The First True Apocalyptic Visions

Daniel 7-8

            Oof. What a set of chapters! Literally dozens and dozens of books are written about this portion of Daniel.

            First, there are connections with the prior chapters of Daniel. In chapter 4, Nebuchadnezzar had been struck down so that he lived as a beast of the field, and in chapter 6 Daniel had been thrown to the wild beasts. So, the connection with the pagan nations with wild beasts is well-established. Additionally, in chapters 1and 5 Daniel had predicted the demise of Babylon, so a vision that speaks of successive empires fits.

            Whether in chapter 1 or here in chapter 7, the idea of four successive kingdoms makes the majority of scholar think that Daniel was written much later than Daniel himself. Daniel was active from at least 605 BC to 536 BC, but most scholars assume the book wasn’t written until about 160 BC. The Persians almost bloodlessly took over the city of Babylon in 539 BC, and the rest of the empire quickly followed. The Persians ruled the ancient near east for two centuries, until the conquest of Alexander the Great, a Greek, in a series of campaigns from 334 BC to 323 BC. Alexander died shortly thereafter, and his empire was divided into four parts, given to his four leading generals. At first the Egyptian quadrant ruled Israel, but Israel came under the control of the Syrian quadrant (the Seleucids) in 187 BC and a period of intense persecution followed until 175 BC. In 167 BC, a Jewish revolt under the leadership of the Maccabees threw off the Seleucid yoke. Most commentators, then, see Daniel 7 not as a prophecy of the future but a retelling of history.

            Whether Daniel was written in the 500s (the traditional view) or the 160s (the modern view), the fourth kingdom was still in the near future. Perhaps it should be identified with Rome, which was first starting to assert itself in the Mediterranean in this time period; maybe it should be identified with the Seleucids. Many Jews in the Maccabean period seem to have thought of this last kingdom in the latter way and they were looking carefully for the rise of God’s everlasting kingdom (7:26-27).

            As apocalyptic, the language here is highly symbolic. The idea of beasts should be understood as pagan powers. The various animal parts are intended to draw on popular associations. The lion was the most powerful of the land animals, and the eagle the most powerful of the animals in the sky. The bear was known for its power and ferocity, the leopard for its speed. Numbers also had symbolic force: 7 was God’s number, 10 the fullness of earthly power, 4 indicative of the 4 corners of the earth.

            From a New Testament perspective, the most important part is Daniel 7:9-14, the vision of the Ancient of Days and one like a son of man. In the centuries before Jesus, messianic expectation was at an all time high. So, when Jesus chose to refer to Himself as the Son of Man, he was tapping into widely known messianic expectation.

            There’s a lot more that could be said. I’ll deal with it in my Wednesday morning Bible class this week.