Old Testament Texts

Eschatology, “the teaching of the last things” (from the Greek eschaton, ‘’last” or “final”), is usually thought to focus on the last things. However, eschatology is not only the end of everything; it has a starting point. Old Testament eschatology is a story of restitution; hence it may be said to begin with the fall of Adam and Eve, where God is in full presence with Adam and Eve and announces the seed for eschatology. After the fall, humanity fell out of relationship with God. The remainder of Scripture tells the story of God’s plan to restore holiness among a holy people. This presentation seeks to situate the linear understanding of Old Testament eschatology.

With the disillusionment in some circles regarding the prophetic day-year metric, it is time to reconsider the biblical data and turn away from the uninformed gossip that has fueled the uncertainties. This paper assumes an intimate connection between the eighth and ninth chapters of Daniel, and rather than dwelling on the specifics of Daniel 8:14, examines the impact of Daniel 9:24–27 in the NT corpus. If it can be demonstrated that Daniel 9 legitimately employs the year-day principle, then that provides solid evidence for the traditional chronology of the vision of Daniel 8. Not only is the vision of Daniel 9 key to the understanding of the mission of Messiah, but it also outlines a series of specific markers that include the appearance, mission, and death of Messiah. The writers of the New Testament recognized some of these chronological pointers as evidenced by a string of (20+) references, throughout the NT, that speak of “the fullness of time.” The obvious question is, “What time?” This paper demonstrates that the time they spoke of was Daniel’s prophecy found in Daniel 9.

Understanding and interpreting the last three chapters of the book of Daniel have always been a challenge to scholars and readers of the Bible. The central prophetic content of Daniel 11:2b–12:3 that refers to the mysterious kings of the north and the south has been particularly obscure. Though this section has been either studied superficially or totally ignored in Adventist literature, during the last twenty years there has been a change toward this prophecy. This presentation also evaluates new approaches to Daniel 11 facing Adventism. This study recognizes the basic importance of grammatical and syntactical work in the exegetical enterprise. Furthermore, it demonstrates that structural analysis provides better comprehension of the passage and the flow of thoughts contained in it. It also deals with the parallelism of the Danielic prophecies and hints the chapter itself provides for its interpretation. These guidelines offer a structure for understanding Daniel 10–12.

The commentators of the book of Daniel usually divide the book into two parts: one containing narratives about Daniel and his friends and another containing visions. Usually, the narrative part is considered not very important for the interpretation of the visions. This presentation seeks to show that the book of Daniel is a coherent unity and the keys for interpreting the visions might be found in the narrative section. For this purpose the character of the little horn is taken as a test case. This presentation comes to the conclusion that the little horn is portrayed as having some features that are peculiar to the portraits of the pagan kings in the book of Daniel. Therefore some elements of the stories of Nebuchadnezzar, Belshazzar, and Darius might be understood as typological ones that anticipate the antitypological fulfillment in the end of time.

This presentation accepts and assumes the solid work done by other Seventh-day Adventist scholars in establishing the date of 457 BC as the starting date for the 2,300-day prophecy of Daniel 8:14, and AD 1844 as the ending date of the prophecy. Building on these biblically based conclusions, this study explores fresh evidence from Scripture, chronology, and Karaite history in order to determine if there can be more precision with regard to the starting and ending dates of the 2,300 day-year prophecy. It concludes that the time period of the prophecy certainly begins in the autumn (not spring) of 457 BC—probably on the Day of Atonement, October 30—and ends on the Day of Atonement in AD 1844, which, according to the biblical reckoning, almost certainly fell on October 22 that year, not September 23.

This presentation examines the theological, methodological, and historical process that characterizes the development of the futuristic system of prophetic interpretation, especially the books of Daniel and Revelation, until its establishment as the Dispensationalism. Here it is shown that the adoption of the hermeneutics methodology known as futurism, based on a literal interpretation of Scripture and the concept of a double fulfillment, has gained ground among Protestant movements to almost eliminate the system of the prophetic interpretation of the Reformation. In this way, the acceptance of the futuristic methodological approach inexorably has led to transform the eschatological interpretation in both Protestantism and Adventism.

This study uses the biblical-historicist method of interpreting the prophecy of Daniel 11. The interpretation of this chapter follows a Christocentric, cross-centered interpretation where the first part (11:1-29) focuses on the great controversy before the cross, dealing with the literal history of kingdoms in geographic areas. The second part (11:30-45) focuses on the great controversy during the Christian era after the cross between spiritual Israel and apostate Christianity where kingdoms and places take on spiritual and global meanings. When interpreting texts in the context of the time of the end, these are not explained with its focus on literal Israel with its Middle Eastern background, but in the light of spiritual Israel with its spiritual and universal perspectives.

The historical application of the fourth beast in Daniel 7 has almost exclusively been interpreted by Adventist scholars with the emphasis on the western part of the Roman Empire. This is particularly noticeable when the end of the empire is linked with the territory where the little horn appears. This presentation attempts to demonstrate that taking AD 1453 as the end of the Roman Empire brings an opportunity for a much more historically precise application of Daniel 7 in regards to the fourth beast and a much more complete theological understanding of the identity of the little horn.

The author of this theological essay on the book of Daniel is a German geologist and part-time professor at Friedensau University. According to the back cover, his goal in writing this book on Daniel was to find a new approach to the book divorced from the church’s traditional understanding of Da...

Some people care only for themselves. They are not interested in the future of the human race, the future of the people of God, or even the future of their children or grandchildren. Others care deeply. Daniel belonged to the second category, and God revealed to him large portions of the plan of ...