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Daniel 12:4

The New Testament’s use of Daniel

5 places · 2 kinds of echo

The source

But you, Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run back and forth, and knowledge shall be increased.”

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Where this passage surfaces again, sorted by the strength of the link. Each kind of reuse — formal quotation, deliberate allusion, faint echo, figural pattern — carries its own mark. Follow any reference to read it in place.

Allusion3

A deliberate verbal borrowing without a citation formula.

Rev 5:1–5

Hays: thematic + verbal coherence — the motif of a 'sealed book' (sphragizō / sealed) reserved 'to the time of the end' supplies the eschatological logic of Revelation 5: the sealed scroll contains the end-time decree that only the worthy one may unseal. Daniel 12 is the closest source for sealing a book until the appointed time; cf. also Daniel 8:26; 12:9. Septuagint/Theodotion both use sphragizō, matching Revelation's vocabulary.

High confidence
Rev 10:4–7

'Seal up the words... shut up the book' directly underlies 'Seal up the things which the seven thunders said.' Inverts/echoes Daniel's sealing; Rev 22:10 later unseals. High thematic and verbal coherence.

High confidence
Rev 22:10–13

'Shut up the words, and seal the book, until the time of the end' — pointedly REVERSED by 'Don't seal up the words... for the time is at hand.' Programmatic inversion (with Dan 12:9). Hays: recurrence + thematic coherence high.

High confidence

Echo2

A fainter, low-volume reuse, carried by recurrence or thematic coherence.

Matt 24:1-3 ?

The disciples' question about the sign of 'the end of the age' uses the apocalyptic 'time of the end' vocabulary that pervades Daniel 8-12, framing the whole discourse in Danielic eschatological terms.

Low confidence
Rev 1:9–11 ?

The instruction to commit the vision 'to a book' inverts Daniel's command to 'seal the book,' part of Revelation's deliberate contrast (the time being 'at hand,' 1:3, so the book is opened not sealed). Faint, structural echo only.

Low confidence
Elsewhere in Daniel 12
Daniel 12:1 20Daniel 12:1-2 2Daniel 12:2 36Daniel 12:2-3 5Daniel 12:3 9Daniel 12:7 7Daniel 12:9 2Daniel 12:10 4Daniel 12:11 3Daniel 12:12-13 3Daniel 12:12 2