_GENERAL STRUCTURE OF THE BOOK_
In endeavouring to see the idea and construction of a book there is
always much room for the play of subjective considerations. Meinhold
has especially studied this subject, but we cannot be certain that
his views are more than imaginative. He thinks that chap. ii.,
in which we are strongly reminded of the story of Joseph and of
Pharaoh's dreams, is intended to set forth God as Omniscient, and
chap. iii. as Omnipotent. To these conceptions is added in chap. iv.
the insistence upon God's All-holiness. The fifth and sixth chapters
form one conception. Since the death of Belshazzar is assigned to the
night of his banquet no edict could be ascribed to him resembling
those attributed to Nebuchadrezzar. The effect of Daniel's character
and of the Divine protection accorded to him on the mind of Darius
is expressed in the strong edict of the latter in vi. 26, 27. This
is meant to illustrate that the All-wise, Almighty, All-holy God is
the Only Living God. The consistent and homogeneous object of the
whole historic section is to set forth the God of the Hebrews as
exalting Himself in the midst of heathendom, and extorting submission
by mighty portents from heathen potentates. In this the Book offers
a general analogy to the section of the history of the Israelites in
Egypt narrated in Exod. i. 12. The culmination of recognition as to
the power of God is seen in the decree of Darius (vi. 26, 27), as
compared with that of Nebuchadrezzar in iv. 33. According to this
view, the meaning and essence of each separate chapter are given
in its closing section, and there is artistic advance to the great
climax, marked alike by the resemblances of these four paragraphs
(ii. 47, iii. 28, 29, iv. 37, vi. 26, 27), and by their differences.
To this main purpose all the other elements of these splendid
pictures--the faithfulness of Hebrew worshippers, the abasement
of blaspheming despots, the mission of Israel to the nations--are
subordinated. The chief aim is to set forth the helpless humiliation
of all false gods before the might of the God of Israel. It might be
expressed in the words, "Of a truth, Lord, the kings of Assyria have
laid waste all the nations, and cast their gods into the fire; for
they were no gods, but the work of men's hands, wood and stone."
A closer glance at these chapters will show some grounds for these
conclusions.
Thus, in the second chapter, the magicians and sorcerers repudiate
all possibility of revealing the king's dream and its interpretation,
because they are but men, and the gods have not their dwelling with
mortal flesh (ii. 11); but Daniel can tell the dream because he
stands near to his God, who, though He is in heaven, yet is All-wise,
and revealeth secrets.
In the third chapter the destruction of the strongest soldiers of
Nebuchadrezzar by fire, and the absolute deliverance of the three
Jews whom they have flung into the furnace, convince Nebuchadrezzar
that no god can deliver as the Almighty does, and that therefore it
is blasphemy deserving of death to utter a word against Him.
In chap. iv. the supremacy of Daniel's wisdom as derived from God,
the fulfilment of the threatened judgment, and the deliverance of the
mighty King of Babylon from his degrading madness when he lifts up
his eyes to heaven, convince Nebuchadrezzar still more deeply that
God is not only a _Great_ God, but that no other being, man or god,
can even be compared to Him. He is the Only and the Eternal God, who
"_doeth according to His will in the army of heaven_," as well as
"among the inhabitants of the earth," and "none can stay His hand."
This is the highest point of conviction. Nebuchadrezzar confesses
that God is not only _Primus inter pares_, but the Irresistible
God, and his own God. And after this, in the fifth chapter, Daniel
can speak to Belshazzar of "the Lord of heaven" (v. 23); and as the
king's Creator; and of the nothingness of gods of silver, and gold,
and brass, and wood, and stone;--as though those truths had already
been decisively proved. And this belief finds open expression in the
decree of Darius (vi. 26, 27), which concludes the historic section.
It is another indication of this main purpose of these histories that
the plural form of the Name of God--_Elohîm_--does not once occur
in chaps. ii.-vi. It is used in i. 2, 9, 17; but not again till the
ninth chapter, where it occurs twelve times; once in the tenth (x.
12); and twice of God in the eleventh chapter (xi. 32, 37). In the
prophetic section (vii. 18, 22, 25, 27) we have "Most High" in the
plural (_'elionîn_);[139] but with reference only to the One God
(see vii. 25). But in all cases where the heathen are addressed this
plural becomes the singular (_ehlleh_, אֵלֶּה), as throughout the
first six chapters. This avoidance of so common a word as the plural
_Elohîm_ for God, because the plural form might conceivably have been
misunderstood by the heathen, shows the elaborate construction of the
Book.[140] God is called _Eloah_ Shamaîn, "God of heaven," in the
second and third chapters; but in later chapters we have the common
post-exilic phrase in the plural.[141]
In the fourth and fifth chapters we have God's Holiness first brought
before us, chiefly on its avenging side; and it is not till we have
witnessed the proof of His Unity, Wisdom, Omnipotence, and Justice,
which it is the mission of Israel to make manifest among the heathen,
that all is summed up in the edict of Darius to all people, nations,
and languages.
The omission of any express recognition of God's tender compassion
is due to the structure of these chapters; for it would hardly be
possible for heathen potentates to recognise that attribute in the
immediate presence of His judgments. It is somewhat remarkable that
the name "Jehovah" is avoided.[142] As the Jews purposely pronounced
it with wrong vowels, and the LXX. render it by κύριος, the Samaritan
by שימה, and the Rabbis by "the Name," so we find in the Book of
Daniel a similar avoidance of the awful Tetragrammaton.
FOOTNOTES:
[139] Literally, as in margin, "_most high things_" or "_places_."
[140] In iv. 5, 6; and _elohîn_ means "gods" in the mouth of a
heathen ("spirit of the holy gods").
[141] _Elohîn_ occurs repeatedly in chap. ix., and in x. 12, xi. 32, 37.
[142] It only occurs in Dan. ix.