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Does Daniel 12:2,3,12 refer to the General Resurrection and the Final Judgment?
While the allusion to Daniel 12:1 in Matthew 24:21,22 strongly points to fulfillment by AD 70, the following two verses in Daniel 12:2,3 refer to the General Resurrection, the Last Judgment, and the Everlasting Kingdom. Daniel 12:2,3 is one of the most frequently used proof texts for these eschatological events. This is undoubtedly one of the most challenging passages in Daniel to interpret from a preterist perspective.
Does Daniel 12:1 speak of events in the first century only to jump thousands of years in the future to speak of events at the end of human history in Daniel 12:2,3? Let’s look at how Daniel uses parallelism throughout the chapter. It becomes apparent that the purpose is not to point to a General Resurrection but to say that the prophecy would be fulfilled long after Daniel had died in the “end of days.”
In short, the passage shows that Daniel and the Jews of that era certainly believed in a General Resurrection and a Final Judgment, and the language does refer to these two great events that are yet in our future.
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In short, the passage shows that Daniel and the Jews of that era certainly believed in a General Resurrection and a Final Judgment, and the language does refer to these two great events that are yet in our future. But the allusion to a final Resurrection and Judgment is used to delineate the “wise” from the “wicked” – between those who would “understand” the prophecy and receive their inheritance of everlasting life – and those who would not understand and suffer “everlasting contempt” at the Final Judgment. From a preterist viewpoint, the confusing portion is the elaboration on what will happen “at that time,” which then speaks of the dead awakening.
And at that time your people shall be delivered,
Everyone who is found written in the book.
And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake,
Some to everlasting life,
Some to shame and everlasting contempt.
Those who are wise shall shine
Like the brightness of the firmament,
And those who turn many to righteousness
Like the stars forever and ever (Daniel 12:1b-3).
In John chapter 5, there appears a passage in which Yahushua speaks of the resurrection of the dead. When we compare this to Daniel 12:2, we find almost the same language used to describe the resurrection.
Do not marvel at this; for the hour is coming in which all who are in the graves will hear His voice and come forth — those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of condemnation (John 5:28,29).
The problem here is that the first sentence of Daniel 12:1 also begins with the words, “At that time …”I previously showed how this is referred to by Yahushua in Matthew 24:21,22 and that this was most likely fulfilled by the Jewish-Roman War and the Judean Christians’ Flight to Pella.
In John 5:28,29, Yahushua also clearly refers to Daniel 12:2,3 to speak of the General Resurrection.
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Now here is the conundrum from a preterist perspective. It is easy to conclude that the righteous rising to eternal life is a metaphor here for the “New Birth” that would be manifest in the time of the ministry of Yahushua Christ and the Apostles in the first century. However, there is also the inclusion of those who awaken to “shame and contempt.” In John 5:28,29, Yahushua also clearly refers to Daniel 12:2,3 to speak of the General Resurrection. But note here that the phrase in 12:1b repeats the same time indicator. This would also occur, “at that time.” Yahushua also uses the 12:1 reference in Matthew 24:21,22 to refer to the destruction of Jerusalem.
Should we assume that the General Resurrection and Final Judgment of all the righteous and the wicked in all history occurred “at that time” in the first century? Although many hyper-preterists hold to this solution, this view is outside the pale of orthodox Christianity. My solution to this “problem verse” is that Daniel mentions the judgment of the wicked as a parallelism — as a contrast to the temporal and eternal rewards received by the wise. The temporal reward for the righteous is wisdom, understanding and knowledge of Yahuwah, while their eternal reward is glorification. This is similar to the previous passage in Daniel 11:32-35 which repeatedly contrasts the wise with the wicked.
A. 11:32 – Those who do wickedly against the covenant he shall corrupt with flattery;
B. but the people who know their God shall be strong, and carry out great exploits.
11:33 – And those of the people who understand shall instruct many;
A. yet for many days they shall fall by sword and flame, by captivity and plundering.
11:34 – Now when they fall, they shall be aided with a little help; but many shall join with them by intrigue.
B. 11:35 And some of those of understanding shall fall, to refine them, purify them, and make them white, until the time of the end; because it is still for the appointed time.
