10/08/2022 – Day 223 – Daniel 1 – 6 // 2 of 2 // Amazing prophecies and miracles in this book; therefore, rejected by pagans as out of hand…
I will share excerpts from an excellent book summary by Halley’s Bible Handbook, as always. From here , you can go to the Ray Stedman book noted in the first post in today’s reading. Let’s get started:
The Book of Daniel
”The book itself represents Daniel as its author (7:1, 28; 8:2; 9:2; 10:1, 2: 12;4, 5). Its genuineness was sanctioned by Christ (Matthew 24:15). It was so accepted by Jews and Early Christians. Porphyry, an infidel of the 3rd century A.D. propounded the theory that the book was forgery of the period of the Maccabean revolt (168-164 B.C.). However, the traditional view that the book is a true historical document dating from the days of Daniel himself persisted unanimously among Christian and Jewish scholars, till the rise of modern criticism. And now the critics , in the name of ‘modern scholarship,’ have revived the theory of Porphyry, and put it forth as a settled fact, that the book was written by an unknown author, who living 400 years after the days of Daniel, assumed Daniel’s name, and palmed off on his own generation his own spurious work as the genuine work of a hero long dead. If the book is not exactly what it professes to be, how can we think that God could be a party to the deception? For writers to put forth their own ideas in the names of heroes who lived long before is not even common honesty. We suspect that the real crux of the attempt to discredit the book of Daniel is the unwillingness of intellectual pride to accept the marvelous miracles and amazing prophecies recorded in the book.
The language of the book in Aramaic, or Chaldea from 2:4 to 7:28, which was the commercial and diplomatic language of the time. The rest is in Hebre. This is what might be expected in a book written for Jews living among Babylonians , containing copies of official Babylonian documents in their original Babylonian language.
The Babylonian Empire
“In Daniel’s day, the city of Babylon not only was the premier city of the pre-Christian world, but it ruled the most powerful empire that had up to that time existed. The Empire lasted about 70 years. Daniel was there from its rise to its fall. (See page 212)…
Daniel’s life in Babylon, thus extended from the first year of Nebuchadnezzar, through the reigns of the succeeding five kings, past the Fall of Babylon, into the Persian Empire, through the reign of Darius the Mede, even unto the third year of Cyrus the Persian (10:1); in all, from 606 B.C. To 534 B.C., 72 years, from the first year of the Jews’ Captivity till 2 years after their Return from the Captivity — God’s witness in the palace of the empire that ruled the world.”
Chapter 1. The Man Daniel
Daniel was in the first group of captives taken from Jerusalem to Babylon (606 B.C.). He was the real or Nobel blood (3). Josephus says that Daniel and his three friends were kin to king Zedekiah. That gave them easier entree to the palace of Babylon.
Chapter 2. The Dream-Image
“This was in the 2nd year of Nebuchadnezzar’s reign as sole ruler. Daniel was still a mere lad, having been in Babylon only 3 years.
The Four World Empires here predicted are generally understood to have been the Babylonian, Persian, Greek and Roman. From the days of Daniel to the coming of Christ the world was ruled by these Four Empires, exactly as Daniel predicted. In the days of the Roman Empire Christ appeared, and set up a kingdom which, starting as a grain of mustard seed, and passing through many vicissitudes, is now giving every evidence that it will become a Universal and Everlasting Kingdom, blossoming into full glory at the Lord’s Return.
Critics who assign a Maccabean date to the book of Daniel, in order to explain it as referring to past events instead of being a prediction for the future, find it necessary to place all four empires prior to the date of composition, and so call the Persian Empire two Empires, Median and Persian, in order to make the Greek Empire the Fourth. But as a matter of fact there was a Median Empire and a Persian Empire following the Fall of Babylon. To make it appear so is only an effort to distort the facts of history to substantiate a theory. Medes and Persians constituted One Empire under the rule of Persian kings. Darius the Mede was only a sub-king, ruling for a little while, under Cyrus the Persian, till Cyrus arrived.
Moreover, nothing happened in the Maccabean period that answers to the “Stone cut out of the mountains.”
Chapter 3. The Fiery Furnace
“According to the Septuagint this incident occurred in the 18th year of Nebuchadnezzar’s rein, after Daniel and his three friends had been in Babylon about 20 years. That was the same year that Nebuchadnezzar had burned Jerusalem (586 B.C).
Just as God had revealed to Daniel the dream of Nebuchadnezzar, and its interpretation, years before, so now He puts into the hearts of these three men the firm determination to be true; and then He goes with them into the fire, not only to honor their faith, but to demonstrate before the assembled dignitaries of the far-flung empire, the Power of the God of Jerusalem over the boasted gods of Babylon. Thus a second time God manifested himself in the palace of the mighty empire, and a second time the mighty Nebuchadnezzar bowed before God, and proclaimed Him to be the True God to the utmost bounds of his empire…”
Chapter 4. Nebuchadnezzar’s Insanity and Recovery
“… Lenormant states that Chaldeans had a tradition that Nebuchadnezzar ascended the roof of his palace, and cried, ‘ O Babylonians, there shall come a Persian to impose servitude upon you. A Mede shall be his associate.’ This, if true, looks like Nebuchadnezzar had absorbed some of Daniel’s ideas.
Chapter 5. Belshazzar’s Feast
”ARCHAELOGICAL NOTE: “Handwriting on the Wall (25 – 28). The foundation of this very wall has been uncovered (see next page)….
ARCHAELOGICAL NOTE: Belshazzar. Until 1853 no mention of Belshazzar was found in Babylonian records; and Nabonidas (555 – 538 B.C.), was known to have been the last king of Babylon. To the critics this was one of the evidences that the book of Daniel was not historical. But in 1853 an inscription was found in a cornerstone of a temple built by Nabonidas in Ur to a god, which is read: ‘May I, Nabonidas, king of Babylon, not sin against thee. And may reverence for thee dwell in the heart of the Belshazzar, my first-born, favorite son.
From other inscriptions it has been learned that Nabonidas, much of the time, was in retirement outside of Babylon, and that Belshazzar was in control of the army and the government, co-regent with his father, and that it was he who surrendered to Cyrus. This explains how Danie could be ‘third ruler’ int he kingdom (16, 29).”
Chapter 6. Daniel in the Lion’s Den
“Daniel had been a high officer of the Babylonian Empire throughout its whole 70 years, and though now a very old man, probably over 90, Darius, the conqueror of Babylon immediately place Daniel in charge of the Babylonian government. This probably was because Daniel had just foretold the victory of the Medes (5:28). What a compliment to his wisdom, integrity and fairness. yet, he was an unswerving in his personal devotion to his own God (10). What faith! And what courage! And what a doughty old man!”
Soli Deo Gloria! We’ll finish up Daniel next Saturday, chapters 7 through 12 (End Times)