Meditations in Matthew 2: Herod as the Little Horn (Dan 7)

Two facts from our last “Meditation in Matthew” (here) combine to suggest our present topic. First, God fulfilled the four prophecies in Matthew 2:1–23 in the “last days” of the Mosaic Age. Second, Herod played a key role in each of them.¹

Few commentators see Herod as a major figure in Biblical prophecy. They see his “murder of innocents” (Matt 2:16–18) as fulfilling Jeremiah 31:15. Beyond that, most do not find him in prophecy. None of the current prophetic frameworks see Herod in a significant “last days” role.

This is surprising. Herod the Great and his descendants appear throughout the New Testament period. We read about one of Herod’s sons, Archelaus, coming to power (Matt 2:22). Another son, Philip (Luke 3:1) “inherited the northern part of his father Herod the Great’s kingdom.” Antipas “was the ruling Herod during Jesus’ life and ministry.”² Herod Agrippa I (Acts 12:1–23) helped Claudius become the Emperor of Rome. Herod Agrippa II heard Paul’s defense (Acts 25:13–26:32). Other members of this family appear in Scripture. They include Herodias (Matt 14:3, 6; et al.), Drusilla (Acts 24:24), and Bernice (Acts 25:13, 23; 26:30).³

One might suspect the prophets would speak of such a dynasty.

That the Herods reigned during the “last days” of the Mosaic Age increases this suspicion. Inmillennialism sees the “last days” of the Mosaic Age as a major focus of Old Testament prophecies. The prophets describe the other political powers that affected Israel during this time. For them to omit Herod appears strange.

The birth of Christ (ca. 3 BC) started the “last days” of the Mosaic Age (e.g., Gen 49:1, 10). The Lord Jesus said the fall of the Temple would end it (Matt 24:1–3, 34). So, we define the “last days” as the period from about 3 BC to AD 70.

The Herodian dynasty began just before this period. Herod the Great came to power in 39 BC during the reign of Augustus, the second Caesar. The last Herod, Agrippa II, ruled until AD 92. So, the Herodian Dynasty was contemporaneous with the “last days” of the Mosaic Age.

The Herodians were Christ’s constant foes (cp. Matt. 22:16; Mark 3:6; 12:13). Inmillennialism suggests the prophets did not overlook them.

This post suggests the Herodian dynasty was the “little horn” of Daniel 7. Our next post, Lord willing, will show he was also the king who did “according to his will” (Dan 11:36) in Daniel’s last vision.

Caution is in order here. Sincere Christians have interpreted Daniel’s vision in varied and contradictory ways. And, our suggestion that Herod was the “little horn” in Daniel 7 is uncommon. We rejoice that at least one commentator agrees with our proposal. James Jordan says “the Little Horn is Herod the Great.”⁴ But this opinion is rare. So, the following proposals are not dogmatic truth claims.

The Historical Setting of the Little Horn

Here is a diagram of the historical setting Daniel describes. It shows the “last days” as defined by inmillennialism. Our proposal—that Herod is the “little horn” of Daniel 7—appears in this context. 

Daniel received this vision around 555 BC. The four beasts in it (Dan 7:1–7) represented four successive kingdoms. The prophet described these same kingdoms in Daniel 2. Inmillennialism sees these as the Babylonian, Medo-Persian, Greek, and Roman empires.

Daniel’s main interest lies in the fourth (Roman) empire. That is when the Son of Man would ascend to his throne and receive his kingdom (Dan 7:9–10; cp. Acts 1:9; 2:30–32). Fearful judgments would also occur. These events would happen in the “last days” of the Mosaic Age (Dan 2:28; 8:23; 10:14; 12:4, 9).⁵

The “last days” overlap of the Mosaic Age and Roman Empire is of extreme prophetic significance. God set up his kingdom during this time (Dan 2:44). The Mosaic-Age-to-Messianic-Age transition occurred during the reigns of the first Roman emperors. 

The Temple fell in AD 70 during the reign of Vespasian, the tenth Roman Emperor.⁶ We propose these emperors (or kings) were the “ten horns” Daniel saw on the fourth beast (Dan 7:7, 24). The vision only mentions the first ten kings (i.e., Caesars) because the transition to the Messianic Age occurred during their reigns.

