The prophecy of Daniel gave God’s people comfort during three great events in the following centuries:
- The captivity in Babylon
- The invasion of Jerusalem by Antiochus Epiphanes
- The coming of the Messiah during the occupation by the Roman Empire and the resulting destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple
The prophecy of Daniel is a series of five visions occurring over a period of about 70 years. The visions move from general to specific. They point to several key events in the future history of the Jews: the desecration of the Temple by Antiochus IV Epiphanes and its restoration from 167 to 165 BC; the exact time of the coming of the Messiah in AD 27; Nero’s persecution from AD 64 to 68; and the Roman-Jewish War from AD 67 to 70.
The First Vision is a dream of the king that is interpreted by Daniel. The second is Daniel’s dream. The next three are waking visions seen in the presence of angels, followed by an appearance of the Messiah – the Son of Man – to interpret the vision for Daniel. The timeline reads as follows:
FIRST VISION — Daniel 2 — 603 BC in the second year of the reign of King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon.
Daniel interprets the king’s dream. The dream described four kingdoms that would rule over a vast empire. Note that the dates are from the perspective of these empires’ domination over Judah/Judea.
Babylonian-Chaldean Empire …………………………… from 605 to 539 BC
Medo-Persian Empire …………………………………… from 539 to 330 BC
Macedonia-Greece ………………………………………. from 330 to 64 BC
Roman Empire ………………………………………….. from 64 BC to AD 70
SECOND VISION — Daniel 7 —555 BC in the first year of the reign of Belshazzar, the son of Nabonidus and successor of Nebuchadnezzar.
This is Daniel’s dream. The interpretation by angels is part of the dream. The four kingdoms are described in more detail and special attention is given by Daniel to the fourth kingdom which has ten kings.
Babylonian-Chaldean Empire …………………………… from 605 to 539 BC
Medo-Persian Empire …………………………………… from 539 to 330 BC
Macedonia-Greece ………………………………………. from 330 to 64 BC
Roman Empire ………………………………………….. from 64 BC to AD 70
THIRD VISION — Daniel 8 — 553 BC in the third year of the reign of Belshazzar.
This vision of Daniel is interpreted by two angels. It describes the Medo-Persian Empire; the conquest of the world by Alexander the Great; the Seleucid and Ptolemaic succession; and the reign of Antiochus IV Epiphanies in Syria.
Medo-Persian Empire ……………………………………. from 539 to 330 BC
Alexander’s invasions ……………………………………. from 330 to 323 BC
Ptolemies rule Egypt & Seleucids rule Syria …….………. from 323 to 167 BC
Antiochus Epiphanes …………………………………….. from 167 to 164 BC
FOURTH VISION — Daniel 9 — 539 BC in the first year of Darius, king of the Medes.
The angel Gabriel appears to Daniel while he was fasting and inquiring of God the meaning of Jeremiah’s “seventy years.” Later the Messiah, the “Son of Man,” appears. The vision describes the 483 year time period from the seventh year of King Artaxerxes, in 457 BC, when by his commandment Ezra began the work of completing the restoration of the Temple at Jerusalem (Ezra 7) – to the baptism of Jesus Christ in AD 27, when He first began to preach and execute the office of the Messiah.
Medo-Persian Empire ………………… from ……………… 457 BC
Roman Empire ………………………….. to ………………. AD 27
……………………………………………………………….. 483 years
FIFTH VISION — Daniel 10,11,12 — 535 BC in the third year of Cyrus king of Persia.
In chapter 10, an angel came to Daniel while he was fasting for three weeks. The angel shows Daniel the wars and succession of kings in the Persian, Greek and Roman Empires (Daniel 11) and the time period from the coming of Messiah to the reign of Vespasian and the Great Tribulation from AD 67 to 70 (Daniel 12).
Chapter 11
Medo-Persian Empire …………………………………… from 539 to 330 BC
Macedonia-Greece ………………………………………. from 330 to 64 BC
Roman Empire ………………………………………….. from 64 BC to AD 70
Pompey invades Jerusalem ………………………………. 63 BC
Death of Julius Caesar …………………………………… 44 BC
Chapter 12
The Messiah appears …………………………………….. from AD 27 to 30
The Time of Trouble …………………………………….. from AD 67 to 70
14 Comments
This explanation of Daniel prophecies is pretty good one until it hits 2300 day prophecy. Nothing is said about that. These prophecies do not stop explaining at Roman empire but clearly go further with many details in them about the end of time of this earth’s history. Read your Bibles carefully for yourselves and prayerfully study all of it.
