Aristotelian Rhetoric and the Book of Daniel
Let's think for a moment shall we?
I’ve been reading a few books at the same time lately, one of which is Aristotle’s Rhetoric. I spent yesterday afternoon lecturing on the book of Daniel, so I thought I would set out to see how the two interact. But it turns out I only have time to look at the first 7 chapters.1
Basic Elements of Rhetoric
For the sake of this essay, let’s just stick with Aristotle’s three ways to persuade the audience of using ethos, pathos and logos. By ethos I mean building an appeal to the speaker’s credibility or trustworthiness. By pathos I mean building an appeal to an emotional connection. Then by logos I mean using logical argument. So I want to look at how the biblical book of Daniel makes use of these three means of persuasion. Let me be clear up front, I am aware that if Daniel was written between 586 and 539 BC, then the book predated Aristotle by a couple hundred years. I’m just using Aristotle’s categories as a lens for examining the artistry in the book.
What is the book of Daniel trying to accomplish?
To keep this essay short, let’s just go with a broad categorization of the message of Daniel: communicating that God is still sovereign while his people are in exile, and that he is still faithful to those people even while they are in exile. For the purposes of this essay I will limit myself to the Hebrew/Protestant version of the book rather than the Greek version.
What sections build ethos with the audience?
The audience of mostly Jewish people would likely have a level of respect or at least feel a connection to someone who shares their ancestry and their experience of exile. The narrator connects Daniel with the audience on this level in the first seven verses of the book. The narrator also shows Daniel to be a person who is fit to be a ruler or official, a position of authority which the audience would likely respect.
Daniel is further promoted in Daniel 2:46-49, which might lend further credibility to him as an authoritative conveyor of truth to the audience. That authority is then communicated from the lips of the Queen in Dan 5:12, with Daniel being brought to King Belshazzar. Daniel is able to interpret the writing on the wall by the wisdom of YHWH, and that same night the narrator says that the dream came true. The next king seems to favor Daniel in the description the narrator gives of the King, that
“as soon as the king heard this word, he was greatly distressed within himself and set his mind on saving Daniel; and even until sunset he kept exerting himself to deliver him.” Dan 6:14 LSB
So now at the end of chapter 6 even the royal figures in the story trust and favor Daniel.
What sections build pathos with the audience?
In 1:8-21 the narrator shows that Daniel’s experience in exile required him to make choices about retaining his ethnic and religious identity rather than assimilating into the culture of his captors. The way that the narrator depicts Daniel standing up for his faith as a young man in a strange land would likely build an emotional connection with an audience who experienced the same sort of situation.
The narrative section of Daniel 2:1-16 could build an emotional connection with an audience of exiles living under the control of an empire by the way that Daniel is faced with the threat of immanent death because of the unreasonable demands of the emperor. Perhaps the audience would connect their own experiences or the experiences of their ethnic group with what the narrator portrays about Daniel. Then a similar problem arises in Daniel 3, with Shadrach, Meschach, and Abed-nego being threatened with death by furnace. Yet, they make an incredible statement of faith in Dan 3:17-18. That statement communicates part of the main message of the book - God’s sovereignty over the entire world - not just his people in the land of Israel.
Then in Daniel 6, the narrator tells the story of how other rulers conspired against Daniel so that the King was stuck having to punish Daniel. Even in this challenge to Daniel’s faith by the empire he is serving under, he remains faithful to God - and God remains faithful to his people (Daniel, by preserving him).
What sections build logos?
Relying on the work of Michael Fishbane2, I think that it’s possible Jewish argumentation in the later half of the OT was dependent upon Inner-Biblical Exegesis. So, I want to suggest that the poem (or prayer) in Dan 2:20-23 builds a type of logical argument with the audience. An audience that knows the Hebrew Bible would appreciate the way Daniel states that God is the source of wisdom and so he can make dreams known to Daniel. Next, I think that the way Nebuchadnezzar blesses the God of Israel in Dan 3:28-4:3 may connect with the earlier biblical traditions of foreigners putting faith in the God of Israel though in this case it seems short-lived.3 For the King’s next vision foretold his impending humiliation and he chose not to take Daniel’s advice. Nevertheless he had a change of heart back to embracing the “King of Heaven” in Dan 4:34-37. A similar statement is found from the King Darius in Dan 6:25-28.
What is the use of this study?
One outcome of this study could be that the implied intent was to connect with a certain type of audience, thus building evidence for a case about composition within the period of the exile as opposed to a later date.
The way that the narrator has presented Daniel through the first 6 chapters gives the audience more reason (in terms of ethos, pathos and logos) to believe the claim in chapter 7 that the evil powers in the world will ultimately be conquered by God and his people will reign with him forever:
But the court will sit for judgment, and his dominion will be taken away, annihilated and destroyed forever. 27 Then the reign, the dominion, and the greatness of all the kingdoms under the whole heaven will be given to the people of the saints of the Highest One; His kingdom will be an everlasting kingdom, and all the dominions will serve and obey Him.’ (Dan 6:26-27 LSB)
So the rhetoric works to persuade the audience that God is in control of the world even though His people are in exile, and God is still faithful to His people while they are in exile.
I think the first seven chapters work in a chiastic structure, as suggested in DeRouchie, Jason Shane, ed. 2013. What the Old Testament Authors Really Cared About : A Survey of Jesus’ Bible. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Kregel Publications.
A A dream about four earthly kingdoms and God’s kingdom (2)
B A story about Judeans who are faithful in the face of Death (3)
C A story about royal pride humbled (4)
C’ A story about royal pride humbled (5)
B’ A story about a Judean who is faithful in the face of death (6)
A’ A vision about four earthly kingdoms and God’s Kingdom (7)
Fishbane, Michael A. 1985. Biblical Interpretation in Ancient Israel. Repr. with corrections. Oxford [Oxfordshire], New York: Clarendon Press ; Oxford University Press.
https://www.biola.edu/blogs/good-book-blog/2014/non-israelite-followers-of-yhwh-in-the-old-testament