 On Monday's show, we talked about the mysteries surrounding earthquake island off the coast of Pakistan. While reading through the history of Pakistan, I stumbled across a historical figure called Darius the Great. This name was super familiar to me because in the book of Daniel, in the Bible, there is reference to a king Darius. Now many people will tell you that Darius in the Bible is not the same as Darius the Great. Darius in the Bible is referred to as Darius the Mead. While Darius the Great is, well, Darius the Great. But the term mead comes from a particular area, a Persian area, which is what Darius the Great ruled over. Oh, and the timelines add up as well. But before we go any further, you know what to do. Please hit that subscribe button and give us a like. As always, a very, very, very special thank you to all of our producers and our patreons. Without you, we could not do what we do. So thank you so, so, so much. If you would like to join our Patreon community, there is a link down in the description box below. Welcome to Esoteric Atlanta. My name is Bryce, and today we are going to be talking about the King of Kings. Book of Daniel is about Daniel. Daniel was a Jewish boy who was captured by King Nebuchadnezzar when Babylon invaded Jerusalem. He took back Daniel and a few other young boys of royal blood to work in his royal court. Daniel, like Joseph, a biblical figure we've also studied on this channel, had the ability to interpret dreams. The Book of Daniel also has the story of Meshach, Shedrach, and Abindigo, the three friends of Daniel who were thrown into the pit of fire and were saved by God. Daniel is known for being thrown into the Lion's Den, and it was King Darius that threw Daniel into the Lion's Den. Daniel chapter 6 says it pleases Darius to point 120 satraps to rule throughout the kingdom, with three administrators over them, one of whom was Daniel. The satraps were made accountable to them so that the king might not suffer loss. Now Daniel so distinguished himself among the administrators and the satraps by his exceptional qualities that the king planned to set him over the whole kingdom. At this the administrators and the satraps tried to find ground for charges against Daniel and his conduct of government affairs, but they were unable to. They could find no corruption in him because he was trustworthy and neither corrupt nor negligent. Finally these men said we will never find any basis for charges against this man Daniel unless it has something to do with the law of God. So the administrators and the satraps went as a group to the king and said oh King Darius, live forever. The royal administrators, prefects, satraps, advisors, and governors have all agreed that the king should issue an edict and enforce the decree that anyone who prays to any God or man during the next 30 days except to you oh King shall be thrown into the lion's den. Now oh King issued this decree and put it in writing so that it cannot be altered in accordance with the laws of the Medes and the Persians which cannot be repealed. So King Darius put the decree in writing. Now when Daniel learned the decree had been published he went home to his upstairs room where the windows opened towards Jerusalem. Three times a day he got down on his knees and prayed giving thanks to God just as he had done before. Then these men went as a group and found Daniel pray and asking God for help. So they went to the king and spoke to him about his royal decree. Did you not publish a decree that during the next 30 days anyone who prays on any God or man except to you oh King would be thrown into the lion's den? The king answered the decree stands in accordance with the laws of the Medes and the Persians which cannot be repealed. Then when they said to the king Daniel who is one of the exiles from Judah pays no attention to you oh King or to the decree which you put in writing. He still prays three times a day when the king heard this he was greatly distressed. He was determined to rescue Daniel and made every effort unto sundown to save him. Then the men went as a group to the king and said to him remember oh King that according to the law of the Medes and the Persians no decree or edict that the king issues can be changed. So the king gave the order and they brought Daniel and threw him into the lion's den and the king said to Daniel may your God whom you serve continually rescue you. A stone was brought and placed over the mouth of the den and the king sealed it with his own signet ring with the rings of his noble so that Daniel's situation might not be changed. Then the king returned to his palace and spent the night without eating and without any entertainment being brought to him and he could not sleep. At the first light of dawn the king got up and hurried to the lion's den. When he came near to the den he called to Daniel in an anguished voice. Daniel's servant of the living God has your God whom you served continually been able to rescue you from the lions. Daniel answered oh king live forever my God sent his angel and he shut the mouths of the lions. They have not hurt me because I was found innocent in their sight nor have I ever done anything wrong before you oh king. Basically when Darius came into Babylon and took over control he brought with him a lot of his government officials. Now people don't ever really change because shockingly all of his government officials were corrupt. They were stifling money from taxes for themselves bending the law to suit their needs. When Darius decided to make Daniel this Jewish boy from Judah ahead of all of his government officials they realized that the gig was up they could not continue to scam the people in their corrupt ways with a man as righteous as Daniel and so they concocted a way to get Daniel out of the king's favor by creating a month where king Darius himself would be celebrated only. Of course Daniel being faithful to his God would not be participating in the celebration which got him thrown into the lion's den which of course as we just read he survived. Now in my opinion this Darius that is spoken about in the book of Daniel is the