Darius the mede is mentioned in the book of daniel as king of babylon between belshazzar and cyrus the great, but he is not known to history, and no. Cyrus the greats father was the persian king cambyses i. Daniel, nebuchadnezzar, belshazzar, and cyrus apxaioc. Belshazzar the king made a great feast for a thousand of his lords, and drank wine in the presence of the thousand. The book of daniel only reveals that the same night in which the king of babylon was having a great feast, the city was invaded and the king was killed. Fall of jerusalem to nebuchadnezzar daniel companions taken captive sep 7. Their chief quarrel is with the historicity of darius the mede, the king who befriended daniel and sought unsuccessfully to keep him from being thrown to the lions. The prophet daniel, interpreting the handwriting on the wall as gods judgment on the king, foretold the imminent destruction of the city. For further discussion, see gaston 2009 historical issues in the book of daniel. This book is arranged as a continuation of the book of daniel, as is explained in baba bathra 15a, and the word. With robert miano, andrew bongiorno, lance henriksen, kevin mccorkle. Jews for judaism daniel 9 a true biblical interpretation. Darius was the second successor to cyrus after cambyses and he darius.
The book of ezra mentions another king named darius, also known as darius i or darius the great. And daniel continued even unto the first year of king cyrus. Jul 09, 2020 and so, when it was time to release the jewish exiles, cyrus wrote this as recorded in the bible. Daniel was well versed in isaiahs prophecies and probably owned a copy of isaiahs text. Daniel must have been around 85 to 90 years of age when he wrote down his last visions. Daniel 1 nkjv daniel and his friends obey god in bible. That being the case, daniel likely had some personal involvement in the decree that was made in support of the jews. In the third year of cyrus king of persia a thing was revealed unto daniel, whose name was called belteshazzar. Since god almighty has appointed me to be king of the habitable earth, i believe that he is the god which the nation of the israelites worship. The author of the book of daniel seems to place the rule of cyrus after that of darius, again an inexplicable error for an author contemporary with these events. According to the legend, astyages, the king of the medes and overlord of the persians, gave his daughter in marriage to his vassal in persis, a prince called. This blog post is part of a series titled studies in the book of daniel.
Netanyahus suggestion that trump may be compared to cyrus. The king insisted that bel was a living god and pointed to the offerings of food and wine that bel consumed every night. The story begins by describing the capture of daniel and others as taking place in the 3 rd year of king jehoiakim of judah, which occurred in ca. He understood that the vision concerned events certain to happen in the futuretimes of war and great hardship. Daniel became the third ruler of neobabylon which was a part of the persian empire ruled by the king cyrus. Cyrus discussed most often in the books of ezra 12, daniel 3 and chronicles2 2. If you look on the web, you will find all sorts of theories, most recently that it will be a league of 10 muslim nations. In the third year of cyrus king of the persians a thing was revealed to daniel, whose name was called baltasar. It was written almost 800 years after the book of daniel was written and about 700 years after the time of cyrus and artaxerxes.
According to the bible, cyrus the great, king of the achaemenid empire, was the monarch who ended the babylonian captivity. Daniel 10 niv bible in the third year of cyrus king of. In isaiah, god chooses cyrus to subdue nations before him and to. This has caused bible scholars to posit that darius was appointed viceroy over babylon by his nephew, king cyrus. Mar 17, 2012 we are told that he was about 62 years old when he became king over babylon daniel 5. The chronology of the book is based on the hebrew bible or the old testament. Because it was cyrus ii who conquered babylon in 539 b. Chapters 1 to 6 the prophetic ministry of daniel from king nebuchadnezzar and babylon to king cyrus and persia. Cyrus the great is mentioned 23 times in the bible, and the books of isaiah, ezra, 2 chronicles, and daniel all refer to him. Daniel was exiled with the first group of 3000 captives under the reign of jehoiakim, king of judah daniel 1. How many kings did daniel the prophet serve under during his. The main protagonist appears in a multitude of guises with a string of aliases.
Furthermore he makes no mention of the fact that it was the edict of cyrus of 538 bce. Cyrus is referenced most prominently in the old testament book of isaiah. Cyrus arrives in babylon 605 bc 515 bc 556 bc 560 bc 562 bc 586 bc 604 bc 603 bc 602 bc 553 bc 551 bc 539 bc 538 bc 53 6 bc 3rd year of the rule of jehoiakim mayjun. The book credits darius the mede with conquering babylon, and darius was king of persia from 522 to 486 bce. Other old testament books that mention cyrus include ezra and daniel. Numerous inaccuracies connected with the exilic period no deportation occurred in 605 bc. Daniel also known as belteshazzar had another vision. In the 1970s many fundamentalist christians believed it would be the european common market. Bible q what is the relationship between king darius and. The book, however, was written in a later time of national crisiswhen the jews were suffering severe persecution under antiochus iv epiphanes. Take some time to really think on this, and to study isaiah 44 and 45. The book of daniel presents a collection of popular stories about daniel, a loyal jew, and the record of visions granted to him, with the babylonian exile of the 6th century bce as their background. The book is not a secular chronology and was written too many years after the time of cyrus and artaxerxes to be dependable.
The septuagint text seems to have had parseem, which. The startling truth about one of historys greatest kings. Daniel served darius with distinction until his death and then served cyrus, who was. May 24, 2020 daniel 8 the eighth chapter of the book of daniel tells of daniel s vision of a twohorned ram destroyed by a onehorned goat a possible allegory for the transition from the persian to the greek eras in the near east, followed by the history of the little horn, which is daniel s codeword for the greek king.
