The Beasts and the Image

Since I want to give an accurate account of how long the children of Israel were held captive in Babylon, and to work through the prophecies contained in the visions of the blessed Daniel — and his way of life from boyhood in Babylon as well — I too will add my testimony about that holy and righteous man, a prophet and a witness of Christ. He not only explained the visions of King Nebuchadnezzar in those days; he also trained young men who thought as he did, and raised up faithful witnesses in the world.

He is born, then, in the days when the blessed Jeremiah was prophesying, in the reign of Jehoiakim, also called Eliakim, and along with the rest of the captives he is carried off a prisoner to Babylon. Now the blessed Josiah had five sons: Jehoahaz, Eliakim, Johanan, Zedekiah — also called Jeconiah — and Shallum. On his father’s death Jehoahaz was anointed king by the people at the age of twenty-three. Pharaoh Neco marched against him in the third month of his reign, took him prisoner, carried him off to Egypt, and laid a tribute on the land of a hundred talents of silver and ten talents of gold. In his place he made his brother Eliakim king over the land, and changed his name to Jehoiakim; he was eleven years old at the time. Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came up against him, carried him off a prisoner to Babylon, and took with him some of the vessels of the house in Jerusalem. He was thrown into prison as a friend of Pharaoh and as a man Pharaoh had set over the kingdom, and at last, in the thirty-seventh year, he was released by Evil-merodach king of Babylon. He cut his hair short, was made the king’s counselor, and ate at his table until the day he died. When he was gone his son Jehoiakim reigned three years. Nebuchadnezzar came up against him too, deported him and ten thousand of the men of his people to Babylon, and set up in his place his father’s brother, whose name he also changed, to Zedekiah; and after binding him by oath and treaty, he went back to Babylon.

This Zedekiah, after reigning eleven years, revolted from him and went over to Pharaoh king of Egypt. So in the tenth year Nebuchadnezzar came against him out of the land of the Chaldeans, ringed the city with a stockade, closed in on it from every side, and shut it up completely. In this way most of them died of famine and others by the sword; some were taken prisoner, and the city was burned with fire, and the temple and the wall were destroyed. The army of the Chaldeans seized all the treasure found in the house of the Lord, and all the vessels of gold and silver; and all the bronze Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard, stripped off and carried away to Babylon. The army of the Chaldeans pursued Zedekiah himself as he fled by night with seven hundred men, caught him at Jericho, and brought him to the king of Babylon at Riblah. The king passed sentence on him in anger, because he had broken the oath of the Lord and the agreement he had made with him. He killed his sons in front of him and put out Zedekiah’s eyes; then he threw him into iron chains and carried him to Babylon, and there he stayed, grinding at the mill, until the day he died. And when he died they took his body and threw it behind the wall of Nineveh. In his case the prophecy of Jeremiah is fulfilled, which says:

“As I live, says the Lord, even if Jeconiah son of Jehoiakim king of Judah were the signet ring on my right hand, I would pull you off from there. And I will hand you over to those who seek your life, to the men whose face you fear, into the hands of the Chaldeans. And I will throw you out, and the mother who bore you, into a country where you were not born, and there you will die. But to the land they long for in their souls I will not send you back. Jeconiah is disgraced, like a pot no one has any use for, thrown out and driven off into a land he did not know. Land, hear the word of the Lord! Write this man down as banished, for no man of his offspring will prosper, sitting on David’s throne and ruling any more in Judah.”

So the captivity in Babylon came upon them after the exodus from Egypt. And when the whole people had been deported, the city left desolate and the sanctuary destroyed, so that the word the Lord spoke through the prophet Jeremiah might be fulfilled — “The sanctuary will lie desolate for seventy years” — that is when we find the blessed Daniel prophesying in Babylon and appearing as the man who cleared Susanna.

In speaking of a “lioness from the sea,” he meant the rise of the kingdom of Babylon, and that this was the “golden head of the image.” In speaking of its “eagle’s wings,” he meant that King Nebuchadnezzar was exalted and that his glory was lifted up against God. Then he says “its wings were torn off” — that is, his glory was destroyed, for he was driven out of his kingdom. And the words “a man’s heart was given it, and it was made to stand on a man’s feet” mean that he came to himself again, recognized that he was only a man, and gave the glory to God. Then after the lioness he sees a second beast, “like a bear,” which stood for the Persians; for after the Babylonians the Persians took the power. And in saying that “it had three ribs in its mouth,” he pointed to the three nations — Persians, Medes, and Babylonians — which the image expressed by the silver after the gold. Then comes the third beast, “a leopard,” which means the Greeks; for after the Persians, Alexander of Macedon held the power once Darius had been overthrown, and the image indicated this by the bronze. And in saying that the beast “had four bird’s wings and four heads,” he showed as plainly as possible how Alexander’s kingdom was split into four parts; for by the four heads he meant the four kings who came out of it, since Alexander divided his kingdom into four when he was dying. Then he says, “The fourth beast was dreadful and terrible; it had iron teeth and bronze claws.” Who is meant by this but the Romans, whose kingdom — the kingdom that still stands — is expressed by the iron? “For,” he says, “its legs are of iron.”

