Cottonwood report. [volume] (Cottonwood, Idaho) 1893-1901, 1898-04-01

| ON Fact.
| Did the myste:iols handwriting on the
| wall ever really appear, or is II only a
| Biblical legend? If it did appear. was 1t
| a miracle or an inscription produced
by human means and the work of con-
| spirators? If it was miracle, why was
| 1t written in characters and words that
| could not be understood by those to
| whom 1t was intended as warning?
| In either case, why was 1t that in the
| whole kingdom there was but one man
who could read it's hidden meaning-and
| was his Interpretation of it correct? Was
Daniel, after ALL really the great prophet
| that the world has believed him to be, or
was the author of this book of the Old
| Testament merely clever story teller?
! Prof. John Dyneley Prince, who occupies
the chair of Semitic languages and COM
parative philosophy in the New York
| university, has spent many years in the
study of the Book of Daniel. His
answers to the foregoing questions are
given in the following article in the New
| York Herald:
| Every reader of the Bible Is familiar
with the story of the feast of Belshazzar
and the mysterious writing which APP
| peared upon the wall as warning to the
last king of Babylon. The sentence has
always been considered one of the most
obscure of the many difficult scriptural
passages which have awakened the inter-
est and baff1ed the ingenuity of scholars
Indeed, up to the present decade no really
satisfactory explanation of the inscrip-
ton has ever been attained. Even if it
be admitted that the events described in
the fifth chapter of Daniel actually oc-
Cured, there are still two striking diff
culties presented by the Biblical record;
first, the true meaning of the sentence
and second, the reason why the writing
was unintelligible to those present.
The Bible thus d. 5cribes how 1t came
to appear on the wall:
| Now it was not strange that they could
| not read it, for If the mysterious in
scription had appeared in Babylonian
characters, 1t Is easy to explain the in
ability of the king and his lords and even
of the most skilled scribes of the time
to decipher the writing. For the charac-
| tiers might have indicated either syllables
or whole words. The first group of let
ters might, for instance have had fifteen
different meanings, and the other char
acters might likewise have been inter-
preted in a variety of ways. Then, again,
in such an inscription 1t makes wonder
full difference how tho characters were
written, for by writing them with no
spaces between or spaces in the wrong
places 1t could easily have made the
sentence an almost undecipherable puzzle.
The Biblical account is very graphic.
Dumfounded and amazed the great
assemblage sat as they gazed with fear
Queen bethought herself of Daniel and
addressed Belshazzar, saying:
Then Belshazzar, the king made great
feast to a thousand of his lords and drank
wine before the thousands. Belshazzar while
he tasted the wine, commanded his servants
to bring the gold and silver vessels which his
father. Nebuchadnezzar' had taken out OF the
temple in Jerusalem, that he, his princes MS
wives and concubines might drink therein.
Thus they drank wine and praised the gods
of gold of silver, brass iron, wood and stone.
In tha Ga ms hnRPra q
hand and write over against the wall, and
the king the part of the hand that wrote.
Then his countenance changed and his thoughts
troubled him that the joints of his loins
trembled and his knees smote one against the
other And he cried aloud to bring in the
astrologers and the soothsaycrs. And the king
spake and said to the wise men Of Babylon:
'Whosover shall read this writing and show
me the Interpretation thereof shall be clothed
in scarlet and have gold chain about his
neck and shall be the third ruler in the king
DOM
Then came in all the wise men, but they
could not read the writing nor make known
! to the king the Interpretation of it. Then was
Belshazzar greatly troubled and his lords were
astonished.
In the kingdom in whom is the spirit of the
holy gods, and in the days of thy father light
and understanding and WISDOM Oh tne gois
was found in him, whom thy father made mas
ter of the magicians, astrologers, Chaldeans
and soothsayers. Forasmuch an excellent
spirit and knowledge and understanding, in
terpreting of dreams and showing of hard SEN
fences and d:sso,ving of doubts were found in
the same Daniel now let Daniel be called
and he will solve the interpretation"
Then was Daniel brought in before the king,
who said to him, II have heard of thee, that
thou canst make interpretations and dissolve
doubts. Now If thou canst read this writing
and make known to me the Interpretation
thereof, thou shat be clothed in scarlet and
have a gold chain about thy neck and shalt
| be the third ruler in the kingdom
! Then Daniel answered: Let thy gifts be
to myself and give thy rewards to another.
known to you the Interpretation. o, thou king,
| the most high God gave Nebuchnezzar, thy
father kingdom and a majesty and glory
and honor. But when his heart lifted
up and his mind har ened in pride he was de-
posed from his kinsIy throne and they took
his glory from him. And he was driven from
| the of men and his heart made like
the beasts and his dwelling with the wild
asses. They fed him on grass, like oxen, and
| his body wet with the dew of heaven till
! he knew that the most high God ruled over
| the kingdom of men and that he appointeth
| over it whomsoever he will.
"And thou, his son, o. Belshazzar, has not
humbed thine heart, although thou knewest
| all this But hast lifted up myself against
the Lord of heaven and brought the vessels
OF his house before thee, and thou and thy
| lords, thy wives and concubines have drunk
wine in them and thou hast praised the gods
of silver, of gold, of brass, iron, wood and
stone, which see not, nor hear, nor know, and
| the God in whose hand thy breath is and
| whose are all thy ways thou hast not glorifed.
| Then was that part of the hand sent from him,
and this is the writing that written:
i
90 MEME, MEME, TEKEL UPHARSIN.'
And this is the Interpretation of the thing:
| Meme God has numbered thy kingdom and
| finished 1t; 'tekel' thou art weighed in the
balances and art found wanting: 'peres,' thy
kingdom Is divided and given to the Modes
and Persians"
And in tibet night BelsAaazar the king
Of the Chaldeans. slain and Darius the Median
| took the king dom.
Now was this Interpretation correct?
Ages have passed since the biblical rec
ord of that famous feast was written,
and the searching of modern science has
been turned upon these mysterious words.
| This is what they really meant: There
have been counted nina, a shekel and
parts"
The meaning of the phrase is as fol-
| lows: The NINA" was the name of the
| largest Babylouian weight and. being
| the largest. might have been used an an
allusion to the great king Nebuchadnez-
Ear. The "shekel." on the other hand,
| was only one-sixtieth as valuable as
nina, and might have been used as the
| symbol of Belshhazzar, whom the author
| considered to be the unworthy son and
| successor of the founder of the Babylon
! ian empire. The parts meant two half
minas. thus referring to the division of
the kingdom between the Modes and Per-
SLAMS. The sentence would mean, there
| fore: "There have been counted Nebuch-
| adneZzar, Belshhazzar and the Modes and
Persians."