St. Jerome, Commentary on Daniel (1958). pp. 15-157
[Translated by Gleason L. Archer]
(P. 491) (617-618) Porphyry wrote his twelfth book against the prophecy ofDaniel, (A) denying that it was composed by the person to whom it is ascribed inits title, but rather by some individual living in Judaea at the time of theAntiochus who was surnamed Epiphanes. He furthermore alleged that"Daniel" did not foretell the future so much as he related the past,and lastly that whatever he spoke of up till the time of Antiochus containedauthentic history, whereas anything he may have conjectured beyond that pointwas false, inasmuch as he would not have foreknown the future. Eusebius, Bishopof Caesarea, made a most able reply to these allegations in three volumes, thatis, the eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth. Appollinarius did likewise, in asingle large book, namely his twenty-sixth. (B) Prior to these authors Methodiusmade a partial reply.
But inasmuch as it is not our purpose to make answer to the false accusationsof an adversary, a task requiring lengthy discussion, but rather to treat of theactual content of the prophet's message for the benefit of us who areChristians, I wish to stress in my preface this fact, that none of the prophetshas so clearly spoken concerning Christ as has this prophet Daniel. (619-620)For not only did he assert that He would come, a prediction common to the otherprophets as well, but also he set forth the very time at which He would come.Moreover he went through the various kings in order, stated the actual number ofyears involved, and announced beforehand the clearest signs of events to come.And because Porphyry saw that all these things had been fulfilled and could notdeny that they had taken place, he overcame this evidence of historical accuracyby taking refuge in this evasion, contending that whatever is foretoldconcerning Antichrist at the end of the world was actually fulfilled in thereign of Antiochus Epiphanes, because of certain similarities to things whichtook place at his time. But this very attack testifies to Daniel's accuracy. Forso striking was the reliability|16 ofwhat the prophet foretold, that he could not appear to unbelievers as apredicter of the future, but rather a narrator of things already past. And sowherever occasion arises in the course of explaining this volume, I shallattempt briefly to answer his malicious charge, and to controvert by simpleexplanation (p. 492) the philosophical skill, or rather the worldly malice, bywhich he strives to subvert the truth and by specious legerdemain to remove thatwhich is so apparent to our eyes.
I would therefore beseech you, Pammachius,as a foremost lover oflearning,and Marcella, as an outstanding examplar of Roman virtue, men whoare bound together by faith and blood, to lend aid to my efforts by yourprayers, in order that our Lord and Savior might in His own cause and by Hismind make answer through my mouth. For it is He who says to the prophet,"Open thy mouth and I will fill it" (Psalm 80:11). For if Headmonishes us, when we have been hailed before judges and tribunals, not toponder what answer we are to give to them (Luke 12), how much more is He able tocarry on His own war against blaspheming adversaries and through His servants tovanquish them? For this reason a great number of the Psalms also contain thatHebrew expression,lamanasse1,renderedby the Septuagint as "To the end," but which rather is to beunderstood as "For victory!" For Aquila construed it astonikopoio,that is, "To Him who grants the victory." Symmachusrenders it asepinikionwhich properly signifies "Triumph and thepalm of victory."
But among other things we should recognize that Porphyry makes this objectionto us concerning the Book of Daniel, that it is clearly a forgery not to beconsidered as belonging to the Hebrew Scriptures but an invention composed inGreek. This he deduces from the fact that in the story of Susanna, where Danielis speaking to the elders, we find the expressions,"To split from themastic tree" (apo tou skhinou skhisai)and to saw from the evergreenoak(kai apo tou prinou prisai),2 (D) awordplay|17 appropriate to Greek ratherthan to Hebrew. But both Eusebius and Apollinarius have answered him after thesame tenor, that the stories of Susanna and of Bel and the Dragon are notcontained in the Hebrew, but rather they constitute a part of the prophecy ofHabakkuk, the son of Jesus of the tribe of Levi. Just as we find in the title ofthat same story of Bel, according to the Septuagint, "There was a certainpriest named Daniel, the son of Abda, an intimate of the King of Babylon."And yet Holy Scripture testifies that Daniel and the three Hebrew children wereof the tribe (p. 493) of Judah. For this same reason when I was translatingDaniel many years ago, I noted these visions with a critical symbol, showingthat they were not included in the Hebrew. And in this connection I am surprisedto be told that certainfault-finderscomplain that I have on my owninitiative truncated the book. After all, both Origen, Eusebius andApollinarius, and other outstanding churchmen and teachers of Greece acknowledgethat, as I have said, these visions are not found amongst the Hebrews, and thattherefore they are not obliged to answer to Porphyry for these portions whichexhibit no authority as Holy Scripture.
I also wish to emphasize to the reader the fact that it was not according tothe Septuagint version but according to the version of Theodotion himself thatthe churches publicly read Daniel. (A) And Theodotion, at any rate, was anunbeliever subsequent to the advent of Christ, although some assert that he wasan Ebionite (621-622), which is another variety of Jew. But even Origen in hisVulgate edition (of the Greek Old Testament) placed asterisks around the work ofTheodotion, indicating that the material added was missing (in the Septuagint),whereas on the other hand he prefixedobeli(i.e., diacritical marks) tosome of the verses, distinguishing thereby whatever was additional material (notcontained in the Hebrew). And since all the churches3of Christ, whether belonging to the Greek-speaking territory or the Latin,the Syrian or the Egyptian, publicly read this edition with its asterisks andobeli, let the hostile-minded not begrudge my labor, because I wanted our(Latin-speaking) people to have what the Greek-speaking peoples habitually readpublicly in the|18 regions of Aquilaand Symmachus. And if the Greeks do not for all their wealth of learning despisethe scholarly work of Jews, why should poverty-stricken Latins look down upon aman who is a Christian? And if my product seems unsatisfactory, at (p. 494)least my good intentions should be recognized.
But now it is time for us to unfold the words of the prophet himself, notfollowing our usual custom of setting everything forth in detail with anaccompanying detailed discussion (the procedure followed in our commentary onthe Twelve Minor Prophets), but rather employing a certain brevity and insertingat intervals an explanation of only those things which are obscure. In this waywe hope to avoid tiring the reader with an innumerable abundance of books. Andyet to understand the final portions of Daniel a detailed investigation of Greekhistory is necessary, that is to say, such authorities as (B) Sutorius,Callinicus, Diodorus, Hieronymus, Polybius, Posidonius, Claudius, Theon, andAndronycus surnamed Alipius, historians whom Porphyry claims to have followed,Josephus also and those whom he cites, and especially our own historian, Livy,and Pompeius Trogus, and Justinus. All these men narrate the history involvedin Daniel's final vision, carrying it beyond the time of Alexander to the daysof Caesar Augustus in their description of the Syrian and Egyptian wars, i.e.,those of Seleucus, Antiochus, and the Ptolemies. And if we are compelled fromtime to time to make mention of profane literature and speak of matters thereincontained which we have formerly failed to mention, it is not by personalpreference but by stark necessity, so to speak, in order to prove that thosethings which were foretold by the holy prophets many centuries before areactually contained in the written records of both the Greeks and Romans and ofother peoples as well. |19
Verse 1. (p. 495) (623)"In the third year of the reign of Joacim(Jehoiakim) king of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came to Jerusalem andbesieged it."Jehoiakim, son of the Josiah in whose thirteenth regnalyear Jeremiah began to prophesy, and under whom the woman Hulda prophesied, wasthe same man as was called by the other name of Eliakim, and reigned over thetribes of Judah and Jerusalem eleven years. His son Jehoiachin [misprinted"Joachim" for "Joachin"; cf. IV Reg. 24:6 in the Vulgate]surnamed Jeconiah, followed him in the kingship, and on the tenth day of thethird month of his reign he was taken captive by Nebuchadnezzar's generals andbrought to Babylon. In his place his paternal uncle Zedekiah, a son of Josiah,was appointed king, and in his eleventh year Jerusalem was captured anddestroyed. Let no one therefore imagine that the Jehoiakim in the beginning ofDaniel is the same person as the one who is spelled Jehoiachin [Lat.Joachin]in the commencement of Ezekiel. For the latter has "-chin" as itsfinal syllable, whereas the former has "-kim." And it is for thisreason that in the Gospel according to Matthew there seems to be a generationmissing, because the secondgroup of fourteen,(A) extending to the timeof Jehoiakim, ends with a son of Josiah, and the third group begins withJehoiachin, son of Jehoiakim. Being ignorant of this factor, Porphyry formulateda slander against the Church which only revealed his own ignorance, as he triedto prove the evangelist Matthew guilty of error.
