Do you want to know Daniel’s story? Today in this Your Bible Online article you will find everything the Bible tells us about Daniel the prophet and his contributions to Christianity. Shall we begin?
He may not be the best known in the entire Bible, but Daniel plays a very important role in the Bible. That is why Christians consider him to be one of the four major prophets.
In today’s article, we will take a closer look at the figure of Daniel in the Bible as well as his legacy. We will also analyze his transcendence and how his prophecies affect us in our lives today.
Let yourself be carried away by our explanations of Daniel and understand even more the biblical story that is so fundamental for our faith. After reading this article, we hope that most of your doubts will be solved and if not, you can always complement our explanations with more research!
We don’t want to keep you waiting any longer, let’s go ahead with the story of Daniel in the Bible!
Daniel’s biblical history summarized
To embark on this journey through the biblical character of Daniel, we invite you first to watch a ten-minute video that explains in a clear and simple way the content of the Old Testament book of Daniel.
This will give you an idea of what you are going to learn today and will will serve as a guide so you don’t get lost later on. You can always go straight to the bulk of the chapter, but we assure you that this video is well worth watching. We hope you like it!
Meaning of Daniel in the Bible
Daniel is a very popular name nowadays and you should know that, apart from being a beautiful name, it is one of the oldest known names known and has a very deep meaning given by its Hebrew origin.
The word Daniel can be separated in Hebrew as “Dan-i-el”, which literally means: “God is my judge.”. This meaning is closely linked to the history of the biblical character, since it was God who helped him and saved him from the false justice exercised by the despot monarchs with whom he lived.
The feminine version of the name is Daniela and means the same as the masculine. So, if you want to have a deeply Christian name to give your children or to recommend to anyone you love, Daniel and Daniela are options to consider.
Book of Daniel of the Bible
The Book of Daniel is the best known work of the prophet and the only one attributed to him in the Bible. You can find it in the Old Testamentin the block of prophetic books just behind Ezekiel and before Hosea.
Specifically, Daniel belongs to the group of major prophets of the Bible, along with Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel, as we explained in another article of Your Bible Online. This is because its extension is greater than that of the other prophetic books, called minor prophets.
In the book you will find a biography of the prophet Daniel probably narrated by himself. Since Daniel lived in Babylon, as we will see below, the book was originally written in Hebrew, the language of the Jewish people to which Daniel belonged, and also in Aramaic, the language of the Babylonian empire.
For Christians, this book is a prophecy of the prophecy of the messiah announcing the coming of Jesus many years later. And this interpretation is not at all unfounded, since in it you can find passages like this one:
“Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem until Messiah the Prince, there shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks; the street and the wall shall be built again in troublous times.” (Daniel 9:25)
Daniel’s biography and biblical history
Next, we are going to go deep into Daniel’s story by reviewing the most important episodes of his life and following the narrative of his book, since it is our main source of information,
Daniel’s Context
Daniel lived at a time when the Jewish people had been invaded by the Babylonian army commanded by King Nebuchadnezzar IIleading many people to go into exile in the imposing Babylonian capital.
As the pre-Daniel prophets of the Bible tell us, this Babylonian captivity happened because the Jews were breaking the covenant sealed with God through Moses many centuries ago, where the Jews committed themselves to worship God and keep the commandments..
However, after years of living in the promised land, many began to forget the covenant and to worshipping false gods and to live among the vice and selfishness that are so prevalent in the history of mankind.
God punished his people, allowing the Babylonians to destroy the temple in Jerusalem and capture the city. With this, the Jews were to rebuild their faith in exile in exile and try to renew the covenant they had broken.
It is at this point that the Book of Daniel begins and it is from here that we begin to know the story of the prophet.
Daniel is Beltasar
In the first chapter of the book, Daniel tells us how he was chosen, along with two other companions, to be educated in the court of the king. in the king’s court. There they are all given different names, Daniel being nicknamed with the Babylonian name of Beltasar.
The origin of the term Beltasar is the sentence: “Bel, protect his life”. Bel is translated into English as “Lord”, and Daniel’s whole new full name is a sign of what his life would be like: Daniel would protect the king on numerous occasions thanks to God.
