101 Myths of the Bible: how ancient scribes - Conscious Evolution TV

288 101 Myths of the Bible
pieces that were swept away by the wind. The stone that destroyed the statue became
a mighty mountain that filled the earth.
Daniel explained Nebuchadnezzar’s dream. Nebuchadnezzar, he said, was the
golden head, ruler of a glorious and powerful kingdom. But after his reign, an inferior
kingdom would arise (presumably symbolized by the silver portions) and after that a
third kingdom, of brass, shall rule the entire world. A fourth kingdom would be as
strong as iron but would split into pieces. After this, the God of heaven will set up a
kingdom that will last forever.
As other dreams unfold the future becomes clearer. They reflect a parade of historical
events in which the Chaldaean empire of Nebuchadnezzar is replaced by Persians
and Medes and then by Greeks, from whom various branches split off.
Historians studying the prophecies, have traced an accurate line of political events
ending during the reign of Antiochus Epiphanes (175 B.C.–164 B.C.), a Seleucid
Greek who persecuted the Jews. His cruel tyranny led to the Maccabbeean uprising
that liberated the Jews from Greek rule.
This set of predictions is rather remarkable for a man living in 587 B.C., but there
is a major flaw in the story. The Book of Daniel describes the succession of several
kings during the lifetime of Daniel and the sequence is substantially inaccurate.
Daniel gives the following succession of Babylonian kings: 1) Nebuchadnezzar, 2)
Belshazzar, son of Nebuchadnezzar, 3) Darius the Mede, and 4) Cyrus. Elsewhere, it
says that Darius the Mede was the son of Ahasuerus (i.e., Xerxes).
The historically accurate sequence would be: 1) Nebuchadnezzar, 2) Evil-Merodach,
3) Neriglassar, 4) Nabonidus, 5) Belshazzar, son of Nabonidus, and 6) Cyrus.
Belshazzar was not the son of Nebuchadnezzar but of the later king named
Nabonidus, and several of the predictions that Daniel made about Nebuchadnezzar
actually refer to events in the life of Nabonidus. So it would appear that somehow
Daniel the Wise confused Nebuchadnezzar with Nabonidus, who was actually the
third king after Nebuchadnezzar according to the historical records.
History knows nothing of Darius the Mede. The Babylonian kings known as Darius
were Persians and they followed after Cyrus, the Persian king who defeated
Nabonidus. The actual Darius was the father of Ahasuerus, not the son.