Dura

Biblical Text

Dura is a place name that appears only once in Scripture, in Daniel 3:1. The KJV renders the phrase "the plain of Dura, in the province of Babylon." King Nebuchadnezzar made a golden image sixty cubits high and six cubits wide and set it up there. He then summoned the officials of every province to its dedication. The king commanded that, at the sound of the musical instruments, all should fall down and worship. However, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, Jewish officials from Judah, refused to bow; for this they were cast into the fiery furnace, from which they were delivered. The full account is treated in the article The Fiery Furnace.

Background

Dura lay within the territory of the Babylonian Empire during the period of the Babylonian Exile. Because Daniel 2:4b through chapter 7 is written in Aramaic, the place name occurs in the Aramaic portion of the book. A widely accepted view connects the name with the Akkadian word dūru, meaning "wall" or "enclosed place." Several Mesopotamian place names are known to have contained this word, so the exact location of the Dura of Daniel remains undetermined. Many place it near the city of Babylon, but scholars propose different candidate sites. The ruins of Dura-Europos on the Euphrates in Syria share only a similar name and are regarded as a different place from the Dura of Daniel.

Significance in Scripture as a Whole

The plain of Dura is the place where the state's demand to bow before something other than God came into direct conflict with a faith that refused it. The scene is read in connection with the commandment of the Ten Commandments forbidding the making of images or bowing down to them (Deuteronomy 5:6–10). In the New Testament, Hebrews 11:33–38 speaks of those who through faith "quenched the violence of fire," and many interpreters see an allusion to the fiery furnace in this passage. The scene in Revelation 13:15, in which those who will not worship the image of the beast are to be killed, is also frequently compared with the plain of Dura because of its similar pattern.

Interpretation and Issues

• Identity of the image: The text speaks only of "an image of gold." It does not say whether the image represented a Babylonian god or Nebuchadnezzar himself, and interpreters differ on this point.
• Dimensions and material: The ratio of height to width does not fit a human figure. Some therefore take the stated height to include a pedestal, while others regard the image as a pillar-like column. As for the material, many interpreters understand it as gold-plated rather than solid gold.
• Interpretation of the numbers: Some sermons connect the numbers sixty and six with the Babylonian sexagesimal system or with the number 666 in Revelation 13:18. These connections, however, are not stated in the text itself.
• The absence of Daniel: Various conjectures have been offered as to why Daniel does not appear in this scene, but the text gives no explanation.
• Date of composition: Conservative scholars regard the Book of Daniel as a record from Daniel's own time in the sixth century BC. Historical-critical scholars date it to the period of Seleucid persecution in the second century BC and read the story as a work written to encourage persecuted readers.

In the Korean Church

In Korean preaching, "the plain of Dura" is often invoked to describe an uncompromising faith in the face of the world's demands for idolatry. The scene is also sometimes likened to the experience of those who resisted compulsory Shinto shrine worship during the Japanese colonial period.