The Prince of Persia: Who Held Back Daniel's Angel for 21 Days?
A hidden ruler who blocked an angel for twenty-one days, part of Daniel's picture of nations governed by rival heavenly princes.
In Daniel 10, a heavenly messenger explains he was late because "the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me one and twenty days" until Michael came to help. The text never names or describes this prince.
In Daniel 10, the prophet fasts for three weeks. Then a figure appears whose "face as the appearance of lightning, and his eyes as lamps of fire," and whose voice sounds "like the voice of a multitude." Daniel faints. The messenger explains the delay: "the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me one and twenty days: but, lo, Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me."
When he leaves, he says he must return "to fight with the prince of Persia: and when I am gone forth, lo, the prince of Grecia shall come." Michael is called "your prince," the guardian of Israel. The picture is of heavenly beings assigned to nations, fighting battles that mirror the wars of empires on earth.
This fits an older biblical idea. In the oldest manuscripts of Deuteronomy 32:8, including a Dead Sea Scroll, God divides the nations "according to the number of the sons of God." Sirach 17:17 says, "he set a ruler over every people; but Israel is the Lord's portion." Jubilees 15 says God placed spirits over the nations to lead them astray, but ruled Israel himself. Christian writers developed this into the idea of territorial spirits. The text itself leaves the prince of Persia unnamed and undescribed, known only by the delay he caused.
Daniel's angel explains that his answer was late because a rival being physically held him up for three weeks until reinforcements arrived.
Scholars read Daniel 10–12 as apocalyptic literature from the Maccabean crisis, projecting the wars of Persia, Greece and the Seleucids onto a heavenly stage.
