Daniel 0:1

Contents. The book professes to be a history of Daniel, a Jewish exile who was carried away to Babylon before the fall of his native kingdom, lived at the court of Nebuchadnezzar, and survived till the days of Cyrus, the Persian conqueror of Babylon. It falls naturally into two parts: (a) Daniel 1-6, containing narratives about Daniel and his companions, written in the third person, and (b) Daniel 7-12, containing the visions of Daniel regarding the future, and written in the first person. One of the narratives—that of Nebuchadnezzar's Dream-Image in Daniel 2—is akin in subject to the latter section. From 24 to the close of Daniel 7 the book is written in Aramaic (known also as Chaldee, or Syriac, a kindred language to Hebrew), the rest of the book being in Hebrew. The division of language is not clearly connected with any division of subject, and has not yet been satisfactorily explained. The following table shows the contents of the book in outline:

Narratives.

Daniel 1. The training of Daniel and his companions.

Daniel 2. The Dream-Image (predictive).

Daniel 3. The Fiery Furnace.

Daniel 4. The Madness of Nebuchadnezzar.

Daniel 5. Belshazzar's Feast.

Daniel 6. The Den of Lions.

Visions.

Daniel 7. The Four Beasts.

Daniel 8. The Ram and the He-Goat.

Daniel 9. The Seventy Weeks.

Daniel 10-12. The Kings of the N. and S.