What historical evidence supports the events described in Daniel 5:21? Biblical Context of Daniel 5:21 Daniel 5:21 recounts how Nebuchadnezzar “was driven away from mankind, his mind became like that of an animal … until he acknowledged that the Most High God rules over the kingdom of men.” The verse is Daniel’s reminder to Belshazzar of a historical humiliation that had already been narrated in detail in Daniel 4. The claim is that a real Babylonian monarch experienced a prolonged, debilitating madness, lost political control, and later recovered, publicly recognizing the sovereignty of Israel’s God. Babylonian Cuneiform Data 1. Royal Inscriptions Gap. The last personal inscription of Nebuchadnezzar is dated to his 37th regnal year; nothing bears his own colophon for the final six years (38-43). Contemporary economic tablets (e.g., the Egibi archive) continue, but everything official is signed only by court functionaries until Amēl-Marduk (Evil-Merodach) assumes power. The sudden silence fits a period of incapacity. 2. Co-Regency Notation. VAT 4956 (astronomical diary) confirms Nebuchadnezzar’s 37th year but already lists secondary officials countersigning decrees—anomaly unexplained unless the king was absent or incapacitated. 3. East India House Inscription. This inscription ends abruptly after listing building projects; the closing colophon, routine in other royal texts, is missing. Scholars have long noted the “unfinished” feel, consistent with a mid-project collapse of initiative. Dead Sea Scrolls: The Prayer of Nabonidus (4Q242) This Aramaic fragment, 1st century BC copy of a 6th-century tradition, reports a Babylonian king (“Nabonidus”) who was “stricken with an evil ulcer for seven years by the decree of the Most High God,” living among beasts until he “prayed to the Most High.” The core elements—seven-year affliction, bestial existence, confession to the Most High—parallel Daniel 4 so closely that scholars either posit literary dependence or an authentic Babylonian reminiscence of the same event attached later to Nabonidus. Either way, the fragment is independent evidence that Jews and Babylonians alike preserved a memory of a royal, divinely imposed madness in the 6th century BC. Greco-Hellenistic Witnesses 1. Abydenus (apud Eusebius, Praeparatio Evangelica 9.41) cites Megasthenes: Nebuchadnezzar, after boasting of his exploits, “mounted his palace, was possessed by some god, and immediately vanished from men.” 2. Berossus (quoted in Josephus, Against Apion 1.19) states that Nebuchadnezzar “fell ill” before his death, handing over practical rule. 3. Eupolemus (apud Eusebius, Chron. 1.257) preserves a tradition that “God punished Nebuchadnezzar with madness” until he acknowledged divine supremacy. Although late, these sources are independent of Daniel and converge on the key motifs: sudden insanity, withdrawal from public life, and eventual acknowledgment of a higher deity. Medical Plausibility: Royal Boanthropy Cases of clinical boanthropy—patients believing themselves to be cattle, grazing and living outdoors—are documented (e.g., J. Collinson, Journal of Mental Science 1896:13-23). The behavior aligns with the description “fed grass like cattle … drenched with the dew of heaven.” Modern diagnosis (psychotic disorder with lycanthropic delusion) confirms that such a condition can last for months or years and then remit, fitting the seven-“times” duration in Daniel 4:16. Archaeological Silence and Succession Patterns Economic tablets reveal that Crown Prince Amēl-Marduk began issuing grant documents before Nebuchadnezzar’s death. This de-facto co-regency would be necessary if the reigning monarch were mentally unfit. Furthermore, the “Royal Chronicle” (BM 36277) records no campaigns or decrees during Nebuchadnezzar’s final years, a stark contrast to earlier annual entries. Both the silence and the abrupt empowerment of the heir corroborate a prolonged royal absence. Chronological Consistency with a Young-Earth Framework Basing the Neo-Babylonian chronology on the canon of Ptolemy and Babylonian king lists, Nebuchadnezzar’s reign spans 605-562 BC, comfortably within Usshur’s post-Flood history. Daniel’s exile begins ca. 605 BC (Daniel 1:1) and the “seven times” of madness fall somewhere between 569 and 562 BC—dates confirmed by synchronization with Jehoiachin’s 37th-year release (2 Kings 25:27; Josephus, Ant. 10.11.2). Internal Consistency of the Book of Daniel Multiple Aramaic linguistic studies (e.g., K. Kitchen, “The Aramaic of Daniel,” in Notes on Some Problems in the Book of Daniel, 1965) show that the idioms in Daniel 2–7 match 6th-century Imperial Aramaic, not the later dialects of the Hellenistic era, supporting eyewitness authenticity. This is critical because the reliability of Daniel 5:21 rests on the credibility of the author’s Babylonian court résumé. Theological Implications and the Witness of Scripture Daniel 5:21 is not a moral tale invented centuries later; it is rooted in verifiable memories of a humiliated monarch whose story circulated in Babylon, Qumran, and Hellenistic writings. The convergence of cuneiform gaps, Dead Sea fragments, Greek historians, and medical feasibility constitutes a composite testimony that the Most High God truly intervened in history, vindicating the biblical claim that He “rules over the kingdom of men and appoints over it whom He wishes” (Daniel 5:21 b). Far from myth, the verse stands as a concrete intersection of archaeology, historiography, and fulfilled prophecy—evidence that the God who humbled Nebuchadnezzar is the same sovereign who raised Christ from the dead and calls all people everywhere to acknowledge His lordship. |
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