William H. Sheaa
The first chapter of Daniel tells how Daniel and his three friends were exiled from Judah to Babylon. The year was 605 BC and this was the first of Nebuchadnezzar’s three campaigns against Judah. Hostages were taken from the upper class and nobility of Jerusalem and Daniel and his three friends found themselves among them. Upon arrival in Babylon they were enrolled in a course of training for civil servants. In order to enroll them as students, the Babylonians under whom they studied gave them all Babylonian names. While some of the names included names of Babylonian gods, we need not see a deep theological plot in this. It was merely the normal way in which Babylonians gave names and they undoubtedly did it for many captives from many different lands, not just Hebrews from Judah.
At the end of their course the four Hebrews stood before the king and passed their oral examinations with flying colors. As a consequence they were given important government posts. After they passed the trial by fire described in Daniel 3 they were promoted to even more prominent positions. That being the case, and in view of the large number of tablets that have been excavated from this period in Babylon, one might expect to find a reference to these individuals, either by their Babylonian names or their Hebrew names. As it turns out, that does indeed appear to be the case.
Hanunu/Hananiah
My interest in this subject was initially stimulated by a comment which I noted in a book by A.L. Oppenheim. In his work Ancient Mesopotamia: Portrait of a Dead Civilization, he has a section which deals with commerce and trade. There he made the observation,
It is certainly no accident that the rab tamkari, “chief trader,” was a high official at the court of the Babylonian kings, an office which was held under Nebuchadnezzar II by a man called Hanunu, i.e., Hanno, a typical Phoenician name.
It is clear that Hanunu was not a native Babylonian because he does not bear a Babylonian name. The verbal root hanan, which means “to be gracious,” does not occur in the Babylonian language. It does occur, on the other hand, in the West Semitic languages which were spoken and written in Syro-Palestine. This included Phoenicia and the Phoenicians had a strong reputation for being good businessmen. Thus, Oppenheim’s estimate that Hanunu might have been a Phoenician was a reasonable one. As I looked at that comment, however, I asked the question, “how does one know that Hanunu was a Phoenician and not a Hebrew?” The
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When Jerusalem was captured in 597 B.C. by Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon, he took the upper classes of society into captivity. They were transported from Jerusalem, near the Mediterranean coast, through Syria and northern Mesopotamia, to Babylon in southern Mesopotamia, a journey of some 1,000 miles. Among the captives were Daniel, Hananiah,
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Mishael and Azariah, young men “in whom was no blemish, but well favored, and skillful in all wisdom, and cunning in knowledge, and understanding science, and such as had ability in them to stand in the king’s palace, and whom they might teach the learning and the tongue of the Chaldeans” (Dn 1:4).
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same verbal root was used for personal names in Hebrew as well, so he could just as well have been a Hebrew. Then it occurred to me that this name is very close to one of the personal names of Daniel’s friends, Hananiah.
The only difference between the name of Hanunu and the name Hananiah, aside from the minor matter of vocalization, is the fact that one name ends with the divine name of –iah or Yah, the short form of the name of Yahweh (Jehovah in the KJV and ASV). But this is not an obstacle to equating these two men. In the Hebrew Bible we encounter by-forms of this name in which it was spelled both with and without the divine element. This occurs in Nehemiah 7:2, for example, where Nehemiah refers to his brother by both the short form Hanani and the long form Hananiah. (Older translations have confused the fact that only one person is referred to by incorrectly making the two names into two different persons.)
A reasonable hypothesis then, is to connect the Babylonian reference to a person by that name known to have been exiled there, rather than invoking an otherwise unknown Phoenician. At the very least this reference shows that Hananiah’s name was known as that of a Babylonian official at the time he was exiled there and it clearly belonged to a foreigner like Hananiah.
