1. PERFIL ACTUAL DEL PROYECTO
1.3 Objetivos gerenciales para el proyecto
T
he book of Daniel speaks of wars and massacres, victims and oppressors. Our questions about them, though, remain unanswered. Then the words of chapter 1 2 suddenly jolt us.The last chapter is the shortest (only 1 3 verses versus the av
erage 25 verses encountered in the other chapters). Its brevity is all the more striking as a particularly long chapter (45 verses) precedes it. The book finishes as it had begun. The length of chapter 2 ( 49 verses) also emphasizes the brevity of chapter 1 (2 1 verses). In Hebrew literature the conclusion always echoes the introduction.
The circle is fully drawn, and we are at the end of the story. The structure of chapter 1 2 parallels that of chapter 7, the geometrical center of the whole book. Chapter 1 2 echoes chapter 7, following an inverse sequence (chapter 1 2: C 1 , B1 , A1 I chapter 7: A, B, C) , according to a chiastic structure characteristic of Daniel's style.
C1 (Daniel 1 2 : 1 a) , which describes the coming of the great heav
enly prince Michael, corresponds in chapter 7 to C (Dan. 7: 1 3, 27), the coming of the Son of man on the clouds of heaven. The stylis
tic expression "at that time" (Dan. 1 2: 1) introduces this first section.
B1 (Dan. 1 2: 1 -3), where books are consulted and where judg
ment is made between the wise and the not-so-wise, corresponds in chapter 7 to B (Dan. 7:9, 10, 26) , the scene of judgment and the opening of the books. "At that time" (Dan. 1 2: 1 b) also introduces this section.
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T h e V i c t o r y o l J e r u s a l e m
A1 (Dan. 1 2:4- 1 2), which concerns the little horn, corresponds in chapter 7 to A (Dan. 7:8, 25), which also speaks of the little ho_rn.
Allusions to both chapters 7 and 8 refer to the little horn. The lmk to chapter 7 occurs in the mention of "a time, times and half a time"
(Dan. 1 2:7; cf 7:25). The allusion to chapter 8 appears (1) in the_ ap
pearance of the same heavenly being who asks the same quest10n:
"How long?" (Dan. 1 2:6; cf 8 : 1 3) ; (2) the same achievements of the little horn, niphlaoth in Daniel 8:24 (translated by "astounding dev
astation") and pelaoth in Daniel 1 2:6 (translated by "astonishing things") ; and (3) the same abolition of the daily sacrifice (Dan. 1 2:
�
1 ,1 2 ; cf 8 : 1 1 , 1 3) . The expression "but you, Daniel" (Dan. 1 2:4) in
troduces the third section.
In the conclusion of the chapter (verse 1 3) , the expression
"as for you" encompasses both Daniel ("but you") and the whole of humanity.
I. The Rising of Michael
Everything points to the end, including both form and content.
The first vision is dense with events, the violence of which we al
ready see hinted at by the first verb, "will arise" (amad) . The Hebrew word belongs to the vocabulary of warfare and is performed by the soldier who resists and overcomes his enemy. 1 Here it responds to the multiple amads initiated by the kings of chapter 1 1 (verses 2-4, 6-8, 1 1 , 1 3-17, 20, 2 1 , 25, 3 1 ) . The last occurrence of amad, the amad of final victory, is initiated by Michael, whose name is already a sign of victory: "who is like God!" The victory of Nebuchadnezzar in chapter 1 has its answer in the ultimate victory of Michael, Prince of Jerusalem. And with His victory, that of His people is ensured, a lesson given through a play on words that form the inclusio of chap
ter 12. The "rising" (amad) of Michael in the beginning of the chap
ter (Dan. 1 2 : 1 ) has its echo in the "rising" (amad) of the resurrected at the end of the chapter (verse 1 3) . The victory is cosmic. It is not only a political or a religious triumph, but it is life defeating death.
The victory is all the more glorious because it has for its back
ground a period of intense suffering and despair, "a time of distress such as has not happened from the beginning of nations" (verse 1 ) .
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C H A P T f R 1 2
THE VICTORY Of JERUSALEM
T
he book of Daniel speaks of wars and massacres, victims and oppressors. Our questions about them, though, remain unanswered. Then the words of chapter 1 2 suddenly jolt us.The last chapter is the shortest (only 1 3 verses versus the av
erage 25 verses encountered in the other chapters). Its brevity is all the more striking as a particularly long chapter (45 verses) precedes it. The book finishes as it had begun. The length of chapter 2 ( 49 verses) also emphasizes the brevity of chapter 1 (2 1 verses). In Hebrew literature the conclusion always echoes the introduction.
