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Verbum et Ecclesia
On-line version ISSN 2074-7705
Print version ISSN 1609-9982
Verbum Eccles. (Online) vol.34 n.1 Pretoria Jan. 2013
Daniel 9 as part of an apocalyptic book?
Marius Nel
School for Biblical Science and Ancient Languages, North-West University, South Africa
Daniel 9 relates how Daniel studies the Hebrew Holy Scriptures and finds the prophecy of Jeremiah that Jerusalem will lie desolate for seventy years. He reacts by devoting himself to prayer and fasting in order to remind God of this promise of restoring his people. The better part of the chapter is dedicated to the contents of his prayer. During the prayer, the man, Gabriel, appears with the intent to give Daniel an understanding of the meaning of the seventy years, which is the measure of the punishment of Israel's transgression and sin and which will end with eternal righteousness, when the Holy of Holies will be anointed. The Book of Daniel consists of two sections: the tales of the first six chapters and the visions of the last six chapters. This article asked the question: what role does Daniel 9 play as a part of the apocalyptic section of the book? Is Daniel's prayer and Gabriel's revelation apocalyptically conditioned? Why did the author or compiler include it in the book and, especially, in the second, apocalyptic section of the book? The conclusion of this article was that Daniel 9 was placed intentionally by the compiler in the latter half of the book because of the revelation about the seventy weeks, which is in line with the last three chapters' indication of the end times and Israel's elevation to become the ruler of the earth. Several arguments were formulated to support this conclusion.
In the first two apocalyptic visions of the second part of the Book of Daniel, in Daniel 7 and 8, the history of the time before Antiochus IV Epiphanes' arrival on the scene is described with the purpose of demonstrating that Israel's God is in control of history (Lucas 2002:223). In this way, the author wants to encourage the listeners to be courageous during the religious and political persecution of the Jews as a result of their obstinacy against Antiochus' measures to Hellenise the Jewish population (Alobaidi 2006:559). God also rules over heathen kings, a good reason for Jews to stay faithful to God even when facing Antiochus' cruel and inhuman treatment of Jews.
In chapter 9, Daniel studies the scriptures in order to find out how long before the desolation of Jerusalem comes to an end. The reference is the Babylonian captivity of the Judah and Benjamin tribes (598-597 or 587-586 BCE to 538 BCE). The clue is given in Daniel 9:2, in which Daniel was reading (a version of) the book Jeremiah, that the period of exile would last seventy years. Jeremiah 25:11 indicates that the Jewish people will serve the king of Babylon for seventy years and Jeremiah 29:10 says that when the seventy years are over, YHWH will take note of his people and fulfil his promise of favour to bring them back to Jerusalem and the desolate temple (Brueggemann 1998:222-223, 258). A prophetic statement is used to authorise the interpretation that Daniel is to receive (Rowland 2001:457). Daniel responds to Jeremiah's prophecy by begging, praying, pleading and fasting with sackcloth and ashes in order to confess Israel's sins that caused the exile and atone for their restoration. The prayer that follows has many biblical reminiscences. It also has affinities with that of Azariah in Daniel 3:24-25 (apocryphal rendering) and Baruch 1 and 2 are modelled on it (Wansbrough 1985:1487).
Gabriel interprets this prophecy for Daniel in order to tell the history of Israel purposefully that YHWH does not only set boundaries to the period of exile but also to the destruction and devastation that Antiochus IV can cause to Jews, their temple and capital (Knibb 2002:22). In terms of the purpose of the book for the first readers, it is in the affirmation of God's sovereign rule that Jewish listeners find encouragement and comfort (Valeta 2008:191).
The discovery of pesharim literature at Qumran made it clear that Daniel 9 is following pesher procedures to interpret Jeremiah's prophecy to make it relevant for a new day and situation (Dimant 1993:58; Walfish 2004:1883). The purpose of the pesher is to bridge the gap between the original prophetic word of encouragement and the present reality, to actualise and contextualise the message for different circumstances (Elman 2004:1853). In this way, each year of the Jeremiah prophecy is interpreted as a week of years, as a Sabbath year of seven years, in the sense used by 2 Chronicles 36:21 of the land laying fallow for seventy Sabbaths for the jubilee-years that Israel did not keep. In this way, Jeremiah 25:11 and 29:10 are interpreted in terms of the injunction of Leviticus 26:3135 and, especially, verse 34:
Then shall the land make up for its Sabbath years throughout the time that it is desolate and you are in the land of your enemies; then shall the land rest and make up for its Sabbath years. Throughout the time that it is desolate, it shall observe the rest that it did not observe in your Sabbath years while you were dwelling upon it. (Weanzana 2006:530)1
The prayer is contained in verses 4-19 and is written in better Hebrew than the rest of the chapter, as well as the other Hebrew parts of the Book of Daniel (Wills 2004:1659). This is because of the many quotations from the rest of the Old Testament, whilst the numerous Greek, Aramean and Persian expressions that characterise the rest of the book are also found lacking (Le Roux 1995:109; Porteous 1979:137). For the same reason, the covenant name of Israel's God, YHWH, is used for the first time in this book in the prayer (already in Dn 9:2 - 'as revealed by YHWH to the prophet Jeremiah'). Wallace (1979:154) also suggests that the prayer is in a better quality of Hebrew because it is based on the language found in the liturgical parts of Hebrew scriptures, even though most researchers agree that the prayer forms a supplement that was not originally part of the narrative (Kirkpatrick 2005:117).
The prayer and Gabriel's revelation creates the impression that the future is seen as predetermined by YHWH; although, in actual fact, this is not the case, because the 'future' is described in terms of the history that has already passed and the only reference to 'future' is found in the last few verses where a prediction is made, as is also done in the following chapters (where a correction is also needed when the prediction is not realised) (Lucas 2002:224). History is moulded in the form of prophecy so that it seems to be predetermined with the purpose to give readers and listeners the idea that the description of the narrator can be trusted, also in terms of the prediction of the future (Helberg 1994:93). 'End times' refers to the end of Jewish exile, interpreted here in terms of the end of Antiochan suppression and persecution.
This article is concerned with the placing of Daniel 9. In the first six chapters, tales about Daniel and his three friends are told to show their faithfulness to the Jewish God whilst serving at a heathen court. The first tale relates how Daniel and his friends receive permission to stay faithful to their God's food regulations and how God rewards them for this faithfulness. The second relates a dream that King Nebuchadnezzar has and how Daniel is the only wise man serving at the court who is able to relate and interpret the dream correctly because 'there is a God in heaven who reveals mysteries' (Dn 2:28). In the third tale, the faithfulness of the three Jews is tested when King Nebuchadnezzar sets up a golden statue and commands everybody to serve the statue as an image of himself and when the three friends refuse they are thrown into a furnace where an angel meets them. Daniel 4 relates the hubris of King Nebuchadnezzar and God's punishment when the king becomes mad, but in his repentance his majesty is instantly restored. King Belshazzar gives a banquet for his noblemen according to Daniel 5 and when he is drunk he mocks the Jewish God, only to hear from the God in whose hands are his breath and fortunes (Dn 5:23) that his days are numbered. And in Daniel 6, the wise man lands in the lion's den as a result of his faithfulness to keep praying in the direction of Jerusalem, in spite of King Darius' prohibition of praying to any other god than himself.
The timbre and tonality of the Book of Daniel changes in Daniel 7 with a dream Daniel has of four great beasts emerging from the sea and in Daniel 8 of a vision he has of a ram conquering the whole world until a he-goat from the west charges at it with the full force of its fury and breaks its horns (Dn 8:5-7).
Daniel 9 seems not to belong here, but it is out of place? Should the author or compiler have placed it amongst the tales in the first part? Or does Daniel 9 earn its place because of its utilisation of the way of interpreting history that marks Daniel 7-8 as well as 10-12, namely the apocalyptic mode? In order to answer these questions it is necessary to make some exegetical remarks about Daniel 9.
Some exegetical observations of Daniel 9
Daniel 9 starts with a 'historical' reference to 'Darius son of Ahasuerus, a Mede by race who assumed the throne of Chaldaea' (Dn 9:1), referring to an unknown historical figure. Darius was a famous Persian king who ruled from 522 to 486 BCE and he was responsible for organising his empire into provinces headed by governors called satraps (Wills 2004:1653). Herodotus (Histories 3.89) relates that Darius established twenty satrapies, a figure exaggerated by Esther 1:1. Ahasueres is probably Xerxes, like Darius a Persian and not a Mede, although he was the son and not the father of Darius (Herrmann 1973:300). The many historical inconsistencies found throughout the book continues in Daniel 9 and is one of the important arguments for dating the book much later than the Babylonian exile in the sixth century BCE, where most historical information relating to the second century BCE is accurate (Lucas 2002:213). The reference to angels in the Book of Daniel is also an argument for a later date (Wallace 1979:160). That verse 1 emphasises that Darius is of Median descent is probably an effort to harmonise the fact that Ahasueres and Darius were Persians with the information in Daniel 6:1 that Darius was a Mede (Helberg 1994:94).
The vision transpires in the first year that the Persians came to power, an event that gave hope to the Jewish exiles that they might perhaps be freed after their captors fell in 539 BCE (Péter-Contesse & Ellington 1993:230). And their hope was realised when the Persians gave Jews permission in 538 to return to their own country, even compensating them for the losses (Rowland 2001:463).
The author studies the prophetic announcement of Jeremiah that the exile will be seventy years long, which is the length of a human's life on earth (Burden 1993:1240), although it does not accord with historical reality (with the exile lasting from 597-596 or 587-586 BCE to 538 BCE, although the time designation could also be interpreted as from the carrying off in 587 BCE to 520 or 518 BCE, when the temple was rededicated). This is one of a few explicit references within a biblical book to another biblical book, but it does not necessarily reflect the canonisation of the Ketubim as a second section next to the Torah; although, it indicates the extent of post-exilic study of the prophets and not only the Torah. 'The books' in verse 2 is the first and only time when the technical term for the Hebrew Bible is used in the Old Testament; although, Anderson (1984:105) argues correctly that it refers only to the books contained in the Nebi'im.
Fasting, sackcloth and ashes along with prayer were some of the aspects of ritual mourning in the Bible, but were also signs of penitence, as well as preparation for fervent prayer and the seeking of visions, as indicated in 4 Ezra (2 Esdras) 5:13 and 9:24 (Helberg 1994:107; Porteous 1979:187). The description of Daniel's prayer in response to a certain historical circumstance reflects a personal, penitential religious life that characterises second-century Judaism (Wills 2004:1659). It was later taken up by the sectarians living at Qumran, as well as by Pharisees and Christians and, later still, by the rabbinical tradition (b. Ta'an. 11b-12a); although, the Talmud (b. Ta'an. 11a; b. B. Bat. 60b) reins in excessive penitential practices.
Verses 5-6 contain several phrases to indicate the gravity of Judah's sins in the eyes of YHWH and it is meaningful that Daniel prays in the first person plural, 'We did not smooth the frown from your face by our prayers, offerings, fastings and feasts, and no smile could spread over your face' (v. 13). The motif for Daniel's request to show favour to his people is 'for the Lord's sake' in verse 17, because God's name is attached to Jerusalem and its temple (v. 18) and people (v. 19), 'Not because of any merit of ours do we lay our plea before You but because of your abundant mercies' (v. 18). By bringing his people back to the Promised Land, God would indicate that he accepts his people again (Baldwin 1978:164). The climax of the text is in verse 19, which consists of the Masoretic text of only seven words, probably signifying a symbolic figure.
Verse 14 states that YHWH has watched (shoqed) for the right moment to bring disaster on his people since he is just in all his dealings, reminding the Hebrew reader of Jeremiah 1:11-12 (cf. 31:28; 44:27), of the symbol of the almond tree (sheqed) that introduces the prophecy that God watches for the moment to make his word come true, whether for good or evil (Wansbrough 1985:1487).
