GRECIAN EMPIRE
AMAZING events in Greek history have fulfilled Bible prophecy. Greece seemed an unlikely candidate for world power, as its people were divided into independent tribes and city-states.
But Bible prophecy recorded in the sixth century B.C.E. pointed to a dramatic change. Symbolizing Greece first as a leopard with wings and then as a he-goat with a conspicuous horn, it foretold in an unmistakable way that Greece would trample down the Medo-Persian World Power. It also disclosed that the power of a “conspicuous horn” would be broken and that four others would come up instead of it.—Da 7:6; 8:5-8, 20-22; 11:3, 4.
Alexander the Great proved to be that “conspicuous horn.” Beginning in 334 B.C.E., he led a small but well-disciplined Greek army to one victory after another. With lightning speed he conquered Asia Minor, Syria, Palestine, Egypt, and the entire Medo-Persian Empire as far as India. But in just a few years Alexander was dead, and in a relatively short time his empire was split four ways, among four of his generals.
The Grecian Empire was short-lived, but its effects were long-lasting. Before his death, Alexander had introduced Greek culture and the Greek language into all parts of his domain. Common Greek became the lingua franca of many nationalities, and this later contributed to the rapid spread of Christianity throughout the Mediterranean area.
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In 323 B.C.E., at 32 years of age, Alexander was stricken by malarial fever and died. By 301 B.C.E., four of his generals had established themselves in power: Ptolemy Lagus over Egypt and Palestine; Seleucus Nicator over Mesopotamia and Syria; Lysimachus over Thrace and Asia Minor; and Cassander over Macedonia and Greece (Da 7:6; 8:8; 11:4)
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CONQUESTS OF ALEXANDER
Route Followed
Aral Sea
Black Sea
Caspian Sea
Pella
Granicus River
Sardis
Issus
Tyre
Great Sea
Alexandria
Memphis
Nile River
Red Sea
Jerusalem
Damascus
Tigris River
Euphrates River
Gaugamela
Babylon
Shushan
Persepolis
Ecbatana
Taxila
Alexandria Eschate
Indus River
Indian Ocean
Persian Gulf
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CASSANDER
Pella
Lysimachia
Black Sea
LYSIMACHUS
Great Sea
SELEUCUS NICATOR
Antioch
Seleucia
Persian Gulf
PTOLEMY LAGUS
Alexandria
Red Sea
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Athens and its acropolis as these now appear. Even after Greece ceased to be a world power, Athens remained an international cultural center
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Greek games were associated with Greek religion; a gymnasium established in Jerusalem thus corrupted Jewish youths
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A ceramic platter showing a pig being sacrificed. In a vicious attempt to defile and to stamp out the worship of Jehovah, Antiochus IV (Epiphanes) made such a sacrifice on an altar built over the large one in Jehovah’s temple in Jerusalem and then dedicated the temple to Zeus
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Coin bearing the likeness of Antiochus IV (Epiphanes)
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Ancient Corinth. Christians in the first-century congregation here had to contend with the influence of Greek philosophy and the morally corrupting practices of its religion
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The philosopher Plato, of the fourth century B.C.E., did much to propagate the Greek notion of immortality of the soul
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The Alexandrine Manuscript, in Greek, of the fifth century C.E. Most of the Christian Greek Scriptures was originally written in Koine, the common Greek