In Luke 18 Jesus presents prayer in adversarial terms. The three players in the unfolding drama, are a poor widow, an unrighteous judge and an unnamed adversary. The word for adversary, ἀντίδικος (antidikos) was used in the ancient world in a precise way to describe someone who was bringing an accusation in court against another. In that regard the widow is seeking to defend herself in an undescribed struggle, the severity of which is indicated by her desperate approaches to the judge to find reprieve

‘Daniel said: “In my vision at night I looked, and there before me were the four winds of heaven churning up the great sea. Four great beasts, each different from the others, came up out of the sea”’ (Daniel 7:2-3 NIV)

Not surprisingly, the rise of the four beasts described in Daniel 7 has been the source of much speculation, and dare I say it, much misunderstanding. Whilst the vision firmly belongs to the genre of biblical literature best described as ‘apocalyptic’, in a more immediate way the dream is best understood as remarkably accurate depiction of the post-Alexandrian political world and the coming of the Diadochi.