Understanding the Beasts of Daniel 7 & 8 and Revelation 12, 13, and 17
Prophetic History How it Connects to World Events Leading to Armageddon
James Schucker
Beastly Heads and Horns of Daniel and Revelation
In Daniel 7, the Lord gives a chronological history of Gentile rule over Israel. He did this to humble and discipline Israel for failing to keep the Law He had given them, as described in Leviticus 26:14–46. This was a wonderful Law, and even the United States has acknowledged its importance by placing a memorial of it on the Liberty Bell. The bell’s crack may fittingly symbolize that, like Israel, we have not fully kept that Law. I also believe the Lord overruled the establishment of the United States to help prepare the way for the Jewish people to return to their land and eventually recognize that their Messiah has empowered that restoration since 1948. In this view, Jesus, their Messiah, has been guiding them back to their homeland, even at times against their own will.
The Lord states this in Ezekiel 20:33–35: “As surely as I live, declares the Lord GOD, with a strong hand, an outstretched arm, and outpoured wrath I will rule over you. 34With a strong hand, an outstretched arm, and outpoured wrath I will bring you out from the peoples and gather you from the lands to which you have been scattered.35 And I will bring you into the wilderness of the nations, where I will enter into judgment with you face to face.” I believe this process has been unfolding since World War I and especially World War II, preparing the world for Israel’s national rebirth in 1948 through the United Nations. This same development is also alluded to in the seventh bowl of “wrath poured out” in Revelation 16:17–21.
Revelation 17 gives additional detail and insight into world history as it relates to the seven heads and ten horns found on the four beasts of Daniel 7. These same symbols also appear in the seven-headed, ten-horned beasts of Revelation 12, 13, and 17.
When we consider the power and wisdom of the God of the universe, it should not seem accidental that the seven heads and ten horns total seventeen, the very chapter number where this key is given. Likewise, the chapters in which these beasts appear—12 + 13 + 17—total 42, matching the prophetic months: 42 months, or 1,260 days, which, by the day-for-a-year principle, represent 1,260 years. During this period, these beasts were permitted to torment the saints of God, testing and proving their faithfulness to the truth. These saints, now being tried, will become future kings, priests, and judges who will “reign on the earth”. Their willingness to die for the truth will demonstrate to the world that they are trustworthy rulers in the future Kingdom, which our Lord is even now setting up in Israel.
Recognizing that the seven heads and ten horns in Revelation are the same as those on the four beasts of Daniel 7 shows that the Lord Himself made this connection. This becomes especially clear when the body parts of Daniel’s four beasts are combined in the beast of Revelation 13. In this way, Revelation helps explain and expand our understanding of Daniel 7.Revelation 13:1–8 says, “Then I saw a beast with ten horns and seven heads rising out of the sea. There were ten royal crowns on its horns and blasphemous names on its heads. The beast [Rome] I saw was like a leopard [Greece], with the feet of a bear [Persia] and the mouth of a lion [Babylon]. And the dragon [the Devil working through the Byzantine Empire] gave the beast his power, throne, and great authority [Rome]. One of the beast’s heads appeared to have been mortally wounded [Rome fell in 476, but was revived and empowered by Justinian, ruler of the Byzantine Empire, in 539]. But the mortal wound was healed, and the whole world marveled and followed the beast. And they worshiped the dragon who gave authority to the beast, and they worshiped the beast [as Rome came under the rule of the head of the Roman Catholic Church], saying, ‘Who is like the beast, and who can wage war against it?’”
“The beast was given a mouth [the Pope’s mouth] to speak arrogant and blasphemous words, and authority to act for 42 months [1,260 years, from 539 to 1799]. And the beast opened its mouth to speak blasphemies against God and to slander His name and His tabernacle—those who dwell in heaven.”
“Then the beast was permitted to wage war against the saints and conquer them, and it was given authority over every tribe, people, tongue, and nation. And all who dwell on the earth will worship the beast—all whose names have not been written from the foundation of the world in the Book of Life belonging to the Lamb who was slain.”
This is the figure Paul describes in 2 Thessalonians 2:3–12: “Let no one deceive you in any way, for it will not come until the rebellion occurs and the man of lawlessness—the son of destruction—is revealed. 4 He will oppose and exalt himself above every so-called god or object of worship. So he will seat himself in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God.
