Most Important Notes from BIBL 450 {3,652 words}
I. Lesson 1 - Introduction to the Book of Daniel
A. Daniel is a Major Prophet because he has a major message to communicate. Daniel wrote the Book of Daniel. He was taken to Babylon in about 605BC and stayed there until about 538BC (about 67 years). In Matthew 24:15, Jesus credited Daniel with being the author. A critic, named Porpheus, later said that someone else wrote it in the second century BC to encourage Israel in their battles because the Maccabees quoted Daniel, Chapters Three and Six before Christ. But the testimony of Jesus opposed that suggestion. The Book of Daniel was written in the first and third persons, but many authors have done that.
B. The Unity of the Book - Chapters One through Six and Chapters Seven through Twelve are the two main divisions. The first part was written in the third person, and the last part was written in the first person and in Aramaic. Critics have said that different people wrote each just like the critics have done with the Book of Isaiah.
C. Robert Dick Wilson wrote a two-volume commentary about the Book of Daniel. He was very good in the biblical languages and the languages that were related to them. He studied for fifteen years, taught for fifteen years, and wrote for fifteen years. He learned over forty-five different languages, and he was the top expert in the world on the languages of the Bible.
D. Sir Robert Anderson wrote "Daniel in the Critic's Den."
E. Dr. Whitcomb wrote the textbook for the class, published by Moody Press.
F. The Historicity of the Book of Daniel - are there errors in it? Dr. Whitcomb provided thirteen historical evidences from the Book that can easily be checked out.
1. For example, in Jeremiah 25:1 and Daniel 1:1, the date of his imprisonment differed by one year. Why would that be? The reason is because Jeremiah was using the reginal dating system of the Babylonians because he was looking forward to captivity, and Daniel was using the Jewish dating system because he was looking forward to their release from captivity. Their different dating techniques caused the one-year discrepancy.
2. Daniel 1:5 talked about three years of training, but that was not consistent with his being carried to Babylon.
3. The Aramaic part of the book, also called Syriac, was much of Daniel 2:4 through Daniel 7:28. Aramaic was very similar in appearance to the Hebrew language. Aramaic was the trade and commerce language of the world (lingual franca of the world). It was later replaced by Greek. The type of Aramaic script used was of the early form. It was not the later form that was used during the Maccabean period.
G. One of the purposes of the Book of Daniel was to show that there is a God in heaven that rules in the affairs of men. He puts up one and brings down another.
H. The furnace of fire in Daniel, Chapter Three, being heated seven times hotter than originally was a hyperbole or exaggeration. Nebuchadnezzar probably did not really do that, but the furnace was still hot enough.
I. Critics have questioned whether the insanity period of Nebuchadnezzar was real, but the historical record has borne it out. Belshazzar was shown to be real, the Laws of the Medes and Persians is supported by history, and the use of lion's dens was also real.
J. The Canonicity of the Book of Daniel - the Jewish people accepted it even though critics have rejected it. The critics point to the presumed historical problems and the unity issues that were discussed above. They also questioned why his writings were placed in the canon with the Minor (third section called the Writings) rather than the Major Prophets. However, the Septuagint placed Daniel with the Major Prophets, so the Jews must have accepted him as a Major Prophet. The Jewish people recognized Daniel as speaking from God, just like Moses and the other prophets.
K. The Significance of the Book of Daniel - Daniel was a great spiritual giant, and the Book is encouraging to those that study it. But Daniel is also tied to the Book of Revelation.
1. Chapter Two talks about the empires of the Babylonians, Medes-Persians, Greeks, and Romans.
2. Chapter Seven also talks about the same empires, and they match Revelation, Chapter Thirteen. They show the rule of the Antichrist to be 42 months.
3. The outline can be the sovereignty of God as shown below. Another way is to break it up by Chapters 1-6 (activities) and 7-12 (prophecies). The Catholic Church added two more chapters through the Apocrypha, but the Protestant Church has not accepted them as canonical.
a. Chapter 1 - Daniel to Babylon
b. Chapter 2-7 - God dealing with the Gentiles
c. Chapters 8-12 - Getting back to the Jewish people
II. Lesson 2 - The Book of Daniel (Chapter 1:1-21)
A. Nebuchadnezzar ruled for 43 years, and he was very smart. He was still young when he conquered Jerusalem. Babylon is in the Fertile Crescent, watered by the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. Abraham came from that Babylon region. To get to Jerusalem, one had to go north to cross the river and then come back down. Nebuchadnezzar went straight across the desert rather than taking the northern route.
B. Daniel said that it was in the third year of Jehoiakim (Daniel 1:1), and Jeremiah said in the fourth year of Jehoiakim (Jeremiah 25:1). Jeremiah was counting the time of the king from Nisan (around April), but Daniel was counting years for going back to Jerusalem.
