Christian eschatological prophecy is an amazing story. Written over a period of more than 2,500 years, by many authors, to reveal the end of sin and the establishment of God’s eternal kingdom (Daniel 9:24). The eleventh chapter of Daniel and the seventeenth chapter of Revelation are examples of prophecy concerning the same event given six hundred years apart.
The narrative in both prophesies concern the rise of the antichrist out of the chaos of the warfare described in Daniel eleven which coincide with the events of Revelation seventeen. The two chapters taken together point to the identity, of sorts, of the seven kings of Revelation and the role they play in the end-times (Revelation 17:8-11).
The seven hills/kings of Revelation 17 are a marker in time. Revelation 17 and 18 focus on the destruction of the end-time Babylon called “BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF PROSTITUTES, AND OF THE VILE THINGS OF THE EARTH”. Almost all eschatological commentary concerning Revelation 17 focuses on identifying the seven heads of the beast without regard to the subject of the two chapters; the destruction of the end-time Babylon. That is the point missed by modern commentaries.
The majority of modern commentaries attribute the description of the seven kings to the time of John hence, five are historical and no longer exist, one exists at the time of the Revelation, and the last is yet to come. Based on this supposition the five past kings are Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Media Persia, and Greece. The present king is understood to be Rome and the future king to be a revived Roman empire. While it is true that historically these kingdoms followed each other in subjugating Israel it is also true that there is nothing in scripture that connects them to the prophecy.
If we step back a moment and consider the phase used in Revelation to denote existence we find it expressed as, “was and is not” (Revelation 17:8). This is not the phrase used for the seven kings or kingdoms. Five of the kings are said to have “fallen” (Revelation 17:10). The Greek used for “fallen”, “piptó”, means to fall prostrate as in worship. Clearly the five exist but are in submission to the beast. One kingdom “is” in the process of becoming prostrated, and the last is yet to be prostrated. The seventh king is the key that points back to Daniel eleven (Revelation 17:10).
Just like every other commentary on these two chapters there needs to be a basic assumption on which everything that follows is supported. In this case the assumption is that the seven headed beast of Revelation 17 is a symbolic reference to Daniel 11. The association comes from Revelation 17:9-11 which states that the seven heads are seven kings; five have fallen, one is, and one is yet to come and when he does come he remains for only a little while. Daniel 11 speaks of seven kings that will rule the land that makes up the beast of Revelation 17.
The warrior king of Javan (Daniel 11:3) 1
The first king of the South, his daughter, and the daughter’s sponsor (Daniel 11:6) 2,3,4
The second king of the South (Daniel 11:7) 5
The king of the North (Daniel 11:5-19) 6
The tax collector king (Daniel 11:20) 7
The antichrist (Daniel 11:21-45) 8
The seventh king of Daniel 11, the tax collecting king, who lasts for only a few days fits the description of the seventh king in Revelation 17:10. The antichrist as the eighth ruler of Daniel 11 also fits the eighth ruler of the beast in Revelation 17:11. The point being made in Revelation 17 concerning the seven heads/hills/kings beast is that during the reign of the sixth king, the king that is, the end-times Babylon will be destroyed. It is not an unreasonable speculation that Daniel 11:16 is the point in the reign of the king of the North that he destroys the end-time Babylon.
If the seven heads/hills/kings of the beast of Revelation 17 refer to Daniel 11 then how can they be seven kingdoms that point to the second advent of Jesus? They can’t be. The misconception of commentaries that ascribe historical kingdoms to the seven heads is that the interpretation is based on the assumption that the angel of Revelation 17 and 18 is referring to the Apostle John’s time therefore the need to identify five fallen kingdoms. The problem with identifying historical kingdoms with the seven heads is that the identification is totally arbitrary; there is no irrefutable succession of kingdoms. Egypt is the chosen first kingdom which is reasonable since it was the first kingdom to subjugate the children of Israel. Assyria, Babylon, Mede-Persia, Greece, and finally Rome fill out the six kingdoms of Revelation 17. But there is a problem with Assyria. It never subjugated all of the children of Israel and it was not the next kingdom after Egypt to subjugate the Northern tribes. The book of Judges speaks of other kingdoms that subjugated parts of the children of Israel prior to Assyria. Taking all the historical kingdoms that subjugated the children of Israel there is no irrefutable list of six kingdoms unless arbitrary restrictions are applied to reduce the number to six. The fault of this argument is trying to make scripture fit the concept rather than the concept fit scripture.
As the angel said to John, “This calls for clear thinking” (Revelation 17:9). If you ever follow commentaries as they applied historical kingdoms to the visions of Daniel you know there is a lack of clear thinking. As hard as it may be to take an objective look at the meaning of the seven heads/hills/kings of the beast, to do so brings a clarity to the visions of Revelation and Daniel with a connection between the two books that provides a panoptic view of the end-times. It is worth the effort.
May God bless you in your study of His word.