BABYLON, DARIUS THE MEDE, ETC Nebuchadnezzar by William Blake Liberal Theology writers (atheists) have claimed the Bible was false in speaking of a king named Belshazzar and also a king called Darius the Mede (Da 5:30-32).  They claimed neither were actual persons, just myth, that the Bible was confusing the non-existent Darius the Mede with Darius of Persia. The Bible notes that Belshazzar held a feast for a thousand of his lords.  Under the influence of wine he and his princes then mockingly drank from sacred vessels which Nebuchadnezzar had taken as spoils of war from the Temple in Jerusalem.  Suddenly a hand appeared on a wall writing three words which Daniel explained meant that Babylon’s kingdom was about to fall to the invading Medes and Persians.  It happened that very night when the invaders came in through an underground entrance.  At the time Nabonidus was away in Tema, a city in northern Arabia. The historians Herodotus, Berosus and Xenophon confirm the Bible’s account. When John George Taylor, a British vice consul as Basra excavated some for the British Museum at the site of ancient Ur during 1853 and 1854, he found clay cylinders in the four corners of the top part of the ziggurat there.  There was an inscription from Nabonidus (Nabuna`id), last king of Babylon (539 BC) according to the Book of Daniel.  The inscription ended with a prayer for his son and co-regent Belshar-uzur. (Bel-ŝarra-Uzur)   This was the Belshazzar of the Book of Daniel.  His mother was Nitocris, the daughter of Nebuchadnezzar and the widow of Nergal-sharezer.  At Daniel 5:2 Nebuchadnezzar is called his father instead of grandfather.  Some have claimed this makes the Bible false.  However, in the original language and culture the same word for father could also be used in the sense of father, a fore-father, a male ancestor, grandfather etc. The inscription found by Taylor explains why Belshazzar during the last banquet at Babylon could offer to make Daniel the “third” ruler in the kingdom (Daniel 5:16) but not the first.   Since Nabonidus himself was the first ruler, Belshazzar was second in command of Babylon, and Daniel himself could thus only be offered the position of third ruler. Besides the afore-said inscription tablets have been found inside huge vases that rains uncovered at Hillah, a suburb of Babylon.  Among them are references to Marduk-sar-uzur, another name for Belshazzar. As said, the anti-Bible critics said there was no Darius the Mede.  In fact, though, there was.  He is mentioned in Babylonian records as Gubaru a leader of Gutium (part of the Medes), who led the army of Cyrus of Persia into Babylon that night.  Cyrus was pleased to appoint Gubaru as ruler over Babylon.  Gubaru then  appointed persons to rule under him as “satraps,” including Daniel.  In chapter six of the Book of Daniel we hear of how Darius (that is Gubaru) once reluctantly had Daniel thrown into the lions’ den.  Gubaru’s other name, Darius the Mede, was likely a name of honor meaning something like Holder of the Scepter of the Medes. Interestingly, the Jewish historian Josephus notes that "Darius the Mede, who along with his relative, Cyrus the King of Persia, brought an end to the Babylonian empire. Darius was the son of Astyages." http://www.biblehistory.net/Belshazzar_Darius_Mede.pdf http://christiananswers.net/dictionary/belshazzar.html?zoom_highlight=belshazzar http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belshazzar http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book_of_Daniel http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gubaru http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ur