Daniel 2

Nebuchadnezzar's dream: the composite statue (France, 15th century).

Daniel 2 (the second chapter of the Book of Daniel) tells how Daniel interpreted a dream of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon. The king saw a gigantic statue made of four metals, from its gold head to its feet of mingled iron and clay; as he watched, a stone "not cut by human hands" destroyed the statue and became a mountain filling the whole world. Daniel explained to the king that the statue represented four successive kingdoms beginning with Babylon, while the stone and mountain signified a kingdom established by God which would never be destroyed nor given to another people. (The dream and its interpretation are given in verses 31-45). Nebuchadnezzar then acknowledges the supremacy of Daniel's God and raises him to high office in Babylon.

Modern scholarship agrees that Daniel is a legendary figure. The book of which he is the hero divides into two parts, a set of tales in chapters 1–6, and the series of visions in chapters 7–12, the tales no earlier than the Hellenistic period, and the visions from the Maccabean era (the mid-2nd century BCE). Chapter 2 in its present form dates from no earlier than the first decades of the Seleucid empire (late 4th/early 3rd centuries BCE), but its roots may reach back to the fall of Babylon and the rise of the Persian Achaemenid empire.

The overall theme of the Book of Daniel is God's sovereignty over history. On the human level Daniel is set against the Babylonian magicians who fail to interpret the king’s dream, but the cosmic conflict is between the god of Israel and the false Babylonian gods. What counts is not Daniel’s human gifts, nor his education in the arts of divination, but "Divine Wisdom" and the power that belongs to God alone, as Daniel indicates when he urges his companions to seek God’s mercy for the interpretation of the king’s dreams.

Summary

In the second year of his reign Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon, is troubled by a dream. He summons his magicians and astrologers to interpret it, but demands that they first tell him what the dream was. They protest that no man can do such a thing, and Nebuchadnezzar orders that they all be executed. This decree also falls on Daniel, but he, through the agency of his God, is able to tell the king the dream. It was a dream of a great statue with a head of gold, arms and chest of silver, belly and thighs of bronze, legs of iron, and feet of mingled iron and clay. A great stone, not cut by human hands, fell on the feet of the statue and destroyed it, and the rock became a mountain that filled the whole world. Daniel then interprets the dream: it concerns four successive kingdoms, beginning with Nebuchadnezzar, which will be replaced by the everlasting kingdom of the God of heaven. Nebuchadnezzar affirms that Daniel's god is "the God of gods and Lord of kings and revealer of mysteries." He lavishes gifts on Daniel and makes him chief of all the wise men and ruler over the province of Babylon.

Composition and structure

Book of Daniel

Main article: Book of Daniel § structure

It is generally accepted that the Book of Daniel originated as a collection of folktales among the Jewish community in Babylon and Mesopotamia in the Persian and early Hellenistic periods (5th to 3rd centuries BCE), expanded in the Maccabean era (mid-2nd century) by the visions in chapters 7-12. Modern scholarship agrees that Daniel is a legendary figure; it is possible that this name was chosen for the hero of the book because of his reputation as a wise seer in Hebrew tradition. The tales are in the voice of an anonymous narrator, except for chapter 4 which is in the form of a letter from king Nebuchadnezzar. Chapters 2-7 are in Aramaic (after the first few lines of chapter 2 in Hebrew,) and are in the form of a chiasmus,a poetic structure in which the main point or message of a passage is placed in the centre and framed by further repetitions on either side:

• A. (2:4b-49) – A dream of four kingdoms replaced by a fifth
  • B. (3:1–30) – Daniel's three friends in the fiery furnace
    • C. (4:1–37) – Daniel interprets a dream for Nebuchadnezzar
    • C'. (5:1–31) – Daniel interprets the handwriting on the wall for Belshazzar
  • B'. (6:1–28) – Daniel in the lions' den
• A'. (7:1–28) – A vision of four world kingdoms replaced by a fifth

Daniel 2

Daniel 2 forms a chiasmus within the larger structure of Daniel 2-7:

• A. Introduction (v.1)
  • B. The king and his unwise courtiers (vv.2-12)
    • C. Daniel and Arioch (vv.13-16)
      • D. Daniel and his friends pray to God (vv.17-23)
    • C'. Daniel and Arioch (vv.24-25)
  • B'. The king and Daniel, the wise courtier (vv.26-47)
• A'. Result (vv.48-49)

Chapter 1 and the first few lines of chapter 2 are in Hebrew, but in verse 4 the text says, in Hebrew, "Then the Chaldeans spoke to the king in Aramaic," and the book then continues in Aramaic until the end of chapter 7, where it switches back to Hebrew; no convincing explanation for this has been put forward.

