Peter J. Leithart » Blog Archive » Justice and righteousness.

I think Peter is absolutely right about (among other things) the position of Gentile world-emperors and his perspective is confirmed by other lines of evidence.

Consider the term “king of kings” in the Bible. When did that term first get used in Scripture? Daniel used the title for Nebuchadnezzar (Daniel 2.37) and so did Ezekiel (Ezekiel 26.7). Ezra records it as the title used by Artaxerxes (Ezra 7.12).

David and Solomon were glorious but they fell short as types of Christ in this regard.

But there is more. Daniel describes Nebuchadnezzar as not only ruler over men but over animals:

You, O king, the king of kings, to whom the God of heaven has given the kingdom, the power, and the might, and the glory, and into whose hand he has given, wherever they dwell, the children of man, the beasts of the field, and the birds of the heavens, making you rule over them all

While the birds seem to be Daniel’s own insight he may have learned about the beasts from the prophet Jeremiah:

Now I have given all these lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, my servant, and I have given him also the beasts of the field to serve him (Jeremiah 27.6).

For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: I have put upon the neck of all these nations an iron yoke to serve Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and they shall serve him, for I have given to him even the beasts of the field (Jeremiah 28.14)

Even though Daniel will later compare the empires to beasts (Daniel 7), the emperors are also types of the one like the son of man/Adam. They are new Adams given dominion like Adam was given. They are a new royal humanity.