Book Of Daniel

The Book of Daniel, written in Hebrew , in Aramaic and Greek , is a book that is found in the Bible Hebrew ( Tanakh ) among the Writings ( Ketuvim ), and in the Old Testament of the Bible Christian , among prophets. The book describes events taking place from the captivity of the people Jew in Babylon under Nebuchadnezzar II , king of Babylon between -605 BC. And BC -562 BC. J.-C until the time Seleucid under Antiochus IV

This book is the newest of the Old Testament. The first six chapters tell the story of Daniel and are directed to past episodes of Babylon and Persia. Chapters 7-12 present allegorical visions of historical events between the ^sixth century BC. BC and the ^second century BC. AD. Chapters 13 and 14 were written in Greek and reflect a later editorial.

The book of Daniel is written in apocalyptic style, a style popular at the time of the Maccabees , as the book of Enoch and other apocrypha bible found in Qumran. According to the majority opinion of specialists in this book, the final composition of the book of Daniel comes from the time of King Seleucid (Hellenic) Antiochus IV (-175 to -163), a leader who sought to eradicate Judaism. ^{Plan and Content of the Book}

The book of Daniel has the distinction of being written in two different languages. And a third for his part deuterocanonical:

• The book begins in Hebrew and until chapter 2, verse 4;
• It continues in Aramaic until the end of chapter 7;
• He returned to Hebrew until Chapter 12.

Finally, versions Greek comprise more than three passages: Prayer of Azariah and the Song of three children (included in Chapter 3 after verse 23), the story of Susanna and the Elders (after chapter 12) and History of Bel and the Serpent which ends the book (In the Vulgate both passages are respectively numbered chapters 13 and 14).

Even without taking into account additions Greek, there remains the problem of bilingual Hebrew / Aramaic. The question is even more complex than this linguistic division does not cover the thematic division of the book. In fact, Daniel has two quite distinct blocs:

• On the one hand, telling chapters 1-6 in the third person various adventures coming to Daniel. These stories have Daniel as a clever interpreter of dreams can advise kings Babylonian and surpassing wisdom magicians Chaldeans ;

• On the other hand, chapters 7-12, which are of a different kind. They are written in autobiographical style from Chapter 8. Daniel is not the interpreter of the visions of others, but he himself is the recipient of visions he fails to interpret without the help of an angel.

So immediately we see the problem posed by chapter 7. In its original language, it relates to the power 2-6, but its theme binds the block 8-12. Numerous studies have attempted to account for the linguistic division of Daniel. The assumption that the same author had written in two languages has hardly any supporters today. The current state of the book of Daniel appears to result both of a translation company and a legislative history involving multiple authors. Thus, we can consider:

• An editorial in Aramaic chapters 1-6, sometimes little compilation of stories related to each other;

• Writing in Aramaic Chapter 7, which extends the book in its original language but gives it a twist much more apocalyptic;

• Adding Hebrew chapters 8-12 which amplify Chapter 7. In connection with this addition, the beginning of the book is partly translated into Hebrew (up 2.4).

Composition and Date of Writing

Daniel, who speaks in "I" throughout the c. 7 to 12, is supposed to live in Babylon in the sixth ^century, but - despite the traditional view was defended by some authors American fundamentalists - it is certain that the book is much more recent. Indeed, we notice many improbabilities, such as Belshazzar ( Balthasar ) was not the son of Nebuchadnezzar , as the book about him, but that of Nabonidus , and he never had the title of king. Daniel announces upcoming events, but it becomes increasingly accurate as and as the story unfolds, as if he knew more about the events of the first half of the ^second century than those of previous centuries. The Hebrew used to ch.1 and 8-12 is influenced by Aramaic , the language is itself used to ch.2-7, with features that later Aramaic the book of Ezra and papyri Elephantine ( ^sixth and ^fifth centuries BC. ). All this converges to a conclusion now widely accepted: the author of the book in its final form using the method of inauthentic, and he does not write in the sixth ^century, but at the time of the latest advertised, c that is to say, ⁱⁿ the second century.

