General chronology and approximate age of Daniel

The book of Daniel covers an exceptionally long period, from Daniel’s arrival in the Babylonian world to the first years of Persian rule. The text provides several chronological indications, but never states Daniel’s age directly. The following table therefore adopts as a working hypothesis an age of about fourteen in 605 BC. The ages given are estimates intended to visualize the length of his journey.

Three categories of data must be distinguished.

The first consists of the indications explicitly given by the biblical text, for example the first year of Belshazzar (Daniel 7.1), his third year (Daniel 8.1) or the third year of Cyrus (Daniel 10.1).

The second consists of the historical dates obtained by relating these indications to the chronology of the Babylonian and Persian kingdoms.

The third consists of the estimated ages of Daniel.

This last category is necessarily hypothetical, since the book states neither the year of his birth nor his age when he arrived in Babylon.

Daniel 1 presents Daniel and his companions as young men selected to receive training at the Babylonian court (Daniel 1.3-6).

The text does not state their age.

In this study, the hypothesis adopted is that of a Daniel aged about fourteen in 605 BC

This estimate places his birth around 619 BC

It is a working reference point, not something explicitly taught by the biblical text.

All the ages presented below must therefore be understood as approximations that depend on this initial hypothesis.

Daniel 1.5 indicates that the young Judeans were to receive training for three years before being presented before the king.

If Daniel was about fourteen when he arrived, he would therefore be approximately seventeen at the end of this training.

This estimate makes it possible to measure an important element of the narrative.

Daniel is still very young when he has to learn to live within the Babylonian court, master a new culture and at the same time preserve his religious faithfulness.

His entry into the Babylonian administration therefore probably takes place while he is still a young man.

The first chapters then cover a period that is much harder to date precisely.

Daniel 2 gives an indication relating to the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, but chapters 3 and 4 do not give a date precise enough to calculate Daniel’s age with certainty.

It would therefore be artificial to assign an exact age to Daniel for each of these episodes.

The method adopted is to indicate an age only when the chronology allows a reasonable estimate.

This caution avoids turning a reconstruction into false precision.

A long period separates the events associated with Nebuchadnezzar from the dated visions of Belshazzar’s reign.

Nebuchadnezzar dies in 562 BC

Several rulers succeed him before Nabonidus comes to power and his son Belshazzar takes his place in the administration of the kingdom.

Daniel is therefore already an old man when the visions of Daniel 7 and 8 begin.

This observation significantly changes the picture one may have of the prophet.

The young Daniel of the first chapter and the Daniel who beholds the four beasts are not at the same point in his life.

Several decades separate them.

The fall of Babylon in 539 BC is the most important historical reference point for appreciating the length of Daniel’s life.

If Daniel was about fourteen in 605 BC, sixty-six years have passed.

He would therefore be approximately:

14 + 66 = 80 years old.

The Daniel summoned before Belshazzar in Daniel 5 is therefore no longer the young man who arrived in Babylon.

According to the chronological hypothesis adopted, he is a man of about eighty.

This also helps us understand why Daniel seems to need to be recalled to the king’s memory in the account of Belshazzar’s banquet (Daniel 5.10-16).

He belongs to an earlier generation of the Babylonian administration.

This chronology gives particular force to Daniel 1.21:

“Thus Daniel continued until the first year of King Cyrus.”

At the beginning of the book, Babylon appears to be the dominant power.

Daniel is the captive.

Nebuchadnezzar is the conqueror.

Yet Daniel outlives Nebuchadnezzar, his successors and finally the Babylonian Empire itself.

The young deportee remains when the empire that had taken him into captivity disappears.

This longevity thus carries a narrative and theological value that goes beyond mere chronology.

The fall of Babylon does not mark the end of Daniel’s activity.

Daniel 6 still presents him in an important administrative position under Darius the Mede.

Daniel 9 also places a revelation in the first year of Darius.

Daniel 10.1 finally leads us to the third year of Cyrus.

On the hypothesis adopted, Daniel would then be about eighty-three.

The book therefore covers almost an entire lifetime.

It begins with a teenager facing exile and ends with an old man still receiving revelations about a future that he will not himself see fully accomplished.

Daniel’s approximate age also helps us better understand why the order of the chapters must not be confused with chronological order.

The literary sequence is:

Daniel 1 → 2 → 3 → 4 → 5 → 6 → 7 → 8 → 9 → 10-12.

But the chronology of the visions requires us, in particular, to place Daniel 7 and Daniel 8 before the fall of Babylon told in chapter 5.

A simplified representation therefore gives:

605 BC - Daniel’s arrival in the Babylonian world↓

reign of Nebuchadnezzar - Daniel 1-4↓

reign of Belshazzar - Daniel 7, then Daniel 8↓

539 BC - fall of Babylon, Daniel 5↓

Darius the Mede - Daniel 6 and Daniel 9↓

Cyrus - Daniel 10-12

This chronology does not cancel the current order of the book.

On the contrary, it allows us to distinguish better the history Daniel lived from the literary organization chosen to transmit this history and these revelations.

The chronology finally allows us to follow an exceptional journey.

Daniel arrives in the Babylonian world when he is probably still a teenager, on the hypothesis adopted.

He receives training.

He enters the service of the administration.

He lives through the long reign of Nebuchadnezzar.

He sees several rulers succeed one another.

He receives visions under Belshazzar.

He witnesses the disappearance of the Babylonian Empire.

He continues his work under the new rule.

More than seventy years probably separate his birth from some of his great visions.

This span gives particular depth to the last word addressed to him:

“But go your way till the end; you shall rest, and shall stand in your allotted place at the end of the days” (Daniel 12.13).

The personal story that began with a young exile thus ends with an old man to whom a hope is announced that goes beyond his own death.