The circle is fully drawn, and we are at the end of the story. The structure of chapter 1 2 parallels that of chapter 7, the geometrical center of the whole book. Chapter 1 2 echoes chapter 7, following an inverse sequence (chapter 1 2: C 1 , B1 , A1 I chapter 7: A, B, C) , according to a chiastic structure characteristic of Daniel's style.
C1 (Daniel 1 2 : 1 a) , which describes the coming of the great heav
enly prince Michael, corresponds in chapter 7 to C (Dan. 7: 1 3, 27), the coming of the Son of man on the clouds of heaven. The stylis
tic expression "at that time" (Dan. 1 2: 1) introduces this first section.
B1 (Dan. 1 2: 1 -3), where books are consulted and where judg
ment is made between the wise and the not-so-wise, corresponds in chapter 7 to B (Dan. 7:9, 10, 26) , the scene of judgment and the opening of the books. "At that time" (Dan. 1 2: 1 b) also introduces this section.
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T h e V i c t o r y o l J e r u s a l e m
A1 (Dan. 1 2:4- 1 2), which concerns the little horn, corresponds in chapter 7 to A (Dan. 7:8, 25), which also speaks of the little ho_rn.
Allusions to both chapters 7 and 8 refer to the little horn. The lmk to chapter 7 occurs in the mention of "a time, times and half a time"
(Dan. 1 2:7; cf 7:25). The allusion to chapter 8 appears (1) in the_ ap
pearance of the same heavenly being who asks the same quest10n:
"How long?" (Dan. 1 2:6; cf 8 : 1 3) ; (2) the same achievements of the little horn, niphlaoth in Daniel 8:24 (translated by "astounding dev
astation") and pelaoth in Daniel 1 2:6 (translated by "astonishing things") ; and (3) the same abolition of the daily sacrifice (Dan. 1 2:
�
1 ,1 2 ; cf 8 : 1 1 , 1 3) . The expression "but you, Daniel" (Dan. 1 2:4) in
troduces the third section.
In the conclusion of the chapter (verse 1 3) , the expression
"as for you" encompasses both Daniel ("but you") and the whole of humanity.
I. The Rising of Michael
Everything points to the end, including both form and content.
The first vision is dense with events, the violence of which we al
ready see hinted at by the first verb, "will arise" (amad) . The Hebrew word belongs to the vocabulary of warfare and is performed by the soldier who resists and overcomes his enemy. 1 Here it responds to the multiple amads initiated by the kings of chapter 1 1 (verses 2-4, 6-8, 1 1 , 1 3-17, 20, 2 1 , 25, 3 1 ) . The last occurrence of amad, the amad of final victory, is initiated by Michael, whose name is already a sign of victory: "who is like God!" The victory of Nebuchadnezzar in chapter 1 has its answer in the ultimate victory of Michael, Prince of Jerusalem. And with His victory, that of His people is ensured, a lesson given through a play on words that form the inclusio of chap
ter 12. The "rising" (amad) of Michael in the beginning of the chap
ter (Dan. 1 2 : 1 ) has its echo in the "rising" (amad) of the resurrected at the end of the chapter (verse 1 3) . The victory is cosmic. It is not only a political or a religious triumph, but it is life defeating death.
The victory is all the more glorious because it has for its back
ground a period of intense suffering and despair, "a time of distress such as has not happened from the beginning of nations" (verse 1 ) .
1 83
S e c r e t s o f O a n i e l
We have no knowledge as yet of the nature of the despair that will torment the last survivors of human history. It has no historical precedent. And yet, the expression itself is not unique. "Distress" (or
"trouble") occurs many times in the Old Testament (cf Isa. 33:2;
Jer. 1 4:8; 1 5: 1 1 ; 30:7; Ps. 37:39) , especially in the book of Jeremiah, where the same Hebrew expression "time of distress" appears three times and Jeremiah 30 describes it as an event out of the ordinary:
"How awful that day will be! None will be like it. It will be a time of trouble for Jacob" (Jer. 30:7) .
The context of Jeremiah 3 0 is a prediction o f Israel's exile and consequently the despair and anguish of the exiled people. In the New Testament Jesus makes the same prediction through an explicit reference to the "prophet Daniel": "For then there will be a great distress, unequaled from the beginning of the world until now-and never to be equaled again" (Matt. 24: 1 5 , 2 1 ) .
