| It
is readily apparent from the Hebrew Masoretic text that the gender of the
verbal subjects and pronouns alternate from feminine to masculine to
feminine in verses 10-12 respectively. Hasel argues that the gender change
from feminine in 10 to masculine in verse 11 denotes a change in activity
from pagan to papal Rome; he suggests further that verses 9 and 10 are of
a pagan nature and verses 11 and 12 of a papal nature.14
His reasoning by gender identification fails to explain the reversion to
the feminine gender in verse 12 (“it cast truth to the ground”) which
is a definitive reference to papal Rome which should be, by his reasoning,
in the masculine gender. Hasel dismisses this anomaly simply by suggesting
the feminine (it) refers to another aspect of the horn’s (feminine)
activity alluded to in verse 9.15
We agree with Hasel in principle
that the gender alternation in Dn. 8:9-12 has significant implications
regarding the identification of the specific phase of the horn’s
activity. But a more comprehensive and self-consistent approach to gender
oscillations is adopted in this exegesis of Daniel 8:9-14.
5.1.2
Gender Identification in Verse 9 |