Treasury of Bible Stories

by Donna Jo Napoli

  These four friends learned fast and grew wise. Daniel came to understand dreams and visions, like Joseph had years before. King Nebuchadnezzar found these four to be 10 times wiser than his wizards and soothsayers.

  One day the king had a terrifying dream. He called together wise men to interpret it, among them, these four Children of Israel. They asked, “So, what was this dream?” The king wouldn’t tell; the wise men must discern the dream on their own. That way the king would be sure that they interpreted it properly. The wise men protested; no one could do that. King Nebuchadnezzar ordered his sages put to death, including the new young Children of Israel.

  Daniel asked the king to give him time to figure out the dream. Then he had a night vision. Afterward he praised the Lord “who rules the days and seasons, who lifts up kings and brings them down, who gives wisdom to the wise, knows the mysteries of the darkness, and dwells in light.” He asked to be brought before the king.

  The king asked, “Can you explain my dream?”

  “In your dream you saw a colossal statue. Its head was gold; its chest and arms, silver; its loins and thighs, bronze; its legs, iron; its feet, part iron and part clay. You saw a stone, hurled out of the blue, shatter those feet. The statue crumbled. The stone grew into a mountain that filled the earth. This is what it means. You are the mightiest king—so you are the gold head. Next will come an inferior kingdom of silver, then a more inferior one of bronze, and finally a kingdom of iron that will shatter the empire, like that rock shattered the statue. That fourth kingdom will not hold together, since clay and iron don’t hold together. God will make another kingdom that will be strong and will endure forever.”

  The grateful king made Daniel governor over the sages, like what had happened to Joseph when he interpreted Pharaoh’s dream that portended seven years of prosperity followed by seven years of famine. Daniel asked that his three friends be made sages, too.

  The king had a gold statue built, 60 cubits high, 6 cubits wide. He had his herald announce that whenever the people heard the horn, bagpipe, lute, zither, lyre, flute, and all kinds of music, they must drop down and worship the king’s gold statue or be thrown into a fiery furnace. The Children of Israel, though, wouldn’t worship the statue; it was against their religion.

  MEASURES OF LENGTH

  Here and in the last chapter we find cubits, a measurement. A cubit is approximately 18 inches (45.72 cm), the length of an adult forearm. Units of length are often based on body parts. The foot is based on a foot; the inch, on the width of a thumb. The meter is an exception. Defined in 1791 as one ten-millionth the distance from the Equator to the North Pole, today it is the length of the path traveled by light in a vacuum in 1/299,792,458 of a second.

  Whenever the people heard music, they were to bow down in worship to the gold statue. But the four Children of Israel in the king’s employ refused. So the king had three of them thrown into a fiery furnace. Somehow four appeared there, unharmed—one divine in appearance.

  The king called forth Daniel’s three friends. (Where Daniel was right then, no one knows.) He’d burn them up if they didn’t obey. The friends refused. The king had a fiery furnace prepared, seven times hotter than usual. It was so hot that those servants who threw the three friends into the fire burned up themselves.

  The king jumped up in astonishment. “What? I see four men walking in the fire. The fourth looks divine.” He called out to the three he had seen thrown in, each by name. “Come out!” Those three came out, unsinged, unharmed. The king declared that their God was true.

  Years later, when Nebuchadnezzar’s son Belshazzar was king, he held a feast. In a drunken stupor, he and his friends drank from the gold and silver vessels that Nebuchadnezzar had stolen from the temple in Jerusalem. Bad mistake! A disembodied hand appeared and wrote on the palace wall. King Belshazzar’s face went dark, his loins went slack, his knees hammered. He called out, “Whoever can interpret this writing shall wear royal purple and have a golden collar and rule a third of the kingdom.” But no one could do it. The queen spoke of Daniel, who had a reputation for interpreting dreams.

