Daniel Lesson 2

1. Daniel Lesson 2

2. Daniel in the Critic’s Den • The veracity and authenticity of the book of Daniel has been under attack beginning in the 3rd Century A.D. with Porphyry. • Their reasoning is that because of the detailed prophecies in the book and some unanswered problems (in their minds) they conclude the book of Daniel was written about 165 B.C. by a pious Jew to encourage Jews under the persecution of Antiochus IV Epiphanies.

3. Daniel in the Critic’s Den • Some say none of this stuff really happened; these are stories to encourage Jews under Antiochus. • Daniel didn’t exist. But our pious Jew took the name Daniel to pass himself off as the real Daniel who didn’t exist. They even deny Ezekiel’s three references to Daniel as being some Ugarit idolater. Ezek 14:14, 14:20, 28:3 Antiochus IV Epiphanes

4. Daniel in the Critic’s Den • They say that this is prophecy (especially in Chapter 11) written after it happened but passed off as prophecy. • So what are these issues and does conservative scholarship have answers to them? • Answer -- YES!

5. The issues (historical/grammatical) • Let’s look at all the issues on the table. • 1. Differing chronological systems used by Daniel and Jeremiah. • 2. Nebuchadnezzar’s siege of Jerusalem in Dan 1:1 • 3. Daniel’s 3 year training period in Babylon • 4. Ezekiel’s references to Daniel

6. The issues (historical/grammatical) • 5. The Aramaic section of the book at 2:4 • 6. The three Greek musical instruments in Neb’s orchestra at 4:32 • 7. The furnace of fire at 3:6 • 8. Nebuchadnezzar’s madness at 4:32 • 9. The historical identification of Belshazzar at 5:1 • 10. The Medo-Persian conquest of Babylon • 11. The historical identification of Darius the Mede

7. The issues (historical/grammatical) • 12. The den of lions at 6:7 • 13. The unchangeable laws of the Medes and Persians at 6:7 • 14. Use of the term Chaldeans of the priestly chaste • 15. The detail of prophecies • 16. Doctrinal issues (angels and resurrection) are late developments not early. Out of these 16 (pulled from McDowell and Gleason Archer) this morning we will answer 5, then deal with the rest as they come up in the text.

8. 4 Brief Answers • 1. Daniel and Jeremiah use differing chronological systems. If Daniel is authentic why didn’t 6th century Daniel use the same chronological system as Jeremiah or perhaps Daniel erred by saying the 3rd year not the 4th like Jeremiah. • Example: Jeremiah 46:2 …concerning the army of Pharaoh Necho King of Egypt, which was by the river Euphrates in Carchemish and which Nebuchadnezzar King of Babylon defeated in the forth year of Johoiakim the son of Josiah, King of Judah.

9. 4 Brief Answers • The answer to this question could be one of two things or a combination of the two.  • The first answer could just be the possibility that Daniel used Babylon’s calendar and not Judah’s. • Do under this, Daniel would have used the Babyloniantishri system or the October reckoning as opposed to Jeremiah using the Nisan or April reckoning as the beginning of Jehoiakim’s first official year.

10. 4 Brief Answers • In 1956 Donald J. Wiseman published a cuneiform document Chronicles of Chaldean Kings (625-556 B.C.) where it was discovered that the Babylonians used a method called the “Accession year”) reckoning. • Note that the J. Mac Study Bible only offers the accession year reckoning as explanation. • Truth is we don’t know what system Daniel used but it could be either or both

11. 4 Brief Answers Liberal critics see Ezekiel’s references to Daniel as a reference to Dan’el spoken of in the legend of Aqhat. This document was in Ugarit and was uncovered in 1932 in Ancient Ugarit (modern Ras Shamra)

12. 4 Brief Answers • They say Ezekiel would not have known of the real Daniel (who didn’t exist) so he used this Dan’el instead. • The problem with this is that the Ugaritic Dan’el was a legendary figure not historical as are Noah and Job.

13. 4 Brief Answers • Also, this Dan’el is an idol worshiper and as such would hardly have been held in the same rank as Noah and Job by Ezekiel. Cf. Ezek 14:14 • The third attack that we want to answer is an old one. In fact this objection is not voiced today because archeology completely put to rest this objection. 