C. Nebuchadnezzar came back to Jerusalem several times and took people back to Babylon with him. Daniel was taken to Babylon in what was called the first deportation. He became very exasperated and finally destroyed Solomon's Temple. Daniel 1:2 says that God gave Judah over to Babylon.
D. Verse by verse discussion.
1. Daniel 1:3 started their three-year Babylonian training, which included learning foreign languages. The Babylonian language was similar to Syriac (Aramaic) and Hebrew. They were also well trained in Science. They figured out the time that the earth revolved around the sun. For their crude techniques, they were only about 29 minutes off for the entire year.
2. Daniel 1:5 => The Babylonians even tried to feed them special meat and wine. The Bible does not prohibit the drinking of wine, but Daniel took on the standards of a Priest (Leviticus 10:8-13). Some of the meats may have been prohibited to a Jew (Leviticus 11:1-47).
3. Daniel 1:6-7 => Their names were changed. "El" was the shortened name for "Elohim," and "el" on the end of a name meant "God." Daniel's name had "EL" on the end. Daniel 1:7 says, "The chief official gave them new names: to Daniel, the name Belteshazzar; to Hananiah, Shadrach; to Mishael, Meshach; and to Azariah, Abednego."
a. Daniel ("God is my judge") => Belteshazzar ("lord of the straitened's treasure")
b. Mishael ("who is what God is") => Meshach ("guest of a king")
c. Hananiah ("God has favoured") => Shadrach ("royal" or "the great scribe")
d. Azariah ("Jehovah has helped") => Abednego ("servant of Nebo")
4. Daniel 1:8-9 => Daniel and his friends were apart from their parents, and they could have done whatever they wanted. Their choices were to faithfully serve God. They did not buckle under to peer pressure. They did the right thing, and they could have been killed for taking their stand. None of the Jewish boys that went with the crowd are recorded as having ever done anything great for the Lord. They settled for vegetables and water, but that does not mean that followers of God should live on vegetables and water. In modern times, most meats have been determined to be safe (from a sanitary perspective) to eat.
5. Daniel 1:14-16 => God was faithful to the faithful children of Israel. Daniel and his friends looked better than the others, so they won the contest.
6. Daniel 1:17 => Daniel had been given by God the special gift of interpreting dreams.
7. Daniel 1:18-20 => Daniel and the other three were not in awe of or intimidated by the king. They overwhelmed their competition and greatly impressed the king.
8. Daniel 1:21 => That verse does not mean that Daniel left in the first year of Cyrus but that he was there during the first year of Cyrus. He was also there in the third year, too (Daniel 10:1).
III. Lesson 3 - The Book of Daniel (Chapter 2:1-49)
A. Daniel 2:1 => Nebuchadnezzar and Daniel were still young at the time of the dream. Daniel 2:1 says that it was in the second year of his reign.
B. Daniel 2:2-11 => the astrologers could not interpret the dream because they did not know what it was. The king would not tell them. The dream came from the Lord. In Daniel 2:8-11, the king did not trust his astrologers, so he was going to kill all of them, including Daniel and the others.
C. Daniel 2:17-19 => Daniel and his friends prayed about the matter, and it was answered to Daniel in his dream. They were able to sleep even though they were in grave danger.
D. Daniel 2:25-26 => Arioch tried to take the credit for finding Daniel. Daniel never tried to put himself up. Porphery denied that Daniel wrote the book or that it was written in the 6th century BC. The book had to have been written at least by 150BC because some of those events were predicted.
E. Daniel 2:31-35 => Daniel started revealing the dream to the king. He saw a rock or stone cut out by "not-human" hands. The stone fell on the image and became like a huge mountain that filled his entire vision.
F. Daniel 2:36-45 => Daniel interpreted the dream.
1. Nebuchadnezzar was a very powerful king. He ruled much of the world, but not all of it. The head was gold (Babylon - 70 years), the chest was silver (Mede-Persians - 200 years), the stomach and thighs were brass (Greece - 200 years), and the feet were iron (Rome - ).
2. Brass is an inferior metal, but it is stronger than gold and silver.
3. The Mede-Persians expanded the kingdom, but it was the Greeks that first ruled the whole world (Daniel 2:39).
4. The fourth kingdom would be as strong as iron. That kingdom was partly strong and partly broken.
5. The toes represent ten kings and kingdoms. In Daniel 2:44-45, God will set up an eternal kingdom that will wipe out the other kingdoms. That kingdom will be the Second Coming of Christ.
G. Daniel 2:46-49 => Daniel is promoted because of his ability to interpret the dream. The king worshipped Daniel, but he should have worshipped the Lord. Daniel's humility was a spiritual positive and good example for others to follow. God can put up, and He can bring down. Note that all of this started when Daniel and his friends prayed in Daniel 2:17-19.
