Daniel

Book of Daniel: A Composite Work

• Linguistically
  • Hebrew (chs 1, 8–12)
  • Aramaic (chs 2–7)
  • (Greek, ch. 3, 13–14)
• Thematically
  • Courtly persecution and prophecy (chs 1–6)
  • Visions (chs 7–12)
  • (Prayer and praise, ch. 3)
  • (Susanna, ch. 13)
  • (Bel and the Dragon, ch. 14)

Book of Daniel: A Composite Work

• Narrative mode
  • Third-person narrator (chs 1–3, 5–6)
  • First-person narrator
    • Nebuchadnezzar (ch. 4)
    • Daniel (chs 7–12)

Book of Daniel: Structure

1. Events at the Babylonian and Medo-Persian courts
   1. Nebuchadnezzar (II) sacks Jerusalem, takes temple treasures, captives (ch. 1)
   2. Daniel and the three youths request dietary exception and thrive (ch. 1)
   3. Daniel explains Nebuchadnezzar’s dream of the statue (ch. 2)
   4. Nebuchadnezzar persecutes the three youths; God delivers them (ch. 3)
   5. (Prayer of Azarias; Canticle of the Three Youths, ch. 3)

Book of Daniel: Structure

1. Events at the Babylonian and Medo-Persian courts
   6. Daniel explains Nebuchadnezzar’s dream of the tree (ch. 4)
   7. Nebuchadnezzar lives seven years as a savage and is restored (ch. 4)
   8. Belshazar defiles the temple treasures and Babylonia falls (ch. 5)
   9. Darius casts Daniel into a lions’ den; God delivers him (ch. 6)

Book of Daniel: Structure

2. Daniel’s Visions
1. Four beasts (ch. 7)
2. The ram and the goat (ch. 8)
3. The seventy weeks until Jerusalem is rebuilt (ch. 9)
4. The angel’s revelation of the kings of the north and south (chs 10–12)
5. (Susanna, ch. 13)
6. (Bel and the Dragon, ch. 14)

The World Tree

The World Tree

• Scandinavia: Yggdrasill
• Slavonic traditions
• Central American traditions
• Judaism
  • Trees of paradise (terrestrial and heavenly)
  • Nebuchadnezzar’s dream
• ? Christianity: the cross