“If we were not able to answer affirmatively the first three questions from the previous article, that clearly shows that our interpretation of the powers represented by the little horns in Daniel 7 and 8 has serious flaws and is unsustainable biblically and historically. However, in this section we will start by considering the main arguments we have formulated, in order to demonstrate that both horns represent the same power. The first and most important argument is the existing parallelism between Daniel 7 and 8, where two little horns are mentioned rising against the Most High and persecuting his saints.
The problem with interpreting the prophecy based on parallels is that this interpretation remains a deduction, especially if we do not consider the differences between both accounts. The first major difference between Daniel 7 and 8 is that in the first chapter four great empires are mentioned, while in the second chapter only two and other minor powers are recorded. To claim that in both chapters the same empires must appear in sequential order goes against a ‘thus it is written’, which is categorical in mentioning Media and Persia and Greece by name as the great empires in that prophecy and not mentioning or alluding directly or indirectly to Babylon or Rome. Considering that Rome does not appear in the prophetic scene of Daniel 8, and that the biblical account clearly states in verses 9 and 23 that the little horn came out of one of the four notable horns, our scholars, seeking to include Rome in Daniel 8, invalidate the ‘thus it is written’ of verse 8-9,23 and affirm that the little horn did not come out of one of the four notable horns, but from one of the four winds, because that phrase is the closest antecedent to ‘one of them’; ignoring that in verses 3-9, the horns are secondary subjects in the sentences, and that in verse 8 the noun ‘winds’ is part of the predicate indicating the direction in which the four notable horns move.
In Daniel 11:3-4, where the breaking of Alexander’s kingdom is also mentioned, the following is recorded: ‘But when his kingdom is broken up, it shall be divided toward the four winds of heaven’; confirming that the four winds of heaven only indicate the directions where the dynasties in which that kingdom was divided are distributed, which have nothing to do with the place of origin of the little horn. Furthermore, we must not forget that verses 8-9 are within the context of Daniel 8:3-9, where the progression in the rise of powers represented by horns is described; starting with the horns of the ram representing Media and Persia, which are broken by the great horn of the goat representing Greece, who is then divided into four notable horns representing the four dynasties in which Alexander’s kingdom was divided; to finally mention the little horn, which emerges from one of the four notable horns. In these texts, there is no room for speculation that the little horn arises from one of the four winds and that this power represents Rome; because the chronological sequence mentions horns as symbols of powers, from the Medes and the Persians to the end of the last dynasty in which the Greek Empire was divided, from which the little horn emerges.
Finally, we must ask ourselves again: Where is Rome in Daniel 8? Blessings.”
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