5 Do you not remember that I told you these things while I was still with you? 6 And you know what is now restraining him, so that he may be revealed at the proper time. 7 For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work [beginning after Jesus died for us], but the one now restraining it [Rome] will continue until he is taken out of the way [when Rome fell in 476]. 8 Then the lawless one will be revealed [Papal Rome’s rise in 539], whom the Lord Jesus will slay with the breath of His mouth and annihilate by the majesty of His arrival [beginning 1,260 years later, in 1799, with the French Revolution; see Revelation 10].
9The coming of the lawless one will be accompanied by the working of Satan, with every kind of power, sign, and false wonder.10 It will involve every wicked deception directed against those who are perishing, because they refused to love the truth that would have saved them. 11For this reason God will send them a powerful delusion so that they believe the lie.12 In this way, judgment will come upon all who disbelieved the truth and delighted in wickedness.”
Best place to begin the explanation Revelation 13:1-2
These two verses clearly point us back to Daniel 7 for several reasons:
1. The body parts of Daniel’s four beasts are combined in the single beast of Revelation 13. In Daniel 7, we see a lion, a bear, a leopard, and a fourth beast whose description resembles a mythological dragon. The Revelation 13 beast has “the mouth of a lion, the feet of a bear, the body of a leopard,” and—notice—“the dragon gives him his seat [Rome], authority, and power.”
2. The connection becomes stronger when we count the heads. Daniel’s four beasts have seven heads in total: the lion has one, the bear one, the leopard four, and the fourth beast one. Revelation’s beast also has seven heads.
3. The horns confirm the same link. In Revelation, John sees ten horns. In Daniel 7, the lion, bear, and leopard have no horns, while the fourth beast has ten. Thus, both visions contain ten horns.
This shows that the Revelation 13 beast draws upon the strongest features of the Daniel 7 vision: the lion’s terrifying mouth and roar, the bear’s powerful feet, the leopard’s speed and camouflage, and the dragon’s fierce, mysterious power. These animals describe the military strength of the empires they represent. I am not suggesting that the Revelation 13 beast is simply a combination of Daniel’s four beasts. Rather, it describes the “horn that had the eyes of a man and a mouth speaking great things” that arose from the fourth beast (Daniel 7:8). Daniel 7:25 says this horn would continue for 1,260 years [into his hand for a time, and times, and half a time.] and Revelation 13:5 gives the beast the same prophetic duration. Scripture consistently uses a day-for-a-year principle in prophecy, as seen in the 70-week prophecy of Daniel 9:24, which totals 490 years, not literal days. The horn of Daniel’s fourth beast and the beast of Revelation 13 perform the same work. Therefore, the Revelation 13 beast appears to have inherited the worldly and military characteristics—the body parts—of Daniel’s beasts, even though it falsely claims to be the “Kingdom of God” on earth. With this in mind, let us return to Daniel 7 to better understand what Daniel’s beasts represent and to see how Revelation helps uncover details that were previously hidden.
Most commentators agree that Daniel’s four beasts represent successive empires: the lion represents Babylon, the bear Persia, the leopard Greece, and the fourth beast Rome. My purpose is not to explain every reason for these identifications, but one strong argument is that Daniel’s concern was for his people, the Jews. The Lord was showing Daniel the consequences of His anger toward disobedient Israel, including the beginning of their “seven times” punishment foretold by Moses in Leviticus 26:18–24: “If after all this you will not listen to Me, I will punish you seven times more for your sins.”
Connection to Leviticus 26
In Leviticus 26, the “seven times” are mentioned four times. I do not believe it is accidental that Daniel’s vision contains seven heads and four beasts. In the same chapter, the Lord says, “I will send wild beasts among you, which shall rob you of your children, destroy your cattle, make you few in number, and leave your highways desolate.” These “wild beasts” appear to point to the beasts of Daniel, not literal animals. For that reason, most commentators look to the nations that ruled over Israel as the meaning of Daniel’s beasts: the lion represents Babylon, the bear Persia, the leopard Greece, and the fourth beast Rome. These empires ruled over Israel during the “seven times” punishment that began when Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, took Israel captive (Daniel 1:1).