The time of the end would then b e like that of the exile, a period when Jerusalem and the Temple are no longer in existence to guar
antee salvation, a time when God is absent. Already the prophet Ezekiel had described the exile in such terms in a vision of the depar
ture of the throne of God (Eze. 1 0) . God's people find themselves crushed in the iron grip of Babylon. It is the experience of the absurd, where faith remains without an object. We are alone. God seems to have disappeared. History becomes a battlefield of raging forces, and evil seems to have triumphed over good. Why go on? Doubts smother the feeble flame of faith. With nowhere to tum, God's people seem to have no hope left. It is truly "a time of distress."
Never have we come so close to the events portrayed by the prophecy. And never have we been so indifferent. A brief sum
mary of what we know only too well will suffice. The ecologists2 watch the disintegration of our planet, but no one seems willing to do anything about it. Economists can hardly overcome their pessimism. World unemployment is on the rise. Three fourths of the population of the world face the real danger of death from hunger. Of course, we are only too accustomed to such num
bers-they hardly bother us anymore. The little children with protruding ribs and stomachs disappear with a click of the remote
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T h e V i c t o r y o f J e r u s a l e m
control-until the day they will reappear in our own kitchens.
The political situation rests on shaky ground. Peace is indeed a goal as world powers meet with each other. But the weapons re
main, buried underneath a mass of treaties and organizations. We live in the shadow of the atomic cloud. No country is not somehow involved in one conflict or another. All political action has reper
cussions on the international scene.
As for the moral state of our society, it is hardly recognizable, so disfigured it has become by crime, rape, drugs, alcohol, and AIDS.
It spares no one as it affects all levels of society. Simultaneously, a new race of men and women has appeared: the professionals of suc
cess. Whatever artistic and moral ideals we once had have been re
placed by the one ideal of our society, the only one worth striving for: money. Virtue is now proportional to performance. Modem humanity wills itself to become more and more efficient and less and less human.
Our civilization brews the worst disasters. And yet we are alive and well. We still walk the streets of our cities. Television still croons the reassuring words and images of our prosperity; and if not, it is just a movie anyway! We recycle. We exercise. We close our eyes and meditate, unwilling to face the slow putrefaction of our deca
dent society and preferring to ignore the slogans of a few eccentrics.
After all, our leaders all speak in reassuring tones, and the people nod in their sleep.
And the flowers of evil sprout everywhere. The vision of Daniel is cosmic and concerns the "nations" (Dan. 1 2 : 1 ) . No land, no is
land, no remote tribe can escape. It is a true "time of distress."
II. The Judgment
But the curtain does not fall on tragedy. The book of Daniel sees a "time of distress" through the perspective of divine hope.
Beyond the time of distress experienced by the exiles, the prophet Jeremiah foresees the return and the salvation of Israel: "It will be a time of trouble for Jacob, but he will be saved out of it"
(Jer. 30:7) .
Jesus predicts the coming of the Son of man: "Immediately after
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S e c r e t s o f O a n i e l
We have no knowledge as yet of the nature of the despair that will torment the last survivors of human history. It has no historical precedent. And yet, the expression itself is not unique. "Distress" (or
"trouble") occurs many times in the Old Testament (cf Isa. 33:2;
Jer. 1 4:8; 1 5: 1 1 ; 30:7; Ps. 37:39) , especially in the book of Jeremiah, where the same Hebrew expression "time of distress" appears three times and Jeremiah 30 describes it as an event out of the ordinary:
"How awful that day will be! None will be like it. It will be a time of trouble for Jacob" (Jer. 30:7) .
The context of Jeremiah 3 0 is a prediction o f Israel's exile and consequently the despair and anguish of the exiled people. In the New Testament Jesus makes the same prediction through an explicit reference to the "prophet Daniel": "For then there will be a great distress, unequaled from the beginning of the world until now-and never to be equaled again" (Matt. 24: 1 5 , 2 1 ) .
The time of the end would then b e like that of the exile, a period when Jerusalem and the Temple are no longer in existence to guar
antee salvation, a time when God is absent. Already the prophet Ezekiel had described the exile in such terms in a vision of the depar
ture of the throne of God (Eze. 1 0) . God's people find themselves crushed in the iron grip of Babylon. It is the experience of the absurd, where faith remains without an object. We are alone. God seems to have disappeared. History becomes a battlefield of raging forces, and evil seems to have triumphed over good. Why go on? Doubts smother the feeble flame of faith. With nowhere to tum, God's people seem to have no hope left. It is truly "a time of distress."