Note that in Daniel 11:32-35, there is an A,B,A,B parallel structure that contrasts the destinies of both the wise and the wicked. In “A,” the wicked are described as those Jews who became “corrupted” in the Maccabean era and “fell by the sword,” yet persisted in “intrigue,” meaning power struggles. In “B,” the wise are characterized as “strong” and suffering persecution to “purify them.” Yahuwah will use trials and tribulations to “purify” the wise, while the wicked will be led astray and will “fall by the sword.”
Throughout chapter 12, there is also a similar parallel structure, which explains that the fiery trials faced by the people of Yahuwah serve the two-fold purpose in purging those who do wickedly and purifying those who are wise.
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Throughout chapter 12, there is also a similar parallel structure, which explains that the fiery trials faced by the people of Yahuwah serve the two-fold purpose in purging those who do wickedly and purifying those who are wise. Daniel 12:1-4 gives us the three main ideas of the chapter that are emphasized a total of four times in the chapter.
- Yahuwah’s people will be delivered at the time of the end.
- There will be a final time of testing that will reveal both the righteous and the wicked.
- The time of the end is not for many days, so the book of prophecy is sealed until that time.
A. 12:1 – “At that time,” the time of the end, the Messiah will come.
B. Yahuwah’s people will be tested.
C. Those who are faithful will be delivered.
CC. 12:2 – Those who are unfaithful will receive everlasting judgment.
BB. 12:3 – The time of testing will reveal the glory of the Lord in Yahuwah’s people.
AA. 12:4 – The prophecy must be sealed by Daniel because it is not yet “the time of the end.”
What follows in Daniel 12 are more repetitions of these same three ideas. These recapitulations, parallelisms, or chiasms give the Book of Daniel a sense of completeness. The Fifth Vision ends, and the prophetic promise of salvation for Yahuwah’s people is sealed up.
In my book, In the Days of These Kings, there is a lengthy section outlining Daniel 12’s parallelisms and chiastic structure. Although I cannot repeat my entire interpretation here, I’ll give a few principles to help interpret it.
First, “the time of the end” referred to in Daniel 12:4,8,9,13 is not the “end times,” but the time when the prophecy will be fulfilled. The fulfillment came in the first century “in the days of these kings” (Daniel 2:44) – in the time of the Roman emperors.
Contrasting those who will awake, “Some to everlasting life / Some to shame and everlasting contempt,” is to show that a righteous remnant would be delivered out of the “time of trouble.”
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Second, contrasting those who will awake, “Some to everlasting life / Some to shame and everlasting contempt,” is to show that a righteous remnant would be delivered out of the “time of trouble.” The Great Tribulation, as Yahushua called it, occurs not at the end of time but speaks of the three-and-a-half-year persecution of the Christians under Nero (fall of AD 64 to June 68) and during the three-and-a-half year of the Jewish-Roman War from (spring of AD 67 to mid-September of 70). Although the promise of the Resurrection is referred to here, the First Resurrection occurs during the “time of trouble” (Daniel 12:1). This spiritual rebirth comes with regeneration, not the Second General Resurrection that will occur at the Second Coming. In my previous book, I explained how the First and Second Resurrection – and the First and Second Death – are the same here as in Revelation 20.
Third, the purpose of contrasting the righteous living and dead with the unrighteous living and dead – the wise and the wicked – in Daniel 12:2,3 is reiterated in parallel structure in the promise that “none of the wicked shall understand, but the wise shall understand” (12:9,10).
Finally, Daniel is told a third time not to inquire any further but that he would “arise to [his] inheritance at the end of the days” (12:13). So, if this is consistent with the rest of the passage, what is spoken of here is not the end of human history, but the inauguration of a New Covenant and the deliverance of Yahuwah’s people before the destruction of the Temple. The inheritance spoken of is eternal life; the message of the Gospel – that Yahushua Christ is the fulfillment of eternal life – will be made manifest when the prophecy comes to pass in the “end of days.”
