The Book of Daniel: The Coloring Collection

From the fall of 2020 into 2021, my church started a study of Daniel as a way to navigate both the political landscape in the US. The research for this study was some of the most rewarding, delving into the culture and ways of ancient Babylon and Persia, details for each representation are spelled out in the individual images! You can download below.

Daniel 9:18-19 - Trust

Daniel intercedes on behalf of his people, here dressed in more Persian attire as well as his Hebraic colleagues.

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Daniel 9:16-17 - Ask

Daniel, interceding on behalf of Jerusalem, here dressed a little more Persian than Babylonian as Daniel 9 does indicate that this was during the rule of Darius.

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Daniel 9:4-15 - Complain

Daniel offers up complaint and confession on behalf of Israel, citing their walk away from their God.

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Daniel 8:27-9:3 - Turn

Daniel, in anguish over some of the visions he was receiving turns to the only One who could sustain him through such heavy burdens. This segues into his prayer of confession and lament in chapter 9. The first week of advent we focus on turning to God in lament through the prophets eyes.

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Daniel 2:46-49 - Promotion 2

Daniel interprets Nebuchadnezzar’s Dream and is promoted along with his three friends. Note not all of the kings court is thrilled about this...

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Daniel 2:31-45 - Kingdom Dream

King Nebuchadnezzar's dream is unpacked. Daniel unloads not only the contents of the dream, but its meaning: the God of heaven will ultimately step in to set things right and rule like no kingdom of man has ever done.

To depict this, I based the statue itself off King Gilgamesh, whose ancient epic tale tells of his start as a cruel and despotic king of Uruk. I thought he would make a good analogy for the kingdoms of men, particularly as they are founded on cruelty, death and the repression of fellow mankind.

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Daniel 2:25-30 - Daniel Before The King

Daniel is brought before King Nebuchadnezzar by the Commander, Arioch, who introduces him as the man who can do the impossible. Daniel is quick to draw the attention back to God who is the source of all knowledge but in particular this knowledge of an unknown dream. Here, Daniel is portrayed as a wiseman with Arioch and Nebuchadnezzar. They stand before the great Babylon, here depicted with its famous hanging gardens as the backdrop.

Interesting side note, archaeologists believe that the famed hanging gardens may have actually been located on Nineveh. Most of the reports of the gardens were from ancient Greeks who would have easily confused the cities of Nineveh and Babylon. They’ve never found any structures or evidence of the gardens at the dogs that continue to excavate on location in Iraq. Finally, Nineveh (north up the river from Babylon) was known for its irrigation and gardens, which they even wrote about themselves.

Still, the gardens are most associated with Nebuchadnezzar’s city, so we’ll just go with it for now.

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Daniel. 9:1-19 - Prayer Of Confession

Daniel prays for his people, his nation, even as he does so from the middle of Babylon, some 800 miles away (via the Fertile Crescent route they would have taken) from the city of Jerusalem, which by now lay in ruins. Interestingly, the things he confesses and prays for forgiveness about are things he would have been much too young to participate in himself back in the home land. There is a place to pray in confession for the sins of a nation. He in no way passes the blame to someone else, even to those who actually did the sins mentioned in his prayer. Here he is depicted praying openly on the rooftop in what I imagine Babylon could have looked like around Daniel's house.

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Daniel 2:19-24 - Dream Prayer

Daniel receives word of the execution order being carried out by the Babylonian Commander, Arioch. He prays, receives the dream and interpretation from God, and goes directly to the Arioch to spare the lives of all the magicians and wisemen in the city. Daniel acted for the good of all those around him, for the good and welfare of his new home, completely at the mercy and grace of God for the one thing that would make the difference between life and death.

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Daniel 2:1-13 - Dreams & Threats

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Daniel 1:17-21 - Promoted & Preserved

As Daniel and his friends stand before King Nebuchadnezzar, they are shown to be wiser and more knowledgeable in a variety of areas, including vision and dreams, something the magi of that area would have been considered experts! Here, I have reconstructed the throne room of Nebuchadnezzar, to some degree, taking his outfitting and personal grooming from carved reliefs of the king, and the 4 young men from depictions of the Babylonian court, with some imagination thrown in to fill in the gaps. The throne room itself takes its shape, features and decorating from actual panels still in existence (Pergamon Museum in Berlin), creatures depicted in Babylonian reliefs (the bird-man behind the throne) and some reconstruction that has happened on site in Iraq. There will always be room for and a need of imagination as we only have pieces, but this should at least give some idea of what this scene may have looked like.

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Daniel 1:3-16 - Resolved

Daniel, before the Babylonian eunuch, Ashpenaz, requesting to eat a vegetarian diet over the excessive dishes and wines offered in the Chaldean court. The eunuch and the steward over the Jewish exiles took a chance on them, but after it all they proved to be healthier and wiser than the others. Here they are depicted in a Babylonian kitchen showing some of their cooking methods, design motifs, and even some dishes like Zamzaganu and lamb with juniper berries. Ashpenaz himself is taken from an amalgamation of Assyrian and Chaldean eunuch depictions.

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Daniel 1:1-7 - Exile

Aletheia church is starting a series into the book of Daniel. This is an exciting venture visually because the worlds of Babylon and Persia which are rich and colorful. To start, this is Daniel and his friends being shipped to the land of Shinar, the ancient city of Babylon. Here are some of the archaeological and cultural details of interest:

To get there, they would have gone through the Ishtar Gate, which you can actually go see at the Pergamon Museum in Berlin: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ishtar_Gate#/media/File:Ishtar_Gate_at_Berlin_Museum.jpg

The walls were covered in blue glazed brick and featured

Lions: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ishtar_Gate#/media/File:Vorderasiatisches_Museum_Berlin_003_(cropped).jpg

Sirrush (Dragons): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ishtar_Gate#/media/File:Mushkhusshu,_il_drago-serpente_raffigurato_sulla_porta_di_Ishtar_-_Pergamon_Museum,_Berlin.jpg

and Auroch (Bulls): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ishtar_Gate#/media/File:Close-up_of_Ishtar_Gate_tiles,_Pergamon_Museum_3.jpg

The Jewish being marched into the city as well as the garb of the Babylonian guards comes from a series of reliefs (flat wall carvings) depicting just that:

Babylonian noble (guard): https://www.dreamstime.com/ancient-babylonia-assyria-sculpture-mesopotamia-palace-image126315822

Jewish captives in Babylon: https://the-scriptures.co.uk/studies/topical-bible-studies/bible-studies-by-mike-glover/isreals-captivity-return/