Four kingdoms of Daniel
Four successive world empires preceding the Kingdom of God.
The four kingdoms of Daniel are a sequence of four world empires described in the Book of Daniel, said to precede the establishment of the Kingdom of God. The concept appears in the dreams and visions of Daniel and Nebuchadnezzar, using symbols such as a statue of four metals and four beasts from the sea. It is notable for its influence on Jewish and Christian eschatology and historical interpretation.
Quick Facts
- Origin
- Jewish community in Babylon and Mesopotamia, Persian and early Hellenistic periods (5th to 3rd centuries BC)
- Expansion
- Maccabean era (mid-2nd century BC)
- Biblical chapters
- Daniel 2
- Daniel 7
- Daniel 8
- Traditional identification
- Babylonian Empire
- Medo-Persian Empire
- Greek Empire
- Roman Empire
Facts from the source article.
The four kingdoms
The Book of Daniel originated from legends circulating in the Jewish community in Babylon and Mesopotamia during the Persian and early Hellenistic periods (5th to 3rd centuries BC) and was expanded in the Maccabean era (mid-2nd century BC). The four kingdoms theme appears explicitly in Daniel 2 and Daniel 7, and implicitly in Daniel 8. The concept is drawn from Greek theories of mythological history, while the symbolism of four metals in the statue of Daniel 2 comes from Persian writings. The four beasts in Daniel 7 reflect Hosea 13:7–8. Scholarly consensus identifies the four beasts of chapter 7 and the metals of chapter 2 as Babylon, Media, Persia, and the Seleucid Greeks, with Antiochus IV as the small horn that uproots three others. In Daniel 2, Nebuchadnezzar dreams of a statue: a head of gold (Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon), chest and arms of silver (an inferior kingdom), belly and thighs of bronze (a third kingdom ruling over all the earth), and legs of iron with feet of mingled iron and clay (a fourth, divided kingdom). In Daniel 7, Daniel sees four beasts: a lion with eagle's wings, a bear raised up on one side with three curves between its teeth, a leopard with four wings and four heads, and a fourth beast with large iron teeth and ten horns. The fourth beast is explained as a kingdom that devours the whole earth; its ten horns are ten kings, and a little horn uproots three of them, representing a future king.
Schools of thought
Rashi, a medieval rabbi, interpreted the four kingdoms as Nebuchadnezzar (head of gold), Belshazzar (another kingdom lower than you), Alexander of Macedon (a third kingdom of copper), and the Roman Empire, with the fifth kingdom being that of the messiah. From the Protestant Reformation in the 16th century, the four monarchies model was widely used for universal history among Protestants, with some defending its use into the early 18th century. References in classical literature predating the Book of Daniel appear in Aemilius Sura, quoted by Velleius Paterculus (c. 19 BC – c. AD 31), giving Assyria, Media, Persia, and Macedonia as imperial powers, with the fifth empire identified as the Romans. Swain (1940) proposed that the four kingdoms theory, imported from Asia Minor, became property of Greek and Roman writers in the early 2nd century BC, building on a three-kingdom sequence mentioned by Herodotus (c. 484–425 BC) and Ctesias (fl. 401 BC). Other authors have contested this dating, placing Sura and the Roman adaptation in the 1st century BC. Christian Reconstructionists and Full Preterists believe Daniel is completely fulfilled and that believers work to establish the Kingdom of God on earth. Two main schools of thought are the traditionalist view (conflating Medo-Persia, last kingdom as Roman Empire) and the Maccabean thesis (separating Medes from Persians, last kingdom as Seleucid Empire). The traditional view, described by Jerome (c. 347–420) in his Commentary on Daniel, identifies the kingdoms as Babylonian, Medo-Persian, Greek, and Roman empires.
Traditional views
For over two thousand years readers have speculated on the meaning of themes in the Book of Daniel. In Daniel 2, Nebuchadnezzar dreams of a giant statue of four metals symbolising kingdoms; in Daniel 7, Daniel sees four beasts from the sea, also symbolising kingdoms. In Daniel 8, a goat with a single horn is replaced by four horns, continuing the theme of kings and kingdoms symbolised by horns. Secondary symbols include the statue smashed by a mysterious stone that grows into a mountain, and the fourth beast with ten horns and an additional human-like horn identified as a king. Further imagery includes the Son of Man, the holy ones of the Most High, and the eternal Kingdom of God following the four kingdoms and the little horn. Chronological predictions in Daniel reinterpret Jeremiah's 70 years as 70 weeks of years, with the last half of the last week defined as a time, times, and half a time, then as 2,300 evenings and mornings, with further numbers of days at the end of the book. Daniel 9 references an anointed one: an anointed ruler after seven weeks, and an anointed one cut off after sixty-two weeks. Scholars take these as references to the high priest Joshua and Onias III, but Christians refer them to the death of Christ. The abomination of desolation appears in Daniel 8, 9, and 11; in the New Testament it was taken as the eschatological future and the destruction of Jerusalem, later interpreted as the Antichrist. Daniel 11 describes the wise laying down their lives as martyrs for resurrection into the final kingdom, and Daniel 3 and Daniel 6 provided prototypes for Christian martyrdom and salvation.
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