Daniel Introduction Part A

Daniel’s Authorship, Date, and Reliability

Well, good morning, we will be studying the book of Daniel. And that is at once going to be a wonderful and terrifying thing, because as I have seven, I think seven books I'm reading to work on this, most books I've ever had to at one time read to teach a class, and I'm really enjoying it, but there's an awful lot.

The book of Daniel is a heavy book, it's a keystone book, it is postulated by many of the commentators that I'm studying that if you want to understand the book of Revelation, you must have a basic understanding of the book of Daniel.

So hopefully, God will give you understanding of the book of Daniel to despite me. Meanwhile, let's go to prayer. Father, we thank you for this opportunity to look into another one of your wonderful books in the scriptures.

You breathed this out to Daniel, and he wrote it under the instruction of your Holy Spirit. And it is for us to understand, and it can indeed be understood. But we will ask you to superintend and to provide instruction throughout this time, Lord, that we might know your mind.

More than anything, so that we might honor you and glorify you in all that we live and do. And so we'll thank you this morning that you're going to superintend this, that we will be recipients of your instruction.

And Father, I seek your grace as we go through this book. Thank you for penning it, and thank you for giving us this opportunity to study it. We ask for your overall superintendence and wisdom in studying this book.

And we'll thank you for what you're going to accomplish in it and through it, in Jesus' name, amen. So as I, I'm going to give some housekeeping here, because as I've been working through the introduction, which is 12 pages of small print, I'm not gonna go fast.

I welcome questions. There will probably be many times when you will ask me a question that I will have to get back to you on, because I have never really studied end times prophecy. I've been a Christian for four and a half decades, and I've never really studied end times prophecy as I should have.

So this is going to be an excellent opportunity for me, as well as hopefully for all of us. But, so I will, there will be times when I will make a statement, and then not very far after that, I'll develop that statement, and then make the statement again.

There's an awful lot in the book of Daniel that is difficult to understand, but there is plenty that's very simple to understand. Actually, it's interesting, an old wag once said, if we would just, how did he word it?

He said, there's so much in the scripture that I don't understand, and so much in the scripture that I misunderstand, but there's so much in the scripture that I do understand, that I ought to be busy about doing that.

And so in the book of Daniel, we're going to find that there are plenty of critics to this book, there are numerous opinions as to the prophecies in this book, and they actually take up a relatively small part, but we will study them at length, we will study them in depth.

Today, we will not actually get into the text of the book of Daniel very much, we will be studying, we will be looking at an introduction. And so the book of Daniel was written in the sixth century before Christ, by the prophet named in the book.

Remarkably, that is contested. It is written in the third person, as are many Old Testament books, and indeed, many works from that era. Slide two, please. Writers often wrote in the third person. In fact, we see the Lord himself alternating between the first and the third person.

In Exodus chapter 20, verse two, I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. And then verse seven, you shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not leave him unpunished who takes his name in vain.

Daniel makes reference to himself several places in the book, authenticating the fact that he wrote it. In Daniel chapter eight, verse one, he says, this is the first time that we will see in the book of Daniel, Daniel make reference to himself in the first person.

In the third year of the reign of Belshazzar, the king, a vision appeared to me, Daniel, subsequent to the one which appeared to me previously. And then in chapter nine, verse two, in the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, observed in the books the number of the years which was revealed as the word of the Lord to Jeremiah the prophet for the completion of the desolations of Jerusalem, namely 70 years.

One of the other objections to the book of Daniel will be, and we will revisit this again, that he was too accurate. And it's a, yes, it was objected to in the third century and then later in the 1700s that it couldn't have been prophecy because it was too accurate.

It had to be a history.

Why?

Because I said so, said the critic. Daniel chapter nine, verse 20. Now while I was speaking and praying and confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel and presenting my supplication before the Lord, my God, in behalf of the holy mountain of my God, and then in chapter 10, verse two, he again speaks in the first person.