As I was perusing these prophecies, I thought this looks pretty good! Then I came to the forth vision of Daniel 9. Something is a problem here! The prophecy says 70 weeks, a sequence of 70 weeks. But they are not all accounted for here. The final week, in the center of which the Messiah, our Lord & Savior Jesus Christ was “cut off” – crucified for us, is missing. The most important part, that part pointing to the time when Jesus would die for our sins, its missing!
I do like the explanation on the book of Daniel, but I would still welcome a more detailed explanation.
Thank you for all your hard work. It is much appreciated.
Thank you. As a Bible Study teacher I found this helpful. Thank you again for you hard work putting this together.
Simply very good. There is hard work, passion, sincerity and clear explanation.
A few technical points. The Roman Empire ended in 476AD not AD70. The Ten Toes of the vision in Daniel 2 are ten kingdoms formed immediately after the fall of the Roman Empire. They are also the ten horns of the vision in Ch. 7. They are not ten future kingdoms as dipensationalists argue!
In the context of Daniel’s day the ten toes and ten horns would have been understood by the Jews to mean the lost ten tribes. This is the back drop of the times. The modern interpretation of interpreting this to mean ten kingdoms of Rome seems to have fallen apart in modern times since this view has not come to pass, however beginning in the Roman era some people began to believe that they were descendants of the lost tribes and this continued on until it was widely accepted in Ireland, Scotland and England. Hence we have such religions today as the British Israelite Movement where they believe they have descended from Ephraim and Manasseh, and that they look for a kingdom yet to come although Jesus told us that in His time the kingdom of God had come and we are in the kingdom of God now through Christ. Yet these who believe they have descended from the lost tribes look for a kingdom to come wherein they will rule as kings with Christ in a revived kingdom of Israel and of all things under the old covenant instead of the new, although the process to be Christians. Remember the ten kings look for a kingdom to come.
Prophecy repeats itself from generation to generation. Those who love The Lord keep doing what is good. Even as many of us have been persecuted and many put to death, stay faithful to The Lord for your eternal reward.
What has been overlooked, is the possibility of ten world regions, and, under the UN, I believe that has been planned and is in the works (EU, NAU, etc.), although in many cases these are merely treaties and not in full governance as yet. These world regions, if/when politically solidified, would have been called “kingdoms” in daniel’s time and could be what the toes indicate.
It may help to compare Daniel’s prophecies with those of John in revelation, where ten “kings” will give their authority to the Beast.
side note: I love how God calls the anti-christ “the little horn”, since his power is a joke in the eyes of the Lord of the universe, and this blaspheming upstart deserves a demeaning label. Remember, through all that is to come, Our God reigns!
Please someone should help me out here. Daniel was asked to seal 2 visions. one was just the interpretation of what he heard which he did not understand but rather the angel said it has been sealed. Dan 12:7 to 9. the Lord was faithful in that at the end of time he did reveal it to us what Daniel could not understand ie “a time, times, and half a time = 3 1/2 years. now , what was the detail of the vision of the Moning and the evening he was told to seal up…??? dan 8:26
The suggestion here is, is to remove the knowledge of the New Testament false doctrine. Focus on only the Old Testament doctrine truth and get the historical time-line record date correct as well. This will deliver us the whole clarify picture correctly and better.
Hi,
Should the chronologically sequence of the last “chapters” be:
Daniel 9, 6, 11, 12 & 10 ?
The last week is missing because Daniel was not told of the Dispensation of Grace that would be the time of the Gentiles. The last week will occur when the Antichrist is revealed and he reigns for 7 years until the time of Jacob’s Trouble (the 7 years of the antichrist). The time of the Gentiles was not revealed until the Apostle Paul came on the scene. God has not thrown away his choose people but will turn again to them when the 144,000 Jewish men will again preach the gospel of the “Kingdom of God is at hand”. Rightly divide the dispensations of time and who is talking, who is being talked to, and what is being said is most important. There are two groups of people in the bible, the Jews and Gentiles. They are dwelt with in two different time periods and two different ways. Rightly dividing the Word is most important when coming to understand the God’s Word. The bible is the voice of God given to us to reveal what was prophecy that was revealed through the prophets and the mystery of the church given to the Apostle Paul to bring in the time of the Gentiles. Hope this makes sense to you.