NOTES for Dan 8:1-14
1 In the third year of the reign of king Belshazzar a vision appeared unto me, even unto me Daniel, after that which appeared unto me at the first. |
2 And I saw in a vision; and it came to pass, when I saw, that I was at Shushan in the palace, which is in the province of Elam; and I saw in a vision, and I was by the river of Ulai. |
3 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. |
4 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. |
5 And as I was considering, behold, an 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. |
6 And he came to the ram that had two horns, which I had there seen standing before the river, and ran unto him in the fury of his power. |
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. |
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. |
9 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. |
10 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. |
11 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. |
12 And an host was given him against the daily sacrifice by reason of transgression, and it cast down the truth to the ground; and it practised, and prospered. |
13 Then I heard one saint speaking, and another saint said unto that certain saint which spake, How long shall be the vision concerning the daily sacrifice, and the transgression of desolation, to give both the sanctuary and the host to be trodden under foot? |
14 And he said unto me, Unto two thousand and three hundred days; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed. |
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In apocalyptic visions, history plays an important role, and historical events always occupy a special place in them. But from the standpoint of the revelation received by the visionaries, these events are usually interesting not in themselves, but in the context of the spiritual processes that stand behind them. In some cases even historical detail as such turns out not to be especially important. The apocalyptic tradition is oriented not so much toward history as toward what is sometimes called historiosophy: the understanding of the meaning of history, which in God's eyes often turns out to be entirely different from what it is in human eyes. At times great events can look even somewhat caricatured in apocalyptic visions, roughly as the duel between the goat and the ram must have looked in Daniel's eyes (vv. 3-8). Yet despite the spectacular and even surreal quality of the scene unfolding before him, behind it stood something very serious and tragic: the history of humanity as an endless and senseless war, in which victors and vanquished, looking equally ridiculous and foolish, nevertheless hate one another so much that the defeated cannot count on mercy.
And the horns on the victor's head, if they are not broken off in time, can become an obstacle even to the fulfillment of God's plans (vv. 9-14). The fallen world, as can be seen, knows only one form of interaction: violence. And if exceptions are possible in relations between individual people, there are no exceptions in relations between masses of people, between peoples and states: war triumphs in the world. It is no surprise that sooner or later it turns against the people of God, for the people of God also occupy a definite place in history, being part of it, and therefore are subject to the historical laws of the fallen world just like any other people. Yet God has a special plan for His people, and therefore history cannot move endlessly in its vicious circle. Sooner or later the moment will come when God breaks this circle, putting an end to the bad infinity that will never cease by itself. And for the author of the Book of Daniel, all hopes for the coming of the Messiah and for the triumph of the Kingdom are connected only with such direct intervention by God in earthly history.
Readings for 7 November 2025
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