Daniel 12 Footnotes

12:2-3 Verse 2 is generally considered to be the OT’s plainest reference to the resurrection of the faithful (see v. 13), though the idea occurs in several earlier passages (Jb 19:26; Ps 17:15; Is 26:19; see Ezk 37:11-13). At one time it was common for critical commentators to credit the author of Daniel with the first unmistakable teaching about life after death. Yet recent studies, particularly in linguistic parallels in texts from Ugarit (ca thirteenth century BC), have demonstrated that such a belief is very ancient in Israel. Critical suggestions of an origin for the Hebrew doctrine of the resurrection in the Zoroastrian religion of Persia have been shown to have no real basis.

12:11-12 Commentators who relate the book of Daniel to the events of the persecution under Antiochus IV Epiphanes theorize that the 1,290 and 1,335 days were adjustments to the author’s previous failed predicted time until the end of 1,260 days (see v. 7 with Rv 12:6,14). Perhaps the extra days signify the time in which the Lord will judge the nations and officially inaugurate his kingdom. Those who reach the 1,335 days are “happy” because they will enter the greatest period in human history—the Messianic Age.