Chapter 10.
CONCERNING DANIEL AND WHAT BEFELL HIM AT BABYLON,FJAJ 10.51
1. BUT now Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, took some of the most noble
of the Jews that were children, and the kinsmen of Zedekiah their king,
such as were remarkable for the beauty of their bodies, and the comeliness
of their countenances, and delivered them into the hands of tutors, and
to the improvement to be made by them
He also made some of them to be
eunuchs; which course he took also with those of other nations whom he
had taken in the flower of their age, and afforded them their diet from
his own table, and had them instructed in the institutes of the country,
and taught the learning of the Chaldeans; and they had now exercised themselves
sufficiently in that wisdom which he had ordered they should apply themselves
to
Now among these there were four of the family of Zedekiah, of most
excellent dispositions, one of whom was called Daniel, another was called
Ananias, another Misael, and the fourth Azarias; and the king of Babylon
changed their names, and commanded that they should make use of other names.
Daniel he called Baltasar; Ananias, Shadrach; Misael, Meshach; and Azarias,
Abednego
These the king had in esteem, and continued to love, because
of the very excellent temper they were of, and because of their application
to learning, and the profess they had made in wisdom.FJAJ 10.52
2. Now Daniel and his kinsmen had resolved to use a severe diet, and
to abstain from those kinds of food which came from the king's table, and
entirely to forbear to eat of all living creatures
So he came to Ashpenaz,
who was that eunuch to whom the care of them was committed, (18)
That Daniel was made one of these eunuchs of which Isaiah prophesied, Isaiah
39:7, and the three children his companions also, seems to me plain, both
here in Josephus, and in our copies of Daniel, Daniel 1:3, 6-11, 18, although
it must be granted that some married persons, that had children, were sometimes
called eunuchs, in a general acceptation for courtiers, on account that
so many of the ancient courtiers were real eunuchs. See Genesis 39:1.
and desired him to take and spend what was brought for them from the king,
but to give them pulse and dates for their food, and any thing else, besides
the flesh of living creatures, that he pleased, for that their inclinations
were to that sort of food, and that they despised the other
He replied,
that he was ready to serve them in what they desired, but he suspected
that they would be discovered by the king, from their meagre bodies, and
the alteration of their countenances, because it could not be avoided but
their bodies and colors must be changed with their diet, especially while
they would be clearly discovered by the finer appearance of the other children,
who would fare better, and thus they should bring him into danger, and
occasion him to be punished; yet did they persuade Arioch, who was thus
fearful, to give them what food they desired for ten days, by way of trial;
and in case the habit of their bodies were not altered, to go on in the
same way, as expecting that they should not be hurt thereby afterwards;
but if he saw them look meagre, and worse than the rest, he should reduce
them to their former diet
Now when it appeared that they were so far from
becoming worse by the use of this food, that they grew plumper and fuller
in body than the rest, insomuch that he thought those who fed on what came
from the king's table seemed less plump and full, while those that were
with Daniel looked as if they had lived in plenty, and in all sorts of
luxury
Arioch, from that time, securely took himself what the king sent
every day from his supper, according to custom, to the children, but gave
them the forementioned diet, while they had their souls in some measure
more pure, and less burdened, and so fitter for learning, and had their
bodies in better tune for hard labor; for they neither had the former oppressed
and heavy with variety of meats, nor were the other effeminate on the same
account; so they readily understood all the learning that was among the
Hebrews, and among the Chaldeans, as especially did Daniel, who being already
sufficiently skillful in wisdom, was very busy about the interpretation
of dreams; and God manifested himself to him.FJAJ 10.53
3. Now two years after the destruction of Egypt, king Nebuchadnezzar
saw a wonderful dream, the accomplishment of which God showed him in his
sleep; but when he arose out of his bed, he forgot the accomplishment.