Collins (1987:225) emphasises that the arrogance of heathen rulers summoned God's wrath on them and that this caused the salvation of the Jewish people from exile, rather than any merit on the Jews' side (v. 27). Joubert (1979:167) is thus not correct when he states, 'The Deuteronomistic view of prayer, i.e. that the sin of Israel led to their problem, is foreign to the audition.' In his opinion, the answer to the prayer indicates the spontaneous relationship of God with the Jews (see also Le Roux 1995:117). God's answer consists only of the interpretation of the prophecy that Daniel reflects upon, rather than God doing something new about his people's predicament (Davies 1985:60).
As in Daniel 8, Gabriel is God's angel or messenger and he reveals the meaning of the prophecy through a vision. This vision consists only of words (Koch 1972:24), without anything visual. The role of angels as interpreters of visions and dreams is exclusive to apocalyptic literature and is one of the important indicators that readers have to interpret a text in apocalyptic terms.
The penitential prayer with its confession of sins reflects and expresses Deuteronomistic theology, that God consequently punishes sins, but retracts his punishment when his people respond with repentance and confession (DiTomasso 2005:212; Zenger 1998:93). God will always return his favour to his people when they turn back to him, although their sins would eventually lead to their rejection by their country and their God (Lucas 2002:253). Gabriel's reply is a powerful rejection of the prayer's Deuteronomistic theology of history in favour of what DiTomasso (2005:212-213) calls a Danielic theology of history, that is, a broadly deterministic theology of history found throughout the visions in the Book of Daniel (Dn 7-12) and which stands alongside the idea of individual responsibility, as well as characterising apocalyptic thinking in general.
The 'seventy weeks' in verse 24 refers to 490 years, the true prediction of Jeremiah according to the revelation given by Gabriel to Daniel. The interpretation is based on reading a single word in Jeremiah 25:11-12 in two different ways, as shav'uim [weeks] or shiv'im [seventy] (Achtemeier 1987:79). This close attention to textual study and revocalisation of Hebrew words characterises later rabbinic interpretation, especially pesher interpretation (Brueggemann 2006:115). It also occurs in especially Jewish apocalyptic literature, probably under rabbinical influence (DiTomasso 2005:212).
The Hebrew Bible does not contain a theory or consideration of time. The most terms used for 'time' in the Hebrew Bible are found in the Book of Daniel and the usage of some of these terms agrees more with documents found at Qumran and in rabbinical writings than with the rest of the Old Testament (Verhoef 1993:224, 232). Any attempt to interpret the 'seventy' in Daniel in terms of ordinary time is checked by the eschatological-apocalyptic context that requires one to read it in a symbolical rather than realistic sense (Verhoef 1993:226). The plural of 'time' may look like a rhetorical hyperbole but Jews did not reflect in abstract terms about time and so the plural refers to a plurality of events, circumstances and experiences (Verhoef 1993:227). Baldwin (1978:173) states that the figures used in the Book of Daniel do not have any meaning as such, but are used to clothe the thoughts of the author. Daniel 9's view of time accords with that found in apocalyptic thinking.
The seventy weeks 'have been decreed' for the Jewish people and their holy city, indicating the involvement of YHWH in the history of his people. The purpose of determining the period of punishment is to fulfil the measure of sin and iniquity in order to expiate it by letting the land lie fallow for the years it was abused by Israel (Lucas 2002:235). Then the 'Holy of Holies' would be 'anointed', which happened when Judas Maccabee freed Jerusalem from Syrian rule, established an independent rule for Jews and re-established the temple service. 'Anointed' comes from mashiah, leading Christians to claim that it refers to their Messiah. In the historical context of the narrative of the sixth and fifth centuries, the 'anointed leader' probably refers to either Zerubbabel or the high priest Joshua (Ezr 3:2; Hg 1; Zch 6:9-15), whilst 'anointed one' within the context of the second century refers to the high priest Onias III killed by Antiochus IV in 171 BCE (2 Macc. 4:30-34). As already argued, the deterministic sense of the interpretation accords with apocalyptic thinking.
In the second century, Jews wrestled with the question of why God allowed Antiochus IV to suppress the Jewish religion (Anderson 1984:111). Where do the prophets proclaim the reign of peace? Instead, the Jews who are 'near' (v. 7), living in Judah and Samaria, as well as the Jews who are 'far', found in all the known countries of the world, knew mostly poverty, oppression and humiliation. And the climax came in the reign of Antiochus IV, in the prohibition of Jews from worshipping their God, owning his scriptures, circumcising their children or offering to YHWH. Antiochus dishonoured the temple by presenting pagan sacrifices on the main altar and gave orders that an image of his god, Zeus Olympos, be erected in the Jerusalem temple, with Zeus resembling the king's features on the coins minted by Antiochus IV, but he dies before the image could be erected (Albertz 2002:182).
The vision brought by the angel states that the history of Israel shows that God has always taken care of his people and he will do it again, through the new kingdom that would be established in the near future. In seven short and balanced statements in verse 24, God states that the measure of transgression will be filled, sin will be complete, iniquity expiated, eternal righteousness ushered in, prophetic vision ratified and the Holy of Holies anointed. A twofold emphasis is seen, that Israel's rebellion will come to an end and that Antiochan reign will end. The vision gives the hope of a new future, a new time (Spangenberg 1985:278). The 'new' is defined in typical apocalyptic terms, as a future totally unrelated to the known of the past, characterising the totally new beginning God would make with his people as the rulers of the earth over all nations.
The time designation of verse 27, 'half a week', is the three and a half years of the Maccabean revolution that had transpired at the time when the vision is written down, as in Daniel 7:25; 8:14 and 12:7 (Lucas 2002:244-245). The 'appalling abomination' may refer to the altar stones upon which pagan sacrifices were offered (1 Macc 1:54; 2 Macc 6:5). 'Appalling abomination' is a word play on 'God of the heavens' that was also used for the Canaanite god, Ba'al Shamem (Lucas 2002:245; Porteous 1979:143). The terminology of Daniel 9:27 concurs with that of Daniel 10-12 and forms a direct link between the interpretation of the angel to Daniel in chapter 9 and the interpretation of the vision in Daniel 10-12.
The three periods comprise seven-year weeks, or 49 years, beginning with the order that Jerusalem be repaired until an anointed leader comes who has been chosen by God, a second period of 434 years when Jerusalem will stay built, and which ends with the death of an anointed, and the third period of seven years which will be a time of oppression when the temple service will be disrupted and sacrifices halted, and which will end with the death of the oppressor (Nel 1997:64).
Interpretation of the three periods led to many views and opinions (Nel 1997:65) and Porteous' (1979:133) warning is timely that the author's original intention was not 'to provide any such calculations of distant events, but merely to reinforce his own conviction that in the immediate future God's transcendent power would manifest itself on his people's behalf'. Indeed, 'perhaps the whole prophecy is meant deliberately to be vague and enigmatic. It is not for us to know exact dates too confidently' (Wallace 1979:170). The first period is probably intended to refer to the period between the fall of Jerusalem in 587 BCE and the fall of Babylon in 539 BCE. Zerubbabel returned in 538 BCE and the temple service re-established under the direction of Jeshua, the high priest, with the 'prince' and 'anointed one' referring to them, respectively. In post-exilic times the high priest was anointed and became known as 'anointed one' (Spangenberg 1985:278).
The second period sees Jerusalem as a rebuilt city with 'squares', referring to spaces within city gates serving as forum, market and justice court, as well as 'moats', referring to the defence system (v. 25; Péter-Contesse & Ellington 1993:255 - this is the only time in the Old Testament that the term for 'moats', from the verb 'to cut' is found). It ends with the death of the innocent Onias III in 171 BCE instigated by the new high priest, Menelaos, who worshipped Zeus and imported Hellenism into Jerusalem. He paid Antiochus IV with temple treasures to become the new high priest, according to rumours circulating amongst the Jews (Lucas 2002:254). The destruction of the city and temple refers to Appolonius' siege against Jerusalem in 167 BCE at the order of Antiochus IV. Anderson (1984:116) emphasises that it 'was not the purpose of the author of the book of Daniel to present his readers with a textbook of history'; rather, it was:
to show how, with the aid of a selected prophecy, this flow of events might still be seen to fall within the control of a God who had not left his people without hope. (p. 116)
The third period starts with Antiochus IV halting the temple service after the siege of Jerusalem by his general Apollonius in 167 BCE. It ends when the Jews under Judas Maccabeus chased the Syrians and Greeks from Jerusalem, rededicated the temple, and re-established an independent political reign. The time designation does not tally with historical events but the author was probably not interested primarily in giving a calendar of events. He does not intend giving his readers a timetable of events leading to the 'end times', but rather wants to assure his people that God accepts their repentance and re-establishes his covenant (Le Roux 1993:6).
The emphasis is clearly on the third period, divided into two sections. The first section starts with the dethronement of Onias III as part of Antiochus' Hellenisation policy in order to suppress Jewish rebelliousness, and which pleased many influential Jews. Antiochus made a covenant (beri't) with the apostate Jews who supported him, probably from the aristocratic class. Porteous (1979:143) is, however, of the opinion that the majority of Jews initially supported Antiochus' policies. This period is described symbolically as a time of distress, destruction, flood and desolation (vv. 25-26). In the second period, Zeus was worshipped in the temple and the Jewish worship service suppressed. Some Hellenising Jews connected Zeus Olympos with the God of heavens.
The climax of the message is reached when the ruler is reciprocated for his humiliation of God's people by punishment in 164 BCE when Antiochus IV died, far from his home and people. The Hebrew text of verses 26-27 is uncertain and obscure in many places and it is difficult to make a sensible translation (Péter-Contesse & Ellington 1993:255). This was most probably done on purpose to obscure the meaning in a politically dangerous time when many Jews were accused of treason (Le Roux 1995:32). This is also a characteristic of apocalyptic texts, where obscurity and secrecy play an important role to conceal the radical political message it contains: that the Jewish nation would become the new power ruling over the whole earth.
Daniel 9 as part of the second, apocalyptic section of the book of Daniel
The Book of Daniel poses several challenges, amongst others the use of two languages - Hebrew in Daniel 1:1-2:4a and Daniel 7-12 and Aramean in the rest (Lucas 2002:212) -and the use of tales in Daniel 1, 3-6 (and 9?) in a book of apocalyptic visions found in Daniel 2,2 7-8, 10-12 (Nel 2000:218-219). The fact that Daniel 9 is in Hebrew, alongside Daniel 7-8 and 10-12, is an indication that the author was of the opinion that it belongs to the apocalyptic section of the book.
Balzer (1991) warns of the danger when one reads a text in terms of certain expectations without taking the text at face value:
In exegetical praxis, eschatology is normally used as a key ... this hermeneutical approach can have an intrinsic danger of becoming an a priori principle in biblical exegesis, the interpreter's condition sine qua non, instead of the reverse. Therefore, exegesis usually radically adapts or eliminates contextual elements that do not fit into the general pattern ... (Balzer 1991:408)
Should the narrative and prayer in Daniel 9 be read in terms of its place between apocalyptic visions, or should it be read in terms of the tales found in the first part?
The compilation of the book in two parts is perhaps not intended to carry that much weight, as the author had the narratives at hand, reinterpreted them in terms of the new situation and added own compositions to further elucidate the crisis caused by Antiochus' menace to Jewish identity. To confirm the argument, the placement of the vision in Daniel 2 amongst the tales and Daniel 9 amongst the visions can be cited.
A question of definition
If the Book of Daniel represents apocalyptic literature, what is the essence of apocalyptic literature and apocalypticism? '"Apocalyptic" and "apocalypticism" are notoriously slippery words' (Davies 1985:66). It is not known who created or read or heard this genre, or what the influence of apocalyptic literature on the Jewish community was, and modern researchers also find it difficult to describe the characteristics of apocalyptic texts because of the differences between the few extant texts. Apocalypticism may be described in terms of the following characteristics:
• It consists of revelations by otherworldly mediators speaking about salvation from the wretchedness of this world.
• It contains an eschatological dualism with a clear differentiation between the present and future aeons.
• The future is predetermined.
• It is pseudonymous as the authors need to earn credibility ('author-ity').
• It is secret.
• It is characterised by eschatological impatience.
• It contains careful calculations of the dates of future events and numbers have symbolical significance.
