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Verse:Daniel answered in the presence of the king, and said, “The secret which the king has demanded, the wise men, the astrologers, the magicians, and the soothsayers cannot declare to the king. But there is a God in heaven who reveals secrets, and He has made known to King Nebuchadnezzar what will be in the latter days.” —Daniel 2:27, 28
It’s challenging to function in an unfamiliar location —especially when you cannot even identify the characters of the local language! So it was with philologists— those who study the history of languages —who faced serious challenges trying to decipher ancient pictographic symbols.
For centuries, the ancient Egyptian hieroglyphic writing —with approximately one thousand different characters in the form of pictures— remained obscure and unreadable. But this began to change in 1799 when the famous Rosetta Stone was discovered, and philologists began deciphering its three parallel inscriptions.
That process reached its conclusion on September 27, 1822, when Jean-François Champollion’s report was read to the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres in Paris, France. The successful outcome revealed much of ancient Egyptian religious culture. Remarkably, two major events in the late 1790s advanced crucial lines of biblical studies. One, as noted, was the discovery of the Rosetta Stone in 1799, opening the door for many subsequent archaeological discoveries that corroborate the historicity of the Bible record. Another event was the imprisonment of Pope Pius VI in 1798, sparking great interest in the prophetic element of Scripture.
The sealed portion of the book of Daniel (Daniel 8:26; 12:4) was finally opened (Revelation 10), and many of its apocalyptic symbols and time periods were finally understood. Apocalyptic symbols —as found in the books of Daniel and Revelation— present one of the most challenging aspects of biblical interpretation.
Daniel explained that such symbols could not be truly understood by mere human wisdom (Daniel 2:27, 28). God’s Word itself provides the key for the interpretation of those symbols. For example, John 1:29, which declares, “Behold! The Lamb of God,” helps us understand who is represented by the Lamb in the book of Revelation.
By allowing the Bible to interpret itself, we can avoid many false assumptions and biased views.