This “seven times” punishment also represents a prophetic period: seven years of 360 prophetic days each, or 2,520 days, understood by the day-for-a-year principle as 2,520 years. Counting from 607 BC, when Israel was taken captive by Nebuchadnezzar, brings us to 1914, the beginning of World War I. That war led to the Balfour Declaration, which recognized Palestine as a national homeland for the Jewish people. Since then, Israel was reborn as a nation in 1948, fulfilling Ezekiel 37. It is also noteworthy that 1948 is 70 years after 1878, when Jewish people were first permitted to buy land in Israel after the dispersion began. If the Times of the Gentiles are calculated using literal 365-day years, the day-for-year total becomes 2,555 years, which also reaches from 607 BC to 1948. To me, this is far more than coincidence.
Many believe the Lord used these particular “wild beasts” to describe the military methods these nations used to conquer their enemies. As these empires overcame other peoples, Israel became part of their plunder. The beasts’ heads likely represent ruling cities, while the horns represent separate powers in covenant relationship with a head. For example, the United States could be pictured as one head with either fifty horns, or thirteen horns representing the original colonies that separated from England and formed the nation. I mention this only to illustrate that, during the 1,260 years of Papal rule, the number of horns supporting the Papacy may have fluctuated, though it began with ten. In Daniel 7, three horns are uprooted by a new horn, leaving eight. Therefore, the key question is how many horns are on the beast at a given point in time.
So far, I have identified the beasts as Babylon, Persia, Greece, and Rome. We now turn to their heads. Three of the beasts are straightforward because each has one head: Babylon had Babylon as its capital, Persia had Susa (Daniel 8:2), and Rome had Rome. Greece is more complex because Daniel describes the leopard as having four heads. To help explain this, the Lord gives another view of Greece in Daniel 8. There, the ram with two horns represents the Persian Empire, and the goat with the notable horn represents the Grecian Empire (Daniel 8:20–21).
What is especially interesting is that Daniel 7 and Daniel 8 describe the same empires using different animals and different symbols. In Daniel 7, Persia is pictured as a bear with no horns; in Daniel 8, it is a two-horned ram. In Daniel 7, Greece is pictured as a four-headed leopard; in Daniel 8, it appears as a goat with one, four, or five horns, depending on the period being described.
The differences between the heads and horns in Daniel 7 and Daniel 8, together with a key found in Revelation 17, help us identify more precisely what heads and horns represent. Before drawing conclusions, we should briefly note the main issues these chapters raise.
Pertinent Questions
1. Why does the leopard, representing Greece, have four heads and no horns, while the dragon, representing Rome, has one head and ten horns? Why not give Rome ten heads and Greece four horns? The key question is this: what is the difference between a head and a horn?
2. In Daniel 8, the ram, representing Persia, has one head and two horns. Why, then, does the Persian bear in Daniel 7 have neither horns nor multiple heads?
3. In Daniel 8, the goat, representing Greece, has one head and—depending on the time period—one, four, or five horns. Yet in Daniel 7, the Greek leopard has four heads and no horns. Why are Greece’s divisions shown as heads in one vision and horns in another?
Clearly, the Lord is illustrating different aspects of how these nations rose to power. I suggest that Daniel 7 primarily concerns the four beastly nations and the seven ruling cities God used to punish Israel during the seven times punishment described in Leviticus 26. Daniel 8, by contrast, gives more detail about the Persian and Grecian Empires, using animals those nations themselves minted on their coins. This helps us know what to look for when determining when a horn on the Grecian goat later becomes a head. This is also the subject of Daniel 11 and explains why Revelation 17 says, “Here is the mind which has wisdom.” In other words, this is not an easy subject, but the Lord has given clues to help us understand it. Daniel 7, 8, 11, 12, and Revelation 12, 13, and 17 are wonderfully interconnected. In brief, a head represents a nation’s governing city. In Daniel 7, it is the ruling city that becomes the governmental head over Israel. A horn typically represents the king of that ruling city, or a division of kingly power connected to that government. The beast’s body represents the country or empire itself.
