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.
214 ANNE E. GARDNER
great (Nybrbr) are his signs!†Dan 3:33[4:3]) 17. Further, if we return
once more to Nebuchadnezzar’s description of what happened to him
in Daniel 4, we find that after he lifted his eyes to heaven and his un-
derstanding returned to him, he praised God. In his own words Neb-
uchadnezzar says,
I blessed the Most High and I praised
and honoured him that lives forever
for his dominion is an everlasting dominion
and his kingdom from generation to generation.
(Dan 4,31[34])
Such praise is indicative of being in right relationship with God. As
such, the “great things†(Nbrbr) spoken by the latter indicate praise
rather than arrogance. Again then, Nebuchadnezzar humbled is the key
to the figure of the little horn in Dan 7,8. Nevertheless, it is probable
that the author of Dan 7,8 also had Psalms 71 and 106 in mind when
he composed his description of the little horn. Both employ hp as well
as other words that appear in the expression in Dan 7,8 and so further
illuminate “mouth speaking great things†18. In Psalm 71 the suppliant,
who is asking God for delivery from the wicked, says in verse 8,
In the OG this doxology appears after Nebuchadnezzar’s downfall and
17
restoration, i.e. where one would expect it to be (cf. Dan 6,26-27). Such a
position in the MT would place Nybrbr in close proximity to Nebuchadnez-
zar ’s lifting of his eyes to heaven. For the relationship of the OG, Theodotion
and the MT in Daniel 4, cf. especially L.M. WILLS, The Jew in the Court of
the Foreign King: Ancient Jewish Court Legends (HDR 26; Minneapolis,
MN 1990) 87-121 and the discussion by COLLINS, Daniel, 216-221. Accord-
ing to Wills the OG preserves an early version of the text.
SETTEMBRINI, Sapienza e Storia, 104 links the “mouth†of the “little
18
horn†with the “mouth†of the second beast and so takes it as an indication
of the arrogant nature of the “little hornâ€. However, in A. GARDNER, “Decod-
ing Daniel: The Case of Dan 7,5â€, Bib 88 (2007) it is demonstrated that the
inclusion of Ny(l( in the mouth of the second beast was related to Biblical
prophecies of the downfall of Babylon. Accordingly, the “mouth†of the sec-
ond beast was not wicked per se. Dan 4,28 [31] has a reference to Nebuchad-
nezzar ’s Mp (mouth) in the phrase, “while the word was in the king’s mouthâ€,
i.e. Nebuchadnezzar’s boasting about the great Babylon he had built. At first
this appeared to the present writer to be a serious contender as the background
to the “mouth†of the little horn in Dan 7,8, but it was rejected for two reasons:
“mouth†does not appear in the OG although it does in Theodotion and the MT;
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