In those days, I, Daniel, had been mourning for three entire weeks. That is actually one of the objections that we will see raised, that he spoke in the third person in most of the book. So although modern scholars follow the lead of porphyry, I mispronounced it for those who were listening to me earlier, not periphery, as though beating around the bush, P-O-R-P-H-R-Y, who in the third century A .D. propagated the idea, now get this, this is a self, this is a tautology, a self-supporting false statement, a false accusation.

He propagated the idea that the prophecies of Daniel were far too accurate and therefore could not be prophecies. They must actually be a history written after the fact, and therefore he dated it to the Maccabean period, 168 to 165 B .C., 400 years later than it was actually written.

Why?

Because it was too good.

Yeah.

He was ably refuted by Jerome in his commentary, Jerome's commentary on the book of Daniel, and the heresy was put to rest until the late 1700s, when it was revived by liberal theologians dedicated to the philosophies of the Enlightenment period.

Well, there is plenty of internal and external evidence that Daniel was written around 530 B .C., but because the prophecies are particular and accurate, those with a low view of scripture reject that date and date it to the second century B .C.

Historical Context for Daniel and the Babylonian Empire

Let's look at some of the things that were happening around the time the book of Daniel was written. Next slide. Well, actually I don't have that on the next slide, but that's a good slide. So what was going on?

Prophet Daniel lived in the sixth century before the birth of Jesus. During this time period, construction on the Acropolis in Athens began. The Mayan civilization flourished in Mexico. Aesop wrote his fables around this time.

Confucius and Buddha lived. Wonderful people who were very, very confused. Greek art began to truly excel around this period. The Phoenicians made the first known sea journey around the Horn of Africa in this time.

And the Greeks, this is very important, very important, the Greeks introduced the olive tree to Italy. Daniel describes events of the second century before Jesus, essentially and especially the period 175 to 164 B .C., with such precision that critics believe it had to have been written after that period, during the time of the Maccabees in between the Old and New Testaments.

Supposedly, the purpose for writing Daniel at that time was to inspire God's people onto victory during the Maccabean Wars. So the first one to suggest a Maccabean date for Daniel was the Neoplatonic philosopher Porphyrus of Tyre, the third century A .D.

He couldn't believe the prophecies, so he suggested the later date. Again, as mentioned earlier, Jerome and his commentary on Daniel spent much of his time refuting these arguments. Then, and so the arguments were put to rest.

We'll look at some of Jerome's commentary because he does an able job of refuting it. But the commentaries, the work of Jerome put this heresy to rest for 1 ,400 years. And nobody seemed to raise any of those objections for 14 centuries.

In 1771, influenced by enlightenment, academics began to revive the Old Maccabean date theory about the book of Daniel. They all agreed that every accurate prediction in Daniel had to have been written after the events took place because they were too accurate.

Therefore, circularly reasoning, it must have been written after that date. Three times, simply believing the scripture to be true, however, yields the fact that the book was written by Daniel himself, often in the third person, written between probably 540 and 530 B .C.

Daniel would have been in his 80s and had served a long time under Medo-Persian kings. Many allege a much later date, which is 165. And three times, so we're gonna look at these, the reasons for these different dates.

Three times, Daniel is mentioned by his sixth century counterpart, Ezekiel, as an example of righteousness. That's the wonderful slide we have here. Ezekiel 14 .14. Even though these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in its midst, by their own righteousness, they could only deliver themselves, declares the Lord God.

And then in Ezekiel 14 .20. Even though Noah, Daniel, and Job were in its midst as I live, declares the Lord God, they could not deliver either their son or their daughter, they would deliver only themselves by their righteousness.

And then in Ezekiel 28 .3. And Ezekiel was a contemporary of Daniel. His prophecy and his work was at the same time period. Behold, you are wiser than Daniel. There is no secret that is a match for you.

One of the interesting heresies that was propagated was that this Daniel was from 1400 BC and was some sort of Baal worshiper.

Yeah.

That the Lord God would put in his scripture as a man to uphold and to emulate. It was ably refuted. But that was one of the, I mean, when people are looking to discredit the scripture, anything will do.

