Episode 250 – Archeology and the Bible – Part 5 – Names We Know Welcome to Anchored by Truth brought to you by Crystal Sea Books. In John 14:6, Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” The goal of Anchored by Truth is to encourage everyone to grow in the Christian faith by anchoring themselves to the secure truth found in the inspired, inerrant, and infallible word of God. Script: [Belshazzar] called in his advisors, who claimed they could talk with the spirits of the dead and understand the meanings found in the stars. [Belshazzar] told them, “The man who can read this writing … will become the third most powerful man in my kingdom. Daniel, Chapter 5, verse 7, Contemporary English Version

******** VK: Hi! I’m Victoria K and I want to welcome you to Anchored by Truth. Anchored by Truth is brought to you by Crystal Sea Books because we have a passion for wanting everyone to reawaken to the life giving truth that is found only in the pages of the Bible. The Bible is the only book in the world that provides God’s special revelation to mankind and contains the good news of salvation that is available through Christ Jesus. Today we are going to continue our series that we are calling “Archeology and the Bible.” The Bible is a book that is firmly set in place and time. It contains a significant amount of history and, despite the doubts of some critics the history contained in the Bible is accurate and reliable. And one way the reliability of the Bible’s history has been demonstrated is through archeological finds and artifacts. So, to help us continue our discussion today in the studio we have RD Fierro, who is an author and the founder of Crystal Sea Books. RD, can you give us a brief summary of the points that we have made thus far in our “Archeology and the Bible” series? RD: Sure. But before I do that I would also like to say “hi” to everyone and welcome them to Anchored by Truth. As you mentioned our passion at Crystal Sea Books is to help people either connect or reconnect with the Bible as an essential part of their life. Until relatively recently, for hundreds of years in fact, people have recognized the Bible as being of immeasurable value for both life and success. President Theodore Roosevelt once said that “A thorough knowledge of the Bible is worth more than a college education.” What Roosevelt recognized is that the Bible is a unique book. The Bible imparts not only knowledge but wisdom. VK: And that is a point that is often missing in our technologically obsessed culture. We have more facts and data at our fingerprints, literally in our pockets and purses, than any generation in history. Yet, as important as some of that information may be it does surprisingly little to contribute to wisdom. In fact, in some cases it seems like the more information we can command the less wisdom we choose to absorb. RD: Sadly, I agree with you. Our smart phones can tell us every address on the planet and how to get to them but they do precious little to helping us get the most important place in all of creation: heaven. VK: And what good would it do us to have visited every amazing site or attraction on earth if we don’t ensure that we are steadily on course for heaven as we travel this world’s highways and byways? RD: Exactly. As that quote from Teddy Roosevelt tells us the way we can be really smart with our “smart phones” is to use them to give us immediate access to the Bible. But no one is going to be motivated to read the Bible, whether it is on their phone, their computer, or on paper, if they aren’t convinced that the Bible has important things to say. And for them to be convinced of that they must believe the Bible is true. VK: I saw a yard sign the other day that said “Read banned books.” Ironically, the book most banned in today’s culture is the Bible. It’s not permitted in government run schools and it’s excluded from a lot of government buildings. At one time Bethesda Naval Hospital wanted to keep visitors from bringing Bibles into the hospital as part of comforting wounded soldiers. A lot of social service programs are prohibited from mentioning the Bible as part of treating people with substance abuse or mental health problems. I doubt the person who had the sign in their yard realizes that in putting that sign up they are actually encouraging Bible readership. RD: Right. But as an old boss of mine used to say, “it’s better to light a candle than curse the darkness.” So, the candle we want to light is simply the one that stands in front of an open Bible. And that’s the reason we wanted to take a few episodes of Anchored by Truth and talk about archeology. There have been a great many archeological finds that have confirmed the accuracy of the history contained in the Bible even when that history had been doubted by the secular world. And we’ve covered a number of specific examples in the first four episodes of this series. Today we want to provide a couple more examples of instances where secular historians doubted names contained in the Bible but those names have now been confirmed. VK: In our last episode we talked about the fact that when a historian gets names and titles right it increases our confidence that the historian is reporting history accurately. And in our last episode we showed that the Bible not only gets the names and titles of major historical figures right, but is also accurate with less prominent people and government officials. We are going to continue that theme today. Where do you want to start? RD: Let’s take a look at one of the best known stories in the Bible – the handwriting on the wall. Even though the story is well known most people know very little about the principle human player