Daniel 2 Study Notes

2:20-23 Daniel’s song of praise includes the two key ideas of the chapter: First, God is sovereign over the political affairs of humanity because he removes kings and establishes kings. Second, God alone can give revelation by giving wisdom to the wise and by revealing the deep . . . hidden things, even the king’s mystery that had stumped the wise men.

2:24-26 The king was likely surprised to hear further word regarding this matter.

2:27 Daniel asserted that no pagan soothsayer could solve the mystery. Rather, he attributed revelation to God alone. The word translated diviner expresses the idea of cutting or determining, referring to a person who is able to determine another’s fate.

2:28 In the last days indicates that the king’s dream would find its complete fulfillment only in the end times.

2:29-30 Daniel tactfully stressed that Nebuchadnezzar—rather than himself—was the recipient of the revelation.

2:31-45 Daniel interpreted the parts of the colossal statue to represent four empires in historical succession. The head represented the kingdom of Babylon (605-539 BC). The chest and arms symbolized the Medo-Persian Empire (539-331 BC). The stomach and thighs stood for the Greek Empire (331-146 BC). The legs referred to the Roman Empire (146 BC-AD 1476 in the West and AD 1453 in the East). The feet were mixed of iron and clay and represented a future continuation or revival of Rome. The material of each section of the statue decreased in value but increased in strength (except for the feet; see vv. 42-43). The decreased value may symbolize the moral decline of each succeeding kingdom. The increased strength refers to the harsher domination each successive kingdom would impose on its subjects. Daniel also described a stone that would shatter the final kingdom and grow into a mountain that filled the whole earth. This “stone” is the kingdom of God.

Primarily because they disbelieve in the possibility of predictive prophecy, critical scholars assume that Daniel was written in 165 BC and therefore is looking backward rather than forward at the rise of earthly kingdoms such as the Roman Empire. They divide the four kingdoms into Babylon, Media, Persia, and Greece. On the other hand, most interpreters who accept the reality of predictive prophecy in Scripture believe Daniel was written in the late sixth century and view the fourth kingdom as Rome. They hold different opinions about the meaning of the stone, however. Some view it as a spiritual kingdom, embodied in the church, which gradually conquered the Roman Empire. Others more accurately view it as a future kingdom, when Messiah Jesus will return and establish his physical rule that will govern the whole earth and never be destroyed.

2:37 In Ezk 26:7 God himself calls Nebuchadnezzar king of kings. But Daniel makes clear that his position is a gift of God. King Artaxerxes claims the title for himself in Ezr 7:12. But the title belongs truly only to Jesus Christ (1Tm 6:15; Rv 17:14; 19:16).

2:46-47 King Nebuchadnezzar responded to Daniel’s remarkable revelation by recognizing the God of Israel as part of the pantheon of gods, though he did not recognize the God of Israel as the one and only true God.