Daniel's 70 weeks (5) Darius the Great was the Biblical Darius & Zopyrus was the Biblical Cyrus!

In my previous video titled “Nabonidus was Nebuchadnezzar, proven by lunar eclipse in Nabonidus' 2nd year reign” I showed that historians gave the wrong date for the lunar eclipse that occurred in the 2nd year of Nabonidus which they dated September 26, 554 BC. I dated this lunar eclipse seven years earlier on August 15, 561 BC instead. 

The Reign of Nabonidus King of Babylon 556-539 BC, pg 127 last paragraph by Paul-Alain Beaulieu: It is known from the Royal Chronicle that the eclipse must have taken place in the second year of Nabonidus or slightly before…

If the lunar eclipse indeed took place on August 15, 561 BC during the early part of Nabonidus’ second year, then the first year of Nabonidus must have been in 562 BC instead of 556 BC, or six years earlier than the historically recognized date. 

We know for certain that Astyages, the last king of Media, was defeated by the Persian king Cyrus the Great in the sixth year of his Babylonian colleague Nabonidus as recorded in the Nabonidus Chronicle Column II lines 1-2:

[ii.1] [The sixth year: Astyages] mustered (his army) and marched against Cyrus, king of Anšan, for conquest [...]

[ii.2] The army rebelled against Astyages and he was taken prisoner. Th[ey handed him over] to Cyrus.

Since the first year of Nabonidus was actually in 562 BC, this means his 6th year starts from 557 BC and ends in  556 BC. I picked 556 BC instead of 557 BC as the last year of Astyages’ reign as this choice will put Darius the Great’s reign starting in 519 BC. Darius the Great was the third Persian King of Kings of the Achaemenid Empire following Cyrus the Great and Cambyses II. 519 BC as the start of Darius I’s reign is Biblically significant. I will now show you why.

Darius the Mede is a supposed king of Babylon mentioned in the Book of Daniel as reigning between Belshazzar and supposedly Cyrus the Great, but he is not known to history, and no additional king can be placed between the known figures of Belshazzar and Cyrus. However, it is my opinion that the Biblical Darius the Mede is one and the same as the historical Darius the Great believed by historians to have reigned from 521 BC until his death in 486 BC. 

According to Herodotus Book I: Clio par. 214, Cyrus the Great who succeeded Astyages as king of Media, “had reigned in all thirty years wanting one (or 29 years)”. Counting 29 years from the end of Astyages’ reign in 556 BC (according to my dating) takes us to 527 BC as the end of Cyrus’ the Great’s reign. He was succeeded by his son Cambyses II who in turn was succeeded by a usurper and together their reigns lasted for eight years:

Herodotus Book 3: Thaleia par. 67. Thus when Cambyses had brought his life to an end, the Magian became king without disturbance, usurping the place of his namesake Smerdis the son of Cyrus; and he reigned during the seven months which were wanting yet to Cambyses for the completion of the eight years:

The Magian usurper’s name who pretended to be Smerdis the son of Cyrus was Gaumata. Later on, Darius and a group of six nobles conspired to kill Gaumata in the fortress of Sikayauvati. The six nobles then agreed to make Darius the new king and in this manner, Darius the Great ascended to the throne of Persia in 519 BC, or eight years after the end of Cyrus the Great’s reign in 527 BC, according to my dating of Persian chronology.

The astronomical tablet referred to by 3 names: Strm Kambys 400, LBAT 1477 and BM 33066, contains the astronomical data of the seventh year of Cambyses II. In accordance with this astronomical tablet, the seventh year of Cambyses is for the year 523 BC, which is two years earlier than my dating of Cambyses’ seventh year reign in 521 BC. 

For me, this is a clear indication that Cambyses had a two year coregency as king of the Persian Achaemenid empire with his father Cyrus the Great from 529 to 527 BC. Counting from this coregency, Cambyses II’s reign extends to about ten years from the almost eight years attested to by Herodotus. And note that the astronomical tablet did not say what was Cambyses’ final year.

The Darius Inscription is a number of engravings which was carved on the rocks near Bistun area of the State of Kermanshah in Iran. The inscription is about Darius The Great and tells us the exact day and month when Darius slew the usurper Gaumata: 

Then I prayed to Ahuramazda; Ahuramazda brought me help. On the tenth day of the month Bagayadish I, with a few men, slew that Gaumata, the Mede... At the stronghold called Sikayauvatis… in Media, I slew him; I dispossessed him of the kingdom. By the grace of Ahuramazda I became king; Ahuramazda granted me the kingdom.

Bagayadish is the name of the seventh month (September to October) of the Old Persian calendar and it corresponds to the Hebrew month Tishrei. Using the Keisan Hebrew calculator, one can see that Tishrei 10, 519 BC corresponds to September 24 Julian or September 18 Gregorian calendar.

Following his coronation at Pasargadae, the Babylonians revolted. This came after Darius first sent a naval force against Samos, a Greek island in the eastern Aegean Sea. 