Chapter 2 in its present form dates from no earlier than the first decades of the Seleucid empire (late 4th/early 3rd centuries BCE), but its roots may reach back to the fall of Babylon and the rise of the Persian Achaemenid empire, and some scholars have speculated that the dream of four kingdoms was originally a dream of four kings, Nebuchadnezzar and his four successors. The lack of linguistic continuity (the switch from Hebrew to Aramaic at verse 4), and of continuity with other parts of Daniel (e.g., the king needs an introduction to Daniel despite having interviewed him at the completion of his training in Daniel 1:18), as well as various instances of repetitiveness (see verses 28-30), are sometimes cited as evidence that later hands have edited the story, or as signs that the author was working from multiple sources.

Genre and themes

Daniel interprets Nebuchadnezzar's Dream

Genre

The Book of Daniel is an apocalypse, a literary genre in which a heavenly reality is revealed to a human recipient; such works are characterized by visions, symbolism, an other-worldly mediator, an emphasis on cosmic events, angels and demons, and pseudonymity (false authorship). Apocalypses were common from 300 BCE to 100 CE, not only among Jews and Christians, but Greeks, Romans, Persians and Egyptians. Daniel, the book's hero, is a representative apocalyptic seer, the recipient of the divine revelation: has learned the wisdom of the Babylonian magicians and surpassed them, because his God is the true source of knowledge; he is one of the maskil, the wise, whose task is to teach righteousness. The book is also an eschatology, meaning a divine revelation concerning the end of the present age, a moment in which God will intervene in history to usher in the final kingdom.

Daniel 2 exhibits both these genres, but it is also made up numerous subgenres: a court tale, a dream report, a legend, an aretalogy, a doxology, and a midrash. In folkloric terms it can be typifiied as a "court legend," a story set in the royal court, concerned with wonderful events and containing an edifying message. The plot of such tales (another example is the story of Joseph and Pharaoh in Genesis 41) is as follows: a person of low status is called before a person of high status to answer a difficult question or to solve a riddle; the high-status person poses the problem but none present can solve; the person of low status solves it and is rewarded.

Themes

The overall theme of the Book of Daniel is God's sovereignty over history, and the theme of the tales in chapters 1-6 is that God is sovereign over all earthly kings. In Daniel 2 these two merge, and the claim of God's sovereignty extends beyond the immediate story to take in all of history. On the human level Daniel is set against the Babylonian magicians who fail to interpret the king’s dream, but the cosmic conflict is between the god of Israel and the false Babylonian gods. What counts is not Daniel’s human gifts, nor his education in the arts of divination, but "Divine Wisdom" and the power that belongs to God alone, as Daniel indicates when he urges his companions to seek God’s mercy for the interpretation of the king’s dreams.

Interpretation

Daniel intercedes with Arioch.

Overview: dreams in the ancient world

In the ancient world, dreams, especially those of kings, were regarded as portents. An inscription of the historic Babylonian king Nabonidus, for example, tells of a dream he had of his great predecessor Nebuchadnezzar, mentioning a young man who appeared in the dream to reassure him that it was not an evil portent. Giant figures were frequent in ancient dream records, and parallels can be drawn from Greek (Hesiod's Works and Days), Latin (Ovid's Metamorphosis) and the Persian Bahman Yasht.

The king's behaviour implies a distrust of his court dream-interpreters, and sets the scene for his later celebration of Daniel's God. The secret of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream is called a "mystery," a term found in the scrolls from Qumran indicating a secret that can be learned through divine wisdom; appropriately, Daniel receives the divine wisdom as a "vision of the night", a dream. Daniel 2:20-23 emphasizes the Divine as a repository of wisdom and the controller of the destiny of kings; such hymns and prayers are typical of postexilic Biblical narratives. Finally Nebuchadnezzar prostrates himself before Daniel and commands that offerings and incense be offered to him, suggesting that he views Daniel as divine; nevertheless, although he acknowledges and respects the god of Daniel, he is not a convert.

