Page 63 - Daniel

change in language highlights Daniel’s focus on “the times of the
Gentiles” that would exist from his day until God established His
messianic kingdom.

Critics have charged that Aramaic was not used in Daniel’s day. But
Kitchen states, concerning the “entire word-stock of Biblical Aramaic”
which is largely Daniel, that “nine-tenths of the vocabulary is attested in
10
texts of the fifth century B.C. or earlier.” Most of the findings have been
fifth century, as there is a scarcity of sixth-century B.C. texts; but, if
Daniel’s Aramaic was used in the fifth century, in all probability it was
also used in the sixth century B.C. Daniel’s critics appear to argue from a

priori assumptions, as the available materials make a sixth-century date
quite plausible.

The Chaldeans, eager to please Nebuchadnezzar, addressed him with
typical elaborate oriental courtesy, “O king, live forever” (cf. 1 Kings
1:31; Neh. 2:3; Dan. 3:9; 5:10; 6:21). They declared with confidence
that, if the king would tell them the dream, they would give the
interpretation.

In reply, the king states, “The word from me is firm.” As noted above,
it is most likely that Nebuchadnezzar had not forgotten his dream, as
traditionally thought. In the Septuagint (LXX), the Greek translation of the

Old Testament, this word with slight alterations is considered to be a
verb form meaning “is gone from me”—that is, the dream had been
forgotten. The verb could, however, also mean “gone forth” in the sense
of “I have decreed,” the meaning favored by many modern translations
such as the ESV quoted in this work. The Niv translates, “This is what I
have firmly decided.”

Still, the question of whether the king had actually forgotten his
dream cannot be determined with certainty. In favor of the idea that the

king had forgotten the dream would be the argument that he, anxious to
know its interpretation, would certainly have divulged it to the wise men
to see what they had to offer by way of interpretation.

There are, however, a number of reasons the king might have been
motivated to make this extreme demand of his counselors—for example,
in order to test their ability to have real contact with the gods and
divulge secrets. Also, Nebuchadnezzar was a young man (remember that