Daniel 2:35 — Semitic Language Study
בֵּאדַ֣יִן דָּ֣קוּ כַחֲדָ֡ה פַּרְזְלָא֩ חַסְפָּ֨א נְחָשָׁ֜א כַּסְפָּ֣א וְדַהֲבָ֗א וַהֲוֹו֙ כְּע֣וּר מִן־אִדְּרֵי־קַ֔יִט וּנְשָׂ֤א הִמֹּון֙ רוּחָ֔א וְכָל־אֲתַ֖ר לָא־הִשְׁתֲּכַ֣ח לְהֹ֑ון וְאַבְנָ֣א דִּֽי־מְחָ֣ת לְצַלְמָ֗א הֲוָ֛ת לְט֥וּר רַ֖ב וּמְלָ֥ת כָּל־אַרְעָֽא
Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver, and the gold were all crushed together, and they became like chaff from the summer threshing-floors, and the wind carried them away so that no place was found for them. But the stone that struck the image became a great mountain and filled the whole earth.
Daniel chapter 2 is such a majestic section of the Bible. In it, we have in very clear terms, the entire premise of Scripture. God has taken one look at the ugly ṣalmā (image) of human empire, and has destroyed it with an unhewnstone that replaces its glory (kabōd) in the form of a mountain (טור ṭūr). This is immediately striking because of its parallel to the great idol in Nebuchadnezzar’s dream. Both are large and looming, but one is built by human hands and the other is built by God. Men cannot build a mountain. It is very likely not a coincidence that the Mesopotamian ziggurats were constructed to look like mountains. From the vantage point of the ground, mountains appear to be touching the heavens. They are, in effect, natural skyscrapers. That is also why in the ancient world, gods were found in two key places. On the one hand, their presence dwelt in the temples built for them. On the other hand, they resided on mountains. The two clearly parallel each other.
That is why in Daniel 2, God replaces the image with his own construction. The stone (’eben) in question is the biblical literature itself, spoken through the mouth of the Hebrew prophets who were rejected by the priestly elite of both Israel and Judah. As the psalmist writes,
אבן מאסו הבונים היתה לראש פנה
The stone (’eben) which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone. (Ps 118:22)
This reflects the Deuteronomist agenda to preemptively place a copy of the Law (devteronomion/ mišneh torah) in the hands of the king, so that when the ‘builders’ do eventually reject the Torah as preached by the prophets whom they also will reject, the Torah will hang over them as the witness that will be unearthed by Josiah’s secretary and will bring them to condemnation.
Similarly, Isaiah says:
לכן כה אמר אדני יהוה הנני יסד בציון אבן אבן בחן פנת יקרת מוסד מוסד המאמין לא יחיש
Behold, I lay in Zion a stone for a foundation, a tried stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation; whoever believes will not act hastily. (Isa 28:16)
The author of 1 Peter will combine these two verses:
Ὑμῖν οὖν ἡ τιμὴ τοῖς πιστεύουσιν· ἀπειθοῦσιν δέ, Λίθον ὃν ἀπεδοκίμασαν οἱ οἰκοδομοῦντες, οὗτος ἐγενήθη εἰς κεφαλὴν γωνίας καί, Λίθος προσκόμματος καὶ πέτρα σκανδάλου· οἳ προσκόπτουσιν τῷ λόγῳ ἀπειθοῦντες· εἰς ὃ καὶ ἐτέθησαν.
Therefore, to you who believe, He is precious; but to those who are disobedient, “The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone,” and “A stone of stumbling and a rock of offense.” They stumble, being disobedient to the word, to which they also were appointed. (1 Pet 2:7–8)
1 Peter is explicit that they stumbled because they were disobedient (apeithountes [literally, unfaithful]) to the word (tō logō). This is where the Qur’an picks up this terminology from Daniel, and equates aṭ-ṭūr with thewrit delivered to Moses at Sinai/Ḥoreb. This is made explicit in Surah 52, named after aṭ-ṭūr by convention.
وَٱلطُّورِ وَكِتَـٰبٍ مَّسْطُورٍ فِى رَقٍّۢ مَّنشُورٍ
By the Mount [ṭūr], by the book [kitab] inscribed in a parchment unrolled (52:1–3)
The Aramaic/Arabic ṭūr is fascinating in its own right in how it relates to Hebrew. Instead of the letter ṭet, we have a ṣade in the Hebrew and other Canaanite langauges. Instead of ṭūr we have ṣūr which properly refers to a rock or a cliff from a verb meaning to “bind/ seize”. In Isaiah 8:16, God instructs Isaiah to bind (ṣūr) the testimony and seal the Torah among his students. Similarly, when the verb is in the hiphil as it is in Deuteronomy 28:52, it carries the sense of “besiege”. As for the noun, an example can be found in Exodus 17:5 when Moses is commanded to strike the rock (ṣūr) at Ḥoreb so that water can gush forth and satiate the grumbling Israelites. There, strikingly, the “rock” is associated squarely with Ḥoreb as it was with the Qur’an. The “binding” and “besieging” nature of the verb demonstrates that God’s bound testimony ensnares the hearer. It carries “binding” authority. The mountain serves that purpose. It is an impenetrable fortress. Consider the historical example of the Phoenician city Ṣūr, which is commonly referred to as “Tyre” in English from the Greek transliteration. As a major city-state, it was both a fortress and happened to be built on a rocky foundation. In scripture, and especially in Book V of the Psalms, God is the city, the foundation, the rock, and the fortress that endures forever. He is the true Ṣūr, which is why his bound (ṣūr) testimony is likened to a mountain (ṭūr) that fills the earth after destroying the idolatrous image of Nebuchadnezzar. Everything else passes away, being carried off by wind.