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The Battle between the Ram
and the he-Goat
Daniel's Vision of the Ram and the Goat
A Prophetic Study in the Globalist Final Battle for World Domination
Chapter Eight
By Robert Mock MD
robertmock@biblesearchers.com
www.BibleSearchers.com
Part Two
The two-Horned Ram, the Shaggy Unicorn Goat and “The Little Horn”
Topics
The Two-Horned Ram Beast from the East
The Unicorn Shaggy He-Goat from the West
The Collapse of the Empire of the Two-horned Ram
The Great Horn of the Shaggy he-Goat grew Exceedingly Great
The One World Government of the Little Horn
The Two-Horned Ram Beast from the East
Daniel 8:3-4 – “Then I lifted up mine eyes, and saw, and, behold,
there stood before the river a ram which had two horns:
and the two horns were high; but one was higher than the other,
and the higher came up last.
I saw the ram pushing westward, and northward, and southward;
so that no beasts might stand before him,
neither was there any that could deliver out of his hand;
but he did according to his will, and became great.”
Daniel 8:3-4 – “I raised my eyes and saw, and behold!
A ram is standing before the river, and it has horns;
and the horns are high, but one is higher than the other,
and the higher one is coming up last.
I saw a ram goring westward, and northward and southward,
and no beasts could stand before it, nor could anyone rescue from it.
It did as it pleased and grew.
(translated by Rabbi Hersh Goldwurm in “Daniel” published by Mesorah Publications)
As Daniel looked towards the far north, he saw a powerful ram standing beyond the river covering the vast realms of the landscape to the north and east of the province of Elam in Babylon. Whereas earlier in the scroll of Daniel (Daniel 7), the Persian Empire was identified as a bear, here the identity of Persia was a ram with two great horns. This apocalyptic identity would later be seen as a prophetic layer upon a more ancient layer as the image of the bear changes towards the image of the ram at the end of the ages. This ram appeared to come from the distant shores of the east. This was the land as far as the mystical sea known to their descendants of a hundred generations later, the Pacific Ocean.
Hints of the land of the dynastic oriental cultures of the East no doubt had reached the ears of Daniel, that veteran political scientist. Did not the caravans of old traverse the plains, mountains and rivers along the silk and spice trail? The red gold from the eastern lands of the Indus Valley were known in the days of King Solomon. The spices from the orient and the silken robes, garments and drapery from the virgin mountains of the land of the silkworms brought these exotic comforts to the imperial palaces. The wisdom and knowledge of this consummate diplomat would soon meet this imperial ram power face to face. Daniel’s geo-political expertise would soon span these two great imperial cultures as the greatest bloodless overthrow of an impregnable imperial power preserved the “apple” of Hashem’s eye. (Zechariah 2:8)
Daniel saw this two horned ram from the east pushing westward towards the land of the democratic Grecian city states. It then went northwards into the unknown regions of the Scythians in the steppes and tundra of the arctic northlands. It later went southwards to the land of God’s people and the ancient land of the Pharaohs.
Daniel’s emissaries were constantly sending him reports of the archeological reconstruction of the pagan temple of his ancestor, Terah, the grandfather of both the Hebrews and the Arabs. These same emissaries also told him of the rise of the military states of Media and Persia in the lands where the children of Israel were sent in exile by the Assyrian hordes of King Sennacherib.
Watching carefully the political landscape, he was aware of the legions of the Achaemenian ruler in the land of the Persians, Cyrus I. It was Cyrus’ able general Gobryas the Guti who was soon to engage forces of the Babylonian king Nabonidus returning from the land of Arabia. There in the ancient city of Opis, the site of ancient Baghdad, one of histories most fateful theatres of war took place. According to the Nabonidus chronicle,
Nabonidus Chronicle - “In the month of
Tashritu, when Cyrus attacked the army of Babylonia in Opis on
the Tigris, the inhabitants of Babylonia revolted, but he (Cyrus, Nabonidus?) massacred the confused
inhabitants. On the fifteenth day (October 12), Sippar was seized without battle. Nabonidus
fled. On the sixteenth day, (the Persian commander) Gobryas, the governor of
Gutium, and the army of 
Cyrus entered Babylon without battle. Afterwards, Nabonidus was arrested in Babylon when he
returned there.”
Gobryas, the lance bearer of Cyrus (Darius) on the Behistun Stone
On October 12, 538 BCE, the gates of Babylon were breeched and the festival of Belshazzar was disrupted. The royal Babylonian order was over. It would not be for another three weeks before Cyrus entered the Ishtar Gate. On November 9, he rode into the city on a path of green leaves that the citizens of the city of Babylon laid to welcome him with peace and honor.
To the side of Cyrus (Darius the Mede or Artaxerses), was Gobryas, the governor of the Gutium. This general came from the region of western Iran where the displaced tribes of Israel were resettled over a century prior. Here was the home of the Guti or Catty, whom the linguists of ancient tongues believed was a derivation of Gadol or Gad. If that is true, Gobryas, the governor of Gutium was ruler over the Israeli tribe of Gad living in exile and no doubt Israeli himself. The Guti later intermingled with the Saki, known as the tribe of Isaac. Here was a collective term for the House of Israel and Judah.
The picture that begins to unfold is that Gobryas, an Israelite general, was leading the armed forces of Persia that would bring the exile of the Israelites’ brethren, the Jewish people to an end.
When Daniel saw the powerful two horned ram, he saw a creature that represented an imperial force that would affect and rearrange the entire oriental world order. This power of the orient lay to the east of Jerusalem, the solar rex capital on earth of the God of Israel. This political influence of this oriental power lay to the north and east of the vantage point of the landscaped royal gardens along the River U’lai at the citadel or palace where Daniel was residing.
On
the head of this ram were two horns, the ancient imagery of political power.
These horns were 
“high” and powerful.” To the ancient
hunters, they were majestic but deformed if we were looking for natural
symmetry. One of the horns was higher than the other and the “higher
one came up last”. What a strange image to behold! Yet in the apocalyptic
literature, it is important to examine every detail.
Cuneiform Sample (Ziggurat Temple) at Sush
Since a “horn” in prophecy is a national or imperial power, the higher horn represented the more powerful national power of the two horns. The “horn” that “came up last” represented the global power that achieved world class status as a national power broker at a later date. Daniel saw in this ram a coalition of nations of which there would be a union of two major world powers. This international coalition would be an oriental contender for world dominance. It would come from the regions of the globe to the north and east of modern day Iraq and Iran.
Was this powerful coalition of nations as depicted by the two-horned ram a political force which the prime minister of Babylon could understand with the breadth of his diplomatic career? Did this ram also depict a coalition of nations that would be a contender for world domination in a future one world order at the end of days?
