What historical evidence supports the events described in Daniel 5? Neo-Babylonian Background Babylon’s last dynasty began with Nabopolassar (626 BC) and reached architectural grandeur under Nebuchadnezzar II. His son-in-law Nabonidus (reigned 556-539 BC) spent roughly a decade in the Arabian oasis of Tēma, leaving the empire’s day-to-day rule to his eldest son, Belshazzar. The biblical date for the city’s capture, 539 BC, aligns with every extant cuneiform chronicle, including the Nabonidus Chronicle (BM 35382) and the Cyrus Cylinder. Belshazzar: From “Unknown” to Epigraphically Certain 1. Nabonidus Cylinder from Ur (discovered by H. C. Rawlinson, 1854)—line 18 prays for “Bel-šar-uṣur, the firstborn son, the offspring of my loins.” 2. Verse Account of Nabonidus (BM 38299)—col. II states that Nabonidus “entrusted the kingship to Bel-šar-uṣur.” 3. Administrative tablets (e.g., BM 30278; BM 30314) date business transactions to “Bel-shar-uṣur, the king’s son,” demonstrating his legal authority as co-regent. Thus Daniel’s otherwise puzzling honor—“the third ruler in the kingdom” (Daniel 5:7, 16, 29)—perfectly fits the political reality: Nabonidus (1), Belshazzar (2), Daniel (3). The Banquet on Babylon’s Final Night Herodotus (Histories 1.191) and Xenophon (Cyropaedia 7.5.15-30) both record a Babylonian festival on the very night Cyrus’s troops breached the city. Xenophon specifies that the Babylonians were “dancing and revelling” when the Persians entered. These Greek accounts mirror Daniel’s scene of “a thousand nobles” drinking wine (Daniel 5:1). Sacred Vessels from Jerusalem Nebuchadnezzar’s plunder (2 Kings 24:13; Daniel 1:2) is echoed by: • Babylonian ration tablets (e.g., BM 114786) listing gold and silver from conquered temples. • The Cyrus Cylinder, lines 32-34, which boasts of returning temple treasures to their homelands—implicit confirmation that such vessels were in Babylon awaiting repatriation. The Handwriting on the Wall “MENE, MENE, TEKEL, PARSIN” (Daniel 5:25) is a supernatural element, yet its wording is rooted in genuine Aramaic monetary weights (mina, shekel, half-mina). The inscription’s clever wordplay (numbered, weighed, divided) rings true to sixth-century commercial vocabulary attested in Elephantine papyri and other Imperial Aramaic texts. Capture of Babylon: Cuneiform and Classical Witnesses 1. Nabonidus Chronicle, Obv. 3: “In the month Tashritu, when Cyrus fought the army of Akkad at Opis on the Tigris… on the sixteenth day Ugbaru, governor of Gutium, and the army of Cyrus entered Babylon without battle.” 2. Cyrus Cylinder, lines 17-19: “Without battle and sparing, I entered Babylon… I am Cyrus, king of the world.” 3. Chronicle of Gubaru (TCL 13, 540): records the appointment of a governor over Babylon the very night the city fell—matching Daniel 5:30-31’s immediate regime change. Darius the Mede: Plausible Identification The title fits “Gubaru/Ugbaru,” the Gutian general installed over Babylon before Cyrus took the broader throne. Xenophon calls the same figure “Gobryas.” The Median ethnicity reflects the Medo-Persian coalition already prophesied in Daniel 2 and 8. Recent prosopographical studies (e.g., Yamauchi, 2012) confirm that governors routinely bore regnal designations in newly conquered territories. Prophetic Precision and Theological Coherence The three-part oracle—numbered, weighed, divided—unfolds within hours: Belshazzar slain, empire passed to a Medo-Persian ruler (Daniel 5:30-31). Isaiah 13:17-19 and Jeremiah 51:31-39 had already predicted Babylon’s fall to the Medes a century earlier, underscoring Scripture’s unified voice. Implications for Apologetics and Faith Archaeology that once seemed to contradict Daniel now confirms it point by point: the existence of Belshazzar, his co-regency, the third-rank reward, a citywide feast, the peaceful capture, and the immediate shift to Medo-Persian rule. The lone unrepeatable element—the miraculous handwriting—stands flanked by verifiable anchors, inviting honest seekers to weigh the evidence just as the divine scales weighed Belshazzar. Concise Evidentiary Summary • Belshazzar named in at least six independent Akkadian sources. • Co-regency explains Daniel’s “third ruler” language. • Classical historians corroborate a festival the night Babylon fell. • Cuneiform chronicles date the conquest to Tishri 16, 539 BC—precisely Daniel’s setting. • Cyrus Cylinder and Nabonidus Chronicle confirm a virtually bloodless takeover. • Qumran manuscripts and Aramaic linguistics support an early, eyewitness-level composition. Scripture’s portrait of Daniel 5 is therefore historically robust, internally coherent, and externally verified—underscoring the reliability of the biblical record and magnifying the sovereignty of the God who “changes times and seasons; He removes kings and establishes them” (Daniel 2:21). |
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