Changes

==Last years of Nabonidus==

==Last years of Nabonidus==

The [[Nabonidus Chronicle]] relates that in the final battles with the forces under Cyrus, Nabonidus, who apparently was defending Sippar, fled from the forces of Cyrus.<ref>''ANET'', 306b.</ref> Neither Nabonidus nor Cyrus were present at Babylon when Cyrus’s  generals Gadatas and Gobryas (Ugbaru) took the city, Cyrus entering seventeen days later.<ref>Ibid.</ref> Nabonidus therefore was not killed when the city fell, but his son Belshazzar was slain on the very night the city was captured, according to Xenophon’s ''Cyropaedia'' (7.5.26–30) and Daniel 5:31. Xenophon (7.5.15) and Herodotus (''Histories'' 1.191.6) also mention that it was at a time of festival that the city was taken, again in agreement with the book of Daniel (Daniel 5:1).  

 

The ''Nabonidus Chronicle'' relates that in the final battles with the forces under Cyrus, Nabonidus, who apparently was defending Sippar, fled from the forces of Cyrus.<ref>''ANET'', 306b.</ref> Neither Nabonidus nor Cyrus were present at Babylon when Cyrus’s  generals Gadatas and Gobryas (Ugbaru) took the city, Cyrus entering seventeen days later.<ref>Ibid.</ref> Nabonidus therefore was not killed when the city fell, but his son Belshazzar was slain on the very night the city was captured, according to Xenophon’s ''Cyropaedia'' (7.5.26–30) and Daniel 5:31. Xenophon (7.5.15) and Herodotus (''Histories'' 1.191.6) also mention that it was at a time of festival that the city was taken, again in agreement with the book of Daniel (Daniel 5:1).  

Josephus, citing Berossus, relates that after he was defeated by the forces of Cyrus, Nabonidus “was humanely treated by Cyrus, who dismissed him from Babylonia, but gave him Carmania for his residence.”<ref>Josephus, ''Against Apion'' 1.153).</ref> Carmania was a province in Iran, roughly equivalent to the modern province of Kerman. An extract from Eusebius that has survived only in an Armenian translation also cites the same passage in Berossus, but adds to it: “(But) Darius the king took away some of his province for himself.”<ref>Josef Karst, ed., ''Die Chronik aus dem Armenischen übersetzt mit textkritischem Commentar'', vol. 5 of ''Eusebius Werke'' (Leipzig: J. C. Hinrichs, 1911), 246.</ref> The timeframe is the time of the defeat of Nabonidus, not the time of Darius I Hystapses (522–486 BC), so that the eminent nineteenth-century commentators Hengstenberg, Keil, and Zökler used this to show that there was a Darius before Darius Hystapses, namely Daniel’s “[[Darius the Mede]]”.<ref>E. W. Hengstenberg, ''Dissertations on the Genuineness of Daniel and the Integrity of Zechariah'' (trans. B. P. Pratten; Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1848), 40–43.</ref><ref>C. F. Keil, ''Biblical Commentary on the Book of Daniel'', in ''Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament'' (trans. M. G. Easton; Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1872; repr., Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1955), 198.</ref><ref>Otto Zöckler, ''The Book of the Prophet Daniel: Theologically and Homiletically Expounded'', trans. and ed. by James Strong, in John Peter Lange, ''Commentary on the Holy Scriptures: Critical, Doctrinal and Homiletical'' (12 vols.; ed. & trans. Philip Schaff; Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1960), 7.35–36.</ref>

Josephus, citing Berossus, relates that after he was defeated by the forces of Cyrus, Nabonidus “was humanely treated by Cyrus, who dismissed him from Babylonia, but gave him Carmania for his residence.”<ref>Josephus, ''Against Apion'' 1.153).</ref> Carmania was a province in Iran, roughly equivalent to the modern province of Kerman. An extract from Eusebius that has survived only in an Armenian translation also cites the same passage in Berossus, but adds to it: “(But) Darius the king took away some of his province for himself.”<ref>Josef Karst, ed., ''Die Chronik aus dem Armenischen übersetzt mit textkritischem Commentar'', vol. 5 of ''Eusebius Werke'' (Leipzig: J. C. Hinrichs, 1911), 246.</ref> The timeframe is the time of the defeat of Nabonidus, not the time of Darius I Hystapses (522–486 BC), so that the eminent nineteenth-century commentators Hengstenberg, Keil, and Zökler used this to show that there was a Darius before Darius Hystapses, namely Daniel’s “[[Darius the Mede]]”.<ref>E. W. Hengstenberg, ''Dissertations on the Genuineness of Daniel and the Integrity of Zechariah'' (trans. B. P. Pratten; Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1848), 40–43.</ref><ref>C. F. Keil, ''Biblical Commentary on the Book of Daniel'', in ''Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament'' (trans. M. G. Easton; Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1872; repr., Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1955), 198.</ref><ref>Otto Zöckler, ''The Book of the Prophet Daniel: Theologically and Homiletically Expounded'', trans. and ed. by James Strong, in John Peter Lange, ''Commentary on the Holy Scriptures: Critical, Doctrinal and Homiletical'' (12 vols.; ed. & trans. Philip Schaff; Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1960), 7.35–36.</ref>

 

==Resources==

==Resources==

*[https://babylonian-collection.yale.edu/sites/default/files/files/YNER%2010%20-%20Beaulieu%20-%20The%20Reign%20of%20Nabonidus%20King%20of%20Babylon%20556-549%20BC%20(1989).pdf] Paul-Alain Beaulieu, ''The Reign of Nabonidus, King of Babylon 556–539 B.C. '' (New Haven CT: Yale University Press, 1989).  

*[https://babylonian-collection.yale.edu/sites/default/files/files/YNER%2010%20-%20Beaulieu%20-%20The%20Reign%20of%20Nabonidus%20King%20of%20Babylon%20556-549%20BC%20(1989).pdf] Paul-Alain Beaulieu, ''The Reign of Nabonidus, King of Babylon 556–539 B.C. '' (New Haven CT: Yale University Press, 1989).