Then the ram began to move? With majesty and confidence, it tore across the landscape racing from the far west to the north and then to the south. If Daniel’s visual perspective was like the Apostle John’s in the Scroll of Revelation, he would be looking down upon this planet. With this perspective he could have seen this mighty beast roam the planet from the western reaches of the Pacific Ocean to the northern slopes of the Ural. He would then run to the southern regions of the Islamic states down to the Hidden Quarters of Arabia, to the ribbon river culture of Egypt’s Nile and into the southern continent of trans-Africa. All the other beasts or national or cultural entities in its path were consumed as “no beast could stand before it.”
The Unicorn Shaggy He-Goat from the West
Daniel 8:5-6 – “And as I was considering, behold, a he goat came from the west on the face of the whole earth,
and touched not the ground:
and the goat had a notable horn between his eyes.”
“And he came to the ram that had two horns,
which I had seen standing before the river,
and ran unto him in the fury of his power.”
Daniel 8:5-6 – “I was observing, and behold!
The he-goat comes from the west,
across the surface of the whole earth, not touching the ground.
And the he-goat had a conspicuous horn between it eyes.
It came up to the horned ram I had seen standing before the river,
And ran at it with fury of its might.
(translated by Rabbi Hersh Goldwurm in “Daniel” published by Mesorah Publications)
Alexander III the Great of Macedonia
The attention of Daniel, the retired prime minister of Babylon, now living in Shushan was now riveted to his left to the far western horizon. Two things Daniel noticed that were very different about this goat. He described it with the Hebrew word, sa-yir (Strong’s 8163) which depicted an image of a hairy or shaggy goat called Azaziel which the sins of the Israelites were placed upon at Yom Kippur. These attributes are as follows: devil, goat, rough and shaggy:
Leviticus 16:10 - “But the goat on which lot fell to be the scapegoat shall be presented alive before the Lord, to make atonement upon it and to let it go as the scapegoat into the wilderness.”
This shaggy and hairy he-goat also had a single great horn. This must have been an interesting animal. What Daniel may have been seeing in these apocalyptic scenes was the mythical unicorn so famous to the ancients. In the Book of the Unicorn, the following description of the ancient Unicorn is made:
The Book of the Unicorn - Another interesting thing about unicorns is
that they are not totally impossible creatures, as most people assume. Of
course a horse with a narwhal-type horn would have to be a supernatural
creature, but most heraldic and other antique depictions of unicorns agree
that it has a cloven hoof, a silky beard and other goat-like features. Many
early bestiaries even show and describe the unicorn as being a small, goat-like creature
and one 
horned goats, while rare, do actually occur 
from time to time in
nature.
A One-horned Goat born in the mid 1980’s.
The one-horned male goat was not unknown to the ancients. The uni-horned creature seen in ancient mythological literature was not a horse-like being according to some scholars with a protruding horn from the center of its forehead. Rather it was a unicorn he-goat that the prophet goat specifically identifies. Let us look at the ancient symbolism of how it “came from the West on the face of the whole earth” and later described how that the “rough goat is the king of Grecia and the great horn that is between his eyes is the first king."
Here with symbol of superior power, the one horn depicted ascendance of a single and supreme sovereign state was chosen in this context as the head of a superior global power.
In the inter-testament Jewish Book of Enoch that is so prominently featured in the Qumran Dead Sea Scrolls as the most abundant number of manuscript fragments found, we read about a different horn that grew on a sheep:
Book of Enoch 90:9-12 – “And I saw till horns grew upon those
lambs, and the ravens (Syrians with Antioch Epiphanes IV) cast down their horns; and I saw till
there sprouted
a great horn of one of those sheep (Jewish people), and their eyes were opened. And it looked at them
(and their eyes opened), and it cried to the sheep, and the rams saw
it and all ran to it. And not withstanding all this, those eagles and
vultures and ravens and kites still kept tearing the sheep remained silent, but
the rams lamented and cried out. And those ravens fought and 
battled with it and
sought to lay low its horn, but they had no 
power over it.”
The Israeli Commercial Airline, “El Al”
There on the far regions of the western horizon, Daniel saw that the unicorn shaggy he-goat was flying over the horizon from the west. Like an armada USAF F-16s streaming across the surface of the earth, it shot across the horizon of the Mediterranean Sea into the regions of the Middle East. This mighty beast never touched the ground. In the NKJV, it says, “a he goat came from the west “on” the face of the whole earth. In the Hebrew, the word, “on” is pronounced “El Al” the name of the Israeli commercial airline that also flies also over the face of the earth.
Yet, this apocalyptic beast of Daniel that Daniel saw swiftly streaking across the surface of the earth was not a sheep but a ram. It also was not a beast that was being viciously attacked by other wild animals, but was a powerful and superior beast representing a supreme global force with power, vigor and great strength.
According to the Jewish calendar, it was only two hundred years after the vision that Daniel saw looking over the River U’lai depicted in Biblical typology the Greek and the Persian battle between Alexander the Great and the Persian ruler, Darius II Nothus. In this battle, the great Persian Empire collapsed in 317 BCE, according to the Jewish calendar.
The fact that in Daniel (Daniel 7:5-6) the Grecian power was identified as a wild and ferocious bear suggests that another layer of prophetic understanding will unfold as this prophecy is carried to the time of the end. The Persians were noted for their global tolerance to all races as opposed to the genocidal policies of the Assyrians and the oppressive dominance of the Babylonians. So also in the beginning the Greeks also were known for their tolerance. Only near the end of the Grecian rule did the Jewish people suffer religious persecution under the reign of Antiochus Epiphanes IV. That persecution lasted only for the last four years of Antiochus’ reign when he refused to tolerate a race of people who would not culturally assimilate with Greek Hellenism. This fact must be remembered we consider later the prophetic applications to our modern world today.
In this persecution, Antiochus desecrated the temple of Zerubabbel in Jerusalem and contaminated the altar of the Lord by sacrificing a pig on the holy altar. This temple was also later recognized to be an intermediary temple that would later be torn down and rebuilt just in time to be honored to be blessed by the presence of the holy Son of the Most High God. In the temple of Herod, Yahshua’s feet walked the courts of the temple as He taught the multitudes about the kingdom of His Father in heaven. This typology must not be forgotten as we later look at the global world at the time of the end.
The rabbis of Israel are all unanimous that the typology of the shaggy he-goat of Daniel represents the lightning assault of the Macedonian forces of Alexander the Great. According to Rabbi Shlomo ben Yitzchak, (Jewish years 4800-4865 or 1040-1105 CE), known as Rashi and one of the most brilliant Jewish commentators of the Bible and the Talmud, Alexander seemed to be ‘skipping above the earth.’ He came with such astounding speed that no army or military force could stand in his way or delay his march to the east.
Alexander’s meteoric rise to power was truly phenomenal. He ascended to the Macedonian throne at the youthful age of 20 and when he died 12 years later in Persia, he had conquered the entire Asia Minor, the Middle East, Egypt, and Persia and even penetrated into the outer reaches of India. (Mayenei HaYeshuah 9:4; Malbim).
