TOM · The Owner's Manual · Old Testament

Daniel 1

Before you read Daniel: who, when, why

BOOK 27 OF 66 · OLD TESTAMENT · MAJOR PROPHETS

Kingdoms Rise, Kingdoms Fall

AUTHOR: Daniel, a young man from Judah taken to Babylon, who speaks as I in chapters 7 to 12. When it was written is debated: see When Was Daniel Written?
DATE: The events run from 605 BC to about 536 BC, the third year of Cyrus, 10:1.
WRITTEN TO: God's people living as a small, pushed around minority, then and now.
KEY VERSE: Daniel 2:21. He changes the times and seasons; He removes kings and establishes them.

The Oldest Copies of Daniel

A piece of 4QDan c from Qumran Cave 4, one of the oldest Bible scrolls ever found, copied in the late 100s BC. It holds parts of Daniel 10 and 11. Eight copies of Daniel were found at Qumran. See The Daniel Scrolls. Photo Shai Halevi, Israel Antiquities Authority, Leon Levy Dead Sea Scrolls Digital Library.

The Setting

Babylon is the superpower. In 605 BC it takes Daniel and other young men from Judah's best families to train them for the king's service. Daniel lives and serves in Babylon for almost seventy years, under Nebuchadnezzar, Belshazzar, and then the Persians when Babylon falls in 539 BC. Chapters 1 to 6 are stories about staying faithful in a pagan world. Chapters 7 to 12 are visions of empires to come and God's kingdom at the end. Part of the book, 2:4 to 7:28, is written in Aramaic, the rest in Hebrew.

What Went Wrong

Pride. Nebuchadnezzar boasted in what he built, 4:30, and Belshazzar drank from God's temple cups, 5:2 to 4.
Idols. A gold statue everyone had to bow to, 3:5 to 6, and gods of gold and silver praised at a party, 5:4.
Traps At Work. Jealous officials used the law to trap Daniel because of his prayers, 6:4 to 7.
A Proud King. A proud ruler who stops the sacrifices and sets up an abomination in the temple, 8:11 and 11:31.

Where to Find Jesus

Daniel 2:34 to 35, 44. A stone not cut by human hands becomes a mountain that fills the earth. Jesus called Himself the stone the builders rejected, Luke 20:17 to 18.
Daniel 3:25. A fourth man in the fire, like a son of the gods. Many Christians see Christ with His people in the fire.
Daniel 7:13 to 14. One like a son of man receives an everlasting kingdom. Jesus claimed these words at His trial, Mark 14:62.
Daniel 9:25 to 26. The Messiah will be cut off. Many Christians see the timing of Jesus' coming and His death here.
Daniel 12:2. Many who sleep in the dust will wake. Jesus promised the same resurrection, John 5:28 to 29.

Cool Stuff Most People Miss

Two Languages. The middle of the book, 2:4 to 7:28, is in Aramaic, the language of the empire. The rest is Hebrew.
The First Named Angels. Gabriel and Michael are named for the first time in the Bible here.
One Red Line And A Hand. A voice from heaven speaks once, 4:31 to 32, and God's hand writes once, on a wall, 5:25. Those words are red.
A King Writes A Chapter. Chapter 4 is Nebuchadnezzar's own letter about how God humbled him.

How Does It End?

With a promise to Daniel himself: go on your way, rest, and you will rise again at the end of the days, 12:13. Babylon fell, Persia fell, Greece fell, but the kingdom of God never will, 2:44.

Chapter 1 in 30 seconds

Babylon takes the best young men of Judah to train for the king's service. Daniel and his three friends politely turn down the king's food and ask for vegetables and water. Ten days later they look better than everyone else.

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In this chapterThe Big QuestionThe Daniel Fast · after verse 16 The Big Question · Christians disagreeWhen Was Daniel Written? · after verse 21

Daniel Removed to Babylon

¹In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim king of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came to Jerusalem and besieged it. ²And the Lord delivered into his hand Jehoiakim king of Judah, along with some of the articles from the house of God. He carried these off to the land of Shinar, to the house of his god, where he put them in the treasury of his god.

