A.E. Gardner, «The «Little Horn» of Dan 7,8: Malevolent or Benign?», Vol. 93 (2012) 209-226
It has been claimed that Dan 7,8 is an addition to the vision in Dan 7,2- 14 and its «little horn» indicates a wicked character, usually Antiochus Epiphanes. By paying close attention to the description of the «little horn» and its context, it is demonstrated that allusions to earlier biblical passages, including Daniel 4, are present. These indicate that the «little horn» is a benign character who should be differentiated from the «other» horn(s?) of 7,20-21.24-25 and the «little horn» of Dan 8,9-11. As the latter represents Antiochus Epiphanes, the little horn of Dan 7,8 must be pre-Maccabean.
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THE “LITTLE HORN†OF DAN 7,8: MALEVOLENT OR BENIGN?
“My mouth (yp) will be filled with your praise [...]â€
and in verse 15
My mouth (yp) will tell of your righteousness
and of your salvation all of the day.
In addition, verse 19 includes a reference to “great things†(twldg
in the Hebrew is rendered by Nbrbr in the [Aramaic] Targum).
Your righteousness also is very high
You who have done great things (twldg)
O God, who is like unto you?
Psalm 71 has a further point of contact with Daniel, particularly
12,2 where resurrection features, for in Ps 71,20 the Psalmist ex-
presses his belief that God “will quicken me/us again and will bring
me/us up again from the earthâ€.
The verb llm (speak) which appears in the expression “mouth
speaking great thingsâ€, is rare in the Hebrew Bible although fre-
quent in Aramaic. It is present in Psalm 106 as is the Hebrew word
for “great things†(twldg). There the Psalmist, who calls for God’s
salvation (Ps 106,4.47), thus linking both with Ps 71,15 and with
what would occur in Dan 7,13-14, says,
Who can utter (llmy) the mighty acts of the Lord
or show forth all his praise? (Ps 106,2)
An implied answer appears in the following verse:
Blessed are they that keep judgment
And he that does righteousness at all times (Ps 106,3)
In verse 22 he says that God did “great things (twldg) in Egyptâ€
but about those who “made a calf in Horeb and worshipped a
molten image†(Ps 106,19),
it is the only word from Dan 7,8 to have a negative connotation in connection
with Nebuchadnezzar in Daniel 4 and Dan 7,4. These suggest that Mp was a
later addition, probably made to deflect attention from the character of the “little
horn†as it appears in Dan 7,8.
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