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Daniel saw four beasts rise out of a troubled sea. A lion with eagle’s wings, a bear, a leopard with four wings and four heads, and a fourth beast with iron teeth and ten horns.
The chapter explains what they represent.
“These great beasts, which are four, are four kings, which shall arise out of the earth.”
Daniel 7:17 KJV.
The traditional interpretation identifies these kingdoms as Babylon, Medo Persia, Greece, and Rome, following the same succession pictured in Nebuchadnezzar’s statue in Daniel 2.
The lion with eagle’s wings represents Babylon. Daniel watched its wings get plucked. It was lifted up, made to stand like a man, and given a man’s heart.
The bear represents Medo Persia. It raised itself on one side and held three ribs between its teeth. It was commanded to devour much flesh.
The leopard had four wings on its back and four heads. In this interpretation, its speed pictures Alexander the Great’s rapid conquests, while its four heads point to the division of his Greek empire after his death. Daniel 8:21, 22 explicitly identifies Greece and describes four kingdoms rising after its first king.
Then came the fourth beast. Daniel described it as dreadful, terrible, and exceedingly strong. Its iron teeth crushed what it devoured, and its feet trampled what remained. This kingdom is identified with Rome, with its final prophetic form reaching into the reign of the Antichrist.
Daniel 7:24 explains that its ten horns represent ten kings. Another horn rises among them and subdues three. This ruler speaks against God and persecutes His saints.
That brings us to Revelation 13.
John sees one beast combining features of the animals Daniel described.
“And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion”
Revelation 13:2 KJV.
John’s beast has seven heads and ten horns. The dragon gives it power and authority. The eagle’s wings belong to Daniel’s lion. They are not included in John’s description of this beast.
The connection points to the Antichrist’s kingdom bringing together the beastly characteristics of the empires before it. Revelation describes its blasphemous authority continuing for forty two months.
Daniel also saw how that rule ends. The beast is destroyed, and the Son of man receives the kingdom.
“His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed.”
Daniel 7:14 KJV.
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