Ardi-Nabu/Abednego
Finding one of Daniel’s friends in a Babylonian text encouraged me to look further. One of the names in Daniel 1 stands out as quite prominent — Abednego. This name was given to Daniel’s friend Azariah. The first part of the name is the Hebrew word for servant. Servant-type names commonly named the person or deity who was served. For example, the name Ebed-Melek in Jeremiah 38 and 39 means “servant of the king.” Here in Daniel 1 the name means “servant of Nego.” For polytheistic Babylonians any one of their god-names could have been utilized in such a name. But, as commentaries have long noted, there is no god named Nego. There is, however, a very common, important and popular god named Nebo or Nabu. The difference between the two names is one letter. It appears that one derived from the other, Nego from Nabu, simply by the accidental or intentional shift in one letter (g and b). I would suggest that Daniel did this intentionally to prevent the name of a Babylonian god being attached to one of his Yahwistic friends.
A bit of translation also appears to have been employed to suit Hebrew readers. The Babylonian word for servant is Ardu or Ardi, whereas the Hebrew word is Abed or Ebed. When understood in this way, Hebrew Abed-Nego is the direct equivalent of Babylonian Ardi-Nabu, “servant of Nabu.”
The reason why Ardi-Nabu is of interest as the original Babylonian form of Abed-Nego’s name is because it shows up in the very same text as that in which the name of Hanunu the trader showed up. This long list is known as the Istanbul Prism of Nebuchadnezzar since it is located in the museum of Istanbul today. It is a list of officials whom Nebuchadnezzar
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installed in the course of his kingship. The list is preceded by three columns of text which praise Nebuchadnezzar’s personal and national god Marduk. No date is given in the text.
Ardi-Nabu shows up as the scribe or secretary of Amel-Marduk, Nebuchadnezzar’s son and crown prince. Amel-Marduk became king when Nebuchadnezzar died, but was assassinated after only two years in office. It is interesting to note that he is mentioned in the Bible, where his name appears as Evil-Merodach. He dealt kindly with Jehoiachin, who was in captivity in Babylon at the time:
In the 37th year of the exile of Jehoiachin king of Judah, in the 12th month, on the 27th day of the month, Evil-Merodach king of Babylon, in the year that he began to reign, graciously freed Jehoiachin king of Judah from prison; and he spoke kindly to him, and gave him a seat above the seats of the kings who were with him in Babylon. (2 Kgs 25:27–28)
Not only was Evil-Merodach gracious to Jehoiachin in freeing him from prison, or house arrest, but he favored him above all the other captive kings. Why was Jehoiachin singled out in this way? If we look at the Istanbul Prism, we see that when Evil-Merodach was crown prince he had a secretary whose name matched that of one of Daniel’s friends, Abed-Nego. It is quite possible, therefore, that Evil-Merodach had a secretary who was one of the exiled Hebrews, a friend of Daniel. If so, then Abed-Nego may have had some influence upon Evil-Merodach which resulted in his kind treatment of Jehoichin. This provides a plausible explanation for this action, which otherwise would appear quite unusual.
I have not yet found a good correspondence for the Hebrew or Babylonian name of Daniel’s third friend, Mishael, named Meshak by the Babylonians. There is a man in the list known as Mushallim-Marduk. He served as over-seer of the female slaves in the royal palace. One could get Meshak out of this by dropping off the last half of the first word and the first half of the last element in his name, which would leave us with Mush[allim-Mard]uk, revocalizing Mushuk to Meshak. This remains a possibility, but it is not as good a correspondence as Hanunu or Ardi-Nabu. Thus far, therefore, we can say that we have found two individuals whose names fit those of Daniel’s friends well, and one who is a possibility.
Belshazzar/Belteshazzar
We come now to the final question in dealing with these names. What about Daniel himself? To explore this question, we need to look for either one of his names. His Babylonian name was Belteshazzar. The very close resemblance between this name and that of the king (coregent) Belshazzar who appears in Daniel 5 is readily apparent. As can be seen from a comparison between the two, there is only one letter different, both in English and in Hebrew. That one letter is a strong t known as a ṭeth and represented with a dotted t or ṭ In Hebrew this is not the same letter as the plain t and that distinction is important. The reason is because of what it makes this sentence-name say.
