Minor lesson
Medo-Persia: Silver, a Bear, and a Ram
Two arms, one chest. A bear raised up on one side. A ram whose longer horn came up later. Then four Persian kings, the last one rich enough to stir up Greece.
October 11, 2026
Two arms, one chest
The statue's "chest and arms were silver." Daniel told Nebuchadnezzar, "But after you, there will arise another kingdom, inferior to yours."
The Medo-Persian Empire was actually two, Media and Persia. Two arms, but one chest.
A bear raised up on one side
"Suddenly another beast appeared, which looked like a bear. It was raised up on one of its sides, and it had three ribs in its mouth between its teeth. So it was told, 'Get up and gorge yourself on flesh!'"
The ram in Daniel 8 says the same thing a different way: "The horns were long, but one was longer than the other, and the longer one grew up later." And this time the angel names it for us: "The two-horned ram that you saw represents the kings of Media and Persia."
It is very accurate to say there were two kingdoms that came together as one. But Persia was the lower one for a long time. Then Cyrus took over the Median capital and became Cyrus the Great, king of the Medo-Persian Empire. Persia started low and came up high. The side that came up later became the higher one.
Herodotus tells how the Median king Astyages was betrayed by his own general and defeated by Cyrus, his grandson. The Nabonidus Chronicle records that Astyages' army mutinied, handed him over to Cyrus, and that Cyrus took the Median capital Ecbatana. The usual date is 550 BC.
Three ribs and three directions
"I saw the ram charging toward the west and the north and the south."
On a map, you can see the Medo-Persians took exactly the directions Daniel talks about. They went west and took Babylon. They went north and took Lydia. They went south to Egypt. Three ribs, and a ram charging three ways.
The usual dates: Lydia fell to Cyrus about 546 BC, when he captured its king Croesus at Sardis. Babylon fell in 539 BC. Egypt fell to Cyrus' son Cambyses in 525 BC.
Four kings of Persia
"Three more kings will arise in Persia, and then a fourth, who will be far richer than all the others. By the power of his wealth, he will stir up everyone against the kingdom of Greece."
This is well after Daniel. When the Medo-Persians took over, Daniel was close to ninety. We do not know exactly when he died, but it probably was not long after. This vision came "in the third year of Cyrus king of Persia."
Looking through history, we know exactly who these people are. The next kings after Cyrus were Cambyses, Bardiya, and Darius I. The fourth was Xerxes, and he invaded Greece in 480 BC. It took Greece a long time, over a century, to get back at Persia. But eventually they did.
Usual reign dates: Cambyses II, 530 to 522 BC. Bardiya (called Smerdis by the Greeks), 522 BC. Darius I, 522 to 486 BC. Xerxes I, 486 to 465 BC. Herodotus describes the size and wealth of Xerxes' army and his invasion of Greece in Books 7 to 9 of his Histories, including Thermopylae and the defeat at Salamis in 480 BC. Some count the kings differently, because Bardiya ruled only months and the Persian records call him an impostor.
Greece got back at Persia when Alexander crossed into Asia in 334 BC. After his victory at Gaugamela in 331 BC, he burned the Persian palace at Persepolis. Ancient writers said it was revenge for Xerxes burning Athens.
Sources sighted
- Herodotus, Histories 1.123-130
- Nabonidus Chronicle (ABC 7) ii.1-4
- Herodotus, Histories 1.79-86
- Herodotus, Histories 3.1-16
- Herodotus, Histories 7.20-21, 7.60-99
- Behistun Inscription of Darius I
- Arrian, Anabasis 3.18; Diodorus Siculus 17.72
This is a deeper teaching under From Daniel to Christ. Its home is Prophecy.