One of the problems we have today, when we try to identify some of the ancient kings who are mentioned in the Bible is that we often misapply appellatives, especially when we come to the eastern kings. For example, no one today would try to tell anyone that the appellatives, Caesar or Pharaoh, were the names of men. Rather, they are titles that are used to identify certain powerful men, similar to how we say President Truman, or President Nixon etc. We would never say “President” was Truman’s first name. Nevertheless, this is what we do, when we come to some of the books of the Bible, such as: Daniel, Ezra, Nehemiah and Esther. Nearly, always scripture uses the titles of the Medo-Persian rulers, never their names, the name, Cyrus, being the sole exception.
We left off our study of Daniel in chapter five and verse-31, which claims Darius the Median (or Darius the Mede, see Daniel 11:1), conquered Babylon, implying that he slew its last king, Belshazzar (Daniel 5:30-31). Nevertheless, history has no record of a king by the name of Darius who made war with Babylon. So, who is Darius (Daniel 5:31; 6:1; 11:1)? As I alluded to above, Darius is a title, like Caesar, Pharoah or even President (as we used the title today). Consider what Dr. E. W. Bullinger wrote:
“It must be noted that the confusion which has hitherto been experienced arises from the fact that appellatives have been mistaken for proper names; to say nothing of the confusion arising from their transliteration or translation into other languages.
“These appellatives are, like Pharaoh and Abimelech, the general titles of a line of kings, such as the modern Czar, Sultan, Shah etc. Hence:
“AHSUERUS means “the Mighty” and “is the name, or rather the title, of four Median and Persian monarchs” (Kitto, Bib. Encycl. I, p.91). “In every case the identification of the person named is a matter of controversy”. See The Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th (Cambridge) edition, vol. I, p.429.
“ARTAXERXES means Great King, or Kingdom, and is synonymous with Artachashast (Arta = Great, and Kshaatza = Kingdom, preserved in the modern “Shah”)…
“DARIUS means the Restrainer (Her. VI. 98); or according to Professor Sayce, the Maintainer. DARIUS “appears to be originally an appellative meaning ‘king’, ‘ruler’”, (Herbelot, Biblioth. Orient., Article ‘Dara’); Herodotus (VI. 98) renders it Erxeies = Coercer. “It was assumed as his throne-name by Ochus (= Darius Nothus), son and successor of Artaxerxes Longimanus (Catesias, de Reb. Pers., 48, 57, Muller)”. See Kitto, Bib. Cycl., vol. I, p.625. XERXES, in his inscription at Persepolis, actually calls himself “Darius”; one paragraph beginning “Xerxes the great king, and the next beginning ‘Darius the king.’”[1]
Thus, we are able to understand that the Darius of Daniel[2] isn’t the name of a king but it is the title of a king. We are able to understand from the text that he is a Median king, but he is also allied with Persia (Daniel 8:20). From history we are able to understand that it was Cyrus of Persia (cp. Daniel 10:1), who was allied with Darius the Mede, and together they conquered Babylon. Some ancient sources make him to be Astyages, the King of the Media, and make him to be the grandfather of Cyrus the Great, but this relationship is rejected by modern scholarship.
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[1] Dr. E.W. Bullinger The Companion Bible: Appendix 57.
[2] Daniel 5:31; throughout chapter 6; 9:1 and 11:1.
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