Book of Daniel Summary: Kingdoms, Christ, and the God Who Rules History

Book of Daniel Summary: Kingdoms, Christ, and the God Who Rules History

The Book of Daniel is one of the most captivating and contested books in the Bible. It tells the story of a Jewish exile who rises to prominence in Babylon through wisdom, faith, and visions from God. For centuries, Christians have seen Daniel as a book that not only reveals God’s sovereignty over empires but also points powerfully to Christ.

But Daniel is also a book surrounded by controversy. Which texts belong in it? Do the “additions” (Susanna, Bel and the Dragon, the Prayer of Azariah, the Song of the Three Young Men) represent later inventions, or were they early texts removed in later redactions? For the Bible of the Early Church — the Greek Septuagint (LXX) — these texts were included. Only later, with the shift toward the Hebrew Masoretic Text and later Protestant reductions, were they set aside as “Apocrypha.”

Understanding Daniel in its original, early church context helps us avoid modern distortions, particularly the false teachings of dispensationalism, which hinge on selective readings and the removal of Maccabees.

Introduction: Author, Date, and Context

Author: Daniel, a young exile taken from Judah in 605 BC, traditionally considered the author. His visions and stories span from the Babylonian empire (Nebuchadnezzar) to the Medo-Persian (Darius, Cyrus).

Date: Traditional Jewish and Christian belief places Daniel in the 6th century BC. Critical scholars often date portions later (2nd century BC) due to the accuracy of prophecies about Antiochus IV. But the early church accepted Daniel as genuine prophecy, seeing in its visions the fingerprints of divine foreknowledge.

Etymology (Hebrew): Dāniyyēl (דָּנִיֵּאל, modern pronunciation: Dah-nee-YÉL) means “God is my judge.”

Etymology (Greek – LXX): Δανιήλ (Daniēl, Dah-nee-ÉEL), the same transliterated name.

Setting: Daniel is taken as a youth into Babylonian exile. He and his friends (Hananiah, Mishael, Azariah) resist assimilation, remain faithful to God, and become conduits of God’s wisdom and revelation to pagan kings.

The Bible of the Early Church: Daniel with the “Additions”

The Septuagint (LXX), used by the apostles and the early church, included expanded material in Daniel:

• Prayer of Azariah & Song of the Three Young Men (inserted in Daniel 3 between verses 23–24) — a prayer of confession and a hymn of deliverance sung in the fiery furnace.

• Susanna (often placed as chapter 13) — a story of Daniel’s wisdom and justice in saving an innocent woman.

• Bel and the Dragon (chapter 14) — two narratives showing the folly of idol worship and God’s deliverance of Daniel from the lion’s den a second time.

Later Jewish tradition and Protestant Bibles removed or marginalized these, calling them “additions.” But historically, they were part of the Bible of the Early Church. Whether they are “later additions” or evidence of earlier texts redacted out is a matter of debate, but their early and widespread use in Christian liturgy shows how the first Christians understood Daniel.

Summary of Movements

1. Faith in Exile (Chs. 1–6)

   • Daniel and his friends refuse Babylon’s food, remain faithful, and rise in wisdom.

   • Nebuchadnezzar’s dream of a statue: kingdoms of gold, silver, bronze, iron, and clay — destroyed by a stone cut without hands, symbolizing Christ’s eternal kingdom (Dan. 2:44).

   • The fiery furnace (with the Song of the Three Young Men in the LXX).

   • Nebuchadnezzar’s pride, madness, and restoration.

   • Belshazzar’s feast: “Mene, Mene, Tekel, Parsin.”

   • Daniel in the lions’ den.

2. Visions of Kingdoms (Chs. 7–12)

   • Four beasts rising from the sea.

   • The Ancient of Days enthroned, the “Son of Man” given dominion (Dan. 7:13–14).

   • Visions of ram and goat (Persia, Greece).

   • Antiochus IV (the “little horn”) as a blasphemous persecutor.

   • The “seventy weeks” prophecy.

   • The final vision of kings in conflict.

3. Apocryphal/Deuterocanonical Additions (Chs. 13–14 LXX)

   • Susanna: Daniel as a righteous judge.

   • Bel and the Dragon: exposing false gods, miraculous deliverance.

Christ Connections

Daniel is one of the most Christ-centered prophetic books in the Old Testament:

• The Stone Not Cut by Hands (Dan. 2:34–35, 44) — Christ’s kingdom destroys earthly empires and fills the earth.

• The Son of Man (Dan. 7:13–14) — Jesus takes this title for Himself (Matt. 26:64; Mark 14:62), directly identifying as the divine figure Daniel saw.