Most readers recognize that the four beasts rule in succession, but identifying the successive ruling cities from the imagery is more complex. Graphically, the order appears to be Babylon ruling from Babylon; Persia from Susa; the four divisions of Greece—Macedonia, Egypt, Syria, and Thrace; and finally Rome. Historically, Babylon began Gentile dominion over Israel from Babylon in 607 BCE, becoming the first head. Seventy years later, Persia ruled from Susa in 536 BCE, becoming the second head. Greece then ruled from Pella in Macedonia under Alexander the Great in 336 BCE, becoming the third head (see Daniel 11:3–4). After Alexander’s death, his kingdom was divided among his four generals. Ptolemy Soter ruled Egypt from Alexandria and gained control of Israel in 323 BCE, making Alexandria the fourth head (see Daniel 11:5–9). Later, during the conflict between the kings of the north and south, Antiochus III, king of the north, took Israel in 198 BCE. Thus Antioch, capital of Syria, became the fifth head (see Daniel 11:10–15).
At this point, three of Greece’s four heads had successively ruled Israel: Pella in Macedonia, Alexandria in Egypt, and Antioch in Syria. Only Thrace, the fourth Greek division, remained. At first glance, one might expect Thrace to be the next power to control Israel. But Daniel 11:16 says that “he who comes against him”—that is, against the king of the north, Syria—is not Greek at all, but Roman. Rome took Israel in 64 BCE and became the sixth head. This creates a difficulty. Some may conclude that the four heads merely refer to Greece’s four divisions, or that Thrace must somehow have ruled Israel. But if that were true, there would be little difference between a head and a horn. We should therefore look further, and Revelation 17 provides the needed clue.
Revelation 17:9–10 says, “Here is the mind which has wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains, on which the woman sits [is supported by]. And there are seven kings: five have fallen [by John’s day], and one is [Rome], and the other has not yet come; and when he comes, he must continue a short space.” This appears to answer the problem. By the time John received Revelation, five heads had already fallen: Babylon at Babylon, the first head; Persia at Susa, the second; Greece at Pella, the third; Greece at Alexandria, the fourth; and Greece at Antioch, the fifth. Rome, the sixth head, was ruling in John’s day. That leaves one head still to come. Was any Greek kingdom left after Rome conquered? In one sense, yes; in another, no. Much of the Greek Empire had been absorbed by Rome, yet Daniel 7:12 says, “their dominion [over Israel] was taken away, yet their lives were prolonged for a season and time.”
The Rule of Thrace
Returning to the question: when did the Thracian portion of the Grecian Empire rule over Israel as a Grecian power? The answer is: never. Nor should we look for this in the future. The answer appears in Daniel 8:24, which says, “His power shall be mighty, but not by his own power.” This describes another power establishing its seat in foreign territory. That is exactly what Rome did when it moved its capital to Constantinople, located in Thrace—the fourth division, or head, of the Grecian Empire. Therefore, this horn is not a Grecian power, but Roman power exercised from Greek Thrace.
Daniel 8:9 speaks of the “little horn which waxed exceeding great, toward the south, and toward the east, and toward the pleasant land,” the “pleasant land” being Israel. Daniel 8:23–24 adds that “in the latter time of their kingdom, when the transgressors have come to the full, a king of fierce countenance and understanding dark sentences shall stand up. And his power shall be mighty, but not by his own power.” Whose power was it? It was Roman power. In 330 CE, Constantine, the first Christian emperor, moved Rome’s capital to Constantinople in Greek Thrace. From then on, Constantinople became the seventh and final head, or capital, to rule over Israel.
At this point, we have considered the four beasts and the seven heads. The next question is: what are the ten horns? Since the ten horns belong to Daniel’s fourth beast, commonly understood as Rome, we should examine the Roman Empire’s structure. From Rome’s conquest of Israel through the apostolic period, there is no clear division of the empire into ten kingdoms. This is why Daniel 7:24 says, “The ten horns out of the kingdom are ten kings that shall arise,” indicating that they were not present at the beginning, nor even in John’s day. Yet the ten kings must arise before the Papal horn, which rules out interpretations that place their rise only in the late 1800s. Revelation 17:12 confirms this: “The ten horns which you saw are ten kings, which have received no kingdom as yet” [in John’s day], “but receive power as kings one hour with the beast.”