The horn was a symbol well known
in antiquity as a symbol of power and strength. The fame of King David’s
power and authority was noted in the horn symbolism.
The Captive Unicorn – the Medieval Unicorn he-Goat
2 Samuel 2:10 – “The adversaries of the Lord shall be broken in pieces; from heaven He will thunder against them, the Lord will judge the ends of the earth. He will give strength to His king, and exalt the horn of His anointed.
Psalms
89:17, 24 – “For
You are the glory of their strength, and in Your favor our horn is exalted,
for our shield belongs to the Lord, and our king to the Holy One of
Israel…but My faithfulness and My mercy 
shall be with him and in My name his horn shall be
exalted.
As with many other ancient cultures, the symbol of the horn was not in reference to the mighty beast of power but to men of fame and renown. The royalty and the military of the ancient imperial royalty were symbolized in the imagery of the horn. The head-dresses of the Persian and the Assyrian kings and royal family were tall peaked caps not unlike the ornamental headdresses called the flamines martiales in Rome. Both depicted a single horn. In more recent centuries we see the peaked cap head-dress of the Doges of Venice which allude to the affect of the Persian influence upon their culture.
From where did such an idea come to the ancient mind concerning the ‘horn’? We cannot attribute it just to the primitive mind but the practical application suggests that horned beasts in the wild used their horns as weapons of power to fight and to conquer. Here were seen the symbols of power, potency, vigor and strength. Even these ancient symbols were used by Homer showing Achilles pushing the Trojans with his horns and Michelangelo’s “Moses” which depicted the ‘rays of light’ on the head of Moses as two horns suggest these same attributes.
Could it be said that the logical sequence was if the strength and power of two horns could be fused and the power concentrated into one very strong horn, the single horned beast would become the epitome of ultimate strength? At the same time the horn on the he-goat of Daniel at the peak of its power was broken into four horns, then, his great strength would be depleted. Only when the “little horn” arose from out of the combined strength of the four depleted horns did the Biblical text state: “And out of one of them came forth a little horn, which waxed exceedingly great.”
Even the author of the apocalypse of Revelation wrote of the perfect number of horns on the Lamb of the Apocalypse;
Revelation 5:6-7 – “And I looked, and behold, in the midst of the throne and of the four living creatures, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as though it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God sent out into all the earth.”
Here the apocalyptic symbol of the seven horned Lamb depicts ‘perfect’ sovereign power with the number of seven horns and the seven eyes of the Lamb depicts ‘perfect’ sober understanding as noted in the Psalms,
Psalms 19:9 – “The commandment of Hashem is pure, illuminating the eyes.”
As was stated in the “Lore of the Unicorn,”
Lore of the Unicorn – “ Speaking in general, however, one may say that from the third century of our era to the period of the Reformation the unicorn represented the person of Christ. Whether the pre-Christian symbol had any direct influence upon the Christian allegory one hesitates to say.
Only in recent years has the legend of the unicorn been turned over to avowed and professional dreamers; throughout the greater part of its history it has been shaped chiefly by practical men hunters, physicians, explorers, and merchant--adventurers--who regarded mere poetry with the healthy contempt.”
The Collapse of the Empire of the Two-horned Ram
Philip II, Roman copy of the Greek original, 4th century, Vatican
Daniel 8:7 – “And I saw him come close unto the ram,
and he was moved with choler against him,
and smote the ram, and brake his two horns:
and there was no power in the ram to stand before him, but he cast him down to the ground,
and stamped upon him: and there was none that could deliver the ram out of his hand.”
Daniel 8:7 – “I saw it reach the ram. It fought bitterly with it,
and smote the ram and broke its two horns.
The ram lacked the strength to stand before it.
It threw it to the ground and trampled it,
and there was no one to rescue the ram from it.
(translated by Rabbi Hersh Goldwurm in “Daniel” published by Mesorah Publications)
In the spring of the traditional year of 336 BCE, Philip, the king of Macedonia was at the height of his military expansion. He had conquered, subdued and merged the city states of Greece into a contender for global dominance to challenge the Persian Empire. He sent his two generals Attalus and Parmenio ahead with 10,000 Macedonian troops to cross over the straits into Asia Minor and prepare the enemy for the advance of his main army following behind.
As
Philip was preparing to leave, Alexander the prince of Epirus, the brother to his wife Olympia, the mother of Alexander II (the 
Great), was preparing to
marry Philip’s daughter, Cleopatra. A lavish wedding celebration and the
feasts began as they celebrated with grand entertainment in the royal theater.
On the second day, King Philip was entering the theater. While walking between his son Alexander III and soon to be son-in-law also called Alexander, Pausanias, a Macedonian noble struck a dagger into the king and fatally assassinated him. The close friends of Philip’s son, Alexander apprehended the assassin when he tripped while trying to escape and killed him immediately.
Macedonian Empire on the death of Philip in 336 BCE
The conqueror of Macedonia and the military general who forge the union of the disparate Grecian states was now dead at the moment of his life in which he was seeking to achieve world domination. His dreams of avenging the Grecian defeat by the Persian army of Xerses (480 to 470 BC), one hundred fifty years before passed to his son, Alexandros III Philippou Makedonon (Alexander III the Great).
Alexander III the Great is recognized in the annals of military
warfare as being one of the greatest military strategists of all times. The son of Philip
II, King of Macedonia and Olympias, the princess of Epirus, Alexander grew
up watching his father forging the first Grecian Empire. Tutored by the Greek
philosopher, Aristotle at 13, his education in science, medicine,
philosophy, literature prepared him for the day when at the age of 16, his
father left him as regent of the state and during this time 
assembled his own army and defeated the rebelling Thracian tribe
of Maedi, which he renamed after himself, Alexandropolis.
The beautiful Olympias. From a golden metal of the Abikir treasure, 3rd century, Click here for a larger image. Thessalonika Archeological Museum,
As soon as Alexander III became ruler of Macedonia, he quickly executed all of his enemies, gathered his father’s army and sent them into a punishing and swift march against the Illyrian, Thracians and the Greeks in northern and southern Greece. He then razed the rebelling city of Thebes killing everyone or selling them as slaves in revenge for keeping his father as a hostage for three years many years earlier.
With his authority
assured, he left the land of Macedonia to the care of his father’s general, Antipater,
as his regent with 13,500 Macedonian troops. Setting his eyes towards Persia, he crossed the Hellespont (Dardanelles) in the spring of 334 BCE. As 
he approached the coast of Asia
Minor, tradition claims that he threw his spear from his ship which stuck to
the ground and when picking it up, proclaimed the entire land of Asia to be won by the might of the Macedonian spear.
Alexander. Click here for a larger image. Glyptothek Munich, Germany.
