Week 4: The Sky is Falling!

I've been wondering a lot lately about whether the sky is actually falling. I can't watch CNN anymore, nor can I get any real job out of Facebook or Twitter. All of the headlines are bemoaning the fact that Donald Trump is going to be the Republican nominee for POTUS, and according to one poll that hasn't been wrong since 1912, at least, he'll actually win the general election. This is a person who has mocked the physically disabled, incited animus against the Islamic faith tradition, refused to condemn an endorsement by the KKK, bullies his opponents, refuses to extend any assistance to refugees, and hasn't made a single cogent policy recommendation the basis of his candidacy. And we're a sneeze away from making him leader of the "free world." Well, that world isn't about to be free anymore. And I'm starting to pray that the sky will actually fall.

But enough about him. This week in class we've been reading Daniel with an eye on the apocalyptic content of his writings. According to Bandstra, "an apocalypse is a revelation of future events initiated by God and delivered through a mediator (typically an angel) to a holy person" (Bandstra, 442). As a type of literature, it tells stories about the ends of things, like the end of history, the end of the world, or other types of revelations (remember the Left Behind series?). And as a eschatological conception, apocalypses cast God as the sovereign power, where "human agency is only secondary to divine initiative" (Bandstra, 443). The Book of Daniel provides a perfect example of apocalyptic literature and eschatology, specifically in chapters 7, 10, 11, and 12. Here are some examples of the elements of this apocalyptic genre seen in Daniel (note: the elements themselves are based on Bandstra's work and Dr. Lester's lecture):

Anonymity of author: In Daniel 7:1, an unknown author tells the story of Daniel's dreams/vision that he relayed to King Belshazzar of Babylon. This author uses the first person inside quotations to relate Daniel's story, but refers to Daniel in the third person when explaining the context for the story. By 10:2, however, the author has become Daniel in a pseudonymous way.

Dreams/visions: The rest of Daniel 7 and the successive chapters all concern a set of four drams/visions that Daniel has had concerning the future of empires and the Jewish people.

Highly imaginative symbolic imagery: We're going to have fun with this one because Daniel's dreams are chock full of imagery that, if one didn't know to associate it with other symbolic meanings, would probably indicate some level of mental illness. Dan 7:4 describes a lion with eagle's wings that can stand on two feet; 7:5 describes a bear with three tusks in its mouth; 7:6 a labored with four wings and four heads; and 7:7 a dreadful beast with iron teeth and horns, one of which could see and speak. These animals are in Daniel's first vision, but it goes on. In 7:9, a white haired man sits atop a throne engulfed in flames yet is not burnt alive. Hundreds of thousands of people attend to this kingly man and serve him. In Dan 10, the author describes coming across an angel: an emerald-skinned man with a face like lightning, eyes aflame, bronzed arms and legs, and a thundering voice (10:6).

Universal scope (events beyond those only concerning Hebrews): The contextual piece for the Daniel 7 vision is of course the hateful Hellenizing work of Antiochus, who was the Seleucid emperor. In Dan 7:21, a list of offenses of Antiochus's are enumerated (e.g. changing the sacred seasons and the law), explaining why in the vision he was put to death and another person would be given his dominion and kingship. The angel in Daniel 10 provides the context that helps make sense of the vision, and it is further elaborated upon in Dan 11-12. The vision occurs because of persecution by the "prince of the kingdom of Persia" (10:13). By 11:2-4, the vision constitutes a brief history of Hellenistic wars and continues with descriptions of battles between the Ptolemic Kingdom of the south with the Seleucidic kingdom of the north. The warrior king of 11:3 is Alexander the Great, whose kingdom was quartered after his death.

Unambiguous dualisms: Of course, the man in white from Dan 7:9, known in the narrative as the Ancient One, is God, and God's power is limitless. The Ancient One has the power in 7:11-12 to decide when these beasts will die and in 7:14 has the authority to hand over "dominion, kingship, and glory." Throughout the battles and wars of Dan 11-12:13, what is consistently made clear is the callous evil that these warring kings possessed, which is completely at odds with the God of gods (11:36). Because of this, in 12:1, Michael, the "archangel" and patron angel of Israel (Matthias Henze, New Interpreter's Study Bible, 2004, p.1249) promises to one day rise up and deliver the people who are "written in the book" (12:1) through an intense time of anguish that ends with the final time: "many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt" (12:2). These dualisms make clear an ending to the world where people are brought high or low, wise and shining, or running back and forth in alarm (12:3-4).

It's interesting to read all of these elements in Daniel and to have the accompanying context of Hellenistic history, which was a pretty painful time for the Jewish people - with their temple and religious practices having been desecrated as a matter of law and practice. It's no wonder that stories like these were created to inspire hopefulness and rekindle faithfulness among a people who were looking around and finding none. In my own search for hope contra the inevitability of the "Donald," I wonder and hope for a good word from this text for me and for us today.