Daniel 7:6

Most conservative Bible students have identified the third kingdom with Greece, because Greece overthrew Medo-Persia ("dominion was given to it"), and it bore the characteristics of the animal described here. Leopards (or panthers [Note: Young, p. 145-46.] ) are less majestic and ponderous than lions and bears. Their outstanding characteristics are their speed, strength, and cunning (cf. Jeremiah 5:6; Hosea 13:7; Habakkuk 1:8). The four wings on this leopard’s back made it even faster.

"With the swiftness of a leopard, Alexander the Great conquered most of the civilized world all the way from Macedonia to Africa and eastward to India [334-331 B.C.]. The lightning character of his conquests is without precedent in the ancient world, and this is fully in keeping with the image of speed embodied in the leopard itself and the four wings on its back." [Note: Walvoord, Daniel . . ., p. 157.]

Apparently each wing had some connection with each of this animal’s four heads. Heads suggest intelligent direction. Greece had four governmental divisions with one person heading each division. Following Greece’s defeat at Ipsus, in Phrygia, in 301 B.C., the Grecian Empire irretrievably divided into four parts under Alexander’s four generals.

There is some question about who these four men were. Jerome and Calvin believed they were Ptolemy, Seleucus, Philip, and Antigonus. [Note: Jerome, Commentary on Daniel, p. 75; John Calvin, Commentaries on the Book of the Prophet Daniel , 2:18-19.] Most modern commentators think they were Lysimachus (who ruled Thrace and Bithynia), Cassander (Macedonia and Greece), Seleucus (Syria, Babylonia, and the eastern territories), and Ptolemy (Egypt, Palestine, and Arabia Petrea). [Note: E.g., Keil, p. 293; Feinberg, pp. 87-88; and Whitcomb, p. 95.] Each of these successors ruled one of the geographical segments of Alexander’s empire: Greece, Western Asia, Egypt, and Persia. The exact identification of the rulers is debatable because it took about 20 years for the kingdom to be successfully divided. Still there is no question that Greece split into four major parts after Alexander died (cf. Daniel 8:8; Daniel 8:22).

A third conservative view, which I do not think is as strong, is that the four wings and heads represent the four corners of the earth. [Note: Young, p. 146.] Archer wrote the following in response to the critical claim that the third beast represents Persia.

". . . there is no way in which a quadripartite character can be made out for the Persian Empire either under Cyrus or under any of his successors." [Note: Archer, "Daniel," p. 86. For additional responses to the critics’ view, see Leupold, p. 287, or Walvoord, Daniel . . ., pp. 158-59.]