Welcome back to my study/review of The Book of Daniel. If you missed the previous parts of this study, you can find them HERE.
Daniel 4:1-3
4 King Nebuchadnezzar to all peoples, nations, and languages, that dwell in all the earth: Peace be multiplied to you! 2 It has seemed good to me to show the signs and wonders that the Most High God has done for me.
3 How great are his signs,
how mighty his wonders!
His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom,
and his dominion endures from generation to generation.
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This is a very interesting small section of verses, primarily because of the rest of the chapter that follows. We’ll start with The Pulpit Commentaries, and verse 1:
(Aramaic ch. 3:31).—Nebuchadnezzar the king, unto all people, nations, and languages, that dwell in all the earth; Peace be multiplied unto you. The Septuagint has a different reading here, “The beginning of the letter of Nebuchadnezzar the king to all peoples and tongues dwelling in the whole earth: Peace to you be multiplied.” In this reading, the first clause is the heading of all that follows, and the document itself begins with, “Peace to you be multiplied.” The absence of the opening words from the Syriac Version of the Septuagint by Paulus Tellensis is against its authenticity. It may have been a scribal note which has slipped into the text. Theodotion is an exact rendering of the Massoretic text. The Peshitta Version appears to have followed a recension between that on which the Septuagint Version is founded and the Massoretic text, “Nebuchadnezzar the king wrote to all nations, peoples, and tongues, Joy be increased to you.” The most natural explanation of this uncertainty in the text is that this chapter is a condensation of a longer document. Were the document in question a proclamation of Nebuchadnezzar, his titles would necessarily have followed. These, however, are omitted, and only malka, “king,” is retained. The baldness of this seems to have suggested the variations which we find in the Septuagint and the Peshitta. The recension before us gives the beginning of the letter according to the attesting note of the LXX. In the middle of the document condensation by the simple omission of clauses was seen to be awkward and perhaps impossible, so instead a summary is given in the third person. That we have not found the proclamation itself is not extraordinary from the very fragmentary condition in which the annals of Nebuchadnezzar have come down to us.
I read the sections on Nebuchadnezzar and I wonder if there is more happening in his story, beneath the surface. The Babylonian Empire was large, but does it seem as though the Bible overstates the size and scope? Alternatively, did some part of the Babylonian Empire subsequently influence the world after? (Its gods, its sorceries, etc.) We know that the Persian Empire inherited its magicians, as we’ll see later in this Book. Did the Greeks and Romans inherit things from them also? One wonders.
Moving on for now , though:
I thought it good to show the signs and wonders that the high God hath wrought toward me. How great are his signs! and how mighty are his wonders! his kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and his dominion is from generation to generation. The Greek versions for these two verses are in absolute agreement, hence one is not surprised to find that in the Syriac of Paulus Tellensis, these verses, with that preceding, are marked with an asterisk, which proclaims them not to have been regarded by their translator as a genuine part of the Septuagint, but to have been added from Theodotion. They are in close agreement with the Massoretic text. In these two verses the Peshitta is also at one with the Massoretic text. It is possible that this may have been the actual beginning of the document; on the other hand, it may have been simply the suggestion of some later scribe of how such a proclamation might have begun. The latter is, perhaps, the more probable. At the same time, it vindicates its position by being a not unnatural expression of feelings such as Nebuchadnezzar might well be supposed to have had after such an experience as he had passed through. It may even be that the signs and wonders to which Nebuchadnezzar refers are not merely those of his dream and its fulfilment, but all the signs that had been manifested in his reign.
Does it seem odd that immediately after Nebuchadnezzar praises God that he would receive a vision of his own impending madness? Perhaps. Though as the vision will indicate, it was within his own power to end the madness. He needed to acknowledge a truth again that he had already confessed in the verses here.
The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob is asserting His primacy over the gods of Babylon. We shall see that as a basic theme throughout the book.
