Daniel

Author: Daniel Recipients: Other captives in Babylon Date: approx. 535 B.C.

World History Life of Buddha 563-483 Confucius 551-479 Indian Society organized into caste system c. 500

Nebuchadnezzar II of Babylon

At a young age, Daniel was carried off to Babylon where he was trained in the service of the court.

Daniel became famous for interpreting dreams and rose to become one of the most important figures in the court and lived well into the reign of the Persian conquerors. He retained his high position there and had influence in the decision to restore the Jews to their homeland.

In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim (BC 604), Daniel and three other noble youths named Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah were among the Jewish young nobility carried off to Babylon, along with some of the vessels of the temple.

Daniel and his three Jewish companions were subsequently evaluated and chosen for their intellect and beauty, to be trained as Chaldeans, who constituted the ranks of the advisors to the Babylonian court. (Daniel 1) Their overseer in this training was Ashpenaz (Daniel 1:3-7).

Daniel was obliged to enter into the service of the king of Babylon, and in accordance with the custom of the age, received the Chaldean name of Belteshazzar, i.e., prince of Bel, or Bel protect the king! His residence in Babylon was very probably in the palace of Nebuchadnezzar, now identified with a mass of mounds called the Kasr, on the right bank of the river.

Nebuchadnezzar was most merciless toward the conquered people Nebuchadnezzar was most merciless toward the conquered people. By his command the exiles on their way to Babylon were not allowed to stop even for a moment, as the king feared that they would pray during the respite granted them and that God would be willing to help them as soon as they repented. Nebuchadnezzar did not feel safe until the exiles reached the Euphrates, the boundary-line of Babylon. Then he made a great feast on board his ship, while the princes of Judah lay chained and naked by the river. In order to increase their misery he had rolls of the Torah torn and made into sacks, which, filled with sand, he gave to the captive princes to carry.

However, Daniel and his three companions remained fiercely loyal to their Jewish religious and cultural identity, an identity which would sooner or later come into conflict with the paganism of the Babylonian court.

Daniel's training (Daniel 1:4) was to fit him for service to the empire. Daniel became distinguished during this period for his piety, and for his strict observance of the Torah (Daniel 1:8-16), and gained the confidence and esteem of those who were over him.

He soon became known for his skill in the interpretation of dreams (Daniel 1:17; Daniel 2:14), and rose to the rank of governor of the province of Babylon, and became "chief of the governors" (Chaldean. Rab-signin) over all the wise men of Babylon, after passing a dangerous test of the astrologers by the king, which could easily have cost Daniel his life.

Daniel 1 8 But Daniel made up his mind that he would not defile himself with the king’s choice food or with the wine which he drank; so he sought permission from the commander of the officials that he might not defile himself.

14 So he listened to them in this matter and tested them for ten days 15 At the end of ten days their appearance seemed better and they were fatter than all the youths who had been eating the king’s choice food. 16 So the overseer continued to withhold their choice food and the wine they were to drink, and kept giving them vegetables.

Daniel made known and also interpreted Nebuchadnezzar's dream; as well as a later dream.

Paralleled in Daniel 7

Daniel's fidelity to God exposed him to persecution by jealous rivals within the king's administration. The fact that he had just interpreted the emperors' dream had resulted in his promotion and that of his companions.

His companions, however, were vulnerable to accusations, and these had Daniel and his friends thrown into the furnace for refusing to worship the Babylonian King, Nebuchadnezzar, as a god. But they were miraculously saved.

Daniel would years later himself be cast into a den of lions for continuing to practice his faith in God. But he also was miraculously delivered; after which Cyrus issued a decree enjoining reverence for "the God of Daniel" (Daniel 6:26). He "prospered in the reign of Darius, and in the reign of Cyrus the Persian."

Book of Daniel known for the 70 week Prophecy Dan. 8-9

Daniel 8:14

After the Persian conquest of Babylon, Daniel held the office of the first of the "three presidents" of the empire under the reign of the obscure figure of Darius the Mede, and was thus practically at the head of state affairs, with the ability to influence the prospects of the captive Jews (Daniel 9), whom he had at last the happiness of seeing restored to their own land; although he did not return with them, but remained still in Babylon.

Daniel 5 5 Suddenly the fingers of a human hand appeared and wrote on the plaster of the wall, near the lampstand in the royal palace. The king watched the hand as it wrote. 6 His face turned pale and he was so frightened that his legs became weak and his knees were knocking.

מנא ,מנא, תקל, ופרסין Mene, Mene, Tekel u-Pharsin-- Aramaic What does it mean?

"Thou art weighed in the balance and art found wanting.” The divine menace against the dissolute Belshazzar, whose kingdom was to be divided between the Medes and Persians, was swiftly realized. That very night King Belshazzar is slain, and Darius the Mede becomes King.