DAN 1:1[NOTE]THE THIRD YEAR OF JEHOIAKIM. 605 BC, the year Nebuchadnezzar beat Egypt at Carchemish. Jeremiah 25:1 calls it the fourth year; Babylon and Judah counted a king's first year differently. Babylon's own record: see The Babylonian Chronicle, 2 Kings.
DAN 1:2[DEMONIC]Nebuchadnezzar puts God's temple vessels in his idol's temple
DAN 1:2[NOTE]THE TEMPLE VESSELS. Babylon put the articles from God's temple in its own god's temple, as if to say our god beat yours. They come back in 5:2, at Belshazzar's party.

³Then the king ordered Ashpenaz, the chief of his court officials, to bring in some Israelites from the royal family and the nobility— ⁴young men without blemish, handsome, gifted in all wisdom, knowledgeable, quick to understand, and qualified to serve in the king’s palace—and to teach them the language and literature of the Chaldeans.

DAN 1:3[FULFILLS]Isaiah told Hezekiah his descendants would be carried to Babylon as eunuchs ← 2KI 20:16-18
DAN 1:4[NOTE]THE BEST AND BRIGHTEST. Babylon trained young leaders from the lands it took, so they would serve Babylon. Isaiah had warned Hezekiah of this, 2 Kings 20:18.

⁵The king assigned them daily provisions of the royal food and wine. They were to be trained for three years, after which they were to enter the king’s service.

⁶Among these young men were some from Judah: Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. ⁷The chief official gave them new names: To Daniel he gave the name Belteshazzar; to Hananiah, Shadrach; to Mishael, Meshach; and to Azariah, Abednego.

DAN 1:7[NOTE]NEW NAMES. Daniel means God is my judge. Babylon renamed him Belteshazzar, after the name of the king's god, 4:8. Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah became Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. They took the names but kept their God.

Daniel’s Faithfulness

⁸But Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the king’s food or wine. So he asked the chief official for permission not to defile himself.

DAN 1:8[HEART]Daniel decided in his heart not to defile himself, before the pressure came. Faithfulness starts on the inside.
DAN 1:8[TEXT]PURPOSED IN HIS HEART. The Hebrew says he set it on his heart, like the KJV.
DAN 1:8[NOTE]WHY REFUSE THE FOOD? Some of it was likely not kosher, Leviticus 11, and some may have been offered to idols. Daniel asked politely and offered a test. See The Daniel Fast.

⁹Now God had granted Daniel favor and compassion from the chief official, ¹⁰but he said to Daniel, “I fear my lord the king, who has assigned your food and drink. For why should he see your faces looking thinner than those of the other young men your age? You would endanger my head before the king!”

¹¹Then Daniel said to the steward whom the chief official had appointed over Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, ¹²“Please test your servants for ten days. Let us be given only vegetables to eat and water to drink. ¹³Then compare our appearances with those of the young men who are eating the royal food, and deal with your servants according to what you see.”

¹⁴So he consented to this and tested them for ten days. ¹⁵And at the end of ten days, they looked healthier and better nourished than all the young men who were eating the king’s food. ¹⁶So the steward continued to withhold their choice food and the wine they were to drink, and he gave them vegetables instead.

The Big Question

The Daniel Fast

What Daniel Ate, and Why

Daniel 1:8 to 16 · 10:2 to 3

THE FIRST TEST: Daniel asked for vegetables and water for ten days, 1:12. The Hebrew word means things grown from seed, so it could include grains and beans.
WHY HE SAID NO: The king's meat was likely not kosher and may have been offered to idols. Some also think eating at the king's table meant owing him your loyalty. Daniel said no without being rude.

