Daniel 12:1-3 Commentary

Where and What Is It?

Imagine my surprise as I went to my trusty 3-volume commentary on Hebrew Scripture written by Jewish scholar, Robert Alter and couldn’t find the book of Daniel.  Obviously, I pulled his volume on the prophets but the book of Daniel was not where it belonged!  So I opened his book on “The Writings” including all the expected books of poetry, then Esther, Ezra-Nehemiah and, yes, Daniel.

Alter argues that, in many ways, Daniel stands in a category by itself.  While it has narrative elements, the author seems uninterested in fleshing out the personality of characters, calling Daniel and his three friends “little more than exemplary figures of piety, without nuance of psychology.” Like Joseph in Pharaoh’s court, Daniel interprets Nebuchadnezzar’s dreams but, unlike Joseph, Daniel seems content to decipher upcoming calamity without providing any actions to mitigate or perhaps even forestall these events.  In a similar distinction, while the prophets use language to image forward the blessings or curses of God among the people in what Alter calls “vivid poetic hyperbole,” Daniel seems much more grounded in reality, even dating the text to a specific and verifiable circumstance in Israel’s history. Additionally, the book of Daniel is written in two languages — the first portion in Hebrew and then to Aramaic, owning to its late date of authorship. For all these reasons, Alter concludes in his introduction to the text, “The placement of Daniel in the Jewish canon in Ketuvim, or Miscellaneous Writings, is more in keeping with the anomalous nature of this text.”

Sleepers Awake

In addition to all the above-listed anomalies of the text, here in verse 2 we have another uniqueness.  A doctrine central to the New Testament receives its one and only mention in Hebrew Scripture.  Here the anticipation of the dead being raised to life, as in: “sleepers…awake.”

But before we get into the hope offered at the end, it’s important to set it against the backdrop of all that has come before.  These three verses at the beginning of chapter 12 are part of a larger section beginning in chapter 10 through to the end of the book.  The preceding chapters pick up what has been obvious throughout the book: a distressing tale, all the more so as we have reliable extra-biblical source material that tells us the story of persecution under the reign of Antiochus IV Epiphanes. In the early verses of chapter 11, we hear the tale of Antiochus murdering his own nephew — a child — in order to ascend the throne followed by two military campaigns against with Egypt. However, vs. 36-29 center on Antiochus IV particular animus toward the Jews and his general blasphemy.  On the coins bearing his likeness, he had the imprint underneath read “theos” (meaning God.) Similarly, his honorific — Epiphanes — is the word for a vision of God, as in our own church celebrations of “Epiphany.”

In the closing chapters of Daniel, the author seems to both see the reader’s present distress and link it to an eschatological vision.  Oppression here and now is tied to forces that Ephesians calls “powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” In the last days, spiritual realities will be unveiled and we will see them just as clearly as we can see Antiochus’ blasphemy etched in a coin.

Good News in the Meantime

Even in this distressing time, however, God has appointed an angel, Michael, as a guardian of God’s people, Israel. Guardian angels may be all the rage in popular conceptions; they are a strange idea with some (but not much) Biblical backing.  In Ancient Neareastern culture, it was common to assume that each people group or tribe have their own god. The god looks out for and protects this particular people against all others.  Israel seems to have mitigated this polytheistic belief by moving the protecting function from multiple gods to multiple angels. Regardless, the implication is that — despite the brutality of what they have faced and what they will face — God has not left them alone to handle their circumstance.

Illustration:

It may be that, this week, the reading from Hebrew Scripture works best as an illustration — a bridge — between the other readings.  In the gospel, we have Jesus’ giving signs of the last days.  He says that many will come in his name.  Perhaps like an emperor placing the title “god” under his likeness on a coin.  He says the world will be covered in wars. He is forthright about the persecution his followers will encounter and, extending the lectionary reading, how family members will turn on one another.  All these are aspects of Antiochus’ reign, a reminder that “the powers of this dark world” are not only a past or future reality but the experience of all people who live in a broken world.

Turning to the Psalm appointed to accompany this reading from Hebrew Scripture, Psalm 16 promises us safety and refuge, work apportioned to God’s people through the presence of the Angel Michael in Daniel 12.  Whereas the author of Daniel speaks of the resurrection, the psalmist uses song to make nearly the same point, “you will not abandon me to the realm of the dead, nor will you let your faithful ones see decay. You make known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand.”

But the book of Hebrews reminds us that, even in distressing circumstances, we ought to have hope.  Not just that we need to muster it up somehow but that it is plausible to have hope because and through the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Just as Daniel saw in a vision and reported all those years ago, we can have confidence in the promise of resurrection because of the work of our Great High Priest Jesus Christ.  This is the hope we hold unswervingly “for he who promised is faithful.”