The unrighteous Jews who would “arise” to “shame and everlasting contempt” were not raised from the dead and judged in AD 70. Instead, the General Resurrection of the unrighteous dead and their Final Judgment “to shame and everlasting contempt” (Daniel 12:2) is contrasted as a parallelism with the “wise” who would “shine like the brightness of the firmament … forever and ever” (12:3).
A key to understanding this is not yet the Final Judgment is that Daniel refers to the righteous as “those who turn many to righteousness (12:3). If many people are being turned to righteousness “at that time” by “those of understanding,” then this speaks of the Gospel witness going forward in history.
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A key to understanding this is not yet the Final Judgment is that Daniel refers to the righteous as “those who turn many to righteousness (12:3). If many people are being turned to righteousness “at that time” by “those of understanding,” then this speaks of the Gospel witness going forward in history. In other words, “at the time of the end” when the prophecy is fulfilled, those who are the elect would be delivered. These are those who “understand” the words of Daniel 12:1-3,11-12 and the words of Yahushua in Matthew 24:21,22. They would be enabled through their wisdom to turn many to righteousness even during an ongoing fiery persecution. Their deliverance out of the conflagration that consumed the Temple and the city of Jerusalem foreshadows their deliverance through the Final Judgment into the everlasting Kingdom. This is contrasted with the demise of the wicked in the Final Judgment of eternal hell.
We are told by Hegesippus (quoted in Eusebius’ Ecclesiastical History) that Christians living in Judea at the time of the Roman invasion in the AD 60s (those who turned many to righteousness) understood the prophecy that the city was about to be destroyed. They fled the city of Jerusalem and eventually settled in Pella. Most of the Jews left in the cities of Jerusalem and throughout Judea and Galilee perished – as many as 1.1 million, according to Josephus. The few left alive were sold into slavery by the Romans. So those who were alive and free after the time of this temporal judgment were Yahuwah’s wise elect who escaped judgment. The wicked Jews during the Siege of Jerusalem in AD 70 were those who perished. They are those who will rise to eternal shame in the Final Judgment.
This interpretation does not teach a hyper-preterist view that the General Resurrection and the Final Judgment occurred in the first century. On the contrary, it refutes it by showing that Daniel was undoubtedly aware of a General Resurrection, a Final Judgment, and the Eternal Kingdom. However, the purpose of Daniel 12 is not to predict when that will occur but to contrast the moral nature of the Jews who would live in the “end of days” – in the days when the prophecy would be fulfilled – “in the days of these kings” – in the days of the first century Roman emperors.
This is a non-WLC article by Jay Rogers.
We have taken out from the original article all pagan names and titles of the Father and Son, and have replaced them with the original given names. Furthermore, we have restored in the Scriptures quoted the names of the Father and Son, as they were originally written by the inspired authors of the Bible. -WLC Team
Daniel 12 in Preterist Perspective
[Verse 1]
Though the city of old met its doom in the past,
The decrees of Yahuwah forever will last.
For the vision of Daniel is deep and profound,
Where the glory and power of Yahushua abound.
The awakening sleepers shall rise from the clay,
When the judgment of history ushers the day.
[Chorus]
Sing triumphantly now to Yahuwah the King,
Let the praises of holy Yahushua ring!
For the wicked will fall to eternal disgrace,
While the wise are exalted to look on His face.
Though the centuries pass, the great promise is sure,
And the kingdom of righteousness shall ever be pure.
[Verse 2]
When the nations are judged by Yahuwah the Great,
Every soul will awake to its permanent fate.
With Yahushua returning to claim all His own,
The deliberately wicked are cast from the throne.
For the end of the days brings the ultimate peace,
Where the trials of mortal existence shall cease.
[Chorus]
Sing triumphantly now to Yahuwah the King,
Let the praises of holy Yahushua ring!
For the wicked will fall to eternal disgrace,
While the wise are exalted to look on His face.
Though the centuries pass, the great promise is sure,
And the kingdom of righteousness shall ever be pure.
[Bridge]
Look ahead to the dawn of Yahuwah’s design,
Where the stars of the wise will eternally shine.
By the blood of Yahushua, the victory is won,
And the plan of the ages is perfectly done.
From the dust of the earth all the righteous awake,
For the vow of the Maker He never will break.