Who is king cyrus, and why did netanyahu compare him to trump. King cyrus actively assisted the jews in rebuilding the temple in. Possibly he was the same person as gobryas, a general of cyrus i who helped conquer babylon according to xenophon. May, 2015 when cyrus was ten years old, he and the neighbor boys were playing kings, a game where they would elect one of them to be king, and the rest agreed to be his followers. Remarkably, through the foreign king cyruss decree, yhwh was fulfilling his ancient promise. The first anointed individual identified as a princeleader in daniel 9. So daniel prospered during the reign of darius and the reign of cyrus the persian. Cyrus mentioned in 4 books and occurs 19 times in the bible kjv. In the third year of cyrus king of persia, a revelation was given to daniel who was called.
And daniel continued in babylon, and at court there, and in the favour of nebuchadnezzar and his successors. Cyrus the great figures in the hebrew bible as the patron and deliverer of the jews. Bible verses about cyrus 19 passages king james version kjv. Daniel was a contemporary of ezekiel who went into babylonian captivity in 597 bc around eight years later than daniel. Nov 02, 2019 the only dari us listed in the achaemenid dynasty is far too late to fit with the book of daniel.
Then from cyrus decree to rebuild jerusalem, it will be built again for an additional 62 weeks 434 years. Daniel served as an official in the imperial courts of the following kings in succession. It has been objected by canon driver that the natural classical order of the latter two words should have been hammelek koresh, not, as it is in the massoretic, koresh hammelek. Contemporary english version in the third year of cyrus the king of persia, a message came to daniel from god, and it was explained in a vision. As i explained earlier, in the structure of the book, these two chapters are d and d in the middle of the parallelism. What you dont know about donald trump and the king cyrus. The consensus of modern scholars is that daniel never existed, and the book is a cryptic allusion to the reign of the 2nd century bce hellenistic king antiochus iv epiphanes. The book of daniel portrays him as the babylonian king in the first year of whose.
Cyrus did not make a hostile conquest of media, did not dethrone the last median king, and did not become the highest regent in the medopersian empire until after the fall of babylon. Theodotion and the peshitta agree with the massoretic. Prominent characters in the narrative include daniel, king nebuchadnezzar ii of babylon, belshazzar the coregent of babylon, king darius i of persia, and cyrus king of persia. He is mentioned 23 times by name and alluded to several times more. One of the players, the son of a nobleman, refused to obey cyrus, so cyrus grabbed a whip and beat him severely. In the first year of his reign he was prompted by god to decree that the temple in jerusalem should be rebuilt and that such jews as cared to might return to their land for this purpose.
Jan 08, 2016 this median king is called cyaxares ii by the greek historian xenophon, but is known by his throne name darius in the book of daniel. Babylon was a vassal king under cyrus, not cyrus himself, for the better part of. One of the truly astounding prophecies of the bible is found in the last verse of isaiah 44, together with 45. In the first year of his reign, i, daniel, contemplated the calculations of the. Coins bearing the images of us president donald trump and king cyrus. Are darius the mede and cyrus the persian the same person. The last indication of a date is the 3rd year of king cyrus of persia in daniel 10. Jan 02, 2020 among the jews deported from judah and later placed under the rule of cyrus include the prophet daniel. King cyrus of persia daniel 4 and 5 speak of the first and last kings of babylon. Jerusalem was conquered by the babylonians and many of their best young men were taken into captivity, including daniel. What is the relationship between king darius and king cyrus. Daniel was the only righteous prophet and the disciples created their. And in the first year of cyrus, the king of persia.
There are no other historical records of this darius. When king cyrus of persia, seen at the center, asked his confidant daniel why he does not worship the deity bel, whose lower half can be seen in the shadows, daniel replied that he worshipped a living god, not an idol. Darius seeing daniel s excellent character thought to put him in charge over the whole realm which referred to all of babylon. A noble jewish youth of jerusalem, he is taken into captivity by nebuchadnezzar of babylon and serves the king and his successors with loyalty and ability until the time of the persian conqueror cyrus, all the while remaining true to the god of israel. Mar 02, 2020 darius was a member of the royal bodyguard of cambyses ii, the son and heir of cyrus the great who ruled for several years before dying mysteriously in 522. Daniel understood by the books that king cyrus would shortly fulfill the prophecy by his enactment of the decree for the liberation of many jews from babylonian captivity. In the third year of cyrus king of persia, a revelation was given to daniel who was called belteshazzar. May 11, 2018 the book of daniel tells us that on the night that cyrus made his way into babylon, belshazzar, the king of babylon was having a great feast in the palace. Cyrus first important act was to conspire against astyages, king of media.
Daniel received gods revelation that the time had come for the fulfillment of the prophecy written by isaiah pertaining king cyrus. Cyrus the persian as darius the mede in the book of daniel. After cyrus took babylon and toppled the babylonian empire, daniel became a highranking official in cyrus s medopersian empire. The ancient near east, an anthology of texts and pictures, edited by james b. In fact, we are told daniel served until at least the third year of king cyrus, approximately 536 bc daniel 10. The biblical account seems to support the text on the cyrus cylinder. Reading the bible together daniel kensit evangelical church. During his 67 years in exile from 605 bc until the third year of the reign of king cyrus in 537 bc, daniel received a series of visions promising deliverance and glory to his people and giving the historical countdown to the coming of the davidic redeemermessiah and his eternal kingdom. We are not told how king cyrus became aware of isaiahs prophecy concerning his life. The biblical story the christian right uses to defend trump vox. Later that same year, darius took the throne after killing an alleged usurper he claimed had only pretended to be cambyses brother bardiya.
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