This video presents a scholarly rebuttal to the claim that the “little horn” in Daniel 8:9 cannot refer to Antiochus IV Epiphanes because it “waxed exceeding great” beyond the Medo-Persian and Greek empires.

Key Arguments:

Linguistic Analysis: The Hebrew term gādal (ָּגַדל) in Daniel signifies theological arrogance and self-exaltation rather than territorial expansion1. The phrase higdil yether literally means “he magnified himself excessively,” indicating moral overreach rather than imperial size.

Contextual Evidence: The “exceeding greatness” is qualified by directional terms (“toward the south, and toward the east, and toward the beautiful land”), limiting the scope to regional campaigns matching Antiochus’s historical activities.

Theological Framework: In Daniel’s apocalyptic literature, “greatness” escalates rhetorically to dramatize mounting blasphemy against divine authority, not literal territorial growth1. Antiochus’s desecration of the Temple and attempt to eradicate Jewish worship represented the climax of Gentile hubris.

Historical Context: From a Second Temple Jewish perspective, Antiochus’s assault on the divine order through Temple desecration and cult replacement was unprecedented, earning him the epithet “exceeding great” through divine provocation rather than empire-building1.

The rebuttal concludes that Antiochus IV indeed “waxed exceeding great” by embodying the ultimate human affront to heaven, not by conquering continents.