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Daniel Chapter 7 – Study Guide

 

Prepared by Steve Kurtright

Berthoud Campus Pastor

 

Introduction.  The book of Daniel is perhaps best known for the stories in the first six chapters.  We are introduced to Daniel, a Jewish teen brought as an exile to Babylon by King Nebuchadnezzar (Ch. 1:1).  He and his three friends were educated in the ways of Babylon in order to serve the royal court.  Daniel gained a favorable reputation as one who could accurately interpret dreams (chs. 2,4,5).

 

The last six chapters focus not on Daniel’s life, but on the revelations he received from God during the end of the Babylonian rule and the early years of the Persian Empire as mediated by an angel.  Chapters 7-12 are the most apocalyptic in nature within the Hebrew Bible; though the style is found scattered in other Old Testament books (including Daniel 2, 4 & 5).  These chapters describe a series of visions that Daniel experienced: a dream about 4 beasts (a lion with eagles’ wings, bear, leopard, and a terrible beast); a vision of a ram and goat; and a prayer of confession to and trust in God – a pattern emerges in these chapters consisting of an end time crisis, the prospect of judgment, and ultimate salvation. They were not written so that all questions about what is to come are answered, but to provide an overview of God’s sovereignty in time and over kingdoms. 

 

Chapter 7 is the first of these visions.  It takes us back in time to the first year of the reign of Belshazzar, sometime prior to the night of the feast that is the background for chapter 5.  A question we must ask ourselves is how do we read, interpret and understand this and the other visions which follow.

 

Apocalyptic Literature.  The Book of Daniel is the apocalyptic book of the Hebrew bible. Its sister book would be the Book of Revelation. The word, apocalyptic, is from a Greek term literally meaning an “uncovering” or “unveiling,” and pictures the lid being taken off a basket or box to reveal its contents. Apocalyptic is not meant to scare us or keep us away from interpreting Scripture; rather, it is meant to help us understand God, victory, hope, grace, God’s plan, and that He is in control. If we take the time to understand this type of literature, it will make things clearer—it will expose, not conceal what God has revealed.

 

Most of the apocalyptic literature in Daniel came to the writer as visions from God with imageries that needed to be put into words. These images are usually explained and known to the writer and readers, but not so much to us today.

 

Apocalyptic literature is written in symbolism, poetry, and imageries to describe literal events but with a twist, using language with symbols that are cataclysmic, words that are exaggerated, and metaphors. NOTE: A metaphor is a figure of speech in which an implied comparison identifies a word or phrase with something it does not literally represent, e.g. head of gold and kingdom of Babylon (Daniel 2:38). Such imagery is often used for God’s judgments and the end of days (Daniel 12). This form of language (genre) are often combinations of narrative (story form) and prose (poetic) written in vivid imagery that are intended to express a deeper but not necessarily a hidden meaning that a “regular” word would not convey. A limited amount of apocalyptic style is also found in Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Zechariah.

 

Apocalyptic writing is a more specific form of prophecy. This style of writing is a type of literature that warns the readers of future events.  The reader may not know the meanings upon hearing them, but time will reveal them.  Apocalyptic writing is a type of literature that while using vivid symbolism, at the same time, it encourages and reassures the reader that God is in control and they do not need to fear as long as they honor and glorify Him.

 

Four Main Approaches.  The four historic approaches to interpreting apocalyptic literature (particularly the book of Revelation, but also applicable to Daniel) may be defined as follows: (1) There is the Preterist Interpretation, (2) the Historicist interpretation, (3) the Idealist/Spiritual interpretation, and last (4) the Futurist interpretation.

 

Preterist Approach.  A Preterist interpretation of the Daniel would hold that most of the prophecies of the book have already been fulfilled. In a sense, one might say that there is an element of futurism, in that it truly was future to Daniel, but from our perspective, it relates to history. We might say, in a technical sense that preterism is mostly futuristic to Daniel, yet historical to us. The interpretation of Daniel from a preterist standpoint is able to demonstrate an immediate relevance for the original readers, i.e. those living near the end of the Babylonian Exile. Any interpretation of the content of Daniel has to have made sense to the original readers for whom the book was written.

 

Historicist Approach. A Historicist approach to interpretation sees the book prophesying events that transpire over the course of centuries. The book of Daniel, they would say, is a foretelling of history from the time of the Babylonian Exile until the end of the age. If Daniel were to be seen in this way, it would mean that the book has less to do with the audience to whom it was first written and more relevance to future end time events. There is the tendency to see the culmination of history in one’s own time using this approach.

 

Idealist/Spiritual Approach. This method of interpretation does not look for individual or specific fulfillment of the prophecies of the book; rather, the content is perceived to contain spiritual lessons and principles that may find recurrent expression in history, e.g. what is being conveyed in Daniel is the reality of spiritual warfare that is always being waged at any point in history. The appeal to this approach is that the message of the book could be applicable to God’s people of any period of history; further it circumvents the problem of having to identify specific fulfillment to individual visions.

 

Futurist Approach.  The Futurist approach to interpretation sees the book prophesying many events that are in large part future to all but those living just before and during the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. The book of Daniel, they would say, is for the most part a foretelling of events that transpire near the end of the current age shortly before the Second Coming of Christ. Many futurists are dispensationalists, but not all of them. NOTE: Dispensationalist theology basically states that God has two distinct people (Jews and the Church) with two distinct plans (Jews will suffer tribulation; the church will be removed from the world seven years prior to the second coming of Christ). There is the danger of subjective interpretation. One can never refute even the most bizarre futurist assertions of what the book predicts will happen. Futurists have been able to give interpretations of the book in the light of their own current events, e.g. the revival of the Roman Empire in the modern European Common Market, the Antichrist (variously identified as Napoleon, Hitler, Mussolini, John Kennedy, Henry Kissinger, and Ronald Reagan), a rebuilding of the temple in Jerusalem, a secret rapture of the church, etc.  There is a refusal to see that any/most of the details of the book may have already been fulfilled in the lives of the original recipients of the book. It is presumed unquestionably that many parts of the book are unfulfilled to date.

 

Determining an Approach. A legitimate method of interpretation must be one that arrives at conclusions that the original recipients of the letter would have found understandable and applicable and there should be an avoidance of subjective assigning of meaning to the symbols when one interprets the content of the book.

 

Conclusion.  Whether you understand the fourth beast of Daniel 7 to include the European Common Market and the coming of the antichrist (Futurist view); whether you understand the fourth beast to represent the Greek Empire and the tyranny over the Jews by Antiochus Epiphanies IV (Preterist view); whether you consider the fourth beast to be Rome (Historicist view); or whether you conclude the fourth beast is not Rome or Greece, but a symbol of all human governments that will give way to the kingdom of God (Idealist view) depends on the interpretative approach you take.