Daniel 2 - Criticism of Vision

Criticism of Vision

The criticism of the book of Daniel is that it is a pseudepigraph dated to the mid-2nd century BC, concerned primarily with the Maccabean era and the reign of the Seleucid king Antiochus Epiphanes. The vision of the four kingdoms: Babylon, Media, Persia, and Greece, are associated with the theory that the book of Daniel terminates in the Hellenist era, and the "kingdom" represented by the stone may refer to the Hasmonean dynasty. This dynasty was set up by the Maccabees after their defeat of the Seleucid forces.

However, many Christian scholars do not accept this interpretation, largely because Jesus is said in Matthew 24 to have quoted Daniel as a prophet who foretold future events. Some scholars believe that Jesus placed the fulfillment of Daniel's prophecy at the fall of Jerusalem in AD 70,; others think he was describing the "end of the age" (Matt. 24:3), immediately preceding Judgement Day. Therefore, their identification of the metals in the statue with empires tends to differ somewhat from the above-mentioned view of the scholars. Instead, the vision is considered to be about the development of Babylon and its successors, from the time of Nebuchadnezzar all the way to the future day when God's eternal Kingdom will be established.

The identification of the gold head is not disputed, as the text clearly indicates that it represents Nebuchadnezzar himself, and by extension, the Babylonian Empire. However, in this view, the second kingdom, represented by the chest and arms of silver, is identified with the combined Medo-Persian empire (which commenced when the Persian king Cyrus the Great defeated Babylon.) The third kingdom, represented by the belly of bronze, is thought to be the Hellenic empire of Alexander and his successors. The fourth kingdom of iron legs becomes the Roman Empire, and the feet and toes of part iron and part clay are sometimes said to be nations that arise from the ashes of the Roman Empire, that will still be ruling when the "end" comes (the rock representing God's kingdom that will strike the idol).

In Christian interpretations, the Kingdom of God (represented by the stone that destroys the statue) may be considered in a spiritual sense, as the kingdom set up by Jesus through his death and resurrection during the time of the Roman empire; or alternatively as the literal and physical kingdom that Jesus will set up at his second coming, in which case the feet and toes of part iron and part clay must represent the nations which take the place of the Roman empire until the end of time.

Aside from certain scholarly views that maintain the book was written in the time of Antiochus IV, the chapter itself claims to take place in the "second year of Nebuchadnezzar". This could refer to 604 BC, the second year he reigned in Babylon, or it might also possibly mean 587 BC, the second year of his reign over Judah after deposing his last puppet, king Zedekiah.