After this, then, what is left, dear friends, but the toes of the image’s feet, in which “part will be iron and part clay mixed together”? By the toes of the feet he meant, in a hidden way, the ten kings who rise out of that kingdom. As Daniel says, “I considered the beast, and there were ten horns behind it, among which another little horn will come up, springing from them.” By that no one is meant but the antichrist who is to rise; and he will set up the kingdom of Judah. And in saying that “three horns” were “pulled up by the roots” by this one, he points to the three kings of Egypt, Libya, and Ethiopia, whom this one will kill in the line of battle. And when he has conquered them all, he will show himself a terrible and savage tyrant, and will bring suffering and persecution on the holy ones, exalting himself against them. And after him what remains is that “the stone” will come from heaven that “struck the image” and shattered it, and overturned all the kingdoms, and gave the kingdom to the holy ones of the Most High. This “became a great mountain and filled the whole earth.”

Since these things, then, are bound to come to pass, and since the toes of the image turn out to be governments of the people, and the beast’s ten horns are shared out among ten kings, let us look at what lies in front of us more carefully and examine it, so to speak, with an open eye. The “golden head of the image” is the same as the “lioness,” by which the Babylonians were represented. “The golden shoulders and the arms of silver” are the same as the “bear,” by which the Persians and Medes are meant. “The belly and thighs of bronze” are the “leopard,” by which the Greeks who ruled from Alexander onward are intended. The “legs of iron” are the “dreadful and terrible beast,” by which the Romans who hold the empire now are meant. The “toes of clay and iron” are the “ten horns” that are still to come. The “one other little horn springing up among them” is the “antichrist.” The stone that “strikes the image and breaks it in pieces,” and that filled the whole earth, is Christ, who comes from heaven and brings judgment on the world.

But so as not to leave our subject undemonstrated at this point, we are obliged to discuss the matter of the times, about which a man should not speak hastily, since they are a light to him. For as the times are noted from the foundation of the world and reckoned from Adam, they set the matter of our inquiry plainly before us. The first appearance of our Lord in the flesh took place in Bethlehem, under Augustus, in the year 5500, and he suffered in his thirty-third year. And six thousand years must be completed for the Sabbath to come — the rest, the holy day “on which God rested from all his works.” For the Sabbath is the pattern and picture of the coming kingdom of the holy ones, when they “will reign with Christ” at his coming from heaven, as John says in the Revelation; for “a day with the Lord is like a thousand years.” Since, then, God made all things in six days, it follows that six thousand years must be fulfilled. And they are not yet fulfilled, as John says: “Five have fallen; one is” — that is, the sixth — “the other has not yet come.”

In mentioning the “other,” moreover, he means the seventh, in which there is rest. But someone may be ready to ask: how will you prove to me that the Savior was born in the year 5500? Learn it easily, my friend. The things that happened long ago in the wilderness, under Moses, in the matter of the tabernacle, were made patterns and pictures of spiritual mysteries, so that when the truth came in Christ in these last days you would be able to see that these things had been fulfilled. For God says to him: “And you are to make the ark out of wood that does not rot, and overlay it with pure gold inside and out; and you are to make its length two and a half cubits, its width a cubit and a half, and its height a cubit and a half.” These measures, when they are added up together, make five and a half cubits, so that the five thousand five hundred years might be signified by them.

At that time, then, the Savior appeared and showed his own body to the world, born of the virgin, who was the “ark overlaid with pure gold,” with the Word inside and the Holy Spirit outside; so that the truth is demonstrated and the “ark” made plain. From the birth of Christ, then, we must count the five hundred years that remain to make up the six thousand, and so the end will come. And that the Savior appeared in the world carrying the imperishable ark, his own body, at the time that was the fifth and a half, John declares: “Now it was the sixth hour,” he says, meaning by that the half of the day. But a day with the Lord is a thousand years, and the half of that is five hundred years. For it was not fitting that he should appear earlier, since the burden of the law was still in force; nor when the sixth day was already complete, for the baptism is changed; but at the fifth and a half, so that in the remaining half of the time the good news might be preached to the whole world, and that when the sixth day was completed he might bring the present life to an end. Since, then, the Persians held the mastery for 330 years, and after them the Greeks, who were more glorious still, held it for 300, of necessity the fourth beast, being strong and mightier than all that were before it, will reign 500 years. When the times are fulfilled, and the ten horns spring from the beast in the last days, then the antichrist will appear among them. When he makes war on the holy ones and persecutes them, then we may expect the appearing of the Lord from heaven.

Having taught us with such exactness about the certainty of what is to be, the prophet broke off from the subject in front of him and turned back to the kingdom of the Persians and the Greeks, telling us another vision which took place and was fulfilled in its own time — so that by settling our belief about this, he might be able to present us to God as readier to believe the things that are still to come. So he recounts in detail, for the strengthening of the faithful, what he had already told in the first vision. For by the “ram pushing west and north and south” he means Darius, the king of the Persians, who overcame all the nations; “for,” he says, “these beasts will not stand before him.” And by the “male goat that came from the west” he means Alexander the Macedonian, the king of the Greeks; and in saying that he “came against that very ram, and was moved with rage, and struck him on the face, and shattered him, and threw him to the ground, and trampled on him,” he is describing exactly what happened. For Alexander waged war on Darius and overcame him, and made himself master of the whole empire after routing and destroying his camp. Then, after the goat had been exalted, his horn — the great one, that is — was broken, and four horns rose up under it toward the four winds of heaven. For when Alexander had made himself master of the whole land of Persia and had brought its people into subjection, he then died, after dividing his kingdom into four principalities, as has been shown above. And from that time “one horn was exalted and grew great, even to the power of heaven; and by him,” he says, “the sacrifice was disturbed, and righteousness thrown to the ground.”