Is Belshazzar Nebuchadnezzar's son?
This is a good question which comes from the book of Daniel where Belshazzar is referred to as the son of Nebuchadnezzar. The question arose when historians found evidence that Belshazzar was actually Nebuchadnezzar's great-grandson. This is not an error of scriptural facts. It was, and still is, in many eastern nations, customary to refer to your ancestors as Fathers. A matter of fact, there is no word in Aramaic or Hebrew (the languages in which the book of Daniel is written) for the term "grandfather". This use of the word "father" can be seen in New Testament passages such as Matthew 3:9 where John the Baptist said, "And do not think you can say 'we have Abraham as our Father.'" The same is also true for grandsons and other descendants who are often referred to as sons. This can be seen in Matthew 1:1 where Matthew refers to Jesus as the "son of David, the son of Abraham." We know from extra-biblical sources, such as Josephus, that there were in fact a number of kings after Nebuchadnezzar; the last being Nabonidus who is the father of Belshazzar. Belshazzar was ruling in his father's stead at the time Daniel's prophecy. This corroborates with Jeremiah's prophecy when he said, "All nations will serve him and his son and his grandson until the time for his land comes; THEN many nations and great kings will subjugate him (Jeremiah 27:7)." In this portion of Jeremiah's book (27:1-29:32) he was speaking against false prophets who were teaching that Babylon was going to be over-thrown in the near future, by prophesying that such an uprising would not take place for at least three generations; nor would God tolerate such an uprising. If Belshazzar was the immediate son of Nebuchadnezzar, this would contradict Jeremiah's prophecy. [mp]
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Michael D'Urbano
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