  Daniel said he didn’t want a robe or collar or part of the kingdom. He would interpret the writing out of respect for old Nebuchadnezzar, Belshazzar’s father. King Nebuchadnezzar had started out good—Daniel remembered that—but the king had become haughty as he grew mighty and wound up being turned out by God like a beast, to live among the wild donkeys and chew the grass, until he finally became humble. “You, King Belshazzar,” said Daniel, “you saw this happen to your father. You should have known better. You should have been humble.” Instead, the young King Belshazzar had drunk from the holy vessels.

  Daniel read what the Lord had written on the wall. “Mene mene teqal ufarsin—those are the words. Mene means ‘count’—your days are numbered. Teqal means the weight of the money ‘shekel’—you have been weighed. Ufarsin has within it the sound of peras, which means ‘break apart’—your kingdom has been broken.”

  The astonished Belshazzar clothed Daniel in royal purple with a gold collar and gave him rule over one third of the kingdom.

  That night the king was slain.

  Darius, a Mede, became the next king, a good king. He made Daniel one of three overseers of the officers. Daniel did so well, that the king thought of promoting him to top overseer. That sparked jealousy among the others. The officers tried to find a way to bring down Daniel. But Daniel seemed to have no flaws. They had to trap him—and the best trap was through his religion.

  They told the king, “You should issue a binding edict that for 30 days anyone who petitions any god or man other than you will be thrown into the lions’ den.”

  King Darius had the edict put in writing.

  Daniel prayed to God three times a day, as always. Of course, the officers denounced Daniel to King Darius.

  King Darius cared for Daniel. He searched for a way to spare him. But a binding edict cannot be revoked. The officers threw Daniel into the lions’ den and pushed a huge stone over the mouth of the den.

  That night the king couldn’t eat. He couldn’t sleep. At dawn he rushed to the lions’ den and shouted to Daniel.

  What do you know, Daniel answered. He was alive! “Oh, King, live forever. God’s messengers shut the lions’ jaws.”

  Darius saw this as proof that Daniel was blameless before God and king. Darius ordered Daniel’s enemies thrown into the lions’ den. His next edict told the people to fear and tremble before the true God, Daniel’s God.

  Thus did the Children of Israel prosper in the time of Darius. In the time of Cyrus, who followed Darius, they built the second temple in Jerusalem, to replace Solomon’s, which King Nebuchadnezzar had plundered.

  King Darius’ officers threw Daniel into the lions’ den because he refused to stop praying. But when the king went to check the next morning, Daniel was sitting, safe and whole, among the close-mouthed lions.

  Many places mentioned in these stories do not appear on the map because their geographical reality is unknown. Some of those places are of major importance, such as the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. We have therefore included the Dead Sea, even though it is not mentioned in the stories, because it is believed that Sodom and Gomorrah may have been located near the northwestern tip of that sea. Tradition has it that the appalling behavior of Sodom and Gomorrah caused the sea to die. Note also that over time rivers change their course. The placement of the rivers on this map are merely suggestions based on geography today.

  of Early Civilizations in the Near East and Bordering Areas *

  10,000–8000 B.C.E.

  The earliest building we have evidence of is in southeast Turkey. It is believed to have served as an enormous sanctuary for periodic meetings of people who probably came from far and wide.

  Circa 9300 B.C.E.

  Early village farming communities gradually popped up here and there. One of the earliest was to the north of Jericho, where people cultivated wild emmer (a kind of wheat).

/>   9000–7000 B.C.E.

  Sheep were domesticated in Mesopotamia, between the Euphrates and Tigris Rivers, giving a reliable source of milk, meat, and wool.

  Circa 8500 B.C.E.

  The now extinct cattle known as aurochs were domesticated in southeast Turkey. They were believed to have been aggressive and large (standing nearly a foot taller than modern large cattle).

  8400–8100 B.C.E.

  Human settlements pop up all across the south of Turkey.

  Circa 8000 B.C.E.

  The bezoar ibex, a kind of goat, was domesticated in Iran.

  Emmer, durum, and einkorn wheat were domesticated in Ethiopia, Syria, and Turkey.

  7000 B.C.E.

  A large agricultural settlement was built in northern Iraq.

  7000–4000 B.C.E.

  Pottery was fired to the southwest of Nineveh.

