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A cupbearer and the "chief executioner" N:n? The focus of Daniel z lies neither with the court setting or the dream but with the re- peated profession of God's authority, clearly articulated in Daniel's psalmic doxology in w, zo- z3 cf. Thedreamepisodeand the conflict culminate in the monarch's soiemn confession, and so the story as a whole is funda- mentally a conversion story. Philip R. HTS 56 cambridge, Mass.

See also G. Goldingay, Daniel. WBC 3o Dallas: Word, ry87 , 4z- Dtlllp'l "li-u, Gen r serve to connect Joseph and Daniel to the royal throne. Daniel z The most potent parallel, however, is the emphatic as- sertion of both sages that it is not they but God who unlocks the mystery and provides the interpretation Gen 4o:8 and 4r:t6; Dan z, This is noticeably different from Daniel z, where Daniel has to ask Nebuchadnezzar for more time Dan zt6 notice the contrast with z:g, where the king explicitly denies the Babylonian sages any timel.

The seer then with- draws to his quarters, informs his comrades of what is happening, and only that night the mystery is revealed to him Dan z:y-tg. The doxolo gy in w. It makes a connection between God's sov- ereignty over history, the dominion of kings, and the wisdom of the sages. The points of contact between Daniel z and Genesis have largely to do with the plot line and dream motif.

A central theme in Deutero-Isaiah is the contrast 7. Thesame wotd, pesher, comes to denote a form of biblicai interpretation peculiar to the Qumran library; see shani Berrin, "Pesharim," in EDSS, ; and "eumran pesharim," in Biblical Interpreta- tion at Qumran, ed. Mathias Henze. God's sovereignty over history is not only crucial for the dream interpretation Daniel is about to offer in this chapter, it anticipates the judgment scene of Antiochus in Dan , where God does in fact exercise his sovereignty.

Given the connection between Dan z:zo and z5,segal, "From loseph to Daniel," , asserts that the two texts were written at the same time: "I would tentatively suggest that the addition in zt was composed simultaneously to the passage in Daniel 7, and was intended both to foreshadow and offer a contrast to Antiochus' problematic behavior in Seow, Daniel.

The God of Israel revears what is unknown only to his own prophets but leaves the Babylonians in the dark. It is the God of the exiles who frustrates the omens of liars, and who makes fools of diviners; who turns back the wise, and makes their knowledge foolish; who confirms the word of his servant, and fulfills the prediction of his messengers. In the end, the nations will come to reahze that there is no other god beside the God of Israel rsa ; ; Dan z As soon as Daniel has explained the meaning of the dream to Nebuchad- nezzar, the king falls on his face and worships Daniel Dan z This bizarre and seemingly exaggerated response seems awkward, not least because Danier had just predicted the demise of the Babylonian kingdom.

Also, the Gentile monarch reveres Daniel and even brings him offerings. Nebuchadnezzar,sbe- havior becomes intelligible, however, when read in the context of Deutero- Isaiah's prophecy to the exiles. The prophet repeatedry predicts the prostration of foreign dignitaries to the Israelites: "Kings ,hull ,ee ani stand.

The purpose of the dream is to announce to Nebuch adnezzar the succes- sion of four world empires' here represented by the four metals of the statue. The making of idols out of the same materials is a frequent motif in second Isa- iah, where the description of the process is tlpicaily rather polemical 4o:r8-zo; 4r, 2r; 44io.

The statue itself is, strictly speaking, not an idol, but it carries such connotations. But the stone that struck the statue became a great mountain and filled the whole earth. Dan z The verse, the climax of Daniel's dream account, combines allusions to several passages in Isaiah. We already mentioned the building materials. After striking down the statue, the stone turns into a gigantic mountain that fills the entire earth.

The motif is reminiscent of Isa z:zlMic 4:r, the prophecy regarding the temple mount that shall be raised above all hills in the end time. Note also Isa u:9, the promise that the knowledge of God will fill the earth. It is reminiscent of the prophecy in Isa 4r:r5-r6a that the mountains of Babylon will be crushed and scattered in the wind so that Israel can return home: "Now, I will make of you a threshing sledge, sharp, new, and having teeth; you shall thresh the mountains and crush them, and you shall make the hills like chaff.

You shall winnow them and the wind shall carry them away, and the tempest shall scatter them. The obsta- cles will be removed, foreign powers will be shattered and carried away like the chaff by the wind. The dream is thus a reappropriation of the exilic promise. Clearly these authors felt at ease to adopt and reshape generously what they had received. But exactly how are we to describe this process of adaptation and rewriting? Andr6 Lacocque asserts with confidence, "Everyone agrees that Dan.

