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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 12:3 and 4Q184 1:8

Hebrew Bible · Dead Sea Scrolls, Wisdom and Instruction

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Summary

Daniel promises that the wise will shine like the stars after the dead awaken. In 4Q184 from the Dead Sea Scrolls, the wicked woman has no share among the shining ones, suggesting that this promise of life after death does not extend to her.

Passages

Daniel 12:3

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.
200–101 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Daniel

4Q184 1:8

Dead Sea Scrolls, Wisdom and Instruction · The Seductress
6 depths of the pit. Her lodgings are couches of darkness, and in the dead of night are her dominions. From the foundations of deep darkness 7 she pitches her dwelling, and she resides in the tents of silence, in the midst of everlasting burnings. She has no inheritance among all 8 the lights of brightness. She is the beginning of all the ways of iniquity. Woe, disaster to all who inherit her, and ruin to all 9 who hold on to her. For her ways are ways of death, and her paths are tracks of sin. Her trails lead astray
100–60 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in 4Q184

References

“... These expressions do not describe the time of night when the woman stalks through city streets, as in Prov 7. It is the darkness of the underworld where she resides. 4Q184 elaborates the claim in Proverbs that the Strange Woman represents a path to death. The language of darkness and death is intensified with a more vivid description of Sheol than in Proverbs. [...] The affirmation that her domain is amidst the "eternal flames" is immediately followed by the statement that "none of her inheritance is among all who shine brightly [...] " (4Q184 1 7-8). 52 This suggests a form of astral immortality for the righteous after death, in a manner similar to Dan 12:3 and 1 En. 104:2-6 (cf. 1QM 1:8-9; Matt 25:41). 53 While those who are to enjoy a blessed afterlife are distinguished from the woman of 4Q184, those who are part of her allotment suffer punishment after death. ...”
Matthew J. Goff, Discerning Wisdom: The Sapiential Literature of the Dead Sea Scrolls (Leiden: Brill, 2007), 115.

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 12:3 and 4Q184 1:8

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