Fulfilled Prophecies in the Old Testament

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Prophecies in the book of Daniel

King of Persia attacking Greece

Rise of Alexander the Great and division of his empire

Syria and Egypt became allies

Egypt attacks Syria

Unsuccessful attacks by the king’s sons

King of the North eventually successful in attacking Egypt

Further attempts by Syria to overthrow the entire Egyptian army failed

Reign of successor Seleucus IV

Succession of Antiochus IV

Military conflicts with Egypt

Persecution of the Jews

Why the book of Daniel is important?

No book of the Old Testament present such a serious threat to the rationalist as Daniel. It contains more fulfilled prophecies than any other book in the Bible. The book contains not only short-range predictions, like the seven years of Nebuchadnezzar’s insanity (chapter 4) and the imminent fall of Babylon to the Medo-Persian attackers (chapter 5), but also such long-range predictions as the four-kingdom sequence (chapter 2) and the elaboration of that sequence with its emphasis on the last days (chapter 7 and 8). It also contains the predictions of the date of Christ’s first coming and the framework of the “seventy weeks” (chapter 9). Finally it contains detailed accounts of the confrontation between the Seleucid and Ptolemaic empires and the career of the two Little Horns (chapter 11).

In order to avoid coming to the conclusion that Daniel contains true prophecies, critics have to find some later period when all such alleged predictions had already been fulfilled, such as the reign of Antiochus Epiphanes (175 - 164 B.C.).

Why Christians believe in authenticity of Daniel’s prophecies

Because it can be proven that the book was written way before the prophecies were fulfilled

Discovery of Daniel manuscripts in Qumran cave

The complete manuscripts of Daniel were found at Qumran. Since all the Qumran fragments and scrolls are copies, the autograph of Daniel and the other works must of necessity be advanced well before the Maccabean period if the proper minimum time is allowed for the book to be circulated and accepted as scripture.

Daniel was regarded as a prophet by the Qumran scribe

A Qumran document, The Florilegium (4Q174), quotes Dan 12:10 as 'written in the book of Daniel, the Prophet'.

The people at Qumran called Daniel a 'prophet'. They--eyewitnesses of these events--considered his words prophetic of the times/events. They did not consider Daniel's words to have been merely a 'description' of the past; He was describing THEIR future.

Linguistic style of the book

With the discovery of the manuscripts of the Dead Sea caves, it has become possible to perform a careful linguistic comparison of the Aramaic and Hebrew chapters of Daniel and these unquestionably third or second century B.C. documents. If Daniel had been composed in the second century B.C. these Qumran manuscripts should have exhibited just about the same general characteristics as Daniel in the matter of vocabulary, morphology and syntax. Yet the comparison shows that Daniel 2 - 7 is linguistically older than these manuscripts by several centuries.

Studies place the Aramaic within the tradition of chancellery usage at around the 6^th century B.C.

The manuscript of Daniel was related paleographically to that of Isaiah

Fragments of Daniel proved to be related paleographically to the Isaiah manuscript. Since the book of Isaiah comes from a time several centuries prior to the Macabbean period, it follows that Daniel must also be written in that period.

There are references to the book of Daniel prior to the second century

The proof of Daniel’s authorship and the dating of the book of Daniel

As to the date of the composition of Daniel, Daniel was born between 620 B.C. and 615 B.C. Since he most probably lived to the age of 85 or 90, we can presume that the book of Daniel was not composed later than 530 B.C. The narrative of the prophet's earliest experiences begins with his capture as a hostage by Nebuchadnezzar back in 605-604 B.C. and according to 1:21 continues certainly till the first year of Cyrus (c. 537 B.C.), in relation to his public service, and to the third year of Cyrus (535 B.C.), in relation to his prophetic ministry (Dan 10:1).

Recognition of Daniel even by his contemporaries

Testimony by Jesus that Daniel was a prophet who wrote about the abomination of desolation

There can be no question that Jesus believed in Daniel's authorship of the book bearing his name, for in Matthew 24:15 Jesus referred to "'the abomination that causes desolation,' spoken of through the prophet Daniel."

