A Solution to the Duration Problem of Daniel 12:11–12

A Solution to the Duration Problem of Daniel 12:11–12

Charles R. Lightner

Issue: Vol.9 No.9 September 2023 Issue Article 3 pp. 444-454
DOI : https://doi.org/10.38159/erats.2023993 | Published online 28th September, 2023.
© 2023 The Author(s). This is an open access article under the CCBY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

396 Downloads

DOWNLOAD PDF

ABSTRACT

The last few verses of the Hebrew Book of Daniel are famously difficult. Among other issues, they present a duration problem that has long seemed intractable. But they also contain a key that provides a solution to the problem. That key is signaled by the lack of parallelism between the Aramaic expression of Daniel 7:25b and the Hebrew expression of Daniel 12:7b. The solution it allows is both accessible and expected. In his closing verses, the author of the book of Daniel created a mechanism to convey his view of the proper cultic calendar. That view places him securely among the other writers of early Jewish apocalypse literature and among the authors of much of the sectarian and non-sectarian literature of the last three centuries BCE. This paper reviews the duration problem and its elements. It also examines and discusses the prior attempts to solve the problem. It then presents and discusses a solution that was made available in the author’s text but has not been previously recognized.

Keywords: Apocalypse, The Book of Daniel, Calendar Controversy, Zadokite Calendar

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Ben Dov, Jonathan. “The 364-day Year in the Dead Sea Scrolls and Jewish Pseudepigrapha.” The Qumran Scrolls and Their World, edited by Menahem Kister, (Jerusalem: Yad Ben-Zvi, 2009), 435–76.

Boccaccini, Gabriele. Roots of Rabbinic Judaism. (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2002). Kindle Edition

______. “The Solar Calendars of Daniel and Enoch.” The Book of Daniel, Volume 2: Composition and Reception, edited by John J. Collins and Peter W. Flint. VTSup. 83/2:311–28. (Leiden: Brill, 2001)

Charles, R. H. A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Book of Daniel. (Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 2006; Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1929).

Collins, John J. Daniel: A Commentary on the Book of Daniel. Hermeneia – A Critical and Historical Commentary on the Bible. (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1993).

______.“The Meaning of the End in the Book of Daniel.” Of Scribes and Scrolls: Studies in the Hebrew Bible, Intertestamental Judaism and Christian Origins. (Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 1990): 91–98.

______. Daniel: With an Introduction to Apocalyptic Literature. FOTL, XX. (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1984) Kindle Edition.

______.The Apocalyptic Vision of the Book of Daniel. Harvard Semitic Monographs, Num 16. (Missoula, MT: Scholars Press, 1977).

Davies, Philip R. “Calendrical Change and Qumran Origins: An Assessment of Vanderkam’s Theory.” The Catholic Biblical Quarterly Vol. 45, no. 1, (January 1983): 80–89.

Driver, S. R. The Book of Daniel With Introduction and Notes. The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1900).

Hartman, Louis F., and Alexander A. Di Lella. The Book of Daniel. AB Vol 23. (Garden City: Doubleday, 1978).

Hernandez, Abner F. “Adventist Eschatology and the Interpretation of the Time Periods of Daniel 12:11–12.” Andrews University Seminary Student Journal. Vol 1 no. 1, 2015: 65–84.

Høyrup, Jens. “Seleucid Innovations in the Babylonian ‘Algebraic’ Tradition and their Kin Abroad.” From China to Paris: 2000 Years Transmission of Mathematical Ideas, edited by Yvonne Dold-Samplonius, et al. Boethius 46 (Stuttgart: Steiner, 2002). 9–29.

St. Jerome. Jerome’s Commentary on Daniel. Translated by Gleason L. Archer, (Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 2009).

Kline, Morris. Mathematical Thought from Ancient to Modern Times. (New York: Oxford University Press, 1972).

Mathews, Susan Fournier. “The Numbers in Daniel 12:11-12: Rounded Pythagorean Numbers?” The Catholic Biblical Quarterly, Vol. 63, no. 4 (October 2001): 630–46.

Montgomery, James A. The Book of Daniel: A Critical and Exegetical Commentary. ICC. (Skokie, IL; Varda, 2016; Edinburgh: T & T Clark, 1927).

Segal, Michael, and Shlomo Wadler. “For 2300 Evenings and Mornings” (Dan 8:14): Recalculating the Cessation of the Daily Offering.” Journal for the Study of Judaism, Vol. 53 (2022): 1–18.

Segal, Michael. “Calculating the End: Inner-Danielic Chronological Developments,” VT 68 (Leiden: Brill, 2018): 272-296.

VanderKam, James C. “The Origin, Character, and Early History of the 364-Day Calendar: A Reassessment of Jaubert’s Hypothesis.” The Catholic Biblical Quarterly, Vol. 41, no. 3 (July 1979): 390–411.

______. “2 Maccabees 6, 7a and Calendrical Change in Jerusalem.” Journal for the Study of Judaism in the Persian, Hellenistic, and Roman Period, Vol. 12, no. 1 (1981): 52–74.

Van Goudoever, Jan. “Time Indications in Daniel that Reflect the Usage of the Ancient Theoretical So-Called Zadokite Calendar.” The Book of Daniel in the Light of New Findings, edited by A.S. van der Woude, (Leuven: Leuven University Press, 1993): 533–538.

AUTHOR(S)

After a career in various finance-related positions, the author began rabbinic studies at the Academy for Jewish Religion in New York in 2001. He received rabbinic ordination from AJR in 2008. He currently studies, writes, teaches, and acts as rabbi in Westfield, New Jersey, where he lives with his wife, Sharon. They have three children and seven grandchildren.

TO CITE ARTICLE

Lightner, Charles R. “A Solution to the Duration Problem of Daniel 12:11–12, “ E-Journal of Religious and Theological Studies, 9 no.9 (2023): 444-454. https://doi.org/10.38159/erats.2023993