Why? Why did John go to what we now refer to as the first four chapters of the Book of Daniel and the Kingdom of Babylon for so much of the imagery which he used in his Apocalypse? (Which is not meant to suggest that he didn't use other parts of the book.)
Most of the folks who have studied the book of Revelation have recognized these elements which the author pulled from the Old Testament prophet, but I sometimes wonder if many of them have actually given much thought as to why John was so comfortable with this imagery. First, let's begin with the obvious: For John, the Rome of his own day was the very image of the Babylon outlined in these first four chapters of the book of Daniel. When he looked at the power, reach and influence of Rome on all aspects of life in the world known to him, the Babylon of Daniel offered the perfect template for his own time (and whatever would inevitably someday follow the Roman Empire).
After all, the chapters of Daniel which deal with Nebuchadnezzar, his impact on Judah, Daniel and his friends, and what all of those things revealed about the Babylonian Empire as a whole have proved to be a timeless and universal model of human governance on a grand scale. Indeed, all of the elements of all subsequent kingdoms and empires are right there!
Like the Roman emperors, Nebuchadnezzar was synonymous with his own empire and his word was law. The book begins with his great army besieging Jerusalem and ultimately conquering the Kingdom of Judah. Nebuchadnezzar is supreme in power and authority. He ordered the removal of King Jehoiakim and promptly appropriated all of the Temple's furnishings for his own use. Finally, Nebuchadnezzar took the flower of Judah's nobility and provided for their training/indoctrination and absorption into his own state.
In the second and third chapters of the book, we learn that Nebuchadnezzar relied on a vast arsenal of HUMAN expertise and advisers. Moreover, Daniel's interpretation of the king's dream (Daniel 2:25-45) makes very clear that the statue which he had observed in his dream was meant to represent him, his kingdom, and some of the kingdoms that would follow his throughout history. And, when Nebuchadnezzar builds a statue of his own and commands his subjects to worship it in a manner also specified by him, we see that the king's reach extends even into the religious beliefs and practices of his subjects.
Finally, Daniel also starkly portrayed the king's bombast and arrogance in the fourth chapter of the book. The king's word is absolute, and the entire world was to take note of his pronouncements! Even so, in this same chapter, we also see Divine intervention to remind Nebuchadnezzar that he ruled at the pleasure of Almighty God, and that the human mind can be a very fragile thing - subject to stop functioning properly without warning.
So, YES, when we take a little closer look at these chapters in Daniel, we begin to truly comprehend why this imagery was so appealing to John. Moreover, this understanding helps us to better understand and appreciate Babylon as the prophetic template it became as a consequence of what Daniel revealed about human governance.
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