Meditations

Openline on moody radio on Aug 3, 2019

Question from listener:
Where was Alexander the Great mentioned in the bible before he showed up? and what was his impact?

Answer from Dr Michael Rydelnik:
He was mentioned in the book of Daniel. It’s in Daniel 7 and 8 that he is mentioned. I am looking at the exact place where it says it’s him. I think here it is, Daniel 8:5, “As I was observing a male goat appear coming from the west across the surface of the entire earth without touching the ground, the goat has a conspicuous horn between his eyes” and so there’s this goat that attacks the lob-sided ram, so it’s obviously a vision, a vision of the ram and the goat, but then when the interpretation is given, it seems really clear from the interpretation that later in the chapter, it’s explained that the 2 horn ram you saw represents the king of Media and Persia. Then it says the shaggy goat represents king of Greece and the large horn between his eyes represents the first king, that’s Alexander the Great. And so, the text tells us what these symbols represent and it represents the King of Greece and the first king Alexander the Great. so it’s in Daniel chapter 8 verse 5 and then in Daniel 8 verse 22.
From all that we can tell from scripture, he treated Jewish people well. Stories of his destruction of the Phoenicians, entire Sidon but in the Rabbinic writings, he was always spoken well of. He did not destroy Jerusalem, he did not do anything like that, so as best we can tell, he was tolerant and gracious towards Jewish people, although he did spread Hellenism and Hellenism later on took a real toll on Judaism.

Daniel 8

⁵ And as I was considering, suddenly a male goat came from the west, across the surface of the whole earth, without touching the ground; and the goat had a notable horn between his eyes. -nkjv

Daniel 8

²¹ And the male goat is the kingdom of Greece. The large horn that is between its eyes is the first king. ²² As for the broken horn and the four that stood up in its place, four kingdoms shall arise out of that nation, but not with its power. -nkjv