An Atheist Explores the Bible Part 170: Vegetarian Diets, Fiery Furnaces and the Writing on the Wall (Daniel 1-5)

Daniel 1-5
Vegetarian Diets, Fiery Furnaces and the Writing on the Wall.

Welcome to another instalment of An Atheist Explores Sacred Texts (Bible version).

In this series I work my way chapter-by-chapter through the King James Bible, commenting on it from the point of view of the text as literature and mythology.

For more detail, see the introductory post http://bit.ly/2F8f9JT

For the online KJV I use, see here http://bit.ly/2m0zVUP

And now:

Daniel 1

“And the king spake unto Ashpenaz the master of his eunuchs, that he should bring certain of the children of Israel, and of the king's seed, and of the princes;”

Ah, now, Daniel. This will involves lions at some point, won’t it?

We jump back in time to Nabuchadnezzar’s initial conquest of Israel and Judah, and learn that he’s requested the best-looking and best-educated Israelite children to be brought to his court and raised and taught so that they can attend him. Of these, the best are Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, who are given new names of Belteshazzar; Shadrach; Meshach and Abednego respectively.

Daniel, however, refuses the meat and drink given to him by the king; the chief eunuch worries that this will get him into trouble with the king but still gives the four a diet of pulses and water for ten days, at the end of which they look healthier than the control cohort who stay on the meat and wine diet, and so they are allowed to eat as they will. Part of me wonders if the other three had much say in this, but possibly this is the earliest recommendation for a vegetarian/vegan diet?

Also, eyebrows are raised at “Now God had brought Daniel into favour and tender love with the prince of the eunuchs”. Did he now? I’m sure this was all entirely innocent and pure.

Daniel 2

“And in the second year of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar Nebuchadnezzar dreamed dreams, wherewith his spirit was troubled, and his sleep brake from him.”

I forgot to mention that at the end of the last chapter, the four Judeans had become better astrologers and dream-interpreters than the Babylonians, which becomes relevant here.

Nabuchadnezzar has a dream and sends for his wise men to interpret it. The trouble is, he’s forgotten the dream and so the wise men have to first tell him what it was before they can interpret it. This they can’t do, and so they are sentenced to death. Daniel meets the splendidly-named Arioch, captain of the guard, as he is carting the wise men off, and learns about the challenge of the king’s dream. He offers to help, and asks that the wise-men not be put to death if he succeeds. Luckily, of course, Daniel has God on his side, and God knows what goes on in men’s dreams.

Like Joseph before him, Daniel interprets the dreams of the ruler and is given high office (as are his friends). The dream turns out to be the statue with the feet of clay, but the interpretation is not, as I’d always taken it, that without a good foundation it doesn’t matter how splendid the rest of something is, it will not stand. Instead each section of the statue made from a different metal represents a kingdom – the golden head is Nabuchadnezzar’s current Babylon, the lower ones kingdoms to come until finally the feet of mixed clay and iron – not just clay – represent the kingdom of God – “And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever”. I can see why the more commonly accepted interpretation, in meaning akin to an Achilles heel, gained a foothold, this doesn’t … quite … fit as a description to me. But it worked for Daniel. I’m not sure in the end if all the wise-men are saved or if it’s only Daniel and his three friends. Maybe we shall see.

Daniel 3

“Nebuchadnezzar the king made an image of gold, whose height was threescore cubits, and the breadth thereof six cubits: he set it up in the plain of Dura, in the province of Babylon.”

Nabuchadnezzar builds a golden idol and commands that everyone should stop what they are doing and worship it whenever music sounds, and if they don’t they will be cast into a fiery furnace. Shadrach, Meshach and Abdenego all refuse and they are bought before Nabuchadnezzar. He asks them if they think that their God will save them – I like their answer, that they really don’t know but it doesn’t matter as they can’t, in all conscience, worship the gold idol.

