Daniel at the Babylonian Court
about 605 BC to 536 BC, traditional dateTraditional date
The book of Daniel tells of a young Judean taken to Babylon who serves its kings and stays loyal to his God through the furnace and the lions’ den, and who sees “one like a son of man” receive an everlasting kingdom.
The book of Daniel opens in the third year of King Jehoiakim, when it says Nebuchadnezzar II besieged Jerusalem and carried off some of the temple vessels. Young men of the royal and noble families were taken to Babylon to be trained for the king’s service, among them Daniel and his companions Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah. They were given Babylonian names and taught the language and learning of the Chaldeans. So as not to defile themselves, they asked for vegetables and water in place of the king’s food and wine (Daniel 1:1–16).
Five stories follow. Daniel tells the king his dream of a statue of gold, silver, bronze, iron and clay, shattered by a stone “cut out without hands”. He explains it as a series of kingdoms followed by one that God will set up and that will never be destroyed (Daniel 2:31–45). His three companions refuse to bow to a golden image, are thrown into a furnace and come out unharmed (Daniel 3). Nebuchadnezzar, in a proclamation in his own name, tells how he was driven from human company until “seven times” had passed and he acknowledged the Most High (Daniel 4:1–3, 28–37). At a feast of King Belshazzar, where the vessels from Jerusalem are used for drinking, a hand writes on the wall. Daniel reads the words as the end of the kingdom, and Belshazzar is killed that night (Daniel 5). Under “Darius the Mede”, Daniel goes on praying towards Jerusalem in spite of a royal ban, is thrown to the lions and is found alive in the morning (Daniel 6).
In chapter 7 Daniel has a vision of his own. Four beasts rise from the sea. Then the “ancient of days” takes his seat in judgment, and “one like a son of man” comes with the clouds and is given a dominion that will not pass away (Daniel 7:1–14).
The stories show Jews serving a foreign king while refusing his gods, and they were read as encouragement under persecution. In 1 Maccabees the dying Mattathias reminds his sons of the three who were saved from the flame and of Daniel among the lions (1 Maccabees 2:49–60), and Hebrews alludes to both (Hebrews 11:33–34). In the Gospels Jesus speaks of “Daniel the prophet” (Matthew 24:15) and answers the high priest in the language of the vision, of the Son of Man coming with the clouds (Mark 14:61–62).
How this is dated
Traditional date. From later tradition or from internal biblical chronology, with no outside anchor.
The dates are those of the book’s own setting. It begins in the third year of King Jehoiakim, when it says Daniel was taken to Babylon (Daniel 1:1–6), and its last date is the third year of Cyrus (Daniel 10:1): about 605 to 536 BC. The Babylonian chronicle for 605 BC reports that Nebuchadnezzar overran Syria after the battle of Carchemish and returned with heavy tribute. It does not mention Jerusalem (Babylonian Chronicle 5 obv. 8–13).
When the book was written is disputed. Jewish and Christian tradition took it as Daniel’s own work of the sixth century BC: Josephus, about AD 93, says that Daniel wrote of Antiochus Epiphanes many years before the event (Josephus, Antiquities 10.266–276). That date is defended today by, for example, Joyce G. Baldwin, Daniel (1978), and Stephen R. Miller, Daniel (1994). Most critical scholars hold that the stories of chapters 1–6 are older tales and that the visions of chapters 7–12 were written during the persecution under Antiochus IV, about 167–164 BC, because they follow events closely up to that point: see John J. Collins, Daniel (Hermeneia, 1993). The argument is an old one. Jerome reports that the philosopher Porphyry made it in the third century AD (Jerome, Commentary on Daniel Prologue).
Three details bear on the question. No source independent of the book knows a “Darius the Mede” who received the kingdom between Belshazzar and Cyrus (Daniel 5:30–31). An Aramaic fragment from Qumran tells of a Babylonian king afflicted for seven years and helped by a Jewish exorcist; the king is not Nebuchadnezzar, as in Daniel 4, but Nabonidus (Prayer of Nabonidus (4Q242) lines 1–8). And Belshazzar, whom the book calls king, is a figure of history: an inscription of Nabonidus names him as that king’s eldest son (Nabonidus Cylinder from Ur col. ii, closing prayer).
Primary sources
Scripture
Jewish Antiquities
- Josephus, Antiquities 10.266–276lexundria.com
In context
Grows out of
- 605 BC, firm date
Leads to
- about AD 95, estimated date