With 25,000 Macedonian soldiers and 14,500 soldiers from the Greeks, Thracians and Illyrian with General Parmenio as second in command, Alexander passed over the Hellespont and defeated the army of King Darius III at the river Granicus near the ancient city of Troy. Almost 18,000 Greeks siding with the Persians were slain in this battle that tradition claims that Alexander’s troops lost only 120 men.
With his important commanders, Perdiccas, Craterus, Coenus, Meleager, Antigonus, and Parmenio's son Philotas, Alexander continued his march across Asia Minor, conquering the Greek cities of Halicarnassus, Miletus and Mylasa. In route to the city of Gordium Alexander headed to the home of the famous Gordian Knot the legend that stated, “the man who could untie this ancient knot would rule the world.” With a slash of his sword, the ends of the knot unfurled and Alexander headed towards Persia.
According to Jewish rabbi, Malbim, the astonishing victories of Alexander the Great were due not only in part to his great energy and bravery on the battlefield, but also to his brilliant military. Here we see the prophetic image of the rough he-goat as the feared Macedonian phalanx came close to the Persian ram, one battle at a time, feigning and playing against this imperial power.
By the autumn of 333 BC, Alexander’s army proceeding east was in a collision course with the approaching army of King Darius’ elite soldiers. They traveled from the east of the Euphrates, passed over that great river, entered Taurus, crossed over the Cilician mountain and there at the mountain pass at Issus in northwestern Syria Darius II waited for Alexander.
In preparation for battle, Alexander moved from the Macedonian troops to the Greeks, Illyrian and Thracian forces one at a time and raised their morale by saying, as quoted by the Roman historian Curtius:
Roman Historian Q. Curtius Rufus - "Riding to the front line he (Alexander the Great) named the soldiers and they responded from spot to spot where they were lined up. The Macedonians, who had won so many battles in Europe and set off to invade Asia ... got encouragement from him - he reminded them of their permanent values. They were the world's liberators and one day they would pass the frontiers set by Hercules and Father Liber. They would subdue all races on Earth. Bactria and India would become Macedonian provinces. Getting closer to the Greeks, he reminded them that those were the people (the Persians on the other side) who provoked war with Greece, ... those were the people that burned their temples and cities ... As the Illyrians and Thracians lived mainly from plunder, he told them to look at the enemy line glittering in gold ..." (Q. Curtius Rufus 3.10.4-10 quoted in Alexander of Macedon)
Yet, when King Darius II and his troops panicked, tens of thousands of the Persian coalition were slaughtered. The mother, wife and children of the Darius II of Persian were captured and held in the custody of Alexander the Great.
Then Alexander turned south. In early 332 BCE, the general Parmenio was sent to secure the cities of the Syrians and Alexander headed down the Phoenician coast. One by one the cities fell except the city of Tyre who refused for him to offer a sacrifice at the temple to Melcart, the native god of the Phoenicians.
For seven months the troops of Alexander built a rampart by transporting tons and tons of rocks and wood until the city was reached. With high cost of the lives of his troops, his ships sent cascades of rocks from the catapults of his ships blasting against the walls of the city. The city of Tyre fell and Alexander offered his sacrifice.
While Alexander was at Troy, he sent a message by emissary to the Jaddue, the high priest in Jerusalem to supply his troops with food and the assistance of some fighting troops. Josephus picks up the account in the Antiquities of the Jews:
Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews – “When he (Alexander) sent an epistle to the Jewish high priest, to send him some auxiliaries, and to supply his army with provision; and that what present he formerly sent to Darius, he would now send to him and choose the friendship of the Macedonians, and that he should never repent of so doing, but the high priest answered the emissary that he had taken his oath to Darius not to bear arms against him; and he said that he would not transgress this while Darius was in the land of the living. Upon hearing this answer, Alexander was very angry; and though he determined not to leave Tyre, which was just ready to be taken, yet as soon as he had taken it, he threatened that he would make an expedition against the Jewish high priest and through him teach all men to whom they must keep their oaths.” (Flavius Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, XI,viii,3)
During the seven-month siege of Tyre, Alexander received a letter from Darius offering a truce with a gift of several western provinces of the Persian Empire, but he refused to make peace unless he could have the whole empire. Alexander then headed to Gaza. In the second month of the seige, the city fell and the entire coast of the Mediterranean Sea was under the power of the Macedonian “he-Goat”.
Alexander
the Great then turned his attention to the Jews and the Jewish high priest, Jaddue
and headed to the foothills of Judea. When the city of Jerusalem received word
that the Macedonian army was heading to the hills of Zion, the high priest
and city were “in an agony, and under terror, as not knowing how he should
meet the Macedonians, since the king was displeased at his foregoing
disobedience.” 
The city went into prayer and supplication. Then the God of
Israel gave the high priest a message in a dream. He was warned that:
Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews - “He (Jaddue the high priest) should take courage and adorn the city, and open the gates; that the rest should appear in white garments, but that he and the priest should meet the king in the habits proper to their order, without the dread of any ill consequences, which the providence of God would prevent.” (Flavius Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, XI, viii, 4)
When Alexander and his troops reached the surroundings of the city of Jerusalem, a sight met their eyes that Alexander never forgot. In the distance the walls of the city of Jerusalem rose into their sights. There surrounding the city was a field of white and standing before Alexander was an august delegation of the Jews prepared to greet the conqueror that their prophet Daniel had prophesied over fifty years prior. According to the rabbinic chronology, the temple had only been completed in 351 BCE and now 34 years later, in 317 BCE, the forces of Alexander the Great were now surrounding their city. As Josephus described:
Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews – “And when he (Jaddue the high priest) understood that he (Alexander) was not far from the city, he went out in procession, with the priest, and the multitude of citizens. The procession was venerable, and the manner of it different from that of other nations. It reached to a place called Sapha; which name, translated into Greek, signifies a prospect, for you have thence a prospect both of Jerusalem and of the temple; and when the Phoenicians and the Chaldeans that followed him, thought they should have liberty to plunder the city, and torment the high priest to death, which the king’s displeasure fairly promised them, the very reverse of it happened; for Alexander when he saw the multitude at a distance, in white garments, while the priest stood clothed with fine linen, and the high priest in purple and scarlet clothing, with his mitre on his head, having the golden plate whereon the name of God was engraved, he approached by himself, and adored that name, and first saluted the high priest. The Jews also did all together, with one voice, salute Alexander, and encompass him about; whereupon the kings of Syria and the rest were surprised at what Alexander had done, and supposed him disordered of mind. (Flavius Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, XI, viii, 5)
Alexander the Great was approached by his general Parmenio asking why he was bowing down to the high priest of the Jews. Alexander replied:
Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews – “I
did not adore him but that God who hath honoured him with his 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 the dominion of Asia, exhorted me to make no delay, but boldly to pass over the sea thither, for that he would conduct my army, and would give me
the dominion over the Persians, and now seeing this person in it,
and remembering that vision, and the exhortations which I had in my
dream, I believe that I bring this army under the divine 
conduct, and shall therewith conquer
Darius, and destroy the power of the Persians, and that all things will succeed
according to the what is in my own mind.” (Flavius Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, XI, viii, 5)
Alexander than gave his right hand to the high priest and was escorted into the city of Jerusalem. There he went to the temple of Zerubabbel and under the direction of the high priest offered a sacrifice to the God of Israel, and “magnificently treated both the high priest and the priests. And when the book of Daniel was shewed him, wherein Daniel declared that one of the Greeks would destroy the empire of the Persians, he supposed that himself was the person intended and as he was then glad, he dismissed the multitude for the present.” As Alexander left the city of Jerusalem, he left his royal decree that the Jewish people would not have to pay their tribute on every seventh year and that they and all the Jewish people in Judea, Babylon and Persia would be able to follow the laws of their forefathers.
