Daniel

The Book of Daniel is more important in the Christian tradition than the Jewish tradition, and as such it is placed in the Greek and English bibles along side those of the other prophets. Another unique feature of the book is that it was originally written in two different languages: Hebrew and Aramaic (Aramaic is closely related to Hebrew and looks the same, but there are some differences in vocabulary and grammatical forms). Like the book of Ezekiel, it is set at the time the Jews were deported to Babylon under King Nebuchadnezzar, but the current scholarly view is that it was the last of the Hebrew Bible books to be written, sometime in the middle of the second century BC.

Apart from the Book of Genesis, I've not found any other biblical book to be so packed full of iconic moments – even the names of Daniel's three companions in the lion's den (Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego) sparked off for me a Proustian recollection of Sunday school. Also of note are the "writing on the wall" (5:5) and fiery furnace scenes (3:25), as well as Daniel's dreams and visions. Not only is he important in the Christian tradition for his prophecy of a coming "son of man" who will raise the dead in a final reckoning, but Daniel also symbolises resistance – in both the Jewish and Christian tradition – especially in the face of kings and tyrants like Nebuchadnezzar. In fact, one of the book's key messages is that the wicked rulers of this world and all who side with them will be destroyed, and the poor and the oppressed will rule supreme. You could almost say it's proto-Marxist.

The KJV version of the Book of Daniel has also been hugely influential on the English language, with arresting images like "feet of clay" (2:33) and the writing on the wall and the expression, "thou art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting" (5:27). There are many more examples. The Book of Daniel has also been influential on the history of ideas, for example the image in chapter 7 of four beasts (a lion with eagles wings, a bear with ribs in his teeth, a 4-headed leopard and a beast with 10 horns and iron teeth) representing four kings or nations; this vision of a powerful leviathan rising from the sea as a metaphor for the state has been hugely influential on political thinking (cf. Thomas Hobbes). In turn, you can also see the influence of Greek thinkers on the Book of Daniel, notably the idea in 2:39 of equating metals with virtue, which Plato expounds in The Republic.

Many biblical visionaries (specifically the "millenarians") have also found rich soil in this book, as well as the New Testament books of John and Revelation, for their apocalyptic prophecies, with Isaac Newton perhaps the most famous of these – his Observations upon the Prophecies of Daniel, and the Apocalypse of St. John was published posthumously in 1733. Based on the Book of Daniel – for example, numeric references like “time, times, and a half” (12:7) – Newton calculated that Christ's second coming would occur in 2060, and that it would mark the end of an old age, and the beginning of a new era. This imagined epoch is something the Jews refer to as the Messianic age and Christians term the Millennium or Kingdom of God. You can find out more about Newton's exegesis here.

Daniel's visions also relate to growing competition between the warring states of the ancient Near East, such as the goats and rams in chapter 8 – the angel Gabriel explains that the ram's two horns represent Medea and Persia and that the"great horn" of the "rough goat" (8:21) represents Greece. You can't help thinking of Herodotus and the Greco-Persian conflict, while Daniel fainting after seeing great, troubling visions (8:27) was reminiscent of Dante the pilgrim in the Inferno.

As well as the vision of the 70 weeks (another source of Newton's mathematical prophecy) in chapter 9, there is also the grand battle of the kings in chapter 11 – which I found quite a long, waffly chapter – but the description of how the "King of the north shall return" (11:13) sounded like a clear inspiration for Game of Thrones.

Undoubtedly, though, the two most culturally important visions are those of a coming cosmic judge of the earth and the raising of the dead, and it's with quotes from these two passages that I'll round up my summary of the Book of Daniel:

I saw in the night visions, and, behold, one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before him. 

And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages, should serve him: his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed (7:13-14)

And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.

And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever (12:2-3)