Writings
דָּנִיֵּאל
Daniel
Court tales, then visions. Parts of it are in Aramaic rather than Hebrew.
Hebrew nameDaniel, meaning god is my judgeChapters12Position9 of 11 in Writings
What is in it
The first six chapters are stories about staying loyal under an empire: a diet, a furnace, a hand writing on a wall, a den of lions. The last six are visions, and much harder.
The switch from Hebrew to Aramaic and back is one of the more curious features of the Hebrew Bible, and it does not line up neatly with the switch from stories to visions.
If you read one chapter
Daniel 3
The furnace, and the sentence about what they will do even if he does not rescue them.
Passages worth knowing
- Daniel 1The diet, and refusal on a small point.
- Daniel 3:17 to 18But if not: loyalty that does not depend on rescue.
- Daniel 5The writing on the wall.
- Daniel 6The lions, and a king who cannot revoke his own law.
Questions to sit with
- 01
The stories are about small acts of refusal. Why start there rather than with rebellion?
- 02
What changes when the book moves from stories to visions?