• It contains phantasies.
• Angels play a prominent part.
• An expectation of life after death is expressed (Davies 1985:20; Hanson 1979:9-12; LaCocque 1988:88; Verhoef 1993:83; Von Rad 1965:301-302; Vorster 1986:158-159).
Hanson (1979:6) warns that the value of such a list is limited because each apocalyptic work has unique features. This implies that the historical and social matrix of apocalypse cannot be explained in this way. Apocalypticism is a crisis phenomenon illustrating in what way the values and structures of a minority group has become meaningless and requires to be replaced by a new meaning system that displaces and alienates the minority group further from the majority group. For this group, the only meaning in life consists in the revelation of a new world when God will judge the majority group and punish them with eternal death. 'The fundamental theological problem confronting the apocalypticist is theodicy. The struggle between good and evil experienced in human life is a microcosmic manifestation of a macrocosmic phenomenon' (Larue 1968:3). Antiochus IV's oppression of Jews becomes the catalyst for apocalyptic thought patterns, whilst the roots of the thinking lie in Israel's sacral history. Antiochus' persecution led to:
a failure of nerve, a despair of man's ability to effect the kingdom of God through his own efforts and a conviction that the situation could only get worse until God himself broke in to terminate the present evil age and inaugurate the ideal. (Larue 1968:3)
The new expected to be realised is incomparable with the known because 'apocalyptic eschatology is the mode assumed by the prophetic tradition once it had been transferred to a new and radically altered setting in the post-exilic community' (Hanson 1995:10).
The research into apocalypticism produced a useful distinction between a literary genre (apocalypse), a social ideology (apocalypticism) and literary ideas and motifs (apocalyptic eschatology). Apocalypse refers to a specific text, whilst an apocalyptic perspective refers to a point of view from which reality is experienced. An apocalyptic movement is a grouping within society, whilst apocalypticism refers to a phenomenon or ideology (cf. Vorster 1986:158). The distinction does not solve all related problems; thus Martínez (1987:230) shows that the restriction of apocalypticism to a literary genre is too reductionist to give justice to the term's associations. Instead of trying to define the terms, it is better to describe the phenomenon and to do it in terms of a specific document. In the end, the different descriptions can be compared in order to keep one from reading a text with a priori perceptions.
Not all researchers even agree that it is possible to speak of a 'genre' of apocalypticism.3 Fiorenza (1983:295) reminds his readers that Kurt Koch in the 1970s confessed that he is ratlos vor der Apokalyptik. The correct question that needs to be asked, but which does not have an answer, is did the first readers or listeners notice a distinctive 'genre' when they listened to the book? If the answer is negative, as is probably the case, they would have read it against the context of similar literature that they knew, which would be the prophecies and dreams found in the rest of the Old Testament, political pseudo-prophecies, interpretation of dreams known from Babylon of the second century and the tales found in the first part of the Book of Daniel (Knibb 2002:19).
The Book of Daniel should be seen as a unique and distinctive piece of literature with a clearly defined witness of its own (Porteous 1979:16), even though it borrows from the wisdom and prophetic traditions as well as psalms found in the Hebrew Bible. Collins (1984:4; as part of the Semeia team) describes the macro genre of apocalypse as a, (1) way of writing (e.g. narrative), (2) textual type (e.g. revelation writing), (3) genre (e.g. apocalypse) and (4) subgenre (e.g. apocalypse with an otherworldly journey). Apocalypse is defined as a genre of revelatory literature with a narrative framework, in which a revelation is mediated by an otherworldly being to a human recipient, disclosing a transcendent reality which is both temporal, insofar as it envisages eschatological salvation, and spatial, insofar as it involves another, supernatural world (Collins 1984:4). Wills (1990:193) discusses the different definitions and remarks that 'genre classification lies in the eye of the beholder', but the definition of Collins above is applicable to the visions found in Daniel 2, as well as in 7-12.
The two main types of apocalypse are an apocalypse with and an apocalypse without an otherworldly journey. A characteristic of apocalypse without an otherworldly journey, such as the visions of Daniel, is that it always contains an overview of the history in one form or another, in the form of ex eventu prophecy of history. For this reason is can also be named historical apocalypse. Both subgenres also contain a worthy figure from ancient times as the receiver of the revelation, as part of the pseudonimity of the literature type and part of the narrative relates how the revelation was received. In the case of Daniel 9 the narrative satisfies all these requirements.
The advantage of the definition of SBL's Semeia is that it is wide enough to enclose all documents described as apocalypses, although Rowland (1982:11) argues that the expectation of salvation is not exclusive to apocalypses but forms an integral part of Judaism of the intertestamental period. Hellholm (1986:26-27) sees the shortcoming of Semeia's definition in that it does not state what the function of apocalypses is and he proposes that the function is 'intended for a group in crisis with the purpose of exhortation and/or consolation by means of divine authority' (Hellholm 1986:27). The problem is that no concrete evidence exists to endorse this derivation. Grabbe (1989:27-47) states the opposite, in that apocalypses are not intended to encourage marginalised groups in crisis but are rather the product of visionary groups functioning in the same sense as modern millenarian movements.
Where did apocalypticism originate?
The question is: was apocalypticism an unfortunate turn off from the prophetic tradition, or a linear and legitimate progression and development from prophecy? Is it a necessary or applicable development of the prophetic tradition? What is the distinction between prophetic and apocalyptic eschatology?
The distinguishing factor between prophecy and apocalypticism lies in the way the vision of the future is integrated with the events of daily life in prophecy, whilst the vision of the future needs a radical break with ordinary history in apocalypticism (Hanson 1976:32). Prophecy is like an aeroplane departing from the runway of history and flying into an eschatological future, whilst apocalypticism is like an aeroplane appearing in the clouds of the eschatological reality to land on the runway of the present (Verhoef 1993:83). Whilst the historical situation is important for prophecy, apocalypticism comes from God's distance to land in the situation he created.
Von Rad (1965:303) is of the opinion that, to a certain degree, there is no connection between prophecy and apocalypticism, except in the fact that both are oriented towards the future. The irreconcilability between prophecy and apocalypticism he finds in the different views of history, with prophecy finding its roots in Israel's salvation history and the tradition of election, whilst apocalypticism never refers to the patriarchal, exodus, Zion or David traditions. Only in Daniel 9 is a reference to the Torah of Moses and the exodus to be found, but some researchers see this prayer as a secondary interpolation. The root from which apocalypticism grew was the wisdom tradition (Von Rad 1965:303-305), as can be seen in the title of the alleged author as 'wise man' and not 'prophet', Daniel's predictions flowing not from a prophetic impulse but the interpretation of dreams and the intention of the book not to partake in social and political conflicts but to describe history in a deterministic tonality (Soggin 1984:291292). Koch (1987:240) is, however, correct when he states that wisdom literature does not show any form of critical agreement or parallels with the Book of Daniel and wisdom literature of the second century does not show any interest in eschatological themes (cf. Wisdom of Jesus Ben Sirach for one example of this). A relation between wisdom tradition and apocalypticism can be shown, but apocalypticism finds its other parent in prophecy (Baldwin 1978:50).
It is my tentative judgment that wisdom was wedded to the tradition of apocalyptic eschatology as part of efforts being made by visionary circles to establish their credentials in the third and second century BCE, at a time when prophetic figures were being regarded with a great deal of skepticism and even animosity by many religious leaders (Hanson 1979:9).
View of history
As already argued in the section about the exegesis of Daniel 9, apocalypticism originated in a radical break with how the present and past is viewed, in order to reinterpret it in the light of a totally new future (Vorster 1986:160). It is characterised by radical pessimism, where all human intervention is liquidated and the expectation is exclusively focused on the utopia with its new symbolic coherence. World history is in the process of being ended as a result of the nature of humankind and the kingdoms established by them. There is no expectation of salvation in the present; salvation will be eschatological and in the future (Von Rad 1965:303). Apocalyptic literature treats good and evil as timeless factors and the only interest lies with the last generation of Israel who will experience the end of times. Daniel paints history in a deterministic sense in the service of his view of the future and human beings are seen as the victim of decisions taken long ago without having any say in it. Allegorical codes are utilised to summarise the whole historical process under a few denominators and objectify it conceptually and history is schematised and unified by reducing it to a few primary powers that are determining it. Humans are only in a limited sense agents in the events with limited power of choice.
Second-century apocalyptic literature
During the second century, Hellenism stimulated the rise of an apocalyptic movement amongst Jews in the crisis caused by Antiochus' policies that threatened the soul of the religion and identity of the Jewish people. The Book of Daniel is supplemented by the tales of Susanna, Bel and the Dragon, the Prayer of Azariah, Tobit and the Letter of Jeremiah (Knibb 2002:24). These literature types display a clear polemical character as an instrument to propagandise for resistance against the Hellenisation policies of the Greek-Syrian tyrants with its cultural and religious syncretism, but also against the Jewish party that was willing to compromise their faith by supporting Antiochan efforts. Daniel strives to establish a pure Yahwism, a struggle that was already expressed by the priest-prophet Elijah (LaCocque 1988:124).
In this article, the following question was asked: does Daniel 9 form an integral part of the apocalyptic section found in the Book of Daniel, or is it misplaced and should it perhaps rather have been part of the tales (Dn 1-6)? The conclusion, after discussing Daniel 9's exegesis, is that there are many arguments for its correct placement amongst the visions, because of its view of time, determinism, the role an angel plays in the interpretation of the obscure, the pesher type of interpretation of previously revealed texts, the role of the 'anointed' in creating a new future, the definition of the new future in terms of a radical break with the known, the direct connection between the terminology and interpretation found in Daniel 9:24-27 and Daniel 10-12, the obscurity of the symbols and language which also characterise other apocalyptic texts in order to veil direct historical references that could lead to persecution by oppressors, the fact that Daniel 9 is written alongside Daniel 7-8 and 10-12 in Hebrew contra Daniel 2:4b-6:29, as well as the important motive of theodicy in Daniel 9. Daniel 9 can be described as apocalyptic in essence, a text of revelatory literature with a narrative in which a revelation is mediated by an otherworldly being and disclosing a transcendent reality which is both temporal, insofar as it envisages eschatological salvation, and spatial, insofar as it involves another, supernatural world. A description of apocalypticism also showed the relatedness of the narrative of Gabriel's revelation of the meaning of Jeremiah's time designation in Daniel 9 to characteristics ascribed to apocalypticism. Thus, the emphasis in the narrative is on the dénouement of the enigma of Jeremiah's time designation in Gabriel's revelations which have all the elements in common with the description of an apocalypse and apocalyptic ideology and therefore the inference is made that Daniel 9 forms an integral part of the visions of the second part of the Book of Daniel.
Competing interests
The author declares that he has no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced him in writing this article.
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Marius Nel
PO Box 12373
Bendor Park 0713, South Africa
Email: firstname.lastname@example.com
Received: 09 Jan. 2012
Accepted: 08 Apr. 2013
Published: 02 Sept. 2013
1.Tanakh Translation, Jewish Publication Society is used for all quotations.
2.Not all researchers agree that Daniel 2 is part of the apocalyptic visions, although the reference to the fifth kingdom concurs with the visions found in the second part of the book.
3.There is also a confusion of terms, with the German Gattung referring to smaller literary units, which is sometimes called Form as well. The English 'genre' refers to complete works like the gospels, a compilation of oracles or epic works, whilst the English 'form' is used to refer to smaller textual units.