Verse 2."And the Lord gave Jehoiakim king of Judah into hishand."(B) The fact that Jehoiachim is recorded to have been given overshows that it was not a victory for the might of his enemies but rather it wasof the will of the Lord. "...and some of the vessels of the house ofGod, and he brought them to the land of Shinar(C)to the house of hisgod, and he conveyed them into the treasure house of his god"(Gen.11). The land of Shinar is a region of Babylon in which the plain of Dura|20was located, and also the tower which those who had migrated from the Eastattempted to build up to heaven. From this circumstance and from the confusionof tongues the region received the name Babylon, which, translated into ourlanguage, means "confusion." At the same time it ought to be noted, byway of spiritual interpretation[anagogen],that the king of Babylon wasnot able to transport all of the vessels of God, and place them in theidol-house which he had built himself, but only a part of the vessels (624) ofGod's house. By these vessels we are to understand the dogmas of truth. For ifyou go through all of the works of the philosophers, you will necessarily findin them some portion of the vessels of God. For example, you will find in Platothat God is the fashioner of the universe, in Zeno the chief of the Stoics, thatthere are (p. 496) inhabitants in the infernal regions and that souls areimmortal, and that honor is the one (true) good. But because the philosopherscombine truth with error and corrupt the good of nature with many evils, forthat reason they are recorded to have captured only a portion of the vessels ofGod's house, and not all of them in their completeness and perfection. Verse 3."Andthe king said to Ashpenaz the overseer of his eunuchs,(D)that he shouldout of the number of the children of Israel and, of the royal seed and (the seedof) the rulers[tyrannorum,Jer.'s rendering of Heb.partemim,"nobles"]bring in some young lads who were free from allblemish."Instead of Ashpenaz ("Asphanez") I foundAbriesdriwritten in the Vulgate [i.e., the LXX] edition. For the wordphorlhomminwhichTheodotion uses, the Septuagint and Aquila translated "the chosenones," whereas Symmachus rendered "Parthians," understanding itas the name of a nation instead of a common noun. This is in disagreement withthe Hebrew edition as it is accurately read; I have translated it as"rulers," especially because it is preceded by the words "of theseed royal." From this passage the Hebrews think that Daniel, Hananiah,Mishael, and Azariah were eunuchs, thus fulfilling that prophecy which is spokenby Isaiah regarding Hezekiah: "And they shall take of thy seed and makeeunuchs of them in the house of the king (E) of Babylon" (Isa. 37: 7). Ifhowever they were of the seed royal, there is no doubt but what they were of theline of David. But perhaps the following words are opposed to thisinterpretation: "...lads, or youths, who|21were free from all blemish, in order that he might teach them the literatureand language of the Chaldeans."Philo supposes that Chaldee is the samething as the Hebrew language, because Abraham came from the Chaldeans. But if weaccept this we must ask how the Hebrew lads could now be bidden to be taught alanguage which they already knew; unless, perchance, we should say, as somebelieve, that Abraham was acquainted with two languages.
Verse 7."And the overseer of the eunuchs imposed names upon them,calling Daniel Belteshazzar (Balthasar), and Hananiah Shadrach, and MishaelMeshach, and Azariah(625)Abednego."It was not only theoverseer or master of the eunuchs (as others have rendered it, the"chief-eunuch")who changed the names of saints, but also Pharaoh called Joseph in Egypt(Gen. 41) (F) Somtonphanec [Heb.: Zaphenath-paaneah], for neither of them wishedthem to have Jewish names in the land of captivity. Wherefore the prophet saysin the Psalm: "How shall we sing the Lord's song in a strange land?"(Ps. 136:4). Furthermore the Lord Himself changes names benignly, and on thebasis of events imposes names of special significance, so as to (p. 497) callAbram Abraham, and Sarai Sarah (Gen. 17). Also in the Gospel, the former Simonreceived the name of Peter (Mark 3), (A) and the sons of Zebedee are called"sons of thunder"----which is notboanerges,as most peoplesuppose, but is more correctly readbenereem[a reading for which thereis no manuscript support, but which would be the Hebrew for "sons ofthunder"].
Verse 8."Daniel, however, purposed in his heart that he would not bedefiled by food from the king's table, nor by the wine which he drank, and heasked the chief of the eunuchs that he might not be polluted."He whowould not eat or drink of the king's food or wine lest he be denied (especiallyif he should be aware that the wisdom and teaching of the Babylonians ismistaken), would never consent to utter what was wrong. On the contrary they[i.e., the Hebrew youths] speak it forth, not that they may follow itthemselves, but in order to pass judgment upon it and refute it. Just as anyonewould expose himself to ridicule if he being untrained inmathematicsshoulddesire to write in confutation of mathematicians, or, being ignorant of theteachings of philosophers should desire to write in opposition to|22philosophers. Hence they [i.e., the Hebrew youths] study the teaching of theChaldeans with the same intention as Moses studied the wisdom (B) of theEgyptians.
Verse 9."God gave Daniel favor and compassion in the sight of theprince of eunuchs. . .."He who was taken into captivity onaccount of the sins of his forebears received an immediate recompense for themagnitude of his own virtues. For he had purposed in his heart that he would notbe denied by food from the king's table, and preferred humble fare to royaldelicacies; therefore by the bounteous bestowal of the Lord he received favorand compassion in the sight of the prince of the eunuchs. By this we mayunderstand that if ever under pressing circumstances holy men are loved byunbelievers, it is a matter of the mercy of God, not of the goodness ofperverted men.
Verse 12. "Ibeg thee, try us thy servants for ten days,(C)and let pulse be given us to eat and water to drink."His faith wasso incredibly great that he not only promised he would be in good flesh byeating the humbler food, but he even set a time-limit. Therefore it was not amatter of temerity but of faith, for the sake of which he despised the sumptuousfare of the king.
Verse 17."But God gave these lads knowledge and learning in everybook and branch of wisdom, and He gave to Daniel besides an understanding of allvisions and dreams."Note that God is said to have given the holy ladsknowledge and learning in secular literature, in every book and branch ofwisdom. Symmachus rendered this by "grammatical art," implying thatthey understood everything they read, and by the Spirit of God could make ajudgment concerning the lore of the Chaldeans. But Daniel had an outstandinggift over and above the three lads, in that he could astutely discern thesignificance of visions and dreams in which things to come are shown forth bymeans of certain symbols and mysteries. Therefore that which others saw only ina shadowy appearance he could perceive clearly with the eyes of hisunderstanding.
Verse 18."Therefore when the days had been completed at the end ofwhich the king had bidden them to be presented to him, the chief of the eunuchspresented them in the presence of Nebuchadnezzar."By the"completed days"|23understand the period of three years which the king had appointed (p. 498), sothat after they had been nourished and trained for three years, they should thenstand in the presence of the king.
Verse 20."And every word of wisdom and understanding the kinginquired of them, he found it in them ten times as great as all the soothsayersand magicians put together who were to be found in his entire realm."For"soothsayers" and "magicians" the Vulgate edition [i.e., ofthe Septuagint] translated "sophists" and"philosophers"----terms to be understood not in the sense of thephilosophy and sophistic erudition which Greek learning holds forth, but ratherin the sense of the lore of a barbarian people, which the Chaldeans pursue asphilosophy even to this day.
"Daniel therefore continued unto the first year of Cyrus theking."In the later discussion we shall explain how it was that Danielwho is here described as having continued till the first year of king Cyrusafterwards held office in the third year of that same Cyrus and is even recordedto have lived in the first year of Darius.|24
Verse 1."In the second year of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar,Nebuchadnezzar saw a dream and his spirit was terrified, and his dream fled fromhim."If the three lads had entered before him at the end of threeyears, as he himself had commanded, how is it that he is now said to have seenthe dream in the second year of his reign? The Hebrews solve the difficulty inthis way, that the second year refers here to his reign over all (627) thebarbarian nations, not only Judah and the Chaldeans, but also the Assyrians andEgyptians, and the Moabites and the rest of the nations which by the permissionof God he had conquered. For this reason Josephus also writes in the tenth bookof theAntiquities:After the second year from the devastation of EgyptNebuchadnezzar beheld a marvelous dream, and "his spirit was terrified andhis dream fled from him." The impious king beheld a dream concerning thingsto come, in order that he might give glory to God after the holy man hadinterpreted what he had seen, and that great consolation might be afforded thecaptive (Jews) and those who still served God in their captive state. We readthis same thing in the case of Pharaoh, not because Pharaoh and Nebuchadnezzardeserved to behold visions, but in order that Joseph and Daniel might appear asdeserving of preference over all other men because of their gift ofinterpretation.
Verse 2."Wherefore the king commanded that the soothsayers, themagi, the charmers, and the Chaldeans show the king his dream. And when theycame, they stood in the presence of the king."Those whom we havetranslated as "soothsayers"(harioli)others have rendered asepaoidoi,that is, "enchanters." Well then, it seems to me that enchantersare people who perform a thing by means of words; magi are those who pursueindividual lines (D) of philosophic enquiry; charmers are those who employ bloodand animal sacrifices and often have contact with corpses. Furthermore the term"astrologers"[or nativity-casters,genethlialogoi] among the Chaldeans signifies,|25I believe, what the common people call mathematicians. But common usage andordinary conversation understands the term magi as wicked enchanters (E). Yetthey were regarded differently among their own nation, inasmuch as they were thephilosophers of the Chaldeans, and even the kings and princes of this samenation do all they can to acquire a knowledge of this science. Wherefore (p.499) also it was they who first at the nativity of our Lord and Savior learnedof his birth, and who came to holy Bethlehem and adored the child, under theguidance of the star which shone above them (Matt. 2).
