Daniel Chapter 8 - Transcription of Video Four

1. And I lifted up my eyes. And I saw. And behold one ram standing before the canal. And he has two horns. And the two horns are high. And the one is higher from the second, and the higher is coming up last.			1. ואשא עיני ואראה והנה איל אחד עמד לפני האבל ולו קרנים והקרנים גבהות והאחת גבהה מן-השנית והגבהה עלה באחרנה
	2. I saw the ram butting seaward, and tsfonward, and negevward. And none of the beasts will stand before him. And there is no deliverer from his hand. And he will do according to his will. And he will expand.		2. ראיתי את-האיל מנגח ימה וצפונה ונגבה וכל-חיות לא-יעמדו לפניו ואין מציל מידו ועשה כרצנו והגדיל
		3. And I, I was understanding. And behold a kid of the goats came from the west upon the face of the whole earth, and not touching the earth. And the kid, a horn of appearance between his eyes. And he came until the ram, the lord of the two horns, which I saw standing before the canal. And he ran unto him in the fury of his strength.	3. ואני הייתי מבין והנה צפיר-העזים בא מן-המערב על-פני כל-הארץ ואין נוגע בארץ והצפיר--קרן חזות בין עיניו ויבא עד-האיל בעל הקרנים אשר ראיתי עמד לפני האבל וירץ אליו בחמת כחו
	4. And I will see him arrive near the ram. And he was embittered unto him. And he struck the ram. And he broke his two horns. And there was no strength in the ram to stand before him. And he threw him earthward. And he trampled upon him. And there was no deliverer for the ram from his hand. And the kid of the goats expanded until much.		4. וראיתיו מגיע אצל האיל ויתמרמר אליו ויך את-האיל וישבר את-שתי קרניו ולא- היה כח באיל לעמד לפניו וישליכהו ארצה וירמסהו ולא-היה מציל לאיל מידו וצפיר העזים הגדיל עד-מאד
5. And at his power, the large horn was broken, and an appearance of four arose under it, to the four winds of the heavens.			5. וכעצמו נשברה הקרן הגדלה ותעלנה חזות ארבע תחתיה לארבע רוחות השמים

The Third Part of the Chiasm

And I, I was understanding. And behold a kid of the goats came from the west upon the face of the whole earth, and not touching the earth. And the kid, a horn of appearance between his eyes. And he came until the ram, the lord of the two horns, which I saw standing before the canal. And he ran unto him in the fury of his strength.

In this part of the chiasm, Daniel used a change of tense to indicate that a new part has started. In the previous part the last few verbs were in the future tense, but this part opens with a verb in the past continuous tense. But why the past continuous tense instead of the simple past tense, and why the emphasis on the word "I"? Remember in this vision there are two Daniels, the real Daniel, and the Daniel that appeared in the vision. By emphasizing the word "I" and using this particular tense, Daniel was indicating that he saw that the Daniel of the vision was understanding. What Daniel had seen up until this point were events that were occurring or were about to occur in his lifetime. What was to occur after however, namely the coming of the kid of the goats, I very much doubt that Daniel lived to see.

In the interpretation given him at the end of the vision, Daniel was told that this kid is the king of Greece, and the horn between his eyes is the first king. As was the case with the ram, which represented the kings of Media and Persia, we'd have to assume that the word king is being used in a general sense. Indeed if the kid represents the king of Greece, that is the ruler of Greece, how could its horn also represent a king? Fortunately Daniel gave us a clue to help understand the symbolism. He described the kid as being a kid of the goats. Surely it goes without saying that a kid is a goat, since by definition a kid is a goat less than a year old. What was Daniel meaning? In the year 336 BC, at 20 years of age, Alexander the Great succeeded his father, Philip II, as king of Macedonia. Philip had begun the process of uniting the various Greek states under Macedonian rule, but his son Alexander finished it, making him the first king of a united Greece. Therefore in the vision, this kid represents this newly formed kingdom of Greece, made up of the older Greek states, those states being the goats, hence the phrase "a kid of the goats". The horn, the "first king" represents Alexander the Great since he was the first king of this united Greece. Therefore the same symbolism that applied to the ram applies to the kid. The body of the animal represents the kingdom, and its horns or horn represent the kingship of the kingdom.

