KING OVER THE REALM OF THE CHALDEANS (DANIEL) · EXILE & RETURN

Darius the Mede. Took the kingdom at about sixty-two; known only from Daniel.

REIGNEDi

Not given c. 538–536 BC (dates vary)

CAPITAL

Babylon

HOUSE

Of the seed of the Medes (Dan 9:1) 2nd of 9 in Persia

SCRIPTURE SAYS

“Darius the Median took the kingdom, being about threescore and two years old", after Belshazzar was slain…”

PROPHETS

Daniel

PERSIA: 9 RULERS CYRUS → NEHEMIAH

ON THE WORLD STAGE

The powers of the day

BABYLON (THE CHALDEANS)

Belshazzar

PERSIA

Cyrus

OUTSIDE THE BIBLE

OUTSIDE THE BIBLE · 539 BC EVENTS

The Nabonidus Chronicle

OUTSIDE THE BIBLE · —

No record of a king of this name

SUCCESSION

Before and after

THE REALM

Babylon and the places of the account

Persia. Only places Scripture names are shown, each where the Atlas puts it.

WHAT SCRIPTURE SAYS

What Scripture says of him

  • "Darius the Median took the kingdom, being about threescore and two years old", after Belshazzar was slain that night. Daniel 5:30–31
  • Daniel calls him "Darius the son of Ahasuerus, of the seed of the Medes, which was made king over the realm of the Chaldeans". Daniel 9:1
  • He set 120 princes over the kingdom and three presidents over them, Daniel first, and "thought to set him over the whole realm". Daniel 6:1–3
  • When Daniel came out of the den unhurt, Darius wrote to "all people, nations, and languages" that men should "tremble and fear before the God of Daniel: for he is the living God". Daniel 6:25–27
  • "So this Daniel prospered in the reign of Darius, and in the reign of Cyrus the Persian." Daniel 6:28
  • The angel who speaks to Daniel says: "in the first year of Darius the Mede, even I, stood to confirm and to strengthen him." Daniel 11:1

DEALINGS

Dealings with God's people

  • He signed a decree forbidding prayer to any god but the king for thirty days, then later decreed that all should fear the God of Daniel. Daniel 6:7–9 Daniel 6:26
  • Daniel, "which is of the children of the captivity of Judah", was first of his three presidents. Daniel 6:2 Daniel 6:13

EVENTS

Wars, works and turning points

Each mark sits at the year of the reign the Bible gives for it.

UNDATED IN SCRIPTURE

PROPHETS

The prophets who spoke about him

  • Da Daniel “My God hath sent his angel, and hath shut the lions’ mouths, that they have not hurt me”

DATES DIFFER

When was it?

SCRIPTURE'S NUMBERS

No years given

Daniel gives his age (about 62) and his first year, never a length of reign or a BC year.

KEIL (1872): FIRST YEAR 538 BC, TWO YEARS BEFORE CYRUS REIGNED ALONE

c. 538–536 BC[28]

Keil counts Darius the Mede's first year over the Chaldean kingdom as 538 BC and deducts two years from Cyrus's nine at Babylon, so that Cyrus reigns alone from 536.

THE BABYLONIAN TABLETS (PARKER AND DUBBERSTEIN, 1942)

No years given[3]

Babylon fell on 13 October 539 BC; from then the Babylonian business tablets are dated by Cyrus. They give no year to a king Darius at this time.

Cyrus himself

the Greek (Theodotion) text of Bel and the Dragon, as reported by the Pulpit Commentary (1897)

The Greek addition to Daniel has Cyrus receive the kingdom where Daniel has Darius; the Pulpit Commentary notes that the two names could be confused in the Aramaic script of about 100 BC.[37]

Astyages

Eusebius, Chronicle (about AD 325), as reported by the Pulpit Commentary (1897)

Eusebius made Darius the Mede the last Median king, Astyages; the Pulpit Commentary finds nothing to support it.[37]

Gubaru (Gobryas), Cyrus's governor of Babylon

T. G. Pinches, as reported by the Pulpit Commentary (1897), which favours it; R. Dick Wilson (1915)

The Nabonidus Chronicle has Gobryas enter Babylon and Cyrus appoint him governor there, and Daniel's Darius "received" the kingdom and set princes over it. Wilson argues that a provincial ruler could be called "king" and that Daniel never calls Darius king of Media or Persia. Daniel 5:31 Daniel 9:1 [37][10][2]