Anything will do. Interestingly enough, as I was talking to Jim this morning, he's going to be, in the very near future, you can't preach when your arm's broken, so he's gotta wait until his arm's fixed, see?

Because you can't, there's none of this and none of that,.

And you know, so.

Anyway, he's going to be going through, in Sunday school, God wrote a book. And the fact is, every objection that is raised to the book of Daniel simply emulates or mirrors all of the objections that have been raised to the scripture in general.

Well, it can't be real, because there isn't a God, therefore it's not real. Well, you've been everywhere and seen that? Well, no, but there isn't.

Why?

Because I said so. So the very same objections, essentially, that are raised against the book of Daniel are raised against the entire scripture, and I'm sure Jim will be dealing with that. So, the writer is Daniel, and in many cases, he reverts to the first person, and we can see this clearly in chapter 8, 15.

Would you go to the next scripture? Next slide.

So there we had those,.

And I'm not gonna read through them all. The last one, chapter 12, verse four and five. But as for you, Daniel, the Lord is speaking to him, conceal these words and seal up the book until the end of time.

Many will go back and forth, and knowledge will increase. Then I, Daniel, looked, and behold, two others were standing, one on this bank of the river, and the other on that bank of the river. Daniel wrote in the first person when it was necessary.

So there are two different processes for dating this book. Those who date it to the late second century see this work as historical fiction. Yes, did you know that? Very interesting. And why do they see it as historical fiction?

Because it works better for their worldview. They won't have to face the judgment of God, because there is no God.

Next question.

That would be how they would say it. Designed to encourage the resistance movement against the tyranny of Antiochus Epiphanes, who was a very wicked ruler. Some argue that Daniel must have been late because it was placed among the writings of the Hebrew scriptures instead of the prophets.

But many of the books in the writings are very old, like Job and the Davidic Psalms and the Solomonic writings. Therefore, a placement in the writings does not determine a late date, especially when in Qumran, in the Dead Sea Scrolls, they discovered ancient references to the Psalms and to Job and to Daniel.

And so, the liberal scholars acknowledge, okay, the Psalms and Job, we will not date them late like that. We will date them much, much earlier. Much, much older, excuse me. But not Daniel. They didn't apply the same logic to Daniel.

Because it would acknowledge that the prophecies were true and that they were prophecies. And it's really that simple. The date of 168, here's another one of the supposed problems. The date of 168 matches the evidence spoken of in Daniel 11, 31 through 39.

Therefore, it is assumed that the book must have been written soon after that time. This was a specific prophecy about the reign of Antiochus Epiphanes. Would you go to the next slide? This is the prophecy.

Chapter nine, chapter 11. Forces from him will arise, desecrate the sanctuary fortress, and do away with the regular sacrifice. And they will set up the abomination of desolation. By smooth words, he will turn to godlessness those who act wickedly toward the covenant.

But the people who know their God will display strength and take action. Those who have insight among the people will give understanding to the many. Yet they will fall by the sword and by flame, by captivity and by plunder for many days.

Now, when they fall, they will be granted a little help, and many will join with them in hypocrisy. Some of those who have insight will fall in order to refine, purge, and make them pure until the end time, because it is still to come at the appointed time.

Then the king will do as he pleases, and he will exalt and magnify himself above every god and will speak monstrous things against the god of gods. And he will prosper until the indignation is finished, for that which is decreed will be done.

He will show no regard for the gods of his fathers or for the desire of women, nor will he show regard for any other god, for he will magnify himself above them all. But instead, he will honor a god of fortress, a god whom his fathers did not know.

He will honor him with gold, silver, costly stones, and treasures. He will take action against the strongest of fortresses with the help of a foreign god. He will give great honor to those who acknowledge him and will cause him to rule over the many and will parcel out land for a price.

Do you see all the specific prophecies there? And we will get to those probably in July of 2025 when we get to Daniel chapter 11, or whenever. Those who hold to a low view of scripture say those couldn't have been prophecies.

They're too accurate.

