In Daniel Chapter two, verses 32 and 39, we notice that there are four metals mentioned in relation Nebuchadnezzar’s image: gold, silver, brass and iron.
Keil points out,
“The material becomes inferior from the head downward, gold, silver, copper, iron, clay; so that, though on the whole metallic, it becomes inferior and finally terminates in clay … not withstanding that the material becomes always the harder, till it is iron, yet then suddenly and at last, it becomes weak and brittle clay.”[1]
It is important to note that the majority of conservative scholars, from the time of Jerome in the 4th Century A.D. to the present, have interpreted this passage as referring to the Grecian Empire led by none other than Alexander the Great.
The head of gold in the statue, (Babylon), was the first empire in time containing within itself the idea of a world-empire. The inferiority of the second empire in the statue, (Medo-Persia), is symbolized by pale silver, both inferior in value and solidity to gold. The second empire, Medo-Persia, was also inferior to the first, Babylon, as it was compounded of two parts. The third empire, in Nebuchadnezzar’s dream, (the Grecian), has a dark and lowering color. Yet the loins of Greece would hold together the belly of Asia. In the fourth empire of iron, the Roman, we see strength ending in division.
John Walvoord adds:[1]
According to the prophecy of Daniel and his interpretation of Nebuchadnezzar’s image, the Grecian Empire was to be the third kingdom of brass (Dan. 2:39). Further light on the characteristics of this empire is given in Daniel 7:6 in the description of the third beast in Daniel’s vision. … While Daniel’s prophecies concerning Nebuchadnezzar and the kingdom of the Medes and the Persians were fulfilled in part in Daniel’s lifetime, in his prediction of the empire of Greece, he accurately foreshadowed an empire which did not come into existence until 200 years later.
Related Articles
No user responded in this post