Alexander the Great then proceeded on to Egypt in the traditional year of 331 BCE. Welcomed by the Egyptians, he designed a city on the coast at the mouth of the Nile River that became the great city of Alexandria. From there he traveled to the temple and oracle of Amon-Ra, the Egyptian sun god which the Macedonians knew as Zeus Ammon.
In centuries prior, the Greeks transferred much of the ancient knowledge of the Egyptians to the Grecian shores. According to their legends, Alexander traveled across the desert and all along the route the rains showers accompanied him while he was guided by ravens. There at the oracle of Amon-Ra he received what he sought, the affirmation that he was the son of Zeus Ammon, destined to rule the world and confirmed upon him his belief in his divine origin.
In Egypt Alexander with his army reinforced with troops from Europe prepared to move towards Babylon. One by one the provinces between Egypt and Persia fell to the forces of Alexander. On October 1, 331 BCE, near the modern town of Irbil, Alexander met the Persian forces of Darius II which in legend numbered up to a million soldiers. With Darius’ coalition forces from the Bactria, Indus, Media, Sogdia and the remainder of the Greeks and the Albanians, the latter which later migrated to the Balkans next to the Serbians, the Battle of Gaugamela began.
In the
heat of battle, the two wings of the Macedonian forces of the general Parmenio
and Alexander were forced to separate, Alexander with his cavalry moved with
lightning speed straight through the Persian forces towards Darius II and
for the third time forced this weak Persian emperor to break ranks and flee
to Ecbatana in Media. According to Ralbag,
in Mayenei HaYeshuah, there in Ecbatana, Darius II was taken
hostage by his own satraps who turned traitor to him and put him to death (Ralbag, Mayenei HaYeshuah 9;4 quoted
in Daniel / a new translation with a commentary
anthologized from Talmudic, Midrashic and Rabbinic sources, a translation and commentary by Rabbi Hersh Goldwurm,
Mesorah Publication, Ltd, 4401 Second Avenue, Brooklyn, New York 11232
1979…1998, page 220)
The Battle between the Ram and the he-Goat
With Babylon now under the third world empire, Alexander claimed Shushan as his imperial capital and the Persian capital of Persapolis was burned to the ground. The silver empire of Persia was over. What was even more important, the oriental influence upon the remnant of children of Jacob was also over and now. Now they must experience a different cultural attack, the assimilating force of Greek Hellenism. The occidental world would now bow to the rule of the occidental world. The Greeks would rule the world of the Jews for almost the next four centuries.
Since the days of Abraham, the oriental influence upon the children of Israel had remained supreme. The national identity of the Israelites was supreme. It was the soul of the Jewish people. The state, in the oriental world was the soul of the inhabitants of those empires. The state was not the servant of the people but the people were the servants of the state.
The theocratic government that God envisioned for his people in the days of Moses, Joshua and the Judges no longer existed in the Jewish life for almost four hundred years. For over one hundred twenty years according to the rabbinic sages, the Jewish people were under the influence of the oriental gentile powers. These 120 years included the seventy years of exile in fulfillment of the Jeremiah prophecy in Babylon up to the day when the temple vessels were desecrated in the feast of Belshaz’zar plus another fifty plus years under the benevolent one world government of the Persians.
We also find in an ancient Jewish history called Yossipon, which some sages speculate is Josephus’ Hebrew version of the Jewish history (commentary at the end of Daniel 4), and ”Malbim”, Rabbi Meir Leibush (Jewish year 5569-5639 or 1809-1879 CE) in his commentary on Daniel titled Yefe’ach LaKetz, writing in Mayenei HaYeshuah (9:3), both proclaim the following. In the days of Ezra and Nehemiah the Persian influence was “gentle and benevolent.” What can be stated, for over one hundred twenty years, the imperial oriental influence of the Babylonians and the Persians governed the life of the Jews.
Now their lives would change completely to a new type of world dominance, the occidental world of democracy and the individual rights of man. The state would no longer be the soul of the people. The people would be the soul and the grass-roots power of the state. The independence and autonomy of the individual would affect the world of the Jews. The rule of law of the Medes and the Persians that reigned supreme with the stroke of the emperor’s pen that was never to be broken, as seen in the story of Daniel and the Lion’s den, was now open to negotiation.
The assimilating and seductive power of the Babylonians
and the gentle and benevolent power of the Persians
would now clash with the over-powering thrust of change forced upon them
by the autonomous and independent negotiating power
of democracy culminating in the Senate of Rome. Negotiation,
compromise and imposing order governed by the majority would become a new
threat to the Jewish 
people who recognized that the God of Israel was to be their only power that they gave their allegiance and honor.
Alexander in Battle, 3rd century, National Archeological Museum, Taranto
Like the great wars of the modern world, the battles are fought in the psychological front in order to demoralize the opposing forces. Threats, warnings, incursions into the territorial borders of the enemy, even to the point of goading the enemy to retaliate are all part of the art of ancient and modern warfare. ‘Reaching the ram’ suggests that initially and over a lengthy period of time, the he-goat power would come close and then retreat until with bitterness and choler (KJV) the he-goat smote the ram and both of the great horns were broken. By this time the ram had weakened and “there was no power in the ram to stand before him.”
The end of the great conflict between the two world wide opposing forces for one world dominance ended with the western Grecian power casting the eastern power into the ground and trampling it. The final conflict would come with bitterness. The he-goat would stomp in fury upon the eastern two horn coalition. No other military or economic power would be able to render any assistance to the ram.
The oriental powers representing first the Babylonian and then the Medo-Persian governments would now fall under the onslaught of the Grecian and later the Roman imperial forces. In spite of the great power of the Roman empire, the Egyptian-Greek influence over the next two imperial powers would affect drastically the people of God. The influence of Greek Hellenism with its roots in democracy, national independence and the autonomy of man would remain supreme to this day.