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I was a busy blogger last year, with more than 140 posts in 2012. While I enjoyed writing all of my them, here are 15 that I enjoyed a little bit more than the rest:
- 10 CX Mistakes to Avoid. I enjoyed pulling together all of these importent lessons for improving CX efforts.
- My Manifesto: Great Customer Experience Is Free. This "repost" captures my core views on customer experience.
- Report: The ROI of Customer Experience. It's very fulfilling to find a clear connection between CX and loyalty through analysis of large-scale data.
- Temkin Group Welcomes New CX Analyst, Aimee Lucas. I was thrilled to write this one, because Aimee is a fantastic addition to the team.
- Seven Reasons Why CX Will Thrive, Not Die. I wanted to contribute to a very important discussion started by Colin Shaw.
- The Excellent Economics Of Service Recovery. It was great to objectively demonstrate the importance of service recovery.
- Report: CX Needs More HR Focus on Employee Engagement. I enjoyed this unique research that examines CX through the eyes of HR professionals.
- Net Promoter Scores For Obama And Romney. It was fun applying CX principles to the election.
- Great Patient Experience Is Free. I really enjoyed commenting on an article by Dr. Atul Gawande.
- Report: The Future of Customer Experience. I had been thinking about this research for a long while and was very happy to finally chart the path of CX.
- What Drives Net Promoter Scores (NPS) in IT? I enjoy unexpected findings such as relationships being more important than products for IT professionals.
- Debriefing the CXPA Members Insight Exchange. This was an awesome event, so I had fun writing about it.
- Off Topic: My Message to Graduates. While this post has nothing to do with CX, I enjoyed writing my advice in this hypothetical speech.
- Temkin Experience Ratings Spotlight: USAA. This company tops many of our ratings, so I always enjoy speaking with USAA's CX leader Wayne Peacock.
- Analytics from Mark Cuban to Text Mining. I wrote about a sports analytics conference that I attended with my son; enough said.
The bottom line: I hope that you enjoyed my 2012 posts

