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
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
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.
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