I don't know if this is true or not, thus i wanted to come here and seek your knowledge about this matter. But is Satan as in the bible, that he is the opposer of god, actually Nebuchadnezzar II? Why did he earn such a title, and why was his rule so important in regards to the bible?
He is also mentioned as morning star in some places where i tried looking for information. But i thought the fallen angel was Lucifer?
thank you to any that has any knowledge about this. Also if perhaps you know of any good/decent documentaries regarding this matter or babylon in itself please let me know.
Nebuchadnezzar was the King of the Neo-Babylonian Empire (626-529BCE), who lived from c.605 - 562BCE. Babylon is in the area of the world called Mesopotamia, which is predominantly in modern day Iraq. [This] (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neo-Babylonian_Empire#/media/File:Neo-Babylonian_Empire.png) is an image of the Empire at its extent, and hopefully you'll be able to see why he is mentioned in the bible.
In the book of Daniel, in the Hebrew bible, Nebuchadnezzar conquers the city of Jerusalem in 597BCE. When the city revolted in 587BCE, Nebuchadnezzar laid siege and after 30 months the city was destroyed and the Temple of Solomon was destroyed. According to the book of Ezras, the Ark of the Covenant was supposedly taken to Babylon after the siege, never to be seen again: 'And they took all the holy vessels of the Lord, both great and small, with the vessels of the ark of God, and the king's treasures, and carried them away into Babylon'
Flavius Josephus, a Roman historian from the 1st century CE (and one of the major sources on Jewish history) also recounts how a large part of the Jewish population was enslaved and moved from Jerusalem to Babylon.
Later in his reign, Nebuchadnezzar allegedly suffered from a bout of madness, thinking that he was a wild animal. In the Book of Daniel, we are told that he lost his mind through hubris. The 3rd century Christian scholar Origen, explained that his madness was a metaphor for the fall of Lucifer, perhaps what you are referring to in your original post.
Though, we have no way of telling what caused Nebuchadnezzar to go insane, or indeed if it was even him that the Book of Daniel refers to. It has been suggested that instead the King who went insane was Nabonidus (556-539BCE) as we know he retired to the remote city of Tayma in modern day Saudi Arabia for a period of time. This has been somewhat confirmed by the [Dead Sea Scrolls] (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead_Sea_Scrolls), which state that Nabonidus was smitten by God for seven years.
The idea meant by Satan has changed over time. His being some kind of evil anti-God seems to have been a later Christian development. In the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament, the Satan (which just means The Accuser) is God's inquisitor. He serves Yahweh by testing people's weakness and trying to prove whether they are truly faithful. This is the role he plays in the book of Job, and he serves the same function by getting King David to take a census (a census was there to tell you about your military power - taking one was seen as trusting the power of men more than the power of God), and by testing a claimant to the high priesthood in the book of Zechariah. And, of course, the temptation of Jesus in the desert.
So by talking about someone as the Satan, you probably weren't trying to call them evil or anything like that. Just like Isaiah refers to Cyrus as the Anointed, some other author might have used the Satan label to describe someone used by God to test the loyalty of the Jewish people.
