The True meaning of the Ten Horns and the Little Horn in Daniel 7 and 8
Remember, the Ten Horns on the Beast represent the ten kingships that ruled the world before the Roman Empire. These kingships were the kings of:
1) Egypt
2) Assyria
3) Babylon
4) Media
5) Persia
6) Greece (Alexander the Great)
7) Macedonia
8) Asia Minor
9) Ptolemaic Egypt
10) Seleucid Empire
And if you don’t believe me, all you need to do is read Daniel 8, and it confirms exactly what I’ve been trying to tell you:
Notice, that Daniel 8:20 identifies two of the ten when it says, “The ram which thou sawest having two horns are the kings of Media and Persia.”
Verse 21 identifies another horn when it says, “And the rough goat is the king of Grecia: and the great horn that is between his eyes is the first king.”
We don’t have to guess who the horns are, God has already revealed them!
Verse 22 identifies four more horns when it says, “Now that being broken, whereas four [horns] stood up for it, four kingdoms shall stand up out of the nation…” Daniel 8:22
And in case you were unaware, those four horns were the four divisions of Alexander’s Kingdom: Macedonia, Asia Minor, the Ptolemaic Empire, and the Seleucid Empire.
So you see, the Bible has already mapped out most of the horns; all you need to know is that before Medo-Persia, there was a Babylonian horn, an Assyrian horn, and an Egyptian horn.
All this time, the identity of the horns has been listed in Daniel 8 unmasked. We simply had to read it. This is the true and Biblical interpretation of the ten horns; an interpretation God is revealing to us right now.
Which three horns were plucked up by the Little Horn?
To answer this question, you must first understand who the Little Horn is.
Regarding the Little Horn of Daniel 8, Uriah Smith says,
“This little horn must be understood to symbolize Rome in its entire history including its two phases, pagan and papal. Daniel and Revelation p. 176
While I don’t agree with Uriah Smith on everything, I truly believe he is correct in his view of the Little Horn of Daniel 8. However, what we also must understand is that if the Little Horn in Daniel 8 represents both phases of Rome, then the Little Horn in Dan 7 must represent the same thing. And if the Ten Horns in Daniel 8 represent all the kingships of this world’s empires, then the Ten Horns in Daniel 7 must also represent the same thing.
Although you may not see it yet, I’m about to show you that both chapters are saying the same thing.
Daniel 8:8-9 says, “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. And out of one of them came forth a little horn…”
In Daniel 8, we see four horns coming up towards the four winds. Those winds represent warfare and strife; and history reveals that out of that warfare and strife, four kingships arose. The kings of Macedonia in the west, the kings of Asia Minor in the north, the kings of Ptolemaic Egypt in the south, and the Seleucid kings who ruled the nations of the east. Those wars would continue throughout the history of the divided Greek Empire; however, out of the warfare and strife in the west, another kingship would enter prophecy’s stage—and that kingship was known as the Little Horn. The Little Horn represents the Roman Kingship that arose out of Italy. Thus, the Bible accurately predicted the Little Horn rising out of the western wind as it conquered the divided Greek Empire.
So when the Roman Kingship arose out of the west, it came into Greece and conquered the Kingship of Macedonia. History agrees with Scripture as it reveals that Macedonia became a Roman province in 168 BC.
After arising in the west and conquering the Macedonian horn, the text says that the Little Horn then, “…waxed exceeding great, toward the south, and toward the east…”
The South
Although formally conquered in 30 BC, Rome had begun waxing great to the Ptolemaic Empire somewhere around 80 BC. The Historical record says, “After awarding both Egypt and Cyprus to Rome, Ptolemy XI was placed on the throne by the Roman general Cornelius Sulla.” World Encyclopedia
The East
And finally, the historical record says Rome conquered the Seleucid Empire in 64 BC.
In essence, Rome came out of the west, making Macedonia a Roman province in 168 BC, it waxed great towards the South when it began usurping its authority over Egypt’s monarchy in 80 BC, then it went towards the east by conquering the Seleucid Empire in 64 BC. Not only does the text tell us who Rome dominated, it actually tells us the order in which they were dominated!
Three Horns or Four Horns?
Now, the question you may be wondering is, weren’t there four horns? What happened to the Asia Minor horn in the north?
