What is the context?
The message continues from the conflict at the end of chapter 11. Michael, the great prince who watches over Daniel’s people, rises up during a time of unprecedented distress. Those whose names are written in the book are delivered.
The vision then reaches beyond the present struggle: people sleeping in the earth’s dust awaken, some to everlasting life and others to shame and everlasting contempt.
Those with wisdom, including those who lead many to righteousness, shine like the heavens and the stars. This answers the suffering described in chapter 11, where faithful teachers were persecuted and killed. Their present humiliation does not determine their final place before God.
How is this passage commonly understood?
Henry and Wesley identify Michael with Christ, while Gaebelein understands him as a heavenly prince acting for Israel.
Cambridge reads the awakening as resurrection of individuals, with particular attention to faithful people and their opponents in Israel. Henry includes bodily resurrection alongside figurative awakenings through the gospel. Gaebelein instead reads verse 2 as a picture of Israel’s national restoration, rather than bodily resurrection. These are distinct readings of the awakening language.
Where does this fit in God's plan?
John 5:24–29 brings the contrast between life and judgment into Jesus’ own teaching. Those in the graves will hear His voice and come out, to the resurrection of life or of judgment. The authority to give life and judge belongs to the Son.
Jesus also speaks of the righteous shining like the sun in their Father’s kingdom, in Matthew 13:40–43, echoing Daniel’s language of future glory. The hope reaches beyond relief from persecution to life under Christ’s authority, where faithfulness that was despised on earth is seen in its true light.
What is our position?
We don't have a position on this passage yet. When our study reaches a conclusion the text supports, it will appear here.