Verse 3."And the king said to them, 'Ihave seen a dream, andfrom the confusion of my mind I do not know what I have seen.' "Thereremained in the king's heart only a shadow, so to speak, or a mere echo or traceof the dream, with the result that if others should retell it to him (628), hewould be able to recall what he had seen, and they would certainly not bedeceiving him with lies.
Verse 4."The Chaldeans replied to the king in Syriac."(A)Up to this point what we have read has been recounted in Hebrew. From this pointon until the vision of the third year of King Balthasar [Belshazzar] whichDaniel saw in Susa, the account is written in Hebrew characters, to be sure, butin the Chaldee language, which he here calls Syriac.
Verse 5."If you do not show me the vision and its interpretation, yeshall perish and your homes shall be confiscated . ..."He threatenedpunishment and offered rewards, in order that if they should be able to tell himthe dream, he might therefore believe also that which was uncertain, namely themeaning of the dream. But if they should be unable to tell the king what he inhis mental confusion could not recall, they would also lose claim totrustworthiness in the interpretation they might give. At last there follows thestatement:
Verses 9, 10."Therefore tell me the dream, that I may be certainthat ye are giving me its true interpretation.(B)The Chaldeanstherefore made this reply in the king's presence: 'There is no man on earth whowould be able to fulfil what thou hast spoken, O king!'"The magiconfess, along with the soothsayers----and all secular learning concurs----thatforeknowledge of|26 the future lies notin man's province but in God's. By this test it is proved that the prophets whoproclaimed things to come spoke by the Spirit of God.
Verses 12, 13."And when he had heard this, the king in a furiousrage gave orders that all the wise men of Babylon should be slam. And when thedecree went forth, the wise men were being slaughtered...." (C) TheHebrews raise the question of why Daniel and the three lads did not enter beforethe king along with the other wise men, and why they were ordered to be slainwith the rest when the decree was issued. They have explained the difficulty inthis way, by saying that at that time, when the king was promising rewards andgifts and great honor, they did not care to go before him, lest they shouldappear to be shamelessly grasping after the wealth and honor of the Chaldeans.Or else it was undoubtedly true that the Chaldeans themselves, being envious ofthe Jews' reputation and learning, entered alone before the king, as if toobtain the rewards by themselves. Afterwards they were perfectly willing to havethose whom they had denied any hope of glory to share in a common peril.
Verse 15."And he inquired of him who had received authority from theking as to why so cruel a decree had gone forth from the presence of theking."Knowing that Daniel and the three youths possessed a knowledgeand intelligence tenfold as great as that of all the soothsayers of Chaldea (p.500) put together, the Chaldeans concealed from them the king's inquiry, lestthey should receive preference over them in the matter of interpreting thedream. On this account Daniel inquired concerning the cruelty of the decree,being ignorant of the cause of his own peril.
Verses 16, 17."Therefore(D)when Arioch had explained thematter to Daniel, Daniel entered in and asked the king to grant him some timefor the disclosure of the solution to the king. And he entered his home anddisclosed the affair to his comrades, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah...."Daniel requested time, not that he might investigate secret things by the cleverapplication of his intellect, but that he might beseech the Lord of Secrets. Andfor that reason he engaged Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah to join with him insupplication, to avoid the appearance of presuming upon his own merit alone, andto the end|27 that those involved in acommon danger might engage in common prayer.
Verse 19."And Daniel blessed the God of heaven, and spoke, saying,.. .." In contrast to those who occupy themselves with this world and deludethe earthly minded with demonic arts and illusions, Daniel blessed the God ofheaven. For the gods who did not create heaven and earth will pass away.
Verse 21."And it is He who changes times and seasons, who transferskingdoms and establishes kingdoms."Let us not marvel, therefore,whenever we see kings and empires succeed one another, for it is by the will ofGod that they are governed, altered, and terminated. And the cases ofindividuals are well known to Him who founded all things. He often permitswicked kings to arise in order that they may in their wickedness punish thewicked. At the same time by indirect suggestion and general discussion heprepares the reader for the fact that the dream Nebuchadnezzar saw was concernedwith the change and succession of empires."He gives wisdom to the wiseand knowledge to those who acquire learning."This accords with thescripture: "The wise man will hear and increase his wisdom" (Prov.1:5). "For he who has, to him it shall be given" (Matt. 25:29). A soulwhich cherishes an ardent love of wisdom is freely infilled by the Spirit ofGod. But wisdom will never penetrate a perverse soul (Wisdom 3).
Verse 22."It is He who reveals deep and hidden things, and He knowswhat is placed in the darkness, and with Him is the light."A man towhom God makes profound revelations and who can say, "O the depth of theriches of the knowledge and wisdom of God!" (Rom. 11:33), (p. 501) he it iswho by the indwelling Spirit probes even into the deep things of God, and digsthe deepest of wells in the depths of his soul. He is a man who has stirred upthe whole earth, which is wont to conceal the deep waters, and he observes thecommand of God, saying: "Drink water from thy vessels and from the springof thy wells" (Prov. 5:15). As for the words which follow, "He knowswhat is placed in the darkness, and with Him is the light," the darknesssignifies ignorance, and the light signifies knowledge and learning. Thereforeas wrong cannot hide God away, so right encompasses and surrounds Him. Or elsewe should interpret the words to|28mean all the dark mysteries and deep things (concerning God), according to whatwe read in Proverbs: "He understands also the parable and the darksaying." This in turn is equivalent to what we read in the Psalms:"Dark waters in the clouds of the sky" (Ps. 17:12). For one whoascends to the heights and forsakes the things of earth, and like the birdsthemselves seeks after the most rarified atmosphere and everything ethereal, hebecomes like a cloud to which the truth of God penetrates and which habituallyshowers rain upon the saints. Replete with a plenitude of knowledge, he containsin his breast many dark waters enveloped with deep darkness, a darkness whichonly Moses can penetrate (Ex. 23) and speak with God face to face, of Whom theScripture says: "He hath made darkness His hiding-place" (Ps. 17:12).
Verse 23."I confess Thee, O god of my fathers(A),and Ipraise Thee because Thou hast granted me wisdom and strength."Lest itshould seem to be an achievement of his own deserving, Daniel assigns it to therighteousness of his forefathers and to the faithfulness of God, Who takes pityupon their posterity even in exile.
"And now Thou hast shown me that for which we petitioned Thee...."That which the four of them had asked for is disclosed to (631) the one, for thetwofold purpose that he might escape any temptation to pride, on the ground ofhaving obtained the request by himself, and also that he might renderthanksgiving because he alone heard the secret of the dream.
Verse 24."Destroy not the wise men of Babylon. Take me in before theking and I will set forth the explanation to the king...." He followsthe example of the clemency of God, who intercedes in behalf of his persecutors,and is unwilling that those men should perish on whose account he himself hadbeen threatened with death.
Verse 25. "Ihave found a man who belongs to the children ofthe captivity of Judah and who will set forth the explanation to the king."He credits his own diligence with what God's grace has bestowed, and heclaims that he himself has done the finding, when actually Daniel had applied tohim of his own volition that he might be presented to the king. This instancemanifests the habitual (B) reaction of messengers, for when they|29have good news to report, they wish it to appear their own doing. But the manwho undertakes the explanation of the dream is certainly going to relate thedream beforehand. And note that Daniel is said to be of the children of Judah,rather than being a priest as the latter part of the story of Bel relates.
Verse 26."Dost thou truly believe that thou canst show me the dreamI have seen...." In framing his inquiry he adheres to logical sequence,so that he (p. 502) first asks for the dream, of which the magi had replied theywere ignorant, and afterwards he asks for the interpretation of the dream. Theimplication is that after he has heard the dream, then he would believe also inthe correctness of what was susceptible of varying interpretations.
Verse 27."As for the secret for which the king is asking, neitherthe wise men nor the magi nor the soothsayers nor the diviners are able todeclare it to the king."In place of diviners(haruspices),aswe have rendered it, the Hebrew [sic!] text hasGazareni[actually theAramaic word isgazerin],which only Symmachus has rendered as(C) sacrificers[thutai], a.class of people whom the Greeks usually callliver-diviners(epatoskopoi),and who inspect the inwards in order tomake predictions from them concerning the future. By terming a mystery thecategory of a revealed dream, Daniel shows that whatever is hidden and unknownby men can still be called a "mystery." Moreover he obviates any evilsuspicion on the king's part, lest he should imagine that human cleverness candiscover something which is reserved to the knowledge of God alone.
Verse 28."But there is a God in heaven who reveals mysteries."Thereforeit is only in vain that thou inquirest (other MSS have: "that heinquire") of men as to something which is known only to God in heaven.Also, by indirectly drawing Nebuchadnezzar away from the worship of many gods,Daniel directs him to the knowledge of the one (true) God.
