Catholic Word of the Day: DARIUS, 02-04-10

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DARIUS

1. Called Darius the Great (Darius I), he ruled Persia 522-486 B.C. Many of his achievements were recorded on the limestone cliffs above Behistun (Ezra 5). He followed an exemplary policy of toleration toward the Jewish captives in Babylon and gave them practical help in their efforts to restore the Jerusalem temple. The work was completed in the early years of his reign (Ezra 6:6-12, 15); 2. Darius the Mede. Appears in the Book of Daniel as King of Babylon succeeding Belshazzar. Details of his life are contradictory (Daniel 5:31). Apparently he gave great authority early in his reign to Daniel (Daniel 6:1-3) but eventually was goaded into consigning him to the lion's den. Daniel's miraculous escape added to his prestige and his enemies' confusion (Daniel 6:22-29).

All items in this dictionary are from Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary, © Eternal Life. Used with permission.

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Old Testament history herein.

Two people named Darius?

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Catholic Word of the Day – links will be provided later by another FReeper.

 

Monogamy	Sanctoral Cycle/Proper of the Saints	Prinknash
Gift of Knowledge	Nine Offices	Imputability
Thesis	Hypapante	Evangelist of Mary
Grace of God	Morality of Dancing	Priest
Henotheism	Creationism	Incommunicable Attribute
Homoousios	Credence	Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament
Baptism	Darius

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Earlier Catholic Words of the Day

Monogamy	Sanctoral Cycle / Proper of the Saints	Prinknash
Gift of Knowledge	Nine Offices	Imputability
Thesis	Hypapante	Evangelist of Mary
Grace of God	Morality of Dancing	Priest
Henotheism	Creationism	Incommunicable Attribute
Homoousios	Credence	Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament
Baptism	Darius

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There were a couple of major and some minor Darius-es, according to my “Greek and Persian Wars” CD set. The second Darius was not actually a lineal descendant of the first.

The Persians were a great power fairly late in the Old Testament period, but they made things happen there for a while. The Books of the Maccabbees go into a lot of interesting detail, and some of the events are also covered in Greek sources.