An introduction to the Book of Daniel

Steve Schott
Mar 3
7 min read

Updated: 3 minutes ago

Introduction to Daniel

► The Book of Daniel takes place during the exile of Judah into Babylon.

→ The Northern Tribes (Israel), which comprised all of the 12 tribes with the exception of Judah and Benjamin, which had broken away into a separate sovereign nation known as Israel in the time immediately after the reign of Solomon, were taken away into exile by the Assyrians in 722BC, never to be heard from again.

→ The Southern Tribes (Judah & Benjamin), collectively called Judah, continued on until they were also taken into captivity, this time by Babylon, at that time primarily of Chaldean makeup, but in this case it involved 3 waves of exilic movement.

• 1st wave - occurring in 605BC - only a select group were taken away at this time. Included were the current king of Judah, Jehoiakim, as well as Daniel, and his 3 friends Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah (2 Kings 24:1-5; 2 Chronicles 36:4-8). Nebuchadnezzar also took "some of the articles of the house of the LORD" back to Babylon.

• 2nd wave - about 597BC - King Jehoiachin (Jehoiakim's son) was taken captive, as was the prophet Ezekiel. Nebuchadnezzar also pillaged the temple in Jerusalem "all the treasures of the house of the LORD,..." (2 Kings 24:13). 10,000 captive were taken at this time (2 Kings 24:14-16).

• 3rd wave - King Zedekiah is captured, all of his sons were killed in his sight, then his eyes were put out, before being brought to Babylon (2 Kings 25:1-7). Then the remaining valuable items from the temple are plundered, and the temple itself is destroyed. The remaining leadership are all killed, and the bulk (but not all) of any remaining survivors are taken away (2 Kings 25:8-21; 2 Chronicles 36:17-21).

• Click on the chart above, showing a timeline from Samuel to Daniel, to see a larger copy.

► The layout of the book of Daniel is a little unusual, in that it is not totally chronological. Daniel will

record one event with a particular Babylonian king, then reference the next king, then go back to the previous one.

► From a time-line perspective, the book begins in 605BC, at the time of the 1st wave of deportation to Babylon.

► Daniel is broken into 3 main sections...

• The chart above shows the breakdown of the entire book. Click on the chart to see a larger copy.

• This first part, chapter 1 specifically, is written in Hebrew.

• Chapters 2 through 7, written in Aramaic, are all about the Babylonian kingdom, and it's successors.

• Chapters 8 through 12, back to Hebrew, are all about the future of Israel, both in regards to pre-Christ events, as well as, events of the end times.

→ Daniel, along with his 3 friends, are setup to be trained to work in the Babylonian court.

→ This training was to last for 3 years. Daniel, being called a "youth" in Daniel 1:4, was probably between 12 and 15 years of age. Making him about 15 to 18 when he officially entered into active service in the Babylonian court. Which would also make him about 85 years old when the dialogue at the end of the book is completed, as the people are being given permission to return to Judea.

► But keep in mind, that the sequence of events as they are listed in the book are not chronological, for example, chapters 7 and 8 actually happen before chapter 5.

► There are also some historic references that are a little hard to figure out, i.e., there are 4 kings of Babylon referenced, but they don't necessarily follow immediately in history as they flow in the book.

→ The 1st 4 chapters are all about Nebuchadnezzar, son of Nabopolassar. He is actually Nebuchadnezzar II, the second king in the 10th Dynasty of Babylonian rulers. He would rule from 605BC to 562BC. His son Evil-Merodach (also called Amel-Marduk) would become king in his place, and rule from 562 to 560BC, but is not mentioned in the Book of Daniel (2 Kings 25:27-30).

→ Chapter 5, 7, and 8 deal with Belshazzar (listed in Daniel 5:11 as Nebuchadnezzar's son) who is possibly Neb's grandson. We know he was killed in 539BC, and that he reigned for at least 3 years (Daniel 8:1). Historically we know that he wasn't actually a king, but acted as such in the role of regent during his father Nabonidus' reign, that he shared with either his mother or his sister, Nitocris. We also know that there were also 3 other kings between Nebuchadnezzar and Nabonidus, but they only ruled collectively for 6 years (562BC to 556BC).

→ Daniel 5:31 let's us know that Darius the Mede became king immediately after Belshazzar, BUT he's impossible to find historically outside of the Bible, unless he actually went by a different name. Darius is found in chapters 6, 9, and 11. Some conclude that the Book of Daniel is fiction, rather than history, because of this issue, but it wouldn't be the first time that something in the Bible, believed to be false, was later proven to be true by more recent archeological finds.

