The Empires of Babylon

What if Daniel’s dream wasn’t about world empires at all but a single kingdom that began in Babel and still lives on today?

During the second year of his reign over Israel, Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, had a dream about an image. He saw various metals, stacked one on top of the other, until eventually, a stone flew through the air and crushed all the metals together. The stone then grew into a large mountain.

If your experience with Daniel 2 is similar to mine, I often thought of (and talked to others about) these metals as though they represented the various “world empires.” This exposition seemed reasonable, considering that Daniel himself interpreted the golden head as Nebuchadnezzar, or Babylon (Daniel 2:37-38). The arms and chest of silver were “another kingdom,” and thus Persia, or the nation that conquered Babylon, and then the bronze middle and thighs were Greece (v. 39).¹ The “fourth kingdom,” which would be as strong as iron, fit well with the Roman empire, which followed Greece historically. But then what about the iron and clay mixed to make the feet? What did this mingling represent? For years, I confidently explained that the answer was “Now,” and just as “the kingdom shall be partly strong and partly brittle,” some nations today are strong, while others are brittle (v. 42).

In many ways, this interpretation fits. However, in some ways, it doesn’t. Historically, these empires aren’t “world empires.” Instead, I believe that these particular kingdoms were chosen by God for this particular depiction, not because they would rule over the world, but because they would all display a shared characteristic––and that characteristic relates to what we’ve already been discussing in our column in the previous articles. To better grasp this characteristic, we’ll first consider how the “world empires” approach falls short, and then we’ll consider a more nuanced and satisfying approach.

World Empires

One cannot deny that this prophecy describes, in order, the succession of Babylon, Persia, Greece, and Rome. Nevertheless, that last phase certainly is challenging, particularly because it takes a much more global approach, whereas previously the prophecy had confined itself to the Middle East. Moreover, it seems to approach the picture in a post-Ottoman-Empire time, because, if Greece and Rome are considered empires for the image, how is it consistent for us to skip the Ottomans and jump straight to post- World War I, when the nations of the Middle East became independent? If we want to approach this prophecy consistently, we need to find a candidate for the iron and clay feet that follows the Roman empire chronologically, without a gap of hundreds of years. Additionally, that candidate should also have some kind of Roman heritage since it includes the iron.

Not only is the “world empires” approach inconsistent when it comes to the fifth phase of the image (the feet), but it also just doesn’t fit history. Many empires ruled the world that aren’t included in this prophecy. What about the Mongol Empire, the largest contiguous empire in history? What about the British Empire, which, at its greatest extent, ruled 25% of the globe? Why aren’t these included if this image is indeed “world empires”?

This isn’t just a dream about the nations of the world or the world’s empires. This is a dream about the Kingdoms of Men, also known Biblically as Babylon, or Babel.

Some have tried to explain these omissions by appealing to Israel, stating that this image is solely about the empires that have ruled the land of Israel. While this appears to be a good fit at first, it too struggles. The Umayyad Empire ruled the land of Israel, yet it isn’t in this dream. So did the Abbasid Empire, but it’s not there either. The same is true of the Ottoman Empire. Those who hold to the Israel interpretation will sometimes try to work with this difficulty by claiming that these are solely the empires that would rule the land of Israel when Jews lived there, thus attempting to remove many of these Islamic empires from potential candidates. Once again, though, this still misses the British Empire, which certainly ruled the land of Israel while Jews lived there. Finally, this interpretation still struggles with the feet, generally attempting to connect them with the Arabs, but this approach overlooks the continuation of the Roman iron. Somehow, the Roman Empire had to continue through these feet.

The Nations of Babel

In Exposition of Daniel, John Thomas presents a nuanced understanding of this prophecy that solves many of these problems. He writes:

Do you see the identifying characteristic? This isn’t just a dream about the nations of the world or the world’s empires. This is a dream about the Kingdoms of Men, also known Biblically as Babylon, or Babel.

When I teach classes on Scripture at university, I always enjoy asking my students, “Who is the major enemy of the Bible?” My students always expect the answer to be “Satan,” or “the Devil,” or something similar. While “sin” could be the answer, notice that the question isn’t what the major enemy is, but who is the major enemy? Throughout Scripture, God consistently describes a common enemy. However, due to translation, we often miss the identification.

