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Daniel

About this book
Chapter 12

1 “At that time Michael, the great prince who watches over your people,⁠ will arise.⁠ There will be a time of distress unlike any other from the nation’s beginning up to that time.⁠ But at that time your own people, all those whose names are found written in the book, will escape.⁠ 2 Many of those who sleep in the dusty ground will awake—some⁠ to everlasting life, and others to shame and everlasting abhorrence.⁠ 3 But the wise will shine like the brightness of the heavenly expanse.⁠ And those bringing many to righteousness will be like the stars forever and ever.⁠ 4 “But you, Daniel, close up these words and seal the book until the time of the end.⁠ Many will dash about, and knowledge will increase.”⁠ 5 I, Daniel, watched as two others stood there, one on each side of the river. 6 One said to the man clothed in linen who was above the waters of the river, “When will the end of these wondrous events occur?” 7 Then I heard the man clothed in linen who was over the waters of the river as he raised both his right and left hands to the sky and made an oath by the one who lives forever:⁠ “It is for a time, times, and half a time.⁠ Then, when the power of the one who shatters the holy people has been exhausted, all these things will be finished.” 8 I heard, but I did not understand. So I said, “Sir, what will happen after these things?” 9 He said, “Go, Daniel. For these matters are closed and sealed until the time of the end. 10 Many will be purified, made clean, and refined, but the wicked will go on being wicked. None of the wicked will understand, though the wise will understand. 11 From the time that the daily sacrifice is removed and the abomination that causes desolation is set in place, there are 1,290 days. 12 Blessed is the one who waits and attains to the 1,335 days. 13 But you should go your way until the end. You will rest, and then at the end of the days you will arise to receive what you have been allotted.”

Texts in conversation

Compare Daniel 12:2 and 2 Maccabees 7:9

Hebrew Bible · Deuterocanon

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Summary

2 Maccabees echoes language from Daniel, which refers to a future resurrection where the righteous are raised to life while others face shame. This points to a developing tradition of resurrection in Jewish thought during the Hellenistic period.

Passages

Daniel 12:2

Hebrew Bible
1 “At that time Michael, the great prince who watches over your people, will arise. There will be a time of distress unlike any other from the nation’s beginning up to that time. But at that time your own people, all those whose names are found written in the book, will escape. 2 Many of those who sleep in the dusty ground will awake—some to everlasting life, and others to shame and everlasting abhorrence. 3 But the wise will shine like the brightness of the heavenly expanse. And those bringing many to righteousness will be like the stars forever and ever. 4 “But you, Daniel, close up these words and seal the book until the time of the end. Many will dash about, and knowledge will increase.”
200–101 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Daniel

2 Maccabees 7:9

Deuterocanon
7 And when the first had died like this, they brought the second to the mocking; and they pulled off the skin of his head with the hair and asked him, “Will you eat, before your body is punished in every limb?” 8 But he answered in the language of his ancestors and said to them, “No.” Therefore he also underwent the next torture in succession, as the first had done. 9 When he was at the last gasp, he said, “You, miscreant, release us out of this present life, but the King of the world will raise us who have died for his laws up to an everlasting renewal of life.” 10 After him, the third was made a victim of their mocking. When he was required, he quickly put out his tongue, and stretched out his hands courageously, 11 and nobly said, “I got these from heaven. For his laws’ sake I treat these with contempt. From him, I hope to receive these back again.”
160–63 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in 2 Maccabees

References

"... For millennia the question of life after death has been a preoccupation of human societies. Descriptions of afterlife express various concerns, needs and aspirations, and reveal some of the ways humans have related to the divine and the world. The concept of afterlife in Judaism and Christianity has exercised the imagination of millions, in prayers and personal hopes, in doctrines and the arts. The Christian concept of the afterlife has especially accentuated resurrection and subsequent communion with God in heaven, expressed in part as a banquet. The Hebrew Bible has provided some illumination for the background of these concepts. The origins of the concept of resurrection have been pushed back at least to the Hellenistic period (Daniel 12:2; 2 Maccabees 7:9, 11, 14, 23; compare 1 Enoch 51:1, 61:5; 2 Esdras 7:32), and perhaps to the Persian period (Isaiah 26:19). The heavenly banquet in New Testament time has a forerunner in the eschatological banquet described in Isaiah 25:6-8. The Ugaritic texts have prompted a major reconsideration of the origins and development of resurrection and afterlife in Israelite religion, because they describe the death and return to life of Baal and the feasts of dead heroes and kings, the Rephaim ..."
Mark S. Smith and Elizabeth M. Bloch-Smith, “Death and Afterlife in Ugarit and Israel,” JAOS 108 (1988): 277–284.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

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Daniel 12:2 and 2 Maccabees 7:9

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