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Chapter 2: During the second year of the reign of Nabuchodonosor,
the king had a dream (Problem of second year explained above). He called all the wise men, including the "Chaldeans". The word has two meanings 1) members of that nation 2) a special class of astrologer-soothsayers. The king demands that they tell him what dream he had and then interpret it. They were unable, and said no king had ever asked such a thing. If they had the picture of the dream, they could devise something, and the king knew it. Being a real tyrant, the king said he would have them torn apart - no metaphor In the most literal way of understanding the expression 'You shall be made into limbs", the arms and legs would be tied to four trees near each other, with the tops of the trees roped together. When the upper rope would be released, the trees would spring back literally tearing the victim to pieces. Or, they might be hacked to pieces with swords and axes. So the king ordered that it be done to them, including Daniel and associates. The reason: they had claimed special powers, but now were proved to be fakes. When Daniel heard of it he asked to see Arioch, the king's captain, and got him to beg a bit of time from the king. Daniel and his friends then prayed. Then he went to the king and said he could interpret the dream, not by his own power, but by the power and wisdom of God. Daniel told the king that he, the king, had begun to think of "days to come".- this expression first appears in Gen 49.1 at the start of the prophecy made by Jacob. It also occurs in Dt. 4.30, in 31.39, in Is 2.2, Ezek 38.16 and in Dan 10.14. In his dream, the king had seen a giant statue, terrible to behold. The head was gold, standing for the power of Nabuchodonosor. Obviously, the first king, the golden head, is the Babylonian kingdom. Then other kingdoms: breast and arms of silver, belly and thighs of bronze, and legs of iron with its feet part iron, part clay. The mixture foretells a mixed people which would not hold up because of the mixture of iron and clay- which do not blend. Perhaps there would be an alliance by marriage, which would not last. After that would come another kingdom that will never be destroyed. For a rock cut out of a mountain, without human hands, would break the previous kingdoms to pieces, the gold, silver, and bronze and iron. The stone that was cut out without hands would stand forever. The second and third kingdoms could be Medio-Persian and Alexander <It is also clear that the stone that filled the earth is the messianic kingdom (cannot be Jews, who never did get such power, last forever so the stone is Jesus, cut from the mountain, the Rock which is God (often called Rock in OT) He is cut out without hands stands for virginal conception and birth.> <What then is the 4th kingdom?> Many have been tempted to see the 4th kingdom as Rome, so it may connect in time with the messianic kingdom, which comes after it. But gaps in time in things that at first sight seem continuous common enough- cf. Isaiah on death of sennacherib in cap 37 and Luke on return to Nazareth) But we must note that the feet standing for that kingdom are part pottery, part iron - which do not mix. This hardly fits the strong power of Rome. <Many interpreters take the four to be: Babylonian, Median, Persian, and Hellenistic kingdoms after the death of Alexander. We observe: if one follows that view, then there is a Median kingdom before the Persian, which would imply that Darius the Mede, who in 6:1 took Babylon, is a historical figure. Most writers say Darius is fictitious, that Cyrus of Persia conquered Babylon>. If so, we would say the edifying narrative genre could account for the matter. However, we must add that the Jewish historian, Flavius Josephus, in his Antiquities, 10, 245-49 (xi.4) does report that there was a Darius the Mede, a kinsman, who would have ruled for Cyrus for a time while Cyrus was occupied with other things. Such an action would be quite in character with the known policies of Cyrus. |