Who was Daniel in Daniel chapter 6?

Answer 1

The Book of Daniel says that Nebuchadnezzar made Daniel second to him in the Babylonian Empire but, later, his son and successor, Belshazzar, did not know Daniel. However, circumstances caused him to place Daniel as third, after himself, in the empire. On the very same night as Daniel's appointment, Darius the Median captured the Babylonian kindgom. Because Darius was impressed with Daniel's demeanor, Chapter 6 says that he then made Daniel second only to himself in the Persian Empire.

But chapter 6 must be looked at in the light of history. History say it was not Darius, but Cyrus the Great who conquered Babylon. It was not Belshazzar who was defeated, but King Nabonidus. A man of high standing in both the Babylonian and Persian kingdoms, as Daniel described himself, could not possibly have made these mistakes. And there is no record among either the Babylonian or Persian archives of Daniel ever holding high rank in either empire. In Daniel chapter 6, Daniel found himself the second-in-command to Darius, managing the day to day affairs of the largest empire the western world had ever known, but not so in history.