Daniel 4:25

25. Kuenen ( Onderzoek, 2:487, note 5) discredits entirely this story of Nebuchadnezzar’s temporary insanity, but most modern scholars, including some of the leading Assyriologists, believe, notwithstanding the silence of cuneiform documents, that some tragedy such as is described here clouded the end of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar. Josephus, quoting from the Babylonian historian, Berosus, refers thus to the illness of Nebuchadnezzar: “Nebuchadnezzar falling into a state of weakness, altered his (manner of) life when he had reigned forty-three years, whereupon his son, Evil-merodach, obtained the kingdom.” Eusebius also, quoting an earlier author, says: “On a certain occasion the king went up to the roof of his palace and after prophesying the coming of the Persian, Cyrus, and his conquest of Babylon, suddenly disappeared.” Professor Prince, a reliable Assyriologist, after quoting these statements, points out that they all agree that Nebuchadnezzar was at one time seriously afflicted, either bodily or mentally, while the two non-biblical records agree in the statement that this disturbance was directly followed by his “disappearance,” that is, his retirement from public life. “Nothing is known regarding the death of Nebuchadnezzar, nor indeed is there any record in the cuneiform literature of his son, Amel-Marduk (Evil-merodach), except three contracts which are dated in the first year of the reign of this king” (Prince, Daniel, 1899).

This disease, which is generally acknowledged to have been “insania zoanthropica,” is well known to physicians. Sir Resdon Bennett, in his small but valuable book on the Diseases of the Bible, affirms the accuracy with which the symptoms of the disease commonly known as lycanthropy are here described; the demented person always imagining himself to be some animal the voices and actions of which he will attempt to imitate. David Yellowlees, M.D., lecturer on insanity in the University of Glasgow, believes, however, that this illness was not lycanthropy, but an attack of acute mania, which in its extreme forms “exhibits all kinds of degraded habits such as stripping off and tearing of the clothes, eating filth and garbage of all sorts, wild and violent gesticulations, dangerous assaults, howling noises, and utter disregard of personal decency. The patient often is liker a wild animal than a human being. These symptoms merely show the completeness of the aberration, and do not at all indicate a hopeless condition. On the contrary, they are seen most frequently in the cases which recover” ( Pulpit Commentary, 1897). Dr. Yellowlees states that, when uncomplicated, recovery usually takes place “in seven months” which is a remarkable parallel to the “seven times” of Daniel 4:32. (See note Daniel 4:15-16). Another specialist on insanity has pointed out that the best possible treatment for such melancholia is the one indicated here, namely, to let the patient live out-of-doors, without employing any restraint whatever, mechanical, chemical, or manual. He states that the few hints given here concerning Nebuchadnezzar’s recovery and expression of excessive thankfulness afterward are all true to life, this narrative containing “one of the most beautiful and concise descriptions of the premonition, the onset, the course and the termination of a case of insanity that is recorded in any language” ( Popular Science Monthly, 1895, pp. 416-429). The cuneiform records contain no statement concerning Nebuchadnezzar’s madness. However literal this account may be, such mention ought not to be expected. There is not an insane or wicked king mentioned in all the royal records of Egypt or Babylon. Certain old Jewish commentators suggested that Daniel, as chief of the Magi, probably reigned during the king’s madness, and they sometimes indulge in strange stories of Nebuchadnezzar falling from the palace roof after hearing God’s voice and being miraculously guided to the wilderness, where he remained until Daniel, seven years after, sent the army and his nobles to hunt for him. Such stories are purely imaginary.