Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 05.djvu/892

* DANIEL. 774 DANIEL. take of the food provided for them for fear of jiolliitiiif: themselves. God rewards tliem for lliis. aiui when brought before the King they are found ten times superior to the Babjionian ma- gicians, Daniel excelling every one in the matter of visions and dreams. In the second section proofs are given of Daniel's supernatural wis- dom ; he saves the lives of the magicians as well as his own by his ability not only to inter- pret a dream Nebuchadnezzar had had. but also to tell him what the dream was. The King bad seen a great image with its head of gold, and other parts of the body of silver, brass, and iron. The gold is interpreted to refer to the Babylo- nian Empire, the other three metals to the king- doms that are to folloM' the Babylonian. The image is destroyed by a stone quarried without human intervention out of a mountain, and this destruction symbolizes the disappearance of all the kingdoms. The third section (chap, iii.) tells of the. fiery furnace into which the three friends of Daniel are thrown because of their refusal to worship the golden image which Nebuchadnezzar had set up. and how they came out of the fur- nace unscathed. In the fourth section (chap, iv. ) Nebuchadnezzar issues a proclamation to all peoples of the world, declaring, in conse- quence of Daniel'.s success in interpreting an- other of his dreams, his intention of glorifying the King of Heaven, i.e. Jehovah. The dream itself ccmsists of a vision of the uprooting of a great tree with its numei'ous branches, under which all birds have shelter and which feeds all mankind. The vision, as interpreted by Daniel, forebodes the downfall of the kingdom, and the King himself is humbled by being bereft for a time of his reason and conducting himself like an animal. The fifth section (diap. v.) re- counts a gi-eat feast arranged by Belshazzar (q.v. ), during which the mysterious writing ap- pears on the wall as a punishment for the King's desecration of the sacred vessels of .Jei'usalem, which Nebuchadnezzar had brought to Babylon (chap. i. 2). Daniel succeeds in reading and interpreting the handwriting, which predicts the overthrow of Belshazzar, who indeed is slain that very night. The crown passes to Darius the Mede. The sixth section (chap, vi.) introduces King Darius, who. at the instance of his nobles, issued a decree forbidding any one for the space of a month to jiray to or ask a petition from any one except Darius. Daniel, as a pious •lew, acoistomed to pray thrice daily, disobeys and is thrown into a den of lions. By di- vine protection Daniel escapes the fate of being torn to pieces. He is taken out of the den and his accusers are thrown into it, and at once are torn to pieces by the lions. The last four sec- tions contain visions of Daniel: (I) Of the four beasts, the last having ten horns, from each of which in turn supremacy is taken away (chap, vii.) ; (2) of the ram pushing in all directions with its two horns, which are eventually broken through a he-goat with a notable horn between its eyes. In time the kingdom of the he-goat is broken, and in its place four other horns arise, and out of one of these comes forth a little horn which exalts itself even against the host of heaven and against God Himself, destroying His sanctuary and interrupting the daily service for 2300 evenings and mornings (chap, viii.) ; (3) Gabriel appears to Daniel and explains that the seventy years of desolation prophesied by .Jere miah (xxv. 11; xxix. 10) will be only seventy weeks, after hich time the guilt of the people will be atoned for (chap. ix.). In the last vision, in the third year of Cyrus, an angel re- veals to Daniel glimpses of tiie future. Under veiled names the doings and fate of various kings are described; after the last disappears the Mes- sianic age arrives, heralded by the Archangel Jlichael. There is no longer any question among schol- ars that all the narratives and visions refer to conditions as they existed in Jerusalem in the days of. tiochus IV. A difi'erence of opinion ' merely exists on the question whether the book is an organic unity or the work of several au- thors pieced together. The trend of opinion is now in the direction of regarding the book as a unit, in view of the uniformity of style and the references in one part to matters referred to in another. In chapters i.-ii. 4 the author writes in Hebrew; beginning in ii. 4, since he introduces 'Chaldeans,' he continues in Aramaic, the current speech of Babylonia (though not the official lan- guage) ; but in chapter viii., and thence to the end, he returns to Hebrew. The supposition that the Hebrew portions replace the lost origi- nal Aramaic is without sufficient foundation. On the basis of the theory currently adopted, the interpretation of the figures and metaphors in the book is not diflicult. Nebuchadnezzar. Bel- shazzar, and Darius are disguises for Antiochus IV. The four metals of which the image is com- posed represent the Babjionian, Median, Persian, and Macedonian empires, and the four beasts are to be similarly interpreted. The little horn again Antiochus, while the ten horns represent the successors of Alexander the Great. The ram with two horns represents Medo-Persia and the he-goat the Greeks. The kingdoms in the last vision are the four Persian kings, Alexander, and his successors, the detached references being to leagues and conflict with Egj'pt during their rijgimes and to other occurrences. The tyranny of Antiochus IV., whose aim it was to replace Jewish rites by Greek forms of worship, led to the Maccabiean uprising which marks the tem- porary triumph of Jewish patriotism. The struggle in Palestine represents from the broader historical point of view the natural conflict be- tween Greek and Jewish ideas brought about through the meeting of Jew and Greek after the conqviests of Alexander. BiDLiOGRAPiiY. See the commentaries of Kamphausen, Bcvan, Prince, Hitzig, Ewald (Prophets of the Old Testament), Bruston, Keil, and ileinhold. Of these the latest is that of Prince (New York. 1899), and one of the best that of IMeinhold (Leipzig, 18S9). DANIEL, da'nyel', Antony (1601-48). A French Jesuit missionary in America, born at Dieppe. He came to Quebec with Samviel de Champlain in 1033, began his labors among the savages of Cape^Breton. and in 1034 was trans- ferred to the Huron mission. His station was at Saint .Joseph, or Teanaustaye, one of the largest of the Huron towns. On July 4, 1648, he had just concluded the service of the mass when the town, from which most of the warriors were for the time being absent, was attacked by a hand of the hostile Iroquois. He roused such defense as was possible, administered the sacra- ment of baptism to those imbelievers who, in the face of this danger, were clamorous to receive it.