in the story – Belshazzar. VK: We heard about Belshazzar [BELL-SHAZ-ZAR] in our opening scripture. He was a Babylonian ruler who was reigning in Babylon at the time the Babylonians fell to the combined army of the Medes and the Persians who were being led by the Persian king, Cyrus. This story is found in the book of Daniel chapter 5. Belshazzar was hosting a banquet for nobles and royal officials and all of them were getting drunk. At one point in the festivities the king ordered his servants to bring out the sacred vessels that had been brought to Babylon when the Babylonians sacked Jerusalem. The Babylonians took all the gold and silver serving cups and vessels from the temple and carried them back to Babylon. There they put them in the royal treasury. On this occasion the king appears to have wanted to remind everyone of the glorious history of the Babylonian Empire so he commanded the vessels to be brought out for use in their drunken revel. RD: Yes. So, most people know the next part of the story. As Belshazzar and the Babylonians are committing sacrilege with the temple treasures a giant man’s hand appears in their midst and begins writing on the wall. The hand writes four words but no one knows how to interpret them. So, Belshazzar announces that if they can find anyone who can read the words and interpret them, Belshazzar will make that person the 3rd most important person in the Empire. It’s very important to note that Belshazzar didn’t offer to make them the 2nd most important person in the Empire but the 3rd most important. VK: That is a strange detail. Why make someone the 3rd most important person in a kingdom? That just seems like a very strange way to offer a reward. RD: And from archeology we now know why Belshazzar framed his offer that way. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. For many years secular historians thought that this story from the book of Daniel got the name of the king wrong and therefore that the story was just fictional. That’s because it was well known from history that the last king of Babylon, before they were conquered, was Nabonidus. Historians were somewhat uncertain as to how Nabonidus ascended to the throne of Babylon. He wasn’t in the lineage of the Babylonian royal family. He seems to have some kind of a prominent career before he became king and many scholars believe he had married a daughter of Nebuchadnezzar who is the most famous Babylonian king and is prominently featured in the early part of the book of Daniel. One thing that does seem to be clear is that Nabonidus’ elevation to being the king was as a big a surprise to him as it was to others. Notwithstanding his unlikely ascension to the throne Nabonidus was well known enough to have history remember his name. The same thing was not true for his son Belshazzar. Secular history forgot about Belshazzar for centuries but the Bible never did. VK: And for anyone who hasn’t read the book of Daniel, or read it in a while, we’d recommend picking it up tonight. Daniel is the 4th of the Major Prophets but also the shortest. The entire book is only 12 chapters and the book is easy to read. The first 6 chapters are history and contain some of the best known stories in the Bible like Daniel in the lion’s den, the 3 Hebrews thrown in the fiery furnace, and the handwriting on the wall. The last 6 chapters are all prophetic and they contain an unparalleled demonstration that Daniel was given accurate prophetic information about events hundreds of years into the future. You think Daniel is one of the most important books of the Old Testament, don’t you? RD: I do. All the books of the Bible are important, but not all books are equally consumable by modern readers. And while I hate to start ranking books of the Bible I would highly recommend that everyone become very familiar with the books of Genesis, Psalms, Isaiah, and Daniel from the Old Testament. Naturally, they should read the entire Old Testament, but if anyone hasn’t spent much time with the Old Testament I’d suggest they really become familiar with those books. VK: But let’s get back to Belshazzar and archeology. RD: Yes, let’s. So, until the 19th century so far as secular history was concerned Belshazzar didn’t exist. But in 1854, four clay cylinders with identical inscriptions were excavated from the ruins of the ancient city of Ur. These clay cylinders were subsequently named the Nabonidus Cylinders. These Nabonidus Cylinders contained Nabonidus’ prayer to the moon god for “Belshazzar, the eldest son—my offspring.” Thus, in 1854 Belshazzar’s existence was confirmed—as Nabonidus’ firstborn son and heir to his throne. VK: But the confirmation of the Biblical account didn’t end there did it? RD: Nope. In 1882, a translation of another ancient cuneiform text, the Nabonidus Chronicle, was published. We learned from the Nabonidus Chronicle that Nabonidus was a mostly absentee king. He spent 10 years of his 17-year reign living in Tema, Arabia which was 450 miles away from Babylon. The king left Belshazzar in charge during his frequent absences from Babylon. And we know that Nabonidus was accustomed to putting Belshazzar in charge of Babylon during his absence. There’s a Persian account of Nabonidus, published in 1924, that stated that, as “he started out for a long journey”, Nabonidus “entrusted the kingship” to “his oldest (son), the firstborn.” Furthermore, there are other ancient cuneiform texts found in the early 1900s which also mention Belshazzar, including a tablet from Erech in which both he and his father were jointly invoked in an oath, suggesting they both had royal authority. So, Belshazzar was used to functioning in the role of a king for years while his father