Daniel: Encyclopedia - Daniel

Daniel

Daniel (דָּנִיֵּאל, Standard Hebrew Daniyyel, Tiberian Hebrew Dāniyyêl) is the name of at least three people from the Bible:

1. A Jewish exile in Babylon, the subject of the Book of Daniel - this article refers to this best-known Daniel.
2. A figure known for his wisdom and righteousness among the exile community (see Ezekiel 14:14,20; Ezekiel 28:3). Some regard this person as probably not the same as the Daniel of the Book of Daniel - this being especially the viewpoint of those who question the historicity of the said book.
3. David's second son, "born unto him in Hebron, of Abigail the Carmelitess" (1 Chronicles 3:1). He is called also Chileab (2 Samuel 3:3).

The name means "My judge is God", or "God has judged".

1. One of the 12 sons of Jacob, son of Abaraham.

Daniel - Daniel's life

This section describes the character Daniel, from the Book of Daniel, as a historical figure. The historicity of Daniel, which some people dispute, is discussed at Book of Daniel. This section describes him within the setting of the history that the Bible describes, and is partly derived from the 19th century Christian Easton's Bible Dictionary, as mentioned in "References" below.

Daniel was descended from one of the noble families of Judah (Daniel 1:3), and was probably born in Jerusalem about B.C. 623, during the reign of Josiah.

At the first deportation of the Jews by Nebuchadnezzar (the kingdom of Israel had come to an end nearly a century before at the hands of the Assyrians), or immediately after his victory over the Egyptians at the second battle of Carchemish, in the fourth year of the reign of Jehoiakim (B.C. 606), Daniel and three other noble youths were among the Jewish young nobility carried off to Babylon (probably as hostages to ensure the loyalty of Judah's king and advisors), along with some of the vessels of the temple. Daniel and his three Jewish companions were subsequently evaluated and chosen for their intellect and beauty, to be trained as Chaldeans (members of the class of the magi: astrologers, sorcerers, enchanters and magicians), who constituted the ranks of the advisors to the Babylonian court.

There Daniel was obliged to enter into the service of the king of Babylon, and in accordance with the custom of the age, received the Chaldean name of Belteshazzar, i.e., prince of Bel, or Bel protect the king! His residence in Babylon was very probably in the palace of Nebuchadnezzar, now identified with a mass of shapeless mounds called the Kasr, on the right bank of the river. However, Daniel and his three companions remained fiercely loyal to their Jewish religious and cultural identity, an identity which would sooner or later come into conflict with the paganism of the Babylonian court.

Daniel's training in the schools of the "magi" (probably astrologer-magicians), or wise men in Babylon (Daniel 1:4) was to fit him for service to the empire. Daniel became distinguished during this period for his piety, and for his strict observance of the Torah, or Mosaic law (1:8-16), and gained the confidence and esteem of those who were over him.

At the close of his three years of discipline and training in the royal schools, Daniel was distinguished for his proficiency in the pagan "wisdom" of his day, and was brought out into public life. He soon became known for his "skill" (a gift from YHWH) in the interpretation of dreams (1:17; 2:14), and rose to the rank of governor of the province of Babylon, and became "chief of the governors" (Chald. Rab-signin) over all the wise men of Babylon, after passing a dangerous test of the astrologers by the king, which could easily have cost Daniel his life. Daniel made known and also interpreted Nebuchadnezzar's dream; as well as a later dream preceding the king's descent into animal behaviour, and many years afterwards, when he was now an old man, amid the alarm and consternation of the terrible night of Belshazzar's impious feast (in which Belshazzar and his concubines drank wine out of the royal Jewish ceremonial goblets of the Temple), Daniel was called in at the suggestion of the queen-mother (perhaps Nitocris, the daughter of Nebuchadnezzar) to interpret the mysterious handwriting on the wall. For successfully reading the cryptic handwriting by an angel of God, Daniel was rewarded by the Babylonians with a purple robe and elevation to the rank of "third ruler" of the kingdom. The place of "second ruler" was held by Belshazzar as associated with his father, Nabonidus, on the throne (5:16). Daniel interpreted the handwriting, and "in that night was Belshazzar the king of the Chaldeans slain" by his own sons, who later fled.

After the taking of Babylon, Cyrus the Great, who was now master of all Asia from India to the Dardanelles, placed Darius, a Median prince, on the throne, during the two years of whose reign Daniel held the office of first of the "three presidents" of the empire, and was thus practically at the head of affairs, no doubt interesting himself in the prospects of the captive Jews (Dan. 9), whom he had at last the happiness of seeing restored to their own land; although he did not return with them, but remained still in Babylon.