Belshazzar’s name consisted of three elements, Bel-shar-uṣur. The final element uṣur, comes from a verb which means “to guard, protect.” The middle element is the noun for “king,” and the initial element, Bel, is the title meaning “lord,” which refers to Marduk as the lord and great god of Babylon. Thus the whole name means “may Bel (=Marduk) protect the king.” Daniel’s Babylonian name of Belteshazzar should mean the same thing with whatever minor modification the ṭ in the name indicates. In fact, Nebuchadnezzar himself attested
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to the fact that Daniel was named after “his god” Marduk (Dn 4:8). But that is where the problem comes in. If this were the normal t instead of ṭ, it could well be a feminine ending on the word for lord, which would then mean “(divine) mistress.” This could be a reference to any one of the chief goddesses of the Babylonian pantheon. But that is not the kind of t that Daniel has written in his Babylonian name. It is a ṭ or ṭeth instead of t or taw. The ṭeth makes no sense at all.
If we look at the similar example of the name Ardi-Nabu/Abed-Nego, we see that the name was changed in the Biblical text by altering one letter in the name of the god. If Daniel did that for the name of one of his friends, then he could just as well have done it for his own Babylonian name. Not wishing to carry the name of Bel as a tribute and reference to Marduk, Daniel altered his name by inserting one additional letter. That additional letter made the name nonsensical, thus nullifying the polythestic thrust of the originally pagan name the Babylonians gave to him.
If we reduce Daniel’s name to its normal Babylonian form, we find that he carried the same name as did the last king (coregent) who ruled there. This resulted in an ironic situation in Daniel 5 when Daniel was called in to interpret the writing on the wall. One Belshazzar was face to face with another Belshazzar! It is interesting to note that in this scene, the king addressed Daniel by his Hebrew name rather than his Babylonian name. In contrast, Daniel’s Babylonian name was used by a Babylonian official (2:26), Nebuchadnezzar (4:8, 9, 18, 19) and Belshazzar’s queen (5:12). This may be an indication that Belshazzar did not wish to use a name identical to his own when speaking to Daniel.
The Hebrew Belshazzar had come as an inspired wiseman in the service of the true God to tell the Babylonian Belshazzar that his Bel or “lord” Mardkuk could no longer protect him. His kingdom was due to come to an end that very night, at the hands of the Medes and Persians. At that very moment, in fact, they were entering the city by way of the dry river bed, after having diverted the river.
With Daniel’s Babylonian name identified, we may now look for him under the more proper Babylonian form of that name, Belshazzar. In such a search we must rule out all texts which refer to Belshazzar that can be connected with the son of Nabonidus who ruled over Babylon as coregent with his father. After those texts have been set aside, there are not many to look at. The reason for this is that Belshazzar was not a common Babylonian name. Thus we stand a better chance of finding Daniel, since there were fewer individuals using that name.
It so happens that there are two texts referring to a Belshazzar who does not appear to be the son of Nabonidus. One comes from the reign of Amel-Marduk who has already been mentioned above. The other comes from very early in the reign of Neriglissar, who ruled immediately after Amel-Marduk. These two texts clearly refer to the same individual, for they come from the same time and he carries the same title in both. The title is shaqu (or resh), which literally means
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Restored entrance to Nebuchadnezzar’s Southern Palace at Babylon.
“head of the king,” or “chief officer of the king.” He was the king’s chief personal official, head of all other officials of the palace. This Belshazzar appears too early and in too high a post to be Nabonidus’ son. He must be another Belshazzar, quite possibly Daniel himself.
It is important to note precisely when this man served in the Babylonian government. The first text dates to the second year of Amel-Marduk, or 560 BC. It is currently in the Yale Babylonian collection and was published in 1929 by R.P. Daugherty. The other text is the earliest text from the accession period of Neriglissar, hence it dates to late in that same year of 560 BC. This tablet is located in the museum of Florence, Italy, and it was published by K. Oberhuber in 1960.
