Plain of Dura

Biblical Text

The plain of Dura appears in Daniel 3:1. King Nebuchadnezzar made a golden image sixty cubits high and six cubits wide and "set it up in the plain of Dura, in the province of Babylon." The cubit was an ancient unit of length based on the distance from the elbow to the fingertips.

The king summoned the provincial governors and officials to the dedication of the image. He commanded that when the music sounded, everyone was to fall down and worship, and that anyone who refused was to be cast into a burning fiery furnace (Daniel 3:2–6). Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, officials of Judean origin, refused to bow and were thrown into the fire as a result. Yet they came out alive and unharmed. This episode is known as the fiery furnace incident (Daniel 3:8–30).

Background

The story is set during the Babylonian exile, when the people of Judah were carried off to Babylon. This portion of Daniel 3 is written in Aramaic rather than Hebrew.

Some scholars connect the name "Dura" with an Akkadian word meaning "wall" or "fortress." Several places in Mesopotamia are known to have borne this name. Some proposals locate the site near the city of Babylon, but no location has been established. It is considered distinct from the Syrian archaeological site of Dura-Europos.

The image's height and width stand in a ratio of ten to one. Interpretations differ: some suggest it was a statue set on a tall pedestal, while others suggest it was shaped like a pillar or obelisk.

Wider Biblical Significance

The plain of Dura symbolizes a setting in which state power compels idolatry. At the risk of their lives, the three men kept the commandment of the Ten Commandments not to bow down to other gods.

In the New Testament, Hebrews 11:33–38, in its list of people of faith, includes those who "quenched the violence of fire," a phrase commonly linked to this event. The episode is also read alongside the confession in Acts 5:29 that "we ought to obey God rather than men." The scene in Revelation 13:15, in which those who will not worship the image of the beast are to be killed, is likewise compared with the image on the plain of Dura.

Interpretations and Issues

• Historicity and date of composition: Conservative evangelicals read the Book of Daniel as a historical record from the sixth century BC. Many historical-critical scholars regard it as a story written during the persecution under Antiochus IV in the second century BC to encourage readers to remain faithful.
• The fourth man in the fire: The king saw a fourth man in the fire and said that his form was "like the Son of God" (Daniel 3:25; many modern translations read "a son of the gods"). Some interpret this figure as the preincarnate Christ. Others, following the king's own words in Daniel 3:24–28, where he says that God "hath sent his angel," interpret the figure as an angel.
• Greek additions: The Septuagint includes, within chapter 3, a prayer and a hymn of praise offered in the fire. The Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church accept this material as Scripture, while Protestantism classifies it among the Apocrypha and excludes it from the canon.
• What the text does not say: The text does not explain why Daniel is absent from this scene. Any account of where Daniel was at the time is therefore speculation.

In the Korean Church

The words of the three men, "But if not" (Daniel 3:18), are frequently quoted in Korean preaching. Expressing their resolve not to bow to the idol even if God did not deliver them, the phrase has come to describe a faith that holds firm regardless of the outcome. Sermons also commonly compare the compulsory Shinto shrine worship of the Japanese colonial period, and its rejection by figures such as Joo Ki-chul, to the story of the golden image on the plain of Dura.