CHAPTER 7
After six chapters of stories, we get six chapters of
visions. Well, they are all stories,
but the first six were presented as if they were factual, whereas these are
just open parables. And they are
parables more important for Christians than Jews. Daniel is possibly the last written book of the Old Testament,
and so some of the themes of when it was written were also around when Christ
was alive. Those themes include the
coming of a savior and the rise of a new world, a world of peace and justice
and all the like. In fact, a lot of
Daniel will later be seen as foretelling of Christ.
This is a vision of beasts.
There are four beasts out of a bad sci-fi film, each one made up of
parts of different animals. They are
mutant beasts. The fourth one is the
most monstrous of all.
Daniel asks the heavens what this vision means, and is told
that they represent a series of kingdoms that will exist one after the
other. I guess they’re Babylon, Medes,
Persian, and the Macedonians.
Regardless, Daniel ends the chapter very scared and deciding to keep
this vision to himself.
CHAPTER 8
This vision is by a river, with a he-goat with a big horn
attacking a ram. The goat’s horn was
shattered, but out of it grew four more.
Out of one of those, grew another bigger horn. Yeah, this has some sort of symbolic meaning of some sort. Once again, the number four is
important.
This time Daniel gets some interpretation. The angel Gabriel comes down and tells
Daniel the vision refers to the end of time.
It sounds like the end of time should come with the Greeks in
power. I guess that’s the big
horn. Or something.
Daniel falls ill for a time after his vision, feeling
desolate. Boy, that’s not the way you
want to feel after a vision of the future.
CHAPTER 9
This is another allegorical one, and its one that further
confirms that this book was written during the 2nd BC
persecutions. Daniel is looking through
the writings of Jeremiah, and figures something out. Jeremiah says that the Jews will suffer for 70 years for their
sins. Daniel figures that means 70
years worth of weeks. Huh – what’s that
mean. Well 70 years worth of days is
just 70 years. But 70 years worth of
weeks – that means each week as a day, so 490 years (7*70=490).
How would Daniel figure this out? The Bible doesn’t say, but it works well for the Jews of the
second century BC because that means their current persecutions are still part
of the repayment for those long ago sins.
Also, it would mean their problems are soon over. So this chapter makes a lot of since if it’s
written in the 2nd century BC, but doesn’t make much sense
otherwise.
Oh, and there is really good news, too. Once the 70 years of weeks are up, happy
days will be here again. “Everlasting
justice will be introduced, vision of prophesy ratified, and a holy of holies
will be anointed.” Yeah, Christians
sure can make use of this when the time comes.
CHAPTER 10
Daniel gets another vision – of, “a man” – who can either be
Christ of the angel Gabriel again, depending on your beliefs.
There really isn’t much to say of it. The angel appears, and only Daniel can see
it. Others can apparently feel its
presence and are afraid and leave.
Daniel is terrified and falls to his face in fright. However, he’s given words of comfort. That’s a nice thought. After the first two visions leaving Daniel
feeling horrible, now you get two in a row that end up positive notes.
CHAPTER 11
This is a long, tedious chapter. It’s another prophecy.
It’s about a bunch of kings and kingdoms rising and falling and ….it’s a
litany of dead kings history, except none of these are real kings. We barely here about any of them, too – none
are named. It’s annoying. The point is things will suck for the
Hebrew.
CHAPTER 12
God gives a final vision to Daniel. There will come a time when a great prince
named Michael will arise. Then, the
dead will rise from the grave. Some
will gain eternal life. Others will
have “everlasting disgrace.”
God doesn’t go into much detail, but there will be an end of
times thing, though. But you can see
beliefs that’ll influence the New Testament in what I just wrote. Anyhow, God tells Daniel to write this down
and seal it in the book.
CHAPTER 13
The last pair of chapters is an addendum to Daniel.
This chapter tells us a story of Susanna. She’s a fox married to a rich and respected
Hebrew man (not that he has anything to do with the story) in Babylon. One day she’s walking through the garden and
two Hebrew elders see her and fall into lust.
They don’t tell each other how they feel, though. They’re ashamed. But not ashamed enough for they both leave to go home for lunch –
only to both double back and come to the same spot. Heh. This scene can be
played for comedy, as they blunder back into each other.
They admit to each other that they have the hots for
Susanna, and this is where the comedy elements goes goodbye. They make plans to have her. They wait until her servants leave and close
the garden gate behind them. The elders
run up to her and make her an offer they feel she can’t refuse: lay with us or
we’ll both report you as a slut to the council and you’ll be executed. After all, there are two of them, and they
are respected elders. She weighs her
options and decides its better to die pure then live defiled. Then she screams.
People here, but our two bad guys have a story already
worked up. They caught her with a young
man. The young man got away, but she
didn’t. Thus Susanna is sentenced to
death. Before the sentence can be
carried out, she prays to God to help her, and God hears her prayer.
