In this article[1] we will look at the context of Daniel 11 rather than the prophetic sequence of events detailed in the body of the chapter. These events principally relate to the times of the Seleucids and Ptolemies, and they are well documented; we will focus just on its context.
Daniel 11 is a unique chapter in the Bible. Most commentaries will suggest that it is an “ex eventu” prophecy (a ‘prophecy’ written after the events). For example, it has been suggested that it is a Jewish commentary or ‘Targum’ on the events it describes—a Jewish Targum that somehow got bound up with the original scroll of the whole book after the events had taken place. My aim in this article is to suggest a hypothesis that accounts for its uniqueness.
The chapter principally documents events between Egypt and Syria that take place from the time of Cambyses (529-522) to Antiochus Epiphanes IV (164). It describes them in great detail, and the amount of detail supplied is greater than we get in other prophecies, and it is detail about a period of Biblical history which doesn’t immediately appear very important to the Bible student. It is the combination of this detail and apparent unimportance that engenders the critical view that the ‘prophecy’ is in fact an historical record.
I want to suggest that Daniel 11 isn’t a prophecy, but neither do I think it to be a Jewish commentary that has got bound up with a Daniel scroll sometime in the past. Instead, I want to suggest that the chapter represents a plan or a schedule set down by an angel for the guidance of other angels in their organization of the affairs of the Syro-Judean land-bridge during the centuries before Christ. In short it is a piece of angelic writing.
Much prophecy was given to the O.T. prophets by dream and by vision. However, Daniel is almost unique (cf. John the apostle) in that he receives some of his knowledge of the future directly in conversation with the angels. This is a common feature of Jewish Apocalypses. The close relationship that he had with the angels has led to a piece of angelic writing being bound with the book.
The work of the angels is illustrated in 1 Kgs 22:19-23, where we have the heavenly court depicted. We learn there that the work of the angels is a co-operative political work directed by the Lord. In Daniel 10, the work of the angels in Near East politics is further described. In this chapter, Daniel understood that the appointed time for the end of things was a long time in the future, and he was greatly distressed as a result. He was mourning for a full three weeks before he received any comfort. Comfort eventually came in the form of a vision of an angel as a linen-clothed ‘man’. What can we find out about this linen clothed man?
He first appears in Daniel 8. The seer sees something like a man between the banks of the Ulai (vv. 15-16), and this ‘man’ calls out to the angel Gabriel to make Daniel understand the Vision of the Ram and the He-goat. As Gabriel approaches Daniel and talks to him, Daniel falls asleep (v. 18). Later on, Daniel again sees the ‘man’ clothed in linen and as he hears his voice (Dan 10:5-9), he again falls asleep. The linen-clothed ‘man’ had sent Gabriel to reveal things to Daniel about the ram and the he-goat in Daniel 8, and Gabriel had touched Daniel out of sleep on that occasion. Here in Daniel 10, Gabriel is sent again (v. 11) and he again touches Daniel out of his sleep and talks to him.[2]
The man in linen appears lastly in Dan 12:6, where he is again described as in the middle of a river (cf. Dan 8:15-16). This man has knowledge of times and seasons, because he is asked ‘How long’? The identity of this angel has been suggested to be Palomoni, ‘the numberer of secrets’[3] mentioned in Daniel 8 (v. 13, KJV mg.), because both he and the ‘saint’ of Daniel 8 is asked ‘How long’? Is the linen-clothed man the same angel as the one called ‘the wonderful numberer’?
Returning our attention to Gabriel, in Daniel 10, he says that he has come to help Daniel understand “what shall befall thy people in the latter days: for yet the vision [is] for [many] days” (v. 14). Before Gabriel had been able to come, the text records that he had been opposed by the ‘prince’ of Persia, before being helped by Michael the Prince. Having broken free from this opposition, which lasted for 21 days, Gabriel came to Daniel to help him. Gabriel then showed Daniel what is recorded in Daniel 11.