14. 4 Brief Answers • The critics use to say that Belshazzar is unknown in Babylonian writings. Also Greek historians such as Josephus and Herodotus fail to mention Belshazzar. Therefore Daniel is in error. (Actually the guy who is posing as the Daniel who didn’t exist is in error.) Josephus

15. 4 Brief Answers • All of this changed in 1882 when Theophilus Pinches published the “Nabonidus Chronicle” telling us of Bel-Shar-Usur who was Crown Prince son of Nabonidus who was in full control of the army in Babylon. • The final blow was in 1924 with the publication of the “Persian Verse Account” of Nabonidus which says that Nabonidus entrusted the kingship to Belshazzar. Nabonidus Stele About Sennacherib

16. 4 Brief Answers • Listen to how a liberal scholar explains this discovery. From Robert H. Pfeiffer at Harvard. “We shall presumably never know how our author learned that Belshazzar was functioning as King when Cyrus took Babylon.” • Perhaps Dr. Pfeiffer Daniel was there. (Just a guess.)

17. 4 Brief Answers • The fourth short answer item is the allegation that Darius the Mede is an imaginary person – due to the fact that no Babylonian record names the ruler of Babylon as Darius the Mede. • Some scholars like D.J. Wiseman say that this is a reference to Cyrus. • In 1959 John C. Whitcomb Jr. published the results of painstaking research in a paper called Darius the Mede. The Lion of Babylon

18. 4 Brief Answers • In this paper Whitcomb distinguishes between Ugbaru and Gubaru—Ugbaru was the General who diverted the Euphrates River into a channel during the capture of Babylon but he died shortly before Babylon’s capture. Chapter 5 of Daniel relates this story. • Now it can be said that Gubaru who would have been about 62 when he took Babylon was Darius the Mede—Darius is a title like Caesar or President. Darius the Mede?

19. 4 Brief Answers • Gubaru was also proven to be of Median decent. • Now let’s press out one answer to the critics to give us a feel for how conservatives have dealt with these issues. Darius, relief from the northern stairs of the Apadana ofPersepolis

20. The Greek Words of Daniel 3:5 • “Daniel 3:5 (within the Aramaic section) contains three words of Greek origin. The radical critics believe that Greek could not have entered the Aramaic language until the time of Alexander’s conquest.” (Quoted from Daniel in the Critic’s Den by Josh McDowell pg 95) • In my NKJV Bible it reads “…at the time you hear the horn, flute, harp, lyre, psaltery in symphony with all kinds of music…” the italic words are the words in question.

21. The Greek Words of Daniel 3:5 • Harp or in Greek (gayt—ros a type of lyre) • Psaltery or in Greek Psanterin another type of stringed instrument • Symphony or in Greek Sumphonya a percussion instrument—later word studies see this as a word for orchestra Psaltery

22. The Greek Words of Daniel 3:5 • The way to disarm this assertion is to document Greek interaction in the 6th century and also to show from ancient literature how rapidly loan words are picked up by interacting cultures. But first… • Five excellent resources are available for your personal study. Greek manuscript in ancient cursive script, papyrus, dated 545 A.D., Brit. Mus. Pap. 1319

23. The Greek Words of Daniel 3:5 • Mitchell and Joyce’s article in Wiseman’s Notes on Some Problems in the Book of Daniel by Tyndale 1970 • Greece and Babylon by Edwin Yamauchi, Baker Book House 1967 • In and Around the Book of Daniel by Charles Boutflower, SPCK 1923 • Daniel in the Critic’s Den by Josh McDowell • A Survey of Old Testament Introduction by Gleason Archer, Moody Press

24. Greek Contacts 6th Century and Before • “Actually, the presences of only 3 Greek musical terms is one of the strongest arguments against Daniel’s composition in the second century BC.” Josh McDowell (Critic’s Den) pg 97 • The Aramaic of Daniel easily borrowed Persian words even though when the book was written approximately 530 BC Babylon had been under Persian rule 15-17 years.

25. Greek Contacts 6th Century and Before • There are 21 Persian words imbedded in the book of Daniel. • The absence of Greek words implies that the language of Daniel dates before the Greek period. • Mitchell and Joyce documents the following:

26. Early Greek Influence • 750 BC Greek pottery in Palestine • 750 BC Greek imports predominate at Al Mina, Greek pottery in Syria • 660 BC Greek bronze shield found at battle site of Carchemish. The Northampton Vase is an example of Greek vase painting from the late 600s and early 500s bc.

