Talk:The writing on the wall

Misc

Discussion: Someone should consider creating information on "The Fall of Babylon". Apparently the Babylonians were able to live locked inside the massive walls of the city, which had a river running through it. From what I understand, the Persians spent a couple of years building a canal around the city while conquering the surrounding area. The river was eventually diverted into the canal, (supposedly on the night of the "writing on the wall"), lowering the river level sufficiently to allow Persian soldiers to get underneath a river entrance barrier and enter the city late that night. That night the Babylonians had partied hard. Mirroring the Trojan horse story, they were then able to battle guards, kill the king, and open the gates for the main army. Apparently the conquest was almost bloodless. NOTE: The title "Fall of Babylon" can also refer to the prophetic fall in the book of Revelation.

Sources: I don't really remember where I initially heard the story. Perhaps it was from the Reader's Digest "Atlas of the Bible". I wasn't able to find any non-religious websites supporting this story, but the second source below refers to a "report from Herodotus"

• http://www.firstchristianchurchonline.com
• http://www.wwc.edu/academics/departments/theology/probe/lessons/2004/octdec/lesson6.htm

205.175.225.5 00:22, 7 October 2005 (UTC)bhyoung@rockwellcollins.com

To the Persians.

It seems the editors of this page miss the pun "PARSIN". It might indeed point to a measure of money, but it certainly points to the usurpers of the kingdom (the Persians). —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 195.109.255.217 (talk) 15:31, 30 December 2006 (UTC).

Not really. "Persian" is a Greek world, which came into common use centuries after Babylon's fall. The contemporaneous term for the Persian people would have been "Medes". RossPatterson (talk) 10:58, 11 August 2014 (UTC)

Nope. The Medes were a different tribe. The Old Persian word for "Persian" was "Parsa", so that is how they referred to themselves. 108.225.134.101 (talk) 05:15, 13 September 2015 (UTC)

Belshazzar's Feast (Rembrandt)

The article previously suggested that the last letter being written by the hand in the Rembrandt painting (i.e. the last Hebrew letter in the word "upharsin") was not a "terminal nun" meaning that the word was not actually complete. However, that's not the issue. The last letter being written by the hand looks more like a Zayin than a Nun (letter), which would mean that the word would be pronounced "upharsiz" instead of "upharsin". The form of the letter "nun" that is used at the beginning or in the middle of a word does not resemble the last letter being written by the hand, and Rembrandt used the non-terminal "nun" correctly twice in the painting as the middle letter of the word "mene". The terminal "nun" bears some resemblance to the "zayin" which suggests that the design of the last letter was an error on Rembrandt's part rather than an intentional design decision. --Metropolitan90 02:41, 7 September 2007 (UTC)

Measures of currency

The traditional translation appears to have been removed and the current language states that MENE, TEKEL, and PERES are measures of currency. But the traditional translation for MENE is numbered (Similar to Hebrew "moneh", see minyan and for PERES is "separated" (for similar Hebrew words see e.g. Parsha and Pharisees). We have sources for the traditional translations, do we have a source for the Babylonian currency claim? --Shirahadasha (talk) 14:24, 17 August 2008 (UTC)

Inexpertly, the king of Sumer was told, that Sumer had been "measured, weighed, divided". Straightforwardly, that implies that Sumer had already been plundered, and the looters had already taken their agreed-upon shares. Since, at that very moment, Cyrus and the Persians were poised in predestinated victory, the miraculous "writing on the wall" implies supra-natural knowledge, of worldly affairs (i.e. the secret-only-to-other-humans plottings & schemings of the Medes & Persians) being supra-naturally revealed, by the super-aware "YHWH, God in heaven", to a foredoomed earthly sovereign. Straightforwardly, anybody told that their assets had already been "measured, weighed, divided" would be being told, that plunderers had already planned, plotted, and were then-and-(near-)there perpetrating, the seizure of those assets. According to the Bible, by the super-awareness, super-analysis, and super-guidance of "God in heaven", on-world assets (e.g. Medes, Persians, Jews) had already put in place a victorious strategy, by which the then-feasting Belshazzar would for certain be beaten.66.235.38.214 (talk) 07:09, 26 December 2012 (UTC)

Pareidolia

According to http://www.arsxxi.com/pfw_files/cma/ArticulosR/Neurologia/2002/10/109100206330642.pdf Pareidolia en los códices visigóticos iluminados de Beato de Liébana, A. Martín Araguz, M. C. Bustamante Martínez, V. Fernández-Armayor Ajo, M. López Gómez, Neurología:2002:17(10):633-642 the representation of the writing in the Visigothic Beatus is the first representation of pareidolia in History. Should it be mentioned? --Error (talk) 21:17, 7 February 2010 (UTC)

POD's song "Sleeping Awake"

While a verse of it goes "Can you see it? The writing, can you tell me what it means?", the video (at about 2:16) has a scene where a modified version of it can be read: "The writing on the wall, can you tell me what it reads?"

Is this worth mentioning? Devil Master (talk) 19:15, 30 January 2011 (UTC)

MERGE NOTICE: Belshazzar's feast

MOVE: From the Belshazzar page, Belshazzar#Daniel 5 section was moved to this page on 16:07, 30 September 2011. This section no longer exits on the Belshazzar page. In the process, Belshazzar#Classical antiquity and Rabbinic literature were accidently posted to this page... then returned back to Belshazzar on 20:41, 30 September 2011. Thanks, Jasonasosa (talk) 02:26, 1 October 2011 (UTC)