthew 24:15 as a warning about future crisis. And the book of Revelation is saturated with imagery drawn from Daniel - the beasts, the numbers, the cosmic conflict, the ultimate vindication of the saints. Understanding Daniel is essential for understanding the apocalyptic dimension of the New Testament.