(632)"Who hath shown thee, King Nebuchadnezzar, what is going totake place(the Vulg. reads: "the things which are going to takeplace")in the last times."Avoiding the blemish of adulationbut cleaving to the truth, he courteously suggests that it is to the king [Godhas shown these things],|30 for it wasto him that God had revealed secrets concerning what was to occur in the lasttimes. Now either these "last days" are to be reckoned from the timewhen the dream was revealed to Daniel until the end of the world, or else atleast this inference is to be drawn, that the over-all interpretation of thedream applies to that final end when the image (D) and statue beheld [in thedream] is to be ground to powder.
"Thy dream and the visions of thy head upon thy bed were asfollows."He does not say, "The visions of thine eyes," lestwe should think it was something physical, but rather: "of thy head.""For the eyes of a wise man are in his head" (Eccl. 2:14), that is tosay in the princely organ of the heart, just as we read in the Gospel:"Blessed are the pure in heart, for they are ones who shall see God"(Matt. 5:8). Again: "What (E) are ye meditating in your hearts?"(Matt. 9:4). To be sure, other authorities in treating of this chapter [i.e.,Matt. 9], conjecture that the authoritative part of the soul(to hegemonikon)lies not in the heart but, as Plato says, in the brain.
Verse 29."Thou, O king, didst begin to meditate upon thy bed as towhat should come to pass hereafter."Instead of the true reading theSeptuagint alone inserts the translation "in the last days" after the"hereafter." But if it be read thus, we must inquire quite carefullyas to where "last days" have been written; and we would refute thosewho think the world will never be destroyed. For never would any days be called"the last days" if the world were everlasting. And as for thestatement, "Thou, O king, didst begin to meditate," (p. 503) thiswould indicate the [psychological] motives behind the dream; for it was for thisreason that God revealed to him the secrets of the future, because the kinghimself wished to know what was going to happen. Also, in order thatNebuchadnezzar might marvel at the gracious gift of divine inspiration, he setsforth not only (A) what the king had beheld in the dream, but also what he hadthought to himself (beforehand).
"...and He who reveals secrets has shown thee what is to come topass."The statement which we read in the Gospel, "Who maketh Hissun to rise upon the wicked and the good" (Matt. 5:45), we realize to havebeen fulfilled in the case of Nebuchadnezzar also. For so great was God's mercythat He|31 even revealed toNebuchadnezzar secrets as to His own mode of government whereby (633) he rulesthe world. Let us ask those who assert that men's characters belong to oneextreme or the other, which character do they understand Nebuchadnezzar to havepossessed, the good or the evil? If the good, why is he called an impious man?If the evil (which was certainly the case), why did God show forth His holysecrets to one who was evil and earthly, that is to say,earthen?
Verse 30."Moreover this holy secret has not been revealed to me invirtue of any wisdom which inheres in me more than in all living men, but ratherthat the interpretation might be manifested to the king, and that thou mayestknow the thoughts of thine own mind."The king had imagined thatcleverness of the human intellect could embrace a knowledge of the future, andfor that reason he had ordered the wise men of Babylon to be slain. Danieltherefore makes excuse for those who were unable to speak, and himself avoidsthe envy of others, lest any should imagine that he had said any of the thingshe was going to say by virtue of his personal wisdom. But the cause of theprophetic revelation was the earnest desire of the king, who wished to know thefuture. Consequently he does honor to the king, because he states that it wasfor the sake of the king's knowledge that the secrets have been revealed by God.And this fact should be pondered, that dreams in which any coming events aresignified and in which truth is shown forth, as it were, through a cloud, arenot manifest to the conjectures or dominion of the human mind but to theknowledge of God alone.
Verse 31."Thou sawest, O king, and behold there was, as it were, alarge statue."(B) Instead of "statue," that is asculpturedeffigy,the only rendering used by Symmachus, others have translated it as"image," intending by this term to indicate a resemblance to futureevents. Let us go through the prophetic interpretation, and as we translateDaniel's words (C), let us explain at some length the matters which he brieflystates.
"Now thou art the head of gold.""The head ofgold," he says "is thou, O king." By this statement it is clearthat the first empire, the Babylonian, is compared to the most precious metal,gold.|32
Verse 39."And after thee there shall arise another empire inferiorto thee, made of silver."(The Vulgate LXX does not include "madeof silver.") That is to say, the empire of the Medes and Persians, whichbears a resemblance to silver, being inferior to the preceding empire, andsuperior to that which is to follow.
"And a third empire of bronze(the Vulgate LXX has "made ofcopper"),which shall rule over the entire earth."Thissignifies the Alexandrian empire, and that of (p. 504) the Macedonians, and ofAlexander's successors. Now this is properly termed brazen, for among all themetals bronze possesses an outstanding resonance and a clear ring, and the blastof a brazen trumpet is heard far and wide, (634) so that it signifies not onlythe fame and power of the empire but also the eloquence of the Greek language.
Verse 40."And there shall be a fourth empire like unto iron. Just asiron breaks to pieces and overcomes all else, so it shall break to pieces andshatter all these preceding empires . ..."Now the fourth empire, whichclearly refers to the Romans, is the iron empire which breaks in pieces andovercomes all others. But its feet and toes are partly of iron and partly ofearthenware, a fact most clearly demonstrated at the present time. For just asthere was at the first nothing stronger or hardier than the Roman realm, so alsoin these last days there is nothing more feeble (D), since we require theassistance of barbarian tribes both in our civil wars and against foreignnations. However, at the final period of all these empires of gold and silverand bronze and iron, a rock (namely, the Lord and Savior) was cut off withouthands, that is, without copulation or human seed and by birth from a virgin'swomb; and after all the empires had been crushed, He became a great mountain andfilled the whole earth. This last the Jews and the impious Porphyry apply to thepeople of Israel, who they insist will be the strongest power at the end of theages, and will crush all realms and will rule forever.
Verse 45."The great God has shown to the king the events which shallhereafter come to pass, and the dream is true and its interpretation isreliable."Daniel again asserts that the revelation of the dream is nota matter of personal merit, but has|33been granted for the purpose of making the interpretation manifest to the kingand of teaching the king that God alone is to be worshipped.
Verse 47."Then King Nebuchadnezzar fell on his face and worshippedDaniel, and ordered sacrifices and incense to be offered up to him.(E)Thereforethe king spoke and said to Daniel."Porphyry falsely impugns thispassage on the ground that a very proud king would never worship a mere captive,as if, forsooth, the Lycaonians had not been willing to offer blood sacrificesto Paul and Barnabas on account of the mighty miracles they had wrought. And sothere is no need to impute to the Scripture the error of the Gentiles who deemeverything above themselves [i.e., superhuman] to be gods, for the Scripturesimply is narrating everything as it actually happened. However we can make thisfurther assertion, that the king himself set forth the reasons for his worshipand offering of blood-sacrifices when he said to Daniel:
(635)"Truly thy God is the God of gods and the Lord of kings and arevealer of mysteries, since thou hast been able to disclose this holysecret."And so it was not so much that he was worshipping Daniel asthat he was through Daniel worshipping the God who had revealed the holy secrets(F). This is the same thing that we read Alexander the Great, King of theMacedonians, did in the high priesthood of Joaida [i.e., Jaddua]. Or, if this(p. 505) explanation seem unsatisfactory, we shall have to say thatNebuchadnezzar, overwhelmed by the amazing greatness of the miracles, did notrealize what he was doing, but coming to know the true God and Lord of kings heboth worshipped His servant and offered him incense.
Verse 48."Then the king elevated Daniel to a high position, and gavehim many great gifts(A)and set him up as governor over all theprovinces of Babylon. .. ."In this matter also the slanderous criticof the Church has ventured to castigate the prophet because he did not rejectthe gifts and because he willingly accepted honor of the Babylonians. He failsto consider the fact that it was for this very purpose that the king had beheldthe dream and that the secrets of its interpretation were revealed by a merelad, that Daniel might increase in importance and that in the place of captivityhe might become ruler over all the|34Chaldeans, to the end that the omnipotence of God might be made known. We readthat this same thing happened in the case of Joseph at the court of Pharaoh andin Egypt (Gen. 41), and also in the case of Mordecai at the court of Ahasuerus(Esth. 8). The purpose was that the Jews, as captives and (B) sojourners in eachof these nations, might receive encouragement as they beheld men of their ownnation constituted as governors over the Egyptians or the Chaldeans, as the casemight be.
Verse 49."Moreover Daniel made request of the king, and he appointedShadrach, Meshach, and Abednego over the public works of the province ofBabylon. But Daniel himself was in the king's gate."Daniel does notforget those men with whom he had made intercession to the Lord, and who hadshared his peril with him. And so he makes them judges over the province, whilehe himself does not leave (a variant reading is: "did not leave") theking's side.|35
Verse 1."Nebuchadnezzar the king made a golden statue seventy cubitsin height and six cubits in breadth."How soon he forgot the truth,when he had just been worshipping a servant of God as if he had been GodHimself, but now commanded a statue to be made for himself in order that hepersonally might be worshipped in the statuel Now if this statue was of gold(636) (C), and was of incalculable weight, it was intended to arouse amazementin the beholders and to be worshipped as God even though a mere inanimateobject, whilst everyone would be consecrating his own avarice to it. On theother hand an opportunity of salvation was afforded to the barbarian nationsthrough the opportune presence of the captive Jews (Col. iii), with the resultthat after they had first come to know the power of the one true God throughDaniel's revelation of the dream, they might then learn from the brave exampleof the three youths to despise death [variant: might learn that death ought tobe despised], and to eschew the worship of idols.
