Dual identity

Daniel and his three associates each had two names – a Jewish and a Babylonian. Jim Jordan points out in his recent commentary that the Jewish names are used when the men pray and the Babylonian names when they advise the king. They apparently have no moral qualms about this dual identity, this divided political and social self.

But it’s striking that in chapter 2 Daniel interprets the king’s dream as “Daniel.” Nebuchadnezzar addresses him as Belteshazzar (2:26), but it’s as “Daniel,” the Jewish prophet, that he receives the answer to the mystery of the king’s dream (2:17-24). Daniel takes on the identity of Belteshazzar before the king, but he still speaks in the name of the “God of heaven” (2:37).