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From: Daniel 12:1-3

The Resurrection of the Dead

[1] “At that time shall arise Michael, the great prince who has charge of your peo-
ple. And there shall be a time of trouble, such as never has been since there was
a nation till that time; but at that time your people shall be delivered, every one
whose name shall be found written in the book. [2] And many of those who sleep
in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame
and everlasting contempt. [3] And those who are wise shall shine like the bright-
ness of the firmament; and those who turn many to righteousness, like the stars
for ever and ever.

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Commentary:

12:1-4. The prophecy ends by announcing the deliverance of the people of God
through the mediation Michael, the angel protector of Israel. The names written in
the book symbolize those who are truly the people of God — those whom God re-
gards as his people because they have stayed faithful to him. There is no mention
now of the everlasting kingdom on earth that we heard of in 2:44 and 7:14, but
one presumes that there will be one, for those who were dead will rise, either to
have a share in that kingdom or else to suffer the punishment they deserve. The
new situation in which the good and the wicked find themselves will never change
again: it will he forever. Those who will shine brightest are those who knew and
taught the Law — those who “turn many to righteousness” (v. 3), not the martyrs.
The book of Daniel goes further than the prophets Isaiah and Ezekiel went. They
spoke symbolically of a resurgence of the people in terms of a resurrection (cf.
Is 26:19; Ezek 37); in Daniel as in 2 Maccabees 7:14, 29 the resurrection is real,
not symbolic: “God reveals the resurrection of the dead to his people progress-
sively. Hope in the bodily resurrection of the dead established itself as a conse-
quence intrinsic to faith in God as creator of the whole man, soul and body. The
creator of heaven and earth is also the one who faithfully maintains his covenant
with Abraham and his posterity. It was in this double perspective that faith in the
resurrection came to be expressed” (”Catechism of the Catholic Church”, 992).

Moreover, Daniel proclaims the resurrection not only of martyrs (as happens in 2
Maccabees) but of all, for that is what the word “many” (v. 2) means. The Church,
too, in the light of Jesus’ teaching, believes that “all the dead will rise, ‘those who
have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the
resurrection of judgment’ (Jn 5:29; cf. Dan 12:2)” (ibid., 998).

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Source: “The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries”. Biblical text from the
Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of
the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.

Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.