The Books of Ezekiel and Daniel (eBook)
320 Seiten
Broadstreet Publishing Group, LLC (Verlag)
978-1-4245-6634-1 (ISBN)
DR. BRIAN SIMMONS is a passionate lover of God. After a dramatic conversion to Christ, Brian knew that God was calling him to go to the unreached people of the world and present the gospel of God's grace to all who would listen. With his wife, Candice, and their three children, he spent eight years in the tropical rain forest of the Darien Province of Panama as a church planter, translator, and consultant. Having been trained in linguistics and Bible translation principles, Brian assisted in the Paya-Kuna New Testament translation project. After his ministry overseas, Brian was instrumental in planting a thriving church in New England (U.S.) and currently travels full time as a speaker and Bible teacher. He is the lead translator of The Passion Translation®.
BRIAN SIMMONS is the lead translator of The Passion Translation®. The Passion Translation (TPT) is a heart-level translation that uses Hebrew, Greek, and Aramaic manuscripts to express God's fiery heart of love to this generation, merging the emotion and life-changing truth of God's Word. The hope for TPT is to trigger inside every reader an overwhelming response to the truth of the Bible and to reveal the deep mysteries of the Scriptures in the love language of God, the language of the heart. Brian is currently translating the Old Testament. After a dramatic conversion to Christ in 1971, Brian and his wife, Candice, answered the call of God to leave everything behind and become missionaries to unreached peoples. Taking their three children to the tropical rain forest of Central America, they planted churches for many years with the Paya-Kuna people group. Brian established leadership for the churches that Jesus birthed, and, having been trained in linguistics and Bible translation principles, assisted with the translation of the Paya-Kuna New Testament. After their ministry overseas, Brian and Candice returned to North America, where Brian began to passionately work toward helping people encounter the risen Christ. He and his wife planted numerous ministries, including a dynamic church in New England (U.S.). They also established Passion & Fire Ministries, under which they travel full-time as Bible teachers in service of local churches throughout the world. Brian is the author of numerous books, Bible studies, and devotionals that help readers encounter God's heart and experience a deeper revelation of God as our Bridegroom King, including Throne Room Prayer, The Sacred Journey, Prayers on Fire, The Divine Romance, and The Vision. Brian and Candice have been married since 1971 and have three children as well as precious grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Their passion is to live as loving examples of a spiritual father and mother to this generation.
DANIEL
(return to table of contents)
Introduction • One • Two • Three • Four • Five • Six • Seven • Eight • Nine • Ten • Eleven • Twelve
DANIEL
Introduction
AT A GLANCE
Author: Unknown, but probably Daniel in part
Audience: Universal—Daniel speaks to all those who face confl icting and complex moral decisions
Date: Israel in exile—605 BC and following
Type of Literature: Heroic literature and apocalyptic literature
Major Themes: Faithfulness in a hostile culture, YAHWEH’s sovereignty over all kings and empires, YAHWEH’s preservation of his people, an apocalyptic key to current and future geopolitical events
Outlines: The book of Daniel can be divided in several ways:
•Genre Divisions:
•Heroic Morality Stories —1:1–6:28
•Apocalyptic Visions —7:1–12:13
•Linguistic Divisions:
•Hebrew —1:1–2:4a
•Aramaic —2:4b–7:28
•Hebrew —8:1–12:13
•Chiastic Structure:a
A: 2:4b–49 A dream of four kingdoms replaced by a fifth
B: 3:1–30 Daniel’s three friends in the fiery furnace
C: 4:1–37 Daniel interprets a dream for Nebuchadnezzar
C1: 5:1–31 Daniel interprets the handwriting on the wall for Belshazzar
B1: 6:1–28 Daniel in the lions’ den
A1: 7:1–28 A vision of four world kingdoms replaced by a fifth
ABOUT DANIEL
The book of Daniel brings major ethical and spiritual themes into sharp focus. It is literally timeless. One can picture such colorful morality tales being told around campfires for countless centuries before Daniel ever lived. Powerful narrative stories (e.g., Jesus’ parables) do more to shape our souls than any list of sterile rules; they stir the heart and transform behavior. Every so often, someone in history emerges who embodies these timeless values in a way that can only be described as inspired. These heroes absorb these perennial narrative themes and amplify them, and the tales of their exploits reverberate for millennia, empowering the moral compass of all who hear the stories.
Enter Daniel. Precocious and wise beyond his years, this young Israelite man was taken away to Babylon, the oppressor’s seat of power. Jerusalem was headed for destruction, and conquering empires seemed to have more authority than the “defeated” God of Israel.
Daniel’s life and renown prevailed across several “continental divides.” The first generation of exiles spoke Hebrew, but their children preferred the language of the conquerors, Aramaic, which, in the middle of Daniel’s life, overwhelmed the ancient language of King David and the Psalms. Hebrew was never to be widely heard again in normal public conversation until the modern Zionist movement of contemporary Israel revived it. The book of Daniel is the only truly bilingual book of the Old Testament, with several chapters written in Hebrew and the rest written in Aramaic. Interestingly, Jesus spoke Aramaic at home, the language of the Babylonian conquerors. Hebrew, by his time, was reserved for study and the synagogue.