Not a king known to history: a confusion in the tradition

S. R. Driver (1900); A. A. Bevan (as reported by the Pulpit Commentary, 1897), who took Darius son of Hystaspes to be meant

Driver holds that the records leave no room for a king between Babylon's capture and Cyrus's reign, and suggests the figure combines Gubaru with Darius son of Hystaspes. The Pulpit Commentary answers that Daniel 11 shows the writer knew the Persian kings came after Cyrus.[36][37]

IN SCRIPTURE

Every passage

CHAPTERS · 4

Daniel 5 Daniel 6 Daniel 9 Daniel 11

PASSAGES · 4

Daniel 5:28–31 Daniel 6:1–28 Daniel 9:1–2 Daniel 11:1

WHAT SCRIPTURE DOES NOT SAY

  • Scripture does not say how long Darius the Mede reigned; Daniel mentions only his "first year".
  • Scripture does not say how he died, or how the kingdom passed to Cyrus; Daniel 6:28 names the two reigns one after the other.
  • Daniel never calls him king of Media or of Persia; he is "made king over the realm of the Chaldeans" (Dan 9:1).

IDENTIFICATIONS THIS PAGE RELIES ON

  • From the textDaniel's Darius is kept apart from the Darius of Ezra, Haggai and Zechariah, whom Ezra calls "Darius king of Persia". Daniel calls this one "Darius the Median" and "Darius the Mede". Daniel 5:31 Daniel 11:1 Ezra 4:24
  • From the textDaniel names his father: "Darius the son of Ahasuerus, of the seed of the Medes". That Ahasuerus is named nowhere else and has his own person record, apart from the king of Esther. Daniel 9:1
  • Scholars' viewR. Dick Wilson (1915) took Daniel's Ahasuerus to be the Median king whom Herodotus calls Cyaxares; this is one reading among several. Daniel 9:1 [11]

