Scripture Explorer

Immediate context and meaning

Daniel interprets the statue's metals as kingdoms and the stone as a divinely established final rule.

Historical setting

• Jewish and Christian traditions agree on imperial succession themes but differ over kingdom identity and realization.

Cross-references

• Daniel 7
• Matthew 4:17
• Revelation 11:15

Original-language notes

• מַלְכוּתָאmalkûtā · Kingdom or kingship in Aramaic, relevant to Daniel's imperial and divine-rule vocabulary.
• βασιλείαbasileia · Kingship, reign, or kingdom; not merely a territory.

Immediate context and meaning

The chapter interprets the beasts as kingdoms and also assigns the kingdom to the saints of the Most High.

Historical setting

• Second Temple, rabbinic, Christian, and modern scholarship debate collective, angelic, and messianic readings.

Cross-references

• Daniel 7:18, 22, 27
• Matthew 24:30
• Revelation 1:7

Original-language notes

• בַּר אֱנָשׁbar enash · Aramaic expression meaning one like a human being in Daniel 7, interpreted collectively, angelically, messianically, and Christologically.
• מַלְכוּתָאmalkûtā · Kingdom or kingship in Aramaic, relevant to Daniel's imperial and divine-rule vocabulary.
• דִּיןdîn · Judgment, legal decision, or court proceeding; Daniel 7 presents a heavenly court scene.

Immediate context and meaning

The sequence concerns social and religious fracture as much as external catastrophe. Persecution leads into betrayal and hatred; false prophets deceive; lawlessness increases; love cools; endurance becomes the central response.

The term anomia cannot be reduced to a crime-rate graph. It can denote rebellion, covenantal violation, moral disorder, or disregard for divine law. Likewise, agapē concerns relational and covenantal fidelity, not simply emotional warmth.

Historical setting

• Early Christian communities faced local, social, synagogue-related, and imperial pressures of varying intensity; later traditions reread the passage through their own persecutions.
• Modern persecution datasets use different definitions of incident, restriction, discrimination, violence, and martyrdom, so numerical comparisons require disclosed methods.

Cross-references

• Daniel 7:21–25
• Daniel 11:32–35
• Micah 7:5–6
• Revelation 6:9–11
• Revelation 12:11–17
• Revelation 13:7–10
• Revelation 14:12

Original-language notes

• ἀνομίαanomia · Lawlessness, iniquity, or rebellion against law; broader than a modern crime statistic.
• ἔθνοςethnos · Nation, people, or Gentile group; meaning depends on context.
• τέλοςtelos · End, completion, or goal; Matthew 24 distinguishes preliminary events from the end.

Immediate context and meaning

The verse joins mission and eschatology. The message is proclaimed in the whole inhabited world as a witness to the nations, and the end follows. The text does not define completion through one modern metric such as language availability, national presence, personal exposure, or organizational reach.

The terms oikoumenē and ethnē can carry Roman-world, inhabited-world, and broader peoples-and-nations senses. Interpretation must therefore state whether the verse refers to apostolic Mediterranean proclamation, worldwide mission across history, a final concentrated witness, or layered fulfillment.

Historical setting

• Pauline texts can describe the gospel as widely proclaimed in the known world, supporting first-century readings of universalizing language.
• Modern mission research distinguishes peoples, languages, states, access, affiliation, translation, and exposure; those measures should not be silently equated with the verse's own wording.

Cross-references

• Isaiah 2:2–4
• Isaiah 49:6
• Daniel 7:14
• Revelation 7:9–10
• Revelation 11:3–13
• Revelation 14:6–7

Original-language notes

• ἔθνοςethnos · Nation, people, or Gentile group; meaning depends on context.
• βασιλείαbasileia · Kingship, reign, or kingdom; not merely a territory.
• τέλοςtelos · End, completion, or goal; Matthew 24 distinguishes preliminary events from the end.

Immediate context and meaning

The adverb 'immediately' makes this the clearest internal sequence in the chapter: tribulation is followed by cosmic signs, the coming, and gathering. Disagreement concerns what the imagery means, which tribulation is in view, and who the gathered elect are.

The language draws from Isaiah, Joel, Zechariah, and Daniel. In Daniel 7 the human-like figure comes with the clouds to the Ancient of Days and receives dominion. The Synoptic reuse can therefore carry enthronement and judgment associations as well as future visible-coming expectation.

Historical setting

• Ancient prophetic texts use cosmic language for the collapse of political orders, while apocalyptic texts can also point toward transformation of creation itself.
• Early Christian expectation strongly associated cloud-coming, trumpet, resurrection, and gathering language with the final public consummation, though historical-judgment readings also emerged.

Cross-references

• Isaiah 13:9–13
• Isaiah 34:4
• Joel 2:30–31
• Daniel 7:13–14
• Zechariah 12:10–14
• Revelation 6:12–17
• Revelation 14:14–20
• Revelation 19:11–21

Original-language notes

• παρουσίαparousia · Presence, arrival, or coming; used in discussions of the coming of the Christ and the gathering.
• בַּר אֱנָשׁbar enash · Aramaic expression meaning one like a human being in Daniel 7, interpreted collectively, angelically, messianically, and Christologically.

Immediate context and meaning

The closing movement rejects date certainty and shifts attention to ethical readiness. The Noah analogy, household thief, faithful servant, ten virgins, entrusted talents, and judgment of the nations all make preparedness visible through conduct rather than calendar mastery.

Interpreters disagree over whether verse 36 begins a new subject, continues the same coming after changing its temporal emphasis, or introduces repeated applications. Whatever the structural decision, the passage does not reward date setting.

Historical setting

• Ancient household management, wedding processions, debt and entrusted property, patronage, and royal judgment shape the parables' social world.
• Date-setting movements repeatedly violated the section's epistemic restraint while claiming to honor its expectation.

Cross-references

• Genesis 6–9
• Daniel 7:9–14
• Ezekiel 34
• Revelation 3:3
• Revelation 16:15
• Revelation 20:11–15

Original-language notes

• παρουσίαparousia · Presence, arrival, or coming; used in discussions of the coming of the Christ and the gathering.