Bible Timeline · 333 to 323 BC

Alexander the Great and the Greek World

Alexander the Great conquered the Persian empire between 334 and 323 BC, then died at 32 and his kingdom split four ways. Daniel 8 pictures this as a goat whose great horn breaks into four. His conquests made Greek the common language, which is why the New Testament is in Greek.

Read it in the Bible: Daniel 8:5-8 Daniel 8:21-22 Daniel 11:3-4 Daniel 7:6 John 19:20

Alexander the Great was a young king of Macedonia who conquered the mighty Persian empire in about ten years, from 334 to 323 BC. His big victory at Issus came in 333 BC. He took the whole Middle East, including Judea, and pushed all the way to India. Then he died in Babylon at just 32, and his empire broke into four parts. The book of Daniel describes this as a goat with one great horn that breaks off and is replaced by four. Alexander's conquests spread the Greek language across the world, which is why the New Testament was written in Greek.

Who Was Alexander the Great?

Alexander was born in 356 BC, the son of King Philip II of Macedonia, a kingdom just north of Greece. His teacher was the famous philosopher Aristotle. When his father was murdered in 336 BC, Alexander became king at twenty.

He crossed into Asia in 334 BC and beat the Persians at the Granicus River. In 333 BC he defeated King Darius III at Issus. He took the coast, including Tyre and Gaza, and entered Egypt, where he founded the city of Alexandria. In 331 BC he crushed Darius again at Gaugamela, and the Persian empire was his. He kept marching east into Afghanistan and India until his worn out army refused to go farther.

In June 323 BC, he died in Babylon, probably of a fever, though people have argued about the cause ever since. He was 32 years old.

Is Alexander the Great in the Bible?

Not by name, but most readers agree he is in the book of Daniel. In Daniel 8, Daniel saw a ram with two horns. Then a goat came from the west so fast it did not touch the ground.

As I was contemplating all this, suddenly a goat with a prominent horn between his eyes came out of the west, crossing the surface of the entire earth without touching the ground. Daniel 8:5

The goat smashed the ram. Then came the twist.

Thus the goat became very great, but at the height of his power, his large horn was broken off, and four prominent horns came up in its place, pointing toward the four winds of heaven. Daniel 8:8

The angel Gabriel explained it. The ram with two horns was the kings of Media and Persia, Daniel 8:20. The goat was Greece.

The shaggy goat represents the king of Greece, and the large horn between his eyes is the first king. The four horns that replaced the broken one represent four kingdoms that will rise from that nation but will not have the same power. Daniel 8:21 to 22

That is a remarkably good summary of Alexander's career. Fast, unstoppable, then broken at the height of his power. Daniel 11:3 to 4 says the same thing again, adding that his kingdom would not go to his own descendants. It did not. His half brother and young son were both murdered within a few years.

Many readers also see Alexander in Daniel 7 as the leopard with four wings and four heads, and in Daniel 2 as the bronze part of Nebuchadnezzar's statue.

How Did Alexander's Empire Split Into Four?

After Alexander died, his generals fought over his empire for about twenty years. These wars are called the wars of the Diadochi, which means successors. After the battle of Ipsus in 301 BC, four main kingdoms were left:

Ptolemy ruled Egypt.
Seleucus ruled Syria, Mesopotamia and the east.
Cassander ruled Macedonia and Greece.
Lysimachus ruled Thrace and much of Asia Minor.

The two that matter most for the Bible are the Ptolemies in Egypt and the Seleucids in Syria. Little Judea sat right between them, like a rope in a tug of war. The Ptolemies ruled it first, then the Seleucids took it in about 200 BC. Daniel 11 traces this back and forth between the king of the south and the king of the north in great detail, leading up to Antiochus IV and the Maccabees.

Did Alexander the Great Visit Jerusalem?

The Jewish historian Josephus, writing in the first century AD, tells a famous story. When Alexander marched toward Jerusalem, the high priest Jaddua went out to meet him in his priestly robes. Alexander bowed down, saying he had seen this man in a dream. Then the priests showed him the book of Daniel, which said a Greek would destroy Persia, and Alexander was delighted.

It is a great story, but most historians doubt it happened. Greek sources do not mention it. What is true is that Judea passed peacefully under Alexander's rule, and Jews were treated well and settled in large numbers in his new city of Alexandria.

How you read Daniel's prophecy depends on how you date the book. The traditional view is that Daniel wrote in the 500s BC, more than two hundred years before Alexander. Many modern scholars date Daniel to the 160s BC. The Owner's Manual's page When Was Daniel Written? lays out both sides. Either way, Daniel's picture of the goat fits history well.

Why Is the New Testament Written in Greek?

This may be Alexander's biggest effect on the Bible. Wherever his armies went, Greek cities, Greek schools and the Greek language followed. A simple form of Greek called Koine, which means common, became the language of trade and travel from Italy to India.

By the time of Jesus, a merchant in Rome, a soldier in Egypt and a fisherman in Galilee could all get by in Greek. So when the apostles wrote letters to churches in Rome, Corinth and Ephesus, they wrote in Greek. The Jews of Alexandria had already translated the Old Testament into Greek, the Septuagint, so the early church had a Bible that anyone in the empire could read. Even the sign on the cross was written in Hebrew, Latin and Greek, John 19:20.

What Is Hellenism?

Hellenism means Greek culture, from Hellas, the Greek word for Greece. After Alexander, Greek ideas, sports, theaters and gods spread everywhere. Many Jews loved it. Others saw it as a threat to their faith. That tension exploded in the 160s BC, when Antiochus IV tried to force Greek religion on the Jews and the Maccabees fought back. By Jesus' day, Greek influence was everywhere in Judea, from the city names in the Decapolis to the names of disciples like Philip and Andrew.

What Does Alexander Mean for You Today?

Alexander thought he was building his own kingdom. In God's plan, he was paving the road for the gospel. A shared language, new cities and easy travel let the message of Jesus spread fast once it came. Paul said God determined the appointed times and boundaries of the nations so that people would seek Him, Acts 17:26 to 27.

Alexander also reminds us how short human power is. The greatest conqueror of his age was dead at 32, and his kingdom shattered. Daniel says another kingdom is coming that will never be destroyed. That kingdom belongs to Jesus, and unlike Alexander's, it will never be split up or handed off.

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Questions People Ask

Where is Alexander the Great in the Bible?

Alexander is not named, but most readers see him in Daniel 8 as the goat with a large horn that is broken and replaced by four horns. Daniel 8:21 says the goat is the king of Greece. Daniel 11:3 to 4 also describes a mighty king whose kingdom is divided four ways.

How did Alexander the Great die?

Alexander died in Babylon in June 323 BC at age 32 after a sudden illness, probably a fever. Some ancient writers suggested poison, but there is no clear proof. Historians still debate the exact cause.

Who were the four kingdoms after Alexander?

After years of war among his generals, Alexander's empire split into four main kingdoms by 301 BC: Ptolemy in Egypt, Seleucus in Syria and the east, Cassander in Macedonia and Greece, and Lysimachus in Thrace and Asia Minor.

Why was the New Testament written in Greek?

Alexander's conquests made Koine Greek the common language of the eastern Mediterranean. By the first century, people across the Roman empire could read Greek, so the apostles wrote in it to reach the most people.

Sources

← Malachi and the 400 Quiet Years The Septuagint: The Old Testament in Greek →

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