Daniel saw “another little horn” come up among the ten. Herod fits this description in several ways. As we consider him and his role, we should remember a key principle. “Throughout these prophecies the king represents the kingdom, and the kingdom is concentrated in its king.”⁷ The “little horn” can represent either a particular Herod or the entire Herodian Dynasty.

In the vision, the solitary horn was little (Dan 7:8). “The fact that this horn is characterized as little seems to oppose the thought that it grows into great size.”⁸ The fulfillment? Herod’s kingdom was smaller and less powerful than that of the Roman beast.

Daniel said the “little horn” would arise after the ten horns (Dan 7:24). Herod’s dynasty started after the Caesars came to power. 

The “little horn” would be “diverse from the first” (Dan 7:24). The fulfillment is this: “HEROD the Great was an Idumean,”⁹ not a Roman.

The Historical Events During the Time of the Little Horn

“I considered the horns, and, behold, there came up among them another little horn, before whom there were three of the first horns plucked up by the roots” (Dan 7:8; cp. Dan 7:20, 24).

I can’t imagine a situation that could match this prophecy better than the “last days” of the Mosaic Age. During that time the kingdom over which Herod ruled rebelled against Rome. “Jewish Christians [were] caught up in the sort of social tensions that eventually produced the war of A.D. 66–70 . . . [when] Rome violently discarded three emperors in a single year (A.D. 69).”¹⁰ Herod as the “little horn” helped create a situation during which three kings fell. He saw three horns—Galba, Otho, and Vitellius—plucked up. 

The little horn “had eyes, and a mouth that spake very great things, whose look was more stout than his fellows” (Dan 7:20). Edward J. Young makes an interesting comment on this verse. “The sagacity of the little horn is so great, and his rule and government so terrible that he might be mistaken for a supernatural being, whereas in fact he is but a man.”¹¹

We see a remarkable example of this in the New Testament. “And upon a set day Herod, arrayed in royal apparel, sat upon his throne, and made an oration unto them. And the people gave a shout, saying, It is the voice of a god, and not of a man” (Acts 12:21–22; emphasis added). Herod, as the “little horn,” spoke “very great things” as Daniel had predicted.

We have already mentioned Daniel’s prophecy of Christ’s ascent and enthronement (Dan 7:9–10; cp. Acts 1:9; 2:30–32). This happened during the Herodian (“little horn”) dynasty. 

Christ’s reign resulted in a kingdom transfer during the time of the “little horn.” In the words of Daniel, “the saints of the most High shall take the kingdom, and possess the kingdom for ever, even for ever and ever” (Dan 7:18). And,

the judgment shall sit, and they shall take away his dominion, to consume and to destroy it unto the end. And the kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven, shall be given to the people of the saints of the most High, whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey him. (Dan 7:26–27; emphasis added)

The fulfillment came in the “last days” of the Mosaic Age. God took the kingdom from the apostate Jews under Herod. He gave it to “a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof” (Matt 21:43).

Daniel watched as the “little horn” . . . “made war with the saints, and prevailed against them” (Dan 7:21). The New Testament shows the fulfillment of this prophecy in many places. The Herodian dynasty persecuted the church of Christ at every turn. Here is one example: “And when Peter was come to himself, he said, Now I know of a surety, that the Lord hath sent his angel, and hath delivered me out of the hand of Herod, and from all the expectation of the people of the Jews” (Acts 12:11; emphasis added).

This “little-horn” persecution of the saints continued “until a time and times and the dividing of time” (Dan 7:25; emphasis added). “By a time is meant a year, the longest part of time; by times, two years; and the dividing of time, half a year; in all three years and a half, which is the same with 1260 days, or 42 months.”¹²

The fulfillment is clear. Christ judged apostate Israel during the 3-1/2 year “great tribulation” (Matt 24:21) that lasted from AD 66 to 70. It ended when the Temple fell. After that time, the “little horn”—Herod—persecuted the saints no more.