subset: commoncrawl


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Sam Trammell Gossip
Sam Trammell gossip, latest news, photos, and video.
Countdown to TB4
True Blood's Main 3 were all present last night at the show's fourth season premiere. Check out Anna Paquin, Stephen Moyer, and Alexander Skarsgard on the carpet alongside almost the entire TB cast as HBO gets ready for one of its marquee shows, and one of its strongest performers. Also attached – photos of the lovely Rutina Wesley who needs, desperately, for the writers to give her a better storyline; Sam Trammell and his pregnant girlfriend Missy Yager; Ryan Kwanten and Lindsay Pulsifer, one of my True Blood bright spots because, clearly, you've never met a more incompetent couple; the badass Nelsan Ellis whose witch and Jesus storyline will feature prominently; and the lovely Kristin Bauer whose chemistry with Skarsgard's Eric is maybe the best on the show. Full Story
True Blood Pacific
Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg produced another miniseries. The Pacific is a 10 part war epic that will air on HBO beginning March 14. To add star power to the event, HBO trotted out its True Blood stars: Stephen Moyer, Sam Trammell, Deborah Ann Woll, Ryan Kwanten, and Alexander Skarsgard who looks like he's had the hot sucked out of him by that starving twat Kate Bosworth. Full Story
Alexander Skarsgard SMA?
I hear you. I want him to be too. But this is a prediction. And the prediction is based on a magazine serving a very specific demographic… Alexander Skarsgard, along with Sam Trammell, Rutina Wesley, and Michelle Forbes were in Paris yesterday promoting True Blood as the show is now being pushed internationally. Full Story
Whip It Shifter
It's not even October. It's 8 f-cking months away. None. No True Blood. So we take our scraps when we can get them. This is Sam Trammell at Whip It last night very deserving of his own post. Because Sam this season got a lot more attractive as soon as he stopped loving Sookie. Loving Sookie creates pussies. Full Story


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Unnanounced Protest Brings APD Out In Force
The sirens have finally died in downtown Albuquerque. Choppers are still making noise in the sky above the city from Nob Hill west to the Downtown neighborhood where today hundreds of protesters marched in protest against the most recent APD shooting. Unfortunately, James Boyd (a homeless man who was camped out in the foothills of the Sandias) is not the most recent kill by APD, simply the most high profile.
Riot gear, screaming fast police cruisers and a generally intimidating tone were the order of the day for residents of Albuquerque, a city which has become internationally famous for the brutality of its police department. Consensus is that the Duke City has one of the most dangerous, out of control police departments in the nation. The FBI has opened a criminal investigation into James Boyd's death.


text: Show Hide image Politics 18 November 2010 Maggie Thatcher's long goodbye Just two nights before Margaret Thatcher resigned as prime minister, 20 years ago this month, she ha Sign-up As I drove in to the House of Commons on 22 November 1990, a television reporter shouted from behind her camera, "She's gone." For a moment I experienced the feeling of disbelief that made so many parish clerks refuse to nail the news of Queen Victoria's death to their noticeboards. Margaret Thatcher had seemed immortal. Superstition had been reinforced by the evidence provided by the television news just two nights before. The prime minister, in the courtyard of the British embassy in Paris, had snatched the microphone from the hand of the BBC's John Sergeant and announced that, although she had narrowly failed to gain the necessary two-thirds majority on the first ballot in the Conservative leadership election, she would fight on. I certainly wanted her to survive. While she was in office, there would be no humiliating U-turn away from the poll tax. I had no doubt that if the Conservatives fought the next election without abandoning what Thatcher coyly called the Community Charge, Labour would win. Unfortunately, most of the cabinet had come to the same conclusion. But on the morning of her departure I knew nothing about the events of the previous night - Kenneth Clarke, brutally frank, and Michael Portillo, like the Roman centurion at Pompeii, faithful unto death. One detail about that historic event I discovered only four years later. I was on Brian Walden's Sunday ITV show on the weekend that the second volume of Thatcher's biography was sent to reviewers. In the hope of cheap publicity, the publisher arranged for a security company to deliver embargoed copies to Brian and me at the studio. As soon as we had posed for suitable pictures, we looked for our own names in the index. Mine did not appear; Brian was mentioned twice. Alan Clark, another guest on the show, asked if there was any reference to him. Brian found one and obligingly read it to the assembled company. It was a description of Clark's intervention on resignation night. The biography compared it to the porter's scene in Macbeth. "What does it mean?" Clark asked. Brian told him. "It means you were pissed." Thatcher's most devoted admirer stumbled from the room muttering about ingratitude. I cannot recall a serious discussion with Neil Kinnock about which candidate we hoped would become the new Tory leader. We both knew instinctively - or thought we knew - what would be best for the Labour Party. Our fear was that Michael Heseltine would win and, after announcing the demise of the poll tax, call and win an immediate general election on the pretext of "needing a democratic mandate". Neither of us thought that Douglas Hurd had a chance - though I had no doubt that he was by far the most able of the contenders. We wanted John Major. So, it seems, did Thatcher. At a Tory soirée after the 1997 defeat, she was so critical of her successor that Hurd could not resist reminding her that Major had once enjoyed her backing. She replied, "But it was such a poor field." I remain of the view that Neil and I were right. Whatever the reason for the Conservatives' fourth consecutive election victory in 1992, it was not because of the brilliance of their leader. By the time that Major succeeded Thatcher, Labour had already returned to the mainstream of politics. Militant was an unhappy memory and four policies that more or less guaranteed defeat had been removed from the party programme. Labour no longer supported unilateral nuclear disarmament. Membership of the European Union was accepted by virtually all the party, albeit with varying degrees of enthusiasm. It was agreed that renationalisation was - desirable or not - largely impossible. The trade unions, though still regarded as Labour's paymasters, no longer dictated industrial policy. The shadow employment secretary, Tony Blair, had courageously and correctly endorsed the Brussels directive that simultaneously outlawed the closed shop and made trade union membership a statutory right. The party had confirmed its moderation by inflicting a crushing defeat on Tony Benn and Eric Heffer when they challenged Neil and me. Thatcher inhibited rather than stimulated those necessary changes. The old left denounced every reform as "pandering to Thatcherism" - as well as presaging mass defections to the SDP. And the mistakes that we made in confronting the hard-edged Conservatism that Thatcher represented were the result not just of our horror at the suffering her policies caused, but of the fear that we would be accused of pandering to the prejudices that they exploited. Our responses were often too angry and frequently insufficiently clinical. We regularly misunderstood the attitude of the British people to Thatcherism's unquestioning enthusiasm for ruthless individualism. During the 1983 general election campaign Thatcher was asked why, when she needed an operation on her hand, she had chosen private treatment over the National Health Service. She replied, without doubt or hesitation, that she wanted treatment at the time of her choice and in the place of her choice. That answer seemed to me both morally objectionable and certain to offend the thousands of people who were languishing on treatment waiting lists. My assumption about the public's attitude was wrong. Opinion polls confirmed that the general feeling was that anyone who could afford superior treatment was entitled to buy it. We found it hard to accept that. In a credible sense, Margaret Thatcher represented the spirit of the age. She stood for more than the belief that the collective solutions - the state initiating improvements in welfare and economic performance - had failed. She seemed to be a cleansing wind that would blow away the prejudices and vested interests of all the old establishments, hereditary grandees no less than trade union barons. Perversely, she represented change in a society that longed for something new. Labour was the ancien régime. Rightly or wrongly, before Tony Blair we responded to all that Thatcher stood for by rejecting it outright. That is why the founding fathers of New Labour were unenthusiastic about John Smith's leadership. Blair would not have gone against the grain of public opinion. His detachment from social-democratic values became an electoral asset when he became the leader of a social-democratic party. He was able to judge each policy against the criterion of its public appeal. His standard reply to criticism was not that he had made the right choice, but that to choose the alternative was to risk defeat. Blair himself was undoubtedly sympathetic to the precepts of Thatcherism - the view that allowing individuals to "get on", without much concern for the effect on other people, was the obligation of the free society. But hundreds of Labour Party members who supported his leadership rejected that view. To them, he was the only knight who could slay the once-indomitable dragon. It was the fear of continual failure, not conversion to crypto-Thatcherism, that encouraged Labour to follow Blair from a position on the moderate left on to the centre ground. The idea that Labour wins only when it is not Labour still haunts the party. Joseph Chamberlain said that great politicians "changed the weather". I doubt that it was either Margaret Thatcher's dominant personality or distinctive philosophy that converted Britain to the belief that the old consensus - welfare and government intervention - had failed. Britain believed that before she won the 1979 election. Indeed, it was the reason for her victory. But she articulated the zeitgeist with such vigour that the idea survives her premiership by two decades. Thanks to her, ideas that most of the population instinctively believed, but feared to admit, became respectable. They still are and will remain so until their popularity is first accepted and then challenged. The defining principle of Thatcher's economic philosophy - the efficacy of the market, as a guarantee of competitive efficiency and as a method of determining the allocation of resources and patterns of remuneration - was adopted by the Blair government, not as a philosophical truth, but as the common sense that any plain man would recognise. When Blair worked for me in Labour's front-bench Treasury team, his outstanding characteristics were all-round ability, undisguised contempt for a political vocation that was not focused on winning power and impatience with what he called ideology. At best, he believed in something called the common good, with which men and women of public spirit and integrity could identify without recourse to philosophy. The idea that he was attracted by Thatcherite theories is absurd. He prided himself on having put theory aside. He instinctively and independently came to a Thatcherite conclusion. From time to time, Blair cast about for a coherent concept that would give a spurious cohesion to his unbridled pragmatism. In the end, he briefly found it in the "Third Way", as interpreted by Anthony Giddens, who, in 1992, boldly asserted: "Many on the more traditional left would accept the view that the left is defined by its concerns with the dangers of the market, whose excesses need to be reined back by the state. Today the idea has become archaic." Blair instinctively agreed, and began to talk in Giddens's language, because the Third Way seemed an idea that would help to define him by how he differed from the popular perception of the party he led, and would contribute to Labour's election victory. The lessons that Blair learned from Thatcher were more personal than philosophical. One was the importance of party leaders making clear that they had imposed their will on their followers. Blair, wrote Roy Jenkins, "climbed up the outside of the Labour Party". Espousing the market had the same effect as rewriting Clause Four of the 1918 constitution - the intentionally unintelligible replacing the inherently unachievable. It demonstrated that the Labour leader had created a new party in his own image. One other characteristic united the Blair and Thatcher premierships. Both were blessed by generally supine cabinets. A distraught secretary of state told me - after an apparently agreed policy had been suddenly and arbitrarily vetoed by Downing Street - that it had not been discussed by colleagues because a request for collective discussion was regarded as disloyalty. In both the Thatcher and the Blair administrations, men and women of talent and belief accepted, without much argument, policies with which they disagreed. In Labour's case it began at the very dawn of government. The cabinet, overwhelmingly in favour of shelving the Millennium Dome, was told that the prime minister had already agreed that it should go ahead. Nobody demurred. Labour accepted Blair's domination because its members had not quite recovered from the fear that Labour would never form a government again. Until the promotion of the hand-reared Blairites - Alan Milburn, Patricia Hewitt, Tessa Jowell - most of the Blair cabinet despised Thatcher's view of society. But they were in awe of the personalised politics - the party leader as celebrity - that had made her the dominant figure of the 1980s. Blair seemed, indeed was, capable of holding the British people in equal thrall. Examine the commendations of his colleagues. John Prescott, extolling the new leader's virtues on the day he was elected, told the party not that he was the man with the right programme, but that he was the man the Tories feared. Blair was supposed to be the loss leader in Labour's supermarket. But, because of the strength of his personality, for ten years it hawked the Thatcherite merchandise that was his genuine stock-in-trade. Roy Hattersley was deputy leader of the Labour Party from 1983-92 Subscribe £1 per month SUBSCRIBE More


