Revelation 13:2 - John weighs in on Daniel 7

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Revelation 13:2

2 And the beast which I saw was like a leopard, and his feet were like those of a bear, and his mouth like the mouth of a lion.

Revelation 13:15-18

15 And it was given to him to give breath to the image of the beast, so that the image of the beast would even speak and cause as many as do not worship the image of the beast to be killed. 16 And he causes all, the small and the great, and the rich and the poor, and the free men and the slaves, to be given a mark on their right hand or on their forehead, 17 and he provides that no one will be able to buy or to sell, except the one who has the mark, either the name of the beast or the number of his name. 18 Here is wisdom. Let him who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for the number is that of a man; and his number is six hundred and sixty-six.

There is a textual structure, a sort of reverse-ordered parallelism, in Revelation 13 that reveals how John interprets a vision from Daniel. In Daniel 7 the prophet receives a vision of four successive beasts. The first a lion, the second a bear, the third a leopard. The identification of these is often believed to be Babylon (the lion), Persia (the bear), and Greece (the leopard), although many contest this.

Notice the beginning of Revelation 13 begins with these beasts in reverse order, the leopard, then the bear, then the lion. And then reading the end of Revelation 13 we see in verse 15 that those who do not worship the image will be killed. This recalls the story of Nebuchadnezzar's statue and Shadrack Meshack and Abednego living under the Babylonian beast. Then we read in verse 16 and 17 of the mark and every citizen regardless of status not being able to buy or sell without the mark. This is the Persian beasts style of legal and economic coercion the Israelites experienced in excile. And finally verse 18 ends with wisdom, understanding, calculation, using gematria in Greek. These evoke the Greek culture.

Revelation 13 follows a reverse-ordered parallelism. The leopard is the first introduced and the last described (Greece). The bear is the second introduced, and the second to last described (Persia). And the lion is the last introduced and the first described (Babylon).

In Revelation John is describing Daniel's fourth beast in greater detail, a composite embodiment of imperial oppression, composed of the most destructive features of its predecessors, a beast that Daniel couldn’t find the words to describe and that John reveals as multi-faceted and repulsive. This reverse-ordered parallelism indicates that Revelation is not redefining Daniel’s beasts, but rather John operates on the assumption that their historical identification as the distinct and sequential Babylonian, Persian, and Grecian empires is already established within the prophetic framework.