Deeper Reflection
Daniel and his friends, along with others, were “educated for three years” in “the literature and language of the Chaldeans” (vv.4-5). At the heart of this Babylonisation is “spiritual reprograming”, for “the fundamental goal of the whole procedure” was “to obliterate all memory of Israel and Israel’s God from the lips and minds of these young men, and to instill into them a sense of total dependence on Nebuchadnezzar for all of the good things in life”¹¹.Nebuchadnezzar’s intent was that Babylonian myths and legends would replace the Scriptures as the source of these youths’ wisdom and worldview.¹² Nehemiah contended vehemently with the Jews who married foreign women that resulted in their children speaking foreign languages, and “none of them was able to speak the language of Judah [Hebrew]” (Neh 13:23-25). Nehemiah’s fear was that the next generation of Israelites would not be able to read the Scriptures. Satan does the same spiritual reprograming today. Living in the real world, we inevitably need to learn and know the contemporary “language and literature of the Babylonians”, but we must be armed with biblical discernment into its falsehood, flaws and follies.Surely, the Babylonian names of the four Judahite youths were mostly used in their daily life. But they never forgot God, whose name was embedded in their Hebrew names. At the core of their being, their Hebrew names stood up most prominently, although their Babylonian names were most frequently used. As for Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah, even when their Babylonian names were used, their God was “the God of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego” (Dan 3:28).

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¹¹ Iain M. Duguid, Daniel, Reformed Expository Commentary (P&R, 2008),9 ¹² Iain M. Duguid, 9