In Daniel 8, is the Little Horn Greek or Roman?

Purpose:

Little Horn In Daniel 8, the Antichrist-horn emerges “out of one of them.” This article analyses what this means. In other words, it identifies the origin of the Antichrist.

Greek pronouns, including ‘one’ and ‘them’, have genders that must match the genders of the nouns to which they refer, just like the words ‘she’ and ‘he’ in English.

Daniel 8 mentions a Goat and identifies it as Greece. It has four horns. In the Liberal interpretation, the “one of them” refers to one of those Greek horns. However, this article shows that the genders do not match. To interpret the “out of one of them,” and to identify the origin of the Antichrist, this article analyses the various possible antecedents.

Daniel 7- Roman Origin

In the vision in Daniel 7, there are four animals, symbolizing four consecutive empires, but Daniel 7 does not identify them.

In the vision in Daniel 8, there are only two animals, a Ram and a Goat, explicitly identified as Medo-Persia and Greece.

To identify the empires in Daniel 7, a previous article compared the descriptions of the animals in Daniel 7 to those in Daniel 8 and concluded that the Fourth Beast in Daniel 7 represents the Roman Empire. 🔗

In Daniel 7, the Antichrist is the 11th horn of the Fourth Beast. Since that Fourth Beast symbolizes the Roman Empire, the Antichrist is of Roman origin.

As argued before, the evil horns of Daniel 7 and 8 symbolize the same Antichrist. That implies that the Little Horn of Daniel 8 is also of Roman origin.

Out of One of Them

Daniel 8 symbolizes the Greek Empire as a goat (v21). First, it had one large horn, representing the united Greek Empire before Alexander’s death. But this large horn was broken off, and four horns came up in its place. These are the four empires into which the Greek Empire was divided after Alexander’s death:

“There came up four conspicuous horns toward the four winds of heaven” (Daniel 8:8, cf. 22).

Verse 9 then continues by describing the arrival of the Little Horn. It says:

“Out of one of them came forth a rather small horn” (Dan 8:9).

One of the Four Greek Horns

Since the preceding verse mentioned the four Greek horns, some argue that the Little Horn came out of one of those Greek horns. That would mean that it is of Greek origin. Then it could represent a Greek king. Some interpret it as the Greek king Antiochus in the 2nd-century B.C., who persecuted Israel and defiled the Jewish temple by sacrificing unclean animals on the altar.

Or One of the Four Winds

However, verse 8 mentioned two groups of four things:

“There came up four conspicuous horns toward the four winds of heaven” (Daniel 8:8, cf. 22).

Therefore, it is also possible that the Little Horn, which came “Out of one of them” (v9), came out of one of the “four winds,” meaning one of the four directions of the compass, the West, East, South, or North. So, did the evil horn come from one of the horns or one of the winds?

Horns do not come from Horns.

There are six horns in Daniel 8: the Goat’s first large horn, the four horns that come up after the large horn has broken off, and the Little Horn. A first argument is that the statement, “Out of one of them came forth a rather small horn” (v9), cannot mean that the sixth horn came from one of the four horns because horns do not come from horns. Horns grow on heads.

Genders must agree.

Daniel 8 was written in Hebrew. Hebrew nouns and pronouns have genders, which become invisible in English translations. However, the genders of the pronouns must agree with the genders of the nouns they refer to, just like the English pronouns ‘he’ and ‘she’ must refer to male and female antecedents respectively.

In the phrase “one of them” (v9), ‘one’ and ‘them’ have genders. In the preceding verse (v8), there are three nouns: horns, winds, and heaven. Since the genders must agree, the genders will show which nouns ‘one’ and ‘them’ refer to. With the relevant words marked (female) and (male), our text reads as follows:

Verse 8: There came up four conspicuous HORNS (female)
toward the four WINDS (female)
of HEAVEN (male).
Verse 9: Out of ONE (female)
of THEM (male)
came forth a rather small horn.

‘Them’ refers to the Heavens.

First, consider the plural pronoun ‘them.’ In Hebrew, the word ‘heavens’ is always plural. Therefore, there are three plural nouns in verse 8 to which ‘them’ can refer: the four horns, the four winds, and the four heavens. However, ‘them’ is male, while horns and winds are female. The only plural male noun in the previous phrase, to which ‘them’ can refer, is “heavens.” Therefore, ‘them’ refers to the four heavens.

‘One’ is not one of the heavens.

Since the ‘one’ and ‘them’ have different genders, they do not refer to the same noun. Therefore, since ‘them’ refers to the ‘heavens’, ‘one’ does not also refer to one of the ‘heavens.’ “One of them” does not mean ‘one of the heavens.’

‘One’ is not one of the horns.