That's what we're gonna be dealing with whenever we deal with those who oppose the scripture. Number four, most who hold to a late date for Daniel emphasize it as being apocalyptic in nature. See, the higher critics say that apocalyptic literature hadn't come about at the time of Daniel in 530 BC.

And yet it had, and we'll see that. While all, most would agree that there are apocalyptic elements in Daniel, this does not require that it be modeled after all aspects of apocalyptic literature. Some aspects of apocalyptic literature which Daniel is accused of are, it is pseudepigraphic.

In other words, a false author is attached to the book to give it credibility. So whoever wrote this book in 165 attached the name of Daniel to it to give it credibility. That's what the false, that's what the low theologians, the higher critics, if you will, say.

The prophecies, another thing they say, are after the event. The Latin is vaticinia ex eventu, or prophecies after the event. The sensational events in chapters three, five, and six are necessarily writing conventions like those which were employed by non-canonical literature of the intertestamental period.

So there's other types of literature in the intertestamental period between Malachi and Matthew that employed these same conventions of literature. Therefore, it must have been written late because they didn't write like that 500 years before Christ.

And then, and this is one of the observations that conventional or that modern conservative theologians have mentioned or have noted, often there is a hermeneutical presupposition against predictive writing.

In other words, if you go into the study of the book of Daniel with the assumption, with the worldview that God cannot predict the future, you must come up with an early date for it, or I guess a later date.

Because if God can't predict the future, then this must be a history. It's circular reasoning at its best, but that's all they have. And often, there is a non-miraculous presupposition against narratives like Daniel three, five, and six, the lion's den, the fiery furnace, and other things that are mentioned in the book of Daniel.

Therefore, if your worldview is that miracles can't happen, then this had to have been written after the effect, a fact, and these aren't really miracles. They're just something that happened, and well, what really happened?

Well, I don't know, but they're not miracles. Why, because I said so. So, some of the major reasons why we look at this book as written in the early sixth century. Number one, manuscript evidence. Manuscripts discovered at Qumran, and one of the most important, or if not the most important, which we will get to, is the Lord Jesus Christ quoted it as prophecy.

And either he was right or he was wrong. He was right. Manuscript evidence discovered at Qumran, the florilegium found in a cave 4Q, which date from the Maccabean period make it very unlikely that the book was written during the time of the Maccabees, since it would have taken some time for it to have been accepted and then propagated and included in the canon.

Stuff didn't get around like it does today. You write something, email today or on the internet, and it is in Turkey in 12 .0 nanoseconds. In this era, if you wrote something, it could have been a century before it made it very far outside of its own locale.

Much of scripture took that much time to propagate, even in the Testament period, in the New Testament period. So, one of the evidences is that it was found at Qumran. Therefore, it couldn't have originated when the Dead Sea Scrolls originated, because it would have had to have been propagated and then copied, and these were copies.

They weren't originals, they were copies. Number two, Aramaic. Daniel's Aramaic, the book was written in both Aramaic and Hebrew. And I'll go over some of the stuff you're gonna hear me go over twice, I think it's very important.

One of the reasons Daniel was not included in the prophet writings, but rather the writings, Daniel was not a commissioned prophet like Ezekiel or Isaiah. He was a government official. And his writings often were to the citizens of the Persian Empire, of the Babylonian Empire.

And so, therefore, he was included in the writings. When he would write to those, when part of his book was written especially for the people of the Babylonian Empire, he wrote in their language, Aramaic.

Those portions of the book that were specifically designed to be written to the Hebrews, to the Jews, were written in Hebrew. This often happens. Daniel's Aramaic demonstrates grammatical evidences more for an early date, more associated with the 7th and 6th centuries BC than with the 2nd century BC.

Great linguistic scholars have studied his writings. Much has been studied. I mean, this is, what is this? 2 ,500 years after Daniel was written. A lot has been, a lot of water's gone under the prophetic bridge.

And great hermeneutic and linguistic students have identified the different types of Persian and Aramaic that occurred at different ages. This Aramaic is at home in the 7th and 6th century BC. It is remarkably out of place in 2nd century BC.

