Book of Daniel

This article is about the Biblical book. For the novel by E. L. Doctorow, see The Book of Daniel (novel).

Narratives in Daniel

The first part, consisting of the first six chapters, comprises a series of lightly connected court tales, connected instructive narratives, or miracle tales. Only the first story is in Hebrew, the rest in Aramaic from ch. 2:4, beginning with the speech of the "Chaldeans". Three sections are preserved only in the Septuagint, and are considered apocryphal by Protestant Christians and Jews, and deuterocanonical by Catholic and Orthodox Christians.

Related Topics:
Hebrew - Aramaic - Chaldea - Septuagint - Apocryphal - Deuterocanonical

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• Daniel refuses to eat meat at court
• Nebuchadnezzar dreams of an idol of four metals with feet of mixed iron and clay, which Daniel interprets as the four great monarchies (compare Fifth Monarchy)
• Ananias (Hananiah), Azariah, and Mishael refuse to bow to the golden idol and are thrown into the Fiery Furnace; God prevents their death
• Nebuchadnezzar tells of his dreams of a tall tree, and his losing and regaining his mind
• Belshazzar's Feast, where Daniel interprets the writing mene mene tekel upharsin
• Daniel in the lions' den
• Susanna and the elders (apocryphal to Protestants)
• Bel and the Dragon (apocryphal to Protestants)

Protestant and Jewish editions omit the sections that do not exist in the Masoretic text: in addition to the two chapters containing accounts of Daniel and Susanna and of Bel and the Dragon, a lengthy passage inserted into the middle of Daniel 3; this addition contains the prayer of Azariah while the three youths were in the fiery furnace, a brief account of the angel who met them in the furnace, and the hymn of praise they sang when they realized they were delivered. The Prayer of Azariah and Song of the Three Holy Children are retained in the Septuagint and in the Eastern Orthodox and Catholic canons; the "Song of the Three Holy Youths" is part of the Matins service in Orthodoxy, and of Lauds on Sundays and feast days in Catholicism.

Related Topics:
Protestant - Jewish - Masoretic text - The Prayer of Azariah and Song of the Three Holy Children - Septuagint - Eastern Orthodox - Catholic - Canons - Matins - Lauds

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The narratives are set in the period of the Babylonian captivity, first at the court of Nebuchadnezzar and later at the court of his successors Belshazzar and a 'King Darius' of unclear identity (see 'Historical Accuracy' and 'Date' below). Daniel is praised in Easton's Bible Dictionary, 1897, as "the historian of the Captivity, the writer who alone furnishes any series of events for that dark and dismal period during which the harp of Israel hung on the trees that grew by the Euphrates. His narrative may be said in general to intervene between Kings and Chronicles on the one hand and Ezra on the other, or (more strictly) to fill out the sketch which the author of the Chronicles gives in a single verse in his last chapter: 'And them that had escaped from the sword carried he away to Babylon; where they were servants to him and his sons until the reign of the kingdom of Persia' (2 Chr. 36:20)."

Related Topics:
Babylonian captivity - Nebuchadnezzar - Belshazzar - Chronicles - Ezra

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Daniel appears as an interpreter of dreams and visions in these narratives, though not as a prophet.

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