VI: The Prophets' Visions

Seven Heads Counterfeit court

successive ruling kingdoms claiming authority

Root
Dan 7:6 · rosh (H7218)
Old Testament chain
  1. Ps 74:14
  2. Isa 2:2
  3. Jer 51:25
  4. Dan 2:35-40
  5. Dan 7:6
  6. Dan 7:17
  7. Rev 17:9-10
New Testament
Rev 12:3; Rev 13:1; Rev 13:3; Rev 17:9; Rev 17:10; Rev 17:11

The many-headed dragon is already crushed in the Psalms: "Thou brakest the heads of leviathan in pieces" (Ps 74:14). Daniel's leopard carries four heads, and "dominion was given to it" (Dan 7:6), while mountains in the prophets stand for kingdoms, Babylon the "destroying mountain" (Jer 51:25) set against the stone that became a great mountain (Dan 2:35). In Revelation seven is completeness and the head is authority; the dragon's diadems are authority claimed, not authority given. The seven heads are seven mountains, successive kingdoms, with Rome the one that "is," the seventh a religious authority issuing from Rome, and the eighth the final expression of the same system.

From The Courtroom of Heaven, pp. 171–172, 200, 282–283, 294