ICC Edinburgh: T. Clark, t9z7 ,:-f'9. Louis Ginzb erg, The Legends of the Jews tgz8l repr. Philadelphia: Jewish Publication So- ciety, , i.

Collins, Daniel. Hermeneia Minneapoiis: Fortress, t , ryt. Seow, Daniel, Byemphasizingthepropheticbackgroundof thelegends, Idonot wish to minimize their sapiential elements.

The case for Daniel as an example of "mantic" wis- dom has been made effectively by Hans-Peter Miiller in a series of articles, "Mantische Weisheit und Apokallptikl' in Congress Volume, Uppsala, t97t, ed.

Lacocque, The Book of Daniel, If "midrash" describes an act oftextual interpretation that seeks to shed light on the base text to render clear what is perceived to be obscure, then the term is clearly inappropriate in our case since there is nothing to suggest that the purpose of Daniel z is to ex- plain Genesis 4r.

Goldingay is mindful of the numer- ous echoes from other parts of Scripture as well and concludes, 'A fuller way of describing its midrashic aspect, then, is to see it as a rereading of Dan in the light of Gen 4t,Isa 4o, and other passages; or as a reaffirmation of the funda- mental themes of Isa 4o on the basis of the stories told in chaps. From the Court to the Visions The book of Daniel consists of two parts, the tales about Daniel in chapters r-6 and the apocalyptic visions received by Daniel in chapters 7-tz.

The authors of the visions adopted the tales for their purposes and used them as a narrative prelude. Similarly Kiaus Koch, Daniel. BKNI zz. Goldingay, Daniel,3S. More helpful is Goldingay's remark that "Joseph could be seen as a type of Daniel" The unity of the biblical book has been the subject of considerable debate. See, e. This is a peculiar, though hardly unique form of biblical exegesis, in which a group of tradents -thewho are at once the collectors and archivists of the legends, the authors of visions, and the redactors of the book as a whole preserved and at the - same time rewrote the material they inherited.

An obvious and much celebrated example of an inner-Danielic reference is the schema of the four kingdoms, which bridges the two halves of the book, as it is introduced in Daniel z and repeated in Daniel 7. The parallels between Daniel z and 7 are evident and can briefly be summarized: in each case the pro- tagonist has a dream vision;l8 a divinely authorized interpreter explains that the vision is an allegory of the last phase of world history; this final segment of time is further divided into four consecutive world empires:le the first is the Babylonian Empire,20 the second and third reigns are mentioned only in pass- ing, and the fourth is again described in considerable detail in both chapters; after its demise, God will establish his eternal kingdom.

The two depictions of the four-kingdom schema diverge significantly in their portrayal of the fourth and final kingdom.

Daniel z is content merely to note that iron and clay do not mix, a likely reference to the intermarriages of the Seleucids and the Ptolemies, without making any further judgment call v.

Daniel 7, by contrast, dwells at considerable length on the cruel nature of the fourth empire. The arrogance of the Seleucid king Antiochus IV Epiphanes and his eschatological demise are the celebrated climax of the story. Daniel 7 reemploys the four-kingdom schema from Daniel z and brings it in line with contemporary events.

Its purpose is to give comfort to those who suf- fer under Antiochus by showing that the last kingdom has, in fact, already been defeated and judgment has been passed, albeit at this point only in heaven. We According to Dan zt, Nebuchadnezzar had several disturbing dreams, of which Daniel relates only one, whiie Dan 7:t speaks of one dream and multipie visions.

Seow, Daniel,rco,notes that the four empires in Daniel z "do not appear to be consecu- tive kingdoms, because they all are crushed together see z ' zo. Dan z; the description of the fourth beast in Dan closely resembles the descrip- tion of Nebuchadnezzar's bestial transformation in Dan o Eng. Rabba 9s. Dan z;7; Daniel 7 carries obvious eschatological overtones, whereas in Daniel z, which speaks of an everlasting kingdom established by God, this is not clear contraHartman and Di Lella, The Book of Daniel, Chapters 7 andB present another case in which an author reconsidered ear- lier material and elaborated on it by composing a new related text.

It has long been recognized that Daniel 8 is an interpretive expansion of Daniel 7. Both contain symbolic visions, the last in the book of Daniel, in which bizatre animals symbolize the military power of world empires. And both chapters fol- low the same structure: an introduction with a date formula Dan 7:r; 8:r-z ; the vision report 7:z-r5;r4 ; a dream interpretation offered by a member of the heavenly court ; 8:t ; and a brief conclusion that makes clear that Daniel remains disturbed, even to the point of falling ill, in spite of the in- terpretation he was offered Z; 8:zZ.

