Who Are The Medes in Daniel?

Who are the Medes in Daniel?

Daniel chapter two portrays a succession of kingdoms represented by metals that compose a great statue. The gold head of the statue is Babylon, the chest and arms of silver are a second kingdom, the midsection and thighs of bronze are a third kingdom, and the legs of iron are a fourth. The stock dispensational, Evangelical interpretation is that the second kingdom is Media-Persia, the third is Greece, and the fourth is Rome. Why does academic scholarship instead hold that the second kingdom is Media, the third is Persia, and the fourth is Greece? The nation of the Media became a powerful enemy of Babylon just to its east, but before the Medes could capture it, they themselves were conquered by the Persians, who went on to defeat Babylon. However, the prophetic books of Isaiah and Jeremiah had both predicted that Babylon would be conquered by the Medes. Isaiah 45 further says that the conqueror was Cyrus, who did conquer Babylon but who was actually was Persian. Daniel 5:31 says that “Darius the Mede” was the one who triumphed over Babylon. In the next couple of studies, we will try to sort out who did what when, and determine the succession of empires in the book of Daniel.