Kingdoms · a companion for Daniel and Revelation

Scrub the timeline. Watch who rules. Find it in Daniel.

The Fertile Crescent

Shaded: who rules at the selected date. Positions from latitude and longitude; extents approximate.

Swipe the map sideways to reach Rome and Persepolis, or open list view.

ruling empire at this date the power just displaced Jerusalem, Samaria, Nineveh, Babylon * site approximate: the ruins lie under or beside the modern town

Places

Places on the map with approximate coordinates
PlaceOn a modern mapLatLon

Regions

In the textOn a modern map

Dates

DateEventRuling power

Solomon to Rome

Drag, tap a date, or use the arrow keys.

966 BC

The three the room keeps mixing up

  • 722 BC: Assyria takes Samaria. The northern kingdom ends. Ten tribes deported. (2 Kings 17:6)
  • 605 · 597 · 586 BC: Babylon takes Judah, the southern kingdom. Three deportations; Daniel goes in the first. (Daniel 1:1-6; 2 Kings 24:10-16; 2 Kings 25:8-10)
  • 539 · 538 BC: Persia sends them home. Cyrus takes Babylon, then decrees the return. (Daniel 5; Ezra 1:1-4)

Who rules

Israel & Judah
Babylon
In Daniel

The statue and the beasts

Daniel 2 · Daniel 7 · Daniel 8

Daniel 2 is one image of successive kingdoms. Daniel 7 shows the same succession as four beasts. Daniel 8 is the control: it is the chapter where the angel names the kingdoms out loud.

The four kingdoms below follow the majority Christian reading. Where readers divide, it is marked.

Readings diverge here

The seventy weeks: is there a gap? Daniel 9:24-27

Dispensational
The clock stopped at week sixty-nine; the church age sits in a parenthesis; week seventy is a future seven-year tribulation with a broken treaty.
Amillennial, covenantal, progressive covenantal
No gap. The seventieth week is fulfilled in Christ's ministry, death, and its aftermath; He is the one who makes a strong covenant with many.

Both are held by inerrantists. The card takes no verdict, and neither does this page.

The clock starts at a decree, and there are three candidates: Cyrus 538 BC · Ezra 1 Artaxerxes to Ezra 458 BC · Ezra 7 Artaxerxes to Nehemiah 445 BC · Nehemiah 2