In 476 CE, Odoacer, king of the Heruli, conquered Rome and ended the Western Roman Empire. After Rome’s fall, its former territory divided into ten smaller kingdoms: Heruli, Ostrogoths, Lombards, Alemanni, Anglo-Saxons, Franks, Burgundians, Visigoths, Suebi, and Vandals. But Rome’s role did not end with the fall of pagan Rome. The Papacy became the most powerful institution remaining in Rome. By 539 CE, the Heruli, Ostrogoths, and Lombards—the three horns of Daniel 7:8 and 7:24—had been incorporated into the revived, Rome-centered Kingdom of Italy. Thus Rome experienced a renewed rise to power, described in Revelation 13, as the European kingdoms gave their strength to Papal Rome.
This rise is also shown by the placement of crowns. In Revelation 12:3, the dragon has seven crowns on its seven heads, but none on its ten horns. This suggests a period when all seven heads had received power, while the ten horns were only beginning to form. By Revelation 13, the crowns appear on the horns, showing that the ten kings had now received power and were giving their strength to the Papal horn. Revelation 17:12 states the same point: “The ten horns have received no kingdom as yet” [in John’s day], “but receive power as kings one hour with the beast,” that is, when Rome returned to power in 539.
Some object that “one hour” must refer to a short period, while this interpretation spans 1,260 years or more. But Scripture does not always use “hour” to mean a brief interval. In 1 John 2:18, John writes, “Little children, it is the last time,” using the same Greek word that can be translated “hour.” The verse could therefore read, “Little children, it is the last hour…” Yet this “hour” has already lasted more than 1,900 years. Likewise, in John 5:28–29, Jesus says, “The hour is coming in which all who are in the graves will hear His voice and come forth.” I understand that “hour” to refer to the Millennial Age. Thus, in prophecy, “hour” can simply mean a period of time whose length is determined by context.
Here, the context is the beast that continued for 1,260 years after its deadly wound was healed. Revelation 13:3 says, “I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast.” They wondered because the wound had been healed; Rome appeared invincible again and was even called the “Eternal City.” Then Revelation 13:5 says, “Power was given unto him to continue forty and two months.” The word “continue” suggests a prior life interrupted by the deadly wound and then resumed for another 1,260 years. This connects the war of Revelation 12, where Pagan Rome is cast down, with Revelation 13, where Papal Rome rises—different in form, yet still bearing Rome’s same seven heads and ten horns.
If “hour” is understood as “time,” as it often can be, the thought is that the horns “receive power as kings one time with the beast.” Many today argue that the ten horns receive power twice—once during the Dark Ages and again in the future under a final antichrist. But this overlooks the crowns on the ten horns in Revelation 13, which show that, by the time the wounded head was healed and Pagan Rome became Papal Rome, the horns had already received their kingdoms. Daniel 7:24 confirms this order: “The ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings that shall arise, and another [single horn] shall rise after them [the Papacy] and he shall be diverse from the first [a religious power] and shall subdue three kings.” This shows that the ten horns receive power before the Papacy is established. Therefore, the expectation of a future set of ten horns has little scriptural support unless one adopts the Papal view that the Antichrist is a future individual.
The 10 Horns
Having examined the mystery of the seven heads and ten horns in Daniel’s four beasts, we can now return to John’s Revelation. Some may feel that several points still need explanation in light of what has been presented. I intend to address those concerns and show that the apparent weaknesses are not true weaknesses, but difficult points made challenging by the great amount of historical detail compressed into very few words. I believe interpretations should be weighed by the number of biblical connections they make. To my knowledge, no other interpretation comes close to the number of connections presented here while also fitting both the biblical context and the known course of history.
