Daniel (, Hebrew "God is my Judge") is the hero of the
Book of Daniel. A noble Jewish youth of Jerusalem, he is taken into captivity by
Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon and serves the king and his successors with loyalty and ability until the time of the Persian conqueror
Cyrus, all the while remaining true to the God of Israel. Most scholars see the book as a cryptic allusion to the reign of the Greek king
Antiochus IV Epiphanes (175–164 BCE), and the broad consensus is that Daniel never existed.