What you must understand is that around 281 BC, Asia Minor was conquered and absorbed by the Seleucid Empire in the Battle of Corependium. Thus, when Rome conquered the known world, it didn’t need to conquer four horns, it only had to conquer three. And yes, in case you didn’t realize it, this is the same narrative given in Daniel 7, when it says, the Little Horn shall subdue three horns.
Hopefully, it’s starting to make sense. The Ten Horns and the Little Horn are the same entities across Daniel 7 and 8. You see, once we establish the identity of the Little Horn, then the identity of the Ten Horns becomes clearer.
An Obvious Question
Now, the obvious question is—If the fourth Beast in Daniel 7 represents the Pagan Roman Empire, how can the Little Horn represent its kings when, according to this chapter, they clearly arose after the Ten Horns? Am I suggesting that the Fourth Beast originally came to supremacy without kings? Absolutely not! This is why Repeat and Expand is so important. Repeat and Expand simply means that certain prophecies in Daniel and Revelation repeat, and when they do, they provide additional information. Therefore, subsequent prophecies give us proper context for the earlier prophecies. In other words, Daniel 7 provides context for the vision of Daniel 2; and following this same principle, we understand that Daniel 8 provides us context for Daniel 7. So even though Daniel 7 appears to show the horns as rising after Pagan Rome was established, Daniel 8 expands on this vision to make sure we understand that they were previous kingships and only three of them were actually subdued by Rome.
In other words, Daniel 7 goes through the four kingdoms; however, none of the beasts have horns until the vision gets to the Fourth Beast. And once we get to the Fourth Beast the prophecy then zooms into that kingdom to reveal the narrative of its kingships. However, when it zooms in, it gives the impression that the Little Horn arose after Pagan Rome was established, which is why Daniel 8 repeats and expands in order to put the story into its proper context. And now we can see that the Ten Horns represented all the kingships of the previous world powers and after Rome subdued the horns of the west, south, and east, it became the undisputed world power.
Another question that many of you may be asking is—Why does Daniel 7 seem to show the Roman Kingship rise up in the midst of ten kingships when historically only three of those kingships were ruling and the others had long been defeated?
Daniel 7:12 answers this question when it says, – “As concerning the rest of the beasts, they had their dominion taken away: yet their lives were prolonged for a season and time.”
What you must understand is that these Ten Horns were superseded by the Little Horn, who ruled portions of their previous territories. And although they lost their dominion, according to the text, their lives are being prolonged for a season and time.
In essence, God is keeping the 10 horns in supernatural suspended animation, and according to Revelation, they will return in the last days as ten world leaders.
The Little Horn then transitions to the Papacy. Thus, in order to reveal the Papacy’s original source of authority, Daniel 7 and 8 zoom in on the Little Horn revealing that before the Papacy started speaking great things, and before it waxed great to the host of heaven, it had to first conquer the known world through its Pagan phase. So yes, the Little Horn is ultimately the Papacy, but its dominion was derived from its Pagan phase of the Little Horn who conquered the three remaining horns of Alexander’s divided Empire.
4 Responses
Thank you for this great information.
Glad you enjoyed it
Is there any way to identify the three subdued horns. Who they were during the powerful Roman empire? And who they could possibly be when the Roman Empire is restored?
Mike, that’s a great question. In my studies, I discovered the three subdued horns are derived from the four divisions of the Greek Empire. When Alexander’s Greece was divided, it was divided into four kingdoms. Macedonia in the west, Asia Minor in the north, Egypt in the south and Seleucia in the east. These are the four divisions. However, what most people may not realize is that Seleucus of the east conquered Lysimachus in the north in 281 BC. This left three divisions of the Empire instead of the original four. Thus when Rome began to conquer the known world, they would only need to conquer Macedonia, Egypt, and Seleucia as they were the remaining kingdoms. During this time, the Little Horn represented the Pagan Roman Empire, however immediately after that, the text switches to Papal Rome.
As Rome is being restored, we know those Greek divisions are no longer relevant, so it’s hard to suggest that these exact Empires will be controlled by Rome in the last days. At this point, we may look at the territories represented by them, and we can look at Eastern Europe (Macedonia), Egypt and Sudan, (Ptolemaic Egypt), and Turkey and Syria.
These represent the divided Greek Empire of the old times which is what Rome conquered to rule the world. Hopefully that helps.