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Vision of the Great Image—Daniel 2 |
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Then, said Daniel, “after you shall arise… another, a third kingdom of bronze” (Dan. 2:39b), represented by the thighs of brass or bronze. This “bronze” power was Greece, begun by Alexander the conqueror. The Greeks ruled from 331 BC until about 168 BC, when they were defeated by the rising “iron” monarchy of Rome. |
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Four Beasts—Daniel 7 |
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Then came the conquerer Alexander the Great, represented in Daniel’s vision by a winged leopard. “After this I looked, and there was another, like a leopard, which had on its back four wings of a bird. The beast alsohad four heads, and dominion was given to it” (Dan. 7:6). |
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Why a leopard with wings? Wings suggest speed, and Alexander worked swiftly. Beginning from almost nothing, Alexander united contentious Greece and went on to conquer Persia in twelve lightning years. Before his 33rd birthday he was the holder of an empire extending from Greece to the Indus River. |
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There is another detail in Daniel’s prophetic picture, also true to reality: This leopard had four heads. Why? When Alexander died, his four generals each took a portion of the empire. Cassander took Macedonia and Greece; Lysimachus took Thrace and much of Asia Minor; Ptolemy took Egypt, Cyrenaica and Palestine; and Syria and the easts lands went to Seleucus. This detail was also included in another prophecy in Daniel, which compared Alexander to a “broken horn,” and four horns would stand up in its place, even stating that the four horns represented the four kingdoms to come from the one, “but not with its power (not among his posterity)” (see Daniel 11:4, 8:20-22). |
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