The Pulpit Commentary — Daniel — Section 229

phon's • Cyropll!dia.' Theodotion and tlrn mean that from eoma highar powor ha PeshiU,l\ agree with the M&BBOretic toxt. "received" his appointment. His ngo we The stRtement th&t De.niol proepered in me.y Msume to be correctly stated, notwith- tho reign of Darius nnd in the reign of standing the Septuagint rendering; this Cyrus, does not necesMrily imply that they seems to he.ve been drawn from the Mas- were successive. The reign of Gobryas, e. sorctio reading by "t&king ,:i:i in a Sy1·ino 1mtr&p, and perhBpB in 'l!ome we.y "King sons e. This view is confirmed by tha fnct Lhat of Babvlon," would coincide with the the resulting construction is not e. na.tuml TI'ign of Cyrus e.s " ling of nations." one. Further, tho exactitude of statement Moroovor, if Darius (Gobryas) we.s King of gives e. presumption of truth, as thcro is BRbylon for two years, then Cyrus would no reason in the narrative why this nge succeC'cl him in this position. Carte.inly in should be t&ken e.nd not another. Wee.re l!Ome of tile earlier contract tables of his not necessitated to m<Linte.in thBt the reign, Cyrus in not called "King of Babil." governors were s&trape in the le.rge sense of the word. The fact the.t "se.tr<Lps " were Euursm on DariU11 the Meda. Po~ia.n governors would lee.d the.t word to he inserted. AB to the ne.me, we ce.nnot There is no character in Scripture who lay much stress on this, as ve.ri<Ltion in the h&e given rise to more hypotheses than matter of names is not uncommon in Darius the Mede. Every person whose Hebrew literature, e. leas common name name has come iuto prominence in early being replaced by one better known. Thie Pen.ian history may be se.id to have been is rendered the more likely as in the Sep- preBBed into service. The apocryphal addi- tuagint the name De.rius is replaced by tion to Daniel-Bel and the Dragon- Arta.xerxes in one instance. identifies Darius the Mede with Cyrus. If we take the Septuagint text, there is Josephns implies that Darius is Cyaxares nothing the.t necessitates anything more II., RB he declares him to he e. relative the.n the.t the province of which he might (trll")")'•rrhs) of Cyrus and eon of Astyages. be the governor was affected b7. hie appoint- Eusebius (' Chronicon' a.d Olym., 54) identi- ing these so-called "satraps. • As to the fies him with A.styagea. Le.ter critical com- title "king," we must remember the.t the.t ment&ton., e.g. Beve.n, he.ve assumed that title WRB used very loosely. Cyrus claims Darius Hyste.spis is intended. Still more to have several ancestors who were "great recently, by Mr. Pinches, it he.s been sug- kings" (Cylinder). Darius Hyste.spis de- gested that Gobrye.s (Goba.rn), who too~ ole.res eight of hie ancestors to he.ve boen possession of Babylon on behalf of Cyrus u "kings." Ansau, of which Cyrus and hie Darius the Mede. ancestors were kings, was a canton under As a prelimine.ry to dis~g ~he ques- the power of Elam, and Hystaspes re- tion we must lr.ok e.t what IB said e.bout mained B&tre.p under his son. Darius the Mede in Daniel. He received Let us now inveetigate the various hypo- the kingdom when he was sixty-two years theses that have been brought forward, and of age. He was the son of Ahasuerus, of we shall te.ke them in order of their pro- the oeed of the Medes. From the fa.et bable e.ge. that onlv the "first" yee.r of his reign is The first hypothesis is that Darius is mcntion,;a., we may deduce that he re_igned Cyrus. This we find, as we have said, in little more tl.ia.n a year. He appears m the the second apocryphal addition to Daniel llfa,sordic text especially as a supreme -Bel e.nd the Dragon-as we find it in 11..·'a::rch, who appoints gove~ore_ under Theodotion. So far RB the letters e.ro con- him. W c must, however, bear m mmd the cerned, it is not au impossible thing to fact that the evidence from the Book of fancy that Ko'resh was read into Daravash, Da1,iel i;i complicated by the proofs of ex- the resh e.nd the shin being present in pansion which w~ :find _in ~t. E".en when the both words in the same position, <Lnd in l:ic·ptuagint Vemon comcides with the Ml!-s- the Aramaic characters of B.O. 100 daleth i;,,rctic rcccn.sion, we e.re not even then qwte and caph were like. There is ha.rdly sure that the work of modification had not any reason to lead one to road more rca.<lily be•'l.ln Lefore the two families of recellBion the one name than the other. Although wc~·c csLaLlished. Ilea.ring this in mind, Darius could not fe.il to be e. well-known let us gather up the information we have name among tho Jews, since threo of that c0nccrni.Dg Darius here. He. is assert6~ to name successil'Cly reigned over the Persian be an c,ld man when he "received the king- Empire, and still in the ~a.et, Dara: (De.riu~J dom." The verb need here is used of legiti- fa a name synonymous with "magnificence; 11iate succession; tlrn.B in Paulus Tellensis yet to a Jew what monarch of Persia could Cyrus ic eaid "to receive," 1,:ip, the kingdom compare with Cyrus, "the servant of tho c,n tl..e death of Darius. From the con- Lord" his "shepherd," his "anointed," ncctiun \.hi£ is c,ut of the question. It must who ~llowcd Judah to return e.nd sacrifices 011, VI, 1-28,] THE BOOK OF DANIEL. 195