The book of Daniel and the Revelation are counterparts of each other. They should be studied together as to get the whole picture of God's redemptive plan, the world's history, the future of the world, God's victory over evil at the end of the world, and a glimpse into the new heaven and the new earth. Even if these two books are different, many parts of the books talk about the same event of world's history. In this essay, I will show how the book of Daniel is related to Revelation and then how John uses the imagery of Daniel. First of all, let us look at the introduction to the books of Daniel and Revelation. .
The word "Daniel" means "God is my Judge." Daniel was believed to be the author of the book as he claimed to write it (12:4) and he also used the autobiographical first person from 7:2 onward. The majority of scholars hold a view that this book was written in late sixth-century B.C. while few believed it was written in second-century B.C in the time of Maccabees (Nelson 1982). There are three famous stories in the book of Daniel which are "three young Hebrew men in the fiery furnace," "the hand writing on the wall at Belhshazzar's feast," and "Daniel in the lions' den." Apart from famous stories, the book of Daniel is an apocalypse of the Old Testament in which it records dreams, visions and their interpretations which are not very easy to understand. However, the book is as relevant today as it was in Daniel's time. It presents a comprehensive sweep of prophetic history.
Meanwhile, Revelation is the prophetic book of the New Testament and it is also the last book of the Bible. Just as the first book of the Bible, Genesis, is the book of the beginnings, Revelation is the book of consummation. The word "revelation" derives from the Greek word "apocalypse" and it refers to the unveiling of God's secret purposes. The author was John, whether it was John the apostle or another John.
