Bible Readings — Bible Questions Answered

The Meaning of the Beast Symbols

What did these four beasts represent? BR-ASI9 137.1

“These great beasts, which are four, are four kings, which shall arise out of the earth.” Daniel 7:17. BR-ASI9 137.2

Note.—The word kings here, as in Daniel 2:44, denotes kingdoms, as explained in verses 23 and 24 of the seventh chapter, the two words being used interchangeably in this prophecy. BR-ASI9 137.3

In symbolic language, what is represented by winds? BR-ASI9 137.4

Strife, war, commotion. (See Jeremiah 25:31-33; 49:36, 37.) BR-ASI9 137.5

Note.—That winds denote strife and war is evident from the vision itself. As a result of the striving of the winds, kingdoms rise and fall. BR-ASI9 137.6

What, in prophecy, is symbolized by waters? BR-ASI9 137.7

“And he saith unto me, The waters which thou sawest . . . are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues.” Revelation 17:15. BR-ASI9 137.8

What was the first beast like? BR-ASI9 137.9

“The first was like a lion, and had eagle’s wings: I beheld till the wings thereof were plucked, and it was lifted up from the earth, and made to stand upon the feet as a man, and a man’s heart was given to it.” Daniel 7:4. BR-ASI9 137.10

Note.—The lion, the first of these four great beasts, like the golden head of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream, represents the Babylonian monarchy. The eagle’s wings doubtless denote the rapidity with which Babylon rose to its peak of power under Nebuchadnezzar, who reigned from 605 B.C. to 562 B.C. BR-ASI9 137.11

By what was the second kingdom symbolized? BR-ASI9 137.12

“And behold another beast, a second, like to a bear, and it raised up itself on one side, and it had three ribs in the mouth of it between the teeth of it: and they said thus unto it, Arise, devour much flesh.” Daniel 7:5. BR-ASI9 137.13

Note.—“This was the Medo-Persian empire, represented here under the symbol of the bear. . . . The Medes and Persians are compared to a bear on account of their cruelty and thirst after blood, a bear being a most voracious and cruel animal.”—Adam Clarke, Commentary, on Daniel 7:5. BR-ASI9 137.14

The first year of this kingdom of the Medes and Persians is dated from 538 B.C. BR-ASI9 137.15

By what was the third universal empire symbolized? BR-ASI9 138.1

“After this I beheld, and lo another, like a leopard, which had upon the back of it four wings of a fowl; the beast had also four heads; and dominion was given to it.” Daniel 7:6. BR-ASI9 138.2

Note.—If the wings of an eagle on the back of a lion denoted rapidity of movement in the Babylonian Empire (Habakkuk 1:6-8), four wings on the leopard must denote unparalleled celerity of movement in the Grecian Empire. This we find to be historically true. BR-ASI9 138.3

“The beast had also four heads.” The Grecian Empire maintained its unity but a short time after the death of Alexander, which occurred in 323 B.C. Within twenty-two years after the close of his brilliant career, or by 301 B.C., the empire was divided among four of his leading generals. (See page 88.) BR-ASI9 138.4

How was the fourth kingdom represented? BR-ASI9 138.5

“After this I saw in the night visions, and behold a fourth beast, dreadful and terrible, and strong exceedingly; and it had great iron teeth: it devoured and brake in pieces, and stamped the residue with the feet of it: and it was diverse from all the beasts that were before it; and it had ten horns.” Daniel 7:7. BR-ASI9 138.6

What was the fourth beast declared to be? BR-ASI9 139.1

“Thus he said, The fourth beast shall be the fourth kingdom upon earth, which shall be diverse from all kingdoms, and shall devour the whole earth, and shall tread it down, and break it in pieces.” Daniel 7:23. BR-ASI9 139.2

Note.—“This is allowed, on all hands, to be the Roman empire. It was dreadful, terrible, and exceeding strong: . . . and became, in effect, what the Roman writers delight to call it, the empire of the whole world.”—Adam Clarke, Commentary, on Daniel 7:7. BR-ASI9 139.3

World power may be said to have passed from the Greeks to the Romans at the Battle of Pydna, in 168 B.C. BR-ASI9 139.4

What was denoted by the ten horns? BR-ASI9 139.5

“And the ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings that shall arise.” Daniel 7:24. BR-ASI9 139.6

Note.—The Roman Empire was broken up into ten kingdoms in the century preceding A.D. 476. Because of the uncertainties of the times, religious writers have differed in the enumeration of the exact kingdoms intended by the prophecy. With good show of reason the following list has freely been adopted by interpreters of prophecy: Alamanni, Ostrogoths, Visigoths, Franks, Vandals, Suevi, Burgundians, Heruli, Anglo-Saxons, and Lombards. Says one writer on Bible prophecy: BR-ASI9 139.7

“The ten horns may not be strictly permanent, but admit of partial change. Some may perhaps fall, or be blended, and then replaced by others. The tenfold character may thus be dominant through the whole, and appear distinctly at the beginning and close of their history, though not strictly maintained every moment.”—Rev. T. R. Birks, M. A., The Four Prophetic Empires, and the Kingdom of Messiah: Being an Exposition of the First Two Visions of Daniel (1845 ed.) pp. 143, 144, 152. BR-ASI9 140.1

What change did Daniel see take place in these horns? BR-ASI9 140.2

“I considered the horns, and, behold, there came up among them another little horn, before whom there were three of the first horns plucked up by the roots: and, behold, in this horn were eyes like the eyes of a man, and a mouth speaking great things.” Daniel 7:8. BR-ASI9 140.3

What inquiry on the part of Daniel shows that the fourth beast, and especially the little-horn phase of it, constitutes the leading feature of this vision? BR-ASI9 140.4

“Then I would know the truth of the fourth beast, which was diverse from all the others, exceeding dreadful, whose teeth were of iron, and his nails of brass; which devoured, brake in pieces, and stamped the residue with his feet; and of the ten horns that were in his head, and of the other which came up, and before whom three fell; even of that horn that had eyes, and a mouth that spake very great things, whose look was more stout than his fellows.” Daniel 7:19, 20. BR-ASI9 140.5

When was the little horn to arise? BR-ASI9 140.6

“And another shall rise after them.” Daniel 7:24. BR-ASI9 140.7

Note.—The ten horns, as already shown, arose when Rome, the fourth kingdom, was divided into ten kingdoms. This division was completed by A.D. 476. The little-horn power which was to arise after them and before whom three of the other kings—the Heruli, the Vandals, and the Ostrogoths—fell, was the Papacy. BR-ASI9 140.8

“Out of the ruins of political Rome, arose the great moral Empire in the ‘giant form’ of the Roman Church.”—A. C. Flick, The Rise of the Mediaeval Church (New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1909), p. 150. BR-ASI9 140.9

“Under the Roman Empire the popes had no temporal powers. But when the Roman Empire had disintegrated and its place had been taken by a number of rude, barbarous kingdoms, the Roman Catholic church not only became independent of the states in religious affairs but dominated secular affairs as well.”—Carl Conrad Eckhardt, The Papacy and World-Affairs (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1937), p. 1. BR-ASI9 140.10

With the place and the time of the kingdom of the little horn identified, the study of its character and work will be considered in the readings which follow. BR-ASI9 141.1