Persian loan words in Daniel do not necessarily argue against an early date for the book since Daniel, who lived under the Persians, could have placed material in its final form later in his life. So how many of you have written, Jenny, you've written books.

Did you edit them before you finally published them? Did whole chapters sometimes get rewritten? Did new information that you discovered about a particular thing that happened in the 1920s change the way this vignette should have happened?

Yeah, Daniel was a writer under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit and God wanted it accurate. Therefore, he could have put it in a different form later in his life when he finally published, if you will, the book.

Number, oh, I don't know what number it is. I do that all the time. Four of the 19 Persian words are not translated well by the Greek renderings of about 100 BC, implying that their meaning was lost or dramatically changed, meaning that it is very unlikely Daniel was written in 165 BC.

The words that were translated at that time had a different meaning in 165 than what Daniel intended in 530 BC. And we'll look at these in detail as we go through the text. This is an introduction.

Pardon?

Oh, yeah, well, and I'm on page four. Page four. Who remembers that?

Okay, none of you.

The Persian words that are cited in Daniel are specifically old Persian words dating from around 300 BC or earlier. This argues very well against the 165 BC date. The Greek, three Greek words, three Greek loan words in Daniel need not argue for a late date since there may well have been Greek writing prior to Plato, 370 BC.

Where these words could have been used and since they are the names of musical instruments,.

And we'll see those,.

Which are often circulated beyond national boundaries, and since Greek words are found in the Aramaic documents of the Elephantine era dated to the fifth century BC, these need not argue against an early date.

Apocalyptic evidence. The themes of the prominence of angels, the last judgment, the resurrection of the dead, and the establishment of the final kingdom are not themes that are limited to later apocryphal literature, but have their roots in earlier biblical literature and even in Zechariah, and we'll see that.

Literary evidence. The reason the development of history seems to stop with Antiochus IV is not necessarily because that was when the writer lived. It is probably for literary theological reasons and it best foreshadows the coming Antichrist, the Antichrist to come.

As he was writing the history or the information about what was to come, that was the stopping point for his purposes. Predictive evidence. The fourth empire in Daniel 2 is not that of the Greeks as those who hold to a late date affirm.

This is substantiated by the vision in chapter seven. By the way, it would be good for us all to read through the book of Daniel, and then as we're studying each particular chapter, read through that chapter prior to the study each Sunday that we have it.

Those substantiated by the vision in chapter seven were the second empire is not Media and the third empire is not Persia, but is Greece, which divides into the four. The Persian empire never divided into four parts.

This is also substantiated in Daniel nine with the vision of the ram and the he goat with one horn and then four horns, a divided Greece. And we'll see that as we study it. That's gonna be much, much later.

The author speaks mostly in the third person except for Daniel 8 .1, Daniel 9 .2, Daniel 9 .3, Daniel 10 .2, where he speaks in the I Daniel form. However, as we mentioned, it is customary for ancient writers to speak in the third person even when writing about themselves.

The one Old Testament exception is the book of Nehemiah, which is in the form of a personal diary. Some interesting tidbits. And I wrote this before I heard this news. How many of you have seen the news that China is requiring the Bible to be rewritten to favor communism?

Well, at times, decades ago, communist governments prohibited preaching from the book of Daniel because it reveals God's knowledge of the future and it shows that in the end, the Lord, the Lord God and his people win.

So they prohibited preaching from it because it might encourage resistance. Daniel contains more fulfilled prophecies than any other book in the New Testament, in the Bible, excuse me. Daniel contains more fulfilled prophecies than any other book in the Bible.

In New Testament prophecy, Daniel is referred to more than any other Old Testament book. Slide six. So this is the location, the geographic location of the kingdom that Daniel lived in, Babylon, which has been identified and many ancient cities there have been excavated.

So there you can see some of the cities, Babylonia, Deir, Akkad, Kish, things that you've probably heard mentioned in other scriptures, names of other cities. Sumer, where the great library was found and others.

