Daniel Bliss

Daniel Bliss (August 17, 1823 in Vermont, USA – July 27, 1916 in Beirut, Lebanon) was a Christian missionary from the United States, and the founder of the American University of Beirut.

Life and Work

Born in the town of Georgia, Vermont, Daniel was one of seven children in his household. His parents were Loomis and Susanna Bliss. His mother died when Daniel was only nine years old. Bliss spent much of his youth in the state of Ohio. He began to support himself at the age of sixteen mainly by farming, tanning, and tree grafting. He graduated from Kingsville Academy in 1848 and went on to attend Amherst College. Once he graduated from Amherst in 1852, Bliss went on to attend Andover Theological Seminary to prepare for foreign and overseas missions. By October 1855, he was ordained at Amherst and in November of the same year he was married to Abby Maria Wood.

After being assigned to Syria by the American Board, he and his wife sailed from Boston, Massachusetts, on December 1855. By April 1856, they arrived at their destination in Aley, Lebanon. Bliss and his wife worked there for roughly one and a half years in a small school which had opened in 1843. Under his direction, the school rose into prominence in the area. From October 1858 until 1862, Bliss was in charge of a boarding school in a town just north of Aley called Souk-al-Gharb. He also studied Arabic during this time. His success there led the Syrian mission to open a new college in Lebanon. Bliss got the project chartered in 1864 by the New York State and raised funds in both the United States and the United Kingdom.

John Murray Bliss

John Murray Bliss (22 February 1771 – 22 August 1834) was a Canadian jurist, politician and administrator.

Biography

Father

John Murray Bliss was born in Massachusetts, the son of Massachusetts loyalist Daniel Bliss, a lawyer and British soldier who moved his family to New Brunswick in 1784 after being appointed to the first provincial council. Daniel Bliss also became chief justice of the court of common pleas. Daniel was a Harvard graduate (1760), and had left Concord, Massachusetts, and joined the British army when he was proscribed under the Massachusetts Banishment Act of 1778. In the army, he was appointed commissary.

Education and career

John Bliss studied law with Jonathan Sewall and Jonathan Bliss, became a lawyer in 1792, and started his practise in Fredericton, New Brunswick. He represented the county of York in the house of assembly. In 1816 he was elevated to the bench and to a seat in his majesty's council. On the decease in 1824 of Ward Chipman, who was acting as Governor of New Brunswick after the death of Governor George Stracey Smyth, Bliss assumed the administration of the government until the arrival of Governor Howard Douglas, a period of nearly a year. Bliss was a judge of the Supreme Court of New Brunswick, and was the senior justice at the time of his death.

Daniel

Daniel is a masculine given name and a surname of Hebrew origin. It means, "God is my judge", and derives from two early biblical figures, primary among them Daniel from the Book of Daniel. It is a common given name for males, and is also used as a surname. It is also the basis for various derived given names and surnames.

Background

The name evolved into over 100 different spellings in countries around the world. Nicknames (Dan, Danny) are common in both English and Hebrew, although in some instances "Dan" may be a complete given name rather than a nickname. The name "Daniil" (Даниил) is common in Russia. Feminine versions (Danielle, Daniela, Daniella, Dani, Danitza) are prevalent as well. The Dutch names "Daan" and "Daniël" are also variations of Daniel. A related surname developed as a patronymic, Daniels. Other surnames derived from "Daniel" include McDaniel and Danielson.

In the United States, the U.S. Social Security Administration reports that Daniel has peaked as the fifth most popular name for newborns in 1985, 1990, 2007, and 2008. The U.S. Census Bureau reported that in the 2000 census, "Daniels" was the 182nd most common surname in the U.S., while "McDaniel" was ranked at 323, and "Daniel" (without a final "s") was ranked at 380.

Daniel (Bat for Lashes song)

"Daniel" is a song by English recording artist Bat for Lashes, from her second studio album, Two Suns. It is her best selling single to date, selling over 46,000 copies worldwide. The song was announced as the lead single from Two Suns in January 2009, then released as a digital download single on 1 March 2009, and as a 7" vinyl single on 6 April 2009. The track was written by Natasha Khan and produced by David Kosten, as with all tracks on the album. Ira Wolf Tuton from Yeasayer provided the bass lines for the song and Khan did the rest of the instrumentation herself. Khan said in an interview with The Sun newspaper that "Daniel" is based on a fictional character that she fell in love with as a teenager. The single's cover features Khan with an image of the character Daniel LaRusso, from the film The Karate Kid, painted on her back. A character much like LaRusso also features at the end of the music video which goes with the song. The B-side of the 7" is a cover version of a 1980 single by The Cure.

Book of Daniel

The Book of Daniel is a biblical book consisting of an "account of the activities and visions of Daniel, a noble Jew exiled at Babylon." In the Hebrew Bible it is found in the Ketuvim (writings), while in Christian Bibles it is grouped with the Major Prophets.

The book divides into two parts, a set of six court tales in chapters 1–6 followed by four apocalyptic visions in chapters 7–12 – the Apocrypha contains three additional stories, the Song of the Three Holy Children, Susanna, and Bel and the Dragon.

Traditionally ascribed to Daniel himself, modern scholarly consensus considers the book pseudonymous, the stories of the first half legendary in origin, and the visions of the second the product of anonymous authors in the Maccabean period (2nd century BC). Its message is that just as the God of Israel saved Daniel and his friends from their enemies, so he would save all of Israel in their present oppression.

Its influence has resonated through later ages, from the Dead Sea Scrolls community and the authors of the gospels and Revelation, to various movements from the 2nd century to the Protestant Reformation and modern millennialist movements - on whom it continues to have a profound influence.