page_title: Daniel's final vision
section_title: Genre and themes
hierarchical_section_title: Daniel's final vision / Genre and themes
caption_attribution_description: crop of en:File:MemlingJudgementOpen.jpg
context_page_description: Chapters 10, 11 and 12 in the Book of Daniel make up Daniel's final vision, describing a series of conflicts between the unnamed "King of the North" and "King of the South" leading to the "time of the end", when Israel will be vindicated and the dead raised to shame or glory.
  The Book of Daniel was written in reaction to the persecution of the Jews by the Greek king Antiochus IV Epiphanes in 167–164 BCE. Its authors were the maskilim, the "wise", of whom Daniel is one: "Those among the people who are wise shall make many understand ...", and its fundamental theme is God's control over history. The climax comes with the prophecy of the resurrection of the dead. Chapter 7 spoke of the coming "kingdom of heaven", but Daniel 10–12 does not say that history will end with the coming of the Jewish kingdom; rather, the "wise" will be brought back to life to lead Israel in the new kingdom of God.
  In contemporary Christian millennialism, Daniel 11:36–45 is interpreted as a prophecy of the career and destruction of the Antichrist, and Daniel 12 as concerning the salvation of Israel and the coming kingdom of Christ.
context_section_description: The vision is an apocalypse in the form of an epiphany (appearance of a divine being) with an angelic discourse (revelation delivered by an angel). The discourse forms an ex eventu (after the event) prophecy, with close parallels with certain Babylonian works. The only true prophecy is the prediction of the death of Antiochus, which is probably based on Ezekiel's prophecy of Gog and Magog. The heroes of Daniel 11–12, the "wise", are based on the "Suffering Servant" of Isaiah 53.
  The fundamental theme of the Book of Daniel is God's control over history. According to Deuteronomy 32:8–9 God assigned each nation its own divine patron; originally these were subordinate gods, but by the time Daniel came to be written they had been redefined as angels. In Daniel, Michael, the angel of Israel, is in battle with the "prince (i.e., angelic patron) of Persia", and this will be followed by further battle with the "prince of Greece"–the theological point being made is that the fate of nations is decided in heaven, not on earth. The same theme underlies the reference to the heavenly "Book of Truth" which is about to be revealed to Daniel, and which supposedly forms the content of chapter 11: both the past and the future are written already, and God is sovereign over all.
  The constant preoccupation of the vision chapters is Antiochus's replacement of the "tamid", the twice-daily burnt offering to the God of Israel, by the "abomination of desolation". The predicted reversal of the blasphemy will usher in the end of history, the theme of the four earthly kingdoms first introduced in Daniel 2 and developed in Daniel 7 and 8; they will be replaced by the Kingdom of Heaven, a kingdom in which Israel will be given domination over the world.
  The climax comes with the prophecy of the resurrection of the dead. Prior to the Babylonian exile, all the dead went to Sheol, irrespective of their good or bad deeds, but the idea that the righteous would be rewarded and the wicked punished began to appear in the 3rd century, and is clearly expressed in Daniel 12:2–3: "Many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake..." (although the "many" implies that not all will be resurrected). Chapter 7 spoke of the coming "kingdom of heaven", but Daniel 10–12 does not say that history will end with the coming of the Jewish kingdom.
caption: The Archangel Michael weighing souls on Judgement Day. Hans Memling, 15th century.
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