General

Bible study on the book of Daniel

Information & Directions

by Thomas M Crawford, MS
last updated 3/4/2009
(click for pdf version)

Following are directions to lead you in a free self-study course of the book of Daniel. I am planning between 14 and 16 lessons to cover the book of Daniel. Feel free to use them either individually or in a group. The lessons are copyrighted, but you may use them as long as you use them in a non-commercial manner, and as long as any copies of the Bible study contain my copyright statement. For more information, please see my copyright policy in the menue on the left.

The method of study which I use is called “inductive Bible study.” In an inductive Bible study, a student digs into the Bible learning as much as possible from the Bible, and conducts his or her own analysis of the book being studied, hopefully before looking at what other people say about the passage. Read and study the passage being studied from Daniel first, before you look at what others say about it! This includes before you even read or look at the study notes in your Bible or my interpretation of the passage! In most cases, the only exceptions to this "rule" are:

Looking at how the book of Daniel fits into the Bible.
Looking at how the book of Daniel fits into history.

Note - both of these points will be examined in Lesson 1.

Where is this study from? I have been developing and teaching a class on the book of Daniel at my church over the last couple of months. I have decided to expand these lessons and place them on the internet for others to study. In doing this, some of these lessons may be a bit "bloggy" and semi-rough draft in form. It is hard to prepare a class and then to put a polished lesson on the internet right away. I hope you will overlook the mistakes and unpolished nature of these lessons. If anything is too glaring, please let me know. I hope to go back and improve or add things over time.

Follow my directions for this course, and I will tell you when you should look at what others are saying about the passage being studied.

If you will take the time to study the book of Daniel in this way, you are doing the equivalent of a graduate level or seminary level course on the book of Daniel – AND – you will end up knowing more about the book of Daniel than most pastors in this country do, and certainly more than most Christians. This is not to puff up your pride (“…knowledge makes arrogant…” I Corinthians 8:1), so don’t lose your teachable spirit! Instead I want to show you how important it is to learn to study the Bible for yourself. Once you master these Bible study skills (and I am still learning them myself), you will be more able to feed yourself and others spiritually, and much less likely to fall into error because someone tries to fool you by taking something out of scriptural context.

Course Introduction and Directions:

Follow the directions below to begin your study of the book of Daniel.

Lesson 0 - Getting started in the study of Daniel.
Purpose: The purpose of Lesson 0 is to show how to get started and to provide some introductory material.
What to do: Download the following, read and follow any directions, answer any questions.

Introduction and directions for studying the book of Daniel (this page last updated 3/1/2009) - (print version).
Getting started in the book of Daniel (materials you need for the study). --- (print version)
How to do an inductive Bible study (this will give you some insights into how to study the Bible for yourself in the future). --- (print version)
Why study the book of Daniel? --- (print version)
An introductory story on Daniel. --- (print version)

Lesson 1 - How does the book of Daniel fit into the Bible and into history?
Purpose: The purpose of Lesson 1 is to explore how the book of Daniel fits into the Old Testament of the Bible and into Israel’s and the world’s history.
What to do: Download the following, read and follow any directions, answer any questions.

How does the book of Daniel fit into the Bible and into history? (chart & lesson in html) --- (print version of chart) & (print version of lesson)

future lessons will be posted periodically

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Bible study on the book of Daniel

Information & Directions