  The potter’s wheel was invented in Mesopotamia.

  6000–4300 B.C.E.

  Sailboats were first used in Mesopotamia.

  6000 B.C.E.

  Irrigation (supplying water to farmland) was used in Mesopotamia and Egypt.

  5500 B.C.E.

  Large-scale agriculture began in the south of Mesopotamia. The same happened along the Nile River.

  5100 B.C.E.

  Mesopotamians built temples to the gods.

  4500 B.C.E.

  Cities grew up in the Shushan area and along the Nile River.

  4000 B.C.E.

  Wooden plows were used in Mesopotamia, speeding up the rate at which fields could be tilled and increasing the number and kinds of areas that could be planted.

  Egyptians made bread using yeast for the first time, gradually revolutionizing the way bread would be made across the world.

  The wild African ass was domesticated in Egypt and Mesopotamia, leading to donkeys. They became the most important carriers of humans and other loads, and they helped in agriculture.

  The city of Ur was founded.

  3500–3000 B.C.E.

  Wheeled vehicles were used in Mesopotamia. This invention changed the history of humankind, ranging from agriculture to travel to machines of various types.

  Cities formed in Egypt.

  3300 B.C.E.

  Earliest hieroglyphics appeared in Egypt. These were largely pre-writing forms, used for keeping records (of taxes, for example) but not for telling narratives (a written account of events).

  3100 B.C.E.

  Upper and Lower Egyptian Kingdoms united into the first large nation in the world.

  3000 B.C.E.

  Sumerians developed the cuneiform writing style of wedge-shaped symbols. Before this, the marks in clay were mostly pictorial. At this point, cuneiform writing changed to narratives that reflected spoken languages.

  Dromedaries, one-humped camels, were domesticated in Somalia and southern Arabia and used mostly for transportation.

  2560 B.C.E.

  The Great Pyramid at Giza was completed.

  2500 B.C.E.

  Camels were domesticated in central Asia.

  The Assyrians in Mesopotamia, in the areas that are now northern Iraq and southeastern Turkey, were so organized in their system of government and commerce that some archaeologists call them a state.

  2334–2154 B.C.E.

  The Akkadian Empire thrived in Mesopotamia.

  2300–300 B.C.E.

  Canaanites, also known as Phoenicians, were a mix of indigenous settled and nomadic groups that inhabited the Eastern Mediterranean coast. Their languages formed a family (the Semitic family), the only surviving daughter today being Hebrew. From 1600 to 1360 much of Canaanite land was an Egyptian colony. They invented the world’s first alphabet, which gradually replaced cuneiform writing. From about 1500 to 500 B.C.E. this civilization spread across the Mediterranean, bringing their alphabet with them.

  2111–2004 B.C.E.

  The Third Dynasty of Ur, the last Sumerian dynasty in Mesopotamia, was in this period. The Elamites destroyed Ur in 2004 B.C.E.

  2052–1570 B.C.E.

  Middle Kingdom in Egypt.

  2004–1763 B.C.E.

  The Ammonites established city-states in Mesopotamia.

  1830–1531 B.C.E.

  Babylon (an Akkadian-speaking city) became an empire in 1830 B.C.E. and was finally sacked in 1531. After that point, the city was under the rule of many other groups of people, including the Assyrians and the Elamites. The sixth king of the First Dynasty was Hammurabi, famous for establishing a set of law codes that detailed penalties for crimes, known as the Code of Hammurabi.

  1600–1200 B.C.E.

  Hittites established an empire in Turkey that spread south into Mesopotamia and somewhat along the coast. They struggled with the Egyptian Empire and the Middle Assyrian Empire, and eventually the Assyrians took over much of their land, while the Phrygians took over the rest.

  1500–1077 B.C.E.

  New Kingdom in Egypt.

  1366–609 B.C.E.

  The Middle Assyrian Empire was established in 1366 B.C.E. It grew enormously. From 911 on, it is known as the Neo-Assyrian Empire. It was the largest empire of the world, spanning across the ancient Near East (Western Asia) into the Arabian Peninsula and North Africa.