Basically this part of the chiasm is describing the kid of the goats coming from the west, and attacking the ram. This happened in May of the year 334 BC, when Alexander the Great, having united the Greeks by force, began his military campaign against Persia. In this part of the chiasm, Daniel described the manner of the Greek attack, and at the same time described the relationship between king and kingdom for both Greece and Persia. Daniel did this through use of another chiasm. Within this part of the large chiasm is another smaller chiasm. It is structured as follows:

And I, I was understanding		ואני הייתי מבין
1. And behold a kid of the goats came from the west upon the face of the whole earth, and not touching the earth.		1. והנה צפיר-העזים בא מן-המערב על-פני כל-הארץ ואין נוגע בארץ
	2. And the kid, a horn of appearance between his eyes.	2. והצפיר--קרן חזות בין עיניו
	3. And he came until the ram, the lord of the two horns, which I saw standing before the canal.	3. ויבא עד-האיל בעל קרנים אשר ראיתי עמד לפני האבל
4. And he ran unto him in the fury of his strength.		4. וירץ אליו בחמת כחו

This chiasm has a total of four parts. The first part pairs with the fourth, and the second with the third. I’ve shown the sentence, “And I, I was understanding.” but it isn’t in fact part of this smaller chiasm. The clue that Daniel left to show that this was the intended structure is how he referred to the kid. In the first two parts he made explicit reference to the kid, but in the last two parts only indirect reference.

Identifying this structure helps one understand what Daniel was saying. What did Daniel mean when he said in the first part of the chiasm, "upon the face of the whole earth, and not touching the earth"? Daniel gives the answer in fourth part, the pair of the first. “Not touching the earth”, pairs with "And he ran unto him", meaning the kid was moving with great speed. Likewise “Upon the face of the whole earth” pairs with "...in the fury of his strength." meaning the kid had great strength, nothing could stand in his way, nothing could hinder him.

The second and third parts of the chiasm together form its turning pointing. When read together, the central idea is that the kid, having come from the west and moving with great speed and strength, comes up to where the ram is located. Surrounding this central idea though, is a description of both of these animals’ horns. With these descriptions, Daniel was passing comment on the relationship between the kingships and their respective kingdoms.

In the second part of the chiasm, Daniel says the kid had a horn of appearance between his eyes. Needless to say this is an unusual feature for a kid. Goats naturally have two horns and not one. If there is only one horn, this must mean that in this Greek kingdom there is only one kingship, unlike the kingdom of the Medes and the Persians where there are two kingships combined under one king. That this horn is between the eyes means it’s in a very forward position on the kid, and wherever the kid goes, its horn in fact is going first. And this was very true of Alexander the Great. For almost all the duration of his reign, he was out front leading his kingdom into war.

In the third part of the chiasm Daniel provided new information concerning the ram and his horns. He said the ram was the lord of the two horns. This is the opposite of what I might have expected him to say. I would have expected that a king be the lord of his kingdom not the other way round. It seems then that Daniel was saying that the kings of the Medes and the Persians were not despots, unlike for example, king Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon. They were powerful in the kingdom but not all powerful. Ultimately they had to be sensitive to the will of the peoples that they ruled. This is perhaps evidenced by the establishment of the satrapies or provinces under Darius the Great, allowing for some regional autonomy. Also in the aftermath of the conquest of Babylon, in 539 BC, Cyrus the Great made what was in effect a declaration of human rights, in which he granted freedom of religion, the right of conquered peoples to return to their homelands and he abolished forced labor. Cyrus’ declaration is recorded on the famous “Cyrus Cylinder”.