Daniel 1-3

[wolfpurplemoon]

Daniel starts with a scientific experiment to prove that a diet of fruit and vegetables is healthier than one of wine and royal meat delicacies. Unsurprisingly, those that eat the vegetarian diet are healthier than those eating the delicacies after 10 days. So after that everyone is given the veggie diet. Finally, something I can agree with the bible on.

Daniel and his friends from Judah are cleverer than all the other candidates for working for the king so they are all chosen to serve the king.

The king has a disturbing dream and demands that all the magicians and other wise men tell him what it means, I think we had this plot before. He orders that all the wise men should be killed because they say that only the gods can interpret dreams so they can't help him. They are saved because God tells Daniel what the king's dream meant in a dream, and for telling the king what the dream meant Daniel and his friends get a higher position in the king's household.

The King builds a big statue like he saw in his dream and makes everyone worship it, Daniel's friends refuse because it's against their religion. The king has them thrown into a furnace that kills the men who threw them in but doesn't kill the guys sentenced to death. This event convinces the king that their God is worth following so orders everyone to follow him under pain of death - getting tips from God there.

I've been away for a few days so I'm posting a few days worth of reading at once, sorry for the f-list spam!

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[zteccc.livejournal.com]

Daniel relates how some of the temple items came to be in Babylon. Daniel and a few others are chosen to become aides to the king of Babylon. The king wished for them to all eat as he did; Daniel and his friends decided to eat kosher food (following the covenant). This resulted in them being healthier than others in the court.
Daniel and his friends were educated and knew how to use their knowledge. Daniel could interpret dreams and visions.
They are trained and made advisors to the king. Daniels service lasted through the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, Amel-Marduk, Nergal-sharezer, Labashi-Marduk, Nabonidus and the beginning of the reign of Cyrus of Persia (about 60 years of service).

Nebuchadnezzar wants a nightmare interpreted. He tells his advisors that they must both tell him the dream that he had, and interpret it. If they do not, they and their household will be destroyed. They could not (because they had no idea what he dreamed). The king said that if he told them the dream, that they'd make up something to make him happy. The advisors said he was asking the impossible, only the gods could do this. The king then declared that all wise men would be put to death.
Daniel asked why this was happening and asked for a short delay. He then prayed to God and was given a vision of the dream and its meaning. Daniel then successfully told the king his dream and its meaning.
Daniel is then promoted to be chief wise man. Nebuchadnezzar acknowledges that God is higher than other gods (idols) and people.

Nebuchadnezzar builds a statue that everyone was to come and worship. The penalty for not worshiping the statue was death by immolation. Shadrach, Meschach and Abednego refused to worship the statue and so they were sentenced to die in the furnace. They responded that God can save them, but even if God chose not to they still believed and wouldn't worship Babylonian idols.
They were thrown into the furnace but were not consumed by the flames (although the guards who threw them in died from the heat). The king saw a fourth person in the furnace and all four were walking around. The fourth was described as looking like a god. Nebuchadnezzar called them back out and they bore no effects from the flame (not even a smell of smoke or scorched fabric).
Nebuchadnezzar is so impressed that he swears that they and their people will be protected and they are promoted.

[zteccc.livejournal.com]

A quick note: Biblical scholars largely agree that the book of Daniel was compiled well after the portrayed events, about 165BC. The purpose of the book was not a history, but a documentation of his prophecies (which were largely oral tradition and separate writings) and as a message of encouragement for the Jewish people who were suffering under the Seleucid empire at the time it was compiled. Some historical errors exist in the book as it was compiled well after knowledge of the precise events were lost.

[eagleisaiah.livejournal.com]

What are some of the historical errors the biblical scholars discussed?

[zteccc.livejournal.com]

The lineage of Babylonian and Persian kings is the biggest example.

Nebuchadnezzar II was the king of Babylon when Daniel's story begins. Later, Daniel reports that a king named Belshazzar was the last king of Babylon. History agrees with this, however the book of Daniel calls Nebuchadnezzar Belshazzar's father which is not correct. There were 3 kings between Nebuchadnezzar and Belshazzar's father, Nabonidus (Belshazzar ruled as regent under his father). Of course one can consider the reference to mean "ancestor" rather than father, but it appears that other historians around 200 BC made this same mistake and the author of Daniel probably drew from this source.

Similarly, Darius the Mede is referenced in the Book of Daniel as a king of the Persian Empire. Although there was a king Darius in Persia, he was not a Mede, the Medes at this time were subject to the Persians.

None of this is really important to the prophecies of Daniel, especially the ones that refer to Christ and even point to the beginning of Christ's ministry, however they aren't totally accurate histories.