Page 186 - Daniel

7:5 “And behold, another beast, a second one, like a bear. It was
raised up on one side. It had three ribs in its mouth between its teeth;
and it was told, ‘Arise, devour much flesh.’”

In contrast to the unanimity of identifying the first beast with
Babylon, there is a diversity of interpretation concerning the second
beast’s identity. Practically all liberal higher critics identify it as the

Median Empire. Rowley cites almost overwhelming support for this
identification which, according to him, “is found in the Peshitta version
of the book of Daniel, in Ephraem Syrus and in Cosmas indicopleustes. It
also stands in the anonymous commentator whose work is published in
Mai’s Scriptorum Veterum Nova Collection Rowley notes that this long-
forgotten theory was revived in the eighteenth century, and cites an

imposing group of modern scholars who hold it. 22
Although conservative scholars might be outnumbered, it is significant
that most who attribute accuracy to the book of Daniel regard the

second kingdom as Medo-Persia. The central issue is that there was
never a time when the Median Empire ruled over the Ancient Near East
as a single, dominant power. Herodotus reports that Cyrus conquered the
Medes (Histories 1.130) and then this combined empire conquered
Babylon (Histories 1.191). Since the Median Empire had already been
conquered and subsumed by the Persians, it is impossible for a separate

Median empire to exist after the Babylonian empire. Even Rowley admits
that his view hangs upon the identification of the fourth empire as
Greece, which, as already has been stated, depends first on the
conclusion that Daniel is a forgery, and second on the assumption that
prophecy cannot be accurately given in detail concerning future events.

The identification of the second kingdom as the Medo-Persian Empire,
which even Rowley recognizes as “the traditional identification,” is ably
supported by one of the greatest Old Testament scholars of modern
times, Robert Dick Wilson. His entire work on Studies in the Book of

Daniel methodically devastates the liberal point of view. 23
Also telling is the fact that archeological discoveries have proved
beyond question that the second empire was in fact Medo-Persia. The
Persian ruler Cyrus conquered Babylon in less than a month—not nearly

enough time for a distinct Median empire to appear—and the myth of a