The opening verse of chapter 8 makes the link with chapter 7 explicit: the vision occurred in close sequence only two years after the earlier one. The two chapters are also linked by verbal agree- ments, most importantly "the little horn" as a designation of Antiochus ; 8:g and "the holy ones" 7:r8; Daniel 7 is concerned primarily with the succession of empires: dominion will finally be taken away from Antiochus and be given to the Son of Man 7:r3- r4.

In Daniel 8, by contrast, the empires form the backdrop and the focus is on Antiochus's sacrilegious behavior. Similarly, whereas in chapter 7 the author re- mains vague about the nature of the king's arrogance of speech , u , chapter 8 lists as Antiochus's main offenses the suppression of the sacrifices and the desecration of the temple 8:rr-rz.

The cessation of the temple sacrifices will last three and a half years according to Dan , and just over three years ac- cording to 8:l4. It reafiirms the promise of chap. David Hellholm Tiibingen: Mohr Siebeck, t98i, ; repr. Labuschagne et al. However, the solution to the crisis is played out differently. At the center of Daniel 7 stands a heavenly throne room scene, in which judg- ment is passed on the seleucid king, who is stripped of his power, put to death, and burned with fire 7:rr.

Daniel 8 merely mentions that the king will be bro- ken' and "not by human hands" , meaning that it is God who will defeat the Gentile monarch. This seems rather vague compared to the more resolute prediction of Antiochus's end in 7ir It remains somewhat of an open question how best to describe the literary relationship betlveen Daniel 7 and 8. As we have seen, the two chapters are clearly related. Daniel 8 gives the impression of a sequel to Daniel 7, yet at the same time there is no indication in chapter 8 of a sustained reading of chapter 7, meaning that the latter chapter does not interpret the former chapter as a whole.

Daniel 8 adopts the schema of the four kingdoms, focuses on the last kingdom, and spells out in greater detail the nature of Antiochus's offenses. In doing so the author fills in several details the second and third kingdom are now identified as Media and Persia in 8:zo; and the angelus interpres is named Gabriel in g and makes explicit what was left unsaid or implicit in Daniel 7.

The continuous process of composing, in which a scribe adopts earlier ma- terials, such as a central idea or literary motif, and develops them further by composing a related text that then becomes part of the same book or even the same pericope has a close precedent in Israel's Scripture. The process is known among redaction critics as Fortschreibung "successive development" or "pro- longation". It seeks to explain why particularly in the prophetic books we find successive literary units, in which the latter passage expands on the former by broadening its scope.

This is different from assuming that individual text units were composed independently and only later grew together, in that the process of Fortschreibung assumes a deliberate, creative effort on the part of the redactors to continue to write within the tradition. The phenomenon of Fortschreibung was described by walter zimmerli in his commentary on Ezekiel: "Much more characteristic for many parts of the book is the distinctive process of 'development' of a section.

Isa [ro] is going to last. The wording anticipates the famedformulainDang:zT,"anabominationthatdesolates" Dntr4 Elg:ljptp ,areferencetothe desecration of the tempie. See also Dan tr:3t; rz:rr; r Macc t; ; z Macc Seow, Daniel, n8.

Instead, Zimmerli thought of them as creative writers with their own sets of skills. In Daniel we are not talking about short text passages but about entire chapters, but the basic idea is the same. Daniel 8 responds to and reworks Daniel 7. The process of FortschreibunginDaniel anticipates a form of biblical inter- pretation used widely in early fudaism and commonly referred to as "rewritten Bible.

Fortschreibung and "rewritten Bible" are not the same, but it is helpful to think of the redactional processes that gave shape to the biblical text as antecedents of Jewish biblical interpretation of the late Second Temple period.

The descriptions of the circumstances of Daniel's vision in w. Hermeneia Philadeiphia: Fortress, rg79 ,69 translation of Ezechiel I. See Moshe J. Emil schiirer, rev. Esther G. The same myth underlies the song in Isaiah 14 taunting the king of Babylon. The prophet mocks the fallen tyrant king, who wanted to raise his throne "above the stars of God" Isa r4:r3 , with the words, "How you are fallen from heaven, O Day Star, son of Dawn! It should come as no surprise that a Jewish text, whose primary objective it is to predict the demise of Antiochus's oppressive regime, employs language and theology at home in Is- rael's prophetic scriptures.

