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Some researchers have concluded that Daniel is a legendary figure. [6] It is possible that the name Daniel was chosen for the hero of the book because of his reputation as a wise seer in Hebrew tradition. [7] The tales are in the voice of an anonymous narrator, except for chapter 4, which is in the form of a letter from king Nebuchadnezzar. [8]
The Book of Daniel is a 2nd-century BC biblical apocalypse with a 6th-century BC setting. Ostensibly "an account of the activities and visions of Daniel, a noble Jew exiled at Babylon", [1] the text features a prophecy rooted in Jewish history, as well as a portrayal of the end times that is both cosmic in scope and political in its focus. [2]
Daniel is episodic rather than linear: it has no plot as such. It does, however, have a structure. Chapters 2–7 form a chiasm, a literary figure in which elements mirror each other: chapter 2 is the counterpart of chapter 7, chapter 3 of chapter 6, and chapter 4 of chapter 5, with the second member of each pair advancing the first in some way.
[3] The Book of Daniel is preserved in the 12-chapter Masoretic Text and in two longer Greek versions: the original Septuagint version, c. 100 BCE, and the later Theodotion version from c. 2nd century CE. Both Greek texts contain the three additions to Daniel. The Masoretic text does not.
The first is the penitential prayer of Daniel's friend Azariah (called Abednego in Babylonian, according to Daniel 1:6–7) while the three youths were in the fiery furnace. The second component is a brief account of a radiant figure who met them in the furnace yet who was unburned.
In the third, Daniel is troubled to read in holy scripture (the book is not named but appears to be Jeremiah) that Jerusalem would be desolate for 70 years. Daniel repents on behalf of the Jews and requests that Jerusalem and its people be restored. An angel refers to a period of 70 sevens (or weeks) of years. In the final vision, Daniel sees a ...
Further imagery includes Daniel 7's Son of Man (more accurately "one like a son of man"), the "holy ones of the Most High", and the eternal Kingdom of God which will follow the four kingdoms and the "little horn". [17] Chronological predictions: Daniel predicts several times the length of time that must elapse until the coming of the Kingdom of ...
C'. (chapter 5) – Daniel interprets the handwriting on the wall for Belshazzar; B'. (chapter 6) – Daniel in the lions' den; A'. (chapter 7) – A vision of four world kingdoms replaced by a fifth; Daniel 5 is thus composed as a companion-piece to Daniel 4, the tale of the madness of Nebuchadnezzar, the two giving variations on a single theme.