Page 158 - Daniel

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Daniel in the Lions’ Den

he account of Daniel being cast into the lions’ den is one of the
Tmost familiar stories of the Old Testament. The fact that such an
event should be given the same amount of space in Scripture as the
panoramic view of world history in chapter 7 leads to the conclusion
that, from God’s viewpoint, this was an important event not only for

Daniel but all students of Scripture.
Structurally, Daniel 6 parallels Daniel 3 within the large chiasm that
defines the Aramaic section of the book. In both chapters God’s followers

are challenged by a decree of the king, but resolve to remain faithful
even when threatened with death. God miraculously intervenes to
deliver His followers, and the king is forced to acknowledge God’s
superiority as a result. The chapters serve as reminders to God’s people
of the need to remain faithful as they wait for God to establish His
promised kingdom (chapters 2 and 7).

From the standpoint of biblical scholarship, however, more attention
has been directed to Darius the Mede, the king of Babylon at this time,
than to the events of the chapter itself. The reason is that much of the

critical unbelief in relation to the book of Daniel is based on what is
claimed to be an obvious historical error—that history allows no room
for a person by this name. The alleged error is another important
argument used to prove a second-century date for Daniel, at which time
the true facts of four hundred years before would be obscure.

H. H. Rowley, who has written one of the most important scholarly
studies on this question, begins his work by stating, “The references to
Darius the Mede in the book of Daniel have long been recognized as
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providing the most serious historical problem in the book.” The
problem to which he refers is that the book of Daniel states that Darius
the Mede, at the age of sixty-two, received the kingdom after the death
of Belshazzar (Dan. 5:31) and was “the son of Ahasuerus, by descent a