Who Is Darius the Mede?

from Google Images

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.