Never have we come so close to the events portrayed by the prophecy. And never have we been so indifferent. A brief sum
mary of what we know only too well will suffice. The ecologists2 watch the disintegration of our planet, but no one seems willing to do anything about it. Economists can hardly overcome their pessimism. World unemployment is on the rise. Three fourths of the population of the world face the real danger of death from hunger. Of course, we are only too accustomed to such num
bers-they hardly bother us anymore. The little children with protruding ribs and stomachs disappear with a click of the remote
1 84
T h e V i c t o r y o f J e r u s a l e m
control-until the day they will reappear in our own kitchens.
The political situation rests on shaky ground. Peace is indeed a goal as world powers meet with each other. But the weapons re
main, buried underneath a mass of treaties and organizations. We live in the shadow of the atomic cloud. No country is not somehow involved in one conflict or another. All political action has reper
cussions on the international scene.
As for the moral state of our society, it is hardly recognizable, so disfigured it has become by crime, rape, drugs, alcohol, and AIDS.
It spares no one as it affects all levels of society. Simultaneously, a new race of men and women has appeared: the professionals of suc
cess. Whatever artistic and moral ideals we once had have been re
placed by the one ideal of our society, the only one worth striving for: money. Virtue is now proportional to performance. Modem humanity wills itself to become more and more efficient and less and less human.
Our civilization brews the worst disasters. And yet we are alive and well. We still walk the streets of our cities. Television still croons the reassuring words and images of our prosperity; and if not, it is just a movie anyway! We recycle. We exercise. We close our eyes and meditate, unwilling to face the slow putrefaction of our deca
dent society and preferring to ignore the slogans of a few eccentrics.
After all, our leaders all speak in reassuring tones, and the people nod in their sleep.
And the flowers of evil sprout everywhere. The vision of Daniel is cosmic and concerns the "nations" (Dan. 1 2 : 1 ) . No land, no is
land, no remote tribe can escape. It is a true "time of distress."
II. The Judgment
But the curtain does not fall on tragedy. The book of Daniel sees a "time of distress" through the perspective of divine hope.
Beyond the time of distress experienced by the exiles, the prophet Jeremiah foresees the return and the salvation of Israel: "It will be a time of trouble for Jacob, but he will be saved out of it"
(Jer. 30:7) .
Jesus predicts the coming of the Son of man: "Immediately after
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S e c r e t s o f O a n i e l
the distress of those days . . . . At that time the sign of the Son of man will appear in the sky" (Matt. 24:29, 30) .
Likewise in Daniel 12, salvation from above interrupts the dis
tress: "But at that time your people-everyone whose name is found written in the book-will be delivered" (verse 1).
As in chapter 7, chapter 1 2 places the coming of Michael (the Son of man) in a context of judgment. There also, the books are opened (Dan. 1 2: 1 ; cf 7: 1 0) . But in chapter 1 2 the judgment ex
pands beyond the heavenly scene of chapter 7. We now witness its effect on earth as God takes concrete measures to deal with evil. We now realize that everything that ever happened was meaningful, that every event had implications. Everything was recorded and is being evaluated now. Judgment separates the wise from the wicked, life from death. Only radical change can clear the way for a new life.
And only the eradication of death will make this new life possible.
The judgment is cosmic and definite. Salvation will touch every
thing and will occur at a definite moment in history. "Multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake: . . . Those who are wise will shine like the brightness of the heavens, . . . like the stars for ever and ever" (Dan. 1 2:2, 3) .
It takes courage to accept this. Salvation implies death. To be resurrected, we must first die. But the reward is real, palpable, and not some ethereal sort of immortality.
Biblical hope goes beyond human hope. It is not content to make vague promises of a better world, founded on human willpower.
Rather, it points to a world in which the stars will shine eternally.
Indeed, the reality of immortality will be more glorious than we can dare imagine: "No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has con
ceived what God has prepared for those who love him" (1 Car. 2:9) . III. How Long?
But for now, from the depths of our darkness, we may only yearn: "How long?" The question is stated twice in the book, once by Daniel, once by the angel. Daniel 1 2 answers it by presenting three periods of time. The first is already familiar to us: "a time, times and half a time" (verse 7) . It is the period mentioned in
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T h e V i c t o r y o f J e r u s a l e m
ter 7 during which the little horn would exert its oppressing power and lasting until 1 798. Yet Daniel remains perplexed. "I did not un
derstand" (Dan. 1 2:8). He wants to know more about the time of the end: "What will the outcome of all this be?"
The next two periods cover approximately the same length of time (1290 days and 1 335 days) and are related to the first period (1260 days). Like the 1 260 days, the 1 290 and 1 335 days should be understood in terms of years.
Furthermore, the way the 1 290 days and the 1 335 days are re
Furthermore, the way the 1 290 days and the 1 335 days are re