Herodotus Book 3: Thaleia par 150-152. After a naval force had thus gone against Samos, the Babylonians made revolt, being for this exceedingly well prepared… Dareios being informed of this and having gathered together all his power, made expedition against them, and when he had marched his army up to Babylon he began to besiege them; but they [the Babylonians] cared nothing about the siege…So when a year and seven months had now passed by, Dareios began to be vexed… not being able to conquer the Babylonians. 

If you continue reading Herodotus, you will see that shortly after a year and seven months of failed attempts to conquer Babylon, Darius the Great eventually succeeded.  Counting a year and seven months after his coronation in September 24, 519 BC Julian calendar, takes us to sometime 517 BC when finally Darius ended the Babylonian revolt. However, Herodotus failed to mention the exact month and day when this momentous event happened. Fortunately, the Darius Inscription which I mentioned earlier gave us this information:

On the second day of the month Anamaka we joined battle. King Darius says: Then did Nidintu-Bel flee with a few horsemen into Babylon. Thereupon I marched to Babylon. By the grace of Ahuramazda I took Babylon, and captured Nidintu-Bel. Then I slew that Nidintu-Bel in Babylon. 

Anamaka is the name of the tenth month (December to January) of the Old Persian calendar, corresponding to the Hebrew month of Tevet. Using the Keisan Hebrew calculator, one can see that Tevet 2, 517 BC corresponds to December 21 Julian or December 15 Gregorian calendar. According to the Darius inscription, Nidintu-Bel raised a rebellion in Babylon when he lied to the people, saying that he (Nidintu-Bel) was 'Nebuchadnezzar, the son of Nabonid[us]'. 

Now Belshazzar, not Nebuchadnezzar, was the historical son and crown prince of Nabonidus. It is my opinion that Darius was misinformed about Nidintu-Bel calling himself Nebuchadnezzar instead of Belshazzar. Daniel 5: 30-31 also names Belshazzar as the king of the Babylonians that was slain by Darius the Mede.

But why does the Bible describe Darius the Great as a Mede instead of a Persian? Matrilineality or matrilineal descent in Judaism is the tracing of Jewish descent through the maternal line. Ezra chapters 9 to 10 describe how many Israelite men had intermarried with non-Jewish women, and tells the story of their renunciation of intermarriage and separation from the non-Jewish wives and from their children. 

The necessity of separating from the children as well as the wives suggests that the children were not considered Jewish despite having Jewish fathers. In rabbinic sources, this verse is understood to be proof of matrilineality. Orthodox Judaism maintains that the law of matrilineal descent in Judaism dates at least to the time of the covenant at Sinai. 

While the father of Darius the Great, that is Hystaspes, was Persian, the identity of his mother is uncertain. According to Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones, recently uncovered texts in Persepolis indicate that the mother of Darius the Great was Irdabama, an affluent landowner descended from a family of Elamite rulers. 

According to Daniel 5:31, Darius the Mede was sixty two when he conquered Babylon on December 21, 517 BC according to my dating. This means Darius the Great was born sometime 579 BC. The Medians took control of Elam during this period from 646 to 539 BC. Thus I believe Irdabama, the mother of Darius the Great, was a Median royal who lived in Elam. And according to the practice of matrilineality in Judaism, Darius the Great should be considered a Mede and not a Persian.

Zopyrus was a Persian nobleman mentioned in Herodotus' Histories who helped Darius the Great conquer Babylon. According to Herodotus, when Babylon revolted against the rule of Darius, Zopyrus devised a plan to regain control of the vital city. You can read the whole account on Herodotus Book 3: Thaleia par 153-159.  What I want you to take note of is how Darius rewarded Zopyrus for his important role in conquering Babylon:

 

Herodotus Book 3: Thaleia par 160. As for Zopyros, in the judgment of Dareios no one of the Persians surpassed him in good service, either of those who came after or of those who had gone before, excepting Cyrus alone; for to Cyrus no man of the Persians ever yet ventured to compare himself: and Dareios is said to have declared often that he would rather that Zopyros were free from the injury than that he should have twenty Babylons added to his possession in addition to that one which he had.

 

Moreover he gave him great honors; for not only did he give him every year those things which by the Persians are accounted the most honorable, but also he granted him Babylon to rule free from tribute, so long as he should live; and he added many other gifts.

 

When Darius the Great granted Zopyrus the power to rule Babylon free from tribute, he made Zopyrus his coregent in Babylon. And just as I believe Darius the Great was the Biblical Darius the Mede, I also believe Zopyrus was the Biblical Ko’-resh mentioned in Daniel 6: 28 and which biased translators unanimously and wrongly translated as Cyrus instead of Zopyrus.

Since Jerusalem and its Temple was destroyed in the summer of 586 BC according to Thiele, Darius must have installed Zopyrus as his coregent in Babylon shortly before the summer of 516 BC to fulfill Jeremiah’s prophecy of the Babylonian exile of the Israelis being ended on its seventieth year. This of course occurred after Darius conquered Babylon and Belshazzar, with the indispensable help of Zopyrus, on December 21, 517 BC Julian calendar according to my dating.