Paper short abstract:

In Daniel 4, Nebuchadnezzar's transformation is reevaluated through the lens of modern animal to human organ xenotransplantation, blending religious and scientific realms.. This analysis bridges religious belief and scientific progress, disrupting an evolutionary framework of human nature.

Paper long abstract:

In Daniel 4, the Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar is transformed into a nondescript animal and sent to pasture for 7 years in order to learn humility. Scholars debate to what degree Nebuchadnezzar was transformed, ranging from diagnosing Nebuchadnezzar as a lycanthrope, to acknowledging the king’s miraculous transformation. These heuristics have been cast as real and unreal possibilities, or sacred and secular. Yet, the second successful transplantation of a pig heart into a human, casts Daniel 4:16—"let his heart be changed from man's, and let a beast's heart be given unto him"—in a new eerie light. Through the use of genetic engineering, surgical advancements, and pharmaceutical interventions, Lawrence Faucette's pig-to-human heart xenotransplantation challenges traditional boundaries. Like Nebuchadnezzar’s story, it merges the previously separate domains of humans (viewed as an isolated system), animals (considered not in continuity with humans), and the divine (concerning humanity’s reflection of God). The realization of what was once deemed physically impossible beckons a reevaluation of our established categories of religion and science. By reading Lawrence Faucette’s case with the biblical story in Daniel 4, this paper challenges a linear progression of scientific knowledge. I explore the dynamic interplay between religious belief and scientific truth, suggesting that these spheres not only coexist , but influence each other. This analysis aims to illuminate the complex relationships between advancements in medical science, religious narratives, and the conceptual boundaries that define what it means to be human.