Alright, now this is lesson two of our three-part study on Judith. This is entitled, Whole of Fair and Years Wars Against the Nations. We're going to tackle chapters one through seven. And we're going to begin by reading really quickly.
Chapter one, verse one, I want to do very quickly some review points where you're based on our lesson last time introducing this book and some of the historical difficulties. So here we're beginning with the historical difficulties right out the gates. It says in chapter one, verse one, in the twelfth year of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, who ruled over the Assyrians in the great city of Nineveh. In the days of our Fox, who ruled over the Medes and Ekbiktana, etc., etc., and we'll read the rest in just a little bit.
Alright, so here we have these little issues going on because the main characters, or at least some of the main characters, are being introduced here, specifically the main royal antagonist Nebuchadnezzar and his first victim, you could call it a victim, or Fox who is king of the Medes and Ekbiktana. Alright, so there is, and I'm having your notes here in parentheses, not parentheses, but quotation marks king, Nebuchadnezzar in quotations, attacks and defeats, quote unquote, king, or Fox who are the Medes and quotations. So these are like, I would call them literary figures or literary characters here because we have some historical difficulties. We introduced this in the last lesson, but it's going to be important, I think, to review it quickly.
Now, and the reason why I want to review it quickly now is because there are some historical difficulties that I want to present. Some people will go to these texts, if you're enemies of scripture, they're enemies of God, and they're going to say, oh, the Bible is contradictory, the Bible is full of errors, one of the biggest examples is the book of Judith because they're introducing Nebuchadnezzar, on our facts and in other situations, and they're clearly historically false, and yet they're presenting it as truth. And if you believe it is a strict history, then you are having to wrestle with some serious difficulties. And so, anyways, you're going to have some individuals who want to tear down scripture, they're going to go to this passage, and they're going to mention it as contradictions or mistakes, and they're going to use it to disprove their veracity of scripture.
So I think it's really important to quickly review this. Now, what are these historical difficulties that we just read here in chapter 1 verse 1? First, this role antagonist is named as Nebuchadnezzar, and he is the king of the Assyrians. However, as I said last lesson, the problem is Nebuchadnezzar, at least the historical Nebuchadnezzar, was king of the Babylonians, all right?
Point 2 says Nebuchadnezzar here, and verse 1 rules from Nineveh, but, however, Nebuchadnezzar's capital was Babylon, never Nineveh. Third point here, the historical time period of this book is when the Jews returned from exile, that would be in 538, and specifically after they rebuilt the temple in 515 BC, it was probably an unknown amount of time after that. We know this from verses like chapter 4 verse 3 and others, and we're going to get there in today's lesson. So the historical time period is well after 515, decades, a decade after 515.
However, the problem is that Nebuchadnezzar, the historical Nebuchadnezzar, reigned from 605 to 562 BC, and he was the one who destroyed the temple in 586 BC. He's not the one who attacked the Jews after the temple was rebuilt, that's a problem. And this fourth little point is that his principal enemy, the first enemy that he attacks right now is King of Fox of the Medes, but no such king is known in history. That doesn't mean he didn't exist, of course, but if you look at all the ancient documents of the ancient Erisian world, or even just Greeks like Thucydides or Herodis or whoever, who are the first historians to recount the deeds and events and names and dates and places of these great empires, he's not known to history at all.
So you can see this is a problem. This is chapter 1 verse 1. So what's the deal here? There are three possible solutions to this.
Either it's fictional history, meaning that the author intended to write a historical fiction. It's all made up. It's a fairy tale. With a point, there's a moral lesson to be learned here, you know, right and wrong, and don't mess with God's people to Jews and whatever the moral tale might be, and there are many of them there.
But it's all purposeful. Like these historical difficulties are purposely intended, the inaccuracies are purposely intended to make it clear that this is not history, or it's just historical fiction, right? That's the first option. It's fictional history.
All right, second option is that it's cryptic history that Nebuchadnezzar will call him the literary Nebuchadnezzar was actually, I should say, the historical Nebuchadnezzar first. He was Israel's greatest historical conqueror. I would say second to Pharaoh himself, right? The Pharaoh of the Exodus, he is like the quintessential enemy of God's people, but Nebuchadnezzar, you could probably argue, that would be an interesting Scottish debate right there.
Scotch and cigars, like is this, who's the quintessential enemy of the Jewish people? Are God's people? Is Pharaoh probably yes? He's the first and the greatest.
Nebuchadnezzar, who comes along and destroys the temple. So that name is used as a substitute for other kings after the Jews return from exile. So his name is used to substitute for these other kings, such as Artaxerxes III of Persia, who ruled in the fourth century, and the dates are right here in your notes, 358 to 338. Or it could be the Greek king Antiochus IV, who ruled in 175 to 164.