The Daniel Fast · What It Means Today

Matthew 6:16 to 18 · Romans 14:17 · 1 Corinthians 8:8

THE SECOND FAST: Years later Daniel mourned for three weeks: no rich food, no meat, no wine, no oil on his skin, 10:2 to 3. It was a season of prayer, not a diet.
THE MODERN DANIEL FAST: Many churches hold a 21 day Daniel Fast: fruits, vegetables, whole grains, beans and water, no meat, sweets or wine. It comes from putting 1:12 and 10:3 together.
WHAT IT GETS RIGHT AND WRONG: Fasting to seek God is good, Matthew 6:16 to 18. But the Bible does not command this exact menu, and food itself does not make anyone holier, Romans 14:17. The point was Daniel's heart, not his plate.
FOR YOU: Daniel purposed in his heart before he faced the menu, 1:8. Decide what you will stand for before the pressure comes.

Daniel’s Wisdom

¹⁷To these four young men God gave knowledge and understanding in every kind of literature and wisdom. And Daniel had insight into all kinds of visions and dreams.

DAN 1:17[NOTE]GIFTS FROM ABOVE. They studied hard, but the wisdom came from God, James 1:5.

¹⁸Now at the end of the time specified by the king, the chief official presented them to Nebuchadnezzar. ¹⁹And the king spoke with them, and among all the young men he found no one equal to Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. So they entered the king’s service.

²⁰In every matter of wisdom and understanding about which the king consulted them, he found them ten times better than all the magicians and enchanters in his entire kingdom. ²¹And Daniel remained there until the first year of King Cyrus.

DAN 1:20[DEMONIC]Daniel proves ten times wiser than Babylon's magicians and enchanters
DAN 1:21[NOTE]THE FIRST YEAR OF CYRUS. 539 BC. Daniel outlived the whole Babylonian empire. 10:1 shows him still alive two years later.

The Big Question · Christians disagree

When Was Daniel Written?

About 530 BC or About 165 BC?

Daniel 1:1 · 7:28 · 12:4

WHY IT IS A QUESTION: Daniel tells of kings and wars hundreds of years ahead, especially in chapter 11, in great detail. Some say how a reader dates the book depends on whether he believes God can tell the future that clearly.
THE OLD VIEW: Jews and Christians long held that Daniel wrote it himself in the 500s BC. Jesus spoke of the abomination of desolation, spoken of by the prophet Daniel, Matthew 24:15. The book says Daniel wrote down his dream, 7:1.
THE LATE VIEW: Porphyry, a pagan writer about AD 270, said the book was written in the days of Antiochus IV, about 165 BC, after many of the events. Many scholars today agree, and some think the stories in chapters 1 to 6 are older.

When Was Daniel Written? · Every View

Matthew 24:15 · Ezekiel 14:14 · 1 Maccabees 1:54

THE CASE FOR EARLY: Ezekiel names Daniel as famous for righteousness and wisdom, Ezekiel 14:14 and 28:3. The Aramaic is like the Aramaic of the empire in the 500s and 400s BC. The book knows Belshazzar, whom later Greek writers had forgotten. Copies were at Qumran within decades of 165 BC. Many Christians see Daniel 9 and 2 pointing past Antiochus to Jesus and to Rome, which a writer in 165 BC could not have seen.
THE CASE FOR LATE: Chapter 11 is very detailed up to Antiochus IV and then becomes general. Three Greek instrument names show up in 3:5. Daniel sits with the Writings, not the Prophets, in the Hebrew Bible. Some see Darius the Mede as a mistake.
ANSWERS BOTH WAYS: Early date scholars say Greek trade words came east long before Alexander, and that the Hebrew Bible's order was set later for other reasons. Late date scholars answer that the Qumran copies fit a quick spread of a new book, and that Ezekiel's Daniel is an older hero named Danel.
WHAT ALL SIDES AGREE ON: The book was finished before the Daniel scrolls from Qumran were copied, it was loved and trusted by Jews before Jesus, and its message is the same either way: God rules, and His kingdom will outlast every empire.

Daniel 1

The Oldest Copies of Daniel

The Setting

What Went Wrong

Where to Find Jesus

Cool Stuff Most People Miss

How Does It End?

Daniel Removed to Babylon

Daniel’s Faithfulness

Daniel’s Wisdom

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