Daniel 7:1-8: Edit history

Context

Chapter 7 of Daniel is the first chapter of the visionary material in the second half of the book. From the latter part of 2:4 through the end of chapter 7, the text is written in Aramaic, the common language of the ancient Near East. The vision is dated to "the first year of Belshazzar," which places it before the events of chapters 5 and 6. Daniel sees the four winds of heaven stirring up the great sea, and four beasts, each different from the others, come up out of it. The first is a lion with eagle's wings, the second a bear with three ribs in its mouth, and the third a leopard with four wings and four heads. The fourth is a terrifying beast with iron teeth and ten horns; among these horns a "little horn" comes up, plucks up three of the horns, and speaks "great things." Verses 9-14 go on to describe the judgment of the "Ancient of days" and "one like the Son of man," and verse 17 interprets the four beasts as "four kings." Because its structure resembles that of Nebuchadnezzar's dream of the great image in chapter 2, the two chapters are often read together.

Interpretation

• Traditional reading: Widely accepted since the early Church Fathers, this interpretation identifies the four beasts as Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, and Rome. The lion standing upright like a man is linked to the account of Nebuchadnezzar in chapter 4, and the leopard with four wings and four heads is taken to represent Alexander the Great's swift conquests and the division of his empire into four parts after his death. In Korea, this reading is common in commentaries from conservative denominations.
• Historicist reading: Many Reformers of the Reformation era identified the little horn with the papacy. The Seventh-day Adventist Church holds this interpretation today.
• Dispensationalist reading: Dispensationalism interprets the fourth beast as a Roman system to be revived in the last days, the ten horns as a future confederation of ten nations, and the little horn as the Antichrist, linking the passage to Revelation 13.
• Historical-critical reading: Many biblical scholars identify the four kingdoms as Babylon, Media, Persia, and Greece. They regard the ten horns as kings of the Seleucid dynasty and the little horn as Antiochus IV, who persecuted Judaism in the second century BC. These scholars hold that the Book of Daniel reached its final form around that time.

Debates and Issues

The central questions are whether the fourth kingdom is Rome or Greece, and whether the little horn is a figure of the past or of the future. These judgments are closely tied to one's view of when the Book of Daniel was written. Daniel 8:20-21 identifies the ram and the rough goat as "the kings of Media and Persia" and "the king of Grecia," respectively, and interpreters also differ on how this identification should bear on the interpretation of chapter 7. Some popular dispensationalist books of the 1970s and 1980s equated the ten horns with the European Community of that time. Interpretations of this kind, which match the symbols to specific current events, have been criticized within a number of denominations as overly contrived.

In Korean Churches

In Korean churches, the passage is frequently treated in sermons on eschatology and in Bible studies on Daniel and Revelation. It is usually explained by connecting the symbols of the beasts and horns with historical empires.

Related Passages

• Daniel 2:31-45
• Daniel 7:17-27
• Daniel 8:20-22
• Revelation 13:1-10
• 2 Thessalonians 2:3-4