was away. Not only do the Nabonidus Chronicles refer to Belshazzar as “the crown prince” they also explain that Nabonidus was away from Babylon when it fell. Two days before the handwriting appeared on the wall Nabonidus had fled from the Persians when they defeated him at Sippar. The engagement is sometimes called the battle of Opis. So, Belshazzar was the highest authority in Babylon at the time of Babylon’s capture just as Chapter 5 of Daniel describes. VK: That detail about the war between the Babylonians and the Medes and Persians isn’t in the Bible but it does help us to better understand the events of Chapter 5 of Daniel, doesn’t it? Belshazzar’s father had just suffered a major defeat and he undoubtedly knew that Cyrus was headed for Babylon itself. The walls of Babylon were considered to be impregnable so he wouldn’t have thought the city was in real danger. While ancient estimates vary, the walls of Babylon were probably at least 25 feet thick and possibly as much as 80 feet thick. Some ancient reporters said you could drive 2 chariot teams abreast across the top of the walls. Belshazzar’s father probably thought Cyrus would just exhaust himself trying to get past the walls. So, he moved off to a safe distance to recover and rebuild his army. But Babylon wasn’t safe because the almighty God had previously told the Babylonians he would bring about their defeat. And that message was again given to the Babylonians because that’s what the handwriting on the wall said - even though the king and his guests were initially confused about the writing. RD: And the confusion may have been because the language the words were written a language the king and his guests couldn’t read. Some scholars believe the words were not written in Aramaic script but in a non-human script that Daniel was given a special ability to read. But, many scholars believe that the words were most likely written in Aramaic because that was the language used for official Babylonian purposes. But it’s possible that the words, even if they were written in Aramaic, were written without vowels or word separations. If so all the king and the audience might have seen was a string of consonants and they didn’t know how to separate the string into the individual words. At any rate the king didn’t have to wonder too long because once Daniel arrived he immediately read the message. The New Living Translation puts verse 25 of Chapter 5 of Daniel this way, “This is the message that was written: Mene, Mene, Tekel , and Parsin.” In their ordinary use these words are all monetary weights. VK: But, that word string still might not have made much sense to the king. The God’s Word Translation puts verse 25 of Daniel, Chapter 5 this way: “This is what has been written: Numbered, Numbered, Weighed, and Divided.” So, even from that translation we can see it was strange message. Even if the king and the guests could read the words it’s no wonder they were confused about what it meant. RD: But, once again, the king didn’t have to wonder too long because in addition to reading the words Daniel also told the king what the words meant. VK: The God’s Word Translation says verses 26 through 28 say, “This is its meaning: Numbered-God has numbered the days of your kingdom and will bring it to an end. Weighed-you have been weighed on a scale and found to be too light. Divided-your kingdom will be divided and given to the Medes and Persians." So, the basic message to Belshazzar and his drunken friends was clear. Your time as rulers of your world is over. But there is no way his father could have known this as he was retreating to lick his wounds. His father probably thought the City of Babylon was safe because it always had been. RD: Probably. So, the situation as described in chapter 5 of Daniel makes sense based on what we now know from the Bible and other historical sources. Belshazzar’s father, Nabonidus, had suffered a major defeat at the hands of Cyrus at Sippar. The Babylonian nobles who weren’t with Nabonidus fled into Babylon thinking they were safe behind its impenetrable walls. They were all stressed out at because they knew about the loss to the Persians. So, to relieve their stress Belshazzar decides to have a party and everyone there gets drunk. VK: So, Belshazzar’s father is off recovering. Belshazzar and the Babylonian elites want to forget their troubles by getting drunk. And in the midst of their drunken revelry Belshazzar decides to remind everyone of their former victories by having the servants bring out the temple vessels from the conquest of Jerusalem. Everything looked great – right up until the moment the giant hand appears and tells them the party is over. And it was. History records that the fall of Babylon was sudden and dramatic. Many historians believe that what the Persians did to get past the impregnable walls was to divert the flow of the Euphrates River which ran under the walls and supplied Babylon with water even if a siege was taking place. RD: The Greek historian Xenophon gave an account of the fall of Babylon which also contains many of the elements that are found in the Biblical account. Xenophon says that the attacking Persians found that when the entered the city there was revelry taking place everywhere – so much so that the noise of the attackers was just mixed in with the noise that was already coming from the big party. Xenophon also tells us that the attacking Persians were able to overcome the defenders because they didn’t realize they were under attack until the Persian attack was well underway. And he adds that in all the confusion some of the attacking soldiers were able to get into the palace and kill the king – who from the Biblical account