Video from Scripture Through Ancient Eyes
Daniel 4: Nebuchadnezzar's Fall - Part 2 (6 of 23)
"Did Nebuchadnezzar really go crazy or is this just a legend? What about the Dead Sea Scrolls and the book of Daniel? What influence does Daniel have on the book of Revelation?" from video introduction
The Madness of King Nebuchadnezzar
In Toronto, at the Royal Ontario Museum (if you haven’t visited you really should) are two square clay building blocks with an inscription stamped upon them reading, “Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, who provides for (the temples) Esagila and Ezida, the eldest son of Nabopolassar, king of Babylon, am I”. King Nebuchadnezzar II of Babylon was a prolific builder. According to some sources, Nebuchadnezzar’s workers used over 15,000,000 bricks in his building projects and almost all of them carried the same inscription.
Nebuchadnezzar was keenly aware of Egyptian Pharaoh’s and Mesopotamian monarchs who had been erased from the historical record by envious and resentful successors. The Babylonian king would not allow the same thing to happen to him. No one could ever take credit for his greatest work, the rebuilding of the great capital of Babylon but the man whose name and esteemed royal parentage was pressed into the very walls and foundations of everything he built.
For this reason, Nebuchadnezzar bricks are a relatively common sight at ancient history museums around the world. At the Metropolitan Museum of Art (MET) in New York City is a dedication cylinder inscribed with cuneiform writing. It is one of many that have been found underneath Nebuchadnezzar’s building projects. The one at the MET commemorates Nebuchadnezzar’s construction of a new outer city wall and it reads in part, “I built a strong wall that cannot be shaken with bitumen and baked bricks… I laid its foundation on the breast of the netherworld, and I built its top as high as a mountain… The fortifications of Esagila and Babylon I strengthened and established the name of my reign forever.”” The world’s museums contain many other examples of Nebuchadnezzar’s self-glorification.." from the article: The Madness of King Nebuchadnezzar