Now if you go to the next slide, you can see where that is in modern day terms. It's right in the middle of Iraq. That's the real reason for those wars. No, I'm just kidding. So it's just about 50 miles, I think 50 miles south of Baghdad is where the ancient city of Babylon.

The Babylonian Empire of Daniel's day covered an area that stretched east-west from Turkey to Iran and from north-south from Armenia to Saudi Arabia. At its peak, it controlled nearly 194 ,000 square miles.

That sounds like a lot. This would be about 73 the size of Texas. To give us an idea of how big the Neo-Babylonian Empire was. Or about the size of the states of Idaho and Nevada combined. But that's a huge area, think about it.

How long does it take to walk to Las Vegas? Now, in the winter, with no stops along the way, no 7-Elevens, no K-Mart, well not K-Mart, that shows my age, no Walmarts, no gas stations, you're walking, it was a big empire.

Babylon endured for millennia, with massive ups and downs in both size and influence. It was founded around 2300 BC. It grew in size under Hammurabi between 1792 BC and 1750 BC. The Neo-Babylonian period that Daniel was involved with spanned the years, next slide if you would.

The years 626 to 539 BC. There's the Babylonian Empire in a little bit different form, so you can kinda see what it covered. And during those years, Babylon became the most powerful kingdom in the world at the time.

This is the Babylonian Empire that Daniel served the kings of. So we're gonna look at some of the kings and events. We're gonna kinda go through it quickly. If anybody wants these charts, I can send them to you.

Go to the next slide, please. Kings and events, so this is the time period that Daniel would have been involved with. Not the entire 2300 years. For our purposes, we're more focused on the Neo-Babylonian Empire that occurred between 612 and later.

Nineveh falls in 612 to the Neo-Babylonian army. Now, just really quickly, I would like to look at Daniel chapter one. In the third year, verse one, of the reign of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem and besieged it.

So we'll see how these dates fit in. Nineveh falls in 612 to Nebuchadnezzar. In 608, Pharaoh Necho marched to Carchemish to halt the expansion of the Neo-Babylonian power and Josiah, king of Judah, tries to stop him.

The death of Josiah and assumption of the throne by his son Jehoahaz in 608, and Jehoiakim, another son of Josiah, replace Jehoahaz on the authority of Pharaoh Necho within three months. Then Palestine and Syria are under Egyptian rule and Josiah, king Josiah's reforms, the good king, one of the good kings, his forms dissipate.

605, Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuchadnezzar is Nebuchadnezzar's father, sends troops to fight remaining Assyrian army and the Egyptians at Carchemish. Nebuchadnezzar chased them all the way to the plains of Palestine, and then he got word of the death of his father, so he returned to Babylon to retrieve the crown, to receive the crown.

On the way back, he takes captive Daniel and his friends and many other of the cream of the crop of the Jewish people. So that's what we will see. And the Lord gave Jehoiakim, king of Judah, into his hand along with some of the vessels of the house of God, and he brought them to the land of Shinar, to the house of his God, and he brought the vessels into the treasury of his God.

Then the king ordered Ashpenaz, the chief of his officials, to bring in some of the sons of Israel, including some of the royal family and of the nobles, youths in whom was no defect. These are the captives that he brought back when he went back to the capital to assume the crown, to assume kingship.

So then 605 to 538, this is when Daniel would have served. Babylon in control of Palestine, and then in 597, 10 ,000 are exiled to Babylon. 586, Jerusalem and the temple are destroyed, and another large deportation, and then in 582, because Jewish guerrilla fires killed Gedaliah, another last large deportation occurred.

So Nebuchadnezzar had to keep coming in and putting down the revolts and deporting people to Babylon. Then there were successors, next slide. I always read evil Merodach, and I thought, there's an evil guy named Merodach.

No, that means it was Amel Marduk, it was just a name of his God. He was a student or a son of Marduk, one of the gods of the Medo-Persians. He released Jehoiakim, who was in the true Messiah line, from custody, and then was the king Neriglasar.