IV. Lesson 4 - The Book of Daniel (Chapter 3:1-4:37)
A. The image was about ninety feet tall and nine feet wide. The timeframe was about 585BC, and it was probably about twenty years after Daniel, Chapter Two (604-605BC was near the beginning of his reign). The image would have been visible on such flat line from faraway. He had forgotten his remark in Daniel 2:47 about the God of Israel being the only true God. The image would not have been solid gold. It would have been overlaid with gold.
B. There are only three Greek words in the Book of Daniel, and they are the names of the musical instruments in Daniel 3:5, Daniel 3:10, and Daniel 3:15 (sackbut, psaltery, and dulcimer). The rest of the Book is in Aramaic.
C. The three Hebrew boys, when in Babylon, did not do as the Babylonians did. They did not come up with excuses for giving in. They were taking a public stand for the Lord.
D. Daniel 3:25 were the words of Nebuchadnezzar, so it cannot be confirmed that it was actually a Christophany. It could also have been an angel. The fourth individual in the furnace did not come out with the three because his work was done.
E. From Daniel 3:30 to Daniel 4:1 was probably about twenty-five years and towards the end of his reign. Daniel, Chapter Four, were the words of Nebuchadnezzar after the fact. Daniel 4:16 says that the trial will last for seven years (times). Daniel 4:17 says that God gives kingdoms to whomever He chooses. In Daniel 4:19-27, Daniel interpreted the dream, and he was troubled by it because Nebuchadnezzar would learn that God rules in all the affairs of men (Daniel 4:26). During his time of testing, he would live like a wild animal and even eat grass. In Daniel 4:27, Daniel advised him to surrender to the Lord. In Daniel 4:34-37, the king repented, and the Lord restored him.
V. Lesson 5 - The Book of Daniel (Chapter 5:1-6:28)
A. This chapter is about the fall of Babylon. Through archeaology, we know that Nebuchadnezzar had a hall that was 173 feet long and about fifty feet wide, and it could have easily held the one thousand nobles. Nebuchadnezzar was probably his grandfather, but father in Daniel 5:2 could have just meant ancestor. In pagan cultures, an idol was supposed to stand for the reality behind it. The words were Aramaic. Everyone could read them, but no one understood the meaning. In Daniel 5:7, there was no record that Belshazzar was king was actually king. But through archaeology, we now know that he was the son of Nabonidus and that he was in charge while his father was away (he was the second ruler, and the interpreter would have been the third ruler). This gives much credibility to the time period of Daniel's writing because after that the records were lost. The woman in Daniel 5:10-11 was very possibly Nebuchadnezzar's widow. She probably would have remembered Daniel.
B. In Daniel 5:17, Daniel did not care about the king's gifts. In Daniel 5:24-28, Belshazzar's kingdom had been found wanting, and he would soon fall to the Medes and Persians. The Euphrates River ran through the city, so the Medes and Persians dug a new channel and diverted the river through another path. The Babylonians were drunk, and the Medes and Persians just walked in and took over. Darius the Great, who ruled later, was Persian. This Darius was Mede (Daniel 5:31) and sixty-two years old.
C. When the Medes and Persians took over, Daniel would have been in his eighties. Daniel 6:4 says that he had remained faithful and trustworthy throughout his life. In Daniel 6:10, he did not break his routine of prayer even though the law had been decreed against it. He prayed towards Jerusalem in the west. The Temple had been destroyed, but that was where God's presence had been localized. Daniel could have just figured that his life was nearing an end.
VI. Lesson 6 - The Book of Daniel (Chapter 7:1-28)
A. The first six chapters of Daniel were historical narrative. The last six chapters were prophetic portions. This chapter is about the four kingdoms (beasts). These things were written several centuries before they happened.
B. The first beast was like a lion with eagle's wings with a man's heart. It was talking about Nebuchadnezzar. These four beasts match Daniel, chapter two. The lion spoke of swiftness of conquest.
C. The second beast was like a bear, which was the Medo-Persian empire. In 546BC, under Cyrus and his son Cambyses, they conquered Lydia in Asia Minor under Croesus, then in 539BC, they took Belshazzar (Babylon under Nabonidus). In 525BC, the conquest was of Egypt under Psamtik III. These conquests were probably the three ribs in Daniel 7:5.
D. The third beast was like a leopard with four wings and four heads, which would also be swiftness of conquest. Alexander the Great died when thirty-three. He had conquered the world at age of twenty-three in 333BC. The four heads were the four kingdoms that came from his kingdom.
