The Prophetic Faith of Our Fathers, vol. 1
CHAPTER TWO: The Book of Daniel and the Old Testament Canon
I. Daniel—Unique Statesman—Prophet, and His Times
1. HISTORICAL BACKGROUND OF BOOK OF DANIEL
As a result of apostasy, Israel, the northern kingdom, had come to its end in the century preceding Daniel’s time, when the armies of Assyria had invested Samaria, captured the city, and taken into captivity the surviving remnant of the ten tribes. (2 Kings 17:1-41; 18:9, 10.) The apostasy spread to Judah, the southern kingdom. It grew steadily worse, until “they mocked the messengers of God, and despised His words, and misused His prophets, until the wrath of the Lord arose against His people, till there was no remedy.” 2 Chronicles 36:16. PFF1 35.1
Finally Judah fell before Babylon, which was called by inspiration “the hammer of the whole earth” (Jeremiah 50:23), conquering and punishing the nations. The kingdom of Babylon had, under Nabopolassar, taken advantage of the Scythian invasion to throw off the political yoke of the Assyrians and had allied itself with Media to hammer at the crumbling empire. Nineveh fell about 612 B.C., and finally the resistance of the last Assyrian king, who moved the capital to Harran, ceased by 606, or possibly 608; and thus the Chaldean dynasty, founded at Babylon in 626/5 by Nabopolassar, became firmly established. 1 Under his son Nebuchadnezzar II, the Neo— Babylonian Empire became the political as well as the cultural center of the civilization of the time. PFF1 35.2
The first stroke of the Babylonian hammer upon rebellious Judah fell in the third year of Jehoiakim, when Jerusalem was besieged and Judah was conquered, and part of the vessels of the Temple were carried to Babylon. This invasion, with which the book of the prophet Daniel opens, was the first of a series that climaxed with Nebuchadnezzar’s complete destruction of Jerusalem in his nineteenth year (2 Kings 24, 25; 2 Chronicles 36:5-21; Jeremiah 52:1-23), or in 586 B.C. Daniel may have been captured about the time the youthful Nebuchadnezzar was recalled from a military campaign by news of Nabopolassar’s death. As commander of his father’s forces, Nebuchadnezzar had moved west to put down revolts, and Jewish prisoners were among the captives sent to Babylon. In any event, this fits the year of Daniel’s captivity. PFF1 36.1
The agreement of the sources is impressive. Josephus says that Nebuchadnezzar had Jewish captives sent to Babylon shortly after the death of his father; Daniel indicates that he and his companions were captured by Nebuchadnezzar and taken to Babylon in the third year of Jehoiakim; and Jeremiah makes it clear that the third year of Jehoiakim was that immediately preceding the first year of Nebuchadnezzar. 2 Thus it would seem that Daniel was transported to Babylon in what is now called the “accession year” of Nebuchadnezzar, which would be, according to the Babylonian tablets, in the late summer or autumn, 605 B.C. 3 PFF1 36.2
2. REMARKABLE CHARACTER OF PROPHET DANIEL
Daniel the Prophet was probably a prince from the royal line of Judah. Born perhaps about 623 B.C. into a family of prominence, he had many educational and social advantages. Physically without blemish, and intellectually skilled in knowledge, wisdom, and science, Daniel was chosen as one of a small group to be trained “to stand in the king’s palace.” Taken to Babylon at the beginning of the seventy years’ captivity, he “continued even unto the first year of King Cyrus” of Persia, whose reign marked the ending of the seventy years’ captivity. PFF1 36.3
If Daniel was about eighteen when brought into this heathen court, in service to the king of Babylon, he lived to be nearly ninety years of age. After the course of special training in what we might call the royal college, Daniel and his three companions graduated with honors, with the final examination given by Nebuchadnezzar himself. Thenceforth they were employed in the service of the government. PFF1 37.1
In the very year that Daniel and his companions entered the service of the king of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar had a dream of a great metallic image—a dream which he himself could not remember, and the Chaldean wise men could not explain, but which the Hebrew youth interpreted for him. As a result, he made Daniel “ruler over the whole province of Babylon, and chief of the governors over all the wise men of Babylon.” Daniel also sat “in the gate of the king;” This would indicate, in 01d Testament usage, that he held the position of judge, since the “gate” commonly refers to the place whence judgment was dispensed. Thus Daniel rose speedily to a high position in the government, and later under Belshazzar, on the eve of the fall of Babylon, was proclaimed third ruler in the kingdom. And throughout the reign of successive monarchs, the downfall of Babylon, and the establishment of the Persian Empire, his statesmanship, wisdom, integrity, and fidelity to principle were such that he became prime minister under the new ruler who took over Belshazzar’s kingdom. PFF1 37.2