Daniel says, “I beheld then because of the voice of the great words which the horn spake: I beheld even till the beast was slain, and his body destroyed, and given to the burning flame. As concerning the rest of the beasts, they had their dominion taken away: yet their lives were prolonged for a season and time” (Dan 7:11–12). 

Daniel’s language is difficult. If his slain beast is the Roman empire, how can the lives of the three previous beast-empires extend forward?

Our proposed explanation runs like this. Daniel does not say the “little horn” is on the fourth beast. He says it “came up among them” (Dan 7:8). The “little horn” did not belong to the fourth beast (Rome) in the same sense as the other ten horns. This may imply another “beast” on which the “little horn” stood. This would match John’s description in Revelation of the same historical events. A previous post (here) showed Herod as the Land Beast in Revelation 13:11–18.

In this case, the fulfillment becomes clearer. The death of the beast in Daniel 7:11 was God’s judgment-slaying the Herodian Dynasty in AD 66–70.¹³

The other four beasts had “their lives . . . prolonged for a season and time” (Dan 7:12). In our proposal, the fulfillment is the survival of pagan world empires beyond the Mosaic Age. The Roman empire—the ten-horned beast—lived several more centuries.

Conclusion

The four prophecy fulfillments in Matthew 2 should strengthen our faith. They show how God controls all history. He can fulfill Old Testament prophecies because he is sovereign over all things. He alone is God, “declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure” (Isa 46:10).

But Matthew 2 might contain a further display of God’s glory. A major figure there—Herod the Great—may be the “little horn” of Daniel 7. The prophecy matches history to a remarkable degree. Coincidence cannot explain the correspondences. Our sovereign God directed history so Herod would fulfill this “little horn” prophecy.

Postscript

To avoid confusion, we will mention another fact about the “little horn” of this vision. Commenting on Daniel 7:8, Gleason Archer says, “It should be carefully noted that this little horn emerges from the fourth empire, in contrast to the little horn of chapter 8 (vv.9–11), which arises from the third empire.”¹⁴ 

Almost all conservative commentators believe the “little horn” of Daniel 8:9 was Antiochus Epiphanes. He arose from the Grecian kingdom after the death of Alexander the Great. He caused the Temple’s daily sacrifices to stop for a while in the second century BC. They resumed after the Maccabees overthrew Antiochus and cleansed the Temple. 

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1. The image in this post is Herod by James Joseph Jacques Tissot (1836–1904). This file (here) is in the public domain (PD-US).
2. See Matt 14:6–12; Mark 6:17–18, 21–29; Luke 3:19; 13:31–32; 23:6–12.
3. The quotes and most of the information in this paragraph comes from Ronald F. Youngblood, F. F. Bruce, and R. K. Harrison, eds., Nelson’s New Illustrated Bible Dictionary (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1995), s.v. Herod.
4. James B. Jordan, The Handwriting on the Wall: A Commentary on the Book of Daniel (Powder Springs, GA: American Vision, 2007), 387.
5. Previous posts show why these are not the “last days” of history. Click on the “last days” tag in this post.
6. Suetonius, The Twelve Caesars, trans. Robert Graves (New York: Penguin Classics, 2007).
7. E. B. Pusey, Daniel the Prophet (Minneapolis: Klock & Klock, 1978), 127.
8. Edward J. Young, The Prophecy of Daniel: A Commentary (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1977), 158.
9. Youngblood, Bruce, and Harrison, Nelson’s New Illustrated Bible Dictionary, s.v. Idumea.
10. Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament IVP Academic, 2014), 670. Emphasis added.
11. Young, The Prophecy of Daniel: A Commentary, 148.
12. John Gill, An Exposition of the Old and New Testaments in The Baptist Commentary Series (Paris, AR: The Baptist Standard Bearer, 1989), 6:327.
13. Herod Agrippa II continued to rule until his death in AD 92. After AD 70, however, his subjects no longer comprised the nation of Israel as she existed in the Mosaic Age.
14. Gleason L. Archer, Jr., “Daniel,” in The Expositor’s Bible Commentary, ed. Frank E. Gaebelein (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1986), 87.