Four Kingdoms of Daniel 2

 

by

 

Damien F. Mackey

 

 

 

 

 

With the fourth kingdom previously identified as Hellenistic, and the first kingdom clearly referring to Nebuchednezzar (see below) - with these clearly defined parameters set in place - our task of identifying these various kingdoms is made so much easier.

Now it is usual for those who favour the fourth kingdom as Greece instead of Roman for the second and the third kingdoms to be identified as, respectively, Mede and Persian.

Whilst this may indeed be the case, I shall also mention what I think could be a possible variation on that sequence (see Second Kingdom below).

 

First Kingdom (Golden): Nebuchednezzar

 

No reasonable commentator would doubt this, since the wise prophet Daniel himself tells the Chaldean king Nebuchednezzar directly (2:38): ‘You are that head of gold’.

 

Second Kingdom (Silver): Belshazzar or Median

 

The first kingdom was simply Nebuchednezzar without mention of anyone else.

But, according to my revision, Nebuchednezzar was succeeded by his son, Belshazzar:

 

Neo-Babylonian Dynasty Needs ‘Hem Taken Up’. Part One (b): Evil-Merodach is Belshazzar

 

https://www.academia.edu/35846645/Neo-Babylonian_Dynasty_Needs_Hem_Taken_Up_._Part_One_b_Evil-Merodach_is_Belshazzar

 

this being fully in accord with the royal succession in Daniel 5: (i) Nebuchednezzar succeeded by his son, (ii) Belshazzar, who was succeeded by (iii) Darius the Mede:

 

Book of Daniel - merging Assyrians and Chaldeans

 

https://www.academia.edu/35856059/Book_of_Daniel_-_merging_Assyrians_and_Chaldeans

 

 

That Belshazzar also ruled a “kingdom” is apparent from his statement to Daniel on the occasion of the Writing on the Wall (5:16): ‘… if thou canst read the writing, and make known to me the interpretation thereof, thou shalt be clothed with scarlet, and have a chain of gold about thy neck, and shalt be the third ruler in the kingdom”.

Belshazzar’s “kingdom” would fit Daniel’s description of the second kingdom in at least two aspects, its coming after Nebuchednezzar, and its being inferior to Nebuchednezzar (2:39): ‘After you, another kingdom will arise, inferior to yours’.

Perhaps another argument in favour of king Belshazzar over Darius the Mede, for the identity of the second kingdom, is the fact that Daniel 8:20 connects the Median and Persian empires together as the one symbolical animal-entity (a “ram”): ‘The two-horned ram that you saw represents the kings of Media and Persia’.

And, again, the kingdom of Darius the Mede was no tin-pot kingdom (6:1-2): “It pleased Darius to appoint 120 satraps to rule throughout the kingdom, with three administrators over them, one of whom was Daniel”.

 

Whatever be the case, it does not affect things overmuch insofar as we have a firmly defined terminus a quo beginning (the first kingdom) and terminus ad quem ending (the fourth kingdom).

Reasoning from the above, then, the terrible

 

Fourth Kingdom (Iron): is Hellenistic (Macedonian)

 

as previously determined.

 

Jesus Christ himself is the ‘stone’ of Daniel 2

 

by

 

Damien F. Mackey

 

 

‘While you were watching, a stone was cut out, but not by human hands. It struck the statue on its feet of iron and clay and smashed them. Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver and the gold were all broken to pieces and became like chaff on a threshing floor in the summer. The wind swept them away without leaving a trace. But the rock that struck the statue became a huge mountain and filled the whole earth’.

 

Daniel 2:34-35

 

  

 

The question of “Who/what is the stone of Daniel 2?”, as asked at, for instance:

http://bibleanswer.org/2015/08/01/whowhat-is-the-stone-of-daniel-2/

is easily answered, because Jesus Christ told us directly to whom it refers.

“Jesus said to them [the chief priests and the Pharisees]” (Matthew 21:42):

 

‘Have you never read in the Scriptures:

“The stone the builders rejected
    has become the cornerstone;
the Lord has done this,
    and it is marvelous in our eyes”’?”

 

This was an Old Testament reference to Psalm 117:22 (Douay, otherwise Psalm 118:22).

This was a “stone” (a “rock”) that would shatter the successive pagan kingdoms of Daniel 2 that would encounter it.

Jesus continued his statement, still with reference to Daniel 2 (Matthew 21:43): ‘Therefore I tell you that the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people who will produce its fruit. Anyone who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; anyone on whom it falls will be crushed’.

 

I Peter 2:7-8 explains this further, with reference, again, to the Old Testament (Isaiah 8:14): “He will be a holy place; for both Israel and Judah he will be a stone that causes people to stumble and a rock that makes them fall. And for the people of Jerusalem he will be a trap and a snare”.

I Peter 2:9 goes on to tell exactly who were Jesus’s “a people who will produce its fruit” to whom the kingdom will be given: “But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, to proclaim the virtues of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light”.

 

The article referred to above, “Who/what is the stone of Daniel 2?” (not all of which I would agree with or recommend), comes to the same conclusion about:

 

Who/what is a stone?

“Unto you therefore which believe he is precious: but unto them which be disobedient, the stone which the builders disallowed, the same is made the head of the corner, ” 1 Peter 2:7

“Be it known unto you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom ye crucified, whom God raised from the dead, even by him doth this man stand here before you whole. This is the stone which was set at nought of you builders, which is become the head of the corner. ” Acts 4:10, 11

Answer: Jesus