The case can nowhere be made more compellingly than with regard to Daniel ro-rz, Daniel's final vision. Michael Fishbane's apt characterization ofchapter 11 as "a text saturated with reworked passages from the pre-exilic prophets" can easily be broadened to apply to chapters as a whole. Goldingay, Daniel, zoz.

Joseph Blenkinsopp, Opening the Sealed Book: Interpretations of the Book of Isaiah in Late Antiquity Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, zoo6 , "This would suggest that the Daniel group read this chapter Isa rzl as referring to the contemporary tyrant, a procedure familiar from the Qumran pesharim. There Fishbane calls Daniel an "anthologizing of old prophetic pronouncements" and "a coherent formulation of an apocalyptic programme out of many earlier prophetic pro- nouncements" 5r5. Ben-Zvi, zooS , g The explanation comes in the form of an extended ex eventu prophecy about the history of the Macedonian kingdom, beginning with the Persian kings, who are defeated by Alexander the Great n:z-q.

The narrative pace then slows down and the fo- cus shifts to the history of the Ptolemies and the Seleucids and their dealings with Israel rr:l-:g. The revelation culminates, finally, in an erroneous predic- tion of the death of Antiochus n:4o We find in the introduction and the revelation in particular that considerable exegetical attention is spent on explaining the nature of Antiochus's oppres- sive regime and the delay in its defeat.

It will be helpful to examine a few ex- amples in greater detail. Daniel ro is the narrative overture to the book's climactic conclusion. The purpose of the chapter is to inform the reader of the circumstances of the vi- sion, to describe Daniel's preparatory rites that make him available for the en- counter with the divine, and to relate his exchange with the angelic figure.

Throughout the scene, Daniel's visionary experience is portrayed in overtly prophetic terms. Daniel does not emerge from this episode as a prophet in his own right, but the reader is nonetheless struck by the extent to which the au- thor reaches back and uses the language ofthe prophetic call narrative, specifi- callythat ofEzekiel Ezekiel r-3 and Isaiah Isaiah 6 , to tell his own story.

Chapter 10 opens with the remark that Daniel received understanding "in the vision" ;l!! Next we read of Daniel's ascetic practices that are intended to invoke further revelation to:z These are without parallel in either Ezekiel or Isaiah, where the epiphany appears spon- taneous rather than induced.

Daniel's ascetic discipline of fasting and ab- staining from ointment over a period of three weeks is not unique but likely reflects a more common ritual practice of preparation for receiving a divine In addition, Isa 6:r; Ezek r:r-3; and Dan ro:r all include a chronological formula that dates the vision according to the life of a king.

Ezekiel received his vision in the land of chaldeans, while standing "by the river chebar" Ezek r Similarly, Daniel is "standing on the bank of the great river, that is, the Tigris" Dan rc:4; cf. Looking up, Daniel sees a heavenly figure of extraordinary appearance, with a fiery body and resounding voice. N:llll clothed in linen, with a belt of gold from rJphaz around his waist. His body was like beryl lPlPJD?

Dan to Almost every element in Daniel's description of the angel has a direct parallel in Ezekiel's encounter with the divine in Ezekiel r. Ezekiel then goes on ro describe in lush details how this figure is engulfed in fire and girded at "the loins" Ezek r Beneath the humanlike figure Ezekiel sees the divine throne chariot, r,vhose wheels are. The throne is surrounded by creatures who constantly move "like a flash of lightning,' pi? In their midst Ezekiel sees something "like torches" D. Throughout his visionary experience, Daniel Reuben t9-ro: "And after this, with determination of soul, for seven years I repented before the Lord: I did not drink wine or liquor; meat did not enter my mouth, and I did not eat any pleasurable food.

Rather, I was mourning over my sin, since it was so great. It Hardback Books Penguin Books. Additional site navigation. Daniel is an indispensable trove and reference about issues like the apocalyptic vision of world's periodized history, the notion of Son of Man, messianism without a messiah, the belief in resurrection, the kingdom of God, the centrifugal spread of divine revelation, and the positive role of the Jewish diaspora.

According to Andre LaCocque, this supports the notion that the issue with which any reader of the Song must come to grips is, first and foremost, a hermeneutical one. Similar books and articles. Stephen A. Kaufman, Louis F. Hartman, Alexander A. Uploaded by station Internet Archive's 25th Anniversary Logo. Search icon An illustration of a magnifying glass. User icon An illustration of a person's head and chest. Sign up Log in. Web icon An illustration of a computer application window Wayback Machine Texts icon An illustration of an open book.

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