"And he set it up in the plain of Dura in the province ofBabylon."Instead of "Dura" Theodotion has "Deira,"and Symmachus has (D) "Durau," whereas the Septuagint renders it asthe common nounperibolon,a word which we might render as"game-preserve" or "enclosure."
Verse 2."Nebuchadnezzar sent therefore to the satraps, magistratesand judges, the dukes and potentates, and the prefects and(E)all theprinces of the various districts that they should gather themselvestogether."It is the higher ranks which stand in the greater peril, andthose who occupy the loftier position are the more sudden in their fall. Theprinces are assembled to worship the statue in order that through their princesthe nations also might be attracted into error, (p. 506) For those who possessriches and power are all the more easily overthrown because of theirapprehension of being bereft of them.|36But after the magistrates are led astray, the subject populace perish throughthe evil example of their superiors.
Verses 4, 5."And a herald proclaimed with mighty voice: 'To us theorder is given, both peoples and tribes and languages, at what hour ye hear thesound of the trumpet. . ..'"Not that the entire population of all thenations could have gathered on the plain of Dura and adored the golden statue,but rather, in the person of their leaders, all the tribes and peoples weresupposed to have performed the act of worship. Now as I mentally run through allthe Holy Scripture, I nowhere find (unless my memory fails me) a passage statingthat any of the saints worshipped God Himself by falling prostrate [actuallythere are many instances; cf. Brown-Driver-BriggsHebrew Lexicon,1005];but only someone worshipping idols or demons or forbidden objects is said tohave worshipped by falling prostrate. So also in this present instance that kindof worship is performed not once but several times as well. Moreover in theGospel the devil says to the Lord, "All these things will I give Thee, ifThou fallest down and worshippest me" (Matt. 4:9). But this comment shouldalso be made, that all heretics who devise a false doctrine with the brillianceof worldly eloquence, fashion thereby a golden statue, and (637) to the best oftheir ability constrain men by their persuasiveness to fall down and adore theidol of deceit.
Verse 7."After these things the people, therefore, as soon as theyheard the sound of the trumpet and pipe...." We are to take thisstatement in the same sense as above, so that we understand that all the peopleswere represented by their leaders. For of course it was impossible for all thenations to attend at one time.
Verse 8."And straightway at that time there came certain Chaldeansand accused the Jews...." They were envious of these Jews because theyhad been in charge of the king's business in Babylon, and also they wereoffended by their foreign religion and aversion towards idols. They thereforefind a pretext for accusing them to the king. The final consequence ensues.
Verse 12."Now then, there are certain Jews whom thou hast appointedover the affairs of the district of Babylon, namely Shadrach, Meshach, andAbednego, who have despised|37thydecree"(the Vulgate reads: "those men of thine have despised thedecree, O king"). To a certain extent their statement amounts to this:"Those captives and slaves whom thou hast preferred before us and hast madeto be governors have lifted themselves up in pride and despise thine orders, notserving thy gods, and not worshipping the golden statue thou hast set up."The assertion we made at the commencement of the commentary on the vision ismore abundantly proved in this passage, namely that the gods of Nebuchadnezzarwere not to be identified with the golden statue which he had ordered to beerected for the worship of himself, for in what follows the king himself says:
Verse 14."Do ye not serve my gods, and do you not worship the goldenstatue which I have set up?.. ." Other authorities assert that it isthe custom of Holy Scripture to speak of the one and same idol in the plural,just like the verse in Exodus concerning the calf: "These are thy gods, OIsrael, who have brought thee out of the land of Egypt" (Ex. 22:4). Also inthe Book of Kings, where Jeroboam is establishing the golden (p. 507) calf inBethel, he is said to have fashioned idols (I Kings 12). On the other hand aplurality of demons are addressed in the singular number, as in Isaiah: "Hebows himself down and worships it, and as he makes his vow he says, 'Thou art myGod!'" (Isa. 44:17).
Verse 15."Prostrate yourselves and worship the statue I havemade."Although he had up to this point given the youths his orders inangry fashion, yet he gives them room for a change of heart, so that theirprevious guilt might be pardoned if only they should fall down and worship. Butif they should not deign to offer worship, the punishment of the fiery furnacelay at hand.
"And what God is there who shall rescue you from my hand?..."Why naturally, that same God whose servant thou didst just recently worship andWhom thou didst assert to be truly God of gods and Lord of kings.
Verse 16 (638)."King Nebuchadnezzar, we ought not to render theeanswer concerning this matter."In the Hebrew [i.e., Chaldee] originalthere is no vocative "King" (A) as there is in the Septuagint, lestthey should seem to address the ungodly man with servile flattery or to term hima king who was|38 trying to force themto wickedness. But if it be contended that the reading, "O king!"should be included, then we may say that the youths were not impudentlychallenging the king to shed their blood but rendering him due honor so as toavoid injury to the true religion of God. But as for their statement. "Weought not to render thee answer concerning this matter," the meaning is:"Thou hast no need to hear words from men whose bravery and firmness thouwilt presently test by actual deeds."
Verse 17."For behold, our God whom we serve is able to rescue usfrom the furnace of burning fire and to free us from thy hands, O king!"Wherehe had imagined he was frightening mere youths, he perceives in them a nature ofmanly courage. Nor do they speak of deliverance as delayed to the distantfuture, but rather they promise themselves immediate succor, asserting,"For behold, our God whom we serve is the One who is able to free us bothfrom the fearsome flames thou threatenest and from thy hands."
Verse 18."But if He does not will to do so"----aphrasingwhich admirably avoids the idea, "If He is not able," which would beinconsistent with what they had just asserted, "He is able to deliverus" ---- but rather they say, "If He does not will to do so."Thereby they indicate that it will not be a matter of God's inability but ratherof His sovereign will if they do perish.
"Be it known to thee, O king, that we do not serve thy gods and donot worship the golden statue which thou hast set up."Whether we wishto read "statue" as Symmachus does, or "golden image" as theother authorities have rendered it, those who reverence God are not to worshipit. Therefore let judges and princes who worship the statues of emperors oridols realize that they are doing precisely the thing which the three youthsrefused to do and thereby pleased God. And we should observe the propersignificance of the issue involved: they assert that worshipping the mere imageis equivalent to serving the false gods themselves, neither of which things isbefitting to the servants of God.
Verse 19 (p. 508)."Then Nebuchadnezzar was filled with rage, and(B)the aspect of his countenance was wholly altered."In certain Psalmsthe titles contain the notation; "On|39behalf of those who are to be wholly altered." [This is a literal renderingof the Septuagint's erroneous translation of the Hebrew title'alshoshanni'm,which occurs in Psalm 45 and Psalm 69, and signifies:"Upon anemonies."] And so the expression "wholly altered" isambiguous, comprising both the idea of change for the worse or change for thebetter. Now of course the alteration of Nebuchadnezzar's visage cannot bereconciled with a favorable sense. And after all there are some authorities whorefer even the Psalm-titles to a change for the worse, on the ground that thosewho by nature have known God have been changed by the vexation and fury of theirmind to a position of hostility towards Christ and His saints.
Verse 20."And he gave orders that the furnace be fired to sevenfoldintensity beyond its usual temperature,(C)and he commanded thestrongest men in his army to bind the legs of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego andcast them into the furnace of flaming fire."Just as if the usual firewithout multiplied intensity could not have consumed the youths' bodies! But afury and rage which borders on madness can observe no bounds. Also he wished bythe threat of intensified punishment to terrify those who seemed prepared fordeath.
Verse 21."And straightway those men, bound up(D)in theirtrousers and turbans and footgear and garments, were cast into the midst of thefurnace of flaming fire...."Instead ofsarbal,"trousers"[actually this word probably meant "mantle" in the Aramaic]interpreted by Symmachus asanaxy-rides("trousers"), Aquilaand Theodotion read simplysaraballarather than the corrupt reading (E)sarabara.Now the shanks and shin-bones are calledsaraballain the language ofthe Chaldeans [apparently erroneous information; the lexicons give only"trousers" or, preferably, "mantle"], and by extension ofthe same word it is applied to those articles of clothing which cover the shanksand shins, as if they were to be called "shankies" and"shinnies"(crurales et tibiales)."Turban," however,is a Greek word,tiara[actually the Aramaicis karbela,"cap"]which has by usage become a Latin word also, and Virgil says of it(Aeneid,VII):
"Both scepter and sacred tiara."
