Daniel

Daniel tells the story of a young Judean noble taken to Babylon in the first deportation under Nebuchadnezzar, who rose to serve in the courts of Babylonian, Median, and Persian rulers. The book bears his name as its central figure and traditional author, and it spans the whole seventy years of the exile. It is written in two languages, Hebrew and Aramaic, and falls into two halves: court stories in chapters 1-6 and apocalyptic visions in chapters 7-12.

The stories are among the most beloved in Scripture. Daniel and his three friends refuse the king's meat and thrive on pulse; Daniel interprets Nebuchadnezzar's dream of a great image destroyed by a stone; Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego survive the burning fiery furnace with a fourth figure beside them; a hand writes doom on Belshazzar's wall; and Daniel, faithful in prayer, is delivered from the lions' den. The visions that follow, four beasts, the Ancient of days, the ram and the goat, and the seventy weeks, sweep across coming empires to God's everlasting kingdom.

Daniel's message is that the Most High rules in the kingdom of men. Empires rise and fall on his timetable, and his saints can be faithful under pressure because the outcome is already secure. The book's Son of man vision shapes Jesus' favorite title for himself, and its promise of resurrection, when they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament, is among the clearest in the Old Testament.