• The Fiery Furnace (Dan. 3:25) — A fourth figure, “like a son of the gods,” walking with the faithful in fire — a Christophany pointing to Christ’s presence in suffering.

• The Ancient of Days — imagery of Christ sharing God’s throne (Rev. 1:13–14).

• The Seventy Weeks — fulfilled in Christ’s first coming (see below).

• The New Temple — Ezekiel and Daniel converge: Christ Himself, and His church, are the true temple (John 2:19–21; Eph. 2:21–22).

Refuting Common False Teachings

1. Antichrist

The term “Antichrist” appears only in 1 John and 2 John (1 John 2:18, 22; 4:3; 2 John 7). Daniel never uses the term. The “little horn” (Dan. 7–8) historically refers to Antiochus IV Epiphanes, who desecrated the temple. Later Jewish history (Maccabees) confirms this.

2. The Temple / Third Temple Myth

Dispensationalists insist Daniel predicts a third temple. But Daniel’s visions concern the second temple, desecrated by Antiochus IV (167 BC) and later destroyed by Rome (70 AD). Jesus interprets Daniel’s “abomination of desolation” in connection with the second temple’s fall (Matt. 24:15). No “third temple” exists in biblical prophecy.

3. The Seventy Weeks (Dan. 9:24–27)

Often twisted into a modern timeline for end-times speculation, with a mysterious “gap” inserted between the 69th and 70th weeks. This “gap theory” was invented by dispensationalists to fit their system. In context, the 70 weeks culminate in the coming of the Messiah, His atoning death, and the judgment on the temple system — fulfilled in Christ.

• “Seventy weeks have been determined… to put an end to sin, and to make atonement for guilt, and to bring in everlasting righteousness…” (Dan. 9:24, LEB).

  
  
  
  

This is clearly Christ’s work, not a future rebuilt temple.

4. The Abomination of Desolation

• Daniel’s references (9:27; 11:31; 12:11) are fulfilled in Antiochus IV (Maccabees records the event) and in Rome’s destruction of the second temple in 70 AD (Jesus’ interpretation in Matt. 24:15).

• It does not predict a third temple or a future Antichrist.

How Maccabees Clears the Confusion

The books of 1 & 2 Maccabees record Antiochus IV’s desecration of the temple — the very event Daniel’s visions foreshadowed. Without Maccabees, readers can easily misinterpret Daniel’s “abomination of desolation” as a future event.

When Maccabees was removed from Protestant Bibles after the Reformation, it opened the door for dispensationalist speculation. Suddenly, people no longer saw Daniel fulfilled in history but projected it forward into an imagined third temple and Antichrist figure.

Thus, the rejection of Maccabees is directly tied to the rise of false prophetic systems.

Deeper Insights & Easter Eggs

• Prayer of Azariah and Song of the Three Young Men — show Israel confessing sin in exile and God delivering His people — themes fulfilled in Christ’s atonement.

• Bel and the Dragon — mocks idol worship; Daniel as a type of Christ who exposes false gods.

• Son of Man and Ancient of Days imagery — later reused almost verbatim in Revelation’s vision of Christ.

• Daniel as “Son of Man” — his title becomes Jesus’ own, signaling His fulfillment of Daniel’s vision.

Application

• Faith in Exile: Like Daniel, Christians are called to resist compromise and remain faithful in hostile cultures.

• Christ Is the Kingdom: We do not await a geopolitical kingdom, but the present reign of Christ breaking into history.

• Reject False Prophecy Systems: Dispensationalism distracts believers with speculation instead of focusing on Christ’s finished work.

• Hope in Persecution: Daniel reminds us God’s kingdom endures when all others fall.

Encouragement

The Book of Daniel, rightly read, is not about fear of an Antichrist or obsession with a third temple. It is about the reign of Christ, the Son of Man who rules with the Ancient of Days. It shows that kingdoms rise and fall, but Christ’s kingdom is everlasting. It assures us that even in exile, fire, or lions’ dens, Christ is present with His people.

Conclusion

Daniel is not a codebook for speculative prophecy. It is a Christ-centered revelation of God’s sovereignty over history. The early church read Daniel with the fuller Greek text (with Susanna, Bel, and the Song), and with Maccabees providing historical fulfillment. Only later did redactions open the door for distorted teachings about Antichrist and a third temple.

When read in the light of Christ, Daniel gives us not confusion but clarity: the kingdom of God has come in Christ, the Son of Man, and will never be destroyed.