Daniel

Identity

Daniel is a young man of noble birth taken from Jerusalem to Babylon in the first deportation of 605 BC. He rose to high office in the Babylonian and later Persian courts and became one of the four great prophets of the Old Testament. His book contains both the great faithfulness stories (the fiery furnace, the lions' den) and the great apocalyptic visions (the four kingdoms; the Son of man).

Name and titles

'Daniel' — Daniyyel in Hebrew — means 'God is my judge' or 'my judge is God.' In Babylon he was renamed Belteshazzar (Daniel 1:7). Scripture calls him 'a man greatly beloved' (Daniel 9:23; 10:11, 19). Christ Himself refers to 'Daniel the prophet' (Matthew 24:15).

Historical period

• 605 BC — Taken to Babylon in Nebuchadnezzar's first deportation (Daniel 1:1-4).
• c. 603 BC — Interprets Nebuchadnezzar's dream of the great image (Daniel 2).
• c. 585 BC — The fiery furnace: Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego (Daniel 3).
• c. 562 BC — Interprets Nebuchadnezzar's dream of the great tree (Daniel 4).
• 539 BC — The handwriting on the wall at Belshazzar's feast (Daniel 5); the same night Babylon falls to Cyrus.
• c. 538 BC — The lions' den under Darius the Mede (Daniel 6).
• c. 538-536 BC — Visions of the four beasts, the ram and the goat, the seventy weeks (Daniel 7-9).
• c. 536 BC — Final visions and end (Daniel 10-12).

Scripture appearances

• Daniel 1:8 (KJV) '…Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself.'
• Daniel 3:17-18 (KJV) '…our God whom we serve is able to deliver us… But if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods.'
• Daniel 6:10 (KJV) '…he kneeled upon his knees three times a day, and prayed, and gave thanks before his God, as he did aforetime.'
• Daniel 6:22 (KJV) 'My God hath sent his angel, and hath shut the lions' mouths, that they have not hurt me.'
• Daniel 7:13-14 (KJV) '…one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven…'
• Daniel 9:24 (KJV) The seventy weeks.
• Daniel 12:2 (KJV) '…many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.'
• Matthew 24:15 (KJV) Christ cites 'the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet.'

Connected Places

• Jerusalem — from which he was taken.
• Babylon — his lifelong home in exile.
• Persia — where he continued into old age under Cyrus and Darius.

Connected People

• Christ Jesus — the Son of man of Daniel 7:13.
• Jeremiah — his older contemporary in Jerusalem.
• Nebuchadnezzar — the Babylonian king.
• Belshazzar — the Babylonian regent at the fall.
• Cyrus of Persia — the king who ended the exile.
• Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego — his three companions in the furnace.

Salvation history role

• The prophet who preserved the vision of God's kingdom in the deepest exile.
• The seer of the Son of man (Daniel 7) — Christ's own most-used self-title (used more than 80 times in the four Gospels).
• The proof that Christian young people can live faithfully in a hostile empire and rise to influence within it without compromising.

Christian tradition

• Feast: 21 July (Byzantine); also honoured on 17 December (Latin).
• The fiery-furnace prayer of the three young men (Daniel 3:57-88 in the LXX) is the Benedicite of Christian morning prayer.
• Daniel 7 is one of the two great Old-Testament sources of Christian apocalyptic (with Isaiah).

Household reflection

Daniel teaches the household that Christian young people can live in a pagan empire without becoming pagans. He ate his own food; he prayed three times a day at his window; he served the king; he was not silent when the king was wrong.

Teach the little ones the three young men's answer: 'But if not' (Daniel 3:18). Faithfulness does not require God to deliver us — it requires us not to bow.

Room connections

Where this entry meets the household in the wider house of CrossAIHub.

• Read (Library) — Read Daniel 1-6 aloud in a household week.
• Pray (Chapel) — Pray three times a day at a window — the Daniel rule.
• Family (Kitchen Table) — On Daniel's feast, cook a meal of vegetables and water in memory of Daniel 1:12.
• Sing (Choir Room) — Sing the Benedicite (Song of the Three) — the household morning hymn drawn from Daniel 3.
• Learn (Workshop) — Study the Son-of-man title in the Gospels alongside Daniel 7:13-14.

Further reading

The Book of Daniel in the KJV.

Matthew 24:15 and Mark 13:14 — the Olivet Discourse's citation of Daniel.

Elsewhere in the Atlas

• Babylon
• Jerusalem
• Jeremiah
• Christ Jesus
• Isaiah
• Return to the atrium — the Atlas's main room.