The four world kingdoms and the rock

Main article: Four monarchies

Most scholars agree that the four world empires symbolised by the statue are Babylon (the head), the Medes (arms and shoulders), Persia (thighs and legs) and Seleucid Syria and Ptolemaic Egypt (the feet). The concept of four successive world empires is drawn from Greek theories of mythological history, while the symbolism of the four metals is drawn from Persian writings. The consensus among scholars is that the four beasts of chapter 7 symbolise the same four world empires. Verses 41b-43 give three different interpretations of the meaning of the mixture of iron and clay in the statue's feet, as a "divided kingdom," then as "strong and brittle," and finally as a dynastic marriage. The marriage might be to either of two between the Seleucids and the Ptolemies, the first in c.250 BCE and the second in 193.

The symbolic significance of the stone which destroys the statue and becomes a mountain evokes Biblical imagery of God as the "rock" of Israel, Zion as a mountain rising above all others, and God's glory filling the whole world. Images from the Book of Isaiah seem to be especially favoured: Whether the author was conscious of it or not, the image of the shattered statue blown away in the wind like chaff from the threshing floor brings to mind Isaiah 41:14-15 where Israel is a threshing sled that turns mountains into chaff, and the rock itself reflects the address to the Judean exiles in Isaiah 51:1, "look to the rock from which you were hewn."

Modern Christian millennialism

William Miller, advocate of Adventist millennialism.

Christian historicism is a method of interpretation in Christian eschatology which associates bible prophecy with actual historical events and identifies symbolic beings with historical persons or societies, resulting in a progressive and continuous fulfillment of prophecy. It formed the world-view of almost all Protestant Reformers from the Reformation into the 19th century.

The following Historicist interpretation of the vision of the image has traditionally been prevalent among Christian scholars since the 1st CE.

1. Head of gold - Babylon
2. Breast and arms of silver- Medo-Persia
3. Belly and thighs of brass- Hellenistic Greece
4. Legs of iron - Rome
5. Feet partly of iron and partly of molded clay - The divided Roman Empire
6. Rock - Kingdom of God

The following table lists nearly every known Biblical scholar from the 1st to the 19th centuries who used the Historicist methodology to interpret the vision.

List of Biblical Expositors who commented on Daniel 2 from the 1st to 19th centuries