So Nebuchadnezzar, who represents the quintessential or one of the major quintessential enemies of Israel, that name is given here for these other people, right? That's cryptic history, as we discussed before. And then finally, people will argue that it is true history in a strict sense. So for example, and you can go to your ancient Catholic study bible and a long commentary on just this first verse for more details on this, but some usurper kings, the commentary points out, did take on Nebuchadnezzar's name, and so the text is referring to that dude, right?
So it is a historical person in a specific historical time. So these are the three options. Now I have no idea. I mean, if you were to pin me to the wall and put a gun to my head and say, choose, I would say it's a combination of B and C.
It is true history, but it's also cryptic history, that the historical Nebuchadnezzar, his name is used for some other king, and it's applicable really to any age, any enemy that comes against God's people, needs to learn the lesson of this book to know that God's people cannot be defeated. And that's really this third point that I have for you in the notes by naming Nebuchadnezzar of Nineveh by combining all these elements of the Babylonian elements, the Babylonian king, the Assyrian elements, and the Assyrian capital, and the Assyrian people by combining all this together, that means that there's something symbolic going on here, right? This clearly is purposeful. I think the author does know for a fact he's not making a mistake because he's an idiot by saying Nebuchadnezzar's king of the Assyrians, really from Nineveh, everybody knows that that's not the case.
So there's something intentional going on here, and you have all these images of these two mega empires who crush God's people Israel in the North by the Assyrians and Judah in the South by the Babylonians. And that's why, when you're combining all this together, you've got yourself a formidable literary enemy, right? So, here's a good quote for you from the end of our Bible on this very point. So the enemy is portrayed as an amalgam of the powers that caused the fall of Israel in later of Judah, the military might of Assyria, and the overwhelming pride of Babylon.
Nebuchadnezzar was not in fact the king of the Assyrians and in above, but he was a prototype of the powerful tyrannical proud ruler, okay? And I think I like that a lot. That makes a lot of sense here. The author is combining the elements of Assyria and Babylon together to give this sense of, wow, here is another enemy going against God's people, but what's going to happen?
And that's really the point of this whole first, this first half of the book, chapters one through seven. Remember I said in the last lesson introducing the book of Judah, it's very easily divided into two halves. Chapters one through seven sets the stage and paints the tension and the suspense of what's going to happen here as whole of Ferene is who is the chief, the commander in chief of Nebuchadnezzar, how is he comes down to the doorstep of the Jews and threatens them? And so as we're going to see throughout this lesson, the tension, the drama, the suspense gets more and more and more intense, right?
That's chapters one through seven. And then so that's represented by this literary Nebuchadnezzar figure combining all the elements of Assyria and Babylon together. You're dealing with a powerful, powerful enemy. I think that's pretty cool actually, right?
So yeah, it's a historical event, but it's also in a very interesting way and everyone's going to continue to wrestle with this until the end of time. In what way is it cryptic specifically? Well, certainly the names are obvious. And what is actually historical that we're just going to have to wait to get to have in order to find out what's going on with that.
So, right. In any case, the second half of this book is going to be the solution to this drama, intention, and suspense, which is of course Judith. All right. So that's what we're going to be looking at today as we go through this.
I just wanted to review some of these points for you. We're going to end on a high point, a cliffhanger. If you want to call it a cliffhanger, what's going to happen? We'll get there really soon.
So let's continue reading on these first few verses now, and we're going to see it all play out. All right. Let's re-reach chapter one verse one and go on. In the twelfth year, the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, who ruled over the Assyrians in the Great City of Nineveh, in the days of Arphoxid, who ruled over the Medes in Epitana.
He is the king who built walls about Epitana. With hewn stones, three cubits thick and six cubits long, he made the walls 70 cubits high and 50 cubits wide. At the gates he built towers 100 cubits high and 60 cubits wide of foundations. He made its gates which were 70 cubits high and 40 cubits wide so that his armies can march out and forth in his infantry form their ranks.
It was in those days that King Nebuchadnezzar made war against Arphoxid and the Great Plain, which is on the border of Rage. He was joined by all the people of the hill country and all those who lived along the Euphrates and Tigris and these plains and those plains and all of the nations joined forces with the kelthians. All right. We'll stop right there.
That's chapter one verses one through six. All right. So here Nebuchadnezzar is attacking Arphoxid, and our Epitana is presented here as in a massively fortified city. This thing seems impregnable.
It's so powerfully strong and defensible, no one can get in yet we're going to see Nebuchadnezzar gets in. So we're going to emphasize Nebuchadnezzar's great power by kind of lifting us like you build up this Arphoxid character only to tear him down really quickly. That's what coaches do, right? Build you up and tear you down to make you stronger.
