Daniel 5:31

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And Darius the Mede received the kingdom, being about threescore and two years old. (ASV)

Pro

The person "Darius the Mede" is not known from history. The Persian conquest of Babylon was peaceful, and while Cyrus was not present at the takeover, Ugbaru, the Gutian general of the Persian army, was appointed king of Babylon by Cyrus. --FreezBee 08:07, 30 Jan 2006 (CST)

Jeremiah falsely predicts that the Medes will take Babylon, in Jeremiah 51:11. It is quite likely that the author of Daniel, writing centuries later, assumed that Jeremiah was a "true prophet" and that Babylon must therefore have been taken by a Mede before the Persians took it in turn. --Robert Stevens 10:16, 27 Jul 2006 (CDT)

Con

The issue here seems to be a case of an inaccurate translation. Donald Wiseman argues that Daniel 6:28 should be translated, "Daniel prospered in the reign of Darius even the reign of Cyrus the Persian," with him taking the former name as a throne name...which would mean Darius the Mede is Cyrus the Persian. He argues: "Such a use of the oppositional or explicative Hebrew waw construction has long been recognized in 1 Chronicles 5:26 ("So the God of Israel stirred up the spirit of Pul king of Assyria even the spirit of Tiglath-pileser king of Assyria") and elsewhere." Additional support comes from the LXX and from Theodotion, which have Daniel 11:1 "the first year of Cyrus" instead of "the first year of Darius". Darius the Mede's given age of 62 would support this identification as well. According to Stephen R. Miller in his book Daniel, on page 176, cuneiform texts say Cyrus ruled for nine years after Babylon was captured, and Cicero reports that Cyrus died at the age of 70. The math works out, and the identification here seems clear. And, Ugbaru died within weeks of the capture of Babylon. Great thanks are owed to J.P. Holding's page here for the information that made this edit possible. - Zeta Metroid 18:20, 18 January 2010 (EST)

Neutral

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