As a youth coming up in the Church, I was traditionally taught that the ten toes on Nebuchadnezzar’s Image, the ten horns that arose before the Little Horn, and the ten kings of Revelation represented ten Germanic Tribes.

If you are unfamiliar with these Germanic tribes and need a basic understanding of who they are and how they are interpreted as part of Bible prophecy, I hope this brief explanation will suffice:

Somewhere around the fifth century, the Roman Empire was bombarded by tribes of individuals living north of its borders. The reason for this bombardment was due to an Asiatic tribe called the Huns. The Huns began attacking the other northern tribes and forced them to flood into the Roman Empire seeking shelter. Eventually, these tribes would cause the downfall of the Western Roman Empire, which most historians date approximately 476 AD. However, the Eastern Roman Empire, also known as the Byzantine Empire, would continue for approximately a thousand years afterward.

Now, what you must understand is that many Christians believe that ten of these tribes represented the ten toes on Daniels’ statue, the ten horns before the Little Horn, and the ten kings at the end of the world. According to Uriah Smith, a respected SDA author and Daniel and Revelation commentator, These ten tribes were the “Huns, Ostrogoths, Visigoths, Franks, Vandals, Suevi, Burgundians, Heruli, Anglo-Saxons, and Lombards.”  Daniel and the Revelation p. 59

However, if you study the history of this theory, you will discover that other believers have historically also believed that these ten horns represented ten Germanic tribes.

For example, on page 98, of EB Elliot’s book, Horae Apocalypticae, he says the ten horns were the Anglo Saxons, the Franks, Allemans, Burgundians, Visigoths, Suevi, Vandals, Heruli, Bavarians, and Ostrogoths

On pages 5-6 in Nicco Macavelli’s book, The History of Florence, he says that the ten horns consisted of Zeno, reigning in Constantinople, commanded the whole eastern empire; the Ostrogoths, ruled Mesia and Pannonia; the Visigoths, Suavi, and Alans held Gascony and Spain; The Vandals, Africa, the Franks and Burgundians, France; and the Eruli and Turingi, Italy.

Ladies and Gentlemen, it seems to me that If you were to ask a hundred Bible scholars for the identity of the ten horns, you would almost certainly get a hundred different answers.  Nevertheless, Uriah Smith’s view of the ten horns is a view that I have believed most of my adult life. However, after closely studying the prophecies of Daniel, I realized God has given us another interpretation of these ten kings.

If you recall, in our study on the Seven Heads, we discovered that these heads were seven governments of the following world powers: 1) Egypt, 2) Assyria, 3) Babylon, 4) Medo-Persia, 5) Greece, 6) Pagan Rome, and 7) Papal Rome.

Now, think about this: If these seven heads represented seven governments, then the ten horns are likely the kingships of these governments who ruled prior to the Roman Empire. And those ten  kingships were:

1). The Egyptian Kingship

2). The Assyria Kingship

3). The Babylonian Kingship

4.) The Median Kingship

5). The Persian Kingship

6). The Greek Kingship (Alexander the Great)

7). The Macedonian Kingship

8). The Asia Minor Kingship

9). The Seleucan Kingship

10). The Ptolemaic Kingship

In other words, the seven heads and the ten horns refer to the same entities—one refers to the governments of those powers who ruled the known world, and the other refers to the lineage of monarchs who ruled those governments.