Daniel is unknown by the author of Sirach (c. 180) that contains a long section (chapters 44-50) in honor of "famous men" who counted in Jewish history. However, the book is known by the author's first book of Maccabees , between 134 and 104 (1 M = 1.54 Dn 9.27 and 11.37), and the first Greek version is even used by Book III Sibylline oracles. The author knows the desecration of the Temple, Dec. 7 167 (Dn 11.31), and the killing of Jews faithful (11.33), the revolt of the Maccabees and the first successes of Judas (hint 11.34 ) at 166. However, the author does not know the death of King persecutor autumn of 164, which indicates an overall composition of the end of the book of Daniel between 167 and 164. Nothing in the rest of the book that contradicts these dates

Summary

Chapters 1-6 are stories about young Daniel and his three companions to Babylon written as didactic ( Haggadah ). This is a pedagogical work in the service of a theological and moral lesson. The hero of the story by its behavior, tests, etc., is presented in such a way that draws the reader into a message of comfort, faith in connection with the spiritual needs of the time.

Chapters 7 to 12 are the visions of Daniel with a dimension eschatological. These visions designed to interpret the story of how theological , crowned at its end with an announcement of the End, written by a prophet of the past to take a step back in time writers. The revelation of himself as a wisdom from above given to believers.

The Adventures of Daniel

The first six chapters include a series of stories in court on Daniel and his three companions. The first chapter in Hebrew and Aramaic is used from verse 4 of Chapter 2 to Chapter 7. Hebrew is then used in Chapter 8 to Chapter 12. Three additional sections have been preserved in the Septuagint and are considered apocryphal by Jews and Protestants and Deuterocanonical by Catholics and Orthodox.

1. After being taken captive and taken to Babylon, members of the nobility of Israel are taken to the king. Among them, Daniel and his three friends ( Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah ) refuse to eat and drink to the king's table because the food has not undergone the ritual slaughter according to Jewish law. At the end of a short trial period of ten days, they appear healthier than those who accepted the royal food and can therefore continue their diet. The four Hebrew are taught by God finally allowing them to be noticed by the king who is "ten times better than all the magicians and soothsayers of his whole kingdom."
2. Nebuchadnezzar dreams of a giant statue made of four metals and a mixture of iron and clay. This image is destroyed by a stone coming off the mountain. Daniel himself said to the King that the statue represents successive empires. The stone becomes a great mountain and filled the whole earth. Professor of Old Testament John J. Collins , suggests that this division into four parts is a borrowing from the Greek poet Hesiod ^(eighth century BC.) The latter taught that the world had gone through four ages different (the age of gold, silver, bronze, iron), each age is morally inferior to the previous ( Works and Days , p.106 to 201) .
3. The three companions of Daniel refuse to participate in the worship of the giant statue of Nebuchadnezzar II , and say firmly that they will not worship the king's god, in response, they find themselves in a hot oven. The mighty men who threw them were killed by fire from the furnace, but an angel saved three companions (Daniel 3:1-30). The Greek version of chapter 3 contains a hundred additional verses, where we find the hymn of Azariah in the fiery furnace (Daniel 3:26-45 LXX ) and the song of the three young-people (Daniel 3:52-90 LXX ).
4. Nebuchadnezzar dreams of a tree reaching the sky and visible all over the earth which is suddenly cut to the order of a divine messenger. Daniel tells the king that the tree means it. For seven years he will lose his reason and his power and live among wild animals in nature. After this divine punishment, he will resume his throne and proclaim that the God of Daniel is the king of the gods. This story has never been proven in archeology. The felled tree is a major symbol in the theology of the movement from the Adventist He was echoed by Nelson Barbour and Charles Taze Russell , founder of the Watchtower and Bible Students who gave then the Jehovah's Witnesses. They see through the tree in their eschatology , the means of knowing the time of Christ's return (as it invisible Parousia ) in 1914 .
5. The banquet Balthasar tells an evening in which Belshazzar and his courtiers eat and drink utensils and drinks in the Temple of Jerusalem. Appears when a mysterious hand writing on the wall "Mene, Menelaus, Tekel, UPHARSIN. The horrified king called to Daniel to explain what is written. Daniel gives the following explanation (from 5.26 to 28): Led, led God has measured your kingdom and delivered - Teqel: thou art weighed in the balance and your weight is in default - UPHARSIN: Your kingdom has been divided and given to the Medes and Persians. "That night, the city was taken by Darius the Mede and Balthasar is murdered. It must also include a humorous or ironic aspect: the repetition of the word 'Mene, Mene' may lead to 'count, counted, but also' counted, the accountant. "This is a way to make fun of Babylon wealthy and power-based accounting, recent science at the time, which had allowed its rulers to deprive the people around.
6. Daniel was elevated to an important function during the reign of Darius which earned him the jealousy. Knowing the piety and devotion to God of Daniel, the intriguing of the court asking the king to issue a law that forbids praying to another god or man Darius for thirty days. As Daniel did not take into account and continues to pray three times a day he is accused and Darius, to meet its own decree, is forced to throw Daniel into the den of lions. But the angel of God intervenes and shuts the mouths of lions. Darius saw it taken out of Daniel and the lions thrown schemers, their wives and children into the pit where the lions devour immediately.
7. Susanna and the Elders (apocrypha in the Jewish and Protestant canon)
8. Bel and the Dragon (Apocrypha in the canon Jewish and Protestant) - Bel and the Dragon tells two episodes from the life of the prophet Daniel. The first recounts how Daniel proved that the Idol Bel, patron god of Babylon , had no value, revealing that the food eaten by the god allegedly was actually carried by the priests of Bel. The second episode tells the miraculous deliverance of Daniel thrown into the den of lions for killing the dragon worshiped by the Babylonians. These two stories are intended to ridicule idolatry and to show that those who worship the true God will receive food and be fed during periods of difficulty.

