Daniel 3:1

Nebuchadnezzar. No date is given for the events of this chapter. The name of the king is the only indication as to when these events occurred. The LXX and Theodotion’s Greek translation date the events in Nebuchadnezzar’s 18th year. Some scholars regard this as an interpolation. They reason that the translators believed that the colossal statue was erected to mark the final capture of Jerusalem. However, that city was not destroyed in Nebuchadnezzar’s 18th year, but rather in his 19th (2 Kings 25:8-10). The date 580 B.C., long given in the margin of the KJV, is derived from Ussher’s chronology (see Vol. I, pp. 179, 195) and has no adequate historical basis. Some commentators have even placed the narrative in the period following Nebuchadnezzar’s madness described in eh. 4, but this position is untenable, as will be shown.

This much is certain, the events narrated in this chapter occurred later than those of the 2d chapter, because eh. 3:12, 30 refers to eh. 2:49. Further, a comparison of Nebuchadnezzar’s addresses of praise in eh. 3:28, 29 and eh. 4:34-37 indicates that the king’s madness was a later event. Secular history is of no help in dating this event, since extra-Biblical records of that time nowhere mention the incident. However, a court almanac written in the year 570/569 B.C. excludes that year from consideration as a possible date and makes it highly improbable that the event had taken place recently. This almanac gives a list of all the highest state officials in office during that year. Neither Daniel nor his three friends are mentioned. Since the event described in Dan. 3 resulted in a promotion of the three Hebrews, and since it is unlikely that they were removed from office soon after their promotion — at least all three of them — a considerable time may have elapsed between the experience narrated in eh. 3 and the date of the court almanac.

The influence of the dream of eh. 2 on the events of eh. 3 (see PK 504, 505) strongly suggests that the events of eh. 3 cannot be dated in the latter part of Nebuchadnezzar’s reign. Some have suggested the date 594/593, for the following reasons: This date coincides with the 4th year of Zedekiah, who in that year made a journey to Babylon (Jer. 51:59). It is possible that the journey was undertaken in reply to the summons of Nebuchadnezzar that all his governors and vassal “rulers of the provinces” (Dan. 3:2) appear in Babylon to give homage to the image the king had erected. Zedekiah, a weak and vacillating character, would hardly be expected to have religious scruples such as made it impossible for Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego to obey the king’s command. However, the dating of this event in the time of Zedekiah is no more than a possibility. See further SL 27.

Why Daniel is not mentioned in the narrative is a question that cannot be answered. Whether he was ill or absent on an important mission cannot be known. Some have conjectured that because of embarrassment at having rejected the message of the dream, the king arranged to have Daniel away on important business for the crown. However, of one thing we may be certain: had the test come to him, Daniel would have stood as loyal as his three companions.

Image of gold. The image of ch. 2 represented Nebuchadnezzar’s kingdom by a golden head (v. 38). Not satisfied with this symbol, the king devised an image made of gold from the head to the feet, by which he desired to symbolize the perpetual and universal glory of his empire, and a kingdom that would not be followed by one of inferior quality.

Threescore cubits. The figures giving the measurements of the image witness to the use of the sexagesimal system (a system founded on the number 60) in Babylonia, a use attested also by cuneiform sources. The sexagesimal system of reckoning was an invention of the Babylonians. The system has certain advantages over the decimal system. For example, 60 is divisible evenly by 12 factors, whereas 100 is divisible evenly by only 9 factors. The system is still in use for certain measurements, such as of seconds, minutes, hours. It was therefore natural for the Babylonians to construct this image according to measurements of the sexagesimal system. The mentioning of this detail gives a true Babylonian color to the narrative.

Critics have pointed to the proportions of the image, 60 x 6 cu., about 87½ by 8¾ ft. (26.7 by 2.7 m.), as evidence of the legendary character of the story, because the proportions of the human figure are less than 5 to 1. However, we do not know the appearance of the image. It is quite possible that the human portion itself was less than half of the total height and stood on a pedestal 30 or more cu. high, so that the whole structure, pedestal and image, was 60 cu. high. The modern Statue of Liberty has a total height of 305 ft., but more than half of this is the pedestal; the human figure is only 111 ft. from heel to top of head. J. A. Montgomery observes that the Aramaic word selem, here translated “image,” is used in a 7th century B.C. Aramaic inscription from Nerab, near Aleppo, to describe a stele that is but partly sculptured. Only the top is decorated with the relief of the bust of a human body. Hence selem, “image,” is not limited to a description of a human figure or other likeness but may include a pedestal as well.

Parallels to this enormous image are easily found in history. Pausanias describes the Amyclean Apollo, a slender column provided with head, arms, and feet, in the human form. The so-called Colossi of Memnon at ancient Thebes in Upper Egypt, in reality representations of King Amenhotep III, were built of stone. The mins still stand, one being 65 ft. (19.8 m.) high. The best ancient parallel is perhaps the Colossus at Rhodes representing the god Helios. It was built from the war material left behind when Demetrius Poliorcetes raised his unsuccessful siege of the island in 305-04 B.C. The Colossus was 12 years in building. It was built of metal sheets covering a supporting framework, and reached a height of 70 cu., 10 cu. higher than Nebuchadnezzar’s image. About 225 B.C. an earthquake demolished the Colossus. It then lay in ruins for nearly 900 years, until the Saracens sold it for scrap metal. The Jew who purchased it broke it up and probably turned the metal back into war weapons.

Plain of Dura. The name of this plain survives in the name of a tributary of the Euphrates called Nahr Dura, which enters the Euphrates 5 mi. (8 km.) below Hilla. Some neighboring hills also bear the name Dura. According to a tradition current among the inhabitants of Iraq today, the events described in eh. 3 took place at Kirkuk, which is now the center of the Iraqi oil fields. The tradition may have originated because burning gases formerly escaped from fissures in the ground at several places in the area, also because great amounts of combustible material like oil and asphalt were found there. The tradition, of course, must be rejected. The incident occurred near Babylon. Dura lay “in the province of Babylon.”