[Sincetiaradoes not appear in the Aramaic original at all, the|40comment upon it seems quite misleading to a public not having access to theoriginal. Two other comments ought to be made about Jerome's treatment of thisverse: a) he puts "turbans" before "footgear"(pattish)insteadof after it as the original does; b) he has nevertheless consulted the originalcarefully, since he avoids the variant reading of the LXX, which lattersubstitutes "upon their heads" for the word "footgear."] Itwas, however, a kind of skull-cap used by the Persian and Chaldean races.
Verse 22."Then those same men who had cast Shadrach, Meshach, andAbednego were slain by the fiery flame."Of course this meant the samemen of whom it was said above, "And he commanded the strongest men in hisarmy to bind the legs of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego and cast them into theburning furnace of fire (another reading: into the furnace of flamingfire)." And so they were not any chance servants of his whom Nebuchadnezzardestroyed, but men who of all his army were strong and most ready for war. Notonly was it intended that the miracle should strike terror but also that his ownarmy might experience injury.
Verse 23."But these three men,(here the Vulgate inserts:"that is,")Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, fell fettered into themidst of the furnace of flaming fire. And they were walking about in the midstof the flames praising God and blessing the Lord.(p. 509)And Azariahstood and prayed after this fashion, opening his mouth in the midst of the fireand saying. . .."It was a great miracle for men to be cast into afurnace bound and to fall headlong into the midst of the fire, only to have thebonds burn up by which they were bound, the bodies of the fettered withalremaining untouched by the timid flames. The Hebrew text goes only up to thispoint and the intervening passage which now follows as far as the end of theSong of the Three Youths is not contained in the Hebrew [i.e. the Aramaic]. Lestwe seem to pass over it altogether, we must make a few observations.
Verse 26."Blessed art Thou, O Lord God of our fathers, and Thy nameis to be praised and glorified forever, for Thou art just in all that Thou hastdone to us"(the Vulgate adds: "in our case"). (A) Wheneverwe are oppressed by various anxieties, let us lovingly speak forth thissentiment with our|41 whole heart, andwhatever may have befallen us, let us confess that it is only right for us toendure it, that the scripture may be fulfilledinus: "The daughtersof Judah have exulted and rejoiced in all Thy judgments, O Lord" (Ps.96:8).
Verse 29."For we have sinned and acted wickedly in departing fromThee, and we have forsaken Thee in all things."Now of course the threeyouths had not sinned, nor were they old enough when brought to Babylon towarrant being punished for their own faults. Consequently they were speaking asrepresentatives of their people, in the same manner as the Apostle had to state:"For what I wish to do, that I do not; but what I do not want, that I carryinto effect" (Rom 7:19), and so on with the rest of that same passage.
Verse 37."Forasmuch, O Lord, as we have been diminished more thanall the other races and abased in all the world this day because of our sins,and have at the present time neither prince nor prophet nor leader. . ."(B).These verses are to be used whenever the churches suffer want (because of thesins of the people) of holy men, and of magistrates who are most learned in thelaw of God, and also whenever in times of persecution no sacrifice or oblationis offered up. Some authorities relate this passage to the heavenly (p. 510)Jerusalem, on the ground that the souls have been plunged to the earthly planeand find themselves in a place of tears and utter distress, and bewail the sinsof by-gone years and the other things included in the prophetic discourse. Butthe Church of God has not accepted this view.
Verse 39. (641)"But in a contrite heart and humble spirit let us beaccepted, like as in the burnt offerings of rams and bullocks...."(cf.Ps. 51:19). On the basis of the passage before us and also on the basis of whatfollows: "Bless the Lord, ye spirits and souls of the righteous," andalso in view of the passage in Psalms: "The sacrifice for God is ananguished spirit, a contrite and abased heart God does not despise,"certain authorities (C) would have it that there resides in man a spirit,distinct from the Holy Spirit and different from the soul itself. But they willhave to work out the difficulty of how there can be said to be two substancesand two inner selves in one and the same man,|42entirely apart from the body and from the grace of the Holy Spirit.
Verse 46."And the king's servants who had cast them in did not ceaseto make the furnace hot with naphtha and pitch."Sallust (D) in hishistories writes that naphtha is a kind of tinder in use among the Persianswhich furnishes the utmost encouragement to fires. Others are of the opinionthat naphtha is the name applied to olive-pits which are thrown away when thedregs of the oil have dried up. In the same way, they assert, the Greek termpyrineis derived from its property of nourishingpyr,that is,"fire".
Verse 49."But the angel of the Lord came down into the furnace withAzariah and his companions, and he smote the flame of the fire out of thefurnace...." When the soul is oppressed with tribulation and taken upwith various vexations, having lost hope of human aid and turned with its wholeheart to God, an angel of the Lord descends to it. That is to say, thesupernatural being descends to the aid of the servant and dashes aside thefierce heat of the violent flames, that the fiery shafts of the enemy utterlyfail to pierce the inner citadel of our heart and we escape being shut up in hisfiery furnace.
Verses 57, 58."All ye works of the Lord, bless the Lord; laud Himand highly exalt Him forever. Praise(p. 511)Him, ye angels of the Lord;laud Him and highly exalt Him...." Having prefaced with general termsof praise, to the effect that every creature ought to praise the Lord, headdresses his exhortation in what follows to the various individual orders ofcreation: (642) to the angels, the heavens, the waters and nature-forces, thesun and the moon, the rain-cloud and the dew, the wind, the fire and the billow,the cold and the heat, and all the rest too lengthy to include, so that hesummons springs also and the seas, the sea-monsters and the birds, the beastsand flocks, to the praise of the Lord. He summons also the sons of men, andafter the human race in general he specifies the race of Israel in particular,and of the Israelites themselves the priests and servants of the Lord, and thespirits and souls of the righteous, and those who are holy and of humble heart.And at the very last he specifies Hananiah, Azariah, and Mishael, who aresummoned to praise the Lord for His present kindness. But all creation praisesGod not in word|43 but in deed,inasmuch as the Creator is logically apprehended on the basis of His creatures,and in the various works and affections [unlessaffectibusbe a misprintforeffectibus:"operations"] the grandeur of God is mademanifest.
Verse 87."Bless Him, ye saints and humble of heart...." Weare taught to have humbleness of heart both by this present verse and also bythe statement in the Gospel: "Learn of Me, for I am meek and lowly inheart, and ye shall find rest for your souls" (Matt. 11:29). But thishumbleness of heart is the same thing as is elsewhere called poverty in spirit,so that we are not to be lifted up in pride or seek after glory by a pretendedhumility, but rather that we abase ourselves with our whole heart. Up to thispoint we have mentioned but briefly a few things from Theodotion's edition,since the confession and the praises of the three youths are passages notcontained in the Hebrew. But from this point on we shall follow the authenticHebrew itself.
Verses 91, 92 (=24, 25)."Then Nebuchadnezzar the king was astoundedand hastily arose and said to his nobles:'Didwe not cast three men inshackles into the midst of the fire?'"[When figures are given inparentheses they indicate the versification in the KJV.] After the princes havebeen punished, the king is rebuked, in order that he may glorify God while stillalive. But he questions his nobles, by whose accusation and plot he had cast thethree youths into the fiery furnace, so that when they reply that they had castthree youths into the furnace, he might announce and show forth to them (whathad happened) (A).
(643)"And they said to the king in reply, 'Truly, O king!' The kinganswered(the Vulgate omits "the king"):'Behold, I see fourmen unbound and walking about in the midst of the fire, and they have no hurt,and the appearance of the fourth man(B)is the likeness of a son ofGod.' "Let me say again, how wise was the fire and how indescribablethe power of God! Their bodies had been bound with chains; those chains wereburnt up, whereas the bodies themselves were not burnt. As for the appearance ofthe fourth man, which he asserts to be like that of a son of God, either we musttake him to be an angel, as the Septuagint has rendered it, or indeed, as themajority think, the Lord our Savior. Yet I do not know how an ungodly king couldhave merited a vision of the Son of God. On that|44reasoning one should follow Symmachus, who has thus interpreted it: "Butthe appearance of the fourth is like unto the sons," not unto the sons ofGod but unto gods themselves. We are to think of angels here, who after all arevery frequently called gods as well as sons of God. So much for the storyitself. But as for its typical significance, this angel or son of Godforeshadows our Lord Jesus (p. 512) Christ, who descended into the furnace ofhell, in which the souls of both sinners and of the righteous were imprisoned,in order that He might without suffering any scorching by fire or injury to Hisperson deliver those who were held imprisoned by chains of death.
Verse 93 (=26)."Then Nebuchadnezzar approached unto the mouth of theburning fiery furnace and said: 'Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, servants ofthe Most High God, come forth and draw near!' And straightway Shadrach, Meshach,and Abednego came forth from the midst of the fire."Being terrifiedwith fear, the king does not address his request to the youths through anymessengers, but himself calls upon them by name, addressing them as servants ofthe Most High God, and begging these very men to come forth whom he himself hadcast bound into the furnace.
