Tag: Daniel 7

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Daniel’s fourth beast is the Roman Empire.

PURPOSE

By comparing the animals in Daniel 7 and 8, this article shows that the evil king-horn in Daniel 7 arose out of the Roman Empire.

The previous three articles gave overviews of Daniel 2, Daniel 7, and Daniel 8 respectively. The main character in both Daniel 7 and 8 is an evil horn-king. The Daniel 8 article concludes that the horn-kings in these two chapters represent the same entity. That article also describes the Preterist, Historicist, and Futurist interpretations of this evil power but does not select one.

There are four animals in Daniel 7 but that prophecy does not explain what they represent. There are only two animals in Daniel 8; the Ram and the Goat, explicitly identified as “the kings of Media and Persia” and as “the kingdom of Greece” (Dan 8:20-21). This article identifies the animals in Daniel 7 by comparing them to the animals in Daniel 8.

ALTERNATIVE INTERPRETATIONS

In the traditional view, the fourth beast in Daniel 7 signifies the Roman Empire. In the liberal view, it is the Greek Empire. 

Conservative View – Roman Empire

Conservatives (historicists and futurists) align the symbols in Daniel 2, 7, and 8 as follows:

Daniel 2 Gold (Babylon) Silver Brass Iron
Daniel 7 Lion Bear Leopard Dreadful beast
Daniel 8 Ram
(Medo-Persia)		 Goat (Greece)

In this schema, since the Bear is Medo-Persia and the Leopard is the Greek empire, the dreadful fourth beast of Daniel 7 must represent the Roman Empire, for that was the next empire in history. Consequently, the evil horn, arising from the dreadful fourth beast, does so during the Roman period.

Liberal View – Greek Empire

The Preterist School, comprising mostly of liberal Critical Scholars, effectively reads Daniel backward. They begin by identifying the ‘despicable’ of Daniel 11:21 as Antiochus IV. Then, since the evil horns of Daniel 7 and 8 are the same as this ‘despicable’, they identify the evil horn also as Antiochus IV. Since Antiochus was one of the Greek kings, they propose that the fourth kingdom in Daniel 7 (the Dreadful Beast) symbolizes the Greek empire and that that beast’s 11 horns are 11 consecutive kings of the Greek Empire. But then, what are the previous three empires in Daniel 7 (the lion, bear, and leopard)? Daniel 2 explicitly identifies the first as Babylon, and there was only one empire between Babylon and Greece, namely Medo-Persia. To solve this problem, critical scholars divide the Mede-Persian Empire into two separate empires and align the symbols as follows:

Daniel 2 Gold (Babylon) Silver Brass Iron
Daniel 7 Lion Bear Leopard Dreadful Beast
Daniel 8 Ram (Medes) Ram (Persia) Goat (Greece)

In this schema, the Ram of Daniel 8 includes both the Bear and the Leopard of Daniel 7, and the Greek Goat of Daniel 8 is equivalent to the Dreadful Beast of Daniel 7. By comparing the properties of the animals, the next sections will determine which schema fits the text of Daniel the best.

THE RAM

Daniel identified the Ram as “the kings of Media and Persia” (Dan 8:20). Does it agree with the Bear of Daniel 7 only, as proposed by the Conservatives, or with the Bear AND the Leopard, as proposed by the Liberals? Considered their descriptions and evaluate the similarities:

Ram  Bear Leopard
Two horns—one higher;
Higher horn came out last;
Charges to West, North, and South
(Dan 8:3-4)		 Raised up on one side;
Three ribs between its teeth
(Dan 7:5)		 Four heads;
Four wings
(Dan 7:6)

The Ram and the Leopard

There is no similarity between the Ram and the Leopard. In one respect they clearly differ: While the Ram has two divisions, the Leopard has four.

Daniel’s prophecies use heads and horns to indicate divisions. The Ram has two horns, which means it has two divisions (identified as the Medes and Persians – Dan 8:20), while the Leopard has four heads (four divisions).

The Ram and the Bear

The Ram and the Bear are similar. For both, one side is higher than the other and both conquer three things.

For both, their two sides are compared and one side is higher than the other. The Bear is “raised up on one side” (Dan 7:5) while the Ram has two horns; one being longer than the other.

Both conquer three things: The Ram pushes in three directions (Dan 8:4—West, North, and South) and the Bear has three ribs between its teeth (Dan 7:5). Since animals symbolize kingdoms, ribs may represent kingdoms or territories conquered.

Conclusions

This means that the Bear in Daniel 7, like the Ram in Daniel 8, represents “the kings of Media and Persia” (Dan 8:20)

It also means that the Ram is not equivalent to both the Bear and the Leopard, as proposed by the Liberals:

The two horns of the ram and the two sides of the bear symbolize the composite nature of the kingdom formed by a fusion of “the kings of Media and Persia.”

The ram’s horn that came out last, but became longer, and the higher side of the bear, refers to the Persians. Initially, the Medes dominated Persia, but Cyrus reversed the relationship so that Persia dominated the Medes when their combined forces conquered Babylon.

The three ribs in the Bear’s mouth and the three directions into which the Ram pushes (West, North and South) may reasonably be taken as representing the three major conquests of the combined forces of the Medes and Persians in the sixth century BC: Lydia in the north in 547, Babylon in the west in 539, and Egypt in the south in 525.

THE GOAT

Secondly, is Goat of Daniel 8 the Leopard of Daniel 7, as proposed by the Conservatives, or the fourth Dreadful Beast, as proposed by the Liberals? Compare these beasts:

Goat Leopard Dreadful Beast
From the west;
Not touching the ground;
One conspicuous horn;
Great horn was broken when strong;
Four horns to the four winds
(Dan 8:5, 8)		 Four heads;
Four wings; (Dan 7:6)		 Terrible & very strong;
Iron teeth;
Bronze claws;
It devoured; broke in pieces;
Stamped residue with its feet;
Different from the other beasts;
Ten horns;
 (Dan 7:7, 19)

The Goat and the Dreadful Beast

Contrary to the proposal by the Critics, there is nothing in the descriptions of these two animals that imply that they represent the same entity. On the contrary, while the Goat first has only one horn and then later four, the Dreadful Beast first has ten horns and later eight.

The Dreadful Beast first has 10 horns, and then an 11th comes up which ‘plucks out’ three of the 10 horns by their “roots”, leaving 8 horns standing. Since horns symbolize the divisions of these kingdoms, the Goat and the Dreadful Beast are not related.

The Goat and the Leopard

Consistent with the conservative view, the Goat and the Leopard are similar. Both are represented as fast and both consist of four parts. This implies that the Leopard, like the Goat, represents the kingdom of Greece” (Dan 8:21)

Both are represented as fast. The Leopard has four wings while the Goat flies. The speed of its conquests refers to the speed by which Alexander the Great conquered the known world (within 10 years).

Both consist of four parts. The Leopard has four heads, while four horns grow from the Goat’s head. The four heads and four horns symbolize the four Greek Empires that came into existence after Alexander’s death at age 33.

“The kingdom of Greece” (Dan 8:21) is also known as the Macedonian Empire. 

The Horn came out of Rome.

Consequently, the Dreadful Fourth Beast of Daniel 7, must be the Roman Empire. This further means that the little horn in Daniel 7 comes out of this empire and cannot be the Greek king Antiochus IV.

This comparison above of the animals of Daniel 7 and 8 shows that:

The Bear = “the kings of Media and Persia” (Dan 8:20), and
The Leopard = “the kingdom of Greece” (Dan 8:21).

MEDIA AND PERSIA

To make their interpretation fit the text, critical scholars propose that the author of Daniel inserted the Medes as a separate empire. This is inconsistent with history and with Daniel itself. Daniel always refers to the Medes and Persians as a single entity (e.g., Dan 8:20).

It is also possible to assess the Critics’ scema by evaluating the validity of their separation of the Medes and Persians into two different empires. Critics propose that the author of Daniel inserted the Medes as a separate empire because of the predictions in Isaiah and Jeremiah that Babylon would fall to the Medes. They consequently propose that, according to Daniel, the Neo-Babylonian Empire fell to the Medes under “Darius the Mede” (Dan 5:30-31; 6:28), preceding the reign of the Persian king, Cyrus the Great (Dan 10:1).

Historically, this would not be correct. The Medes were conquered around 550 BCE by the Persians and it was the joint forces of the Persians and the Medes that conquered Babylon eleven years later, with Cyrus the Great as their supreme king.

It is also not consistent with the Book of Daniel itself. Daniel consistently regarded the Medes and Persians as a single entity. For example:

He prophesied that Babylon would be conquered by the joint forces of the Medes and the Persians (Dan 5:28).

Daniel 6:9, 13, and 16 refer to the unchangeable law of the Medes and the Persians.

He identifies the Ram as “the kings of Media and Persia” (Dan 8:20).

Daniel never refers to a separate Median kingdom. He refers to a person (Darius) as a Mede (Dan 11:1) but that is within the context of the Persian Empire (Dan 10:1 and 11:2).

There is also no indication in Daniel of a conflict between the Medes and the Persians which resulted in the dominance of Persia.

Furthermore, the author would be inconsistent in describing both Media and Persia as a single beast in Daniel 8, but as two different beasts in Daniel 7 and as two different metals in Daniel 2.

WHO WAS DARIUS?

Critics argue that the author of Daniel committed a historical blunder when he referred to Darius the Mede in Dan 5:31-6:28 and in Dan 9:1. They argue that no such figure is known from history and that Daniel mentioned Darius the Mede because he mistakenly thought that the Medes were a distinct empire between the Neo-Babylonian rulers and the Persian king, Cyrus.

A separate article on this website argues that Darius the Mede might have been the throne name for Ugbaru (Greek Gobryas), the general who conquered Babylon for Cyrus, and who was appointed by Cyrus as king over the “kingdom of the Chaldeans” (Dan 9:1)—one of the kingdoms in the Persian Empire—but who died three weeks after the conquest of Babylon. He ruled only for one week, which explains why archaeologists have not yet found him in secular history.

OTHER ARTICLES

List of articles on the Antichrist in the Book of Daniel

List of all articles on the website

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The four beasts and eleven horns of Daniel 7

The green blocks in the sections below are summaries. 

THE FOUR ANIMALS

In Daniel 7, four animals, a lion, a bear, a leopard, and a dragon-like beast, come out of the sea. The sea symbolizes the people of the world. The four animals symbolize four successive empires.

Are four empires.

Daniel 7The four great beasts are identified as “kings” (Dan 7:17). However, Daniel 7:23 explains that the “fourth beast will be a fourth kingdom on the earth, which will be different from all the other kingdoms”. In other words, each of the four beasts is a “kingdom”, consisting of a series of kings. Since each of these four kingdoms consists of a multitude of nations, this article prefers to refer to them as ’empires’.

Arise from the people of the world.

The beasts arise out of the sea (Dan 7:3) but Daniel 7:17 explains that these kings will “arise from the earth”. The “sea” (Dan 7:3), therefore, is a symbol for the “earth”. The “earth” is not the physical earth, but refers to the peoples of the world.

Exist one after the other.

Like the metal kingdoms of Daniel 2, these empires will not reign simultaneously but one after the other. For example:

The fourth beast “was different from all the beasts that were before it” (Dan 7:7).

The fourth beast will devour the “whole earth” (Dan 7:23), which leaves no place for other beasts at the same time.

The phrase “after this” in Daniel 7:6-7, explaining the sequence of beasts, confirms that the beasts will follow one after the other.

THE ELEVEN HORNS

The fourth beast has ten horns, symbolizing ten kingdoms that will come out of the fourth empire, each consisting of a series of kings But the main character in Daniel 7 is the Antichrist, symbolized as the 11th horn that grows out of the fourth empire. It is small when it comes out but grows and eventually dominates the other kingdoms.

The fourth beast has ten horns (Dan 7:7-8), explained as ten kings that will arise “out of” the fourth beast (Dan 7:24; cf. Dan 8:20-22). Since ‘kings’ are equivalent to ‘kingdoms’ (Dan 7:17, 23), these ‘horns’ symbolize kingdoms, each consisting of a series of kings.

But the most important character and purpose of Daniel 7 is not one of these four empires or one of the ten horns, but the evil 11th horn that later comes up among the 10 horns (Dan 7:8). Daniel 7 allocates more space to this 11th horn than perhaps to all four animals and ten horns together. The only reason that Daniel describes the preceding four empires and ten kingdoms is to enable the reader to identify that 11th horn.

It uproots three of the other horns (Dan 7:8). When it comes up, it is “little” (Dan 7:8), but later it becomes “larger … than its associates” (Dan 7:20). It persecutes the saints, blasphemes God, and intends to change times and law (Dan 7:25).

PARALLEL TO DANIEL 2

The same Four Empires

The lion, bear, leopard, and dragon-like beast in Daniel 7 symbolize the same four kingdoms as the golden head, silver chest, bronze belly, and iron legs of the statue in Daniel 2.

For reasons such as the following, commentators generally agree that the four beast kingdoms in Daniel 7 are the same as the four metal kingdoms in Daniel 2:

The man of Daniel 2For the following reasons, Daniel 2 and 7 symbolize the same four empires:

    • In both, there are four empires. In Daniel 2, there are four metals and in Daniel 7, there are four beasts.
    • Both the metals in Daniel 2 and the beasts in Daniel 7 represent successive kingdoms. (See the discussion of Daniel 2.)
    • Both the fourth metal and the fourth animal are called the “fourth kingdom” (Dan 2:40; 7:23).
    • Both fourth kingdoms are associated with “iron” (Dan 2:40; 7:7).

The same Divided Kingdom

The ten horns in Daniel 7 symbolize the same period as the divided kingdom in Daniel 2, when the ‘world’ will be divided between many kingdoms.

By referring to it as a “divided kingdom” (Dan 2:33, 41), Daniel 2 indicates that, during this phase, there will not be one single supreme king, but several kings ruling different kingdoms.

Assuming that the statue in Daniel 2 has 10 toes, both Daniel 2 and 7 use the number 10 to symbolize the plurality of “kings” in this phase (Dan 7:7).

