Bible Timeline · 605 BC

Babylon Takes Daniel

In 605 BC Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon took Daniel and other young nobles from Jerusalem. Daniel and his friends stayed faithful through the king's dream of a great statue, the fiery furnace and the lions' den.

Read it in the Bible: Daniel 1-3 Daniel 6 2 Kings 24:1 Daniel 7:13-14 Matthew 24:15

In 605 BC, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon came to Jerusalem and carried off some of its best young men, along with treasures from the temple. One of them was a teenager named Daniel. He would spend the rest of his long life in Babylon, serving pagan kings without ever giving up his God. His story, and the stories of his three friends in the fiery furnace, are some of the most loved in the Bible.

How Did Daniel End Up in Babylon?

In 605 BC, the Babylonians crushed Egypt at the battle of Carchemish. That made Babylon the new superpower. That same year, Nebuchadnezzar became king and swept down to Judah. King Jehoiakim became his servant.

In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim king of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came to Jerusalem and besieged it. And the Lord delivered into his hand Jehoiakim king of Judah, along with some of the articles from the house of God. He carried these off to the land of Shinar, to the house of his god, where he put them in the treasury of his god. Daniel 1:1 to 2

Daniel 1:1 calls this the third year of Jehoiakim, while Jeremiah 25:1 calls it the fourth year. Babylon and Judah counted a king's first year differently, so both can be right.

This was the first of three waves of exile. More people were taken in 597 BC, including the prophet Ezekiel, and the rest in 586 BC when Jerusalem fell.

Who Were Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego?

Babylon did not just take prisoners. It took the brightest young nobles and tried to turn them into Babylonians. They had to learn the language, eat the king's food, and even take new names that honored Babylon's gods.

Among these young men were some from Judah: Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. The chief official gave them new names: To Daniel he gave the name Belteshazzar; to Hananiah, Shadrach; to Mishael, Meshach; and to Azariah, Abednego. Daniel 1:6 to 7

Daniel drew a line at the food. He asked for ten days on vegetables and water. At the end, he and his friends looked healthier than everyone else. God gave the four young men wisdom far beyond their training. Daniel shows you can live in a culture without letting it swallow you.

What Was Nebuchadnezzar's Dream of the Statue?

In Daniel 2, Nebuchadnezzar had a dream that troubled him so much he demanded his wise men tell him both the dream and what it meant, or die. Only Daniel could. The king had seen a giant statue with a head of gold, chest of silver, belly of bronze, legs of iron, and feet of iron mixed with clay. Then a stone cut out without hands smashed the statue and grew into a mountain that filled the earth.

Daniel said the gold head was Babylon. The other metals were kingdoms to come. The traditional Christian view sees them as Persia, Greece and Rome. Many scholars read them as Media, Persia and Greece. Both agree on the main point.

In the days of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed, nor will it be left to another people. It will shatter all these kingdoms and bring them to an end, but will itself stand forever. Daniel 2:44

Christians have always seen that stone as the kingdom of Jesus, which started small and is filling the world.

What Happened in the Fiery Furnace?

In Daniel 3, Nebuchadnezzar set up a gold statue about ninety feet tall and ordered everyone to bow down when the music played. Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego refused. Their answer to the king is one of the bravest speeches in the Bible.

If the God whom we serve exists, then He is able to deliver us from the blazing fiery furnace and from your hand, O king. But even if He does not, let it be known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the golden statue you have set up.” Daniel 3:17 to 18

The king heated the furnace seven times hotter and had them thrown in. Then he saw four men walking around in the fire, and the fourth looked like a son of the gods. They came out without even the smell of smoke on them. Many Christians believe the fourth man was the Son of God Himself, who meets His people in the fire.

What Happened in the Lions' Den?

By Daniel 6, Babylon had fallen to the Medes and Persians, and Daniel was an old man, likely in his eighties. Jealous officials tricked King Darius into signing a law that no one could pray to anyone but the king for thirty days. Daniel's response was simply to keep doing what he always did.

Now when Daniel learned that the document had been signed, he went into his house, where the windows of his upper room opened toward Jerusalem, and three times a day he got down on his knees, prayed, and gave thanks to his God, just as he had done before. Daniel 6:10

He was thrown to the lions. In the morning, the king rushed to the den, and Daniel called out that God had shut the lions' mouths. Hebrews 11:33 remembers those who by faith shut the mouths of lions.

In between, Daniel saw Nebuchadnezzar humbled and restored in chapter 4, and he read the handwriting on the wall for Belshazzar in chapter 5. The article on the exile in Babylon covers that famous night.

When Was the Book of Daniel Written?

This is one of the biggest debates about any book of the Bible. The events run from 605 BC to about 536 BC. The traditional view is that Daniel himself wrote the book in the 500s BC. In chapters 7 to 12 he speaks as I.

Many modern scholars date the book to about 167 to 164 BC. Their main reason is that the prophecies in chapter 11 about the Greek kings, especially Antiochus IV, are so detailed that they think they were written during those events.

Those who hold the traditional date point out that Jesus called him the prophet Daniel in Matthew 24:15, Ezekiel named Daniel as a righteous man in Ezekiel 14:14, and copies of Daniel were found among the Dead Sea Scrolls. They also note that the book fits the 500s well. For years critics said Belshazzar never existed. Then cuneiform records showed he was the son of King Nabonidus and ruled Babylon while his father was away. That explains why Belshazzar could only offer Daniel the third highest place in the kingdom in Daniel 5:29.

Even on the latest date, Daniel was written more than 150 years before Jesus. The Owner's Manual has a full page on When Was Daniel Written? in Daniel that lays out both sides.

What Does Daniel Mean for You Today?

Daniel was written to God's people living as a small, pushed around minority. That still fits a lot of believers. Daniel shows how to serve faithfully in a place that does not share your faith. Be excellent at your work. Draw clear lines. Pray anyway.

Above all, Daniel points to Jesus. In Daniel 7:13 to 14, Daniel saw One like the Son of Man coming with the clouds and receiving a kingdom that will never end. Son of Man was the title Jesus used for Himself more than any other. The stone that smashes the empires is His kingdom, and it is still growing.

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Questions People Ask

When was Daniel taken to Babylon?

Daniel was taken to Babylon in 605 BC, in the first wave of exile after Nebuchadnezzar defeated Egypt at Carchemish. He was probably a teenager. Later waves of exile followed in 597 and 586 BC.

What were Daniel's friends' names?

Their Hebrew names were Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah. The Babylonians renamed them Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. Daniel was given the name Belteshazzar.

Who was the fourth man in the fiery furnace?

Nebuchadnezzar said the fourth man looked like a son of the gods, and later called him God's angel. Many Christians believe it was the Son of God appearing before He was born as Jesus. Others see it as an angel. Either way, God was with them in the fire.

When was the book of Daniel written?

The traditional view is that Daniel wrote it in the 500s BC. Many modern scholars date it to about 167 to 164 BC because of its detailed prophecies about Antiochus IV. Copies were found in the Dead Sea Scrolls, so even the latest date is well before Jesus.

Sources

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