we know was Belshazzar, not his father, Nabonidus. VK: And the fact that the kingly figure who was present in Babylon when the Persians conquered the city was Belshazzar explains that peculiar detail we pointed out earlier. Belshazzar served as king in his father’s absence but Belshazzar was not the king. He was not number one in the kingdom. He was number two. So, when he wanted to offer a reward to someone who could read the handwriting on the wall he couldn’t offer to make that person the number two person in the kingdom. He could only offer to make them number three – which is what he did offer. And the Bible faithfully captured this seemingly odd detail. And as we’ve pointed out, it’s one thing for a historical record to get the big things right. But it’s even more impressive when even the fine details are proven to be accurate. RD: And, over and over again, we find that from the Bible. In this instance, of the handwriting on the wall, the Bible has the big things right. The Persians did suddenly and completely overwhelm the Babylonian defenses. Even the Greek historians recorded that. One reason the Persians were able to do that was frankly because most of the people who should have been defending the city or leading the city’s defense were drunk and incapacitated. Xenophon and the Bible agree on that. And the Babylonian Empire ceased to exist when Babylon fell and the empire was just absorbed into the Medo-Persian Empire which would last for the next 250 years. Those were the big parts of the story. But the Bible story preserved two key smaller parts of the story that were lost to secular history until the archeological finds of the 19th century. VK: Secular history forgot that it was Belshazzar who was killed that night. And, of course, secular history did not record that as Belshazzar was trying to comprehend a miraculous message the best thing he could offer was the third position in the kingdom. RD: Just for a second let’s think back to the story of Joseph in the book of Genesis. Joseph was able to interpret a dream for the Pharaoh who was ruling Egypt. In response Pharaoh was able to make Joseph the 2nd most powerful man in Egypt. He could do that because Pharaoh was the most powerful man. Pharaoh was number 1. So, he could make Joseph number 2 and he did. Belshazzar was already the 2nd most powerful man in Babylon. So, he could only offer the reward of making someone the 3rd most powerful person. The fact that the story of the handwriting on the wall preserves this seemingly coincidental detail is not only fascinating but it also helps confirm when the book of Daniel was written. VK: How is that? RD: Critics of the book of Daniel like to assert that Daniel was not written in the 6th century BC because that would mean Daniel contains undeniably accurate prophecy. And that would prove it was divinely inspired. That’s something the critics have to prevent. So, they assert Daniel was written in the 1st or 2nd century BC when many of the events Daniel prophesied had already occurred. That way Daniel would have been writing history not prophecy. But, as we have been discussing, in the 1st or 2nd century BC Israel, Egypt, and the Mideast had been under the dominion of the Greeks for 200 years. And by that time there is no way a Hebrew writer would have preserved a detail so insignificant as Belshazzar only offering the 3rd position in the empire as a reward. Someone writing a pious fraud, even if they had known the details of the Babylonian system of governance would have had no use for that detail in their story. To tell the tale of God’s judgment on the Babylonians by means of the Medes and Persians the fiction writer would have gained little to nothing for their narrative by inserting a detail in their story that would only have cast doubt on the story. Think back to the story of Joseph. A fiction writer would have gained more credit for their fiction if they had made Daniel a parallel figure to Joseph than inserting a detail that would have only confused their readers. But a writer writing contemporaneously with the events and writing an accurate history would get the details right. VK: And that is what we wanted to point out in this episode and in this series. Archeological discoveries have repeatedly supported the history contained in the Bible. There are times when secular history loses details, events, kings, and even cities that the Bible preserves. But as archeologists have spent time in the territory described by the Bible quite often records or artifacts come to light that confirm the Bible’s accounts. When that happens we find out the Bible had it right the whole time. Well, This sounds like a great time to pray. Today let’s listen to a prayer that our communities and nations would repent of our departure from the worship of the One True God. The Babylonians would have been far better off to confess their sins to the One True God than mocking Him by drinking from vessels stolen from His temple. They paid a high price for their lack of repentance. Let’s not repeat their mistake. ---- PRAYER OF CORPORATE CONFESSION (MARCUS) VK: We’d like to remind our audience that a lot of our radio episodes are linked together in series of topics so if they missed any episodes or if they just want to hear one again, all of these episodes are available on your favorite podcast app. To find them just search on “Anchored by Truth by Crystal Sea Books.” If you’d like to hear more, try out crystalseabooks.com where “We’re not perfect but our Boss is!” (Bible Quote from the Contemporary English Version) Daniel, Chapter 5, verse 7, Contemporary English Version

Archaeology Belshazzar (creation.com) Daniel 5 Barnes' Notes (biblehub.com)