Recognising the historical Daniel
by Damien F. Mackey A potential Babylonian name for Daniel’s Belteshazzar – amongst various possibilities – would be, say, Nabû-bul-li ṭ -su (Nabu-bullitsu), somewhat imperfectly transliterated as Belteshazzar. The name Nabu - bullitsu can be found listed e.g. in the Index (p. 159) of Sir W. Budge’s “Babylonian Life and History”. Introduction What are we looking for here? Essentially, in the case of the historical Daniel, we would be hoping to find a governor of (the province of) Babylon, of very long floruit, at the time of King Nebuchednezzar ‘the Great’, the Chaldean (c. 600 BC). He ought to have a Belteshazzar like name (Daniel 1:7). My revision will allow for this governor to be identified amongst the various alter egos that I have proposed for King Nebuchednezzar - great identities such as Esarhaddon; Ashurbanipal (and the like-named Ashurnasirpal); and Nabonidus. ...