History of Nebuchadnezzar and Daniel
The first part of Daniel’s life is closely linked to King Nebuchadnezzar. This was the king of Babylon during the captivity and the one who destroyed the temple in Jerusalem. Historically, it is considered the greatest monarch of that empire, although for the Jews he embodied the image of God’s punishment.
There are several episodes in the book of Daniel in which the prophet helps the king by showing the greatness of God. In this article we are not going to expand much on these fragments, since we would be too long, so we will dedicate a complete article to the importance of Nebuchadnezzar II.
To give you an idea, this part of Daniel’s life is found in the chapters of Daniel 2-4 and corresponds to the following episodes: Nebuchadnezzar’s dream, Daniel’s story in the fiery furnace and Nebuchadnezzar’s madness.
In all of them, Nebuchadnezzar ends up recognizing the great power of God and even changes his faith. In this process, Daniel becomes a very important member of the court of the court and manages to achieve a better position for the Jewish captives in Babylon.
Daniel at Belshazzar’s banquet
After the death of King Nebuchadnezzar, the Babylonian empire began its decline, many kings who do not manage to maintain their position and who are not even mentioned in the Book of Daniel.
The last king of Babylon was Belshazzar, and he is mentioned by Daniel in some of his chapters. The most relevant episode is called “Belshazzar’s banquet“and tells the story of how this king intends to use the sacred vessels taken from the temple of Jerusalem for his feast, with an unexpected ending.
In doing so, an inscription appeared on the wall in a seemingly magical way, although no one knew how to decipher it. Daniel was called for it and it turned out that that writing on the wall signified the fall of the Babylonian empire.
And so it came to pass, Belshazzar died that night and Babylon fell into Persian hands, and it was Darius the Mede who was to rule the city in the following years.
This episode is narrated in Daniel 5, but there are some visions of Daniel that occurred during the reign of Belshazzar in chapters Daniel 7 and Daniel 8. These are known as “the vision of the four beasts” and the “vision of the ram and the goat”.
In them, God shows Daniel how, although many kingdoms will replace Babylon’s kingdom, in the end the kingdom of God will be established on Earth, and so it will be forever.
History of Daniel and the lions
One of the last episodes of Daniel’s life takes place during the Persian reign of Darius the Mede after the fall of Babylon.
Here, a group of people who wish Daniel dead manipulates the king into signing an edict forbidding him to ask God for things. Daniel fails to comply and is kicked out to a moat with lions from which he emerges intact.
This settles the Daniel’s faithfulness to God and shows the whole world what Our Lord is capable of, leading subsequently to the deliverance of the Jews and their return to Israel.
Death of Daniel
Daniel has his last days on earth during the reign of Cyrus the Great, who allowed the Jews to return to their homes and rebuild the temple and the city of Jerusalem. This would be a new opportunity to renew their faith and the events that took place during this period are recounted in Ezra and Nehemiah.
However, there is little information about Daniel’s death although it seems to have occurred in Babylon at a very advanced age. His later accounts predict the coming of Jesus and are apocalyptic in nature with many possible interpretations.
Daniel’s story for children
The Bible is a precious book that everyone can read and it is important that the youngest children know about it. Even so, some episodes are of a lot of crudeness and it is difficult to explain them verbatim to children so that they understand them.
This is the case of Daniel and all his history, because in many cases his visions and experiences can cause fear, which we do not want at all. So, now we are going to show you some videos that you can show to the little ones at home so that they can understand Daniel’s story. without any fear.
In the following video, Daniel 1 is explained very clearly and can serve as an introduction for children to the Book of Daniel. It is also short and will not get boring at all.
The best known episode in Daniel’s life is that of the lion’s den. lion’s den so there are many children’s versions that are clear and understandable.
With this episode, children can learn what it means to be faithful to God and how Daniel manages to do it even though there is a lot of adversity ahead. Show this video to anyone who needs it, I’m sure they’ll like it!
And so far, we come to the end of this Your Bible Online article about the great prophet Daniel of the Bible. Biblical history is very important as you have seen and studying it makes us much stronger in faith.
We hope that we have achieved this and that you know a little more about Daniel. For our part this is all and we say goodbye until the next article!