So our foxid seems like this absolutely invincible character in this king, but Nebuchadnezzar is going to destroy him. So Nebuchadnezzar is like a juggernaut. That's what I'm going to say multiple times throughout this lesson. Nebuchadnezzar and his commander in chief, Haulafarines, they're like this juggernaut.
You can't stop them. They're absolutely powerful. And if they're going to defeat Arphoxid who has a city with these massive walls and gates in this massive army, the question is going to be who can stand against him. And as we're going to see, Judah's going to ask that very question as we move forward.
Okay? So all the nations and peoples of the Eastern territories here join him. They join this massive army making it stronger and stronger as I'm going to point out as I go along. But then in verse seven, Nebuchadnezzar asks the Western countries of the land to join him in his campaign against this Arphoxid character here.
So for example, if you go down to verse eight, those among the nations of Carmel and Gilead and Upper Galilee and the Great Plain of Estrilion and all who were in Samaria and surrounding towns and beyond the Jordan, as far as Jerusalem and Bethany, etc. All these territories that we're familiar with in the Promised Land, plus others surrounding him like even Egypt says, no, you know, all these Western territories are asked by the king really commanded by the king to join his army. And they all say, no, we're not going to do that. We're not going to join you here.
And this is really important. It's going to tee up a nice theme for us. What they say in verse 11 is all those who lived in the whole region disregarded the orders of Nebuchadnezzar king of the Assyrians and refused to join him in the war. For they were not afraid of him, but looked upon him only as one man and they sent back his messengers empty handed and shame-faced.
All right. So they're refusing his commands, but they say it says here that they looked on him as one man. Really a better translation might be they looked at him as a man. He's just a man.
He's just a dude, right? We're not going to be afraid of him. He lives very, very far away, you know, hundreds of miles away. I'm not exactly sure the distance there I could look at up another time, but he's so far away, living in another world-based.
We're not afraid of him. He's just a man. And that's going to introduce a big theme. I'm going to unpack for you in these opening chapters.
Is Nebuchadnezzar just a man or is he? Well, he proclaims himself to be God and is he? He's going to see the hubris and the pride and the divinity that he proclaims himself to be and demands that others recognize of him. But these people here in the western country is especially around Samaria and Judea and all the rest of them.
He's just a man. So that's the big question. Who is Nebuchadnezzar? Is he a god who is to be worshipped and obeyed and you be slaves to him or is he just a man?
And that's what we're going to see unravel here as we go along. I love how it's teed up like that. He's just a man or is he, right? Okay.
So then versus 12, really 13 and following, it says here in the 17th year, Nebuchadnezzar led his forces against King Arphoxet and defeated him in battle and overthrew the whole army of Arphoxet and took his Calaverines and so on and so forth. He went into the city and he basically has total victory. Now if you compare this with the verse 1, it's clear that this took five years. It's because it says in verse 1, it was the 12th year of Nebuchadnezzar.
He started his campaign and in the 17th year he has total victory over Arphoxet. So 17, sorry, excuse me, five years. In the 17th year, after five years, he soundly defeats Arphoxet and he is the king of the hill, right? He's the king of kings.
And that's going to introduce us here to the second section which is now Nebuchadnezzar wants to revenge. He wants revenge against those pesky and subordinate western nations who thought that he was just a man but he thinks he's more than that. So now in the 18th year, if you go down to chapter 2, verse 1, in the 18th year of his reign, on the 22nd day of the first month, there was talk in the palace of Nebuchadnezzar, king of the Assyrians, about carrying out his revenge on the whole region just as he said. He called together all of his officers and his nobles and set them forth, his secret plan and recounted them fully with his own lips, all the wickedness of the region and how it was decided that everyone who did not obey his command should be destroyed.
When he had finished setting forth his plan, Nebuchadnezzar, king of the Assyrians called forth Hellfernes, chief general of his army, second only to himself and then set a bunch of stuff which we're going to get to right now. Okay. Okay. So the text as we go through here, you're going to see over and over again that theme about EZM and or is anymore.
And this text from chapter 2, chapter 3, going all the way through chapter 7 is going to emphasize Nebuchadnezzar's hubris, that self-proclaimed divinity. And this is important for two reasons. Number one, because it's contrasted against God, is God the true God, is Yahweh the God of the Jews, the true God and the creator of the heavens and the earth or is Nebuchadnezzar? Who are you going to serve?
Are you going to serve Nebuchadnezzar? Who proclaims himself to be God and demands worship? Or are you going to reject that pagan dude and you're going to worship God alone, right? So there's a contrast.
