Daniel And Alexander the Great

This morning I read chapter 8 of the book of Daniel. Many theologians have strong evidence to believe that Daniel prophesied of the conquerings of a mighty leader. Prophecy in the Bible has symbolism and visions which are hard to understand. But there is good possibility this prophecy is paralleled with Alexander the Great.
A knowledgable teacher of world history would have a good foundation in Christianity and truth and then know how to parallel the prophecies of the Bible with recorded history.


Here is a website that gives additional history.
3 Then I lifted my eyes and looked, and behold, a ram which had two horns was standing in front of the canal. Now the two horns were long, but one was longer than the other, with the longer one coming up last.
The Medes and Persians had an alliance and were powerful and conquering kingdoms.
5 While I was observing, behold, a male goat was coming from the west over the surface of the whole earth without touching the ground; and the goat had a conspicuous horn between his eyes. 6 He came up to the ram that had the two horns, which I had seen standing in front of the canal, and rushed at him in his mighty wrath. 7 I saw him come beside the ram, and he was enraged at him; and he struck the ram and shattered his two horns, and the ram had no strength to withstand him. So he hurled him to the ground and trampled on him, and there was none to rescue the ram from his power.
The male goat was the kingdom of Greece and Alexander the Great was the horn on the goat. He conquered the “ram with two horns”.
8 Then the male goat magnified himself exceedingly. But as soon as he was mighty, the large horn was broken; and in its place there came up four conspicuous horns toward the four winds of heaven.
Alexander the Great died young and then his four general became the leaders of the all the conquered territory.
9 Out of one of them came forth a rather small horn which grew exceedingly great toward the south, toward the east, and toward the Beautiful Land. 10 It grew up to the host of heaven and caused some of the host and some of the stars to fall to the earth, and it trampled them down. 11 It even magnified itself to be equal with the Commander of the host; and it removed the regular sacrifice from Him, and the place of His sanctuary was thrown down. 12 And on account of transgression the host will be given over to the horn along with the regular sacrifice; and it will fling truth to the ground and perform its will and prosper. 13 Then I heard a holy one speaking, and another holy one said to that particular one who was speaking, “How long will the vision about the regular sacrifice apply, while the transgression causes horror, so as to allow both the holy place and the host to be trampled?” 14 He said to me, “For 2,300 evenings and mornings; then the holy place will be properly restored.”
From out of these four leaders, some say, came the Roman Empire. Jesus was in Jerusalem while the Romans ruled. Some consider that the small horn was the Roman Empire. The Roman Empire challenged Heaven and the Holy One, Jesus, when he was falsely accused, tortured and died on the cross.
Here is some more interesting facts about the history of Alexander the Great that goes along with this scripture:
According to [Josephus] “Ant.” xi. 8, §§ 4-6, Alexander went to Jerusalem after having taken Gaza. Jaddua, the high priest, had a warning from God received in a dream, in which he saw himself vested in a purple robe, with his miter—that had the golden plate on which the name of God was engraved—on his head. Accordingly he went to meet Alexander at Sapha (“View” [of the Temple]). Followed by the priests, all clothed in fine linen, and by a multitude of citizens, Jaddua awaited the coming of the king. When Alexander saw the high priest, he reverenced God (Lev. R. xiii., end), and saluted Jaddua; while the Jews with one voice greeted Alexander. When Parmenio, the general, gave expression to the army’s surprise at Alexander’s extraordinary act—that one who ought to be adored by all as king should adore the high priest of the Jews—Alexander replied: “I did not adore him, but the God who hath honored him with this high-priesthood; for I saw this very person in a dream, in this very habit, when I was at Dios in Macedonia, who, when I was considering with myself how I might obtain dominion of Asia, exhorted me to make no delay, but boldly to pass over the sea, promising that he would conduct my army, and would give me the dominion over the Persians.” Alexander then gave the high priest his right hand, and went into the Temple and “offered sacrifice to God according to the high priest’s direction,” treating the whole priesthood magnificently. “And when the Book of Daniel was shown him [see Dan. vii. 6, viii. 5-8, 20-22, xi. 3-4], wherein Daniel declared that one of the Greeks [] should destroy the empire of the Persians, he supposed that he was the person intended, and rejoiced thereat. The following day Alexander asked the people what favors he should grant them; and, at the high priest’s request, he accorded them the right to livein full enjoyment of the laws of their forefathers. He, furthermore, exempted them from the payment of tribute in the seventh year of release. To the Jews of Babylonia and Media also he granted like privileges; and to the Jews who were willing to enlist in his army he promised the right to live in accordance with their ancestral laws.

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One thought on “Daniel And Alexander the Great

  1. *S* This entry makes me think of our friend that I worked with right before I started working with you. He said his grandmother read the entire Bible to him when he was a kid by reading a little each night before bedtime. And I know he has studied Alexander the Great. He loves world history. If you see him tell him I said hi.

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