The Genetic Variants between the European Macedonians and the Ethiopian Greeks
Alexander
the Great was a Macedonian by birth and he and his father Philip were greatly
opposed by the Greeks most of their lives. Does this suggest that their
genetic roots are very different? In 2001, the research as documented in, “Documents
of the Continued Existence of Macedonia and the Macedonian Nation for a Period
of over 2500 years” truly does confirm that the modern Macedonians
today are descendants of the ancient Macedonians of Philip and Alexander the
Great and not related to the Bulgarians and the Greeks. The genetic
scientific research from the National Center for BioTechnology Information
at the University of Complutense at Madrid, Spain confirms that the ancient
Macedonian genes belong to an “older” Mediterranean 
substratum along with the genetic
remnants of the ancient nations of Phrygia (Anatolia), Carthage (North Africa),
Rome (Italy) and Phoenicia (Lebanon). The Greeks on the other hand come from a different
genetic root stock. This genetic pool is more substantially related to
the ancient sub-Saharan people of Ethiopian origins which are separate from the
other Mediterranean genetic pools. As stated in the report,
The Tomb of Daniel on the River U’lai
Spanish Genetic Research Study of Macedonian Genes - “HLA alleles have been determined in individuals from the Republic of Macedonia by DNA typing and sequencing. HLA-A, -B, -DR, -DQ allele frequencies and extended haplotypes have been for the first time determined and the results compared to those of other Mediterraneans, particularly with their neighbouring Greeks. Genetic distances, neighbor-joining dendrograms and correspondence analysis have been performed. The following conclusions have been reached:
1. Macedonians belong to the "older" Mediterranean substratum, like Iberians (including Basques), North Africans, Italians, French, Cretans, Jews, Lebanese, Turks (Anatolians), Armenians and Iranians,
2. Macedonians are not related with geographically close Greeks, who do not belong to the "older" Mediterranean substratum,
3. Greeks are found to have a substantial relatedness to sub-Saharan (Ethiopian) people, which separate them from other Mediterranean groups.
Both Greeks and Ethiopians share quasi-specific DRB1 alleles, such as *0305, *0307, *0411, *0413, *0416, *0417, *0420, *1110, *1112, *1304 and *1310. Genetic distances are closer between Greeks and Ethiopian/sub-Saharan groups than to any other Mediterranean group and finally Greeks cluster with Ethiopians/sub-Saharans in both neighbour joining dendrograms and correspondence analyses. The time period when these relationships might have occurred was ancient but uncertain and might be related to the displacement of Egyptian-Ethiopian people living in Pharaonic Egypt.”
Looking at the role of the Macedonians in world politics today, we find some interesting parallels. In an 80 page report documenting human rights violations in Greece was published in 1994 and called “Denying Ethnic Identity - Macedonians of Greece." After the partitioning of Macedonia in 1913 in which Greece took part of this ancient land, the Human Right Watch/Helskink visited this area called Aegean Macedonia in the Greek sector and was reported on Documents of the Continued Existence of Macedonia and the Macedonian Nation for a Period of over 2500 years:
Denying Ethic Identity - "Although ethnic Macedonians in northern Greece make up large minority with their own language and culture, their internationally recognized human rights and even their existence are vigorously denied by the Greek government. Free expression is restricted; several Macedonians have been persecuted and convicted for their peaceful expression of their views. Moreover, ethnic Macedonians are discriminated against by the government's failure to permit the teaching of the Macedonian language. And ethnic Macedonians, particularly rights activists, are harassed by the government - followed and threatened by the security forces - and subjected to economic and social pressure resulting from this harassment. All of these actions have led to a marked climate of fear in which a large number of ethnic Macedonians are reluctant to assert their Macedonian identity or to express their views openly. Ultimately, the government is pursuing every avenue to deny the Macedonians of Greece their ethnic identity."
The Empire of Alexander the Great
What is profound in this document that at the time of the end, the national identity of the people that sought to oppress the Jews, today appear to be the oppressed. Like the old adage of old, “What goes around, comes around.”
The ethnic Macedonians are now oppressed by the Greeks they conquered and oppressed. The ethnic Iraqis of that great ancient land of Babylonia are now oppressed not only under the foreign globalist’s bid to take control of the natural oil resources of Iraq. The virgin croplands of ancient seed stock they recently tilled on that ancient silted soil of the Tigris and the Euphrates are now forbidden and they are only allowed to grow grain with Monsanto’s genetic engineered grain. The soil is contaminated with the millions of tons of depleted uranium that have the potential to destroy the entire Mesopotamia Valley rending it unfit to live or grow crops for the rest of the millennium.
The fate of the ethnic Syrians of that ancient land of Assyria and the ethnic Iranian of that ancient land of Medo-Persia have yet to be determined. While the fate of the ancient Babylonians is unfolding, when prophecy of chapter eight of the Scroll of Daniel is over, the fate of the Syrians and the Iranian will be complete.
The Great Horn of the Shaggy he-Goat grew Exceedingly Great
Daniel 8:8 – “Therefore the he goat waxed very great: and when he was strong,
the great horn was broken;
and for it came up four notable ones toward the four winds of heaven.”
Daniel 8:8 – And the he-goat grew exceedingly.
At its mightiest the great horn was broken,
and a semblance of four came up in its place
toward the four directions of the sky.
(translated by Rabbi Hersh Goldwurm in “Daniel” published by Mesorah Publications)
The four horned Shaggy he-Goat
And then a transformation of this goat began to take place. With no other military forces on the face of the earth to oppose him, the he-goat was not satisfied with just universal domination He would now begin to “wax exceedingly great.” The rabbis agree that in the history of the rise of Alexander, he did not suffer any significant military defeats or reversals in his rise to power. According to Rabbi Goldwurm in Daniel, “His (Alexander’s) whole career had been an unbroken chain of successes)” (Translation and Commentary by Rabbi Hersh Goldwurm, Daniel / a new translation with a commentary anthologized from Talmudic, Midrashic and Rabbinic sources, Mesorah Publication, Ltd, 4401 Second Avenue, Brooklyn, New York 11232 1979…1998, page 214)
Did
Alexander create his own fate or was it handed to him? When Alexander the
Great returned to Shushan, he found that the officials that he had chosen to
govern his country were deeply involved in corruption. During this time,
Alexander married Roxana, a Bactrian princess of Persia and tried to
force his military officers to do the same. Many officers and generals were
considering a mutiny in resistance to what they were seeing as their
military leader was becoming more Persian and Eastern in his lifestyle,
setting himself up as an Eastern Potentate. A mutiny was quelled yet
when just when Alexander was in preparation to set sail to voyage around Arabia, he caught a fever and died under mysterious circumstances. Did he die
by poisoning or did he die of some rare oriental disease? He was only 33
years old. His wife, Roxana, 
was
with child. Alexander Aegus was born, never to see his world renowned father
and never to claim the throne.
Arrowheads and Spear head from the time of Alexander the Great
The tentacles of power quickly invaded every part of the social and religious cultures of every nation on earth. The economics of world domination assured that all the wealth, riches and natural resources of all the nations of the earth would flow to that military, political and economic octopus. Every crevice of the social life in every country of the world was invaded by Hellenism. . The unicorn he-goat became ‘very strong’.
