the Eigth chapter of Daniel is a passage in the Bible so outstanding in it's historical fulfillment that many liberal scholars think that it could not possibly have been written by Daniel because it reveals future events in such detail. The ram's horns represent the kings of Media and Persia. The goat represents the grecian empire and it's one mighty horn Alexander the great, who split his kingdom into 4 parts at his death at the age of only 32 years old. Out of these 4 rulers arose 1 called Antiochus Epiphanes who behaved abhorently towards the jews, he defiled the temple by erecting a statue of Zeus and slaughtering a pig on the altar, he was also responsible for the murder of possibly 100,000 Jews, and is called by many comentators'the antichrist of the Old Testament'. The cultural influence of the greek empire was massive though, and still greatly influences modern thought even more than 2000 years later. The hand of the Lord was in this huge influence of greek thinking though in that by the time Jesus came to the world the whole of civilization spoke one language, greek, and hence Paul could go anywhere in the civilized world and preach in greek and be understood.
