The Most High God vs. Nabû: A God of Letters, Wisdom, and Fate Who Can(not) Read, Understand, or Foretell
Sanghwan Lee
Abstract:A natural reading of Daniel 5 clearly depicts the Jewish deity as humbling an arrogant pagan king, Belshazzar, through the Judahite sage, Daniel. This article suggests that a second but not mutually exclusive interpretation is possible in light of the story’s Mesopotamian background. According to this reading, the author of Daniel 5 used the traits of Nabû to subvert the well-known Babylonian belief that Nabû was the tutelary deity for the Babylonian kings. By rendering Nabû completely powerless before the Jew… Show more
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