The Last Scribe

Daniel 3 · 30 verses · The plain of Dura

Daniel 3 as a game: the golden image, the three who stood and the fiery furnace

Stand on the plain of Dura when the music plays and every ruler of the provinces falls down before the king’s image. See three men stay standing, hear their answer to the king, and watch them come out of the fire unharmed.

Play free Try the quiz questions

No download. Plays in any modern browser on a phone, tablet or computer. Revelation 1 and the Baptism of Jesus are free to try first.

What you will see

One day on the plain of Dura, told from the image to the king’s blessing

You arrive as a Scribe, sent to witness the chapter and write it down. Daniel 3 is one map you can walk end to end, and the people of the chapter stand on it: King Nebuchadnezzar, Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego, the Chaldeans who accused them, the fourth man the king saw in the fire, and a guide who explains the chapter. Each speaks only from their own verses, so what you hear is the chapter, in order.

Five things wait to be found and read. See the image of gold, threescore cubits high, and the band of cornet, flute, harp, sackbut, psaltery and dulcimer whose sound was the signal to bow. Find the mouth of the furnace, heated “seven times more than it was wont to be heated”, the garments that came out of the fire untouched, and the king’s decree that “there is no other God that can deliver after this sort”. The quest takes you through them in the chapter’s order: the image, the herald, the accusation, the answer, the furnace, the fourth man, and the king’s blessing.

The answer is told as the three gave it: “But if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods”. When you have seen it all, step into the quiz zone and fifteen questions ask what you saw.

Daniel 3 in the game: the map of the chapter with its people standing where the passage puts them
The game itself, not a mock-up: Daniel 3.

The chapter, in order

The quest, But If Not, has seven steps, and they follow the chapter in order. Nothing is added to the text; the steps are a way of making sure you miss none of it.

  1. See the golden image on the plain of Dura
  2. Hear the herald’s decree of worship-or-death
  3. Witness the Chaldeans accuse the three Hebrews
  4. Hear the declaration “but if not”
  5. Watch the furnace heated seven times hotter
  6. See the Fourth Man walking with the three
  7. Hear Nebuchadnezzar bless the Most High God

Who you meet

Five people and voices stand in the chapter. Each speaks only from their own place in the chapter.

  • Nebuchadnezzar, the Image-Builder — the king who set up the image, heated the furnace, then saw “four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire” and blessed the God of the three.
  • Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego — the three Hebrews set over the province of Babylon, who would not bow and tell you why.
  • The Accusing Chaldeans — the men of the court who “came near, and accused the Jews” before the king.
  • The Fourth Man in the Fire — the one the king saw walking with the three in the fire, whose form was “like the Son of God” (3:25), spoken with but never played.
  • The Interpretation Angel — a guide who sets the decree to bow beside the last chapters of the Bible, where the same choice comes again.

What you find

Walk up to any of these and the game reads you the verses it comes from, in the King James Version.

  • The Golden Image of Dura (Daniel 3:1)
  • The Orchestra of Compliance (Daniel 3:5)
  • Mouth of the Fiery Furnace (Daniel 3:19–22)
  • Burned Ropes, Unburned Robes (Daniel 3:27)
  • The King’s Decree Tablet (Daniel 3:29)

The answer on the plain of Dura

“If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thine hand, O king. But if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up.” Daniel 3:17–18, King James Version

Every verse the game quotes is the KJV. Where a character speaks in their own words, the dialogue is written from the chapter and checked against our doctrinal rules before release. The about page says plainly how we read the Bible.

Try five of the fifteen

Daniel 3 quiz questions, with answers

Five real questions from the Daniel 3 quiz, in the game's own words. In the game the options are shuffled every time, and you need 70% to pass.

1. What were the dimensions of the image Nebuchadnezzar set up on the plain of Dura?

  1. Sixty cubits high and six cubits wide
  2. A hundred cubits high and ten cubits wide
  3. Twelve cubits high and twelve cubits wide
  4. Forty cubits high and four cubits wide
Show the answer

A. Sixty cubits high and six cubits wide “Nebuchadnezzar the king made an image of gold, whose height was threescore cubits, and the breadth thereof six cubits.” The dimensions — 60 and 6 — echo forward to the 666 of Revelation 13:18.