  1300 B.C.E.

  This was the start of the Iron Age, with iron smelting (heating and melting) in Turkey. The Assyrians were the first people to use iron weapons, which helped their empire grow.

  1279–1213 B.C.E.

  Pharaoh Ramses II ruled Egypt. In the ancient capital city of Pi-Ramses, on the Nile Delta, there was a dramatic climate shift from warm and wet to dry. Scientists speculate that the Nile current, which had been rapid, now turned slow. The river became muddy and thick with algae. If this happened, many creatures would have been affected and some might have died in great numbers, including frogs. The population of insects, such as flies, mosquitoes, and lice, would have grown rapidly, and could have caused diseases in livestock and boils on people.

  Additionally, on the Greek island of Santorini, one of the biggest volcanic eruptions in history took place. The air around the eastern half of the Mediterranean Sea would have been full of ash, causing hail and darkness and even locusts.

  Some scholars argue that these two natural disasters coincide with the 10 plagues when Moses led the Children of Israel out of Egypt.

  Circa 1020–980 B.C.E.

  King David of the Hebrew Bible might well have been a monarch during this period.

  722 B.C.E.

  Assyria conquers the northern kingdom of Israel.

  620–539 B.C.E.

  Nebuchadnezzar’s father established a dynasty in Babylon in 620 B.C.E. Nebuchadnezzar ascended to the throne in 605 B.C.E. and managed to expand the kingdom to include Phoenicia and various Assyrian provinces.

  600 B.C.E.

  The Babylonian calendar was devised, based on 12 cycles of the moon (known as lunar cycles).

  586 B.C.E.

  Babylon conquers Judea and destroys the temple, and exiles Israelites to Babylon.

  539 B.C.E.

  Persia conquers Babylon and allows the Israelites to return and rebuild the temple.

  * This timeline mentions the names of farming areas and cities of ancient times as well as modern place-names.

  ADAM

  Book of the Bible: Created in Genesis 2:7 and is a figure through his long life, which ends in Genesis 5:5.

  Known for: Being the first man, the husband of Eve, and the father of Cain, Abel, and Seth.

  EVE

  Book of the Bible: Created in Genesis 2:22, from Adam’s rib. There is no mention of her after Genesis 4:1.

  Known for: Eating forbidden fruit from the Tree of Knowledge in the Garden of Eden. She was the first woman, wife of Adam, mother of Cain, Abel, and Seth.

  CAIN

  Book of the Bible: Appears in Genesis 4:1 and mentioned last in Genesis 4:17.

  Known for: Being the first son of Adam and Eve and slaying his younger brother Abel out of jealousy.


  ABEL

  Book of the Bible: Appears in Genesis 4:2 and is killed in Genesis 4:8 by his older brother.

  Known for: Being the second son of Adam and Eve and taking care of animals.

  NOAH

  Book of the Bible: Appears in Genesis 5:29 and dies in Genesis 9:29.

  Known for: Finding favor in the eyes of the Lord, when other humans did not. Noah, his wife, and his three sons with their wives built the ark that saved humankind, land creatures, and fowl from the flood.

  ABRAM (ABRAHAM)

  Book of the Bible: He appears in Genesis 11:26, has his name changed to Abraham in Genesis 17:5, and dies in Genesis 25:8.

  Known for: Being told by the Lord to go to Canaan and prosper. Also, for being told that his descendants would suffer in another country, but emerge triumphant.

  SARAI (SARAH)

  Book of the Bible: Appears in Genesis 11:29, has her name changed to Sarah in Genesis 17:15, and dies in Genesis 23:2.

  Known for: Being the wife of Abraham and the mother of Isaac. She was buried in a cave in Canaan.

  LOT

  Book of the Bible: Appears in Genesis 11:31. The last we hear of him is in Genesis 19.

  Known for: The fate of his wife, who turned to a pillar of salt because she disobeyed the Lord and looked back as they fled the burning cities of Sodom and Gomorrah.

  HAGAR

  Book of the Bible: Appears in Genesis 16:1 and the last we see of her is in Genesis 21:21.