Footnote

b In an article entitled “The Last Days of Babylon,” D. J. Wiseman, head of the Department of Western Asiatic Antiquities of the British Museum, describes the discovery of a stone monument, inscribed in Babylonian, which gives King Nabonidus’ own account of events during his reign over Babylonia. In this monument, the Harran stele, King Nabonidus of Babylon makes reference to the king of the Medes in the year 546 B.C.E., which was some years before Cyrus the Great had absorbed the Median Empire. Quite properly, then, the prophets Isaiah and Jeremiah refer to Babylon’s conquerors as “Medes.” Though Daniel’s prophecy speaks of the kingdom of Darius the Mede, it does not mean an independent Median kingdom, with its capital at Ecbatana, after Babylon fell. Wiseman’s article was published in Christianity Today, Volume II, No. 4, November 25, 1957.