The Missing Link – Part 1

TimeWatch Editorial
January 16, 2017

The history of nations, beginning in the year 605 B.C is clearly defined in the book of Daniel. We see the beginnings of the Babylonian super power as Nebuchadnezzar took control of the Global Empire. According to ducksters.com History website,

“After the fall of the Akkadian Empire, two new empires rose to power. They were the Babylonians in the south and the Assyrians to the north. The Babylonians were the first to form an empire that would encompass all of Mesopotamia. The city of Babylon had been a city-state in Mesopotamia for many years. After the fall of the Akkadian Empire, the city was taken over and settled by the Amorites. The city began its rise to power in 1792 BC when King Hammurabi took the throne. He was a powerful and capable leader who wanted to rule more than just the city of Babylon. Not long after becoming King, Hammurabi began to conquer other city-states in the area. Within a few years, Hammurabi had conquered all of Mesopotamia including much of the Assyrian lands to the north.” Ancient Mesopotamia, The Babylonian Empire; ducksters.com History website

You might be curious as to the reference made regarding the Akkadian Empire. The first reference to this can be found in the book of Genesis, chapter 10 and verse 10. Here is described the birth of Nimrod and the beginning of his kingdom.

Genesis 10:8 - And Cush begat Nimrod: he began to be a mighty one in the earth.

Genesis 10:9 - He was a mighty hunter before the LORD: wherefore it is said, Even as Nimrod the mighty hunter before the LORD.

Genesis 10:10 - And the beginning of his kingdom was Babel, and Erech, and Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar.  

You should notice that there is a difference in the spelling of the name Akkad. According to the Web Bible Encyclopedia, Accad, also spelled “Akkad” Means the high land or mountains. The Web Bible Encyclopedia continues:

“The Accadians who came from the “mountains of the east,” where the ark rested, attained to a high degree of civilization. In the Babylonian inscriptions they are called “the black heads” and “the black faces,” in contrast to “the white race” of Semitic descent. They invented the form of writing in pictorial hieroglyphics, and also the cuneiform system, in which they wrote many books partly on papyrus and partly on clay. The Semitic Babylonians (“the white race”), or, as some scholars think, first the Cushites, and afterwards, as a second immigration, the Semites, invaded and conquered this country; and then the Accadian language ceased to be a spoken language, although for the sake of its literary treasures it continued to be studied by the educated classes of Babylonia.”Accad, the Web Bible Encyclopedia

The Web Bible Encyclopedia introduces an interesting racial element into the conversation, but for now we will forgo that part of the research in order that we might continue to pursue the matter at hand. Following the Babylonian Empire which was dominant from 605 to 539 B.C, we encounter the Persians in the year 539 B.C. The story of the Persians is well documented in the narrative that describes the assault upon the city of Babylon via the river Euphrates. Lead by Cyrus, the army drained away the bulk of the water from the river, which allowed the soldiers to march down the river bed and into the gates that were left unsecured that were supposed to shut out anyone or anything that might attempt to enter via the river. Babylon was a well secured city. Listen to how Stephen N Haskell, The Story Of Daniel The Prophet describes the city.

“Imagine a space (we must imagine it; for no such spot existed before, and has not existed since); -- imagine this space containing two hundred and twenty-five square miles, situated in a fertile plain, wrought up by expert cultivation to the superb production of ornamental trees and shrubs; fragrant flowers, and substantial fruits, till the whole became a veritable paradise, as the garden of the Lord; imagine this space laid out in a perfect square, watered by the magnificent Euphrates, and surrounded by a wall eighty-seven feet thick and three hundred and fifty feet high, fifteen miles in length on each side, and the great square of the whole area of the city, subdivided into lesser squares by twenty-five streets running from each side of the city, parallel with the opposite walls, and at right angles with each other, and adorned with palaces, porticoes, columns, colonnades, towers, monuments, and hanging gardens, arrayed with everything that art could embellish or money and labor produce, to make a spot pleasant to the sight and touch and every bodily sense.”Stephen N Haskell, “The Story Of Daniel The Prophet” p. 11.

Belshazzar was so confident in the safety of his city, that even though there was a threat outside the city he was engaged in his feast, without any concerns. We know how this ended, with the Persians taking control. From 539 B.C the Persians dominated the global scene. But they didn’t start with the conquest of Babylon, the three ribs in the mouth of the Bear in Daniel chapter 7 represents the Persian’s conquering of Egypt in 568 B.C and Lydia in 547 B.C. The Persians dominated until 331 B.C when the Greeks took control. What must be recognized is that with the passage of each kingdom, the influence remained for instance,

“Wherever Babylon laid her hand in conquest, the principles of her religion were implanted. The vilest forms of worship were practiced in that kingdom with all its outward glory. The heart was rotten. The mystery of iniquity held full sway, hidden by the outward glitter of gold. The mysteries of Greece in a later day were but a repetition of the Babylonian mysteries.”Stephen N Haskell, “The Story Of Daniel The Prophet” p. 63.

Notice how this principle of inheritance has continued and will continue.

“When Medo-Persia fell, she left her principles of government, education, and religion still alive, transmitting them to her posterity, the nations of earth. Greece did likewise, and with each succeeding empire those foundation principles, so clearly portrayed in Babylon, which were placed there by the prince of the power of the air, instead of appearing in a weakened state, sprang into life with renewed vigor. So it was that when the fourth kingdom appeared, those same principles of government, which were the counterfeit of heaven's underlying principles, were so strong that no natural beast could symbolize even pagan Rome.”Stephen N Haskell, “The Story Of Daniel The Prophet” p. 106.

We will continue in the next editorial.

Cameron A. Bowen