Medo-Persia and Greece

11. How did the Bible foretell Medo-Persia’s rise to power and its fall to Greece?

¹¹ While Babylon was still a world power the Bible foretold its conquest by a symbolic two-horned ram, representing “the kings of Media and Persia.” (Daniel 8:20) As foretold, Medo-Persia became the next world power when it conquered Babylon in 539 B.C.E. In time, however, “a male of the goats,” identified as Greece, “proceeded to strike down the ram and to break its two horns.” (Daniel 8:1-7) This was in 332 B.C.E. when Greece defeated Medo-Persia and became the new world power.

The Bible explains: “The hairy he-goat stands for the king of Greece; and as for the great horn that was between its eyes, it stands for the first king. And that one having been broken, so that there were four that finally stood up instead of it, there are four kingdoms from his nation that will stand up, but not with his power.”​—Daniel 8:21, 22.

13. Over 200 years after it was recorded, how was the prophecy about Greece fulfilled?

¹³ History shows that this “king of Greece” was Alexander the Great.