Daniel Chapter 8 - Transcription of Video One

Chapter 8 of the book of Daniel contains the account of Daniel's second vision, the vision of the ram, the goat and the horns, that he received in the 6th century BC. Daniel did not write a simple account of this vision, rather according to instructions given him, he wrote an account that was sealed. Therefore to understand this chapter, Daniel’s account must first be unsealed. It stands to reason that if a man, that is Daniel, sealed the account of the vision, then another man can unseal it.

I believe the key to doing this is to identify the way in which Daniel structured the text of his account. In particular Daniel used a literary form know as a chiasm. A chiasm, which is widely used in biblical Hebrew literature, is a sort of inverse parallelism. The writer lists a number of thoughts or ideas, and then lists those same thoughts or ideas again in reverse order. Take for example this sentence, "He who fails to prepare, prepares to fail." The first half of the sentence deals with the ideas of failing and then preparing, the last half lists these same ideas, but in reverse order.

Knowing that Daniel used chiasms in this text is the key to understanding it, and when the text is studied in its original language, that is Hebrew, it becomes obvious that Daniel left clues throughout the text, that show where these chiasms begin and end. Once these chiasms have been identified, then it is possible to divide this chapter up into a total of six parts. They are as follows:

1. Introduction
2. Part One of the Vision
3. Part Two of the Vision
4. Part Three of the Vision
5. Interpretation
6. Conclusion

I will discuss each part in turn, and then at the end offer my interpretation of what it all means. But before I do, I believe it prudent to review the exact meaning of the two Hebrew words, tsafon and negev, both of which appear in chapter 8, and are usually rendered as “north” and “south” respectively in English translations. In the context of this vision I believe that this is incorrect.

The word negev literally means “a dry place”. In the Land of Israel, the southern part of the country is a desert, and in fact today is called “The Negev”. Thus someone who is in the Land of Israel could use the word negev when speaking of the south.

As for the use of the word tsafon, I will take as an example the words of the prophet Jeremiah. In chapter 25 of the book of Jeremiah, Jeremiah gave a list of nations that would drink the cup of the wine of fury, along with all the nations of the earth. According to this chapter he gave this list in the fourth year of Yehoyakim king of Judah, which was also the first year of Nebuchadnezzar the year 605 BC.

“And I took the cup from the hand of Yahuah. And I made all of the nations drink, unto them whom Yahuah sent me. Jerusalem and the cities of Judah. And her kings, her princes. To give them for a waste, for a desolation, for a hissing, and for a curse as this day. Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and his servants, and his princes, and all his people. And all the mixed people, and all the kings of the land of Uz. And all the kings of the land of the Philistines. And Ashkelon, and Gaza, and Ekron, and the remnant of Ashdod. Edom and Moab, and the children of Ammon. And all the kings of Tyre, and all the kings of Sidon, and the kings of the peninsular (lit.island) which is beyond the sea. And Dedan, and Tema, and Buz, and all the cuttings of the corner. And all the kings of Arabia, and all the kings of the mixed people who dwell in the desert. And all the kings of Zimri, and all the kings of Elam, and all the kings of Media. And all the kings of the tsafon, the ones that are near and the ones that are far, a man unto his brother. And all the kingdoms of the world which are upon the face of the earth. And the king of Sheshach shall drink after them.” Jeremiah 25:17-26 (my translation)

On this map I have shown the locations of some of the nations that Jeremiah listed. Remember that he himself was in the land of Israel when he gave his prophecy.

This map shows us two things. First it shows the limits of Jeremiah’s knowledge of geography. On the map, I’ve drawn a red line to represent this limit as suggested by his list. This is not to say that Jeremiah didn’t know the world is a much larger place. On the contrary, in giving the list of nations he indicated that he was quite well aware that there were lands on this earth that he was not familiar with. This is an important point to keep in mind when interpreting this vision of Daniel’s. In his account Daniel also made geographical references, and when interpreting them, one should keep in mind the limits of Daniel’s own knowledge of geography.

The second thing the map shows, is that Jeremiah was only able to name lands that were to the south and to the east of the land of Israel. To the north, only to the kingdom of Greece did he make any sort of reference, as in “the peninsular beyond the sea”.

As an aside, biblical Hebrew does not have a word for “peninsular”, as peninsulas are hardly a common feature on the coastline of the land of Israel. Hence when referring to a peninsular, the biblical writers used the best approximation, this being the word ee meaning “island”. In his list Jeremiah referred to the island, as in one island, beyond the sea. An island, as we understand an island, is a body of land surrounded by water on all sides, so by definition an island would always be in the midst of the sea and never beyond it. Therefore when Jeremiah said an island beyond the sea, he must have been referring to a peninsular.

The rest of the lands that were within Jeremiah’s sphere of knowledge, he called the lands of the tsafon which are near. The word tsafon comes from a root, which means “unknown” or “hidden”. In this instance the word tsafon could perhaps be translated as “north”, since these lands are geographically north of the land of Israel. However Jeremiah also referred to the lands of the tsafon which are far. In this case he could have been referring to lands in any compass direction, so in this case tsafon should be translated according to its root of “hidden” or “unknown”.

I would conclude therefore, that the translation of the words tsafon and negev as "north" and "south", is only correct if one is giving directions centered on the land of Israel and that the object of the direction is relatively close. However in the vision, Daniel was nowhere near the land of Israel, therefore we cannot assume that he was referring to the north and the south when he used the words tsafon and negev. So in my discussion of his vision, I will not translate these words, rather I will leave them in the Hebrew, since the vision itself will have to provide their definitions.

Finally, before starting with my discussion, I would highly recommend reading, in its entirety, my translation of Daniel’s account of this vision. My discussion will be a lot easier to understand if you are already familiar with the structure of the chapter as defined by the chiasms within it.