Sunday, June 27, 2021

The 7 heads of the beast and the image and beasts of Daniel

Two of the 7 heads of Revelation chapters 13 & 17, according to the "traditional" view, are Egypt and Assyria.  That view understands that Daniel was only seeing the kingdoms from his time and forward in Daniel chapters 2 and maybe 7?  Those 2 nations, like those that follow, are considered Mediterranean-world powers during the time of Israel as God's people?  And so those 2 would be of the 5 who have fallen, according to Revelation 17.10. 


Maybe the 4th beast of Daniel 7 is the 6th, 7th, and 8th head of Revelation 17, and the 4th kingdom (legs, feet, toes of the image) of Daniel 2 represents the same heads of Revelation 13 & 17.  The 7th and 8th heads would be two latter phases, the first phase being for a short time and followed by a second phase (in the second half of the "Week") after the Antichrist is revealed. 

The 4 beasts of Daniel 7 could correspond with the 4 sections of the image in Daniel 2 as distinct kingdoms, but the 4th section and 4th beast represent both a transitioning empire from the Roman to the Ottoman Empires, but a confederacy of nations in the latter ten-horned kingdom.  Also, from a vision perspective, in Daniel 7, the first 3 beasts were spatially  "before" the 4th beast, for Daniel saw them all before him in the vision.  Though maybe they all have some future existence in some sense, since the fall of an authority doesn't mean the geography and people of that authority no longer exists, and even the authority may still exist in a lesser extent.  When Babylon was the reigning authority, and had authority over Jerusalem, during the time of the Babylonian captivity, Egypt still existed, and many Jews fled there. 

No comments:

Post a Comment