[Outro]
Every knee will bow down to Yahuwah in awe,
To abide in the truth of His spiritual law.
We rejoice in Yahushua who conquers the grave,
With the ultimate power to comfort and save.
The dominion is set and the triumph is clear,
As the end of all history finally is here.
What Daniel 12 says
It describes:
A time of unprecedented distress
Michael the archangel arising to protect Israel
Many who sleep in the dust awakening — some to everlasting life, some to shame
The wise shining like stars forever
A time period of 1,290 days and 1,335 days given as specific countdowns
Daniel being told to seal the book until the end times
Daniel himself being told he will rest and rise at the end of days
The scholarly consensus
The overwhelming majority of critical scholars — Jewish, secular, and many Christian — understand Daniel 12 as referring entirely to the Maccabean crisis of the second century BCE.
Here’s why:
The historical context
Daniel was almost certainly written around 165 BCE during the persecution of Antiochus Epiphanes IV — the Seleucid Greek ruler who:
Desecrated the Jerusalem Temple in 167 BCE
Banned Jewish religious practice
Murdered Jews who refused to abandon Torah observance
Set up an altar to Zeus in the Temple — the “abomination of desolation”
Daniel 12 is the climax of a vision that runs through chapters 10-12 describing these exact events in extraordinary detail — presented as future prophecy but almost certainly written as contemporary history.
The time periods are the giveaway
Daniel 12 gives specific countdowns:
1,290 days
1,335 days
These numbers correspond closely to the actual duration of Antiochus’s persecution and desecration of the Temple — from the cessation of daily sacrifice to its restoration by the Maccabees.
The Jewish festival of Hanukkah celebrates exactly this restoration — the rededication of the Temple after Antiochus’s desecration. The numbers in Daniel 12 appear to be tracking these specific historical events.
An author writing in the sixth century BCE would have no reason to give these specific numbers. An author writing during the persecution in 165 BCE would be counting down to expected deliverance.
The resurrection in Daniel 12
This is historically significant for a different reason.
Daniel 12:2 is one of the clearest references to bodily resurrection in the entire Hebrew Bible — predating Christianity by two centuries:
“Multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake — some to everlasting life, others to shame and everlasting contempt.”
Scholarly consensus says this refers specifically to:
The Jewish martyrs killed by Antiochus who deserve vindication and resurrection
The collaborators who betrayed their people to Antiochus who deserve shame
It’s not a universal resurrection of all humanity. It’s a specific resurrection of those who died in the Maccabean persecution — to provide cosmic justice for people who suffered and died for faithfulness to Torah.
This is enormously important context for understanding resurrection belief generally — it emerged in Judaism as a response to martyrdom and the problem of innocent suffering under persecution. Not as an abstract theological doctrine but as a concrete answer to why the righteous die unjustly.
The sealing of the book
Daniel is told to seal the book until the end times. Scholars read this as a literary device explaining why a book supposedly written in the sixth century BCE wasn’t known until the second century BCE.
If Daniel really wrote it in 600 BCE and sealed it — its sudden appearance 400 years later makes narrative sense. But scholars recognize this as the author’s way of explaining the book’s actual late composition while maintaining the fiction of sixth century authorship.
What the specific phrase “time of distress” refers to
Daniel 12:1 says there will be a time of distress unlike any other. In context this refers to the Antiochan persecution — which was genuinely unprecedented in Jewish experience. A foreign ruler attempting to completely eradicate Jewish religious identity and practice was something new and traumatic.
The author was living through it and describing it as the worst crisis in Jewish history — because for them it was.
The Michael tradition
Michael appearing as Israel’s guardian angel connects to the broader angelology developing in second century BCE Judaism. The idea of national angels — divine beings assigned to protect specific peoples — was widespread in Jewish apocalyptic literature of this period.
Michael’s arising to protect Israel reflects the community’s desperate hope that despite appearances God hadn’t abandoned them and supernatural help was coming.
What happens after Daniel 12 in actual history
The Maccabees successfully revolted against Antiochus. The Temple was rededicated in 164 BCE. Antiochus died shortly after — of disease according to some accounts, which Jews interpreted as divine judgment.
