Daniel

The Book of Daniel presents Daniel as a young Judean taken to Babylon who serves at the courts of Nebuchadnezzar and later Persian kings. In the first half of the book he interprets dreams: in chapter 2 a statue of gold, silver, bronze, iron and clay, and in chapter 4 a dream in which "a watcher and an holy one" comes down from heaven. The second half contains his own visions, including the Ancient of Days on a fiery throne with wheels of burning fire (chapter 7).

In Daniel 10, after three weeks of fasting, Daniel sees a figure with a face like lightning. The angel explains that his answer was delayed because the "prince of the kingdom of Persia" withstood him twenty-one days until Michael came to help. Chapters 10–12 picture nations ruled by rival heavenly princes.

Most scholars date the book's final form to the Maccabean crisis around 167–164 BCE, with its visions reviewing earlier history as prophecy. Daniel is known from this book and additions to it in Greek.