It’s not hard to notice that there’s a 400-year gap between the last page of the Old Testament and the first page of the New Testament. Because new books didn’t get added to the Hebrew Bible during those centuries, Christians sometimes call it the “intertestamental period” or “silent years.” A common question arises: does the Book of Daniel describe what happened during those 400 years?
Yes and no. The 400-year period in the Book of Daniel isn’t described as history, but major events from that era are accurately prophesied decades before they happened.
The Book of Daniel is set during the Jewish exile in Babylon, between 605 and 530 BC. Daniel in the lion’s den and his three friends in the fiery furnace are set in the sixth century BC. Daniel’s book, however, contains a lot of visions and prophecies that go way out into the future.
Daniel shows a ram with two horns and a goat with a big horn in chapter 8. The angel Gabriel explains that the ram represents the Medo-Persian Empire and the goat represents Greece. Historically, Alexander the Great conquered the Persian Empire in just a couple of years and died unexpectedly in 323 BC. When that horn breaks, four smaller horns replace it. The vision predicted that his empire would be divided among four generals.
Daniel chapter 11 gives even more detail. In verse 2, the chapter lists Persian kings, then describes a mighty king whose kingdom is divided into four parts. From verse 5 onward, the text describes a “king of the South” and a “king of the North” who fight each other for generations. These are the Ptolemaic rulers of Egypt in the south and the Seleucid rulers of Syria in the north, according to scholars. Battles, marriages, betrayals, and military campaigns match known history like a glove.
The prophecy reaches a climax around verses 30 to 35 with a cruel king stopping the daily temple sacrifice, setting up an abomination that causes desolation, and persecuted the Jewish people. 167 BC was when Antiochus IV Epiphanes outlawed Jewish worship, sacrificed a pig on the altar in Jerusalem, and put a Zeus image inside the temple. As a result of these actions, the Maccabean Revolt broke out, which led to Jewish independence for a short time.
There are four beasts rising from the sea in Daniel chapters 2 and 7. Chapter 2 shows a statue made from four metals: gold, silver, bronze, and iron mixed with clay. The passages outline four world empires: Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, and Rome. There’s a 400-year gap between the Testaments between the Greek and Roman periods.
Daniel wrote these prophecies long before the events happened. If we accept the traditional dating, he wrote around 530 BC. Even scholars who prefer a later date usually place the final form of the book no later than 164 BC, still before many of what it claims to predict happened. It’s amazing how detailed the book is about kings, battles, and temple desecration.
I think it’s important to understand what Daniel doesn’t do. It doesn’t tell the story of the Maccabean victories, the rise of the Hasmonean priest-kings, the Roman conquest of Judea in 63 BC, or the reign of Herod the Great as past history. Those stories happen elsewhere. This book tells about the revolt against Antiochus and the rededication of the temple, which Jews celebrate on Hanukkah. It’s in the Apocrypha of the Catholic and Orthodox Bibles. Later history of the period is also recorded by Flavius Josephus.
Daniel doesn’t give a historical description of the 400 silent years, but it does give some of the clearest predictions ever about the first half of that period. Daniel outlines major political and religious developments centuries before they happen, from the rise of Alexander to Antiochus IV. In addition to 1 and 2 Maccabees, Josephus, and other ancient sources, Daniel stands as prophecy, not history, yet its accuracy continues to impress Bible and ancient history students alike.
