Page 222 - Daniel

pointed horns, and … the Persian king, when he stood at the head of his
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army, bore, instead of the diadem, the head of a ram.” The references
to beasts, as Keil states, “represent kingdoms and nations.” 17

Not only are both the ram and the goat mentioned in the Old
Testament as symbols of power, but Cumont has noted that different
lands were assigned to the signs of the Zodiac according to astronomical
geography. In this view, Persia is thought of as under the zodiacal sign

of Aries, the “ram,” and Greece as sharing with Syria—the principal
territory of the Seleucid monarchy—the zodiacal sign of Capricorn, the
“goat.” The word Capricorn is derived from the Latin, caper, a goat and
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cornu, a horn. Taken as a whole, as Driver states, “The verse describes
the irresistible advances of the Persian army, especially in the direction
of Palestine, Asia Minor, and Egypt, with particular allusion to the
conquests of Cyrus and Cambyses.” 19

THE MALE GOAT FROM THE WEST (8:5–7)

8:5–7 As I was considering, behold, a male goat came from the west
across the face of the whole earth, without touching the ground. And
the goat had a conspicuous horn between his eyes. He came to the ram

with the two horns, which I had seen standing on the bank of the
canal, and he ran at him in his powerful wrath. I saw him come close
to the ram, and he was enraged against him and struck the ram and
broke his two horns. And the ram had no power to stand before him,
but he cast him down to the ground and trampled on him. And there

was no one who could rescue the ram from his power.

Interpreters of Daniel 8 are generally agreed that the male goat

represents the king of Greece. More particularly, the single important
horn between its eyes, “the first king” (cf. Dan. 8:21), is Alexander the
Great. All the facts about this goat and his activities obviously anticipate
Alexander’s dynamic role. Like Alexander, the goat’s conquests begin
“from the west” in Greece and move east to cover the entire territory.
The tremendous speed of the goat’s conquests is symbolized by its
moving “without touching the ground.” Such speed characterized

Alexander. The unusual horn—one large horn instead of the normal two