So Nabuchadnezzar has the furnace stoked up extra hot, so hot in fact that the men who are to throw the three Israelites into it are burned just by coming close. And of course, the three are completely unscathed by the fires, and a fourth person, an angel of God who “is like the Son of God” is seen with them. So Nabuchadnezzar decrees instead that anyone who speaks against the God of the Israelites will be “cut in pieces, and their houses shall be made a dunghill”. Nothing like a good about-face. The three are also promoted. I have one question here – where’s Daniel in all this? Is he conveniently elsewhere?

The other thing I liked about this chapter was the rhetorical trick of giving the same list every time, so that every time the musical instruments are mentioned they are given in the full list – “the sound of the cornet, flute, harp, sackbut, psaltery, and dulcimer, and all kinds of musick”; it becomes a sort of pattern, akin to a folk tale or nursery rhyme. To a lesser extent the officials of Babylon get a similar treatment – “the princes, the governors, and captains, the judges, the treasurers, the counsellors, the sheriffs, and all the rulers of the provinces”. Note some evident anachronisms here. It’s unlikely that the Babylonians would have such an Anglo-Saxon post as a “sherriff”, i.e. shire reeve, nor would they likely have had sackbuts and dulcimers; here, evidently, the translator has gone for the style and rhythm over strict accuracy, and I think it works quite well.

Daniel 4

“While the word was in the king's mouth, there fell a voice from heaven, saying, O king Nebuchadnezzar, to thee it is spoken; The kingdom is departed from thee.”

The chapter starts with an exhortation to Nabuchadnezzar, and then switches to a poetic mode told from the point of view of the king. (As a side note, why, I wonder, is he –nezzar in Daniel and general usage, whereas he was –rezzar in Ezekiel? A simple bit of editing for consistency wouldn’t have gone amiss).

Anyway, Nabuchadnezzar has another dream and sends for Daniel to interpret it. The dream is of a great tree that shelters lots of birds and animals, and is very fruitful, but is cut down and the stump left to be watered by dew. Daniel interprets the tree as representing the king, who will be laid low, and made to eat grass like an ox and be “watered by the dew”, but after a time will be restored to his kingdom with a better understanding of the power of God.

Sure enough, this happens. Nabuchadnezzar, out for a walk and admiring his kingdom, is struck down and ends up living like a wild beast for a time – “seven times pass over” him, but what a “time” might be is unclear – days, years? Since his hair and nails grow long it must be a while, but at the end of it his reason returns to him and he is restored. This, to me, says a lot about absolute monarchy that the king can go mad for seven years and yet still keep his job.

There’s an evocative painting by Blake of this episode, and I’m sure some modern diagnosis could be made for the king’s condition – porphyria like George III perhaps, or clinical lycanthropy (I’ve seen Blake’s painting compared to mediaeval representations of werewolves), perhaps even a form of dementia.

Daniel 5

“Belshazzar the king made a great feast to a thousand of his lords, and drank wine before the thousand.”

So far, the book of Daniel is proving to be a rich seam for cultural references. This chapter is the source for “the writing on the wall”, and there’s also a folk group called “Belshazzar’s Feast”.

So Belshazzar, son of Nabuchadnezzar, is now king, and he holds a grand feast. He calls for the gold and silver that was plundered from the temple of Jerusalem so that his court can eat and drink from it, but when he does so a (disembodied?) hand writes some words on the wall. No-one can read them and Belshazzar is troubled, until the queen remembers Daniel who was able to interpret dreams and omens for the old king.

Daniel is bought forth, and he reads the words as “Mene mene tekel upharsin”, although his interpretation is only a single Mene, Tekel and Peres (I’m guessing at some kind of Hebrew grammar here that conjugates “Peres” into “Upharsin”), meaning, in effect, and to quote another well-known phrase, you have been weighed and measured and found wanting.

Daniel points out that God made the old king mad because of pride, but eventually restored him because Nabuchadnezzar learned humility. Belshazzar, however, has no humility and is doomed. Although this is bad news, the king still rewards Daniel with a third of the kingdom (even though Daniel initially refused rewards), but is shortly after killed by Darius the Mede, and the Chaldean kingdom is divided between the Medes and the Persians.