The prince of Persia had evidently disagreed with Gabriel over some matter, and this had required the archangel Michael to intervene, he being the angel responsible for Israelite affairs (Dan 12:1). After revealing an answer to Daniel’s prayer Gabriel was ‘going back’ to ‘fight’ the prince of Persia, and it would seem that he anticipated that the prince of Greece would come and join the prince of Persia in opposing him.[4]
In this scene we see that individual angels administer the affairs of the nations. Each nation has a particular angel appointed to its control and, no doubt, angels under them. Gabriel’s provenance of duty appears to be a more personal one than directing the affairs of a nation. Since he appears again to Mary, we might surmise that he was responsible for the revelation of God’s purpose to the mortal saints on earth. He seems to be under the direction of Palomoni. As such, he would be supported by Michael in determining what would happen to Israel, and he would also be involved with other angels in determining the affairs of their respective nations. In this way he could determine what needed to be revealed to the saints on earth.
Before he returns to meet the prince of Persia, Gabriel says to Daniel, “I will shew thee that which is noted in the scripture of truth” (Dan 10:19).[5] Here Gabriel is offering to shew Daniel what is written (literally “inscribed”) in the “writing” of truth, and in Dan 11:2 Gabriel says, “And now I will shew thee the truth”. There then follows a set of notes from the “writing of truth” mentioned by Gabriel. This “scripture of truth” to which Gabriel alludes is not the O.T. but some other piece of writing in his possession. It is this writing that we have transcribed for us in Daniel 11.
The opening verse of Daniel 11 is interesting. It is a first person utterance by Gabriel addressed to the reader:
And I, in the first year of Darius the Mede, my standing [is] for a strengthener, and for a stronghold to him; and, now, truth I declare to thee, Lo, yet three kings are… Dan 11:1-2
The ‘I’ here is Gabriel, and the ‘him’ is Daniel. Gabriel says that he ‘stood for’ something—being a strengthener, and in the first year of Darius he had strengthened Daniel (Dan 9:1, 21-23). This opening is like the openings we find in the Prophets when they detail in which kings’ reigns they prophesied. Having positioned himself in respect of his audience, Gabriel delivers the writing of truth speaking it to Daniel (Dan 11:2). Gabriel tells Daniel that he will “shew” him the writing of truth, and at the end of the meeting Gabriel says to him, “Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book” (Dan 12:4). This suggests that Gabriel has read (part of?) a book with Daniel. (The form of address is continued in Dan 12:1—‘thy people’ and Dan 12:4 —‘and thou, O Daniel’).
We see therefore that Daniel 11 is the direct record of an angelic plan for Israel ‘in the latter days’ (Dan 10:14). We might surmise from this example that angels administer the affairs of the world and use written plans in the performance of their duty. As a schedule delivered by an angel, it has a different character to other prophecies which relate visions, but its hares with the pre-exilic Prophets the characteristic of having unfulfilled elements towards the end of collected oracles. It is a record of the direct speech of Gabriel, and this accounts for its unique character. It is the longest stretch of the direct speech of an angel recorded in the Bible.
[1] This article was first published in The Testimony.
[2] It seems that Gabriel was the angel that came to Daniel’s aid whenever he sought to understand his visions, for we also read of Gabriel helping Daniel understand the vision of the seventy weeks (Dan 9:21-23). The name ‘Gabriel’ carries the information ‘The Strong One of God’ and this is the function that Gabriel performs for Daniel when he is distressed in Daniel 10—he strengthens him (v. 19). Now he comes to make Daniel know what will befall Israel in the latter days (Dan 10:14), which were yet many days in the future.
[3] E Whittaker, For the Study and Defence of the Holy Scripture (Norwich: The Testimony Publishing Committee, 1987), 127.
[4] These two princes might be those who appear in Dan. 12 on either side of the river on which the man in linen stands.
[5] The stress on “truth” is made because Daniel had received a revelation of a something that was “true” (Dan 10:1).
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