DATES OF THE FOUR MONARCHIES.
By Uriah Smith
Bro. Smith: Recently in looking over the subject of the four universal kingdoms, my mind has been a little confused relative to the time when they arose, more especially the first. In your representation of the image of Dan. ii, you place against the head, B. C. 677; but I see that some place the rise of Babylon B. C. 667. Ques. 1. What event marks the establishment of this kingdom? Again, some place the date when the Roman kingdom succeeded the Grecian, B. C. 30. Your date is B. C. 161. In Sacred Chronology, p. 160, I see that this date is the commencement of the Roman ascendancy over the Jews; but, Ques. 2. How does the covenant between the Romans and the Jews (here spoken of) mark the rise (or commencement) of the Roman empire? ANSWER. In the Bible the people of God are the great object in reference to which all other things seem to be taken into account. The Bible attaches no importance to anything with which they are not in some way connected. Hence we find that no nation or people is introduced into prophecy till it has assumed this relation. It is therefore most natural, and we believe most usual, to date a kingdom or power, in a prophetic point of view, from the time when it becomes thus connected with God's people. In the case of Babylon, the first of the four kingdoms, this connection took place when Manasseh was taken captive by Esarhaddon, B. C. 677, and the Jews became tributary to the Babylonians. This kingdom of course had an existence many years previous to this. It arose out of the old Assyrian empire, which was founded by Nimrod, great grandson of Noah, about 3000 years before Christ [Gen. x, 6-10], and which governed Asia for nearly 1300 years. Babylon, as a distinctive empire, dates from the year B. C. 747, when on the death of king Sardanapalus, the old Assyrian empire was divided by the two chief conspirators, Arbaces and Belesis, by whom the empire was subverted. In the division, Belesis had the provinces of Babylon, Chaldea, and Arabia; and Arbaces all the rest. See Rollin's Anc. Hist., and Prideaux's Connection. But Babylon not becoming connected with God's people, as before remarked, till the year 677, I give that as the date of the head of gold, in my representation of the image of Dan. ii. What reason any one has for dating it from the year 667, I am unable to determine. The same principle holds good with the other kingdoms. They are introduced into prophecy when they become connected with God's people. The Medo-Persian empire came into the ascendancy over the Jews (the people of God at that time) when it subverted the Babylonian empire, B. C. 538. The Grecian did the same thing, when it succeeded to the Medo-Persian, at the battle of Arbela, B. C. 331. Rome assumed this connection when it entered into the famous league with the Jews, B. C. 161. Here then is the date at which prophecy first takes note of this power. Those who give A. D. 30 as the date when Rome succeeded to the Grecian empire, do it probably on the supposition that it could not be said to take its place till it had conquered all the territory of that empire; but in this they have evidently strayed from the prophecy; for that introduces it many years before that time. The four horns that came up when the first and great horn of the goat was broken, or the four kingdoms into which Alexander's empire was divided, were Macedonia, Thrace, Syria, and Egypt. Out of one of these horns, says the prophet, there came forth a little horn. This was Rome, the power that succeeded Grecia. Rome conquered Macedonia, one of the horns of the goat, and made it a part of itself, B. C. 168. Seven years from this time, in B. C. 161, it formed the before-mentioned league with the Jews. Being thus introduced into prophecy just after it had taken possession of one of the horns of the goat, it is represented as coming out of one of those horns. In B. C. 30 it conquered Egypt, the only province of the goat's dominions that then held out against it. It had now absorbed all the territory represented by the four horns of the goat; but it is introduced in the prophecy when it is coming forth from one of those horns, not when it has conquered and taken possession of them all. Those therefore who give B. C. 30 as the date of Rome's succession to Grecia, are 131 years too late. God is sometimes long marshaling his agencies before he brings them upon the stage of action. Thus the kingdom of Babylon having arisen in B. C. 747 is not brought into prophecy till 677. And while the Babylonian kings were reigning in the hight of their glory, elements were forming among the Medes and Persians for the overthrow of that kingdom. The little governments that finally formed the Grecian empire had all been founded by the year B. C. 1516. And Rome, which was not to come into prophetic history165till B. C. 161, was founded B. C. 754, seven years before the rise of the kingdom of Babylon.