E. The fourth beast was like a beast, with ten horns, which was Rome. In Revelation 13:1-3 (the four beasts combined had seven heads and ten horns (ten kings), like a leopard, with feet of a bear, mouth of a lion). The final beast has characteristics of all the others. Times, time, and a half means three and one half (Daniel 7:25). Three and one-half years is forty-two months (Revelation 13:5) or 1,260 days. Revelation in the Bible is continuous and progressive, and that is clearly shown with Daniel and Revelation. Daniel 7:9 talks about God. He is all-wise (the white hair). In Daniel 7:13-14, the son of man coming to the Ancient of Days is Jesus.
F. God gave this vision to Daniel, and He also gave it to John. That's why the two Books should be studied together. Some critics think that Rome was not the fourth kingdom but that two and three were Medo and Persian, Daniel, chapter eight, refutes that. In Matthew 24:15-22, Jesus is talking to Jewish people that are in the Tribulation, and that whole passage is referring to the Second Coming, not the Rapture.
VII. Lesson 7 - The Book of Daniel (Chapter 8:1-27)
A. The vision of the ram (Medo-Persian Empire) and the he-goat (Greece). Belshazzar was the second-in-command king in about 553BC. This vision was two years after the vision in the previous chapter. Susa was one of the capitols of the Medo-Persian kingdom. The two horns are the kings of Mede and of Persia. The Medes were conquered by the Persians, and the Persians became dominant. The Greeks and Persians had a battle at Marathon (526BC), and that was the running of the first marathon.
B. In Daniel 8:8-9, the first horn is Alexander the Great. The four generals (horns) that took his place are the four kingdoms that came from him. They were described as four heads in Daniel, chapter seven. They are Babylon, North Syria, Egypt (Ptolemy), and Macedonia. Antiochus IV Ephiphany (ruled 175BC - 164BC) (Seleucid dynasty), in Daniel 8:10, was opposed to God, and he was probably the little horn. He was probably the worst Jewish persecutor to date. The daily sacrifices were taken away. In Daniel 8:14, six years and four months equated to 2,300 days, and after that, the sanctuary was cleansed (John 10:22 celebrated this cleansing (Feast of Dedication at Jerusalem), and it was Hannekah and around Christmas). The fury against the Jews had started in about 170BC, or 2,300 days before. He pictured the Antichrist.
C. Some Jewish priests came out to meet Alexandria the Great, according to Josephus, and they read to him the first part of the prophecy of Daniel, chapter 8. The Prince of Princes, in Daniel 8:25, shows Jesus opposing the Antichrist.
VIII. Lesson 8 - The Book of Daniel (Chapter 9:1-27)
A. Daniel was a little boy when Jeremiah was a prophet. He was about eighty-five when in the lion's den, and he had been in Babylon for about seventy years. Darius, son of Xerxes, was not Darius the Great. Jeremiah 25:11-12 and Jeremiah 29:10-11 both spoke about the seventy years, and according to Daniel 9:2, Daniel was reading those promises. In Daniel 9:3-19, he repented for himself and his people. Fasting in Daniel 9:3 was to devote time normally spent on meals and meal preparations in seeking God and spiritual matters. The ashes caused personal discomfort, and that signified his discomfort with his sinful condition. In Habakkuk 2:4, the prophet rests in the fact that God will deal correctly with everyone and that he must simply trust in that. In Jeremiah 31:31-40, Jeremiah wrote about the new covenant that God would have with Israel. In Daniel 9:12, Jerusalem is different from the church, and he is not talking about the church.
B. In Daniel 9:20-27, Gabriel told Daniel about things to come. Man in that verse means that Gabriel came in human form. In Daniel 9:24, the seventy sevens would be on Daniel's people. Daniel 9:24 says, "Seventy 'sevens' 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." This would be four hundred and ninety years. The time before Messiah the Prince would begin from the time of the command to rebuild Jerusalem. Because much of Daniel 9:24 has not been fulfilled, the seventy weeks have not been corrected. In Nehemiah 2:1-2, the time began (445BC). Sixty-nine weeks, or four hundred eighty-three years, would be about 37AD. The years would have been three hundred and sixty days, and that comes out to more like 33AD, instead of 37AD. The wise men from the east had also been aware of the Daniel prophecy, and that is how they would have known to come to Jerusalem. The ruler mentioned in Daniel 9:26 is the Antichrist. In Daniel 9:27, the Antichrist will be in force, and that will be the Great Tribulation.
C. Halfway through the seven year Tribulation, the Antichrist will break his covenant with the Jewish people. They do not currently offer sacrifices, so the day will come when they will start that again.
Tom of Bethany "He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life." (I John 5:12)
Index to Selected Essays And Book Reviews
BIBL 450 - Daniel and Revelation (Lessons 9-16)
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