Daniel's fidelity to God exposed him to persecution by jealous rivals within the king's administration (who at first conspired to have Daniel's three Jewish companions thrown into a fiery furnace, for refusing to worship the Babylonian king as a god; but they were miraculously saved), and Daniel was cast into a den of lions (for continuing to practice his faith in YHWH), but was miraculously delivered; after which Darius issued a decree enjoining reverence for "the God of Daniel" (6:26). He "prospered in the reign of Darius, and in the reign of Cyrus the Persian," whom he probably greatly influenced in the matter of the decree which put an end to the Jewish Captivity (B.C. 536).

The time and circumstances of Daniel's death have not been recorded. However, Daniel was still alive in the third year of Cyrus according to the Bible (Daniel 1:3); and he would have been almost 100 years old at that point, having been brought to Babylon when he was in his teens, more than 80 years previously. He possibly died at Susa, where a tomb presumed to be his is also located, the site of which is known as Shush-Daniel. Other locations have been claimed as the site of his burial, including Babylon, Egypt, and, notably, Samarkand, which claims a tomb of Daniel (see "Afrasiab ruins" in the Samarkand article), with some traditions suggesting that his remains were removed, perhaps by Tamerlane, from Susa to Samarkand (see, for instance, Itinerary of Benjamin of Tudela, section 153).

Ezekiel, with whom Daniel was a contemporary, mentions him as a "pattern of righteousness (14:14, 20) and wisdom" (28:3). Those scholars who suppose that the Daniel of the Book of Daniel was unhistorical, usually postulate that Ezekiel meant another figure who has now been forgotten, and that the author of the Book of Daniel took up this clue from Ezekiel to name his alleged prophet, to bind him to the older books of the Bible. However this can be no more than mere speculation, and is arguably derived entirely from a biased viewpoint.

Daniel - Daniel - a prophet?

Christians regard Daniel as a prophet, and Jesus is quoted as referring to him as "Daniel the prophet" in Matthew 24:15 and Mark 13:14. It appears he is also referred to as "Daniel the prophet" in the Dead Sea Scrolls [1]. In the context of the books of the Bible, Christians refer to Daniel as one of the "four great prophets"; as the Book of Daniel appears in most Christian editions of the Bible, after the other three "great prophets" (Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel).

Judaism does not consider Daniel to be a prophet. He is not once spoken of in the Old Testament as a prophet. In the Christian Old Testament (apparently following the Septuagint Greek translation [2]) Daniel appears in the "Prophets" section; but in the Jewish Tanach, he appears in "Writings." There are two reasons Jews do not consider Daniel to have been a prophet:

1. Daniel never spoke directly to God. According to the Torah, prophets (navis) speak to God, not to intermediaries like angels. Daniel saw angels and never spoke to God. This is the primary reason Daniel is not considered a prophet.
2. In Judaism a prophet (navi) speaks to his or her generation, not to future generations. The Prophets in the Jewish Tanach (e.g., Isaiah, Ezekiel) spoke primarily to their generation, but their message was also pertinent to the future. Daniel's visions were for the future, not for his generation. The Men of the Great Assembly (Sanhendrin) who codified the Jewish Bible (Tanach) argued about including Daniel in the Bible and placed him in Writings, not Prophets.

Some reasons which may be given for believing that Daniel was a prophet include:

• that according to the Talmud and the Hebrew Scriptures, Daniel received and interpreted dreams and visions, similar to many other Jewish prophets; as well as messages from angels or arch-angels. Indeed, according to the Christian version, Moses himself received the written Torah from the hand of "the Angel of the Lord" (who spoke to Moses out of the 'burning bush'). Daniel himself denied that his ability was because of any human wisdom of his own (Daniel 2:29).
• Daniel recorded his visions (which became prophecies) for future as well as present use; including prophecies about the exact date of the coming of the Jewish Messiah into Jerusalem, many other prophetic events which later transpired in history, and prophecies which are regarded by some (perhaps mainly premillennialist) Christians as referring to a terrible, as-yet unfulfilled, future time of the Tribulation. Accurate prediction of the future is repeatedly given as a mark of a true prophet as opposed to a false one, both in the Hebrew Scriptures and in the Talmud.

See also

• Nebuchadnezzar II of Babylon
• Book of Daniel (book of the Bible)
• List of names referring to El

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Daniel", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki