Daniel 7:1-7, The 4 Beasts

The prophecy of Daniel 7 parallel’s and expands on the prophecy of Daniel 2. There are three principle symbols in this text. The winds, the sea, and the beasts. What do they represent?

As for the beasts, in verse 17 of this same chapter we read:

Even today, wind is used as a synonym for war. We speak of the winds of war. We give books titles like "Gone with the Wind" - the wind of course being war.

Seas or waters when used as a prophetic symbol, represent peoples, and nations, and tongues. That is what an angel told John.

And so putting it all together: --- As the result of the four winds blowing on the sea, that is, as a result of war and strife among the peoples and nations, four great kingdoms, each in their turn, rise to power.

The Bible is its own interpreter. If you come across prophetic symbols, as we have done here, (in this particular case, the winds, the sea, and the beasts) then somewhere in the Bible you will also find a given meaning for that symbol. And as the Bible is self consistent - a definition given to a symbol in one place will still stand good in another. To illustrate this, lets take a quick look at Revelation 13 which is another symbolic prophecy that also uses these symbols we have just studied.

As you read this text you should have recognized two of the principle symbols in this verse, the sea and the beast rising out of the sea. A situation very similar to what we just looked at in Daniel 7. And if the Bible really is self consistent then the definitions we applied to these symbols in Daniel 7 should also work here. If so -- Then that means that this beast of Revelation 13 is a kingdom of some kind that arises out of the peoples and nations and tongues of this world. Simple isn't it. With that insight alone, you have already eliminated the vast majority of popular ideas of who or what this beast is.  We will take another brief look at Revelation 13 a little later in this study.

Daniel is the key to understanding Revelation. Indeed, it can be said that the book of Revelation was written with the assumption that its readers would have at least a basic working knowledge of Daniel.

The First Beast

Since these beast represent four kings or kingdoms, the question is, where do we begin? Which particular four kingdoms are represented here? The beasts arise consecutively, for they are enumerated from the first to the fourth. From the prophecy of Daniel 2, we know that from Daniel's day, beginning with Babylon, there was to be four great kingdoms in this worlds history. Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, and Rome that were to rise consecutively, one after the other. Exactly the number of beasts in the vision of Daniel 7.

Using Daniel 2 as the pattern, the lion, must then be the same as the head of gold in Daniel 2 - namely Babylon.

Now a lion in ancient times was a symbol of strength. And that strength could be either positive or negative in character. Thus, Revelation 5:5 describes Christ as “the lion of the tribe of Judah,�?while 1 Peter 5:8 talks about Satan as “a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.�?

In Scripture Babylon is often described as a lion.

Jeremiah 4:7 The lion is come up from his thicket, and the destroyer of the Gentiles is on his way; he is gone forth from his place to make thy land desolate; and thy cities shall be laid waste, without an inhabitant.

Jeremiah 50:17 Israel is a scattered sheep; the lions have driven him away: first the king of Assyria hath devoured him; and last this Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon hath broken his bones.

This lion has eagles wings. Wings represent speed, swiftness and decisiveness of motion. And this characteristic marked the rule of Babylon under Nebuchadnezzar. In Habakkuk, the Chaldeans (Babylonians) are said to “fly as the eagle that hasteth to eat.�?/FONT>

The Second Beast

After the lion another kingdom, represented by a bear was to come to power. The bear is often mentioned in Scripture together with the lion. This bear corresponds to the breast and arms of silver in chapter 2.

This bear, however, was decidedly lopsided. “It raised up itself on one side.�?Like Babylon before it, Medo-Persia was also to undergo a transformation. The Medo-Persian’s, as the name indicates, consisted of two distinct nationalities, the Medes and the Persians. In the beginning when the empire was first rising to power, the Medes were the stronger faction within the kingdom. In the course of time, it was the Persians who became dominate. - So much so that many people know this empire simply by the name of Persia.

This bear is also portrayed as having three ribs in its mouth, and it is also given a command to “Arise, and devour much flesh.�?Medo-Persia conquered three principle kingdoms or provinces in the course of its rise to power. These three are Babylon, Lydia, and Egypt.

The Third Beast

Just as the kingdom of silver gave way to a third kingdom of brass in Daniel 2, the bear in its turn also gives way to another beast that rises up out of the sea.

Medo-Persia was in its turn conquered by the Greeks under the command of Alexander the Great. This third kingdom, Greece, is here represented by the symbol of a leopard.

Like the Babylonian lion before it, this leopard has wings, four of them. As already noted wings represent speed, swiftness and decisiveness of motion. This we find to be a historical fact in the Greek kingdom. The conquest of Greece under Alexander the Great had no parallel in ancient times for suddenness and rapidity. In the brief space of eight years Alexander welded the Greek city-states into a universal power. In one lightning campaign after another, he quickly conquered most of the then known world.

Like both the Babylonian and Medo-Persian kingdoms before it, Alexander’s kingdom was also to undergo a transformation.

