Daniel 1:1

The book opens with a synopsis of the first Jewish deportation in 605 B.C. (cf. 2 Kings 24:1-2; 2 Chronicles 36:6). [Note: D. J. Wiseman, The Chronicles of the Chaldean Kings, pp. 25, 46-47, and 66-69, validated this date.] Daniel and his three friends were part of the nobles and royal families taken from Jerusalem as captives then. We know nothing more about Daniel’s family background. Apparently he lived apart from his family in Babylon (cf. Daniel 1:11-13). Perhaps the Babylonians killed his parents, but this is only speculation.

The date of this deportation by Nebuchadnezzar (605 B.C.), as Daniel recorded it, was the third year of King Jehoiakim’s reign (Daniel 1:1). However, Jeremiah wrote that the first year of Nebuchadnezzar’s reign (605 B.C.) was the fourth year of Jehoiakim’s reign (Jeremiah 25:1; cf. Jeremiah 46:2). Many critics of Daniel have seized upon this apparent contradiction and have tried to discredit this prophecy. [Note: E.g., J. A. Montgomery, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Book of Daniel, pp. 113-16.]

Scholars have proposed several solutions to this problem. [Note: See Longman and Dillard, pp. 376-77.] The best one, from my viewpoint, is that Daniel wrote from the Babylonian perspective and Jeremiah from the Jewish. It would have been only natural for Daniel to do so since he spent virtually all of his life in Babylon. The Babylonians considered the first year of their kings’ reigns as the accession year, the year they acceded to the throne. That "year" sometimes lasted only a few months. The first regnal year, the first full year of their reign, began with the first day of the new civil year. For the Babylonians this was the first of Nisan (late March and early April). This is the accession-year system of dating. [Note: See Jack Finegan, Handbook of Biblical Chronology, p. 202.]

Jeremiah was writing from the Jewish perspective. During the reigns of Jehoash to Hoshea, the Jews also followed the accession-year system. However, the Jews began their civil years on the first of Tishri (late September and early October). This explanation harmonizes these references. [Note: Archer, "Daniel," pp. 31-32. Cf. Walvoord, pp. 30-31; and Leon J. Wood, The Prophets of Israel, p. 344.] Other conservative scholars have offered other ways of resolving this problem that they, too, regarded as only an apparent contradiction. [Note: E.g., Leupold, pp. 47-55; E. R. Thiele, The Mysterious Numbers of the Hebrew Kings, p. 166; Culver, p. 772; and Pentecost, pp. 1328-29.]