Anti-Imperial Subtexts in Paul 317 period perceived Rome to be their (and thus God’s) ultimate enemy (50), and further, that they believed God would overthrow Rome, the general expectation being that this would happen during the period we call the early Roman Empire (51). While the basic shape of early Jewish eschatological expectations can be traced to various oracles of the canonical Prophets, convictions with regard to the timing of the re- establishment of the reign of God owe their surprising strength almost exclusively to the influence of the book of Daniel. To establish this point I will briefly review the Wirkungsgeschichte of three Danielic themes in early Judaism. 1. Daniel’s Visions of the Four Kingdoms (Dan 2, 7, 8) In Dan 2, we read the story of how Daniel was able both to recount King Nebuchadnezer’s dream and to interpret it. The king saw a statue with a head made of gold, chest and arms made of silver, midsection and thighs made of bronze, legs made of iron, and feet made of iron mixed with clay. As the king was watching, a huge stone slammed into the feet of the statue and pulverized it. The stone grew into a great mountain that filled the whole earth (vv. 31-35). Daniel proceeds to explain the dream: The different parts of the statue represent different earthly kingdoms, and the stone symbolizes God’s eternal kingdom (vv. 36-45). Daniel specifically identifies the head of the statue with Nebuchadnezer ’s kingdom, but he does not reveal the identity of the second, third, or fourth kingdoms. (50) This contrasts with the Jews’ initial assessment of Rome which was quite positive. 1 Macc 8 relates how Judas Maccabeus heard of Rome’s exploits and, hoping for aid from that corner in his struggle against the Seleucids, forged an alliance with the emerging world power. Rome’s interest in Judea was thus awakened, to be stilled only after Pompey’s triumph over Jerusalem in 63 B.C.E. With that, Judea’s short-lived semi-autonomy under the Hasmoneans came to an end, and attitudes toward Rome turned sour. The Qumran community was the first to identify Rome with biblical prophecy, sensing that the power of Rome would soon be turned against the Jews. They placed the blame for this disastrous turn of events squarely on the wicked Hasmonean priest and his cohort in Jerusalem (1QpHab IX,9-12). Qumran’s impulse, however, was to typologize the Romans with reference to the Babylonians (1QpHab II,10-13), and there is no evidence that they applied their characteristic pesher interpretation to the Danielic doctrine of the four kingdoms. Cf. D. FLUSSER, “The Roman Empire in Hasmonean and Essene Eyes”, Judaism of the Second Temple Period (Grand Rapids, MI 2007) 197. (51) N.T. WRIGHT, The New Testament and the People of God (COQG 1; Minneapolis, MN 1992) 307-320.