In both Daniel 2 and 7, that fifth phase is a continuation of the fourth:

Daniel 7 describes the fifth phase as ten horns growing “out of” the fourth beast.

In Daniel 2, the metal in the fifth phase is the same as the metal of the fourth kingdom, namely iron (Dan 2:33).

These parallels indicate that the horns in Daniel 7 are equivalent to the divided kingdom of Daniel 2. Both are a fifth phase that continues the fourth but consists of multiple kingdoms.

The same Eternal Kingdom

In both chapters, the eternal kingdom ends the period of divided rule.

For example:

“In the days of those kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which will never be destroyed” (Dan 2:44, cf. 7:26-27).

Comparison Table

Since the four metal kingdoms in Daniel 2 are the same as the four beast kingdoms in Daniel 7, and since the horns in Daniel 7 are parallel to the divided kingdom in Daniel 2, the two visions can be compared as follows:

Daniel 2 Daniel 7
Head of Gold Lion with eagle wings
Breast and Arms of Silver Bear raised up on one side
Belly and Thighs of Bronze A leopard with four wings and four heads
Legs of Iron The fourth beast, dreadful and terrifying and extremely strong
Feet of Iron and Clay At first, it had ten horns but an 11th horn came up among them.
Eternal kingdom Everlasting Kingdom

Daniel 7 adds detail.

Since the two prophecies are one, the one explains the other.

For example:

Since the gold kingdom of Daniel 2 is the Babylonian Empire, the lion-kingdom in Daniel 7 is the same.

In Daniel 2, there is no indication of an evil power. The most important additional information in Daniel 7 is about an evil king who will reign during the time of the horns.

ACADEMIC CONSENSUS

Eleven kings of the Greek empire

The academic consensus is that the 11 horns are 11 consecutive kings of the Greek Empire.

In the academic world, where the supernatural is not accepted, the consensus is that the Book of Daniel was written AFTER the predicted events that can be verified from secular history. In particular, Critical Scholars propose that the book was written during the reign of the Greek king Antiochus IV, whom they identify as the 11th horn of Daniel 7. To make Antiochus fit the prophecy, they:

Identify the fourth empire as Alexander’s Greek empire, and

Propose that the 11 horns of Daniel 7 symbolize 11 consecutive kings of the Greek empire. In other words, the kings rule one after the other during the fourth empire. The evil 11th horn, therefore, is the 11th of a series of kings.

However:

The fourth is the Roman Empire.

Daniel 8 uses two animals as symbols for the Medo-Persian and Greek Empires. A comparison of these animals with the animals in Daniel 7 shows that the Greek Empire is the third animal in Daniel 7, not the fourth.

While Critical Scholars identify the fourth empire as Greece, another article compares the animals in Daniel 7 and 8 and concludes that the fourth is the Roman Empire (see here).

The horns exist after the fourth empire.

While the academic view is that the 11 horns are individual kings who reign during the fourth empire, Daniel indicates that they are distinct kingdoms that exist AFTER the end of the fourth kingdom.

The five parts of the statue in Daniel 2 symbolize eras of human history that exist one after the other. The head represents the first kingdom, the chest the second, the belly the third, and the legs the fourth. Consequently, the feet – the divided kingdom – symbolize the fifth era, existing after the iron legs, not at the same time.

Critical Scholars want to make the two feet part of the two legs but, while the legs consist only of iron, the feet are “partly of iron and partly of clay.” The feet, therefore, cannot be part of the legs.

Since the horns in Daniel 7 are parallel to the divided kingdom, the horns follow after the fourth kingdom. Furthermore, Daniel 7 says: “Out of this kingdom ten kings will arise”(Dan 7:24), implying that these kings will not exist inside the fourth kingdom.

The horns exist simultaneously.

While, in the academic view, the horns exist one after the other, Daniel shows that they will reign all at the same time.

For example:

    • The title “divided kingdom” (Dan 2:33, 41) implies at least two divisions.
    • “They will combine with one another in the seed of men; but they will not adhere to one another” (Dan 2:43), implying kings living concurrently.
    • Daniel saw the 11th horn among the other ten horns (Dan 7:8).
    • The eleventh horn uproots three other horns (Dan 7:8), implying that the other 7 remained after the three had been dislodged.

In Daniel 8, there are two animals in Daniel with horns, and in both instances, the horns represent kingdoms that exist concurrently (Dan 8:20-22):

The ram has 2 horns, representing the Median and the Persian branches of the Mede-Persian Empire (Dan 8:20), which existed simultaneously.

The goat grows 4 horns, representing the four divisions of the Greek Empire, existing simultaneously.

OTHER ARTICLES

List of articles on the Antichrist in the Book of Daniel

List of all articles on the website

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