Daniel Prophet and Man of God

The Setting of Chapter 8
(8:1-2)

1 In the third year of the reign of Belshazzar the king²(551/50 bc) a vision appeared to me, Daniel, subsequent to the one which appeared to me previously. (this is a differennt vision, and while the 1st took place at night through a dream, this one was while he was awake - Daniel is making sure we differinciate between the two.)2 And I looked in the vision, and it came about while I was looking, that I was in the citadel of Susa (Susa is 150 miles North of the present head of the Persian gulf - this became the capital of the Persian empire - which would be the next world power. It is interesting to note this area is close to Ecbatana, where Josephus writes that Daniel built a tower and a tomb, where the kings of Media, Persa. Josephus also states that Daniel was actually in Susa.), which is in the province of Elam ( this is another proof that Daniel was written in 6th century, for he has to explain where Susa is - by the 2nd Century everyone knew where Susa was and there would be no need for this explanation. Archeology has given us Susa, where they have uncovered the great palace of Xerxes(486-464 BC), where Esther lived (Esther 1:1-2,) this palace was awsome - the pillars bases were in the likeness of oxen, and they rose 67 feet high - there were 36 of these! We also have found several Babylonian documents there Susa,³- including the code of Hammurabi - the most thourough document explaining Babylonian culture, laws, etc.); and I looked in the vision, and I myself was beside the Ulai Canal ( Mcgee states the Ulai canal is the Kerkhah River - others believe it is a canal that connects the Choastes (Karua) and the Coprates (Karkheh) rivers, built for Susa as a water suply) .

Most say Daniel was physically in Babylon and had the vision of himself in Susa. However,

as mentioned, Josephus states Daniel built a tower there - and Rabinic tradition holds that Daniel was burried in a glass coffin suspended in a river by Susa!

Josephus also states that Daniel was in Susa physically.

A trusted old minister like Daniel might have been sent to Susa to carry on some delicate negotiations in the Babylonian interest - attempting to form an alliance with them.

Whether Daniel was transported there, happened to be there on a diplomatic mission, or he just invisioned himself being there is really of no consequence to the interpretation of this vision.
How dramatically “things to come” are communicated to the prophet Daniel. It could be that he was actually transported to the future capital of the Persian empire. There, in Susa, beside the Ulai Canal, he learns that the two kingdoms which will follow the Babylonian empire will be Medo-Persia and Greece (see verses 20-21).

It will be some 12 years until the death of Belshazzar and the end of the Babylonian domination of the world, but Daniel’s vision takes him to the very capital of Persia where Nehemiah and Esther will later dwell.

The Ram
(8:3-4)

3 Then I lifted my gaze and looked, and behold, a ram ("In Ezek. 34:17-22; 39:18, the ram is a symbol of princely power, and ancient records declare that the king of Persia, when at the head of his army, bore in the place of a crown the head of a ram.

The same figure is frequently found on Persian seals." This helps establish that rather than an earlier, separate Median Empire, as the Maccabean date hypothesis demands, it was the united Medo-Persian Empire that was represented by a ram during the Achaemenid dynasty.)

Int. by the angel is in 8:20 Notice - the critics are proved wrong again, as we see Daniels clear pressentation of the 2nd empire being comprised of the Medes and the Persians!
which had two horns was standing in front of the canal. Now the two horns were long, but one was longer than the other, with the longer one coming up last. (3 This verse presents the Medo-Persian power in the form of a large, powerful ram with two formidable horns. Though one of the horns was larger than the other, the horn that "grew up later" outstripped the former in size. Obviously this refers to the domination of the Persian power over the Median in the federated Medo-Persian Empire that was even then being formed (cf. 7:5, the bear "raised up on one of its sides").

4 I saw the ram ( the Hebrew for "ram" springs from the same root as "Elam," or Persia [NEWTON].) butting westward, northward, and southward, and no other beasts could stand before him, nor was there anyone to rescue from his power; but he did as he pleased and magnified himself.

The ram, later identified as representing the kings of Medo-Persia (verse 20), has two horns. The first horn would be Media and the second Persia, coming later than the first and being more powerful. The directions in which these kings extend their dominion is revealed in verse 4 and confirmed by history.

4 The three general areas of Medo-Persian expansion were westward (toward Lydia, Ionia, Thrace, and Macedon), northward (toward the Caspians of the Caucasus Range and the Scythians east of the Caspian Sea and the Oxus Valley all the way up to the Aral Sea), and southward (toward the Babylonian Empire and later to Egypt itself). During the initial phase of conquest, the Medo-Persian troops were nearly invincible (except for Cyrus's last campaign against Queen Tomyris of the Scythians); hence the various beasts representing the surrounding nations opposing Persian expansion are described as helpless to withstand the fierce charges of the mighty ram. Cyrus had everything his own way and became arrogant over his universal success, as did his successors till the debacle of Salamis (480 B.C.) and Plataea (479) in Xerxes' invasion of Greece. But the term higdil ("he ... became great") carries with it the sinister suggestion that his overweening pride was ripe for a fall.
It is also interesting to note that the geographical locations of Persia and Greece fall under the zodiac signs of the Aries (Ram) and Capicorne (goat - in the Latin capi = goat, corn = horn).

Also, the ram coming from the east supports Isaiahs prophecy in 41:2, where he Cyrus is called the righteous man from the east. The Ram came from the east.

Verse 4 describes the power given to the ram, enabling him to dominate the nations. No beasts could withstand the ram, and no one was able to rescue peoples from him. He could do as he pleased. In the process, the kings became arrogant, magnifying themselves. These same characteristics apply both to the goat and to the horn. From the first five chapters of Daniel, we see some of the same characteristics in Nebuchadnezzar and in Belshazzar.