Visions of Daniel

The four visions of chapters 7-12 are typical examples of the writings of apocalypse , a genre of Jewish and Christian writings. Unlike the first six chapters of Daniel speak in third person, the editor talking about first-person. One of the features of this section concerns the dependence of Daniel spiritual creatures to interpret and explain his visions. The historical context of these visions is not indicated, except for a few dates mentioned realms. Chapter 7 is written in Aramaic , while chapters 8-12 are written in Hebrew. The section "apocalyptic visions" of Daniel has three visions and prophecy about the fate of Israel.

These writings and apocalyptic eschatological gave rise to multiple interpretations among the Essenes and among Christians.

Vision of the four great beasts

Vision in the first year of Belshazzar king of Babylon (7.1) involve four huge beasts (7.3) representing four future kings (7.17) or kingdoms (7.23), the fourth beast that eats all the earth , trample under foot and crush. (7.23), this fourth kingdom is represented by a beast with ten horns representing ten kings, followed by a little horn who kills three kings (7.24), speaking against the "Very High", and wanting to change times and law (7.25). After "a time and times and half a time", this horn is considered and its dominion is taken away and destroyed (7.26), and finally the kingdom and the empire and greatness of the kingdoms under the whole heaven is given the people of the saints of the Most High (7.27).

Vision of the Ram and the Goat

The vision of the third year of Belshazzar A ram (8.1 to 27) representing the kings of Media and Persia (8.20) and Greece (8.21) represented by a goat. The greater horn of the goat is broken and replaced by four smaller kingdoms. The vision is then devoted to "an impudent king and expert tips that operates prodigious destruction" by removing the sacrifices to the Temple of Jerusalem for a period of two thousand three hundred evenings and mornings (8.14). Then, the author expects the final ruling of the king in future times with the restoration of the sanctuary. This vision incorporates the goats, rams and horns were used to service the sanctuary of the Temple in Jerusalem.

Seventy weeks

Vision in the first year of Darius I , son of Xerxes I (9.1) relates the prophecy of the seventy weeks of years. This prophecy relates to the history of ancient Israel and Judah and Jerusalem's history (9.24). It is a meditation on the prediction of the prophet Jeremiah that the desolation of Jerusalem would last seventy years, a long prayer of Daniel that God restores Jerusalem and its temple, and an explanation of the archangel Gabriel that indicates a future restoration by a messiah-leader.

Two kings in conflict

A long view (from 10.1 to 12.13) in the third year of Cyrus king of Persia , the Conflict between the "king of the north" and "King of the South" (= Egypt , 11.8). This vision begins with references to Persia and Greece. Then the vision reaches its climax with a new description of an arrogant king profane the temple, installed the "abomination devastating," removes the sacrificial rituals and persecute the righteous. The resurrection is finally promised to Daniel by a man on the edge of a river.

The legend of Daniel and Alexander the Great

The Jewish historian Flavius Josephus relates that the book of Daniel was shown to Alexander the Great when he marched with his army against Jerusalem. The story reported happening around 330 BC. AD, 150 years before the Maccabean period. "We showed him the book of Daniel, where it was announced that a Greek would destroy the Persian empire, and the king, thinking that he was thus designated, was elated." ( Flavius Josephus - Antiquities of the Jews - Book XI ) Alexandre great favors granted to the Jews, and we think it is because of what Daniel had told him in prophecy.