And then, the finger of the Almighty One broke the ‘great horn’. Where it is the ‘fates’ to some and ‘divine providence’ to others, the life of Alexander the Great was finished as quickly as it began. To this day, the death of Alexander is surrounded in mystery and the myths of legends. Did he succumb to poisoning or to the rages of a tropical disease in the Indus Valley? One thing is certain, the French mathematician, astronomer, philosopher, physician and Biblical commentator of the Torah, Job, the five Megillow, Prophets, Proverbs, Daniel and Nechemiah, Rabbi Levi ben Gershom known as “Ralbag” (Mayenei HeYeshuah 9:4) agrees with the modern and ancient historians, “Alexander was not defeated in battle.”
So
many times in history, “out of one become many”, so also with the
he-Goat-like power was soon to split into mini-powers. Instead of fading
into history, it morphed into four horns that reached to the four corners of
the then known world. With the death of Alexander, the subterranean
division of the Grecian states rose again. No 
longer with one mighty
military leader as Philip of Macedon and his son Alexander III, the empire
of Alexander the Great split almost to the four points of the compass with
Jerusalem as the reference point of the globe. (Ibn Ezra and Meyenei
HaYeshuah 9:4)
The four Divisions of the Kingdom of Alexander the Great
At the age of thirty three, Alexander the Great died. The Macedonian empire was a monarchial empire, yet the legacy that Alexander left was very weak. His heirs included his brother Aridaeus who was weak and did not have the capacity to mold an empire in the making. He also had two young sons Alexander and Hercules. It was initially the intention that the empire of Alexander be divided into four provinces, each governed by one of Alexander’s four trusted generals: Cassander, Lysimachus, Ptolemy and Seleucus. It was their intent to preserve the kingdom for Alexander’s young prince, Alexander until he was able to rule and carry on the royal lineage of the Macedonian kings. Yet like more imperial orders, power, greed and control became paramount and soon they came into conflict with each other. Many of the generals including Alexander’s sons and brother were soon killed and the empire divided into four opposing kingdoms:
- Macedonia, Greece and Epirus originally under the leadership of Cassander fell to the Antigonus who founded the Antigonid dynasty of Grecian kings.
- Asia Minor originally under the leadership of Lysimachus in the provinces of Thrace and Bithynia eventually became the Attalid dynasty. This dynasty was eventually absorbed by the Antigonid dynasty.
- The Mesopotamia and the Middle East especially around Damascus Syria stayed under the leadership of Seleucus I who started the Seleucus dynasty.
- Egypt, Libya, Arabia, Coelo-Syria and Palestine came under the leadership of Ptolemy who crowned himself as Ptolemy I and began the Ptolemid dynasty. Here the Greek culture was especially nurtured and preserved. This was in part because the Grecian culture derived its roots from Egypt eventually to the point of adopting many Egyptian customs including the Pharaonic cultic culture and the inheritance through the bloodline of the mother.
The One World Government of “The Little Horn”
Daniel 8:9-10 – “And out of one of them came forth a little horn, which waxed exceeding great, toward the south,
and toward the east, and toward the pleasant land.”
“And it waxed great, even to the host of heaven; and it cast down some of the host
and of the stars to the ground, and stamped upon them.”
Daniel 8:9-10 – “And out of one of them came forth one little horn, which grew excessively
southward and eastward and toward the coveted one.
And it grew up to the host of heaven; and it threw to the earth some of the host
and some of the stars, and trampled them.
(translated by Rabbi Hersh Goldwurm in “Daniel” published by Mesorah Publications)
The “One Little Horn” that arose out of the four divisions of Alexander’s Empire has classically been accepted by Rabbinic and Christian scholars as Antiochus Epiphanes IV yet that opinion has not always been universal. The Davidian French Talmudist, Rashi, Rabbi Sholomo ben Yitzchak (Jewish year 4800-4865 or 1040-1105 CE) as well as R’ Shmuel Masnuth (Jewish years of 4950-5000 or 1190-1240 CE) in his Midrash Daniel, claimed that the ‘little horn’ was the Roman Empire.
In the Talmudic texts of Avodah Zarah 10a, it suggests that Rome as Edom could be a successor to the Seleucid kingdom because when Pompey invaded the Middle East in 64 CE, the Seleucid kingdom was destroyed and the Roman authority was established in the Syrian capital of Damascus as the Roman province of Coele-Syria. The allusion to a “little” horn suggested that this horn was not smaller in quality or in size but was recognized for its youth. The Roman government was younger than the Greek Hellenistic governments.
Even so, the Jews did have somewhat of an autonomous relationship with Rome with only a Roman governor overlooking their affairs from Damascus until the death of King Agrippa I in 44 CE. (Jewish year of 3804) At that time the province of Judea (Eretz Yisra'el) was placed directly under the authority of the Roman governor of Syria, who was the direct inheritor of the former kingdom of the Seleucids in Damascus.
At the same time “Ibn Ezra”, the Jewish poet, philosopher, grammarian and astronomer as Rabbi Avraham ben Meir, understood the ‘little horn’ to be the Seleucid kingdom and not Antiochus Epiphanes IV in specific. Yet according to Rabbi Hersh Goldwurm, it also could be said that “out of one of the four kingdoms the Seleucid kingdom emerged.” (Ralbag, Mayenei HaYeshuah 9;4 quoted in Daniel / a new translation with a commentary anthologized from Talmudic, Midrashic and Rabbinic sources, a translation and commentary by Rabbi Hersh Goldwurm, Mesorah Publication, Ltd, 4401 Second Avenue, Brooklyn, New York 11232 1979…1998, page 220)
The typology or shadow picture of the real picture can be realized in both images in the biblical text. It was in 168 BCE (Jewish year of 3592) that Antiochus Epiphanes IV went south and attacked Egypt and if it had not been for the Roman intervention, he would have annexed Egypt into the Seleucid kingdom. Also at this same time, Antiochus IV also went east and subdued part of the eastern provinces in Persia that had revolted and separated themselves during the time of Antiochus III.
Then the Syrian ruler, Antiochus Epiphanes IV went down to the pleasant or coveted Land of Israel (Eretz Yisra’el). Judea had been taken away from the Ptolemies of Egypt by his father Antiochus III.
The father of Antiochus IV, Antiochus III gave his daughter, Cleopatra, to become the wife of Ptolemy I as part of a peace treaty with Egypt. With this he also gave as her dowry the income that he received from the Land of Israel. When Antiochus IV went to claim the city of Jerusalem and desecrated the temple of God, he no longer continued to transfer the income from Judea to the rulers of Egypt. There in Jerusalem, when Antiochus IV arrived, he not only sought to reaffirm that he was their political leader but also that he was their spiritual leader by setting up an idol in the temple of the Zerubabbel and sacrificing a pig on the altar of the Lord.
