It seems that chapter 5 of Daniel is in fact historically accurate.
The biblical “story” tells us that there was a king named King Belshazzar, even though this king was already forgotten by the people in the 5th century B.C. It takes more than a thousand years for archeology to prove that the Bible accurately recorded not only the name of this forgotten king, but also his political status right before his kingdom fell.
Chapter 5 of the Book of Daniel also describes the fall of the Babylonian empire in simple and accurate terms: “That very night Belshazzar, king of the Babylonians, was slain, and Darius the Mede took over the kingdom”. It was the same night when Belshazzar held a huge festival. The kingdom was gone overnight, and that was it!
What is it in chapter 5 of Daniel that makes us feel that it cannot be historical? Probably it is verse 5:
“Suddenly the fingers of a human hand appeared and wrote on the plaster of the wall, near the lampstand in the royal palace. The king watched the hand as it wrote.”
Someone may conclude right away on reading this verse that chapter 5 of Daniel is fictional. It may means to teach a good lesson to people, but it cannot be real. Why? Because it describes a supernatural event, and that automatically disqualifies it from being a real historical event.
But how can we explain the historical accuracy of the other parts of the story? Can we just take away the supernatural part of the story and claim that that part is a latter addition by some unknown editor of the Book of Daniel?
We cannot take away the supernatural part of the story and keep the rest. In fact, that part is so important that taking it away will break the whole story into unrelated bits and pieces.
The big party that King Belshazzar held is described from verse 1 to verse 4. The king and the thousand party goers were having great time and praising their Babylonian gods. They even brought in the gold goblets from the temple of God in Jerusalem to drank wine from them. Everything changed abruptly when the supernatural finger appeared as described in verse 5. The king was completely terrified. His face turned pale, knees knocking, and his legs became weak. Then verse 7 to verse 17 describes how Daniel was brought in to interpret the writings of the finger. Verse 18 to 28 describes how Daniel rebuked the king for being arrogant against the Creator, and Daniel’s interpretation of the writings of the finger. Verse 29 recorded that the king kept his promise to promote Daniel to become the third ruler of Babylon. Verse 30 and 31 recorded the sudden fall of the Babylonian kingdom.
As we can see, the supernatural finger and its writing are the most important parts of the story. It tells us why there was a sudden change of the atmosphere in the king’s party, why Daniel was needed, and it also explains why God put an end to the Babylonian kingdom at that time.
Therefore, we cannot break the story apart and isolate the supernatural part from the rest of the story. They have to come together. If we agree that the historical accuracy of chapter 5 of Daniel is fairly convincing, then we have to consider this possibility: can the supernatural part of the story be also historical?
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