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Regulators approve 6 to 5 blackjack payout
The commissioners that voted for the change indicated that it was best to let the market decide whether the lower payout should get implemented. Gaming Division spokesman Don Burmania said the commissioners essentially stated in their decision that "the rule was permissive and not mandatory, so the offering of the odds becomes a business decision that the casinos decide, not a regulatory decision that the regulators decide."
The Colorado Limited Gaming Control Commission today approved a rule change that will allow casinos to lower the payout on blackjacks to 6 to 5, a Colorado Division of Gaming spokesman said.
The five-member commission voted 3 to 1 to approve the change (Meyer Saltzman was absent). Florence Hunt was the lone commissioner who voted against it, but didn't state a reason.
The lower payout can go into effect April 30, though some casinos have said publicly that they don't plan to implement it. (Whether that holds true six months down the road is another matter).
Currently, casinos must pay 3 to 2 on a blackjack, meaning a $10 bet would win $15. The new rule lowers that payout to $12.
Gaming consultant Bill Zender says the 6 to 5 payout works in Vegas because tourists are there to gamble. But it's tougher to implement the lower payout in markets that deal with mostly locals, like Black Hawk, Central City and Cripple Creek.
"Six to five blackjack payouts have seen some success in low-limit games in areas that are destination resorts like the Las Vegas Strip," Zender told me last week. "But (the lower payouts) have been rejected by most of the players in any area where they deal with a lot of locals."
I'm guessing we'll see a single-deck or two-deck game here or there to start, and some bold casino will eventually introduce the 6 to 5 payout on a multi-deck game. Others will or will not follow suit based on how that casino fares.


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Está aqui
Teachers and trainers' professional development
Teachers and trainers working in vocational education and training (VET) are key actors to ensure its quality and relevance to today's demands. They play an essential role in the implementation of reforms that have been part of the EU and national agendas. Cedefop supports the development of EU policies that affect teachers and trainers through targeted activities and as a transversal topic in other related projects, such as learning outcomes, renewal of VET curricula and early leaving from education and training; work-based learning and apprenticeships.
The provision of VET in the countries is very context-dependent. While the titles for professionals working in VET vary across the countries, four distinct categories can be easily identified (in initial vocational education and training (IVET)):
It is more important to define the teaching and training staff in terms of function and tasks rather than trying to come to a single term for each group. This will help ensure that all teachers and trainers have access to high quality initial and continuing professional development and support in order to contribute to, among others:
- implementing new VET curricula;
- strengthening links between education and the labour market;
- providing more and high quality apprenticeships and other forms of work-based learning;
- co-shaping quick and flexible responses to emerging needs (e.g. the migrant crisis);
- applying the common European transparency tools.
It is essential that teachers and trainers have opportunities to develop and keep up to highest standards their technical competences, pedagogical skills and transversal competences (e.g. digital, intercultural communication, and others).
Teachers and trainers' professional development continues to be high on the EU policy agenda. In 2010, the Bruges communiqué (2010) invited Member States to invest in VET teachers and trainers by offering flexible training provision. The Riga conclusions (2015) have put renewed emphasis on the issue, calling for more systematic approaches and more and better cooperation and partnerships.
In June 2016, Cedefop published:
- the thematic country perspectives that provide excellent snapshots of the situation in the countries as regards the teaching and training professionals who work in initial VET,
- and a briefing note, 'Professional development for VET teachers and trainers: a guarantee of quality in VET'.
In November 2016, Cedefop is organising a policy learning forum on supporting professional development of teachers and trainers for better VET.
Cedefop provides expertise to an ET2020 working group on VET (set up by the European Commission) that in 2016-18 focuses on professional development of teachers and trainers. The group specifically addresses governance and partnership arrangements between schools and companies.
Trainers in continuing VET
Cedefop also studied competence development of those employees who work with adult learners in continuing vocational training (CVET) and in enterprises.
The publication, 'Trainers in continuing VET: emerging competence profile' (2013), discusses a competence profile of a trainer that emerged from the 19 examples from the Member States on developing competence requirements to trainers working in institutions for CVET and in companies.
The publication, 'Who trains in small and medium-sized enterprises: Characteristics, needs and ways of support', reports the results of a survey of in-company trainers and employers from 254 SMEs from eight Member States on the roles, qualification and competence needs, tasks and activities, awareness of publicly-supported measure for professional development of those employees who train others in their workplace (most often in additional to their duties).
Previous work on trainers in VET
In the past five years, Cedefop's work focused on in-company trainers. In the period 2012-14, Cedefop closely cooperated with the Commission in coordinating a thematic working group that produced guiding principles for professional development of trainers in VET:
- trainers are lifelong learners: recognise their identity and work; support their lifelong learning;
- companies' support is crucial for trainers' CPD: raise awareness of benefits and get companies on board in supporting training and trainers;
- trainers' competence development benefits from a systematic approach: define what trainers need, provide training and learning opportunities, recognise competences;
- supporting trainers in companies is a shared responsibility: ensure effective cooperation and coordination;
- competent trainers in companies matter: make them part of a broader agenda and use all available funds and programmes.
Peer learning was the main method of learning and exchange of experience among the participating countries. Three peer learning activities (PLA) took place:
- In-company trainers: competence requirements, certification and validation, Netherlands, September 2012;
- Effective approaches and support for continuing professional development of in-company trainers, Belgium, May 2013;
- Support for trainers' competence development in small and medium-sized enterprises, France and Germany, October 2013.
Contact Details: Irina Jemeljanova


