Week 29 Daniel
The story of Belshazzar is a pretty interesting one mostly because of the disembodied hand that mysteriously appeared at the gala and wrote three words on the wall of the reception hall. The king could read the words: Numbered… Weighed… Divided. But he had no idea what they meant.
Anyway the thing that caught my attention was that in my bible Nebuchadnezzar – mentioned in chapter four – was referred to as Belshazzar’s father. I wouldn’t have noticed if I hadn’t been reading a book about Babylon and it said Belshazzar’s father was a man named Nabonidus – not Nebuchadnezzar. The book said the rulers were:
Nebuchadnezzar
Amel-Marduk
Nergal-Sharu-Ussur
La-Abashi-Marduk
Nabonidus
Belshazzar
So what’s going on? Well…some people figure Daniel got his facts mixed up. Other people figure Daniel didn’t even write Daniel…that a Fake-Daniel wrote Daniel years later – and he was mixed up too.
I know a guy who calls his own dad Grandpa so that his young son will learn to call his grandpa Grandpa. So why did Daniel call Belshazzar’s predecessor his father? Who really knows? Maybe there was a good reason that I don’t know. But whatever Daniel’s reason was paternity had nothing to do with his message…which was this: the Most High God gave sovereignty, majesty, glory, and honor to your predecessor, Nebuchadnezzar…But when his heart and mind were hardened with pride, he was brought down.
Note: quote from Daniel 5:18-20 (NLT). List of Babylonian kings is from Paul Kriwaczek’s Babylon (St. Martin’s: NY, 2010) 271-2.