exact same Darius the Great from our history books the one we spoke about on Monday. Now one of the big differences is that the list of rulers in the book of Daniel the ones that Daniel serve are not in the same order as the historic list of rulers because we know the Bible was altered because we don't have the original source copy of the book of Daniel. To me this is easily explained either somebody at the council of Nicaea tried to mix the names up and the timelines up in order to confuse us over the true story or there was a simple mistranslation in the order but regardless of that again I do believe that this is the same king Darius. King Darius the Great or king Darius the First was called the King of Kings. The term King of Kings is mentioned six times in the Bible. It's mentioned in 1st Timothy 615 Ezra 712 Ezekiel 267 Daniel 237 and Revelation 1714 as well as Revelation 1916. This term King of Kings was a term that was typically used by the Persians by the Middle Easterners. They were the shaws of shaws. They were the emperors over all of the land which they ruled. Other kings were to bow down to them. It is believed that Darius the Great was born around 550 BC. We know that he died in 486 BC. Darius the Great took the throne in 522 BC by possibly overthrowing its rightful heir. The story of him usurping the rightful heir has been under much scrutiny over the years. In the Middle East there is a mountain called Mount Bajistan. I hope I'm saying that right. Please forgive me if I am not. Now Mount Bajistan has a huge inscription that was done by Darius himself. This inscription talks about the Achaemedid dynasty. The Achaemedid dynasty was the dynasty of Darius the Great. Now this is definitely an autobiography that was created by Darius in modern day Iran. It has three languages, Elamite, Old Persian, and Babylonian. Here we see Darius creating his own lineage. And he writes down the events that happened after the death of Cyrus the Great. He claims that he is the rightful king by his god Ahura Mazda. Darius the Great is the eldest son of High Staspis. His father High Staspis was a satrap. As spoken about in the Bible, he was a high government official. Darius the Great himself was of the aristocracy and potentially according to his own autobiography was of royal blood. His mother was also from a very powerful family who owned a bunch of land. After Cyrus the Great died he passed down his throne to his son Cambiasus II. Cambiasus II took after his father and went off to annex more land to this empire. In 525 BC Cambiasus defeated the Pharaoh in Egypt. He stayed in Egypt for three years. And according to Darius, Cambiasus had his own brother killed before he went off to battle in Egypt. His little brother was a guy named Bairdia. Now a bit like the story of King Henry VIII, Cambiasus was wounded in Egypt during his battle. And over the three years that he stayed in Egypt, he ended up going crazy from a septic infection in the wound. This ended up killing him. Without any brothers to claim the throne, Darius claims that a usurper named Gulmada claimed to be Bardia. Apparently these two people looked a lot of like. But according to Darius the Great, he knew. He knew that that was not Bardia but that was a usurper who was trying to take the power. And so Darius being Darius the Great made sure that he had this usurper executed. At this point the nobles decided that they needed to find a new ruler. Legend has it that they had all the people who were qualified to take the position line their horses up in the morning. The first horse to nay was the one carrying the rightful heir. Now many people say that Darius hired someone to tickle basically the nuts of his horse to make him nay, causing them to crown Darius the new king of kings of this empire. The Achaemenid Empire was considered to be the first Persian empire that Darius claimed was founded by Cyrus the Great. This empire became so powerful that basically you could say all roads led to Persia. And its greatest territorial expansion happened under Darius. And it just so happens that Darius made the capital Babylon. That's right the same Babylon where we see Daniel thrown into the lion's den by the new ruler Darius. Now in his autobiography he claims that he himself as well as Cyrus the Great and his sons were all descendants of Achaemenides which is where they get the name of this empire. According to his own lineage he claims that Achaemenides was his three times great grandfather. Achaemenides had a son named Tysipus. Tysipus had two sons Cyrus the First which is the leader of the main lineage and Aramaeus. Aramaeus is the line of Darius. Aramaenus had his son Aramees and Aramees had his son Hystepus and he had Darius. But just to make sure Darius was indeed of the same lineage as Cyrus the Great he made sure to marry three of Cyrus's female relatives. Now other proof in my mind that these two Darius's are the same person is that Darius the Great was known for setting up a bureaucracy within his empire. He set up travel routes and appointed governors of certain areas. The exact same thing he did with Daniel. And besides the questioning around his actual heritage and lineage and maybe the fact that he lied about how he got on the throne it does seem that Darius was a pretty good ruler. Now if you missed our video on Monday I will place it down in the description box below. But I want to hear from you. A few weeks ago we looked into the archaeological evidence that Joseph, Jacob's son was in fact in Egypt by showing archaeological evidence of his tomb. And so I want to hear what you think. Do you think that this is the same Darius as mentioned in the book of Daniel? Do you think this is yet another piece of evidence that brings these biblical stories to life? Let me know your thoughts down in the comment section below. Thank you again to Josh McKay for doing our opening music. If you would like to purchase the opening song there is a link down in the description box below. Thank you to Todd Roderick for helping me get this video out to you all today. I hope that you guys are having a wonderful day and I will talk to you soon.