While writing a story about Daniel over the last five years, I have done my best to study the available evidence for events in the time of Daniel.  The history in the early parts of Daniel’s life is fairly much agreed upon and fits well with the Bible.  However, the agreement fades away when we consider the following fifty years of history.  After a lot of study of the Bible’s records – which I consider to be the inspired word of God – and the existing evidence outside the Bible, I find that I cannot embrace the generally-accepted lists of kings of Babylon, Media and Persia during the sixth century BC (eg. List of Kings of Babylon (Wikipedia) or List of Kings of Babylon (Jatland).

The end of Babylon

Almost 200 years before it happened, Isaiah prophesied that the Medes would attack and conquer Babylon with help from Elam.[1]

Jeremiah later predicted the sudden defeat of the empire of Babylon[2] by a horde of great nations from the land of the north,[3] some of which he named: Media,[4] Ararat, Minni and Ashkenaz.[5]

Interestingly enough, neither Isaiah nor Jeremiah mentions Persia by name, yet it is later coupled with the Medes on several occasions in Esther and Daniel.  Daniel presents this kingdom of silver as having two parts when he later interprets the writing on the wall at Belshazzar’s feast as saying that Babylon’s kingdom has been divided and given to the Medes and the Persians.[6]  The same message was presented in two visions given to Daniel a few years earlier, one in Daniel 7 probably showing the empire of the Medes and Persians as a bear raised up on one side[7] and the other in Daniel 8 showing a ram with two horns, one of which was higher than the other.[8]  In both cases, the raised or stronger part of the empire is probably the Persian side.

The book of Daniel reports that Belshazzar died later on the night of that feast and that Darius the Mede subsequently received the kingdom.[9]  He appears to be followed by Cyrus the Persian.[10]  As the empire of the Medes and Persians progresses, later kings are described as kings of Persia, which demonstrates how the Persians rose to completely dominate the empire – as predicted.  Furthermore, when the two are mentioned together in the Bible, the book of Daniel always lists the Medes first,[11] while the book of Esther (which refers to a later time) almost always lists the Persians first.[12]

The one exception in the book of Esther is in Esther 10:2, which refers to “The Book of the Chronicles of the kings of Media and Persia”.  This probably refers to an old book named and begun many years before – a book that was being added to as events in the empire progressed. 

Medes and Persians

All in all, these references suggest that Media may have had greater historic importance and initially taken the lead, but that Persia soon became the more important and powerful partner, possibly even before the conquest of Babylon was complete.

Darius the Mede

Whatever the reason may have been, Darius the Mede was the first king of the Medes and Persians to rule over Babylon.  He was 62 years old when he became king, and the only dates in the book of Daniel referring to his reign occurred in the first year, so his reign may not have lasted very long.

Cyrus the Persian

If Cyrus was already king of a growing Persian empire before taking over from Darius the Mede, this raises the question of when Cyrus’ reign over Babylon would be counted from.  He had probably been king over Persia for about 20 years before Babylon was conquered, yet Biblical references to him begin at the first year of his reign.  It seems probable that this refers to the first year in which he directly reigned over Babylon, ignoring his preceding years reigning over Persia.  Most likely what the Bible refers to as the first year of his reign began after the death of Darius the Mede, and may well have been a while – perhaps one to five years – after the initial defeat of Babylon.

“70 Years”

One interesting possibility can be found by connecting this with the prophecies of Jeremiah in Jeremiah 25:11-12 and Jeremiah 29:10 that there would be a 70 year period during which many nations would serve Babylon.  For Jerusalem, this would have ended in 535BC, 70 years after the first siege of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar in 605BC.[13]  Perhaps the “first year of Cyrus”[14] was 535BC!

Alternatively, the 70 years could have begun with the defeat and death of Josiah when Pharaoh Neco took over control of the kingdom of Judah in 609BC and appointed Jehoiakim as king.  539BC would be 70 years after this event, however, it was not 70 years of being subject to Babylon.[15]

Notes

[1] Isaiah 13:17-19; 21:2
[2] Jeremiah 51:8
[3] Jeremiah 50:3, 9, 41.  “North” is probably relative to Babylon.
[4] Jeremiah 51:11, 28
[5] Jeremiah 51:27
[6] Daniel 5:28
[7] Daniel 7:5
[8] Daniel 8:20
[9] Daniel 5:30-31
[10] Daniel 6:28
[11] Daniel 5:28; 6:8, 12, 15; 8:20
[12] Esther 1:3, 14, 18, 19
[13] This happened shortly after the battle of Carchemish and Nebuchadnezzar’s accession to the kingship.  After the conclusion of this siege, Daniel and his three friends were taken into captivity in Babylon along with many others.
[14] 2 Chronicles 36:22-23; Ezra 1:1-2
[15] Jeremiah 25:11

See also...

Bible Tales article with timeline of Daniel's life.

Other Bible Tales timelines.