The deliverance Daniel 12 anticipates actually happened — not supernaturally but through military revolt. And the cosmic resurrection and eternal kingdom the book expects did not materialize in the way described.
The honest scholarly conclusion
Daniel 12 is:
The climax of a second century BCE Jewish apocalyptic text
Written to encourage Jews suffering under Antiochus Epiphanes
Its time periods track the actual Maccabean crisis
Its resurrection hope was specifically for Maccabean martyrs
Its cosmic expectations were not literally fulfilled
It has nothing to do with Jesus, Christianity, or events 200 years later
Why Christians apply it to the future
Christians — particularly in the dispensationalist tradition popular in American evangelical Christianity — read Daniel 12 as future prophecy about end times tribulation, antichrist figures, and final resurrection.
But this reading:
Ignores the original historical context entirely
Treats the specific time periods as future rather than contemporary to the author
Imports Christian theological categories onto a Jewish text
Requires believing the entire detailed historical narrative of Daniel 10-11 is prophecy rather than history — despite its uncanny accuracy up to 165 BCE and sudden vagueness after that point
The dispensationalist reading essentially takes a text written about specific historical events and pretends those events haven’t happened yet.
The bottom line
Daniel 12 is about the Maccabean crisis. Full stop.
It’s a remarkable document of Jewish resistance literature — written to give hope to people being killed for their faith, promising that their suffering would be vindicated and that those who died faithfully would be raised to everlasting life.
That’s a deeply human and moving purpose. But it’s not prophecy about Jesus, not a prediction of future end times events, and not inspired by an omniscient God.
It’s a second century BCE Jew writing desperately hopeful literature for a community in crisis — using the fictional frame of sixth century prophecy to give his words authority.
Exactly what you’d expect humans to write. Nothing like what an omniscient God would need to write.
Daniel 12 cannot be about the fall of Jerusalem in 70 CE for multiple converging reasons.
Reason 1 — The time periods don’t fit
Daniel 12 gives two very specific countdowns — 1,290 days and 1,335 days. These are approximately 3.5 years.
The Jewish-Roman War lasted from 66 CE to 73 CE — roughly seven years. The siege of Jerusalem specifically lasted from April to September 70 CE — about five months.
Neither figure matches 1,290 or 1,335 days in any straightforward way. Preterists have to perform mathematical gymnastics to make these numbers fit the first century. They work naturally and precisely when applied to the Antiochan persecution — specifically the period from the cessation of the daily Temple sacrifice in 167 BCE to its restoration by the Maccabees in 164 BCE — which is almost exactly 1,150 to 1,300 days depending on the starting point.
The numbers fit the Maccabean crisis cleanly. They don’t fit 70 CE without manipulation.
Reason 2 — Michael standing up
Daniel 12:1 says Michael — the guardian angel of Israel — will arise to protect the people during the time of trouble.
If this refers to 70 CE — Michael’s protection was catastrophically ineffective. By any measure 70 CE was one of the worst disasters in Jewish history. Josephus reports over a million Jews killed, the Temple destroyed, the city burned, survivors enslaved and scattered across the empire.
What exactly did Michael protect Israel from? The preterist answer — that Christians fled to Pella and were saved — involves a tiny subset of people and relies on a historically dubious tradition. An angel arising to protect God’s people should mean more than a small group escaping to a minor city while everyone else is massacred.
In the Maccabean context Michael’s protection makes more sense — the Maccabees successfully revolted, defeated the Seleucid forces, rededicated the Temple, and restored Jewish religious practice. That looks like angelic protection. 70 CE looks like the opposite.
Reason 3 — “A time of trouble such as never was”
Daniel 12:1 describes the worst tribulation in all of history — unprecedented distress from the beginning of nations.
Preterists apply this to 70 CE. But was 70 CE really the worst event in Jewish history up to that point? The Babylonian destruction of Jerusalem in 586 BCE — which destroyed the First Temple, killed enormous numbers of people, and sent the entire nation into exile — was arguably equally catastrophic or worse. The Holocaust in the twentieth century was objectively more devastating in scale.