SOURCES

Where this page comes from

  • R. W. Rogers, Cuneiform Parallels to the Old Testament (1912), pp. 380–384 (the Cylinder of Cyrus, lines 12–35).
  • R. F. Harper (ed.), Assyrian and Babylonian Literature: Selected Translations (1901), pp. 168–171 ("The Annals of Nabonidus").
  • R. A. Parker and W. H. Dubberstein, Babylonian Chronology 626 B.C.–A.D. 45 (Studies in Ancient Oriental Civilization 24; dates cited as facts only) (1942), pp. 11–15 (kings' reigns) and the tables of years.
  • L. W. King and R. C. Thompson, The Sculptures and Inscription of Darius the Great on the Rock of Behistûn in Persia (1907), Persian text, §§ I–IV and X–XIII, pp. 1–13.
  • A. Cowley, Aramaic Papyri of the Fifth Century B.C. (1923), No. 6, pp. 15–16 (introduction and translation).
  • A. Cowley, Aramaic Papyri of the Fifth Century B.C. (1923), No. 30, pp. 108–114 (introduction and translation).
  • Herodotus, tr. G. C. Macaulay, The History of Herodotus, vol. 1 (1890), Book I §§191, 214.
  • Herodotus, tr. G. C. Macaulay, The History of Herodotus, vol. 1 (1890), Book III §88.
  • Herodotus, tr. G. C. Macaulay, The History of Herodotus, vol. 2 (1890), Book VII §§4, 61, 114; Book IX §§109–112.
  • R. Dick Wilson, "Darius", International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia (1915), sections (1)–(3).
  • R. Dick Wilson, "Ahasuerus", International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia (1915), sections 1, 2 and 4.
  • R. Dick Wilson, "Artaxerxes", International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia (1915), sections (1)–(3).
  • T. G. Pinches, "Cyrus", International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia (1915), sections 9, 10, 12 and 14.
  • Burton Scott Easton, "Xerxes", International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia (1915).
  • R. Dick Wilson, "Zerubbabel", International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia (1915), sections 1, 3 and 4.
  • R. Dick Wilson, "Tirshatha", International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia (1915).
  • R. Dick Wilson, "Nehemiah", International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia (1915), sections 3 and 5.
  • James Crichton, "Gedaliah", International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia (1915), (1), sections 2–3.
  • John Urquhart, "Vashti", International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia (1915).
  • John Urquhart, "Esther", International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia (1915).
  • George L. Robinson, "Isaiah", International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia (1915), the sections on chapters 40–66 and on the critical view.
  • Gerson B. Levi, Kaufmann Kohler and George A. Barton, "Ahasuerus", Jewish Encyclopedia vol. 1 (1901), biblical data and critical view.
  • Emil G. Hirsch and Isaac Broydé, "Ezra the Scribe", Jewish Encyclopedia vol. 5 (1903).
  • Joseph Jacobs, M. Seligsohn, Morris Jastrow Jr. and D. S. Margoliouth, "Ezra, Book of", Jewish Encyclopedia vol. 5 (1903).
  • James Ussher, The Annals of the World (English translation of the Annales) (1658), The sixth Age of the World, pp. 108–112 and 118 (read from the page scans, leaves 59–64).
  • L. McFall, "A Translation Guide to the Chronological Data in Kings and Chronicles", Bibliotheca Sacra 148 (facts only) (1991), numbered texts 1–68; page numbers of the author's PDF.
  • W. F. Albright, "The Chronology of the Divided Monarchy of Israel", Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research 100 (facts only) (1945), Chronological table, pp. 20–22.
  • C. F. Keil, tr. M. G. Easton, Biblical Commentary on the Book of Daniel (Keil and Delitzsch) (1872), note on Dan 9:1 (read on Bible Hub).
  • C. F. Keil, tr. S. Taylor, The Books of Ezra, Nehemiah and Esther (Keil and Delitzsch) (1873), note on Ezra 1:8 (read on Bible Hub).
  • C. F. Keil, tr. S. Taylor, The Books of Ezra, Nehemiah and Esther (Keil and Delitzsch) (1873), note on Ezra 6:14 (read on Bible Hub).
  • C. F. Keil, tr. A. Harper, The Books of the Chronicles (Keil and Delitzsch) (1872), note on 1 Chr 3:17–19 (read on Bible Hub).
  • C. F. Keil, tr. D. Patrick, The Prophecies of Jeremiah (Keil and Delitzsch) (1880), note on Jer 41:1 (read on Bible Hub).
  • H. E. Ryle, The Books of Ezra and Nehemiah (Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges) (1893), note on Ezra 1:8 (read on Bible Hub).
  • H. E. Ryle, The Books of Ezra and Nehemiah (Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges) (1893), note on Neh 2:1 (read on Bible Hub).
  • C. J. Ellicott (ed.), Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers: 1 Chronicles (c. 1878–1884), note on 1 Chr 3:19 (read on Bible Hub).
  • S. R. Driver, The Book of Daniel (Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges) (1900), note on Dan 5:31 (read on Bible Hub).
  • H. D. M. Spence and J. S. Exell (eds.), Pulpit Commentary: Daniel (1880–1897), note on Dan 6:28 and the "Excursus on Darius the Mede" (read on Bible Hub).
  • H. D. M. Spence and J. S. Exell (eds.), Pulpit Commentary: Esther (1880–1897), note on Esth 2:6 (read on Bible Hub).
  • A. W. Streane, The Book of Esther (Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges) (1907), note on Esth 2:6 (read on Bible Hub).
  • John Gill, Exposition of the Entire Bible (1748–1763), note on Esth 2:6 (read on Bible Hub).
  • H. D. M. Spence and J. S. Exell (eds.), Pulpit Commentary: Jeremiah (1880–1897), note on Jer 41:1, reporting H. Graetz (read on Bible Hub).
  • A. W. Streane, The Book of the Prophet Jeremiah (Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges) (1881), note on Jer 41:1 (read on Bible Hub).
  • Joseph Benson, Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818), note on Jer 41:1 (read on Bible Hub).
  • H. D. M. Spence and J. S. Exell (eds.), Pulpit Commentary: Isaiah (1880–1897), note on Isa 44:28 (read on Bible Hub).

Rooted in Scripture. Open for discovery.

A place to read slowly, ask deeply, and follow the connections. Scripture, study and the voices of Christian history, brought together for a lifetime of learning.

SPEND TIME IN THE WORD

  • Open the reader
  • Books & reading progress
  • Compare Scripture editions
  • Find a passage

FOLLOW YOUR QUESTIONS

  • Study collections
  • People & places
  • Faith & apologetics
  • Stories of faith

A library with a paper trail.

Meet the authors. Explore the collection. Trace each work to its source.

Download the code.

Open source on GitHub.