July 24, 2011 – Daniel 5

Here we have the famous quote, “you have been weighed and found wanting.”  I didn’t realize that was from the Bible.  It is interesting that the Kings keep forgetting about these powerful exiles.  The first chapter the 4 are found to be the best of the king’s men and given power.  Then in the 2nd, Daniel interprets a dream and is given power.  Chapter 3 sees 3 of them thrown into the fire.  4 see Daniel brought back to interpret a dream.  Here we have a new king that seems to know nothing of Daniel, although it appears he should know Daniel’s interpretation of the dream because he is told he knows of the king losing power and then getting it back after realizing God’s power.  This new king goes to all his mages first and then when they cannot help him he is reminded of Daniel.  Some footnotes talk about there being a gap between the kings of sometime, but if Daniel is still around, he should have known about him.  Then being told you have been weighed and found wanting, not a ringing endorsement, and then he is killed.  If everything follows the same pattern, the king will forget all about Daniel and then Daniel will be in to do something extraordinary and will be given great power again. 

Not being a biblical historian or anything, I don’t know how true this may be, but doesn’t it seem as if Daniel could be a number of separate stories that were brought together into one book later on.  The back and forth or power and being unknown seems to match with different people throughout the exile that were all combined into a single character for this book.  I don’t know if that has ever been talked about, but doesn’t seem too far out of the question.