So he sent for the Chaldeans and magicians, and the prophets, and told
them that he had seen a dream, and informed them that he had forgotten
the accomplishment of what he had seen, and he enjoined them to tell him
both what the dream was, and what was its signification; and they said
that this was a thing impossible to be discovered by men; but they promised
him, that if he would explain to them what dream he had seen, they would
tell him its signification
Hereupon he threatened to put them to death,
unless they told him his dream; and he gave command to have them all put
to death, since they confessed they could not do what they were commanded
to do
Now when Daniel heard that the king had given a command, that all
the wise men should be put to death, and that among them himself and his
three kinsmen were in danger, he went to Arioch, who was captain of the
king's guards, and desired to know of him what was the reason why the king
had given command that all the wise men, and Chaldeans, and magicians should
be slain
So when he had learned that the king had had a dream, and had
forgotten it, and that when they were enjoined to inform the king of it,
they had said they could not do it, and had thereby provoked him to anger,
he desired of Arioch that he would go in to the king, and desire respite
for the magicians for one night, and to put off their slaughter so long,
for that he hoped within that time to obtain, by prayer to God, the knowledge
of the dream
Accordingly, Arioch informed the king of what Daniel desired.
So the king bid them delay the slaughter of the magicians till he knew
what Daniel's promise would come to; but the young man retired to his own
house, with his kinsmen, and besought God that whole night to discover
the dream, and thereby deliver the magicians and Chaldeans, with whom they
were themselves to perish, from the king's anger, by enabling him to declare
his vision, and to make manifest what the king had seen the night before
in his sleep, but had forgotten it
Accordingly, God, out of pity to those
that were in danger, and out of regard to the wisdom of Daniel, made known
to him the dream and its interpretation, that so the king might understand
by him its signification also
When Daniel had obtained this knowledge
from God, he arose very joyful, and told it his brethren, and made them
glad, and to hope well that they should now preserve their lives, of which
they despaired before, and had their minds full of nothing but the thoughts
of dying
So when he had with them returned thanks to God, who had commiserated
their youth, when it was day he came to Arioch, and desired him to bring
him to the king, because he would discover to him that dream which he had
seen the night before.FJAJ 10.54
4. When Daniel was come in to the king, he excused himself first, that
he did not pretend to be wiser than the other Chaldeans and magicians,
when, upon their entire inability to discover his dream, he was undertaking
to inform him of it; for this was not by his own skill, or on account of
his having better cultivated his understanding than the rest; but he said,
"God hath had pity upon us, when we were in danger of death, and when
I prayed for the life of myself, and of those of my own nation, hath made
manifest to me both the dream, and the interpretation thereof; for I was
not less concerned for thy glory than for the sorrow that we were by thee
condemned to die, while thou didst so unjustly command men, both good and
excellent in themselves, to be put to death, when thou enjoinedst them
to do what was entirely above the reach of human wisdom, and requiredst
of them what was only the work of God
Wherefore, as thou in thy sleep
wast solicitous concerning those that should succeed thee in the government
of the whole world, God was desirous to show thee all those that should
reign after thee, and to that end exhibited to thee the following dream:
Thou seemedst to see a great image standing before thee, the head of which
proved to be of gold, the shoulders and arms of silver, and the belly and
the thighs of brass, but the legs and the feet of iron; after which thou
sawest a stone broken off from a mountain, which fell upon the image, and
threw it down, and brake it to pieces, and did not permit any part of it
to remain whole; but the gold, the silver, the brass, and the iron, became
smaller than meal, which, upon the blast of a violent wind, was by force
carried away, and scattered abroad, but the stone did increase to such
a degree, that the whole earth beneath it seemed to be filled therewith.
This is the dream which thou sawest, and its interpretation is as follows:
The head of gold denotes thee, and the kings of Babylon that have been
before thee; but the two hands and arms signify this, that your government
shall be dissolved by two kings; but another king that shall come from
the west, armed with brass, shall destroy that government; and another
government, that shall be like unto iron, shall put an end to the power
of the former, and shall have dominion over all the earth, on account of
the nature of iron, which is stronger than that of gold, of silver, and
of brass." Daniel did also declare the meaning of the stone to the
king (19)
Of this most remarkable passage in Josephus concerning the "stone
cut out of the mountain, and destroying the image," which he would
not explain, but intimated to be a prophecy of futurity, and probably not
safe for him to explain, as belonging to the destruction of the Roman empire
by Jesus Christ, the true Messiah of the Jews, take the words of Hayercamp,
ch. 10. sect. 4: "Nor is this to be wondered at, that he would not
now meddle with things future, for he had no mind to provoke the Romans,
by speaking of the destruction of that city which they called the Eternal
City."