List of Biblical Expositors of the Early Church Period: 100-457 AD BPGR= Babylon - Media/Persia - Greece - Rome. [BPGR] = Implies... 4 metals Feet/toes Stone Kgdm Josephus c. 100 BPG[R] Mess. Kgdm. Yochanan ben Zakai 1st century [BPGR] Akiva ben Joseph d. 132 BPGR Sibyllines 3rd century BPGR Hippolytus d. 238 BPGR 10 Kgdms 2nd Adv. Tertullian c. 240 [BPGR] 10 Kgdms 2nd Adv. Irenaeus c. 292 BPGR 10-fold div. After div. Lactantius c. 330 [BPGR] Divisions Eusebius of Caesarea c. 340 BPGR 10 Kgdms Kgdm. God Aphrahat c. 350 BPGR Divisions at 2nd Adv. Cyril of Alexandria w. 386 [BPGR] Etern. Kgdm. John Chrysostom w. 407 BPGR Divisions Chr. Kgdm. Sulpicius Severus c. 420 [BPG]R Pres. Divis. Fut. Kgdm. Jerome w. 420 BPGR Pres. Divis. After Destr. Theodoret w. 457 BPGR Divisions at 2nd Adv. Biblical Expositors of the Early Medieval Period: 400-1200 AD 4 metals Feet/toes Stone Kgdm Augustine d. 430 [BPGR] Cath. Ch. Andreas Osiander 7th century [BPGR] Multi. Kgdms. Sargis D'Aberga 7th century BPGR Venerable Bede d. 735 [BPGR] Church Berengaud 9th century [BPG]R Eliezer 8th-9th century BPGR Mess. Kgdm. Saadia d. 942 BPG-Gog Jephet ibn Ali 10th century BPGR Rome & Arabs Mess. Kgdm. Rashi d. 1105 B PGR Divisions Mess. Kgdm. Abraham ibn Ezra d. 1167 BPG[R] Rome & Ishm. Mess. Kgdm. Peter Comestor d. 1178 BPGR Divisions Kgdm. of God Joachim of Floris d. 1202 BPGR-Sar. Final Kgdm. Heavenly Thomas Aquinas d. 1274 BPGR Biblical Expositors of the Reformation Era: 1522-1614 AD 4 metals Feet/toes Stone Kgdm Martin Luther 1522 BPGR Mod. Kgdms. Christ's Kgdm. Johann Oecolampadius 1530 BPGR Kgdm. of God Philipp Melanchthon 1543 BPGR Mod. Kgdms. Messian Kgdm. Georg Joye 1545 [BPG]R Divisions Everlasting Hugh Latimer 1553 BPGR Divisions Virgil Solis 1560 BPGR Anglican Formulas c. 1563 Future Kgdm. Nikolaus Selnecker 1579 BPGR Thomas Brightman 1614 [BPG]R Biblical Expositors of the Post-Reformation Era—Europe: 1600-1800 AD 4 metals Stone Kgdm George Downham 1603 [BPG]R Kgdm. of Chr. Joseph Mede 1631 BPGR Kgdm. of Chr. John Tillinghast 1655 BPGR Kgdm. of Chr. Henry More 1664 [BPG]R William Sherwin 1670 [BPG]R Kgdm. of Chr. Thomas Beverly 1684 [BPGR] Kgdm. of Chr. Pierre Jurieu 1687 BPGR Kgdm. of Chr. Johannes Cocceius 1701 BPGR Heinrich Horch 1712 BPGR Kgdm. of Chr. Matthew Henry 1714 BPGR Kgdm. of Chr. Sir Isaac Newton 1727 BPGR Kgdm. of Chr. John Willison 1745 [BPGR] Kgdm. of Chr. Thomas Newton 1754 BPGR Kgdm. of Chr. Hans Wood 1787 [BPGR] Kgdm. of Chr. Christian G. Thube 1789 BPGR Kgdm. of Chr. James Ebenezer Bicheno 1793 BPGR Edward King 1798 [BPGR] Jean G. de la Flechere 1800 BPGR Biblical Expositors of the Post-Reformation Era—America: 1600-1800 AD 4 metals Feet/Toes Stone Kgdm. Anne Bradstreet 1642 BPGR Future Ephriam Huit 1644 BPGR Church-State Christ's Kgdm. Thomas Parker 1646 BPGR Intermarriage Kgdm. of Saints John Davenport 1653 BPGR Christ Samuel Hutchinson 1667 BPGR 2nd Advent Increase Mather 1669 BPGR Not Yet Nicholas Noyes 1698 BPGR God's Kgdm. Cotton Mather 1702 BPGR God.s Kgdm. William Burnet 1724 Div. Europe Christ's Kgdm. Paul Dudley 1731 BPGR Jonathan Edwards 1739 BPGR 10 Kgdms. David Imri 1756 BPGR Ezekiel Cheever 1757 BPGR Christ's Kgdm. Samuel Gatchel 1781 [BPGR] Benjamin Gale 1788 BPGR Church-State God's Kgdm. Samuel Hopkins 1793 God's Kgdm. Samuel Osgood 1794 BPGR Present 2nd Advent David Austin 1794 BPGR Church-State Soon Joshua Spalding 1796 BPGR Christ's Kgdm. Biblical Expositors of the 19th Century Advent Awakening: 1800-1845 AD 4 metals Feet/Toes Stone Kgdm. Manuel Lacunza 1799 4 Kgdms. Divided Europe Christ's Kgdm. William Hales 1803 BPGR Christ's Kgdm. George Stanley Faber 1804 BPGR 10 Divisions Thomas Scott 1805 BPGR Secular w/Eccl God's Kgdm. Adam Clarke 1810 BPGR Divisions God's Kgdm. Samuel Toovey 1813 BPGR God's Kgdm. Captain Maitland 1813 BPGR 10 Divisions William Cuninghame 1813 BPGR James Hatley Frere 1815 BPGR 10 Divisions God's Kgdm. Lewis Way 1818 BPGR Divided Kgdms Christ's Kgdm. Francis Mason (archdeacon) 1820 BPGR God's Kgdm. Jonathan Bayford 1820 BPGR Divided Europe Messiah's Kgdm. Joseph Wolff 1822 BPGR Christ's Kgdm. John Fry 1822 BPGR Divisions Edward Cooper 1825 BPGR God's Kgdm. S. R. Maitland 1826 BPGR Future Future Edward Irving 1826 BPGR God's Kgdm. Edward T. Vaughan 1828 BPGR Christ's Kgdm. Thomas Keyworth 1828 BPGR 10 Kgdms. Gerald T. Noel 1828 BPGR 10 Divisions God's Kgdm. Alexander Keith 1828 BPGR Alfred Addis 1829 BPGR Divided Europe God's Kgdm. Jonathon Hooper 1829 BPGR Western Kgdms. God's Kgdm. William W. Pym 1829 BPGR God's Kgdm. Henry Drummond 1830 BPGR William Jones 1830 BPGR Divisions Edward N. Hoare 1830 BPGR 10 Kgdms. 2nd Advent William Anderson 1830 BPGR Christ's Kgdm. James Begg 1831 BPGR Intermarriages God's Kgdm. William Digby 1831 BPGR William Thorp 1831 BPGR John Cox 1832 BPGR Christ's Kgdm. Joseph d'A. Sirr 1833 BPGR Divisions God's Kgdm. Matthew Habershon 1834 BPGR Christ's Kgdm. Bp Dan Wilson 1836 BPGR Christ's Kgdm. Edward Bickersteth 1836 BPGR François Samuel Robert Louis Gaussen 1837 BPGR Church-State Christ's Kgdm. J. H. Richter 1839 BPGR Listed Christ's Kgdm. Thomas Rawson Birks 1843 BPGR Mingle Jonathan Cumming 1843 BPGR William Miller 1843 BPGR Divided Europe God's Kgdm. E. B. Elliot 1844 BPGR Christ's Kgdm. James A. Wylie 1844 BPGR Divided Europe God's Kgdm. Joseph Baylee 1845 BPGR Divided Europe Christ's Kgdm.

