Books of Daniel and Revelation

I started off with the Book of Daniel and thought the dreams were hard to keep up with. It was an interesting subject of dream interpretations, but I found myself many times getting confused or having to refer back to previous wording. However, I was much more engaged with the text in the Book of Revelation. The text, although much longer, was much more fascinating. It had a lot of imagery with many metaphors and similes. Also, I recommend reading the explanation for the Book of Revelation before reading it. (Like understanding that the lamb represents Jesus.)

The Book of Daniel

While reading The Book of Daniel, I had a very hard time seeing the story as one that was true. With all of the prophecies and the infinite horns, I felt as if I was reading a novel. Sure, the story has many symbolistic ideas in it, such as the horns representing the 4 kings, but overall this felt like another viewing of the Clash of the Titans. It felt as if there were many Gods involved in making the prophecy, or the multiple dreams, come true. And as a Jewish person, myself, one who has been exposed to hebrew stories before, I felt kind of disappointed that the religion I believed in offered a story that seemed to have many faults in it. Sure, not everything in the old testament has to be true, but I never thought that the religion I believed in would parallel ancient greek classics where a prophecy that shall be fulfilled would dictate how actual living times would be run. Overall, I was just surprised after what I read, and felt as if the concepts involved were not true.

10/23/2014 Ian Crowley

The way that The Book of Daniel was written in first person immediately captured my attention. Since the book was written in first person I felt that it was much easier for me to relate with Daniel's emotions. It definitely allows the reader to connect with Daniel because they can see the events through his perspective. One thing that I found particularly interesting about The Book of Daniel was the idea of dreams revealing "the end" to Daniel.  I thought the interpretation of Daniels dream in chapter 7 was quite interesting. Daniel dreams about the four beasts, which represent four kings rising from the earth. Only one of these four kings, however, will be the Most High and gain possession of the full kingdom. I find dreams and the interpretation of dreams to be a fascinating subject, so I really enjoyed reading this.

Book of Daniel

What stuck out to me most about these readings was their use of the word "apocalypse." As a result of movies and novels these days, we tend to think of apocalypse as a disaster or something of the sort, when in fact, this is one of the last definitions of the word in the dictionary! According to Dictionary.com the first definition is "revelation." This gives more meaning to the reading titled "Apocaplyse: What Disasters Reveal" by Junot Diaz, because apocalypses are truly just revelations! In the Book of Daniel, it's more specifically that these revelations are told to a prophet or someone else of importance to simply predict what will happen in the future, whether or not this future is to be disastrous or not... the word apocalypse is not what I thought it was! I've learned something new today.

Revelation

It was very interesting for me to read the actual text of revelation. I have really never read the bible in any form on my own. I have heard passages from the bible when going to church with distant relatives or certain friends, as well as some of the writings from the old testament in synagogue when I was younger, but I have never really gone out of my way to study them on my own.

The analysis of Revelations was also very helpful in understanding the meaning of the text. I am glad that I read the analysis before reading the actual text. One thing that stuck out to me in the analysis was the discussion of the violent nature of the subject matter. Reading through the actual text, I would have to agree that it is indeed incredibly violent, however it read to me almost in a similar way that a very action packed and violent novel might read. I was very intrigued and enthralled by the action and it was overall very easy to read.

There is one quote which I found to be very interesting. I think it has a lot of significance and a lot of relevance. In my opinion, religious people everywhere (but especially certain fanatical religious people of the modern age) could learn something from this quote:

"Let him who does wrong continue to do wrong; let him who is vile continue to be vile; let him who does right continue to do right; and let him who is holy continue to be holy."

Book of Daniel

After reading the text, I was really impressed by how complex the Bible is.  The Bible is like the human body, and the parts that it consists of are like the organs inside the human body.  Besides that observation, this was the first time where I really noticed the presence of apocalyptic events in religious texts.  I think the events that occurred in the Book of Daniel teaches an important lesson.  Although I looked at it from a non-religious point of view, I thought the message was very powering.  This is how I interpreted it: In times of crisis and oppression, stay faithful in the fact that the problem will work its way out.

The Book of Daniel

I found the first portion of The Book of Daniel to read like a Greek Myth. The plot was entertaining and there seemed to be some type of moral the reader should learn after Daniel interprets Nebuchadnezzar's dream; however, I found that moral to simply be a pious call for more god worship. The story would have meant much more to me if it had stopped after the first dream, but the continuation of excruciatingly-specific dreams took away from the impact of the first. Daniel's dreams are specific guidelines as to what the "time of the end" will look like, but they are initially represented through simplistic metaphors relating to the amount of horns on a beast's head. I found it very interesting how many times Daniel specifically references himself in his telling of the story or his dream relations. I wonder what the purpose of the repetition of his name is, if any. I found it refreshing to read a quasi-religious text where the author tells the story in first-person format, because I find the ubiquitous third-person narrative style of Genesis to be almost unreadable in its lack of captivating storytelling. Daniel's dreams are very symbolic and, on the surface, I believe dream-interpretation to be a fascinating endeavor. When the subconscious, dreaming mind is able to formulate complex situations that offer symbolism to the mind of the dreamer, I find that to be a very, very cool experience. Dreams are powerful things and The Book of Daniel is certainly a proponent of that notion.

Book of Daniel

      The story about Daniel and the revelation about the dream of the king was very intriguing. In many Judeo-Christian and even Islamic traditions there are stories about kings and rulers seeking advice from mystics or interpreters. For example in the Islamic tradition the rulers during the times of Noah and Moses received prophecy that a baby that was to be born would destroy the power of the ruler.
Another part of the readings that I found intriguing was the idea that the world will at some point be thrown into a time of apocalypse and catastrophe leading to the appearance of the anti-Christ, but that the world will be saved by Jesus or a messiah in the Jewish tradition. In the Islamic tradition a similar idea is conveyed with a man descended from the Prophet Muhammad to come with Jesus as the messiahs.