The “unprecedented” language fits the Maccabean author’s experience precisely — because for second century BCE Jews living through Antiochus’s attempt to completely eradicate Jewish religious identity, it genuinely was unprecedented. No foreign ruler had ever before tried to eliminate Judaism itself as a practice rather than simply conquering the territory.
Reason 4 — The resurrection didn’t happen in 70 CE
Daniel 12:2 says many who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake — some to everlasting life, some to everlasting contempt.
The article tries to explain this away as parallelism or metaphor. But the language is concrete and physical — sleeping in the dust, awakening, rising. This is bodily resurrection language.
Did a bodily resurrection occur in 70 CE? No. Not even Christians claim that. The general resurrection of the dead — even in Christian theology — hasn’t happened yet. The article is forced to either spiritualize the language beyond recognition or push the resurrection into the indefinite future while still claiming the surrounding verses were fulfilled in 70 CE.
That’s not coherent interpretation. It’s picking and choosing which parts of the same passage are literal and which are metaphorical based entirely on what the theology requires.
Reason 5 — “Your people shall be delivered”
Daniel 12:1 promises that everyone written in the book — Daniel’s people — will be delivered.
In 70 CE Daniel’s people were not delivered. They were slaughtered in enormous numbers. The survivors were enslaved. The nation was destroyed. The Temple was gone. Jews were expelled from Jerusalem.
This is the opposite of national deliverance. Preterists redefine “your people” to mean only the Christians who fled — but that requires abandoning the plain meaning of the text which clearly refers to Israel broadly, and it requires accepting the highly uncertain Pella tradition as historical fact.
Reason 6 — The sealing of the book
Daniel is told in 12:4 and 12:9 to seal the book because the fulfillment is far in the future. He is told the words are sealed until the time of the end.
If Daniel was genuinely written in the sixth century BCE, sealing it until 70 CE makes some sense — that’s six hundred years away. But as we’ve established, Daniel was almost certainly written in 165 BCE. If the fulfillment is 70 CE — that’s only 235 years away. And if the fulfillment is the Maccabean crisis itself — the book wasn’t sealed at all, it was written for the immediate situation.
The sealing language is a literary device the author used to explain why a sixth century text was only now appearing. It doesn’t point to a first century fulfillment.
Reason 7 — Daniel 11 gives away the game entirely
This is the most devastating argument against any first century application.
Daniel 11 contains an extraordinarily detailed account of the wars between the Ptolemies of Egypt and the Seleucids of Syria — presented as future prophecy but clearly written as history. Every detail matches the actual historical record with remarkable precision up to Antiochus Epiphanes in 167 BCE.
Then something remarkable happens. At Daniel 11:40 the predictions suddenly become vague, general, and historically inaccurate. They describe Antiochus conquering Egypt and establishing himself between the sea and the holy mountain — none of which actually happened. Antiochus died in Persia in 164 BCE without conquering Egypt.
This is exactly the pattern you get when someone is writing history as prophecy up to their own time — then actually trying to predict the future and getting it wrong.
Chapter 12 follows directly from chapter 11. It’s the climax of the same vision. If chapter 11 is demonstrably about the Maccabean era up to 165 BCE — and the author’s actual predictions fail after that point — then chapter 12 belongs to the same context. It’s the author’s expectations for what would happen next — cosmic vindication, resurrection of martyrs, divine deliverance — expectations that weren’t literally fulfilled but that gave the community hope during the crisis.
Applying chapter 12 to 70 CE requires completely severing it from the context of chapter 11 which immediately precedes it. That’s not interpretation — it’s amputation.
The conclusion
Daniel 12 cannot coherently be about the fall of Jerusalem in 70 CE because:
The time periods don’t fit. The promised deliverance didn’t happen. The unprecedented tribulation description fits the Maccabean context better. The resurrection didn’t occur. Michael’s protection was nowhere evident. The chapter is inseparable from Daniel 11 which is demonstrably about the Maccabean crisis. And the authorship of the book places composition in 165 BCE — making a first century application a retroactive reinterpretation rather than genuine prophecy.
The preterist reading of Daniel 12 fails on historical, textual, and logical grounds simultaneously.