320 Joel White For God Most high will surge forth, the Eternal One alone. In full view will he come to work vengeance on the nations. Yea, all their idols will he destroy. Then will you be happy, O Israel! And you will mount up above the necks and the wings of an eagle, And they will be brought to an end (55). The image of Israel mounting up over the necks and wings of an eagle is a complex allusion with multiple connotations, but the eagle would have been understood as a reference to Rome in the first century(56), and this inference probably reflects authorial intent(57). Thus, while the Testament of Moses does not explicitly follow a four-kingdom scheme, it does seem to allude to the fact that the Roman Empire will be replaced by God’s eternal kingdom, thus tapping into the latter part of Daniel’s prophetic historiogra- phy. b. The author of the book of Revelation draws upon the Danielic tradition to deftly communicate a subversive message that would have been clear enough to his intended audience (at least the informed readers among them) but difficult to decipher for anyone else. In Rev 13,1-3 he describes a beast with seven heads and ten horns coming out of the sea. The creature has features of a leopard (or panther), a bear, and a lion. Anyone familiar with Dan 7,1-8 would have immediately recognized the beast as a composite of the four animals portrayed in that vision. It seems, then, that the author of Revelation has subsumed features of the first three into the fourth beast, which Dan 7 describes as terrifying and dreadful, in order to depict the horrific nature of the end-time foe of the people of God. This same creature reappears in Rev 17, only now it is being ridden by a woman, and in response to the seer’s incomprehension an angelus interpres informs him that the seven heads of the beast are seven hills and also seven rulers. There can G. REESE, Die Geschichte Israels in der Auffassung des frühen Judentums. Eine Untersuchung der Tiervision und der Zehnwochenapokalypse des äthiopischen Henochbuches, der Geschichtsdarstellung der Assumptio Mosis und der des 4Esrabuches (BBB 123; Berlin 1999) 70, n. 1. (55) We follow the alternate translation offered by J. PRIEST, “Testament of Moses”, OTP I, 930, n. 3. (56) Cf. COLLINS, “Kingdom”, 90. (57) Cf. C. CLEMENT, “Die Himmelfahrt Moses”, Die Apokryphen und Pseudepigraphen des Alten Testaments (ed. E. KAUTZSCH) (Reprint: Darmstadt1975 [1900]) 327, n. n. Contra REESE, Geschichte, 89-90.