Daniel
Daniel West AsiaThe Hebrew myths gathered round the sojourn of Daniel in Babylon were apocalyptic, a ‘revelation’ of what was going to happen in later times. The reversals of fortune experienced by Israel cast a shadow of doubt over Yahweh's plan for the chosen people, despite the warnings of the prophets Jeremiah and Ezekiel. Captivity in Babylon was a shock: Nebuchadnezzar had seized Jerusalem in 597 BC, when leading members of the community were taken away as prisoners, but the final sack of the city and mass deportation did not occur till 587 BC. Yahweh told the prophet Ezekiel that once the lesson of unrighteousness was learned, then as a shepherd he would gather together his exiled sheep and ‘bring them to their own land, and feed them upon the mountains of Israel by the rivers, and in all the inhabited places of the country’. Prediction started to be worked out in history through Cyrus, King of the Persians, who captured the cities of Sippar and...
[The entire page is 584 words long]
Join eNotes
Over 3,500 study guides, question and answer forums, literature criticism, reference content, and much more!
Oxford University Press Titles