Nimrod ruled over the kingdom of Babel (Genesis 10:9–10). Babel organized the first kingdom-wide rebellion against God, seeking to make a name for themselves (Genesis 11:4). In reading the English, one may feel that Babel disappears from the record. Nevertheless, in Hebrew it never does. In fact, every time that Scripture mentions Babylon, the Hebrew doesn’t say Babylon. It only ever says Babel. In other words, Scripturally, there never was a Babylon, only a Babel. From the beginning of that first kingdom-wide rebellion against God to the very end, Babylon has fought against God.

Thus, this image isn’t the world empires; nor is it the empires that have ruled over Israel. It’s the empires of Babel. It’s the empires that have continued Babel’s legacy.

This interpretation presents a remarkable consistency. First, we can understand why God gave the dream to Nebuchadnezzar. Nebuchadnezzar was thinking about what would happen after his kingdom passed (Daniel 2:39). God thus revealed the empires that would continue his legacy. Second, we can trace that this image represents Babylon from head to toe (which we will do in the final section). Third, we can identify that the fifth phase, the feet, is the Roman Catholic Church. This scenario fits chronologically with the fall of the Roman Empire and also carries on part of the iron heritage. Historically, the Catholic Church has ruled over both strong and weak areas.

From the Head to Toe

To me, the most satisfying aspect of this interpretation is how it brings together numerous prophecies. We can confirm our interpretation by examining other prophecies and observing that, from head to toe, from phase one to phase five, this image represents Babylon.

In Daniel 2, we already know that the first phase, the head, represents Babylon. Identifying the feet is more difficult, but we can bring Scripture together to show this unified interpretation. Daniel 2 parallels Daniel 7, except that Daniel 7 describes these phases of Babel using beasts rather than metals. The connections are as follows:

• 1st phase: Golden head = lion
• 2nd phase: Silver arms and chest = bear
• 3rd phase: Bronze middle and thighs = leopard
• 4th phase: Iron legs = unnamed beast
• 5th phase: Iron and clay feet = little horn

Here’s why these connections matter: these same beasts, represented by metals in Daniel 2, appear in Revelation 13:

Do you see the animals of Daniel 7? Revelation describes this beast as a mix of the four beasts of Daniel 7—it’s like a lion, a bear, a leopard, and a dragon (which likely matches the unnamed beast). We can establish this connection even further when we count up the number of heads and horns that each animal had in Daniel 7. There, the lion had one head, the bear had one, the leopard had four, and the unnamed beast had one, for a total of seven heads. None of the animals in Daniel 7 had horns except for the unnamed beast, which had ten. Thus, all of the animals of Daniel 7 put together had seven heads and ten horns. It can’t be a coincidence that we see that exact same number of both in the beast of Revelation.

But why is the beast of Revelation all of the beasts combined? This circumstance is what happens when one kingdom takes over another, it absorbs the characteristics of the kingdom before it. In other words, the Revelation beast is the beast that comes after the lion, the bear, the leopard, and the dragon. That makes it the fifth phase, or the feet of Daniel 2. With that in mind, consider that we see this beast again later, and specifically note the name Scripture gives it:

This fifth phase, the feet, is called Babylon. Typically, our community has identified this vision of Revelation 17 with the Catholic Church, thereby aligning with our interpretation from the section above. From head to toes, this isn’t an image of world empires or those that have ruled over Israel. It’s a picture of the empires of Babel.

Conclusion

But what does it mean to be Babylon? How does it help us in our walk toward the Kingdom to understand that Daniel 2 is about the empires of Babylon rather than the empires of the world?

That’s where history comes in. Lord willing, in the next article, we’ll see why this nuanced interpretation matters and how it helps us to live more like the Lord.

Jason Hensley,
Associate Editor

1. All quotations, unless otherwise noted, are from the English Standard Version.
2. John Thomas, Exposition of Daniel (Birmingham, UK: The Christadelphian, 1985), 8.