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Balancing accuracy with legibility
The general message of the Bible -- that God loves you enough to have sent His one and only Son to take punishment for your sin upon Himself so you could spend eternity with Him merely by faith -- was meant to be understood by all people, from all cultures, in all times.
At the same time, it's recognized by anyone who has struggled through books like Ezekiel, Daniel, and Revelation that some books are harder to understand than others. There is also such a depth of detail under the surface text of the Bible that people can spend a lifetime studying individual books and still not exhaust all the potential they contain.
Many people wishing to get closer to God by studying the Bible find it too hard to delve into the detail it offers without a guide of sorts. And such guides are usually expensive, in the form of Bible commentaries, videos or audio teaching aids.
I wanted to make something available that was not only thorough and easy to follow, but free of charge.
Copyright and usage
While this material is free, it is not in the public domain. The text represents hundreds of hours of study and writing effort. It is protected by copyright laws.
You are free to teach the course from the material on this site or the downloadable PDF files provided that full credit is given and that the material is not repurposed. You may not publish this material on other sites or use it in books, magazines, or other published form without my express written permission. To obtain such permission, please write to me at
If you decide to teach Daniel using this content, I would be greatly encouraged knowing about your effort and any feedback you wish to share. I'm committed to updating the content as new information and corrections are brought to my attention.
Bringing the Bible to life
This study is designed to bring the book of Daniel to life. I've certainly not embellished the biblical text, but have added drama to the historical context and narrative where it seemed suitable.
One of my great concerns with modern study tools is the growth of false teaching brought on by such self-proclaimed groups of "Bible experts" as the Jesus Seminar. I've even seen otherwise solid commentaries that will suddenly proclaim of a scriptural statement, "this is doubtful." Wrong. Nothing in the Bible is "doubtful" and many things once thought incorrect were later proven accurate by some archeological or scientific discovery. Many scholars and teachers do not hold to the foundational truths of Scripture but want to rewrite the biblical text into a new, more politically correct narrative. So I've taken great pains to be as accurate as possible when discussing areas of common disagreement.
I do not acknowledge the post-modern textual criticism that questions every detail in the Bible. If a point of scholarly disagreement is sensible enough or generally agreed on by most commentaries (especially older ones) I'll present it without any extra comments that would only serve to confuse the reader. If there is much disagreement I'll indicate this so the reader can make an informed opinion.
Higher criticism is generally practiced by people who don't accept the inerrancy of Scripture, leading to many doctrinal errors. Those focused on such textual criticism make me think of the group of researchers looking carefully at a wrinkled surface with magnifying glasses and concluding it's the leg of an elephant, while ordinary people standing a few feet back recognize that it's really a giant Sequoia tree and part of a beautiful forest. The Bible was meant to be understood by ordinary people, and is beautiful in its clarity and scope.
About the unique Bible translation used in this study of Daniel
The Bible text used in this study is not a typical commercial translation, for a very good reason. Bear with me while I explain: Originally I taught this course to an adult Sunday School class at my church, South Delta Baptist Church. In that setting I could of course use various Bible translations to go through the text of Daniel. Things change dramatically when publishing something like this on the Web.
Bible publishers must spend huge sums on translation efforts to bring us easily understandable modern translations like the NIV, NASB or NLT. This investment is protected by copyright laws so that the publishing companies can recover those costs through the sale of Bibles or licensing fees. People are allowed to quote a limited number of Scripture passages on a Web site at no charge, but not an entire book as was required in this case.
As an individual producing a free study, I'm not able to pay the huge licensing fees required for web usage of any modern English translation.
The only choice available was to either use the King James Version which is in the public domain, or to write my own translation. While I respect the KJV, the 400-year-old language it contains would be unsuitable for a modern Web audience. Its Shakesperean English is just too old-fashioned and hard to follow, not to mention the occasional errors it contains (mostly because of major alterations in the meanings of words). So I set out on the daunting process of creating my own translation.
This translation was built using the KJV as a foundational source. Quaint old-fashioned references to "thee," "thine" and so on were modernized. Other words and phrases no longer in use were rewritten using the modern equivalents. Finally, I checked every passage carefully against not only other translations but against the original Hebrew and Aramaic text to see if the KJV itself had been accurate. In some places it wasn't and needed to be modified even more. In some cases the KJV was more accurate than modern translations. Many times entire passages had to be rewritten from scratch to make the phrasing structure more readable for a modern-day audience.
While this is a translation, not meant to be a paraphrase, it was designed for readability and all such renderings are by their nature a paraphrased version of the original text. Those wishing to do a deep and rich study would be better suited to a translation such as the NKJV or NASB which more closely follow the flavor of the original wording rather than trying to preserve readability.
This translation is protected by copyright laws. I have no intention of profiting from it, and will grant usage rights at no charge to those who need it. You must, however, write me to receive written approval.
I hope you enjoy this study and grow spiritually through it.
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