The Historicist interpretation of the visions of Daniel was a major influence for the Protestant Reformation. "The Reformation ... was really born of a twofold discovery--first, the rediscovery of Christ and His salvation; and second, the discovery of the identity of Antichrist and his subversions." "The reformers were unanimous in its acceptance. And it was this interpretation of prophecy that lent emphasis to their reformatory action. It led them to protest against Rome with extraordinary strength and undaunted courage. ... This was the rallying point and the battle cry that made the Reformation unconquerable."

Seventh-day Adventist interpretation

See also: Seventh-day Adventist eschatology § Four kingdoms of Daniel

The Seventh-day Adventists also follow the Historicist interpretation of the statue which they inherited from the Millerite movement.

Chapter	Parallel sequence of prophetic elements as understood by SDA Historicists
	Past					Present	Future
Daniel 2	Head Gold (Babylon)	Chest & 2 arms Silver (Media-Persia)	Belly and thighs Bronze (Greece)	2 Legs Iron (Western Roman Empire & Eastern Roman Empire)	2 Feet Clay & Iron (Frankish & Holy Roman Empires, Ottoman Empire)	Toes Clay & Iron (Respective successors)	Rock God's unending kingdom left to no other people

Since iron and clay are materials that cannot form a durable structure, Adventist scholars interpret this as the many short-lived attempts throughout European history to form a large empire such as the Holy Roman Empire, Napoleonic France, Nazi Germany, The European Union. Some propose a future religo-political power developed and enforced by a global superpower—a Common Government. The lateral symmetry of the image from the thighs downward is taken to represent the permanent cultural and religious division between West and East.

Jehovah's Witnesses interpretation

In Jehovah's Witnesses' interpretation of Nebuchadnezzar's dream, only the feet of the statue differ from the typical historicist interpretation. They associate the feet with the Anglo-American World Power, special relationship between the United States and the United Kingdom. The mixture of iron-and-clay are said to represent traditional authoritarian rule uneasily coexisting with democratic rule and political fragmentation in the 'last days'. In particular, the clay is said to represent the common people having a say in how they are ruled during this time. They believe that the "kingdom, which shall never be destroyed", in verse 44 represents God's kingdom ruled by Jesus as a literal government ruling over earth, during which time, humans will be restored to perfection.

Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormon)

The story in Daniel 2 has significant meaning to members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, who believe that the true church was restored to the earth in the "latter days" through a modern prophet, Joseph Smith, in 1830. Like other Christians, the LDS church believes that the "stone cut out of the mountain without hands" is God's kingdom on the Earth, but unlike other Christians, they believe that it has already been established rather than at a future date.

Spencer Kimball explained in 1976, "The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was restored in 1830. ...This is the kingdom, set up by the god of heaven, that would never be destroyed nor superseded, and the stone cut out of the mountain without hands that would become a great mountain and would fill the whole earth." Kimball agreed with the view of most Christians that the third kingdom represented that of Alexander the Great, the fourth represented the Roman Empire, and the feet of iron and clay represented a group of European nations, which were the great political powers at the time the Latter Day Saint movement was founded.

Dead sea scrolls

The following Dead sea scrolls, discovered in the Judean desert, contain some passages in Daniel 2:

• 1QDan^a (2:2-6)
• 4QDan^a (2:9-11, 19-49)