Dan 2:1-49

The Old Testament > Daniel > Chapter 2
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Outline and brief summary

The relationship chapter 2 to the rest of the book is discussed at Daniel. In particular, chapter 2 should be read in conjunction with chapters 7-8. Chapter 2 can be outlined as follows:

B. Dream of the statue (Daniel 2)

a. the king’s request to recount the dream will verify its interpretation (1-9)

b. the king’s priests state that only a god can reveal dreams (10-13)

c. Daniel promises to interpret the dream (14-19)

d. Daniel praises God as the controller of history, revealer of secrets, and source of his own wisdom (19-23)

c. Daniel states that he is ready to interpret the dream (24-25)

b. Daniel states that only God can reveal the dream (26-30)

a. Daniel recounts the king’s dream (31-36)

a. Daniel interprets the king’s dream (37-45)

d. the king praises God as a true revealer of secrets (46-49)

Discussions of this chapter usually focus on the substance of King Nebuchadnezzar’s dream. But at the most important point in this chiasmus, the center, Daniel instead emphasizes the more basic point that God alone can reveal such dreams and that God does control in the affairs of men.

The single best resource for interpreting the visions in the Book of Daniel is the Old Testament Institute Manual (vol. II, ch.28, p.298-99, 304-06), especially its collection of general authority quotes regarding interpretation of the statue in Daniel 2.

The Institute Manual quotes Apostle Rudger Clawson stating in the April 1930 General Conference that: (#1) the head of brass is the Babylonian empire, (#2) the arms and breast of silver are the empire of the Medes and Persians, (#3) the belly and thighs of brass are the Greek empire of Alexander the Great, which upon his death is split into four empires, (#4) the two legs of iron are the Roman empire with its two capitals at Rome and Constantinople, and (#4b) the ten toes are the European nations that descend from Rome.

The Institute Manual also quotes President Spencer Kimball stating in the April 1976 General Conference that the Church has been restored in the days of the European nations as (#5) “the kingdom set up by the God of heaven that would never be destroyed nor superseded, and the stone cut out of the mountain without hands that would become a great mountain and would fill the whole earth.”

Detailed discussion

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Parallel passages in other scriptures

• Dan 2:34-35, 44 - Matt 21:44 (allusion); Luke 20:18 (allusion); Rev 11:15 (allusion)

• Dan 2:37 - Rev 13:7 (possible allusion)

Questions for further thought and study

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Footnotes

reflist

Additional sources and links

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