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The VRoma Project is first and foremost a community of awesome scholars, both teachers and students, who create online resources for teaching about the Latin language and ancient Roman culture. The project was initially funded by a $190,000 National Endowment for the Humanities Teaching with Technology grant in 1997. The two major components of the project are its online learning environment (MUVE, Multi-User Virtual Environment), which has received several favorable external reviews, and its collection of internet resources. The VRoma MUVE requires logging on as a guest or through your personal character and password, but all the web resources are freely accessible on the internet.
A Virtual Place: The center and home of VRoma's virtual community is an online "place," a virtual learning environment built upon a spatial and cultural metaphor of ancient Rome (see article explaining "The Nature of VRoma's Virtual Environment"). The simulated environment of VRoma contains two types of spaces. The historical component of this environment is Rome, a virtual simulation of the ancient city of Rome circa 150 CE; this is as authentic and accurate as the work and research of many classicists can make it. The non-historical component is much smaller and includes a number of locations: Officina, containing faculty offices and student projects; Portae Somni ("Gates of Sleep"), a twilight realm where users can create their own imaginative simulations; and Thermopolium of Scintilla, where visitors can enjoy wine, nibbles, and relaxing conversation. To explore virtual Rome as a guest, just click Log in on the menu above; no password is needed. We welcome anyone with a serious interest in ancient Rome to join the ranks of VRoman citizens by applying for a VRoma character and password (click Join on the menu).
The VRoma MUVE has recently been upgraded to version 5 of the enCore Learning Environment platform. This software offers major new features, making it easier than ever to "walk" the streets of Rome and interact with visitors and native inhabitants. Teachers have new administrative powers, and there are many additional educational tools and resources, including the ability to change the language in which system messages are shown and a new game called Discover Rome, especially designed for younger students (to find out more, click Teaching above). We are especially grateful to Daniel Jung of the University of Bergen in Norway, chief programmer for the new version of enCore, who invested untold hours in upgrading VRoma.
The MUVE now speaks classical Latin! The Classical Association of the Atlantic States has awarded the enCore Consortium a generous grant that enabled six classicists to translate the "voice" of VRoma (all of the system and interface messages, menu items, buttons, etc.) into classical Latin (more information and photos). The Quickstart Guide in the Help section of this website explains how to select the language in which VRoma speaks to you, and a very helpful glossary clarifies the underlying principles of the translation.
A Collection of Resources: The VRoma Project uses workshops and presentations to engage teachers and students in a virtual community dedicated to using internet technology to foster the teaching and learning of the Latin language and Roman culture. This web site features various types of resources created by VRomans (accessible via the above menu), including a large archive of digital images relating to classical antiquity (see VRoma Working for You), help files and other materials about the MUVE, teaching resources and course materials, and information about the initial project and its participants.


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Bru80 necesitaba un nuevo diseño de logotipo y lanzó un concurso de diseño en 99designs.
Un ganador ha sido elegido entre 86 diseños de 33 diseñadores freelance.
We need a logo for David Villa. He will use it in personal sport equipment and also as the logo of a company called David Villa Performance, S.L.
The company will also be about sports so it can use the same David Villa logo adding a Performance S.L tagline
The people who will see the logo are people who likes football but also business man who will work with David Villa Performance, S.L company as the logo will be in the business cards, etc.
We need a logo for David Villa. David Villa is a top Spanish Football player, he plays as striker and has scored many goals in his team Valencia CF and also with the Spanish national team.
He is considered as one of the best strikers in the world.
The logo should be modern, and show Villa's attributes like speed and power. The logo should be simple and easy to apply (don't use pictures of the player or very complicated elements).
This logo will be applied to elements like T-shirts, boots or other sport equipment.
The logo will be also used as the name of a company called David Villa Performance, S.L. So when designing the logo you should consider that the logo will also have an application with the tag line "Performance S.L" which be used in business cards, powerpoint presentations of the player etc.
To sum up, we need:
- "David Villa" logo
- Same "David Villa" logo with "Performance S.L" tagline.
Descubre cómo funciona un concurso de diseño u obtén más información sobre nuestros servicios de diseño de logo.


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en français
StudyCanada is a comprehensive resource guide to schools in Canada. Find out about studying at universities, community colleges, technical institutes, career colleges, secondary schools, summer camps and language schools in Canada. Learn about the education system in Canada, school requirements, school costs, climate, cost of living, accommodations, history and more. Find current information on getting a visa or the type of study permit needed to study at a school in Canada. StudyCanada is published in 15 different languages and is linked to the 13 Canadian Education Centres worldwide. Explore any of the 20 sites and come study at a school in Canada!
Technical Institutes and Community Colleges
Career Colleges
Secondary Schools


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Checking In On… the Southland ConferencePosted by Brian Goodman on December 3rd, 2011
Zach Birdsong is the RTC correspondent for the Southland Conference. You can also find his musings online at houstonianonline.com or on Twitter @zachbird_nerd.
Readers Take:
The Week That Was:
- Logging Miles: Lamar guard Anthony Miles was named Southland Conference Player of the Week for his performance last week. Miles averaged 24.5 points and six assists per game to go along with 4.5 rebounds in two road wins for the Cardinals. Game-by-game, Miles dropped 18 points against Tennesee-Martin, where he shot the ball for 63% on 7-11 shooting as Lamar won, 80-69. Then Friday against Tennessee Tech, he scored a career high 31 points and dished out eight assists. The Cardinals dominated TTU in that one, 85-65. Collectively, he shot 15-25 from the field, 3-5 from three-point range and 16-19 from the free throw line last week.
- Roadrunners Get A Boost: In the 2010-11 season, Melvin Johnson, III, was a critical weapon for the Roadrunners down the stretch and helped them reach the NCAA Tournament. After serving a two-game suspension for violating team rules, Johnson returned to the floor. Before the season, Johnson was expected to be among the top conference players. With him in the lineup, the Roadrunners are 3-3 this season, defeating UTEP, Fresno State and Cameron. In his six games this season, Johnson has had limited time on the court, averaging 10 points and 3.7 rebounds per game.
- Sam Houston State Slammed By Injuries: The Colonials had a relatively young team coming into the 2011-12 season with only one returning starter, forward Antuan Bootle. After the opening game of the season, Bootle has been saddled with a foot injury. Against Notre Dame, forward Steve Werner was also injured. Since then, Werner has played limited minutes and did not suit up Tuesday when the team took on Dallas Christian. Not being able to pass the ball inside has really hurt the Bearkats, who are shooting just 38.5% from the field and 23.8% from beyond the arc. Head coach Jason Hooten is optimistic and feels if his team can battle through these injuries, they'll be stronger in conference play.


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Central Falls is the smallest city in Rhode Island and is located in Providence County.Incorporated as a city in 1895, Central Falls is rich with history displaying preserved preWorld War II architecture around the city.
This diverse city has a variety of activities for residents and visitors to enjoy. Central Falls is home to River Island Campground—the only urban campground in the state. The campground sits along the Blackstone River allowing campers to kayak, canoe and fish.
Central Falls also has a city park, Jenks Park, which families and friends can enjoy. The centerpiece of the park is Cogswell Tower—a symbol of the city since being built in 1904. Today, many festivals celebrating diversity are held at the park.
Despite its small size, Central Falls is bursting with culture and local history and has a range of real estate options. The majority of the residents own multifamily homes, however is are a variety of homes for sale including lofts, apartments, townhouses and singlefamily houses.
Central Falls is one of the most densely populated cities in the country with an area of just 1.29 square miles. The flowing waters of the Valley Falls Dam and a variety of public parks and recreation fields lend a family-friendly air to this tightly knit community.
Located on the Blackstone River, the town has a long industrial history and is marked by numerous antique houses and churches. Several mills are now being converted into luxury condominiums along the river. Central Falls is also home to the Blackstone Valley Explorer, a 40 person riverboat that brings a unique look back at the area's industrial beginnings.
Central Falls
Please check back soon!View all Residential Properties New Listings


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A New York court has dismissed Amazon's lawsuit over a law that required the online retailer to collect taxes from New Yorkers even though it didn't have a physical presence in the state.
The law, enacted back in April by Governor Patterson, forced Amazon to collect and remit sales and use taxes if they had an affiliate seller inside the New York State. This helped the State government bypass a 1992 Supreme Court decision that allowed interstate commerce to be untaxed.
Amazon filed the lawsuit in May, claiming that the law was vague and unconstitutional. While Amazon wasn't against collecting state taxes, it was against dragging all its affiliate sellers into what it felt was a bureaucratic mess. And it kind of is!
As Eric Schonfeld of TechCrunch wrote back then:
The law, as written, is just a bad law. And it would set a dangerous precedent. Not because New York State shouldn't try to collect the $US50 million in estimated uncollected sales taxes owed to it. But because the law is tortuous in the way it attempts to do that.
A marketing affiliate is not part of Amazon. If I put some Amazon book recommendations on the side of TechCrunch , set up an affiliate account, and readers click through and buy those books, that does not make TechCrunch part of Amazon. It is a marketing arrangement. Just like someone who sets up an AdSense account does not work for Google.
The only retailers exempt from reporting sales tax are those who earn less than $US10,000 in sales. To save trouble, Amazon could just drop them as soon as they hit the $9,999 mark. That in turn would dampen e-commerce, leading to less tax revenue for the state and then everybody loses! Thanks Albany! [Channel Register via Gothamist]