→ Daniel 6:28 introduces us to Cyrus the Persian as yet another entity in charge of the country. Cyrus is the one who would eventually orchestrate the return of the Israelites to their land. Cyrus is actually Cyrus II, also know as Cyrus the Great, but his reign only lasted 9 years, from 539BC to 530BC. And he is the first king in the 11th Dynasty of Babylonian rulers.

→ All this info about the kings of Babylon can be found on Wikipedia... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_kings_of_Babylon

► There is also some discussion in regards to the timeframe in which the book of Daniel was actually written. It pretty much comes down to 2 schools of thought of when exactly was this book written.

→ One viewpoint is that it was actually written during the inter-testamental period (the 400 year period of history between the end of the Old Testament and the beginning of the New Testament), most probably in the time, or shortly thereafter, of Antiochus IV Epiphanes (175-164BC). The reason for this is that some believe events documented in chapters 8 and 11 appear to be "fulfilled" by Antiochus, and the prevailing assumption of this group is that the Book of Daniel was written after these events had actually occurred to create a false record of fulfilled prophecy.

→ The more commonly held position is that this record was really written by Daniel, most likely after 536BC, as 2 Chronicles 36:22-23, which is repeated in Ezra 1:1-3, documents Cyrus's intention to send the Jews back to Jerusalem. Cyrus made this proclamation in his "first year" which would have been 539BC. But Daniel is still in Babylon in 536BC ("In the third year of Cyrus king of Persia..." - Daniel 10:1), so the return to Jerusalem, as the exile was to be 70 years, probably didn't actually happen until 536BC. I'm sure the planning to move thousands of people probably would have taken a little while to prepare for.

► Daniel 1:1-7 →

The Choice Young Men - Daniel and his friends taken to Babylon

¹ In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim king of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came to Jerusalem and besieged it. ² The Lord gave Jehoiakim king of Judah into his hand, along with some of the vessels of the house of God; and he brought them to the land of Shinar, to the house of his god, and he brought the vessels into the treasury of his god.

³ Then the king ordered Ashpenaz, the chief of his officials, to bring in some of the sons of Israel, including some of the royal family and of the nobles, ⁴ youths in whom was no defect, who were good-looking, showing intelligence in every branch of wisdom, endowed with understanding and discerning knowledge, and who had ability for serving in the king’s court; and he ordered him to teach them the literature and language of the Chaldeans. ⁵ The king appointed for them a daily ration from the king’s choice food and from the wine which he drank, and appointed that they should be educated three years, at the end of which they were to enter the king’s personal service. ⁶ Now among them from the sons of Judah were Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah. ⁷ Then the commander of the officials assigned new names to them; and to Daniel he assigned the name Belteshazzar, to Hananiah Shadrach, to Mishael Meshach and to Azariah Abed-nego.

→ The passage above starts us with the first wave of conquest over Judah, and the taking of "Jehoiakim king of Judah", as well as "Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah".

→ We will dialogue more about this and the rest of chapter 1 in our next post.

So What?

► While I've not really posted anything today that would seem applicable to our daily lives, let me at least say this...

► What we will see coming in our travels through this book will show us what it means to live a godly life in the midst of a society living so totally opposite from what we believe to be true and right.

► True, we will probably neither experience the same set of circumstances that Daniel and his crew will have to deal with, nor will any of us receive the kinds of visions and/or understanding of such, but we will to a certain degree experience the aggressive negativity towards us and our God.

► And to be fully prepared to handle what might come, while we wait to return to the final Jerusalem, we need to be in the Word, equipping ourselves to live today in a way that will bring honor to Jesus.

Posts in this series

► An introduction to the book of Daniel

► Daniel 1:1-21 • Daniel & Friends Tested and Enter the King's Service

► Daniel 2:1-49 • Nebuchadnezzar's First Dream and Promotion of Daniel

► Daniel 3:1-30 • The Image of Gold and the Fiery Furnace

► Daniel 4:1-37 • Nebuchadnezzar Dreams. Goes Insane, and Comes to His Senses

► Daniel 5:1-30 • The Handwriting on the Wall

► Daniel 6:1-28 • Daniel in the Lion's Den

► Daniel 7:1-28 • Daniel's Dream and Visions of Four Beasts

► Daniel 8:1-27 • Daniel's Vision of a Ram and a Goat

► Daniel 9:1-27 • Daniel's Prayer and Seventy Sevens

► Daniel 10:1 to 11:1 • Daniel's Mourning and Terrifying Vision