Daniel

Daniel was a Judean youth taken to Babylon during Nebuchadnezzar's first deportation (605 BCE), whose story is recounted in the book bearing his name. Remaining faithful to Jewish dietary laws and prayer despite pressure to assimilate, he rose to prominence through God-given ability to interpret dreams and visions, most famously Nebuchadnezzar's dream of a great statue representing successive world empires (Daniel 2). He survived the lions' den under Darius the Mede (Daniel 6), and received apocalyptic visions of four beasts and the Ancient of Days (Daniel 7) that profoundly influenced both Jewish apocalyptic thought and the New Testament book of Revelation. Ezekiel groups him with Noah and Job as exemplars of righteousness (Ezekiel 14:14), and Jesus refers to 'the abomination of desolation spoken of by the prophet Daniel' (Matthew 24:15).