27. Early Greek Influence • 595-570 BC Greek artisans employed by Nebuchadnezzar • 605-585 BC Greek mercenaries serve in Babylonian forces • 590 BC Greek mercenaries of Psammetichus II leave names at Nubia Psammetichus II on a wall from Sais

28. Early Greek Influence • Now some selections from Charles Boutflowers list that show contact of Assyria, Babylon and Egypt’s contact with Greece over a century before the age of Daniel. • 715 BC Sargon clears the East Levant of Greek pirates. • 707 BC Seven kings of Cyrus send presents to Sargon at Babylon Greek pirates

29. Early Greek Influence • 595 BC Nebuchadnezzar rebuilding the old palace at Babylon employs Greek architectural decorations on the façade of the throne room.

30. Early Greek Influence • 697 BC Sennacherib employs Greek captives to build him a fleet on the Tigris. • 674 BC Ten kings of Cyprus – Nine of them send materials to build Esarhaddon’s palace at Nineveh King Sennacherib and his crown prince Arda-Mullissi after the battle of Lachish in 701 BC

31. Early Greek Influence • Perhaps the most damaging to the idea that 6th century Babylon is too early for Greek words to appear in its text is the discovery of the papyri on Elephantine Island in Egypt. • The colony at Elephantine is where refugees of the siege in Jerusalem fled in 605-587 BC. They were probably in towns south of Jerusalem and fled to Egypt from Nebuchadnezzar.

32. Early Greek Influence • The Elephantine papyri contained 4 Greek words. So documents from the same period as the original Daniel show Greek words like Daniel. • After 587 BC (the final deportation) Jews were found in 3 places: 1. in Babylon, 2. “the poorest people of the land” II Kings 24:14 3. those who fled to Egypt. Elephantine papyri

33. Josephus Rocks the Boat • Another record that in my mind nails the pre-Alexander the Great or to put it another way the Early Date (6th Century) (165 is called the Late Date) is the quotation from Josephus. A Roman portrait bust said to be of Josephus

34. Josephus Rocks the Boat • Book II Antiquities of the Jews chapter 8 paragraph 5 or pg 307 in Whiston. “And He (Alexander the Great) came into the city; and when he went up into the temple, he offered sacrifice to God, according to the High Priest’s directions, and magnificently treated both the High Priest and the Priests. And when the book of Daniel was showed him wherein Daniel declared that one of the Greeks should destroy the empire of the Persians, he supposed that himself was the person intended: and he was then glad. He dismissed the multitude for the present…” Later on Paragraph 6 “So when Alexander thus settled matters Jerusalem, he led his army into the neighboring cities; and when all the inhabitants, to whom he came, received him with great kindness.”

35. Daniel Early Years • Daniel was born about 620-625 BC. This would put him at about 15 years old when taken captive to Babylon. • Many destiny-determining events occurred during Daniel’s lifetime. Several during his boyhood. • One of these events was the fall of Nineveh in 612 BC an event long desired by Judah

36. Daniel Early Years • Daniel was of the royal household and old enough to see the thrill of the revivals during Josiah’s reign. • It was in the 13th year of the reign of Josiah that God commissioned Jeremiah to preach. Jeremiah 1:2 The 1st 18 years of Jeremiah’s ministry were under Josiah’s reign.

37. Daniel Early Years • Daniel probably met Jeremiah and could have met Nahum and Zephaniah and have been influenced by these Godly prophets. Painting by Michelangelo of Jeremiah

38. Daniel Early Years • Perhaps Daniel heard stories how under Josiah’s reign during repairs on the temple the Law was discovered, hid away for many years. What followed was the greatest Passover ever observed in Judah. II Chron 35:1-19 • But all this came crashing down when an ill advised Josiah engaged Pharaoh Necho in battle and died.

39. Daniel Early Years • Jehoahaz was placed on the throne by Necho and Daniel watched as this impious man was removed by Necho taken to Egypt where he died. • Now Daniel sees briefly Johoiakim but is taken by Nebuchadnezzar to Babylon from Babylon he hears of Jehoiakim’s death, Jehoiachin removal and deportation, then Zedekiah’s blinding and deportation to Babylon.

40. Daniel Early Years • All these things, seeing the revival under Josiah to the ultimate defeat under Zedekiah were images that shaped Daniel for ministry in Babylon.