Daniel also survived and thrived during the clash of massive imperial cultures, floating to the top of society among the Babylonian conquerors (the destroyers of Jerusalem in 587 BC) and then to that of their conquerors, the Persians. If Daniel were alive today, he would rise to his rightful place in any society as the adviser to leaders of empires.
The second half of the book is written in the apocalyptic genre. “Apocalyptic” has taken on a disastrous and negative tone in modern English, a tone that would have been foreign to the original readers. This Greek word means, literally, “un-hidden” or “revealed.” Events have no meaning in themselves; it is the narrative (story) that gives significance to facts and understanding to the reader. Apocalyptic literature does exactly that. It uses vivid imagery to help explain what is happening all around the reader. Much like prophecy, which is God speaking truth into a present situation that also has future implications, apocalyptic literature can help us discern what is going on all around us, even thousands of years later.
PURPOSE
The compilers of this book (it is hotly debated among scholars who they were and when they edited) wanted to preserve, in permanent form, the exploits and insights of Daniel for the benefit of all who find themselves in challenging surroundings.
For Daniel, it was never “choose God over the enemy” or “collaborate with the enemy and forget God.” Rather, it was all about finding clever and creative ways, led by YAHWEH’s direct guidance backing up Daniel’s positive and unshakable faith, to honor the complex and seemingly contradictory demands of his position without bowing to the culture’s moral pressures.
We all face such pressures as adults. The morals that we were taught in church, the values of much of our society, the pressures of government and media, and our own inner compass often conflict. Can we bend the rules? Will God provide a way out when we are in a jam (1 Cor. 10:13)? Can we stay loyal to a boss, to a company and its goals, while maintaining the integrity of Spirit-led believers? Heroically, Daniel always found a way, without compromising, to balance competing value systems and even worldviews, languages, and cultures. Daniel was always a “both/and” thinker in a world of “either/or” choices. And he did it all without ever being unfaithful to the God of Israel.
AUTHOR AND AUDIENCE
The authorship of this book has baffled scholars since its first reading. Questionable third-language (Greek) segments have been rejected or embraced by different Christian traditions. Jewish and Protestant believers have canonized only the Hebrew and Aramaic portions of Daniel. Roman Catholic and many Eastern Orthodox believers include the Greek portions.
In the first part of the book (chs. 1–6), Daniel appears, at first glance, to be the protagonist and not the author of the book; it reads more like a biography than an autobiography. The second half of Daniel (chs. 7–12) expresses deeply personal revelatory visions, words, and interpretations given directly to Daniel. Thus Daniel played, at the very least, a generative role in the production of the second half of the book.
How the book came to be in its present form is a great mystery. This is compounded by the language problem. The first part of Daniel is written in Hebrew, the middle is in Aramaic, and the last chapters are again in Hebrew. And these linguistic divisions do not correspond—at all—to the chapter divide between chapters 1–6 heroic tales and chapters 7–12 apocalyptic visions. The truth is that most theories about the formation of Daniel are just educated guesses. The important lesson is that we can apply the unparalleled moral and spiritual wisdom of this fantastically unique man to the challenges every human being faces. The book of Daniel is eminently useful.
In any case, the final chiastic form of the book (see “Outlines” above) is truly a literary masterpiece that makes the previous genre and linguistic divisions pale in comparison. Was this sophisticated structure produced by Daniel himself or a brilliant later editor? The evidence is inconclusive, but the result is magnificent and universally helpful even, or perhaps especially, today.
It is best to read Daniel with a warning label: You won’t be able to forget the stories—their spiritual and ethical tensions live on in every human life.
The original audience was the tiny remnant of King David’s once mighty Israel. They had survived captivity in Babylon and Persia and, through the efforts of Ezra, Nehemiah, and others, were bravely attempting to reconstitute and rebuild their nation. They were not masters of their own destiny and continued to have to negotiate with the foreigners who were in charge. The first readers of Daniel were trying to find creative ways to remain faithful to God without needlessly provoking those in authority around them. They also yearned to understand their place in the continuous tug-of-war between the grand empires that marched through on a regular basis.
MAJOR THEMES
Faithfulness in a Hostile Culture. Can I work for a boss who is hostile to my Christian faith? How do I behave as a believing student in a secular university? What do I do when invited to events that are at odds with my world-view? How do I interact with people living non-biblical lifestyles?
These kinds of questions are getting more and more attention as much of the developed world is losing touch with its Christian roots. Daniel himself is an outstanding role model for us as we try to find a creative path between the ditches of (1) disengaging from secular society altogether or (2) blending in with the world. Jesus calls us to be salt and light for a world lacking both. There are seasons in history, like ours and...
| Erscheint lt. Verlag | 2.5.2023 |
|---|---|
| Reihe/Serie | The Passion Translation |
| Verlagsort | Savage |
| Sprache | englisch |
| Themenwelt | Religion / Theologie ► Christentum ► Bibelausgaben / Bibelkommentare |
| Schlagworte | Angels • Covenant • Dream Interpretation • easy to read • exile • ezekiels temple • fiery furnace • Gods judgment • gods love • gods throne • lions’ den • Modern • new bible translation • New Earth • New Heart • new heavens • New Jerusalem • Old Testament • Passion • Prophecy • Yahweh |
| ISBN-10 | 1-4245-6634-7 / 1424566347 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-1-4245-6634-1 / 9781424566341 |
| Haben Sie eine Frage zum Produkt? |
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