Deeper Reflection
Daniel can be divided into chapters 1-6 and 7-12 by literary form – stories and visions. It can also be divided into chapters 1-7 and 8-12 by language – in that Daniel was written in two languages, Hebrew and Aramaic: 1:1-2:4a (Hebrew), 2:4b-7:28 (Aramaic), chapters 8-12 (Hebrew). Commentator Ernest Lucas calls Daniel “an enigma”, in that “It is written in two languages, but the language division does not coincide with the other obvious division, that between the stories and the visions.”³ Daniel 7 overlaps in the two approaches to dividing the book: chapters 1-6 and 7-12; chapters 1-7 and 8-12. In these two approaches, we can view “chapter 7 as the centre of the book, belonging as it does to the first part by language [chaps. 1-7] and to the second by literary form [chaps. 7-12].”⁴In dividing Daniel as chapters 1-7 and 8-12, the structure of mirror parallelism is surfaced in Daniel 2:4-7:28 (in Aramaic) that presents a theological paradigm of the sovereignty of God, highlighting three pairs of theological themes:

Introduction (chap. 1) God dominates over history (chap. 2) God delivers from harm (chap. 3) God dethrones the haughty (chap. 4) God dethrones the haughty (chap. 5) God delivers from harm (chap. 6)                                                                                          God dominates over history (chap. 7)

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³ Ernest C. Lucas, Daniel, Apollos Old Testament Commentary (Apollos, IVP, 2002), 312 ⁴ John E. Goldingay, Daniel, Word Biblical Commentary (Word Books, 1989), 325