This beast had four heads. Alexander the Great died of a fever at the age of 33, and his generals almost immediately plunged the empire into civil war. Twenty three years of internal strife and civil war followed Alexander’s death, until after the battle of Ipsus in 301 BC four of his generals divided the empire among themselves. Cassander took Macedonia and Greece in the western part of the kingdom. Lysimachus took the north with Thrace and part of Asia minor. Seleucus took the east with most of Syria, Mesopotamia, and Persia, while Ptolemy took the south including Egypt and Palestine.

Although some of these kingdoms were short lived and soon swallowed up by the others, these were the only four kingdoms to ever form out of the fragments of Alexander’s empire: No more and no less than the number the prophecy had specified - such is the accuracy of God’s prophetic word.

But just as the kingdom of brass in Daniel 2 gave way to the iron monarchy of Rome, the leopard in its turn gives way to another beast -- a strange looking beast with ten horns.

The Fourth Beast

And like each of the three the beasts before it, this iron beast (Rome) would also undergo its own metamorphosis.

This fourth beast had ten horns. The iron legs of Daniel 2 terminated in feet and toes of iron and clay. The ten toes of the image corresponds exactly with the ten horns of this fourth beast.

To briefly review -- In Daniel 2, Daniel said that the kingdom of iron would become fragmented and broken.

These are the divisions of the Roman empire, the roots of the modern nations of Europe that we know today. This brings the prophecy up to our own day - as we still live in the time of this divided kingdom. And as we saw in Daniel 2, it [the divided kingdom] will remain as such right up to the time of Christ’s second coming.

The Amalgamated Beast

Now lets take another quick look at Revelation 13. Just the first 2 verses.

Let me ask you -- Recalling the four beasts of Daniel 7, does anything look familiar to you here? We have already noted how the beasts of Daniel 7 and this beast in Revelation 13 both had similar origins, coming up out of the sea.  But note the description of this beast in Revelation.

Going backwards from the fourth unnamed beast in Daniel 7, we have a leopard, a bear, and a lion. This beast in Revelation is like a LEOPARD, had the feet of a BEAR, and the mouth of a LION.

But that is not all. If you count the heads of the four beasts of Daniel 7 -- How many do you have? The lion, the bear, and the fourth beast each had one head. The leopard had four, for a total of seven heads. How many heads does the beast in Revelation 13 have? Seven. And how many horns? Of all the beasts In Daniel 7, only the fourth beast had any horns and it had ten of them. How many horns does this beast in Revelation 13 have? Ten.

These similarities between the four beasts in Daniel 7 and this beast in Revelation 13 are not accidental. The vision of Daniel 7 and that of Revelation 13 are related. Daniel and John are both given a view of the same thing. Only one is looking at it from a different historical perspective than the other. What Daniel sees as four separate beasts, John sees as one. An amalgamation of Daniel’s four.

Early Christians on Daniel 2, 7 & 8

In the 2nd century Irenaeus of Gaul, appealed to the prophecies of Daniel to demonstrate the truthfulness of Scripture.  He taught the same progression of the four kingdoms, Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece and Rome with Roman fourth ending in tenfold partition. To him Christ was the heaven descending “stone�?which was to smite the image after Rome’s breakup. Terullian a 3rd century Christian writer, also held that at Jesus' second coming, Christ would destroy all earthly kingdoms, and declared that those portions that had already been fulfilled assured the certainty of the fulfillment of those yet future.

The early Christians interpreted the prophecies of Daniel 2, 7, and 8 as Historist still do. The historist interpretation of prophecy has stood the test of time. Hippolytus, who lived 160-236 AD, and is thought to have been a disciple of Irenaeus, says in his exposition of Daniel 2 and Daniel 7

“The golden head of the image and the lioness denoted the Babylonians; the shoulders and arms of silver, and the bear, represented the Persians and Medes; the belly and thighs of brass, and the leopard, meant the Greeks, who held the sovereignty from Alexander’s time; the legs of iron, and the beast dreadful and terrible, expressed the Romans, who hold the sovereignty at present; the toes of the feet which were part of clay and part of iron, and the ten horns, were emblems of the kingdoms that are yet to rise; the other little horn that grows up among them meant the Antichrist in their midst; the stone that smites the earth and brings judgment upon the world was Christ.

Speak with me, O blessed Daniel. Give me full assurance, I beseech thee. Thou dost prophecy concerning the lioness in Babylon; for thou was a captive there. Thou has unfolded the future regarding the bear; for thou was still in the world, and didst see the things come to pass. Then thou speakest to me of the leopard; and whence canst thou know this, for thou art already gone to thy rest? Who instructed thee to announce these things, but He who formed thee in (from) thy mothers womb? That is God, thou sayest. Thou has spoken indeed, and that not falsely. The leopard has arisen; the he-goat is come; he hath smitten the ram; he hath broken his horns in pieces; he hath stamped upon him with his feet. He has been exalted by his fall; (the) four horns have come up from under that one. Rejoice, blessed Daniel! Thou has not been in error: all these things have come to pass.

After this again thou told me of the beast dreadful and terrible. ‘It had iron teeth and claws of brass: it devoured and brake in pieces, and stamped the residue with the feet of it,�?Already the iron rules; already it subdues and breaks all in pieces; already it brings all the unwilling into subjection; already we see these things ourselves. Now we glorify God being instructed by thee.�?/FONT>