Who Are the Maskilim — The Wise Who Understand?¶
A Plain-English Summary¶
The book of Daniel ends with a promise about a group called the maskilim — a Hebrew word meaning something like "those who have insight and act on it." They appear four times in the final chapters of Daniel, and what the text says about them is striking: they teach in the face of persecution, they go through a refining process that shapes their character, they shine like stars, and they bring many people into righteousness. This study asks who they are, what makes them different, and what their role is at the end of history.
They Come From Among the People¶
The first thing to notice is where the maskilim come from. Daniel 11:33 uses a Hebrew grammatical form — maskiley am, "the wise of the people" — that means they rise from within the covenant community. They are not an outside elite dropped in from above. They are ordinary members of God's people who have developed a particular kind of understanding.
"And they that understand among the people shall instruct many: yet they shall fall by the sword, and by flame, by captivity, and by spoil, many days." — Daniel 11:33
The contrast is set up in the previous verse. While some people are corrupted by the enemy's flattery, others "know their God" and act on that knowledge. The maskilim are these people. Their response to the horn's attack is not to retreat — it is to teach.
Two Kinds of Wisdom — And They Have Both¶
Hebrew has two different words that get translated "wise" or "understanding" in English, and Daniel uses both of them precisely.
The first, sakal, means seeing the whole picture and acting on it — a kind of synthetic, practical wisdom. The second, biyn, means separating truth from error — careful, analytical discernment.
Daniel 12:10 puts both words in a single sentence about the maskilim. They see the big picture and they can work through the details. The Greek translation of the Old Testament flattened both words into a single Greek verb, so readers of the Septuagint or most English translations cannot see what the Hebrew makes plain: the maskilim possess both dimensions of understanding simultaneously.
They Complete a Chain of Understanding¶
One of the most structurally significant findings in this study is a thread that runs through Daniel 8-12.
It begins with a divine command in Daniel 8:16 — God orders the angel Gabriel to make Daniel understand a vision. Gabriel tries. Daniel does not fully understand. Gabriel returns in chapter 9 and gives more revelation. By chapter 10, Daniel grasps part of the vision.
But then chapter 12 brings a reversal:
"I heard, but I understood not." — Daniel 12:8
Daniel asks what the end of all this means, and the angel essentially tells him: it is sealed. The sealed portions are not for him to understand. He is told to go his way, rest, and wait for the resurrection.
And then comes the payoff:
"The wise shall understand." — Daniel 12:10
The understanding that God commissioned Gabriel to produce — the understanding Daniel could not reach — arrives at its final destination. Not with one prophet, but with a community. The maskilim unseal what Daniel could not.
They Are Shaped by Suffering — Not by Intelligence¶
This is perhaps the study's most important finding. The maskilim understand not because they are smarter than anyone else, but because of what they have been through.
Daniel 11:35 describes some of the maskilim falling during persecution. But the falling has a purpose:
"And some of them of understanding shall fall, to try them, and to purge, and to make them white, even to the time of the end." — Daniel 11:35
Three Hebrew verbs appear here — tsaraph (refine), barar (purge), laban (make white). These same three verbs, and only these three, appear together again in Daniel 12:10. That combination exists nowhere else in the entire Old Testament. It functions as an identity marker — the signature of how the maskilim are formed.
What is more, when the three verbs reappear in 12:10, something has changed. In 11:35, the persecution acts on them from outside — the purification is being done to them. By 12:10, the process has become internal — "they shall purify themselves." What starts as external pressure becomes internalized character.
"Many shall be purified, and made white, and tried; but the wicked shall do wickedly: and none of the wicked shall understand; but the wise shall understand." — Daniel 12:10
Understanding, in Daniel's framework, is morally conditioned. The wicked cannot understand not because the content is too complex, but because their character does not allow it. The maskilim understand because the refining process has made them people who can.
