Kerygma · Tools · Bible figures
Daniel.
Daniel is taken to Babylon as a teenager when Nebuchadnezzar conquers Jerusalem in 605 BC and rises to become a high-ranking advisor to four successive kings (Nebuchadnezzar, Belshazzar, Darius, Cyrus) across the Babylonian and early Persian empires. He interprets dreams, survives the lions' den, and receives apocalyptic visions of "one like a son of man" coming with the clouds of heaven (Daniel 7:13). His seventy-weeks prophecy (chapter 9) is one of the most-debated messianic timetables in the Bible.
Timeline
- Taken to Babylon as a youth in 605 BC (Daniel 1)
- Interpreted Nebuchadnezzar's dream of the great image (Daniel 2)
- Three friends in the fiery furnace (Daniel 3)
- Writing on the wall at Belshazzar's feast (Daniel 5)
- In the lions' den under Darius (Daniel 6)
- Visions of the four beasts and the Son of Man (Daniel 7)
Key verses
Why Daniel matters
"Son of Man" — the title Jesus uses for himself more than any other — comes from Daniel 7. The visions in Daniel are the dominant source for Revelation's imagery. The book is a model of faithfulness under hostile foreign power: Daniel refuses to compromise on prayer even when it costs him the lions' den. His witness has shaped the church's self-understanding in every generation of persecution since.
Related tools
Read the life, then test what stayed.
Kerygma's trivia rounds cover Daniel alongside the other Bible figures in its narrative context. Free for seven days.
Start your free trial →Available on iPhone & iPad. Subscription is $3.99/month or $29.99/year.