Let us begin with what most Bible students generally agree on and what this interpretation does not change. Broadly speaking, the three beasts in Revelation represent the Roman Empire from different viewpoints. In Revelation 12, the vision portrays the struggle between Christianity and paganism within Roman power. Revelation 13 presents the Papal Roman Empire after that conflict has ended and the pagan head of Rome has received its deadly wound. Pagan Rome, pictured in chapter 12 as the dragon, was cast down into the sea, which helps explain why the sea turns to blood during the second trumpet period (Revelation 8:8). Chapter 13 begins around 539, when Rome, now under Papal control, heals the deadly wound and is permitted to “continue” in that condition for another 1,260 years. Revelation 17:1–6 introduces the woman—the Roman Catholic Church—as the would-be New Jerusalem, the “eternal city” that rides the Babylonish Roman Empire during the Church’s wilderness condition (Revelation 17:18). In verse 7, the angel—Jesus—explains to John the parts that make up this Babylonish Roman Empire. Some argue that the angel is addressing the “John class” at the end of the age and that the true meaning of the beast was hidden until then. They reason that the phrase “five are fallen, and one is” (Revelation 17:10) cannot be understood until the end time. But if the heads and horns are not connected back to Daniel, and if all seven heads are made forms of Rome, the right perspective is lost. The key question is rarely asked: why does Rome have only one head in Daniel 7, but seven heads in Revelation? A more stable approach is to understand the angel as Jesus speaking directly to the apostle John around the year 90.
In Revelation, understanding the viewpoint of a vision is often the key to understanding the vision itself. Paul illustrates this in 2 Corinthians 2:15–16, where the Church’s preaching of the Gospel is viewed from two perspectives. To God, the Gospel is a sweet aroma of “life unto life.” To unbelievers, it is the odor of “death unto death.” The brazen serpent provides another example. When Israel sinned in the wilderness, the Lord sent serpents among them. Moses was told to lift up a bronze serpent so those bitten could look upon it and be healed. Jesus identified Himself as the antitype of that serpent (John 3:14). The lesson is that when people stray from the Lord’s ways, those who speak truth may appear to them as deceivers or serpents. Truth can feel like a plague when it exposes error. Healing begins when one is willing to consider that he may be wrong and to recognize that the pain comes because the truth is correcting him. Another example appears in Matthew 24:43–44, where Jesus compares Himself to a thief, not to the “goodman of the house.” In that parable, the “goodman” represents the devil, showing how difficult it can be for the world to distinguish good from evil. As Isaiah 5:20 warns, “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil.” And Hebrews 5:14 reminds us that maturity belongs to those whose “senses [are] exercised to discern between good and evil.”
Much of Revelation uses graphic imagery from the standpoint of those who have departed from truth. That is why many scenes sound destructive, even though they often depict the spread of the Gospel through the Lord’s messengers. For example, Revelation speaks of seven messengers to the seven stages of the Church, and also of seven trumpets that seem to bring death and devastation on the earth. Yet the trumpeters are those same seven messengers, proclaiming the same truth. The difference is viewpoint: historically, those who loved error experienced the truth as destructive because it exposed and destroyed the errors they cherished.
We can now examine Revelation 12, 13, and eventually 17 from the foundation already laid: the seven heads and ten horns in these Revelation beasts are the same seven heads and ten horns found in Daniel 7. I am not saying that the Revelation beast is simply all of Daniel’s beasts combined into one. Rather, the Papal Roman Empire inherited the ways of thinking, represented by the heads, and the military methods, represented by the body parts, from the empires before it. In other words, the seven heads are not seven forms of Roman government. Instead, Rome draws on the combined satanic wisdom of the earlier empires and uses it to subdue its enemies, making it the most powerful expression of them all. This is why Revelation 17:11 says, “And the beast that was and is not, even he is the eighth” [coming after Constantinople, the seventh head] “and is of the seven.” The beast is both Babylon, the first head, and Rome, the sixth head, revived after receiving its deadly wound from the Christian sword of truth. Yet it is also “of” all seven heads, having inherited their combined satanic wisdom. Babylon, which “was and is not” in John’s Day, returns as the new Babylon—the eighth head. This is significant because the beast in Revelation 13 has the mouth of the lion, representing Babylon, and the woman who rides the beast in Revelation 17 is also called Babylon. Since one who rides a horse effectively directs it as its head, the woman is identified as “that great city which rules over the kings of the earth”—that is, Rome. In essence, after Rome’s deadly wound is healed, it is identified as the new Babylon, where the Christian Church has its own Babylonian experience, just as the Jewish people once did. If the head of the beast is called “Babylon,” then the beast itself is spiritually Babylon.
Blessings in Christ Jesus: Click to continue with a verse-by-verse treatise.
Jim Schucker
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