Moreover, by collapsing the four beasts into one, then that one beast is necessarily all-encompassing. Thus, the eagle and the beast with the whore are, in a sense, larger than life. However, the final lesson of the four kingdom qua one kingdom motif seems to be that the larger they are, the harder they fall. Barclay , John M. Against Apion: Translation and Commentary. Edited by Steve Mason.
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His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, And all dominions shall serve and obey Him. The fourth beast shall be a fourth kingdom on earth : This initial description of the fourth beast fits well with the Roman Empire of ancient history. It did devour the whole civilized earth , and dominate it completely for about a thousand years. The ten horns are ten kings who shall arise from this kingdom : These ten kings do not have a literal fulfillment in the Roman Empire of history.
If they are literal, they are still in the future. The only way to say this has been fulfilled is to spiritualize this prophecy and take away its plain sense. Many, like John Calvin, merely spiritualize this. And for Calvin, the books were opened verse 10 referred to the preaching of the gospel. But if there are ten toes Daniel 2 and ten horns Daniel 7 and Revelation 13 and 17 associated with the rule of this final world ruler, there is no good reason to spiritualize what God has said in at least four different places.
The same spiritualizing problems apply if one believes that this is fulfilled in the early church and the passing of the Roman Empire unlike Calvin who saw fulfillment before the first advent of Jesus. The conspicuous horn must be the Antichrist, arising out of some group of ten nations that is in some way part of a restored Roman Empire.
He shall speak pompous words against the Most High : The little horn spoke pompous, blasphemous words, perhaps like the Fascist Creed of Italy cited in Talbot :. It is easier to die for the Lord than to live for him under constant harassment and strain. We can expect nothing more than greedy commercialism and political imperialism under the most beastly and barbaric type of warfare. Shall intend to change times and law : This little horn will intend to change times and law perhaps as at the French Revolution, where radicals wanted to institute a ten-day work week, and declared the year of the Revolution as year 1.
Some traditional Seventh-Day Adventists therefore regard Sunday worship as the sign of the Antichrist. Then the saints shall be given into his hand for a time and times and half a time : The power of the little horn over the saints is limited. It will last for three-and-one-half years time and times and half a time. They shall take away his dominion, to consume and destroy it forever : In the day of persecution by this blasphemous ruler, the Messiah will establish His kingdom for His people.
Because the kingdom of Jesus immediately succeeds this fourth kingdom, no event in the past answers this prediction in the smallest degree. Certainly, the church did not cause a sudden and catastrophic fall of the Roman Empire. Then the kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdoms under the whole heaven, shall be given to the people, the saints of the Most High : This must describe the millennial earth, not our current age or heaven.
The kingdom and dominion of the earth certainly does not belong to the righteous now. If this describes the eternal state, then what are the dominions that shall serve and obey Him? It therefore must describe the millennial earth. We again notice that the kingdom and dominion… shall be given to the saints. It is something received, not achieved. As for me, Daniel, my thoughts greatly troubled me, and my countenance changed; but I kept the matter in my heart.
My thoughts greatly troubled me : Many things might trouble Daniel at this vision — such as the ferocity of the attack to come against his people from the conspicuous horn.
And my countenance changed : Daniel was convinced that the prophecy was true, and that it was the word of God. He was so convinced of its truth that his countenance changed and he considered what would happen. Our website uses cookies to store user preferences. By proceeding, you consent to our cookie usage. Please see our Privacy Policy for cookie usage details. We may request cookies to be set on your device. We use cookies to let us know when you visit our websites, how you interact with us, to enrich your user experience, and to customize your relationship with our website.
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Due to security reasons we are not able to show or modify cookies from other domains. The monstrosity of the bear is underlined by its excessive hunger for flesh. And then there is the fourth beast, which, even compared to the other three beasts, was terrifyingly dreadful and exceedingly strong. Multiple times vv. Indeed, for Girard, similarity and resemblance between two figures can become a source of terror. We make the other into a monster in order to distinguish ourselves from a competitor who acts like us and wants the same things we want.
Making the other into a monster frees us to behave violently towards that other. Thus, although various anthropologists, including Victor Turner, explain violence 8 as caused by differences between people, Girard argues that the absence of these differences is what initiates monstrosity and causes violence to erupt. So what are we to do with that fourth beast of Daniel 7? Most scholars have understood this monster to refer to the Greek Empire, which ruled the ancient Near East under the leadership of Alexander the Great.
The book of Maccabees gives a fuller picture of the imperialistic politics of Antiochus Epiphanes through which he tried to eradicate differences between Jewish and Greek identity. Building a gymnasium and altars for idols in Jerusalem are examples of the former, while forcing Jews to give up practicing circumcision, keeping Sabbath, and offering sacrifices, are examples of the latter 2 Macc Some Jews welcomed this phenomenon of Hellenization and accommodated the empire, but other Jews like the Maccabees and the community represented by the book of Daniel refused to give up on their identity markers and resisted the imperial politics of sameness.
While his analysis is important in that it makes us aware that underlying the apparent otherness of the monster is a shared sameness between two competing rivals, he does not bear in mind the power imbalance between the two subjects. Daniel 7 witnesses to a power imbalance between Antiochus Epiphanes and the persecuted Jews who were being forced to give up their identity in order to fit into the norms of the empire.
In such a context, portraying the empire as a monster is a form of resistance to an empire that sought to make all peoples one and forced communities to give up the unique markers of their religious or political identity.
The sameness that the imperial policies imposed on the marginalized Jews is re-sisted by way of emphasizing the impurity, the otherness, and the strangeness of the world powers through the hybrid and anomalous bodies of the beasts.
In the midst of the chaos of persecution and the horror of the loss of identity, one who looks like a human being appears before God, and this one who looks like a human being receives the kingdom on behalf of the Holy Ones of the Most High. For the first time in this vision, a kingdom is not represented by a beast.
He is portrayed as the antithesis to the wicked beasts that have ruled over their own unjust kingdoms and have persecuted innocent subjects. What concerns me for the sake of this essay is the contrast between the humanness of the one who receives the dominion from God and the monsters that represent the world empires.
A survey of the history of interpretation of Daniel 7 shows that Jewish, Muslim, and Christian communities during various historical periods have typically identified themselves with the Holy Ones and their opponents with what I am referring to here as monsters.
The readers of Daniel 7 are invited to gaze at the raging sea lest they encounter their own reflection among the monstrous empires rather than among the representatives of the divine court. The script of judgment that was inscribed on the fragmented body of the fourth monster warns the readers not to abuse their power in relation to other human communities. How, then, should members of the Kingdom of God avoid becoming a monstrous empire?
I think Daniel 7 can be a resource for communities of faith as they struggle to avoid reproducing the empires they seek to oppose. First, Daniel 7 was written by the powerless as a way of resisting the empire. After this I saw…a fourth beast, terrifying and dreadful and exceedingly strong. It had great iron teeth; it devoured and broke in pieces and stamped what was left with its feet….
I considered the horns, and behold, there came up among them another horn, a little one, before which three of the first horns were plucked up by the roots. And behold, in this horn were eyes like the eyes of a man, and a mouth speaking great things. Today, nations are represented by animals.
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