This is very much an echo of Exodus as we're going to see many, many times I'm going to take with you. There's all kinds of echoes of Exodus here. Doghweh or is it Nebuchadnezzar in the same way we saw before in the Exodus Bible study? Is it Pharaoh that you're going to serve?
Avad was the word in Hebrew that we saw in that Bible study. Are you going to Avad serve worship Pharaoh or are you going to worship God? Who are you going to serve? Who are you going to serve?
Who are you going to be a slave to? So that's the first contrast here as we're going to see in this Nebuchadnezzar God. Second contrast is going to be Nebuchadnezzar's hubris and pride versus Judith and we're going to introduce her in the next lesson. So hang tight.
But Judith, she is a woman, she is a widow, she is humble, she is wise, she has great, great humility. In fact, she's so incredibly humble and she trusts in God no matter what. The true God, not Nebuchadnezzar, but Yahweh, the true God of her people. So two contrasts here.
Now here's another cool thing here about the symbolic numbers. It says it's in its 18th year of this literary, I just call them a literary Nebuchadnezzar for the sake of argument that it's obvious that this is not the historical Nebuchadnezzar. This is again either cryptic history, it's probably cryptic history stands for somebody else's is what my position is. But check this out here again from your new Bible.
It says the 18th year of Nebuchadnezzar was 587 BC. This is of the real historical Nebuchadnezzar. So the 18th year of his was 587 BC. The very year when Babylonian troops took Jerusalem profane the temple and set it on fire and deported the population or much of the population.
The date is highly symbolic. For the sacred writer, the destruction of the temple of Jerusalem implied that Nebuchadnezzar was assuming the prerogatives of divinity. As can also be seen from the fact that he called himself Lord of the whole earth. And I'm going to take you through some of these verses here.
So that's the end of the quote. So here this is interesting. In Judah chapter 2 verse 1, the literary Nebuchadnezzar begins this campaign against Judah to destroy Judah and the other surrounding Western nations, but primarily for our purposes it's Judah in his 18th reign. But the historical Nebuchadnezzar, it was in his 18th reign that he actually did destroy Jerusalem right and destroyed the temple.
So the question is going to be will it happen again? There's very much a strong echo here in this story here. Just like a historical Nebuchadnezzar destroyed the city of the temple in his 18th year. Now we have in this literary story of Judah, this new Nebuchadnezzar is in his 18th year going to attack Judah in order to destroy it.
So will it happen again? And there's a little bit of just to explain the hubris and the pride in this is that when the historical Nebuchadnezzar destroyed the temple in 586 BC, Nebuchadnezzar is going to see himself as superior to the God of the Jews. This happened again in another connection with Pharaoh of the Exodus. When Pharaoh enslaves the Israelites.
And the Moses comes along and says, let my people go, you know, Yahweh has revealed himself to us. And Pharaoh says in Exodus, who is Yahweh? I don't know him. I don't know Yalim.
I'm not letting the people go. The reason is because if Pharaoh enslaved Israel, that means that Pharaoh is superior to Israel and Israel's God was not strong enough to stand up against Pharaoh, meaning that Pharaoh is greater than Israel's God. Does that make sense, right? Because the God of the Israelites could do nothing to prevent the enslavement of his people.
So Pharaoh who thinks himself to be God is greater than Yahweh. And that's why he says, I don't know him. I don't worship him. I'm back.
I'm greater than him because I've enslaved his people. There's a bit of a parallel going on here with Nebuchadnezzar as well, the historical Nebuchadnezzar. Because what happens is he goes into Jerusalem. He conquers the people, destroys the temple.
So think about that. He is destroying the sanctuary of Yahweh himself. So Yahweh could not defend himself against Nebuchadnezzar. So Nebuchadnezzar thinks he's greater than the God of the Jews by destroying his sanctuary.
You see? So now all these things are going to play here again. Now in the book of Judith, the question is going to be, will Nebuchadnezzar, the literary Nebuchadnezzar here in whole of Erenes be successful in utterly destroying Judah again and enslaving them again, like they once were in many, many years prior, centuries prior, is he going to, is this literary Nebuchadnezzar going to defeat God, right? So you can see it so much at stake that if you're reading this with Jewish eyes, you know, you can begin to see the tension building with all of this.
So now let's go to some of these verses and you'll see what I mean about this hubris. Hey, this is Doc Neck. Thank you so much for listening to this course sample. If you enjoyed it and want to listen to the entire lesson, please become a student over at scriptureandtradition.com where you can listen to this entire course, but also all the other courses that we have available in the S&T audio library where you can listen to them on demand however and whenever you want.
Thank you so much. God bless you and keep studying your Bible.