He sends the Holy Spirit to, “a young boy named
Daniel.” Hey – remember Daniel? This story is in the Book of Daniel and in
verse 45 we run into Daniel. Or at
least we run into a Daniel. Chapter 1 said
he was carried off to Babylon as a young man.
Here, the Hebrew are in Babylon and Daniel is a young boy, not a young
man.
Eh, but it’s the same Daniel; just a story by a different
author that doesn’t fit into the main narrative. Anyhow, this young boy berates the people for sending her off to
death so easily. He demands a fuller
investigation and despite being a young boy, everyone listens.
Daniel takes charge and leads the investigation. How old is he really? He does a good job. He interrogates the two old men
separately. What kind of tree where you
guy beneath? “A mastic tree.” “Under an
oak” BUSTED! So Susanna is freed and
the two men are put to death.
(Y’know, though these guys are lying, it’s always possible
for someone to forget which tree he was standing under. It’s still a bit nasty here). The story concludes that this is how Daniel
first gained a solid reputation among the people.
Yeah, this is clearly a fictional story. Daniel was already a big name, so they made
up this origins story after the fact.
But as noted already, it doesn’t really fit with the rest of the story
cycles.
CHAPTER 14
Daniel is like a Paul Bunyon. He’s a mythical figure with all of these stories made up about
him. This chapter actually has two
stories.
The first one is about Daniel and a Babylonian idol called Bel. Everyday some food is laid out before the idol, and every night it disappears. The king tells Daniel how great this god is and how everyone should bow to it. Daniel laughs. Yeah, that’s not very well mannered of you, Daniel. He laughs and tells the king that it’s an idol, not a god.
The king is enraged (no surprise) and threatens to have
Daniel killed. They decide to test it
instead. The door to the temple will be
sealed at night. If the food is still
there in the morning, Daniel is safe and the priests will die. If it’s gone, bye-bye Daniel. The priests aren’t worried because there is
a secret entrance. So they go through
it with their wives and kids and eat up.
The next morning the king and Daniel come back and note the
door’s seal is unbroken. They go inside
– no food! But Daniel isn’t fazed at
all. In fact, he starts laughing. Look, king – footprints! All over the place – footprints of men,
women, and kids! So the priest has them
all executed, along with their wives and children. Yikes!
It seems like this would be a good place for a chapter
break, but instead a totally different story completes this chapter. There is a dragon that the king’s men serve
all the time. Daniel says he can kill
it without sword or club. He does by
feeding it food that causes it to burst.
(So – indigestion?)
The people of Babylon are pissed. He’s caused the destruction of their favorite idol, the death of
70 priests, and now the killing of this dragon. Fuck this guy Daniel. (And really, there is no reason for Daniel
to kill the dragon. The people
worshipped it as a living god we’re told, but while it’s not a god, it is a
living thing and the Bible mostly opposes idols, not living things. You don’t have to kill living things, just
wait for them to do).
Anyhow, the people force the king to kill Daniel. Weak hold on the populace? Maybe Daniel shouldn’t have worked so hard
to antagonize people. He didn’t need to
laugh at the temple early in the chapter (no one made him worship at it) and he
didn’t need to kill the dragon. He’s
initiating all the confrontations, and now it’s caused so much backlash that
his protector can’t protect him anymore.
So Daniel goes to the lion’s den. Whoever wrote this story isn’t very original. The way Daniel escapes is original. God tells the prophet Habakkuk – he shows up
in a future Bible book – and tells him to save Daniel. Go to Babylon and give food for the lions to
eat instead of him. But God, Habakkuk
protests, I’ve never been to Babylon and have no idea where this stuff is. Heh.
That’s a good point. So God
takes him by the hair (ow!) and personally delivers him to outside the den,
where he puts some food in, so the lions will eat it instead of Daniel. Then Habakkuk immediately is transported
back to his own town.
Weird story. Anyhow,
the result is just like last time. The
king flips around and throws Daniel’s enemies in the lion’s den. Thus ends the
Book of Daniel.
CONCLUDING THOUGHTS
There are some memorable stories here, but the whole is less
than the sum of its parts. The kings
all are made of cardboard, and the dangers are a bit repetitive. You get a definite since of the persecution
the Jews went through in the 2nd century BC in these retro-placed
stories set in Babylon. These stories
work best if taken as allegories. (They
really don’t work at all if you take them literally).
Yeah, a lot of the same problems can be made of the Genesis
stories, but 1) those were better written, and 2) the logical errors are more
forgivable there when looked at in context.
The Bible begins with a largely mythical world and then becomes
gradually more realistic. This is just
unrealistic in a way that’s entirely out of place with the Bible’s own
logic.
Daniel isn’t a bad book, but like I said – it’s less than
the sum of its parts. It’s too
disjointed.
Click here for the next book: Hosea.
Click here for the next book: Hosea.
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