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The Ancient World Behind the Text: Ideas
The customs, offices and ideas a first reader knew without being told, what each meant then, and the nearest thing you already know.
Daniel's four beasts and the fourth kingdom
Daniel 7 pictured four empires as four beasts rising from the sea, the last with ten horns, judged before one like a son of man receives the kingdom. In the first century many Jews read the fourth beast as Rome.
Political cartoons have long drawn nations as animals, a bear for one and an eagle for another, and readers know at once who is meant. In Daniel 7 a prophet sees four beasts climb out of the sea: a lion, a bear, a leopard and a fourth beast with iron teeth and ten horns. They stand for empires that rule one after another until God judges them and gives the kingdom to one like a son of man. By the first century many Jews read the fourth beast as Rome, so when Revelation's beast comes out of the sea with parts of all four, hearers who knew Daniel knew what kind of power they were looking at. Which empire Daniel himself meant, and how far the picture reaches beyond Rome, are read in more than one way.
Daniel's four beasts stood for four successive empires. Keener notes that Daniel's fourth meant Alexander's Greek empire, while readers in John's time commonly took it as Rome. Jewish tradition in this period understood the fourth beast as Rome, which most Jews took to be the fourth world empire to subdue Israel. Wright calls Daniel 7 a chapter "hugely popular in the first century". Many believed it foretold the overthrow of pagan empire and the rise of God's people. So it was studied for clues, and fresh expositions such as 4 Ezra were written. 4 Ezra also has Rome, as an eagle, rise from the sea, and Beale notes that the later Midrash on Psalms names Rome as Daniel's fourth kingdom. Revelation's beast takes the leopard, the bear's feet, the lion's mouth and the ten horns into one body, a composite of all four. The cultural backgrounds notes and Keener take its ten horns as the client kings Rome allowed to rule, whose number varied. The Greek word for beast, therion, meant a wild animal. In mythic imagery it could name a griffin, a hydra or a dragon, and Daniel 7 sets the pattern for most of its uses in Revelation.
An analogy: a villain's part handed from actor to actor in a long-running series. Viewers know the part the moment it appears, whoever is wearing the costume this time.
Because Daniel's beasts were read as empires and the fourth as Rome, a beast rising from the sea in Revelation 13:1 names a kind of power, which in their day was Rome. The ESV Study Bible notes that some identify that beast with the man of lawlessness of 2 Thessalonians 2:3-12, while the Daniel 7 imagery shows it stands for present world powers as well as any future figure.
Not a part that exists apart from the players. In a series the role is written before anyone plays it. In Daniel and Revelation the beast is the empire itself, judged for what it does, and the sources disagree over whether John meant Rome alone or every empire that demands absolute allegiance.
Which empire the beast stands for. Keener says Daniel's fourth beast was the Greek empire of Alexander, reread as Rome in John's day, and Wright puts it bluntly: "The monster is Rome." The ESV Study Bible reads Revelation's composite beast as every human empire that demands absolute allegiance, from Egypt and Assyria to Rome and its successors, and notes that some identify it with a future Antichrist. Beale reads it as oppressive world government through the ages, whose first-century form was Rome.
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- Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, on Revelation 13:1, 13:2 and 17:12
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, notes on Revelation 13:2 and 17:12
- N. T. Wright, Revelation for Everyone, comment on Revelation 13:1-10
- G. K. Beale, The Book of Revelation: A Commentary on the Greek Text, on Revelation 13:1-2 and 13:11-12, and Introduction, The Seven Kings
- ESV Study Bible, study notes on Revelation 13:1-10 and 13:1-2
- CSB Study Bible, word study on Therion
