The Book of Daniel is named after a young Jewish hero who is presented as living in Babylon during most of the sixth century B.C. The name, Daniel, means in Hebrew “my judge is God.” One of David’s sons bore this name as well as one of the Jews who returned from the Babylonian Exile in the second half of the fifth century. Also, the prophet Ezekiel spoke of a Daniel who was renowned for his piety and wisdom and who lived at the time of Noah and Job. None of these Daniels would have been the Daniel of this story. He is more a literary rather than a historical figure, but at the same time Daniel and his three companions are not purely legendary but rest on an older historical tradition.

  We do not know the name of the author of the Book of Daniel. However, we know that it must have been written between 167 and 164 B.C. Scripture scholars can be certain about the date of composition because the author gives a wealth of detail about the persecution of Antiochus Epiphanes but no mention of his death and the success of the Maccabean revolt.  Antiochus Epiphanes desecrated the Temple in Jerusalem in the year 167; a bitter persecution followed in which he tried to force the Jews to abandon their ancient religion and to follow the common pagan worship of his realm; an armed revolt broke out under the leadership of Judas Maccabaeus; Antiochus Epiphanes died in the year164.

  The purpose of the author was to strengthen and encourage the Jews who were being forced by the supreme authority in their country to abandon their religion or face torture and death. He wanted to destroy the allurements of the worldly culture of Hellenism  because many of his countrymen were strongly attracted to it. He was also concerned about showing the superiority of the wisdom of Israel’s God over the merely human wisdom of the pagans, and with showing God’s immense power which can and will rescue His faithful ones from their persecutors.

  The author set about his task by telling about Daniel and his companions who had been tempted similarly to desert and to commit idolatry. They were victorious in these trials, and their persecutors were forced to acknowledge the power of the true God. The narration of these events is in the first six chapters of the book. Chapter 7-12 recount four visions granted to Daniel: the Four Beasts; the Goat and the Ram; the Seventy Weeks; the great vision of the Time of Wrath and of the End. The final two chapters tell of Daniel’s shrewdness in saving Susanna, and contain satires in the stories of Bel and the sacred serpent.

  If a person is reminded of the New Testament’s Book of Revelation while reading the Book of Daniel, especially the chapters which are not narrative, it is because both books belong to the distinctive type of literature known as “Apocalyptic.” “Apocalyptic” comes from a Greek word which means “to unveil” or “to reveal.” This literature is concerned with revealing hidden things that were imparted by God and especially with revealing events hidden in the future. Apocalyptic literature enjoyed its greatest popularity from 200 B.C to 100 A.D., a time of distress and persecution for Jews and later for Christians.

   Although the Book of Daniel is listed among the prophetic books in the Greek and Latin Bibles, it is in a section known as “other writings in the last section of the Hebrew Bible. The book, itself, is a mixture of narration and revelation. It is easy enough to understand the narrative section and to derive fruit from it. The other is more difficult. One really has to rely on scripture scholars to interpret the significance of the symbolic expressions. The Book of Daniel is important and has been a source of encouragement for all men of all times. It has a message of enduring worth, namely, that God is the master of history, who uses the rise and fall of nations as the preparatory steps in the establishment of His universal reign over all men. Thus, the book bears study, reflection, and consultation with authorities for explanation of its apocalyptic messages.

  The Book of Daniel gives a significant role to the angels as ministers of God who reveals through them His will to men. There is very clear teaching on the resurrection of the body in Chapter 12, verse 2, which is something unique in the Hebrew Old Testament. The Book of Daniel brings Israel’s hope of salvation by means of a Messiah to a final stage before its fulfilment in the New Testament. Jesus refers to Himself most often as the “son of man,” an expression from the Book of Daniel. In doing so, Jesus clearly asserts that e has come to fulfil He has He has come He He has come to fulfil the prophecisHeHHHe has come to fulfil the prophecies of the book of Daniel.

   The Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke us the coming of the kingdom as their central theme and Jesus is the king of the kingdom. All of this is in fulfilment of what was prophesied two centuries previously in this book. In St. John’s Book of Revelation , the “sealed book “ of Daniel 12:4 is opened for the seals are broken (Rv. 5:6), and its words are secret no longer because “the time is at hand” (Rv. 22:10).