A Study of Revelation 20 and Other Related Passages
Veni, vidi, vici.
Julius Caesar
Power is not given, it is taken.
Augustus Caesar
Are there one or two resurrections? Revelation 20 answers this question for us but with apocalyptic metaphors which must be interpreted in their various biblical contexts. When we read in Revelation 20:4 that John saw the souls of the beheaded martyrs who did not capitulate to the Beast, we must go to Revelation 13:1-14:20 to understand who and what this Beast was. When interpreting these chapters we discover a heavy dependence on the imagery of Daniel. The Sea Beast of Revelation 13:1-7 is a chimera of the beasts paraded one by one in Daniel 7:1-8. Lion, bear and leopard elements which feature in John’s beast are interpreted in Daniel as Babylon, Medo Persia and Greece. The successor to these empires is Rome. Rome amalgamated the wealth, culture and religion of their conquered and became very powerful. Rome receives pride of place in some of Daniel’s visions because of the timing of the Messiah’s advent and ascension.
“After this I saw in the night visions, and behold, a fourth beast, dreadful and terrible, exceedingly strong. It had huge iron teeth; it was devouring, breaking in pieces, and trampling the residue with its feet. It was different from all the beasts that were before it, and it had ten horns.
Daniel 7:7
A quick side by side reading with Revelation 13:1-7 assures us that we are in the right apocalyptic territory. John’s vision adds more details, and thus more clarity. We will return to this passage in a moment, and when we do we will continue to rely on Daniel’s prophetic features and framework. First, we should consider this fourth beast and why it is best interpreted as Rome.
Rome is the only of the four beasts not specifically associated with an animal of some kind. We see iron feet, we hear trampling and grinding. It is far more frightening than the other beasts. And although we’ve already been told in Daniel 7:3 that each of the beasts are different and distinct from one another, we read “it was different from all the beasts that were before it.” This could also be read “it was diverse according to all the beasts that were before it.” Rome was the great synthesizer, adopting anything and everything that would promote its purposes. “It was devouring, breaking in pieces, and trampling the residue with its feet.” Rome was very intensive, organizing everything in the empire thoroughly into smaller pieces for easier control of its ever standing and marching armies. By this approach Rome enforced the Pax Romana.
We also read that it had ten horns.* Rome had many more leaders than ten, just as there were more than four generals in Greece, three kings in Persia or one man in Babylon. As with the other numbers of highlighted rulers (Daniel 7:2-6), so also here. These ten kings matter because they pertain directly to the vital places, people and events of redemptive history. According to the ancient historians themselves, the first ten emperors of Rome were Julius, Augustus, Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius, Nero, Galba, Otho, Vitelius and Vespasian. The Messiah was born under Augustus. Jesus began the New Covenant by His death and resurrection during Tiberius. The church spread by the power of the Holy Spirit throughout the empire during Caligula and Claudius, and suffered Roman persecution during Nero. The next three passed within a year and through Vespasian, Christ came in judgment against Jerusalem in AD 70 ending the Old Covenant.
At this point it would be helpful to compare Daniel’s interpretation of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream in Daniel 2:40-44 with Daniel 7:7-14.
“And the fourth kingdom shall be as strong as iron, inasmuch as iron breaks in pieces and shatters everything; and like iron that crushes, [that kingdom] will break in pieces and crush all the others. “Whereas you saw the feet and toes, partly of potter’s clay and partly of iron, the kingdom shall be divided; yet the strength of the iron shall be in it, just as you saw the iron mixed with ceramic clay. “And [as] the toes of the feet [were] partly of iron and partly of clay, [so] the kingdom shall be partly strong and partly fragile. “As you saw iron mixed with ceramic clay, they will mingle with the seed of men; but they will not adhere to one another, just as iron does not mix with clay. “And in the days of these kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed; and the kingdom shall not be left to other people; it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever.
Daniel 2:40-44
The fourth level of the statue in the first vision is exactly correlated to the fourth beast in the second vision. The fourth kingdom tramples and crushes like the fourth beast. Both are characterized by amalgamation rather than true integration. The emphasis on the feet (and thus the ten toes) repeats with an emphasis on the feet and the ten horns. It is in the days of these ten kings in particular that God acts to set up His kingdom. Both passages show that the succession of world empires is interrupted by God’s kingdom which distrusts and displaces the heretofore progression of man-shaped/beastly powers. Both the mountain and the messiah are shown to have global and eternal dominion (c.f. Psalm 2:1-12) One significant difference between the two visions is an emphasis in the beast vision on the nature of one the ten horns.
“I was considering the horns, and there was another horn, a little one, coming up among them, before whom three of the first horns were plucked out by the roots. And there, in this horn, were eyes like the eyes of a man, and a mouth speaking pompous words.
Daniel 7:8
Among these horns one stood out as another kind. This horn was one of the kings in the fourth empire, somehow distinct from the others, and especially deserving of God’s judgment (as we see later). Nero makes an excellent candidate for this horn not only due to his blasphemous and profane attacks upon the saints of the kingdom, but also because although he was one of the emperors, he was another kind of them. Nero was the first to rise to the throne outside the line of succession. How was this achieved? The three previous emperors, Tiberius, Caligula and Claudius, were assassinated, making way for Nero. Three of the first horns were uprooted to make way for the little horn, this upstart without real claim.
Having identified this fourth beast of Daniel with the sea beast of Revelation, we have biblical warrant to interpret the beast as Rome with a focus on Nero as the emperor in focus. Does this fit with Revelation 13? We will look more at this next time.
* Horns were symbols of power and strength. 1 Samuel 2:1, 10; Psalm 18:2; 75:4-5; Jeremiah 48:5