Both ‘one’ and ‘horns’ are female. Therefore, simply based on genders, ‘one’ could be one of the four horns. However, ‘them’ refers to the heavens. If ‘one’ refers to one of the horns, then “one of them” means one of the horns of the heavens, which does not work because ‘heavens’ do not have horns.

‘One’ refers to one of the winds.

‘One’ is female. Since it cannot refer to one of the horns, the only remaining female noun in the previous phrase is ‘winds’. Therefore, “one” must refer to one of the winds.

Conclusion

In conclusion, “out of one of them” means “out of one of the winds of the heavens,” which means out of one of the four compass directions. This conclusion is consistent with the immediate context:

Verse 8 ends with: “… the four winds of heaven”

Then, verse 9 begins: “Out of one of them came …”

The first phrase in verse 9, therefore, refers to the very last phrase in verse 8. These two phrases align as follows:

		Female	Male
8:8	There came up four horns toward	the four winds	of the heavens.
8:9		Out of one	of them	came forth a small horn.

Since the Little Horn came from one of the compass directions, and not from one of the four Greek horns, it is not of Greek origin. Since horns grow on heads, it is the horn of some beast. Since the next empire after the Greek Empire was the Roman Empire, this conclusion confirms that the Little Horn came from the Roman Empire.

Where is Rome in Daniel 8?

Some object to this interpretation is that Daniel 8 does not seem to mention the Roman Empire. It does not describe another empire between the Greek Empire and the Evil Horn. So, where is the Roman Empire in this chapter? This is answered as follows:

The Horn is the Roman Empire.

In Daniel 7, the Horn is the continuation of the Roman beast. The Fourth Beast remains alive as long as the Horn is alive. For example, Daniel wrote that he kept looking at the horn UNTIL the beast was slain:

“I kept looking because of . . . the boastful words which the horn was speaking; I kept looking until the beast was slain” (Daniel 7:11).

If we apply this principle to Daniel 8, the horn of Daniel 8 is not only equivalent to the evil horn of Daniel 7, but also includes the Fourth Beast of that chapter.

Two Phases of Growth

Secondly, the Horn in Daniel 8 has two phases of growth.

Horizontal (Political) Growth – It first grows horizontally to the South, the East, and the Beautiful Land (Israel) (Daniel 8:9). This symbolizes the horn’s political phase, which is equivalent to the Fourth Beast of Daniel 7. That beast, symbolizing the Roman Empire, similarly devours the whole earth, treads it down, and crushes it (Daniel 7:8, 23).

Vertical (Religious) Growth – The horn then grows vertically. It grows to the host of heaven, causes some of the stars to fall to the earth, tramples them down (Daniel 8:10), and magnifies itself to be equal with the Commander of the host (Daniel 8:11). It does not literally grow up to the stars. The stars symbolize God’s people. Trampling the stars symbolizes persecution. See Daniel 7:21 and 25. The Commander of the host is God. In other words, the evil horn claims equality with God. This phase is its religious phase, equivalent to the Little Horn of Daniel 7.

This confirms that Daniel 8 DOES refer to the Roman Empire. The Little Horn in Daniel 8 represents both the Fourth Beast in Daniel 7 and its 11th horn,

A Trend from Vision to Vision

Thirdly, this is continuing a trend as we move from vision to vision. The vision in Daniel 8 says little about the Roman Empire because, as we progress from Daniel 2, to 7, to 8, and to Daniel 11, the visions focus more and more on the spiritual power, the Antichrist, with less and less focus on the political powers:

Daniel 2 describes the entire period, from the Babylonian Empire to Christ’s return, followed by God’s eternal kingdom, WITHOUT mentioning the Antichrist.

Daniel 7 mentions all six ages described in Daniel 2, but adds the Antichrist. In fact, here the Antichrist becomes the main character. For example, while this chapter describes the dreadful Fourth Beast in only two verses, it describes the Antichrist Horn in about six.

Daniel 8 continues this trend. It no longer mentions the first Babylonian Empire or the last and final age, God’s eternal kingdom. It does not even have a separate symbol for the political phase of the Roman Empire. It focuses almost exclusively on the Antichrist.

There are reasons for this trend:

Firstly, the Antichrist is the real purpose and focus of these prophecies. The prophecies mention the political empires ONLY to enable us to identify the Antichrist.

Secondly, Daniel’s visions form a unit. Daniel 8 can omit some details of the previous prophecies because it is not a stand-alone prophecy. Daniel 8 explains Daniel 2 and 7 in more detail.

In conclusion, this analysis of Daniel 8 confirms the conclusion from Daniel 7, namely, that the Antichrist originated from the Roman Empire. The next article discusses three alternative interpretations. 🔗