We have mentioned above how favorable Amel-Marduk/Evil-Merodach was to Jehoiachin. It was also suggested that he may have favored him because of the influence of his secretary. Abed-Nego. If Amel-Marduk had one Hebrew in his official governmental service, and was favorably impressed with him, it would have been logical for him to have employed another Hebrew. It is also of interest that Belshazzar disappears immediately from the government scene when the next king came to the throne. Neriglissar was the one who was responsibile for having Amel-Marduk executed, taking the throne after the deed was done. Quite naturally he would have desired to change the cadre of officials who surrounded the previous king. That Daniel occupied a lesser position 20 years later in 539 BC is clear from Daniel 5. When Daniel was summoned to interpret the writing on the wall, Belshazzar appears not to recognize him at all (Dn 5:13–14).
It would have been nice if these two
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texts told us something more about Belshazzar beyond his name, title and date of activity. But even this is important information. Under Nebuchadnezzar, Daniel had the position of “Chief of the Magicians” (Dn 4:9; 5:11). It appears that in 560 BC, two years after the death of Nebuchadnezzar, in the interlude between Daniel 4 and 5, Daniel occupied the highest possible position in the king’s personal service, “Chief Officer of the King,” according to the Babylonian texts. He was then removed from office due to palace politics, until he was made “Third Highest Ruler in the Kingdom” after interpreting the writing on the wall (Dn 5:29). This was probably Belshazzar’s last official act before Babylon was taken over by the Medes and Persians.
Summary
In this short survey, we have examined the records of the Neo-Babylonian kingdom for correspondence to the names of Daniel and his three friends. Three of the four are rather strong candidates for identification. Hanunu served as the royal trader in the time of Nebuchadnezzar and can be equated with Hananiah in the book of Daniel without great difficulty. The scribe or secretary to the crown prince Amel-Marduk was named Ardi-Nabu and this is the equivalent of Abed-Nego, Daniel’s companion. Abed-Nego appears to have influenced his master to have taken favorable actions toward the exiled king of Judah. Another person in the service of that same Babylonian king was Belshazzar, a Belshazzar different from the Belshazzar who later ruled with his father Nabonidus. When Daniel’s Babylonian name Belteshazzar is understood correctly, it is seen to correspond to Belshazzar. This official served in a time and place and opportunity agreeing with that of Daniel. Given that equation we appear to have two extra-Biblical references to the person of Daniel. Daniel’s third friend, Mishael or Meshak, is not known as well as these other three, but he̒ may turn up more directly in the future as more Neo-Babylonian texts are examined.
1. W.H. Shea, “Darius the Mede, an Update,” Andrews University Seminary Studies 20(1982), pp. 229-47.
2. See Archaeology and Biblical Research, Autumn 1990, pp. 119-120.
3. W. Andrae, Babylon, die versunkene Weltstadt und ihr Ausgraber Robert Koldewey, Berlin, 1952, as quoted in S.H. Horn, The Spade Confirms the Book, Washington D.C.: Review and Herald, 1957, p. 62.
4. D.I. Owen, “A Thirteen Month Summary Account from Ur,” Alter Orient und Altes Testament 203 (1979), p. 63.
5. D.J. Wiseman, Nebuchadnezzar and Babylon, London: British Musuem, 1983.
6. A. Parrot, Babylon and the Old Testament, New York: Philosophical Library, 1958, p. 29.
7. For a description of the location of this “museum” collection and its contents see J. Oates, Babylon, London: Thames and Hudson, 1979, pp. 149-52.
8. M. Mallowan in the Illustrated London News, August 16, 1952.
9. A. Parrot, Babylon and the Old Testament, p. 30.
References
W.H. Shea, “Daniel 3: Extra-Biblical Texts and the Convocation on the Plain of Dura,” Andrews University Seminary Studies 20(1982), pp. 29-52.
W.H. Shea, “Bel(te)shazzar Meets Belshazzar,” Andrews University Seminary Studies 26 (1988), pp. 67-81.
Bible and Spade 4:3 (Summer 1991)