Medes

In the Bible

• Origin: "Madai," listed as a son of Japheth in Genesis 10:2, is the same Hebrew word (Madai) used for Media and the Medes. For this reason Madai has traditionally been regarded as the ancestor of the Median people, who belong to the line of Japheth in the Table of Nations.
• Settlement of Israelite exiles: According to 2 Kings 17:6 and 18:11, after Assyria captured Samaria, the Israelites were carried away and placed "in the cities of the Medes" (see Fall of the Northern Kingdom of Israel).
• Instrument of judgment on Babylon: Isaiah 13:17 and 21:2 and Jeremiah 51:11 and 51:28 prophesy that God would stir up the Medes against Babylon.
• Daniel: Of the words written on the wall, "Peres" is interpreted to mean that the kingdom is "given to the Medes and Persians" (Daniel 5:28). Then "Darius the Median took the kingdom" (Daniel 5:31). In the account of Daniel in the Lions' Den in chapter 6, "the law of the Medes and Persians, which altereth not" is central to the story. Daniel 8:20 interprets the ram with two horns as "the kings of Media and Persia."
• Persian period: In Ezra 6:2, the decree for rebuilding the temple is found "at Achmetha, in the palace that is in the province of the Medes." Esther 1:19 and 10:2 pair Persia and Media as though they were the name of a single kingdom.
• New Testament: At Pentecost, "Medes" were among those who heard the gospel in their own language (Acts 2:9).

Historical Background

The Medes were an Iranian people who lived on the plateau of present-day northwestern Iran. Their chief city, Achmetha, known in Greek as Ecbatana, is identified with the area around modern Hamadan.

In the late seventh century BC the Medes allied with the Neo-Babylonians against Assyria. They are generally thought to have taken part in the fall of Nineveh around 612 BC, although the book of Nahum, which concerns the fall of Assyria, does not mention the Medes by name. After Cyrus of Persia defeated the Median king around 550 BC, Media became part of the Persian Empire. The Medes are nevertheless known to have retained high positions within the empire, which helps explain why the Bible names "the Medes and Persians" together.

Significance in Scripture as a Whole

The Medes figure in the downfall, in accordance with the will of God, of the great powers that had taken Israel captive. The prophecy that the Medes would overthrow Babylon, together with its fulfillment, illustrates the Old Testament theme that God governs the history of the nations. This sequence of events leads to the end of the Babylonian Exile and to the Return from Exile. In the New Testament, the Medes appear among the audience at Pentecost, forming part of the scene in which the gospel reaches the scattered peoples.

Interpretation and Debate

• Darius the Mede: This figure is difficult to identify with certainty in extrabiblical records, and views differ as to who he was. Some conservative interpreters identify him with Gubaru (Gobryas), a governor under Cyrus; others read Daniel 6:28 as "Darius, that is, Cyrus," taking Darius as another name for Cyrus. Historical-critical scholars tend to regard him as a later literary construction or the product of confused historical memory.
• The four kingdoms in Daniel: Traditional and conservative interpreters read the four kingdoms of Daniel 2 and 7 as Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, and Rome. This reading treats Media and Persia as a single kingdom (the one ram of Daniel 8:20). Many critical scholars, by contrast, separate them, reading the sequence as Babylon, Media, Persia, and Greece. The difference is bound up with differing positions on the date of the book of Daniel and on the nature of prophecy.

In the Korean Church

The Medes are mentioned chiefly in sermons and Bible studies on the book of Daniel, especially on the lions' den account, usually in connection with the phrase "the law of the Medes and Persians."