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Here we present our Culture Collections. From popular culture to religious and spiritual designs to ancient cultures and earthly subcultures. A lovely range of t-shirts celebrating the diversity of humanity.
Note: Our Native American t-shirt range is so large, we have given it a category of it's own and you can find that here in our Native American Collection.
0 items


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Does anyone know of an electronic copy of the Mishnah that could be turned into a Bibleworks file?
Does anyone know of an electronic copy of the Mishnah that could be turned into a Bibleworks file?
www.jewishsoftware.com (T.E.S.Software) has a Mishnah on CD that they're selling for 70% off.
this can be turned into a bibleworks file?
howard silverman
Anyone know of an "English translated" Mishnah software?
www.davka.com) also has a module of the Soncino Talmud for sale. Theirs includes both the Hebrew and Aramaic original text, along with an English translation.
You're very welcome.
Yes, there is one 'free content' electronic or digital Mishnah in Hebrew available (link1) & English(link2), but one would need convert it from Unicode to CCAT, first before it could be imported into BibleWorks.
(However, An unpointed version of Pirke Aboth (Both in Hebrew/English) has been complied by Jay Palmer and can be downloaded at the unofficial Bibleworks blog: http://bibleworks.oldinthenew.org/?p=558 )
If you want to make your own module here is what you'd need to do: First find a free content/public domain copy of the Mishnah in Unicode and take a string like this: משֶׁה קִבֵּל תּוֹרָה מִסִּינַי Then you would need to converte it (or re-transcribe it manually) like this: M$EH QIB".L T.WORFH MISI.YNAY before you could import it into BibleWorks.
Your end result might look something like this when compared with the ROD version that ISalzman mentioned in the previous post:
Last edited by bkMitchell; 10-06-2010 at 11:26 PM.
Brian K. Mitchell
חפשו בתורה היטב ואל תסתמכו על דברי


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tickle (someone's) funny bone(redirected from tickled our funny bone)
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tickle (someone's) funny bone
To make someone laugh; to be humorous or amusing to someone. There's this silly statue on campus that never fails to tickle my funny bone when I walk past it. David has such wit that he can tickle the funny bone of anyone he meets.


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This is a spin off from the Karate/Judo Documentary thread which showed Japanese and Okinawan karateka using traditional equipment. Does anyone here use this kit? If so is it because it's ideal, or because it's traditional? I'm all for keeping to a plan that works, not re-inventing the wheel, but have we really not advanced in the intervening years? I can understand that the old masters were simply using the materials (and technology) that was available to them at the time, but I'm sure they'd adopt modern kit if it was possible.
As for makiwara training - the only footage I've ever seen of people using them are striking with their arms fully extended. Is there a good reason for that? When we perform kata or kihon waza it's with the understanding that contact was made at approximately 70% extention and the remaining 25% (we never lock out the joints against fresh air) is follow-through.


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Sorry about that title.
This article probably won't help you much when it comes to child safety.
Because, frankly, for the past seven years, I have learned one important lesson from the internet and the news: children die out there.
There are the obvious fears that we face as parents: cancer, drowning, strangulation, suffocation, choking, car accidents, being ran over, accidental shootings, targeted shootings…
but in case we weren't scared enough already, there's also all of the obscure stuff out there that makes the rounds on Facebook and 24-hour news channels like wildfire: secondary drowning, sandhole collapses, brain-eating amoebas in pond water, etc., etc., etc.
Every possible way in which a child was harmed or has died is cataloged and published and shared and you're sitting there zoned out in front of your computer reading about it like a slumped-over toad (because isn't that what we all look like while we're on the computer?), but on the inside this scream of hysteria is building in your throatal regions because your greatest fear – losing this little piece of you that you love so fiercely – is being described in another harrowing tale, and even worse, in a new horrible way that you never even dreamed of!!!
A sandhole collapse on the beach?
The water and the sharks weren't scary enough?
Or the pedophiles?
Now we're dealing with sand, too?!
Please, please, PLEASE don't get me wrong: I love the idea of being prepared, and I am so grateful to the brave mothers who shared their stories to inform us of potential dangers that might threaten our children.
But you know what I don't love?
Adding fear to my fear.
Adding worry to my worry.
Adding terrifying tableaux to my suitcase of worst-case scenarios.
I had so many of those already.
And now, I'm not only a wreck as I watch my kids swim, paranoid that I won't see the nearly undetectable signs of drowning…
now I'm watching them for hours afterward to make sure they are not secondarily drowning…
and my mama-sized panic is compounding and I'm thinking crazy little somethings like this...
You know, Rebekah got some water in her nose and choked for a while. I read that the symptoms of secondary drowning are lethargy and sluggishness. But…my kids just swam for seven hours and now they're all sacked out like corpses in the living room…what if she is drowning right now??? Should I wake her up? I know I'm being crazy. But…what if I'm wrong and its too late?!..
Sometimes, when I'm not panicking in the midst of all these potential dangers, toils and snares, I can't help but reminisce about my carefree childhood in Oklahoma where my best friend and I could go meandering down our remote gravel road, sticking our feet in the creek, playing alone in the barn, going swimming in the pond…
you know what?
My kids don't know that life.
Because, six years ago, two girls were shot and killed while meandering down an Oklahoma country road very similar to the one that I used to frequent.
Gravel roads haven't looked safe since.
And there are snakes in the creek.
And there could be deadly amoebas in the pond.
And there could be sex offenders near the barn.
And that's just the beginning.
They can't drink out of the waterhose. That's toxic.
If the baby falls asleep in his carseat, we should wake him up after we bring him inside because nine babies died from sleeping in carseats this year (by the way, why is this article all over Facebook right now when it was written in 2006?!).
Oh! And speaking of Baby Shepherd, OH MY GOSH, there is a balloon next to him and it must be popped and discarded of because if a baby even touches a balloon, they could inhale it and choke to death!!!
And sorry, this is off the subject a bit, but did you know that having a child blow out the candles on a birthday cake is a great carrier for germs?
(not to mention their hair could catch on fire).
I'm freaking out here.
Again, I sincerely don't want to be misunderstood: my point is not that it is bad to be informed.
Information is good.
Warnings are great.
Education is a gift.
And you'd better believe that if something tragic happened to my child that I could help others to avoid, I would do everything I could to get the word out.
My point has nothing to do with the information, really…
and everything to do with what we DO with the information.
How do we respond when we read these warnings?
Do they make us paranoid?
Do they chew up our bellies with fear?
Do they cause us to imagine the worst?
Do they make us feel helpless?
These kinds of responses are red flags, and they are scarier than pond water, because they belie a problem that is deeply rooted within us, a problem that is as old as time and feels impossible to shake…
We don't trust God.
We want to BE God.
And, deep down, we hope that if we do this and avoid that and plan for this that nothing bad will happen to our children, ever.
All of which point to a most unbiblical conclusion…
we think that the only hope for our children is us.
And that is how the simple act of reading internet articles can be a diving board that catapults us into very dangerous waters; cataloging every possible death trap and fearing every single worst-case scenario, we subconsciously trample upon every word the Bible says about God's sovereignty, about His goodness, about His will, and about His calling.
Through our fear and helplessness, we discard the scriptures that we so vocally uphold, saying aloud "Yes, Lord! You are so good and 'I surrender all' and 'have thine own way' and all those Christiany things I'm supposed to say" while our hearts are kind of screaming "YOU AREN'T BIG ENOUGH, GOD, AND YOU DON'T CARE ENOUGH".
If you think that sounds like an exaggeration, consider how the article about secondary drowning receives our rapt attention while God-breathed texts like Romans 8 gather dust on our bedside table…
"And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.
For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.
What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written, 'For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.'
No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.
For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord."
Did you hear that?
This is just one tiny excerpt from a book that is TEEMING with hope.
Hope for me.
Hope for my kids.
And while those ancient words may not contain step-by-step instructions for keeping my kids alive, they provide so much more, a bountiful feast of peace and truth for my fearful soul…
a wellspring of beautiful principles that my starving and terrified heart devours.
God is in control.
God is good.
God does everything for my good.
God created my kids.
God loves my kids more than I do.
God has a plan for me that will bring Him glory.
Nothing can separate me from the love of God.
I am in Christ, and my children can be trusted to Him.
There are greater things to fear than death.
Granted, the Bible makes no promise that all of my safety- and wellness-centered prayers for my children will be answered; in fact, most passages of comfort in the Word were written to a people who were enduring suffering like many of us have never seen.
It is inevitable: every person dies and no one is exempt from pain and sadness.
But when I read the Word, it helps me to breathe.
It realigns my heart with a truth that I cannot inwardly deny.
It stamps a purpose and a hope upon even my worst-case scenarios.
And it reminds me that this life isn't even the one I'm supposed to be living for, anyway, and that, if God would be so gracious, I have eternity to spend with each of my most-beloved children.
So yes, let's read and share all the articles and take the precautions as we slather on the suncreen and zip up the sleepsacks and fasten the safety helmets and cut up the grapes and mince the hot dogs and AVOID ALL WATER, PERIOD…
but let's also stop living as if there is no God.
After all, there is really nothing more toxic, hazardous, poisonous or dangerous than that.
Want to keep up with Mrs. Gore's Diary? Find us on facebook! I promise not to share scary articles there. 🙂