However, all the experts think about Flavius Josephus relates a legend , as the land of Israel, while also being part of the territory conquered by Alexander did not have to fight. At the time of Alexander, the Israelites had already been conquered by the Assyrians and the Babylonians, and finally by the Persians, who in turn were defeated by the Greeks of Alexander. They could not cope with Alexander, because their military forces had become nonexistent as a result of various deportations. In addition, following the story, Alexander the Great bows directly before the high priest bearing the name of God on her tiara, which is an image completely at odds with historians who tell us a warlord pagan, violent and determined.

If Josephus speaks of some sacred books of Jews, he never does their dates of composition, nor the names of those present in the Canon Jewish fixed in 90 AD. AD at the Synod of Jamnia. What we know is that Flavius Josephus was a Pharisee who followed the thoughts of the school of Hillel Rebbe for the selection of so-called sacred books. Before the ^first century, there is no trace of a Hebrew canon fixed . In addition, there is in the writings of Flavius Josephus that the long period between Nehemiah and the insurrection of Maccabees , are treated in the most inadequate. Which indeed was not the main purpose of the writings of Flavius Josephus. There is therefore no need to see proof of the historical period of writing the book of Daniel.

The specialist and professor of Hebrew literature at Harvard Shaye Cohen (en) speculates that this legend is a blend of different stories. .

The Dead Sea Scrolls and the Book of Daniel

Eight incomplete manuscript of the book of Daniel were found in the caves of Qumran. Four manuscripts (1Q71, 1Q72, 4Q113, 6Q7) are dated between 50 and 68 AD, two manuscripts (4Q112, 4Q115) are dated around 50 BC. AD and the two oldest manuscripts (4Q114 and 4Q116) are dated between 100 and 150 BC. AD

However, other manuscripts found at Qumran and having many similarities with the story of Daniel led the researchers to speculate a "cycle of Daniel" that would include many stories, in addition to those that have survived in our Bibles. These stories would have been material to the final compiler. Thus the manuscript 4Q242, said, involves systematic and striking correspondence with Chapter 4 of Daniel. These similarities have convinced most experts that this story is, one way or another, linked to the biblical story. If this theory is correct, this would mean that we discovered in this roll a hitherto unknown source of the Bible. The history of the manuscript then precede the year 200 BC, and could be earlier than one or two centuries. Other manuscripts such as Vision of Daniel (4Q243, 4Q244, 4Q245) and the Vision of the Four Trees (4Q552-4Q553) have similar stories to the received text.

Bibliography

• Pierre Grelot , The Book of Daniel (EVC 79), Paris, 1992
• Jacques Vermeylen, "Daniel" in Introduction to the Old Testament Edition Labor et Fides, p.573-582 ( ISBN 2-8309-1112-1 )
• Armand Abecassis, Jewish thought. Messiahship: eclipse political and apocalyptic outbreaks ( ISBN 9782253056225 )
• (Es) Asurmendi JM, El libro de Daniel in the recient investigacin, ESTB 55 (1997), p.509-540
• (In) JJ Collins / PWFlint, The Book of Daniel: Composition and Reception , Vol I & II (2001) ( ISBN 0391041371 )
• (In) AS Van Der Woude (eds), The Book of Daniel in the Light of New Findings (BEThL 106), Leuven, 1993 ( ISBN 978-90-6831-467-0 )

Related articles

• Daniel
• Canon (Bible)
• Old Testament
• Alexander the Great
• Flavius Josephus
• Sacred text
• Maharal of Prague
• Bible Studies
• Theodotion

External Links

• The book of Daniel in the journal Catholic Spirit and Life
• The book of Daniel's Aramaic text philological commentary by Jean Margain
• Chronology after the National Library of France for writing books of the Bible
• (Eng) The Book of Daniel by The Jewish Encyclopedia

Debates on the authenticity of the Book of Daniel

• Presentation of arguments for dating the book of Daniel
• "Essay on the authenticity of the Book of Daniel" by Emmanuel Bertin (fundamentalist position)
• Response to the arguments of fundamentalists

References

• Bible Portal

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