Wenstrom Bible Ministries Marion, Iowa Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom wenstrom

1. Wenstrom Bible MinistriesMarion, IowaPastor-Teacher Bill Wenstromwww.wenstrom.org

2. Wednesday January 18, 2012Daniel: Daniel 1:21-Daniel’s Life Spanned The Entire Period Of The Neo-Babylonian Empire And The Early Years Of The Persian EmpireLesson # 24

3. Please turn in your Bibles to Daniel 1:21.

4. Daniel 1:21 reveals that Daniel’s life spanned not only the entire Neo-Babylonian Empire but also the early years of the Persian Empire.

5. Daniel 1:21 And Daniel continued until the first year of Cyrus the king. (NASB95)

6. This verse is composed of the conjunction wa (וְ) (waw), “and” and this is followed by the third person masculine singular qal active imperfect form of the verb hā∙yā(h) (הָיָה) (haw-yaw), “continued” and then we have the masculine singular proper noun dā∙niy∙yē(ʾ)l (דָּנִיֵּאל) (daw-nee-yale), “Daniel”

7. and this is followed by the preposition ʿǎḏ (עַד) (ad), “until” and its object is the feminine singular construct form of the noun šā∙nā(h) (שָׁנָה) (shaw-neh), “the year” which is modified by the feminine singular form of the cardinal number ʾě∙ḥāḏ (אֶחָד) (ekh-aw), “first”

8. and then we have the preposition lĕ (לְ) (lamed), “of” and its object is the masculine singular form of the proper noun kô∙rěš (כֹּורֶשׁ) (ko-resh), “Cyrus” and then lastly we have the articular masculine singular form of the noun mě∙lěḵ (מֶלֶךְ) (meh-lek), “the king.”

9. The conjunction wa is used in a transitional sense meaning that it is introducing a statement that marks a transition from the account in verses 17-20 to a statement here in verse 21 which records the length of Daniel’s career.

10. In verse 21, the conjunction wa is introducing a summary statement which indicates that Daniel’s life spanned from the period of the Neo-Babylonian period as well as the early years of the Persian Empire.

11. Thus, in verse 21, the conjunction wa is introducing a statement that marks a transition from the account of God rewarding Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah for their faithfulness to a summary statement that indicates that Daniel’s life spanned from the period of the Neo-Babylonian period as well as the early years of the Persian Empire.

12. The word is marking a transition from a discussion regarding Nebuchadnezzar’s opinion of Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah to a summary statement regarding the length of Daniel’s career in Babylon.

13. The verb hā∙yā(h) means “to live” referring to living in a particular place, which in our context refers to Daniel living in Babylon.

14. The imperfect tense of the verb denotes Daniel continuing to live throughout the Neo-Babylon period until the first year of the reign of Cyrus, the king of Persia as occurring in the past from Daniel’s perspective, who is writing this book under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.

15. The noun šā∙nā(h) means “year” referring to a unit of time involving a complete cycle of seasons, spring, summer, fall and winter.

16. This word is modified by the cardinal number ʾě∙ḥāḏ, which means “one” referring to one complete cycle of seasons, spring, summer, fall and winter.

17. The noun šā∙nā(h) is the object of the preposition ʿǎḏ, which denotes a continuous extent of time up to a point.

18. It is a temporal marker indicating that something occurs up to the time indicated by its object or sometimes during the time indicated by its object.

19. Here it marks Daniel as living throughout the Neo-Babylonian up to the first year of Cyrus, king of Persia.

20. The proper noun kô∙rěš means “Cyrus” referring to Cyrus II the ruler of the Persian Empire in Daniel’s day.

21. In 539 B.C. Cyrus overthrew Babylon and established the Medo-Persian Empire.

22. This was Cyrus’ first year in control of Babylon.

23. His policy was to restore displaced peoples to their lands, which included the Jews.

24. He issued a decree in 538 B.C. that permitted Jews to return to Jerusalem if they wanted to (2 Chronicles 36:22-23; Ezra 1:1-4).

25. Fifty thousand Jewish exiles returned and began to rebuild the temple, which was an answer to Daniel’s prayer (Daniel 9:4-19).

26. The temple was completed in 515 B.C. (Ezra 6:15).

27. Seventy years had elapsed from the first deportation of Jews in 605 B.C. to the rebuilt foundation of the temple in 536 B.C.

28. This fulfilled Jeremiah’s prophecy as well (Jeremiah 25:11-12).

30. Daniel chapter one concludes with a statement regarding the length of Daniel’s career.

31. It says clearly that he continued to live in Babylon until the first year of the Persian king, Cyrus.

32. Critics of the Bible pounce on this statement and claim the Bible is in error because of the statement in Daniel 10:1, which states that revelation was given to Daniel in the third year of Cyrus.

33. However, this is not in error since a comparison of these two statements simply reveals that Daniel lived beyond the first year of Cyrus.

34. The point of the statement in Daniel 1:21 is to emphasize that Daniel’s life spanned the entire period of the Neo-Babylonian Empire as well as the early years of the Persian control of Babylon.

35. The statement in Daniel 1:21 does not imply that Daniel did not continue after the first year of Cyrus, which Daniel 10:1 says he did.

36. Undoubtedly during Daniel’s period of service to the Babylonian kings, he would have been instrumental in helping to lessen the sufferings of the Jewish people in Babylon.

37. He more than likely promoted the prosperity of these Jewish exiles under Babylonian kings until Cyrus the Persian made Babylon a part of his empire in 539 B.C., which is sixty-five years after Babylon’s empire was established.

38. Daniel was in his mid-eighties when Cyrus made Babylon a part of his empire.

39. He lived to see the prophecy of Jeremiah concerning the seventy years of exile fulfilled and thus saw the exiles returning to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple.