The Biblical Institute
05 THE VISION OF DANIEL CHAPTER VIII
THE symbols of this chapter are mostly explained in the chapter itself. The ram with two horns, the higher of which came up last, represented the kings, or the kingdom, of Media and Persia, the two horns symbolizing the two elements in the nation, the Medes and Persians. The Persian came up last and attained the controlling influence. Hostilities first broke out between the Babylonians and the Medes, whereupon Cyaxares, king of the Medes, summoned to his aid his nephew Cyrus, the son of his sister who had been married to Cambyses the king of Persia. Cyrus, responding with an army of 30,000 Persians, was at once placed by Cyaxares in command of the joint forces of the Medes and Persians. On the taking of Babylon, B.C. 538, Cyaxares (who is called Darius in Daniel 5:31), as civil ruler, took the throne. On his death, two years later, B.C. 536, he made Cyrus his successor, and the same year, Cambyses, the father of Cyrus dying, Cyrus was brought also to the Persian throne. The two were then united in one; and thus was founded the Medo-Persian empire, the ruling house being in the Persian line. This power pushed its conquests especially in the directions named, northward, westward and southward, till in the days of Ahasuerus, Esther 1:1, it reigned over one hundred and twenty-seven provinces, from India to Ethiopia. TBI 50.1
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REVIEW QUESTIONS ON LESSON FIVE
1. What symbols are introduced in chapter 8?
2. Where are these symbols mostly explained?
3. What does the ram with two horns represent?
4. What do the two horns symbolize?
5. Which was the higher?
6. How did this come up last?
7. Who was Cambyses?
8. Whom did Cambyses marry?
9. Who was Cyrus?
10. When was Babylon taken by Cyrus?
11. Who was then placed on the throne of the kingdom?
12. What name is given to Cyaxares in Daniel 5:31?
13. When did Darius die?
14. What change then took place in the position of Cyrus?
15. How extensive was the Persian empire in the days of Ahasuerus? Reference.
16. What is symbolized by the rough goat?
17. What, by the great horn between his eyes?
18. What does this show in relation to the use of the word king in these prophecies?
19. Who was the first king?
20. When and how did he become master of the world?
21. How was this horn broken?
22. Give the date of his death, and his age at the time.
23. What estimate of Alexander is given by Prideaux?
24. How was the unity of the empire for awhile maintained?
25. How long before these were all put out of the way?
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The rough goat is explained to be the king of Grecia. Verse 21. The great horn between his eyes was the first king. Id. This shows that the word king as first used has the sense of kingdom; as it would be absurd to speak of the first king of a king. This first king was Alexander the Great, who having defeated the last Persian king, Darius Codomannus, at the battle of Arbela, Oct.l, B.C. 331, found himself master of the world. This horn was broken and four came up in its place, denoting the four parts into which his empire would be divided. Eight years after the battle of Arbela, Alexander gave himself up to beastly drunkenness to that degree that he died Nov.12, B.C. 323, aged only 33. Prideaux gives a just estimate of the man, when he calls him “the great cut-throat of the age in which he lived.” In the name of Aridaeus, then called Philip, bastard brother of Alexander’s and also an idiot, and by Alexander’s two infant sons, Alexander Aegus and Hercules,all being under the guardianship of Perdiccas, the unity of the empire was for a time maintained. But it did not take long to put these all out of the way, and within fifteen years after Alexander’s death the kingdom was divided into four parts, between his four leading generals: Cassander had Macedon and Greece; Lysimachus had Thrace and those parts of Asia that lay upon the Hellespont and Bosphorus; Ptolemy had Egypt, Libya, Arabia, Palestine and Coele-Syria, and Seleucus had Syria and all the East. These kingdoms are called, in brief, Macedonia, Thrace, Syria and Egypt. They date from about B.C. 308. TBI 51.1
The little horn denotes a succeeding kingdom to arise in the latter part of the reign of the four horns, a kingdom of fierce countenance, strange language, a wonderful destroyer, to stand up against the Prince of princes, and at last to be broken without hand. This horn was not Antiochus Epiphanes as claimed by some, for he was not “exceeding great” in comparison with Medo-Persia and Grecia that went before. He did not increase his dominions, was not another horn, but only one (the 8th in order) of the 26 kings that constituted the Syrian horn of the goat. He did not stand up against the Prince of princes (Christ), but died 164 years before our Lord was born. TBI 52.1
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REVIEW QUESTIONS ON LESSON FIVE
26. What then took place?
27. Name the four kingdoms.
28. Name their respective rulers.
29. What is the date of their rise?
30. What is denoted by the little horn?
31. To whom is this symbol sometimes applied?
32. Why can it not apply to Antiochus Epiphanes (pronounced An-ti-o-kus E-pif-a-neez)?
33. What kingdom does answer to the little horn of this prophecy?
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This horn must symbolize Rome, as in the parallel visions of Daniel 2 and 7. Rome came out of one of the horns of the goat, as it conquered Macedonia B.C. 168, and in 161 became connected with the people of God by its league with the Jews; 1 Mac.8; Josephus’ Antiq., b. xii., c. x., sec. 6; Prideaux, vol.ii., p.166; thus becoming a subject of prophecy, and appearing to the prophet to come out of the Macedonian horn. It extended its conquests toward the east, south, and pleasant land (Palestine), making provinces of the following countries: Syria, B.C. 65; Palestine, B.C. 63; Egypt, B.C. 30. It stood up against the Prince of princes, nailing Christ to the cross. By Rome the daily was taken away and the transgression of desolation set up; that is, there was a change in the religion of the empire, Paganism (the daily desolation) was taken away, and the papacy (the transgression of desolation, or the abomination that maketh desolate) was set up. Daniel 12:11. An host was given him: the hordes of barbarians that overran the empire, but were converted to the papal faith. TBI 52.2
This horn of Daniel 8 must not be confounded with the little horn on the fourth beast of Daniel 7. That symbolized the papacy exclusively. This embraces Rome through its whole career both pagan and papal. In other words, this horn of Daniel 8 is the same as the great and terrible beast of Daniel 7, in both its phases. TBI 53.1
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REVIEW QUESTIONS ON LESSON FIVE
34. How can Rome be said to come out of one of the horns of the goat?
35. In what directions did Rome extend its conquests?
36. When were Syria, Palestine and Egypt made Roman provinces?
37. How did Rome stand up against the Prince of princes?
38. What is meant by the daily?
39. How was the daily taken away by Rome?
40. What was put in its place?
41. To whom was the host of verse 12 given?
42. Who constituted this host?
43. Is this horn of the vision of Daniel 8, the same as the horn of the fourth beast of Daniel 7, and why?
44. What is introduced in verse 14?
45. How much of the vision had been explained to Daniel?
46. Yet what does Daniel say in verse 27?
47. To what must this have reference?
48. Why did not Gabriel go on till he had explained to Daniel every part of the vision?
49. Had he been commanded to explain it?
50. What may we therefore still look for?
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In verse 14 is introduced the period of 2300 days, the sanctuary and its cleansing. All the vision was sufficiently explained to the prophet with the exception of the time. But Daniel says, verse 27, “I was astonished at the vision, but none understood it.” Although Gabriel had been commanded to make him understand it, Daniel fainted before an explanation of the time was reached, and the angel was obliged to postpone further instruction. and movements transpire which were to warn the world and prepare a people for the end. Then “shall be the vision;” that is, be opened, begin to be understood. It was closed up and sealed to that time. Then it would be unsealed. Since that time the great light has arisen on prophetic subjects which has shown the end to be near, and given rise to the extensive Advent movement of the present generation. TBI 53.2
3. Daniel 8:19: “Behold I will make thee to know what shall be in the last end of the indignation.” What is meant by the last end of the indignation? TBI 55.1
ANS. The manner of expression here used shows that the indignation covers a period of time. We think that it is the indignation which God permits to come upon his people from opposing powers, the same as mentioned in verse 13, How long shall be the vision ... to give both the sanctuary and the host to be trodden under foot? In Ezekiel 21:27, God speaks concerning the throne of Israel, when subjected to the King of Babylon, “I will overturn, overturn, overturn it; and it shall be no more till he come whose right it is, and I will give it him.” Three overturns from Babylon awaited it, that is, to Persia, to Grecia and to Rome. Then it should be no more; national existence ceased, but the spiritual Israel have lived among the nations, but still in subjection to earthly powers. And so it will be till He come whose right it is, Christ, who shall take the throne of his Father David, and rule over his people forever. Again, it was said to Daniel (12:7), “When he shall have accomplished to scatter the power of the holy people” (that is, shall have finished the scattering of their power, or their oppression among the nations) “all these things shall be fulfilled.” This all shows that God’s people were to be overturned, scattered, and subject to indignation, till the times, or rule, of the Gentiles should be fulfilled. And in the verse under notice, the Lord says to Daniel, I will make thee to know what shall be in the last end of this time of indignation. Then he goes on to predict the final downfall of earthly kingdoms, and lastly points Daniel forward to the cleansing of the sanctuary, which puts away the sins of God’s people, and is the first step toward their deliverance, which will be the full end of the indignation, followed by their glorification and eternal inheritance. TBI 55.2
4. What followed the league formed between the Jews and the Romans in B.C. 161? TBI 56.1
ANS. The cruel oppression of the Syrians roused such a spirit of resistance among the Jews that under the leadership of the Maccabees, aided by the friendship of the Romans, they achieved their complete liberation from Syrian tyranny. Smith’s History of the World, vol.iii., p.170, speaks of “the long list of nations in Europe and Asia, to which the Roman Senate sent letters requiring them to protect the Jews residing among them.” Thus matters continued till internal dissensions invited the Romans to interfere in a manner more positive than by the existing league of amity and friendship. In the days of Pompey there were two aspirants for the office of high-priest, the high-priest holding also the position of prince or ruler of the people. Powerful factions followed their respective leaders, Aristobulus and Hyrcanus; and to put an end to the strife, appeal was made to Pompey who was then in the East settling the affairs of Syria, to decide the question. Aristobulus, perceiving that Pompey would give the decision in favor of Hyrcanus, retired to Jerusalem and made immediate preparation to defend his claims by force of arms. This brought Pompey with all his army against the city. Aristobulus finally relenting came out to surrender to him the keys of the city; but his party by a sudden outburst of fanaticism refused him entrance. The party of Hyrcanus threw open the gates. The others retreated to the temple and its fortified precincts where they were besieged by Pompey. After three months the place was taken and the defenders massacred, the blood of the priests themselves being mingled with that of the sacrifices they were offering at the altar. Aristobulus graced the triumph of Pompey at Rome. Hyrcanus was restored to the priesthood, but stripped of the royal title. Judea became a Roman province, till the dismemberment of the Roman empire. TBI 56.2
In this act of the abolition of the royal title, or the office of king, may perhaps be seen a fulfillment of Daniel 8:10, and Revelation 12:4. These texts speak of the casting down of some of the stars by this Roman power. Stars must here be used in a symbolical sense, signifying persons in places of eminence or power. Revelation 12:4, says a third of them were cast down. Of these three offices, kings, priests and counselors, or members of the Sanhedrim, a third, or the office of king was abolished. TBI 57.1