Verse 95 (=28). "'Blessed be God(the Vulgate has "theirGod, namely")of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, Who hath sent Hisangel and rescued His servants who believed in Him. . ..' "The personwhom he had previously called a son of God he here calls an angel, even thoughhe had in the preceding passage described him as similar to a son of God ratherthan to God Himself. A second time, therefore, Nebuchadnezzar resumes aconfession of faith in God, and as he condemns idols he praises the three youthswho refused to serve or worship any god but their own God. Moreover he marvelsthat the fire was unable to affect the saints of God, for he says:
Verse 96 (=29). "'Ihave therefore determined upon this decree(the Vulgate says: "have appointed this decree"):that anypeople, tribe or tongue which utters blasphemy against the God of Shadrach,Meshach and Abednego(644)shall utterly perish and his house shall belaid waste. For there is no other God who can save after such a fashion.' "Some authorities very wrongly apply this to the devil himself, assertingthat in the|45 consummation at the endof the world even the devil himself will receive a knowledge of God and willexhort all men to repent. These persons would have it that this is the king ofNineveh who finally descends from his proud throne and attains to the rewards ofhumility.
Verse 97 (=30)."Then the king promoted Shadrach, Meshach andAbednego to honor in the province of Babylon."Those commentators whosay that the three youths were previously not judges set over the provinces butmere overseers of individual government agencies in Babylon, would have it thatthey were now appointed as judges over the provinces.|46
Verse 98ff. (=1ff.) [The Hebrew Bible continues chap. III up through what isIV:3 in the English Bible]"Nebuchadnezzar the king unto all thepeoples, nations and languages who dwell upon the whole earth: peace bemultiplied unto you. The Most High God hath performed signs and wonders towardsme. Therefore I have thought it well to declare His signs, for they are great,and His marvels, for they are mighty, and His kingdom, because it is(theVulgate omits "because it is")an eternal kingdom, and His dominionis from generation to generation."The epistle of Nebuchadnezzar wasinserted in the volume of the prophet, in order that the book might notafterwards be thought to have been manufactured by some other author, as theaccuser (Porphyry) falsely asserts, but the product of Daniel himself.
Verse 1 (=4)."I, Nebuchadnezzar, was at ease in my house andprospering in my palace."The narrative is clear indeed and requiresbut little interpretation. Because he displeased God, Nebuchadnezzar was turnedinto a madman and dwelt for seven years amongst the brute beasts and was fedupon the roots of herbs, (p. 513) Afterwards by the mercy of God he was restoredto his throne, and praised and glorified the King of heaven, on the ground thatall His works are truth and His ways are justice and He is able to abase thosewho walk in pride. But there are some who claim to understand by the figure ofNebuchadnezzar the hostile power which the Lord speaks of in the Gospel, saying:"I beheld Satan falling from heaven like lightning" (Luke 10:18).Likewise John inRevelation,in the passage where the dragon falls uponthe earth drawing a third of the stars with him (Rev. 12). Likewise Isaiah:"How hath the morning star fallen, which used to rise early in themorning" (Isa. 14:22). These authorities assert that it was absolutelyimpossible for a man who was reared in luxury to subsist on hay for seven yearsand to dwell among wild beasts for seven years without being at all mangled bythem. Also they ask how the imperial|47authority (645) could have been kept waiting for a mere madman, and how somighty a kingdom could have gone without a king for so long a period. If, on theother hand, anyone had succeeded him on the throne, how foolish he would have tobe thought to surrender an imperial authority which he had possessed for solong. Such a thing would be especially incredible since the historical recordsof the Chaldeans contain no such record, and since they recorded matters of farless import, it is impossible that they should have left things of majorimportance unmentioned. And so they pose all of these questions (A) and offer astheir own reply the proposition that since the episode does not stand up asgenuine history, the figure of Nebuchadnezzar represents the devil. To thisposition we make not the slightest concession; otherwise everything we read inScripture may appear to be imperfect representations and mere fables. For oncemen have lost their reason, who would not perceive them to lead their existencelike brutish animals in the open fields and forest regions? And to pass over allother considerations, since Greek and Roman history offer episodes far moreincredible, such as Scylla and the Chimaera, the Hydra and the Centaurs, and thebirds and wild beasts and flowers and trees, the stars and the stones into whichmen are related to have been transformed, what is so remarkable about theexecution of such a divine judgment as this for the manifestation of God's powerand the humbling of the pride of kings? Nebuchadnezzar says, " 'I was atease in my house and prospering in my palace. . ..' " or as Theodo-tionrenders it "upon my throne." Now those who follow the interpretationwe are opposing understand by the devil's home this world of ours. Concerningthe world Satan himself in the Gospel says to the Savior: "All these thingshave been given over to me" (Matt. 4:9). Likewise the Apostle says:"The world lieth in the Wicked One" (I John 5).
Verse 2 (=5). "'Ibeheld a dream which terrified me, and my thoughtswhile upon my bed.. . .'"Let our opponents answer what kind of a dreamthe hostile power [i.e., Satan] would have seen, unless perhaps everything heappears to possess in this world is a mere shadowy dream.
"'And the visions of my head greatly disturbed me.' "Note(p. 514) how Nebuchadnezzar realized that his visions|48were not those of his eyes and heart, but rather of his head, because it was forthe glory of God's future servants that these secrets were being revealed tohim.
Verse 6 (=8). "'Then at last my associate, Daniel,(B)whosename according to the name of my god is Belteshazzar, entered before mypresence.'"With the exception of the Septuagint translators (who forsome reason or other have omitted this whole passage [i.e., vv. 6-9]), the otherthree translators [Aquila, Symmachus, and Theodotion] have translated the word[i.e.'oh°rdn,a dubious word generally rendered as "at last"by modern translations, but here probably to be construed as"another"] as "associate"(collega).Consequently bythe judgment of the teachers of the Church, the Septuagint edition has beenrejected in the case of this book, and it is the translation of Theodotion whichis commonly read, since it agrees with the Hebrew as well as with the othertranslators (C). Wherefore also Origen asserts in the ninth book of theStromatathat he is discussing the text from this point on in the prophecy of Daniel,not as it appears in the Septuagint, which greatly differs from the Hebreworiginal, but rather as it appears in Theodotion's edition.
" '. ..(Daniel) who has within him the spirit of the holy gods; andI related the dream unto him....'"Corresponding to the rendering heregiven, "of the holy god," we read in Chaldee (in whichDanielwascomposed) the wordselain cadisin ('-l-h-y-n q-d-y-sh-y-n)[vocalizedthis would be'elahin qaddishin], which means "holy gods" andnot "holy God," as Theodotion rendered it. Nor is it surprising ifNebuchadnezzar made such a mistake, and supposed that any force he perceived tobe higher than himself were gods, rather than God. Lastly he states also in hisfollowing words: "'Belteshazzar, thou chief of the soothsayers, whom Iknow to possess within thee the spirit of the holy gods.' "Belteshazzarwas chief of the soothsayers or enchanters, as others have rendered it. It isnot surprising if he had been appointed chief over all the soothsayers since hehad at the king's order been taught the wisdom of the Chaldeans, and had besidesbeen found ten times wiser than all the rest. Let us ask of those who do notconcede any historical basis for this vision, what Nebuchadnezzar it was who sawthe dream, and who the Daniel was who|49declared his dream and foretold things to come. And how did it come to pass thatthis same Daniel (whose fortitude was, at least according to them, to beunderstood as divine in origin) was appointed chief of the soothsayers byNebuchadnezzar, and called his companion?
Verse 7 (=10)."'I saw, and behold there was a tree in the midst ofthe earth, and its height was very great. ...' "It was not only ofNebuchadnezzar, King of the Chaldeans, but also of all impious men that theprophet says: "I beheld the impious man highly exalted and lifted up likethe cedars of Lebanon" (Ps. 36:35). [This is Ps. 37:35 in the EnglishBible, and preserves a different reading, taken over from the Septuagint, ratherthan the Hebrew reading: "... and spreading himself like a green tree inits native soil."] Such men are lifted up, not by the greatness of theirvirtues, but by their own pride; and for that reason they are cut down and fallinto ruin. (647) Therefore it is good to follow the teaching of our Lord in theGospel: "Learn of Me, for I am meek and lowly in heart" (Matt. 11:29).But as for the fact that, according to Theodotion (p. 515), he mentions hiskutosor height ---- or else hiskureia(A), as he himself later rendersit, that is to say, hisdominion(a word we have translated as "hisappearance") ---- those same detractors of the historicity of this passageslanderously assert that Nebuchadnezzar's dominion never possessed the entireworld. He did not rule over the Greeks or barbarians, or over all of the nationsin the north and west, but only over the provinces of the East; that is to say,over Asia, not over Europe or Libya. Consequently all these slanders require tobe understood as attributable to the devil, for actually we ourselves shouldaccept all this as spoken by way of hyperbole, having in view the arrogance ofthe impious king, who in Isaiah (chap. 14) makes as great a boast as this,claiming that he possesses the very heaven itself, and the whole earth besides,as if it were a nest full of birds' eggs.
