Bible: The Book of Daniel

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The Book of Daniel is the only full-blown apocalyptic book in the Protestant recognized version of the Canon. A literary device divides the book into two halves. Chapters 1-6 are a collection of stories that introduces the reader to Daniel and three other Israelites as unwilling guests of the Babylonia Empire ruled by Nebuchadnezzar. The second half, Chapters 7-12 consists of apocalyptic imagery of deformed beasts and the heavenly court. The focus of this paper will be on chapter 7, which serves as a bridge of the two halves. Chapter 7 is the earliest of the visions as it identifies with the genre of 8-12 while through language and content it reverts to Daniel chapter 2. The linguistic break down is not as neat as the literary divide in that Dan. 2:4b-7:28 was written in Aramaic while other portions of the book is written in Hebrew.
The timeline altered in the first verse of Dan. 7 serves as the opening to the four visions of in the remainder of Daniel. Belshazzar is cited in the first verse of chapter seven (7) as the King of Babylon, however Belshazzar is noted as the last King of Babylon and the son of Nebuchadnezzar in chapter five. The last king of the Babylonian Empire was Nabonidus. It is believed that Nabonidus for inexplicable reasons moved to the town of Teima and abrogated the empire to his son Belshazzar. Therefore, Seow points at that the “literary setting of Daniel 7 is the beginning of the end of the Babylonian Empire” (Seow, p. 101). The literary chronology of the period set is correct, but it is generally agreed among scholars (Collins, Hartman, Di Lella) there is no historical value in the dating. It is for this reason that most commentators immediately go into verse two of 7. Nevertheless, Daniel states, “Then ...

... middle of paper ...

...icture of evil origins, but at best, it is contrived in a way.

Works Cited
Seow, C. L. Daniel. Louisville & London: Westminster John Knox Press. Print. 2003
Hartman, Louis F. & DI Lella, Alexander A. The Anchor Bible, The Book Of Daniel. New Haven
& London: Yale University Press. Print, 1978
Cook, Stephen L. The Apocalyptic Literature. Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press. Print. 2003
Roberts, Deotis J. Black Theology in Dialogue. Philadelphia, PA: The Westminster Press. Print.
1987
Lopez, Kathryn Muller. "Reading Daniel: Negotiating The Classic Issues Of The Book." Review
& Expositor 109.4 (2012): 521-530. ATLASerials, Religion Collection. Web. 19 Nov.
2013.
Jones, Barry A. "Resisting The Power Of Empire: The Theme Of Resistance In The Book Of
Daniel." Review & Expositor 109.4 (2012): 541-556. ATLA Religion Database with
ATLASerials. Web. 20 Nov. 2013.

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