58: ’Tis a Puzzlement!

Based on the Book of Daniel (Dn)…Read more there.

Supposedly set in the time of the Hebrew captivity in Babylon the evidence is clearly that Dn is the product of a time when the Hebrews are under a new threat from a different direction. Dn himself, not a real person, may be based on a character from pre-history named ‘Danel’. Danel appears in the old Jewish book of Jubilees (not in the O.T.) & is reputed to be the great-great-grandfather of Noah! One noted scholar offers good advice when he says, ‘The wisest course is to take Dn as a distinctive piece of literature …which borrows from & is coloured by earlier prophetic literature, Wisdom literature & Psalms.’ [1]

Dn was written about 164 BC, to strengthen Jewish faith during persecution by Antiochus Epiphanes. After the break up of Alexander the Great’s empire, Palestine fell to rulers known as the Seleucids. One of these, Antiochus, waged a ruthless religious persecution against the Jews for resisting Hellenisation. Dn is written to encourage Hebrews to stand firm during this time with heroic stories of how faithful people like Dn & his companions miraculously survived persecution in earlier days of trial. Dn comes into the category of ‘apocalyptic’ (as does Revelation in the N.T. which borrows from it.) Part of Dn is written in Aramaic & part in Hebrew, but this need not concern us.

The curtain rises in Ch.1 focussing on the behaviour of certain young Hebrew men at the court of King Nebuchadnezzar in Babylon regarding dietary practices - a key issue for observant Jews. Dn takes a stand & gains brownie points. In Ch.2 the king has a frighten-ing nightmare concerning a statue, & like Joseph long ago in Egypt, Dn is able to interpret this & gain more brownie points. Ch.3 has the king setting up a great statue  commanding people to worship it. Three young Hebrews refuse & are thrown into a fiery furnace but miraculously survive. (At this point NRSV ends Ch.3 & includes the rest in Additions to Dn in the Apocrypha. However NJV includes in the chapter the Song of Azariah & the Song of the Three Young Men. (The latter may remind us of the hymn celebrating the crossing of the Sea of Reeds in EX.) Ch.4 begins with the king having another dream. Dn interprets again but the king does his mind. There’s a lot of confusion over kings & their names in all these goings on, but let’s not go there! Ch.5 begins with a feast given by the next king at which a hand writes a message on the wall. Dn comes to the rescue again! The brownie points are still piling up! We reach the heart of the book in Ch.6 where enemies engineer Dn’s being thrown into the (in)famous pit of lions, whence he emerges unscathed & YHWH God gets the glory. Ch.7 -11 are a collection of prophecies, prayers & visions with, in some cases, interpretations by the Archangel Gabriel. Archangel Michael also appears on the scene & begins to feature. Half-way through Ch.11 The arch-villain Antiochus himself be-comes the focus. Depending upon which version of the Bible we use, Dn either ends then in Ch.12 (NRSV) with a mystical looking into the future featuring Michael again, or (NJB) extends for 2 more chapters that NRSV consigns to The Apocrypha along with the earlier-mentioned remainder of Ch. 3 [2].

One way of understanding Dn is as a kind of imaginary ‘parable’ to appreciate irrespective of its real or supposed historical features. Next: 59: Hosea…Marital (In)Fidelity. 

Q:  Where do Faith, Fact, & Imagination cross paths?

[1] Porteous, Daniel, SCM, London, 1979. [2] See ‘A song of Creation’, APBA p.427