Now, some of these pronunciations I worked on, some of them I didn't, so I'll try to look down so I don't spit over the front row, I'll spit on my book. 556, Lebaski Marduk, again, a reference to their God, Marduk reigned.

Then the Barnabas in 556 to 539. All of this would have been during Daniel's period. Spent most of the time building a temple to the god Sin, this earned enmity of the priests of Marduk, the internecine, internecine God fighting, if you will.

He spent the rest of his time trying to put down revolts and to stabilize the kingdom. The kingdom of Babylon was in upheaval during this time. He moved to Timah and left the affairs to his son, Belshazzar.

How many of you have heard of Belshazzar? The writing on the wall. Belshazzar spent most of his time trying to restore order. Babylon is then, at the time, their great threat was Media. Then is the rise of Cyrus, next slide.

So Cyrus,.

Astyages, Astyages or Astyages, was king of Media and Cyrus II was his grandson. Cyrus II was a vassal king and he revolted. Nabonibus, to restore a balance of power, made alliances with both Egypt. Oh boy, that didn't line up very good, did it?

And Crecus, which is the king of Lydia at the time. Cyrus marched against Sardis in 547 and captured all of Asia Minor. Gobias, who's probably Cyrus, took Babylon without resistance and then in Daniel chapter five, Belshazzar, Nabonibus' co-regent, also Gobias, probably Darius the Mede, not Cyrus, Darius the Mede.

I get those two mixed up as I was reading this. That's when they took Babylon without resistance. And then October 11th, and it's interesting, we have that exact date, 539, Cyrus entered as liberator from Nabonibus' moon goddess,.

Zin.

Then Cyrus' successors, next slide. Cyrus' son succeeded him and then the reign of Cambyses. They added Egypt in 525 to the Medo-Persian Empire. Darius I comes to rule in 522 to 486. Now, this is after Daniel, and so we'll quickly hurry through this, but some of this figures in the predictions in the book of Daniel.

That's why we're going through it. He organized the Persian Empire along Cyrus' plan of satraps. Satraps were governorships, and it would be much like what we have. We have the state of Idaho and then we have the counties, and in each county are county commissioners, et cetera.

So these would have been the governors of provinces of the Medo-Persian Empire, and they had a great deal of power. They had a great deal of responsibility and a great deal of authority. He set up coinage like Lydia's, that king.

Then is Ursus I, which we read about in the book of Esther, and they put down an Egyptian revolt. They intended to invade Greece, but he was defeated at the Battle of Thermopylae in 480. Remember, this is the king who the weather would not cooperate with him to build a bridge across that narrowest part of that area, and so he went out one night with a whip.

And whipped the water.

He was gonna calm that water down. How'd that work out for him? Not so well. Only the Father, only God can control the weather. They intended to invade Greece, but they were defeated. Okay, 480 is the Battle of Thermopylae.

Then Artaxerxes II, which we read about in Ezra 7 through 10 and in Nehemiah and in Malachi. The Greeks continued to advance until confronted with the Peloponnesian Wars, and those wars lasted about 20 years.

During this period, the Jewish community is reconstructed. Then Darius II, he authorized the Feast of Unleavened Bread in the Elephantine Temple, Artaxerxes III, 404 to 358, excuse me, II, then Artaxerxes III, 358 to 338, Arsus, and then Darius III.

Then we get into the Greek Empire. You'll go to the next slide. And much of the, when we look into the prophecies, we'll be involved with some of this. Philip of Macedon built up Greece. He was assassinated in 336, and then how many of you have heard of Alexander the Great?

Yeah, that's 336 to 323. He routed Darius II at the Battle of Isis, and then he died in 323 of a fever after conquering the eastern Mediterranean in the Near East. We can all, even the greatest of us can be brought down by the simplest of things.

Alexander's then generals divided his empire at his death, and this is part of some of the prophecies that we'll look at. There was Cassander, who received Macedonia and Greece, Lysimachus, who took over Thrace, Seleucus I, Syria and Babylon, Ptolemy, Egypt and Palestine, and Antigonus, a small part of Asia Minor.