Desolation of Edom

Edom, in Old Testament times, a country south of the Dead Sea, in present-day southern Israel and Jordan. (Source: Encarta Encyclopedia) Mount Seir is a mountain range, which runs the length of Edom.

The land of Edom was very rugged and its capital city, Petra, had a seemingly impregnable position in the rocks of the mountains. It was a great and rich city, being the final stop of one of the great trade routes of the East. Even today its ruined buildings and palaces, carved out of solid rock, spoke of its past magnificence. But in Ezekiel 35:3-9, Jeremiah 49:16-18 and other places, there were predictions of the ultimate overthrow of Edom.

(Ezekiel 35:3-15) and say: 'This is what the Sovereign LORD says: I am against you, Mount Seir, and I will stretch out my hand against you and make you a desolate waste. {4} I will turn your towns into ruins and you will be desolate. Then you will know that I am the LORD. {5} "'Because you harbored an ancient hostility and delivered the Israelites over to the sword at the time of their calamity, the time their punishment reached its climax, {6} therefore as surely as I live, declares the Sovereign LORD, I will give you over to bloodshed and it will pursue you. Since you did not hate bloodshed, bloodshed will pursue you. {7} I will make Mount Seir a desolate waste and cut off from it all who come and go. {8} I will fill your mountains with the slain; those killed by the sword will fall on your hills and in your valleys and in all your ravines. {9} I will make you desolate forever; your towns will not be inhabited. Then you will know that I am the LORD…. {15} Because you rejoiced when the inheritance of the house of Israel became desolate, that is how I will treat you. You will be desolate, O Mount Seir, you and all of Edom. Then they will know that I am the LORD.'"

For many years this prophesy remain unfulfilled and Petra remained great and prosperous. But all these changed just as the Bible predicted it would. Now the whole land of Edom, as far as the city of Maan, is utterly desolate, with practically no inhabitants, and very little animal life. It is interesting to note that only Maan, a town on the east of Edom and with the name “Teman” in the Bible, has escaped the desolation. But this is precisely what was predicted in Ezekiel 25:13 “I will make it desolate from Teman.”

This is what the Encarta Encyclopedia had to say about Petra : Petra (Greek, “city of rock”), ancient city of Arabia, in what is now southwestern Jordan, immediately east of the village of Wadi Musa. The stronghold and treasure city of the Nabataeans, an Arab people, Petra is referred to as Sela in the Bible (see 2 Kings 14:7). It was situated in the land of Edom, between the Dead Sea and the Gulf of Aqabah, near the points of intersection of great caravan routes from Gaza on the Mediterranean Sea, from Damascus, from Elath (now Al ‘Aqabah, Jordan) on the Red Sea, and from the Persian Gulf. From the 4th century BC until the 2nd century AD, Petra was the capital of the Nabataean Kingdom. The Romans conquered it in 106 AD and made it part of the Roman province of Arabia Petraea. The city continued to flourish in the 2nd and 3rd centuries, but later, when the rival city of Palmyra took away most of Petra's trade, the importance of Petra declined. It was conquered by the Muslims in the 7th century and captured by the Crusaders in the 12th century; gradually it fell into ruins.

Destruction of Nineveh

The prophet Nahum, about 661 B.C., wrote about the destruction of Nineveh. His prophecies about this great city is stated in Nahum 2: 6, “Nineveh will be destroyed in an overwhelming flood.” We know from Babylonian records that rivers that fed a 150-foot wide ditch protecting the city overflowed and washed away some of the wall. After this had happened, the enemy could enter the city. The Bible also predicted that “Nineveh will be totally destroyed” (Nahum 3:15). In about 612 B.C. an enemy attacked the Assyrian army outside Nineveh. The city was so completely destroyed that its ruins were not even located until this last century.