Their Shining Is Their Teaching¶
Daniel 12:3 gives one of the Bible's most memorable descriptions:
"And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever." — Daniel 12:3
The Hebrew word for "shine" here is zahar. Across the entire Old Testament, zahar appears 29 times. In 28 of those, it means "warn, admonish, teach." Only here, in Daniel 12:3, is it translated "shine." The root meaning is "to gleam" — and the warning sense developed from the idea of illuminating a danger so others can see it. Ezekiel's watchman passages are its primary home: the watchman sees the threat and makes it visible to the city.
That is exactly what the maskilim do. Their shining is not a separate reward they receive after their work is done. It is the radiance of their teaching function itself. The one who warns is the one who shines. The Hebrew word refuses to separate the two.
The image is drawn from creation vocabulary. The "firmament" (raqiya) is the expanse God created on the second day, where he placed the sun, moon, and stars on the fourth day. The maskilim are compared to those luminaries — they occupy the position of light-bearers in God's created order.
They Are Patterned After the Suffering Servant¶
Isaiah 52-53, written centuries before Daniel, describes a figure who "deals prudently" (yaskil — the same root as maskilim), who "justifies many" through his knowledge, and who bears iniquities. Daniel 12:3 echoes the same vocabulary so precisely that the connection cannot be coincidental.
Isaiah 53:11 says the Servant justifies many using the causative form of the Hebrew root tsadaq. Daniel 12:3 says the maskilim "turn many to righteousness" using the same causative form of the same root. Both texts apply it to "the many" — rabbim in Hebrew.
"He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many." — Isaiah 53:11
The relationship is not that the maskilim and the Servant are the same person. It is that the maskilim extend what the Servant accomplished. The Servant provides the ground of righteousness through his own suffering. The maskilim are the community who cause others to stand on that ground through their teaching.
They Participate in the Sanctuary's Vindication¶
Study 18 in this series established that Daniel 8:14 — "then shall the sanctuary be cleansed" — uses a rare Hebrew grammatical form, the Niphal passive of tsadaq: the sanctuary receives vindication. It is the only time that form appears in the entire Old Testament.
Daniel 12:3 uses the causative form of the same root: the maskilim cause many to be righteous. Same word, complementary actions. The sanctuary receives vindication from God. The maskilim extend that vindication outward to people.
This chain continues into the New Testament. Revelation 14:12 describes the saints who "keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus." The movement runs from heaven to earth: divine verdict, then the maskilim's teaching, then the community's active keeping.
There Is No Middle Ground¶
Daniel 12:10 is blunt about this. The wicked do wickedly and do not understand. The wise are purified and understand. There is no third category.
This same binary appears elsewhere in the Old Testament. Proverbs 28:5 uses the same Hebrew word for understanding (biyn) twice in one verse — denying it to the wicked and affirming it for those who seek God. Hosea 14:9 asks who is wise enough to understand, and answers: those who walk in God's ways. The wicked stumble.
The closest structural parallel is the Day of Atonement. Leviticus required soul-affliction for participation in atonement. Those who refused were cut off. The maskilim's purification — their barar-laban-tsaraph process — is the moral equivalent of that soul-affliction. Their access to understanding is their participation in the antitypical atonement. The wicked who "shall not understand" are excluded in the same way.
What This Means for the Series¶
The maskilim study lands at the center of this series' larger argument. The sanctuary vindication of Daniel 8:14 is not a solitary event. It flows outward. God vindicates the sanctuary (passive, Niphal). The maskilim cause many to be righteous (active, causative). The saints keep faith (present, ongoing).
The maskilim are also the community that unseals what Daniel could not. The sealed book of Daniel 12:4 is closed "until the time of the end." When that boundary is reached, the maskilim understand — and what they understand, they teach. Their teaching is how the sealed revelation becomes available to the world.
For this series' remaining studies, the maskilim establish a key principle: access to unsealed truth is character-conditioned. The wicked cannot follow where the maskilim go, not because the content is withheld arbitrarily, but because the refining process is what makes it comprehensible. Understanding and character are inseparable in Daniel's framework — and the maskilim are the community in whom that union is most fully realized.
Based on sv-22 study completed: 2026-05-14