Daniel Chapter 8 - Transcription of Video Two

In the introduction to his account of his vision, Daniel addressed two issues, namely when and where he saw this vision. To do this he made use of two chiasms. The first chiasm deals with the when question, and is structured as follows:

1. In year three of the kingship of Belshazzar the king,			1. בשנת שלוש למלכות בלאשצר המלך
	2. a vision appeared unto me,		2. חזון נראה אלי
		3. I Daniel,	3. אני דניאל
	4. after that which appeared unto me		4. אחרי הנראה אלי
5. at the beginning.			5. בתחלה

This chiasm has a total of five parts. The first part pairs with the fifth part, the second with the fourth, and the third part stands alone, forming the turning point of the chiasm. In this case Daniel didn't need to leave any clues in the text as to the chiasm's structure, as it is simply obvious – the subject being spoken of, defines each part of the chiasm.

The subject of the first part is a certain year of Belshazzar’s reign. Daniel refers to Belshazzar as being a king, however what Babylonian sources reveal is that he was a never a king as we would understand a king today, rather he was a prince regent. His father Nabonidus was in fact king of Babylon. Belshazzar’s first year as prince regent began in either March or April of the year 553 BC. This means his third year would have begun in either March or April of the year 551 BC.

In the second part of the chiasm, Daniel told us that in this year a vision appeared unto him, hence the subject of this second part is the appearance of a vision.

The third part of the chiasm, "I Daniel", leaves no doubt as to who authored this account of this vision. Today we have the accounts of Daniel's visions and revelations organized into chapters of a book that bares his name. However when these accounts were written, they appear to have been written as complete texts within themselves, and were not necessarily intended to form chapters of a book. Therefore in this account, Daniel would have had to have written his name somewhere in the text, simply so that the reader would know it was his. Therefore the subject of this third part is Daniel himself.

In the fourth part of the chiasm, Daniel returned to the subject of the appearance of a vision, making mention of another vision that had appeared unto him earlier. The timing of this vision is given in the fifth part of the chiasm. Since this part of the chiasm pairs with the first part, it subject must also be a certain year of Belshazzar’s reign, in which case "the beginning" must mean his first year as king or prince regent. This means, Daniel must have been referring to the vision of the four beasts, the account of which is recorded in chapter 7 of the book of Daniel.

Having addressed the when question, Daniel then moved onto the where question. This is the subject of the second chiasm.

1. And I saw in the vision. And it was with my seeing.		1. ואראה בחזון ויהי בראתי
	2. And I am in Shushan the capital, which is in Elam the state.	2. ואני בשושן הבירה אשר בעילם המדינה
3. And I saw in the vision. And I, I was above the canal of Ulai.		3. ואראה בחזון ואני הייתי על-אובל אולי

This chiasm contains three parts, with the first and third parts forming a pair, and the second part standing alone, forming the turning point of the chiasm.

The first and third parts of this chiasm, both start with the phrase, "And I saw in the vision", a sentence whose verb is in the past tense. Both are then followed by another sentence whose verb also is in the past tense. In contrast, the second part consists of a sentence in the present tense. These differences in tenses are the clues that Daniel left to show that this was the intended structure of this particular chiasm.

In the first part of the chiasm, Daniel said something rather curious. He said that he “saw in the vision”, without saying what it was that he saw. He then said that “it was with his seeing”, meaning the vision began with his seeing. Isn’t this rather a case of stating the obvious? By definition a vision is something that is seen and would always begin with someone seeing it. I believe what Daniel told us here, is that he was a part of this vision, that the very first thing he saw in the vision was himself, observing the events that were unfolding. In short in this account there are two Daniels, the real Daniel and the Daniel of the vision.

In the second part of the chiasm, the real Daniel was saying that he saw the Daniel of the vision in Shushan. Daniel never actually said where he himself was, though I suspect he would have been in Babylon, given that he gave the time reference for this vision in terms of Belshazzar's reign, Belshazzar being the prince regent of Babylon at the time.

In Daniel’s time, Shushan was at the geographical center of the known world, and because of this, the city later became one of the capitals of the Persian Empire. Daniel called Shushan the capital of the state of Elam. To the east of Elam was the Persian homeland, to its north, Media, and to its west, Babylon. It is not known for sure if Elam was at this time, the year 551 BC, already part of the empire of the Medes and the Persians, or if it was some sort of independent entity. Daniel did call Elam a state and not a kingdom, which could indicate the former. However either way I don’t believe that it’s essential for understanding Daniel’s account of his vision.

In the third part of the chiasm, Daniel gave a more specific location, as seen through the eyes of the Daniel of the vision, this being the canal of Ulai. That this is the Daniel of the vision is indicated by the emphasis on the word “I”. Daniel wrote, “And I, I was above the canal of Ulai.” Other translators may disagree that Daniel emphasized the word “I”. Certainly if this was a Modern Hebrew text, I would also assume that the extra “I” inserted in the text was redundant, and that no emphasis was intended. However this is not a Modern Hebrew text, and Daniel’s style of writing did not seem to include wasting words. If he inserted and extra “I” in the text, then he did so for a reason and an English translation should reflect this.

The identity of the canal Ulai is not certain. There are those who identify it with the river of Karkhoh. But then there is an alternate theory that Daniel was referring to an artificial canal that ran north of Shushan and connected the rivers of Karkhoh and Dez. Shushan in fact lies between the two. Advocates of this theory, point to Daniel’s use of the word ‘uval when describing the Ulai, rather than using one of the more common Hebrew words for stream or river, namely nahar or nachal. That Daniel didn't use these words indicates that the Ulai is probably not a natural stream or river.

It is worth noting that Daniel patterned the second chiasm of the introduction, a three-part chiasm, after the middle three parts of the first chiasm, both in subject and in verb tense.

First Chiasm	Subject	Tense	Second Chiasm
2. a vision appeared unto me,	Vision	Past	1. And I saw in the vision. And it was with my seeing.
3. I Daniel,	Daniel	Present	2. And I am in Shushan the capital which is Elam the state.
4. after that which appeared unto me	Vision	Past	3. And I saw in the vision. And I, I was above the canal of Ulai.

For example, the subject of the second part of the first chiasm is a vision, and is written the past tense. This matches the subject and tense of the first part of the second chiasm.

I don’t believe there is anything to be learned from this as far as the location and timing of the vision are concerned, rather by doing this here, Daniel was simply setting a precedent for future chiasm use. In part two of the vision, Daniel did the same thing. The first chiasm of that part establishes the pattern for the following chiasm. Knowing this greatly assists in the unsealing of that particular part of the vision.

So to summarize the introduction:

- Daniel received this vision in Belshazzar’s third year as prince regent, sometime between Mar/Apr 551 BC and Mar/Apr 550 BC.
- The first thing that Daniel saw in the vision was himself watching the events of the vision unfolding.
- He saw that the Daniel in the vision was in Shushan, the capital of Elam, the geographical center of the known world.
- The specific location in Shushan was above the canal of Ulai.
- Daniel used two chiasms in the introduction.
- The second chiasm follows the pattern established by the first.