Type/antitype 1930–1958

Nebuchadnezzar's Great Image

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Also known as Nebuchadnezzar's Dream Image · The Great Image · The Terrible Image · The Immense Image · The Metallic Image · Daniel's Image · The Image of Daniel Chapter Two

Nebuchadnezzar's great image in Daniel 2 underwent two major reversals of interpretation. From at least 1882, it represented successive Gentile world powers: Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, and Rome. In 1886, the clay mixed with iron was identified with the union of church and state, while the toes represented divisions of Roman power. This interpretation continued into the 1920s. In 1927, the entire image was already described as Satan's empire, but the individual metals still represented successive historical empires. In 1930, this historical identification was explicitly rejected: the image became Satan's complete organization, with Satan as its golden head, subordinate demon princes represented by silver, wicked angels by copper, earthly political powers by iron, and religion and clergy by clay. This interpretation was repeated from 1931 through 1957. In 1958, the interpretation was reversed again. The image returned to representing successive historical world powers, and the golden head became the Babylonian royal dynasty rather than Satan. The clay was now associated with democratization, socialism, and popular participation in government rather than principally with the clergy. The restored historical interpretation continued through 2000, with the iron legs representing Rome and its Anglo-American political successor. Publications in 1959 already identified the ten toes with all coexisting political governments, and this explanation was repeated in 1990 and 1999. No further fundamental reversal was verified through 2000.

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Rutherford

Joseph F. Rutherford · 1917–1942

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  1. 1930 Reversal

    A fundamental reversal rejected the earlier succession-of-empires interpretation. The image was identified with the hierarchy of Satan's entire organization: Satan as its head, demon princes beneath him, subordinate wicked angels, and earthly political and religious institutions.

    4 quotes
    The Watch Tower publications, having no better explanation, practically adopted the foregoing interpretation. There are some good reasons why the above interpretation of the prophecy is not correct, and these are, to wit: 20 (1) That the true meaning of the terrible image could not be understood by any of those whom Daniel represented until after the coming of the Lord to his temple.
    The Watchtower, August 1, 1930
    The image was great and terrible because it was in opposition to Jehovah and was the picture of complete wickedness. The image pictured Satan’s organization, of which the wicked one is the head. Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon had the dream, and it was appropriate to use him and his dream to make this picture to be recorded in the Bible and which discloses Satan’s organization and fully identifies it in God’s due time.
    The Watchtower, August 15, 1930
    The word “after” does not have reference to time, but rather to inferiority, or station below Satan in his organization.
    Light, Book Two, 1930
    These invisible princes or rulers in Satan’s organization are shown as a part of the terrible image; and as silver and copper are inferior or next in order to gold, therefore the image shows that, instead of these representing world powers, they represent lower orders than Lucifer in the great organization.
    Light, Book Two, 1930

Knorr

Nathan H. Knorr · 1942–1977

1 reading
  1. 1958 Reversal

    The interpretation was fundamentally reversed. The image again represented successive historical empires instead of the hierarchical structure of Satan's invisible and visible organization. The golden head was identified with Nebuchadnezzar's Babylonian dynasty. The iron-and-clay mixture was now applied to the political effects of democratization, socialism, and popular participation in government.

    4 quotes
    This could not be the right understanding or interpretation of the meaning of the metallic image, because Daniel and his three companions are no part of an organization that is doomed to suffer the destruction of the dream image. 17 No! That symbolic image is not a static picture with prophetic properties in only its lower parts. It is progressive and prophetic from head to foot, and what happens to it is also prophetic.
    Your Will Be Done on Earth, 1958
    That symbolic image is not a static picture with prophetic properties in only its lower parts. It is progressive and prophetic from head to foot, and what happens to it is also prophetic. Nebuchadnezzar personally is not represented somewhere low down in the image, somewhere in the legs of iron. He could not be down there and at the same time be the head of the image.
    Your Will Be Done on Earth, 1958
    As king of kings in the Babylonian world power by the permission of the God of heaven, who permitted him to destroy both Jerusalem and its sanctuary, Nebuchadnezzar is the golden head of the symbolic image. 18 He is the head of gold as he is the head of a dynasty of rulers over the Babylonian Empire. So the golden head in fact symbolizes the dynasty of the Babylonian world power beginning with Nebuchadnezzar. The Bible itself mentions two others in that dynasty, namely, Evil-merodach and Belshazzar.
    Your Will Be Done on Earth, 1958
    However, a mingling of rulers or political heads with the “seed of men” would mean a combining with one another and producing a political offspring; or it would mean a popularizing, a democratizing or a socializing of the forms of government.
    Your Will Be Done on Earth, 1958