but I do not think proper to relate it, since I have only undertaken to
describe things past or things present, but not things that are future;
yet if any one be so very desirous of knowing truth, as not to wave such
points of curiosity, and cannot curb his inclination for understanding
the uncertainties of futurity, and whether they will happen or not, let
him be diligent in reading the book of Daniel, which he will find among
the sacred writings.FJAJ 10.55
5. When Nebuchadnezzar heard this, and recollected his dream, he was
astonished at the nature of Daniel, and fell upon his knee; and saluted
Daniel in the manner that men worship God, and gave command that he should
be sacrificed to as a god
And this was not all, for he also imposed the
name, of his own god upon him, [Baltasar,] and made him and his kinsmen
rulers of his whole kingdom; which kinsmen of his happened to fall into
great danger by the envy and malice [of their enemies]; for they offended
the king upon the occasion following: he made an image of gold, whose height
was sixty cubits, and its breadth six cubits, and set it in the great plain
of Babylon; and when he was going to dedicate the image, he invited the
principal men out of all the earth that was under his dominions, and commanded
them, in the first place, that when they should hear the sound of the trumpet,
they should then fall down and worship the image; and he threatened, that
those who did not so, should be cast into a fiery furnace
When therefore
all the rest, upon the hearing of the sound of the trumpet, worshipped
the image, they relate that Daniel's kinsmen did not do it, because they
would not transgress the laws of their country
So these men were convicted,
and cast immediately into the fire, but were saved by Divine Providence,
and after a surprising manner escaped death, for the fire did not touch
them; and I suppose that it touched them not, as if it reasoned with itself,
that they were cast into it without any fault of theirs, and that therefore
it was too weak to burn the young men when they were in it
This was done
by the power of God, who made their bodies so far superior to the fire,
that it could not consume them
This it was which recommended them to the
king as righteous men, and men beloved of God, on which account they continued
in great esteem with him.FJAJ 10.56
6. A little after this the king saw in his sleep again another vision;
how he should fall from his dominion, and feed among the wild beasts, and
that when he halt lived in this manner in the desert for seven years, (20)
Since Josephus here explains the seven prophetic times which were to pass
over Nebuchadnezzar (Daniel 4:16) to be seven years, we thence learn how
he most probably must have understood those other parallel phrases, of
"a time, times, and a half," Antiq. B. VII. ch. 25., of so many
prophetic years also, though he withal lets us know, by his hint at the
interpretation of the seventy weeks, as belonging to the fourth monarchy,
and the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans in the days of Josephus,
ch. 2. sect. 7, that he did not think those years to be bare years, but
rather days for years; by which reckoning, and by which alone, could seventy
weeks, or four hundred and ninety days, reach to the age of Josephus. But
as to the truth of those seven years' banishment of Nebuchadnezzar from
men, and his living so long among the beasts, the very small remains we
have any where else of this Nebuchadnezzar prevent our expectation of any
other full account of it. So far we knew by Ptolemy's canon, a contemporary
record, as well as by Josephus presently, that he reigned in all forty-three
years, that is, eight years after we meet with any account of his actions;
one of the last of which was the thirteen years' siege of Tyre, Antiq.
B. XI. ch. 11., where yet the Old Latin has but three years and ten months:
yet were his actions before so remarkable, both in sacred and profane authors,
that a vacuity of eight years at the least, at the latter end of his reign,
must be allowed to agree very well with Daniel's accounts; that after a
seven years' brutal life, he might return to his reason, and to the exercise
of his royal authority, for one whole year at least before his death.
he should recover his dominion again
When he had seen this dream, he called
the magicians together again, and inquired of them about it, and desired
them to tell him what it signified; but when none of them could find out
the meaning of the dream, nor discover it to the king, Daniel was the only
person that explained it; and as he foretold, so it came to pass; for after
he had continued in the wilderness the forementioned interval of time,
while no one durst attempt to seize his kingdom during those seven years,
he prayed to God that he might recover his kingdom, and he returned to
it
But let no one blame me for writing down every thing of this nature,
as I find it in our ancient books; for as to that matter, I have plainly
assured those that think me defective in any such point, or complain of
my management, and have told them in the beginning of this history, that
I intended to do no more than translate the Hebrew books into the Greek
language, and promised them to explain those facts, without adding any
thing to them of my own, or taking any thing away from there.FJAJ 10.57