Introducing Daniel

Daniel 1

            Daniel’s life experience takes us from 605 BC to about 536 BC, a span that takes us from Daniel’s childhood to his golden years. We can easily imagine Daniel being a tween, about 12, though that’s just a guess, when he was chosen for training, and that means he would have lived and worked to a good, old age of at least 81.

            Daniel is clearly patterned on Joseph, from the book of Genesis. He is portrayed as a sort of golden boy, handsome and bright, just as Joseph quickly rose to prominence both in Potiphar’s house, where he, unfortunately, became desirable to his master’s wife; in the prison in which he was incarcerated; and before Pharaoh. Just as Joseph served in the courts of a foreign power, so did Daniel; just as Joseph interpreted dreams, so did Daniel.

            More than a replay of Joseph, though, Daniel became an example of how an Israelite could stay faithful to their God in face of tremendous pressure to compromise. In this chapter, he proposes a small test to demonstrate that staying kosher was possible and even better than the alternatives.

            This no-compromise theme runs through Daniel. No wonder it became one of the most referenced books in the period between the Testaments! In the centuries after the exile, it seems that Israel determined never to fall into idolatry again. (See, for example, Ezra and the controversy around intermarrying with pagans.) Beginning with the conquest of Alexander the Great in the late 300s and running for the next two centuries with Alexander’s successors, Israel faced incredible pressure to hellenize, that is, to adopt Greek practices and to soften some of their more distinctive practices; their refusal led to all sorts of persecution. In such an environment, the example of Daniel shown brightly. So Daniel became the great example of a man who could beat the pagans at their own games but do it on the Lord’s terms. No wonder he became a hero.

 

            Now, the book of Daniel works in two parts. Chapters one to six are full of stories, many of which a modern reader will find familiar. The three men in the fiery furnace are here. So, is the origin of the phrase, “The writing in on the wall.” And the very famous story of Daniel in the lions’ den rounds out the section. Keep these stories in mind, because the last six chapters are filled with fantastic visions (the technical term for them is apocalyptic), and, if we pay attention, we will see how the stories provide the framework for understanding the visions. (I personally find N. T. Wright’s summary of Daniel in The New Testament and the People of God, pages 292-294, very helpful, and I’ll be relying on it in this blog quite a lot.)