Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah
In a recent podcast , Dr. Ben Bikman highlighted an interesting thing about the four faithful Israelites in the book of Daniel. We generally know them as Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego, but that is not how they are introduced to us in the first chapter. We read, “Now among these were of the children of Judah, Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah: Unto whom the prince of the eunuchs gave names: for he gave unto Daniel the name of Belteshazzar; and to Hananiah, of Shadrach; and to Mishael, of Meshach; and to Azariah, of Abed-nego” (Daniel 1:6-7). Their Hebrew names were Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, but when they got to Babylon their names were changed. At the beginning of the podcast on the book of Daniel, Dr. Bikman said, “What I hope I'm going to be able to do during this discussion is get all the names. By that I mean we pay Daniel the respect of giving him his given name and calling him by his Hebrew name. And unfortunately, poor Hananiah, Mishael and Azaria...