Daniel 7

Daniel 7’s literary organization is crucial to account for. To begin, the text falls into a series of subsections. However, there is a significant amount of discrepancy regarding the subsections that the text falls into. To explain, according to Paul Raabe, asserts that “chapter consists of three formal elements: vision, the seer’s request for clarification, and the angel’s interpretation” (Raabe, 267). Raabe continues to assert that the text falls into five subsections, which consist of the vision, the seer’s request for clarification and the angel’s brief interpretation, the seer’s request for further clarification and the angel’s lengthier interpretation (Raabe, 270). Contrarily, J.J. Collins argues that the text falls into the categories

Moreover, in comparison to Raabe’s argument, Collin’s schema provides an introduction and conclusion along with a clear main point in the middle, being the interpretation of the vision.
To shift focus, there are a considerable amount of words and motifs that are repeated and emphasized throughout the chapter. The words that are repeated throughout the text are dominion, authority, kingdom, sovereignty, power, and worship. Strikingly, these words are used primarily when referring to the Ancient of Days or the one like a son of man, with the exception of authority being used to refer to that which is held by the third beast. The words destroyed and boastful are mainly used in the context of the four beasts. The repeated motifs throughout the text manifest as the figures/characters that Daniel witnesses. Arguably, one of the central motifs of the text is the notion of the transference of power from evil to good, in other words justice. To explain, the angel interprets the four beasts as being representative of the four kings that will rise from the earth” (Daniel 7: 17). In this interpretation, the chaos that