The words that Antiochus IV ‘waxed great, even to the host of heaven’, were spoken to Daniel by Gabriel, so also claims Ibn Ezra. As Goldwurm states, heaven is a symbol for God Himself but it also includes “all those who occupy themselves with the community should do so for the sake of heaven. Thus, the Jewish people, who fulfill God’s purpose in this world are the host of heaven.” (Goldwurm 223)
According to Malbim (Mayenei HaYeshua 9:5), when the Syrian ruler came into the land of Israel to suppress the worship of God by the observant Jews and to substitute the Hellenism for the worship of the God of Israel, he was seeking to ‘grow up to the host of heaven’ or to exalt himself above the people of the Divine One of Israel.
Many of the Jewish people in the land of Israel were significantly influenced by the seduction of the Hellenistic thought. As such, they were “cast down” to earth where they no longer were able to bask in the influence of heaven. The “stars” were known as the pious ones who kept their faith in spite of this time of trouble. It was they who the little horn “tramples upon” or martyred for their allegiance to God.
Daniel 8:11-12 – “Yea, he magnified himself even to the prince of the host,
and by him the daily sacrifice was taken away, and the place of his sanctuary was cast down.”
“And a host was given him against the daily sacrifice by reason of transgression,
and it cast down the truth to the ground; and it practiced, and prospered.”
Daniel 8:11-12 – “It exalted itself even up to the Prince of the legion,
And through it the daily sacrifice was removed and the foundation of His sanctuary was thrown down.
And a set time will be allotted for the daily sacrifice because of sin;
And it will throw truth to the earth, and it will act and succeed.”
(translated by Rabbi Hersh Goldwurm in “Daniel” published by Mesorah Publications)
Though the Almighty One, the Ein Sof or the Hidden One is called Hashem of legions, the text calls this exalted Being the Prince of the legion. Are they the same heavenly Being? Antiochus Epiphanes IV sought to play the same role that Satan (HaSatan) did in the courts of heaven as the prosecuting attorney who accuses and slanders Israel before God. In this same heavenly court scene, it is the role of Michael, the Angel before the Presence, to defend Israel and to silence the accusation of Satan (Shmos Rabbah 18:5) as the defense attorney. As such, Michael, the archangel is the Prince of the archangels, the heavenly legions of the angelic hosts and according to Ibn Ezra, also the Prince of the Jewish Nation and the lost sheep of the House of Israel.
For three years between 168-165 CE (Jewish years 3593-3596 ), Antiochus IV ‘cast down’ or ‘removed’ the daily sacrifice in the temple. The sacrifice was ‘taken away’ or ceased to be practiced until the Hasmonean family of priests in revolt cast out the Syrians and reinstituted the daily sacrifice in the temple. (Josephus, Antiquities, VII, 7, 6) During this time the ‘foundation’ or the whole purpose of the existence of the temple as the repository for the Shechinah glory of God was also cast down. The Presence of the Holy One could no longer be felt in worship at the temple of the Lord. The altar stones were defiled (Milchamos Hashem, loc. it) and the temple itself lost its holiness.
When Josephus described this scene when Yehudah (Judah) the Hasmonean and his supporting warriors entered the desolated temple, the literal reality of physical destruction and spiritual desolation became apparent.
Flavius Josephus – “When, therefore, the generals of Antiochus’s armies had been beaten so often, Judas assembled the people together, and told them, that after these many victories which God had given them, they ought to go up to Jerusalem, and purify the temple, and offer the appointed sacrifices. But as soon as he, with the whole multitude, was come to Jerusalem, and found the temple deserted, and its gates burnt down and plants growing in the temple of their own accord, on account of its desertion, he and those that were with him began to lament, and were quite confounded at the sight of the temple; so he chose out some of his soldiers, and gave them order to fight against those guards that were in the citadel, until he should have purified the temple.
When, therefore, he had carefully purged it, and had brought in new vessels, the candlestick, the table (of shew-bread) and the altar (of incense,) which were made of gold, he hung up the veils at the gates, and added doors to them. He also took down the altar (of burnt offering,) and built a new one of stone that he gathered together, and not of such as were hewn with iron tools.
So on the five and twentieth day of the month Casleu (Kislev), which the Macedonians call Appelleus, they lighted the lamps that were on the candlestick, and offered incense upon the altar (on incense,) and laid the loaves upon the table (of shew-bread) and offered burnt offerings upon the new altar (of burnt-offering). Now it so fell out, that these things were done on the very same day on which their divine worship had fallen off, and was reduced to profane and common use, after three years’ time; for so it was, that the temple was made desolate by Antiochus, and so continued for three years.” (Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, XII,7,6)
This desolation was later called the abomination of desolation. It would later be recognized to last for only a “set time” because of the sin of the Jewish people, accommodating themselves to Greek Hellenism. In essence the “host of heaven” or the Jewish people were given over to the forces of Satan.
This was reenacted in the literal sense by the role the Syrian ruler, Antiochus Epiphanes IV played in halting the sacrifice to the Lord. The temple and the people became separated from the Divine Presence for a time of three years, from 25th Kislev 168 BCE to the 25th of Kislev 165 BCE. Not until they returned to rededicate the temple did they realize that it had been exactly three years between the “abomination” and the “rededication”. This truly was a “set time” or a “time allotted” by God. When God’s purpose was fulfilled, desolation was over and redemption was to continue. (Rashi, Mayenei HaYeshuah 9:5).
Go to Part One - Daniel, the Palace at Shushan and the Tomb of Daniel
Part Two - The Two-horned Ram, the Shaggy Unicorn he-Goat and the Rise of the Little Horn
Go to Part Three - The Rabbinic Interpretation of the 2300 Day Prophecy
Links
The History of Macedonia by George Rawlingson MA, Canon of Canterbury
Philip of Macedon by History of Macedonia
Kings of Macedonia by History of Macedonia
Alexander III the Great by History of Macedonia
Alexander the Great by Interesting
Alexander the Great by Columbia Encyclopedia
More on Alexander the Great, archery, and ancient metallurgy by Interesting
History of the Syrian Kingdom of Seleucidae by George Rawlingson MA, Canon of Canterbury on History of Macedonia
Timeline of the History of Macedonia by History of Macedonia
Documents of the Continued Existence of Macedonia and the Macedonian Nation for a Period of over 2500 years by History of Macedonia
National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) on the National Library of Medicine
HLA genes in Macedonians and the sub-Saharan origin of the Greeks on the National Library of Medicine
NCBI Genetic Researches on the National Center for Biotechnology Information
The Lion, the Bear and the Leopard Part One by Christian Media Network
The Lion, the Bear and the Leopard Part Two by Christian Media Network
The Legacies of the Maccabees by Mystae
Hellenistic Greece – The Three Empires by Richard Hooker
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