Daniel 1

In Week 1 of our Daniel study, we will not enter any specific Reformed differences.

One thing that may be interesting to expand upon though is the description of Babylon. We want to get a clear picture of what this city was like as we'll deal with it a lot in our study. Already in Day 1 on page 11 Babylon is described. Beth Moore writes, "At one time her outer garment was 56 miles of impenetrable walls...Towering above the wall was a 650-foot glimmering enamel ziggurat eerily reminiscent of the tower of Babel."

Ziggurats were used in the time of ancient Babylon. They were temples in the form of a pyramid tower. This pyramid tower had a number of stories to it and on the outside there was a staircase winding all the way around it, giving the appearance of a series of terraces.

The picture above is a photo of a model of Babylon. The tall building is a temple and a ziggurat. I hope that helps us get a better picture in our minds of what Babylon looked like.

Beth Moore mentions how the ziggurat that Daniel would have seen in Babylon is "eerily reminiscent of the tower of Babel." It is thought that the tower of Babel was constructed in the form of a ziggurat.

This picture shows actual ruins from the city of Babylon. Can you believe it? These are the real bricks used in an actual city that existed over 2,000 years ago. And these pictures on the brick are the same pictures Daniel and his friends saw in the city. They lived, worked, and walked around this stuff every day. How cool to see little pieces of that today!