The Expositor’s Bible Commentary: Daniel by Andrew E. Hill

Author:Andrew E. Hill [Hill, Andrew E.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: REL006060 Religion / Biblical Commentary / Old Testament
Publisher: HarperCollins Christian Publishing

F. The Lions’ Den (6:1–28 [6:2–29])

OVERVIEW

Daniel 6 completes the “court stories” section of the book (chs. 1–6) and concludes what Felwell, 15–16, calls a “story of stories” about God’s sovereignty. For a discussion of this larger literary context within the book of Daniel, see comments on 2:1–13 and 3:1–7.

The literary form of the story is typically identified as a tale of court conflict (e.g., Goldingay, 122). Collins (Daniel: with an Introduction to Apocalyptic Literature, 71) construes the character of the tale to be that of “legend” because of numerous features, especially the miraculous preservation of Daniel and the virtual conversion of the pagan king (see the comments on 5:1–9 on the form-critical definition of “legend”). Lucas, 145–47, has observed that the stories of the three Hebrews in the furnace (ch. 3) and Daniel in the lions’ den (ch. 6) have several words and phrases in common, suggesting these two chapters were intentionally composed as a literary pair. See “Literary Form” in the introduction and the discussion of the genre of “story of court conflict” in the comments on 3:1–7.

Collins (Daniel: with an Introduction to Apocalyptic Literature, 71) equates the plot of the story with the folkloric plot typical of the “disgrace and rehabilitation of a minister of state.” In Daniel, the two stories of court conflict share the same formal elements:

• jealous colleagues who accuse the recalcitrant Jews of defying the king’s authority and insist that the king follow through on the death sentence he has decreed for the perpetrators

• a king who capitulates to the demands of his courtiers and orders the execution of the defiant civil servants (meanwhile ensuring there is no possibility of escape)

• a reference to the possibility of divine deliverance that is realized when God sends a messenger to preserve his chosen one(s) unharmed through the ordeal

• the reversal of the action as the king releases the Jews wrongly accused and executes their malicious detractors

• a concluding doxology in praise of the God of Israel

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