Daniel 3:1

2. Who accused the three Hebrews to the king?

  1. Daniel himself
  2. Arioch the captain of the guard
  3. The queen mother
  4. Certain Chaldeans who came forward with the charge
Show the answer

D. Certain Chaldeans who came forward with the charge “At that time certain Chaldeans came near, and accused the Jews” — rivals from the court who had been waiting for an opportunity to strike at the Hebrew officials promoted in Daniel 2.

Daniel 3:8

3. How did the three answer when the king gave them one more chance to bow?

  1. “Give us three days to consider”
  2. “But if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods”
  3. “We will appeal to Daniel our master”
  4. “We will bow only this once, O king”
Show the answer

B. “But if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods” “Our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thine hand, O king. But if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up.”

Daniel 3:17–18

4. How did Nebuchadnezzar describe the appearance of the fourth figure in the fire?

  1. “The form of the fourth is like the Son of God”
  2. “A man clothed in white linen”
  3. “A servant of the king of Babylon”
  4. “An angel of Marduk”
Show the answer

A. “The form of the fourth is like the Son of God” “Lo, I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire, and they have no hurt; and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God.” In SDA theology this is the pre-incarnate Christ, making good on Isaiah 43:2: “When thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned.”

Daniel 3:25

5. How did the three Hebrews appear when they came out of the furnace?

  1. Their garments were burned but their bodies untouched
  2. They were badly burned but still alive
  3. They emerged as ashes that the wind scattered
  4. Their hair was not singed, their garments were not affected, and the smell of fire was not on them
Show the answer

D. Their hair was not singed, their garments were not affected, and the smell of fire was not on them “And the princes, governors, and captains, and the king’s counsellors, being gathered together, saw these men, upon whose bodies the fire had no power, nor was an hair of their head singed, neither were their coats changed, nor the smell of fire had passed on them.” Even the smell of fire — the last trace of contact with the flames — was absent.

Daniel 3:27

Right answers pay 10 XP each and a perfect score pays 50 more. In a room, everyone answers the same quiz and sees how the others did. More on how the quiz works.

Chapter facts

30
verses, every one covered by something you see, hear or read
15
quiz questions, each tied to a verse
5
people and voices to speak with
5
things to find and read
1–6
players in a room; solo play is fine too
KJV
every verse quoted from the King James Version

How to play it

  1. Open the game in your browser and make an account. A child under 13 gives a parent's email instead of their own, and the parent confirms before the child can play with anyone else; see the page for parents.
  2. Play the short intro story in the Archivery, the library where the Scribe finds the Book. It is free and takes a few minutes.
  3. Open the world map and choose Daniel 3. To play with others, start a room and share its code, which looks like SCRIBE-7K4P2Q; up to six people can join from their own devices.
  4. Walk the map, speak with everyone, read everything, then step into the quiz zone.

Free, and with a subscription

Daniel 3 is part of the subscription ($9.99 a month or $79.99 a year). Chapters open in Bible order along a road through the books, era by era, so Daniel 3 opens when you reach Daniel on that road; nobody skips ahead. See pricing.

Free forever, for every player: the intro story, Revelation 1, the story scene The Baptism of Jesus, and four open lands to walk with other players: the City of the Last Days, the Garden of Eden, Judea in the days of Jesus, and Patmos and the Seven Churches. Revelation 1 is a good first chapter to try before you subscribe.

More to play

  • Before: Daniel 2 — Stand in Babylon when the king has dreamed a dream he cannot remember and no wise man can tell.
  • After: Daniel 4 — Read the chapter as Nebuchadnezzar wrote it, a letter to all the earth about what the high God did for him.
  • Every chapter and story with a page: the list of what you can play.

Stand on the plain of Dura.

Daniel 3 takes about twenty minutes alone, a little longer with friends in a room.

Start with the free chapters