Daniel 1:6 Commentary and Bible Study

It is beautiful the way that Daniel puts it. He is undoubtedly the author of the Book of Daniel, and in the latter part of the book on a number of occasions he uses the phrase ‘I Daniel …’. It is no doubt his book, even though he only begins to write in the first person in an autobiographical manner from chapter 7 on. It is almost as though he could not bring himself to write in an autobiographical manner at the beginning of the book, because he is obliged to record as modestly as he can what might appear to be his own accomplishments. Certainly he ascribes them all to the Lord, but he still avoids the first person until that is all over and done with and the scene is set, and only then does he speak in terms of his own experience. ‘Now among these were of the children of Judah, Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah’ – that is all he has got to say about himself. ‘How did you start out Daniel? Nebuchadnezzar was rounding up nobles. children. Who were you the child of?’ He doesn't tell us; not a word. He is not going to tell us his background; he is not going to tell us his breeding, his accomplishments in youth or his opportunities. He limits his narrative to this: ‘Now among these were of the children of Judah.’ It admirably understated. Oh that every Christian person would be so modest as Daniel, and so reluctant to say anything that would colour your view of him, or inflate his reputation. Another part of the treatment of the selected young men was to rename them: it was all part of their brainwashing, reprogramming. Their own names had meanings but they must not think about that; they had to learn to think as Chaldeans – your name was bound to be used many times. Daniel means ‘(my) God is Judge’; Hananiah, ‘the Lord is gracious’; Mishael, ‘who is he that is God’; and Aazariah, ‘helped of the Lord’. The Chaldean names given to them were all connected with the name of a Babylonian god. That was part of the process. Their minds must be changed. They must cease to be Israelites and become Babylonians: in their outlook, their sense of identity, so they are given Babylonian names. And that was difficult to bear: to have to wear, as it were, the name of a Babylonian god when you are a sincere worshipper of the one true and living God, Jehovah. But Satan gloats too soon. It didn’t work and they never forgot all that those Jewish names spoke of.So they were subjected to three heathen influences: their names were changed to names connected with foreign gods; they were subject to a three-year intensive training program in all the learning of the Chaldeans, its subtle arts; and they were to be fed with the king’s food. That last may not seem so bad – palace instead of prison but this eating involved worship to the foreign gods, because the meats and wines had been offered to the Babylonian gods. It is often said that there is nothing bad recorded about Daniel either in this book, or anywhere else in the Scripture, and he is one of very few Bible characters of whom that can be said. The Lord in the inspired word didn't wish anything bad to be said about him. He was a fallible person, as we are, but so great was his faithfulness that his reputation is preserved in every respect.