So they ask Jesus three questions, and He then gives them a two-chapter answer. Most people are unaware that shorthand was a skill prevalent in those days.Īnd as he sat upon the mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world? He was a customs official, and it was a job requirement that he take shorthand. Matthew’s account offers more information than the others, most likely due to a skill he had and the others didn’t. This talk was important enough that it was recorded in three gospels, and it had a direct connection with Daniel’s prophecy. According to Mark, they were Peter, James, John, and Peter’s brother Andrew. In Matthew 24–25, Mark 13, and Luke 21, Jesus gave a confidential briefing on His second coming to four special disciples. All of this will help demonstrate what God did in order to deliver this amazing prophecy. Then we will look at the events leading up to Gabriel’s words about the seventy weeks. Background and Contextīefore we get to chapter nine, it’s important for us to get another perspective - a perspective coming directly from Jesus. The visions in Daniel seven and eight occur between the events in chapters four and five, and the interview with an archangel in chapter nine occurs between the events of chapters five and six. This is a very exciting book, but again, it’s not in chronological order. This is a section that very unabashedly focuses on the Gentile world, and that’s one reason it is so dear to us. It’s very unusual for the Bible to do that because Scripture usually sees everything, past and future, through the lens of Israel. The author uses Aramaic because those chapters focus on the Gentile world. It’s interesting, chapters two through the end of seven are not written in Hebrew they’re in Aramaic. That leads us into chapter nine and the seventy weeks. In chapter eight, the ram and the goat are described in a vision about the career of Alexander the Great as he defeats the Persians. In the first chapter of that group, chapter seven, we have the times of the Gentiles. They’re not in chronological order the chapters appear as a group. They are, in a sense, appended at the end of the history. Next, the fall of Babylon to Darius leads us into the Persian Empire period.Īfter the first six chapters, we have six chapters that are a collection of Daniel’s visions.
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That makes Nebuchadnezzar the only Gentile writer in the Old Testament. Nebuchadnezzar, the king of the world at that time, writes chapter four of Daniel in which he recounts his lesson from God about pride. Then we see Daniel’s rivals trying to “undo” his three friends in the fiery furnace episode. He encounters King Nebuchadnezzar, correctly interprets his dream, and is promoted as a result. In those chapters we read that Daniel is deported from Israel after the Babylonian conquest. That may seem like an exaggeration, but after seeing what’s packed into this chapter it will be easier to understand why that perspective is held by so many.ĭaniel 9 is only one of twelve chapters, so we should start with some context. Daniel 9 is probably one of the most pivotal chapters in the entire Bible for understanding end-time prophecy.