Verses 10, 11 (=13, 14)."'And behold, a watchman and a holy onedescended from heaven, and he cried out with a loud voice and spoke as follows:'Cut down the tree and chop off its branches.. . .'"Instead of"watchman" Theodotion uses the Chaldee word itself,hir,whichis written with the three letters'ayin, yodh,andresh.But itsignifies the angels, because|50 theyever keep watch and are prepared to carry out God's command. And so we toofollow the example of the angels in their duties when we engage in frequentnight-long vigils. Also it is said of the Lord: "He who keepeth Israel willneither slumber nor sleep" (Ps. 120:4, i.e. Ps. 121:4). Lastly, we read alittle later: "In the decision of the watchmen, i.e., the angels, lies thedecree and the speech and the petition of the holy ones." Moreover it isboth Greek and (B) Latin usage to call the rainbowiris,because it issaid to descend to earth in a multicolored arch.
Verse 16 (=19)."Then Daniel, whose name was Belteshazzar, beganquietly to meditate by himself for about an hour, and his meditations greatlytroubled him. And the king answered and said, 'Belteshazzar, let not the dreamor its interpretation disturb you.' Belteshazzar answered and said...."Danielsilently understood that the dream was directed against the king, and the pallorof his countenance showed forth the fear in his heart, and he felt sorry for theman who had conferred upon him the greatest of honor. (648) And to avoid allappearance of taunting the king or glorying over him as an enemy, he only toldhim what he understood of the matter after he had begged to be excused.
"'My lord,(C)may this dream apply to those who hate thee,and its interpretation to thy foes.'"And so Nebuchadnezzar, seeingthat Daniel was afraid of appearing to speak something of ill omen and againstthe king's interest, urged him to speak out plainly and truly what he understoodof the matter without any apprehension.
Verse 17 (=20). "'The lofty and vigorous tree which thou sawest, theheight of which reached the heavens. .. .' "He explains the truthwithout insulting the king, (p. 516) so as to avoid appearing to charge the kingwith sinful pride, but rather with overweening greatness.
Verse 20 (=23). "'Let him be bound with iron and with brass in thegrass out of doors, and let him be sprinkled with dew of heaven, and let hisfeeding be with the wild beasts, until seven times pass over him.'"Itwas also written to the same effect above. And so those who object to thehistoricity of the narrative ask us how Nebuchadnezzar would have been bound|51with chains of iron and brass, or who would have bound him or tied him up withfetters. Yet it is very clear that all maniacs are bound with chains to keepthem from destroying themselves or attacking others with weapons.
Verses 21, 22 (=24, 25). "'This is the interpretation of thesentence of the Most High which has come upon my lord the king. They shall castthee forth from among men and thy habitation shall be with cattle and wildbeasts.. . .'"Daniel moderates the severity of the sentence bycomplimentary language, so that (variant: and) after he has first set forth theharsher aspects, he may moderate the king's alarm by assurances of the kindliertreatment to follow. He draws the final inference:
Verse 23 (=26). "'Thy kingdom shall remain unto thee, after thoushalt have acknowledged that power belongs to Heaven.'"Those whocontest the historicity of this incident and would have it that the devil'soriginal position of honor will be restored to him, make capital of thispassage, on the ground that after Nebuchadnezzar has during the seven-year cycleendured torments and bestialization, feeding upon grass and hay, he makes aconfession of the Lord and becomes the person he was before. But they are boundto answer the question how it can be consistent for the angels who have neverfallen to have someone rule over them once more who has only through repentancebeen restored to favor.
Verse 24 (=27). "'Wherefore, O king, let my counsel meet with thyfavor, and make up for thy sins by deeds of charity,(649)and thineiniquities by showing mercy to the poor. Perhaps God will forgive thytransgressions.'"Since he had previously pronounced the sentence ofGod, which of course cannot be altered, how could he exhort the king to deeds ofcharity and acts of mercy towards the poor? This difficulty is easily solved byreference to the example of King Hezekiah, who Isaiah had said was going to die;and again, to the example of the Ninevites, to whom it was said: "Yet fortydays, and Nineveh shall be destroyed" (Jonah 3). And yet the sentence ofGod was changed in response to the prayers of Hezekiah and the city of Nineveh,not by any means because of the ineffectualness of the judgment itself butbecause of the conversion of those who merited pardon. Morever in Jeremiah Godstates that He threatens|52 evil forthe nation (Jer. 23), but if it does that which is good, He will alter Histhreats to bestow mercy. Again, He affirms that He directs His promises to theman who does good; and if the same man thereafter works evil, He says that Hechanges His decision, not with regard to the men themselves, but with regard totheir works which have thus changed in character. For after all, God is notangered at men but at their sins; and when no sins inhere in a man, God by nomeans inflicts a punishment which has been commuted. In other words, let us saythat Nebuchadnezzar performed deeds of mercy toward the poor (p. 517) inaccordance with Daniel's advice, and for that reason the sentence against himwas delayed of execution for twelve months. But because he afterwards whilewalking about in his palace at Babylon said boastingly: "Is this not thegreat Babylon (A) which I myself have built up as a home for the king by themight of my power and the glory of my name?" therefore he lost the virtueof his charitableness by reason of the wickedness of his pride.
"It may be that God will forgive thy sins."In view of thefact that the blessed Daniel, foreknowing the future as he did, had doubtsconcerning God's decision, it is very rash on the part of those who boldlypromise pardon to sinners. And yet it should be recognized that indulgence waspromised to Nebuchadnezzar in return, as long as he wrought good works. Muchmore, then, is it promised to other men who have committed less grievous sinsthan he. We read in Jeremiah also of God's direction to the people of the Jews,that they should pray for the Babylonians, inasmuch as the peace of the captiveswas bound up with the peace of the captors themselves.
Verses 28, 29 (=31, 32)."While the saying was yet in the king'smouth, a voice from heaven assailed him: 'King Nebuchadnezzar, to thee it isspoken, thy kingdom shall pass away(variant reading: is passing away)fromthee and they shall cast thee forth from among mankind.'"His arrogantboasting is immediately punished by the Lord. For this reason the execution ofthe sentence is not delayed, lest mercy towards the poor seem to have profitedhim not at all. But as soon as he has spoken in pride, he straightway loses thekingdom which (650) had been reserved for him on account of his works ofcharity.
"...until thou dost recognize that the Most High|53reigns in the kingdom of men."In misery it comes as a greatconsolation to know, when one is in a painful situation, that a more favorablefuture will ensue. Yet Nebuchadnezzar's fury and madness were so pronounced thatin time of affliction he would not have remembered the blessings which God hadpromised him.
Verse 31 (=34). "'I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted mine eyes toward heaven,and my intelligence returned to me.' "Had he not raised his eyestowards heaven, he would not have regained his former intelligence. Moreover,when he says that his intelligence returned to him, he shows that he had lostnot his outward appearance but only his mind.
"'And His kingdom is from generation to generation.' "If weaccept this expression in the Scriptures, "From generation togeneration," as simply for what it is, then it unquestionably means"for all time to come." But if, on the other hand, "generationand generation" signifies (as we have often asserted) two generations, thatof the Law and that of the Gospel, the question comes up as to howNebuchadnezzar would have known of the unrevealed secrets("sacraments")of God. [The original for "from generation to generation" is"'im dar wedar,"i.e., "with generation andgeneration," which Jerome renders as"in generatione etgeneratione"or "in generation and generation." Undoubtedlythe idea of the original is distributive or successive: "unto eachsuccessive generation." Jerome's explanation of this characteristic Semiticphrase as an occult reference to the two dispensations of the Old and NewTestaments seems very farfetched.] But perhaps we might say this, that after heraised his eyes towards heaven and received back his former estate and exaltedand blessed the ever-living God, he would not have failed to know this secretalso.
Verse 32 (=35). "'For He does according to His will, just as(B)among the powers of heaven, so also among the inhabitants of the earth. ...'"(p. 518) This too Nebuchadnezzar expresses like a worldling. For Goddoes not simply do what He wishes, but rather God wishes only that which isgood. Nebuchadnezzar, however, expressed himself in this way, in order that evenwhile he declared God's power, he might appear to impugn God's justice, on theground that he had suffered unmerited punishment.|54
Verse 33 (=36)."'And my nobles and officers sought me out and I wasrestored to my kingdom, and all the greater magnificence accrued to me.' "Wellthen, according to those who argue against the historical character of thisaccount, all the angelic powers are going to seek out the devil again, and hewill increase to such a degree of might, that the very one who formerly exaltedhimself against God is going to be greater than he was before his sin.
Verse 34 (=37). "'Now therefore 1, Nebuchadnezzar, do praise,magnify and glorify the King of heaven, for all His works are true and His waysare judgment, and He is able to humble those who walk in pride.' "Nebuchadnezzarunderstood the reason why he had suffered in seven years' punishment, and forthat reason (651) he humbled himself, since he had exalted himself against God.|55
Verse 1."Belshazzar the king made a great feast for his one thousandnobles; and each one drank in the order of his age."It should be knownthat this man was not the son of Nebuchadnezzar, as readers commonly imagine;but according to (C) Berosus, who wrote the history of the Chaldeans, and alsoJosephus, who follows Berosus, after Nebuchadnezzar's reign of forty-threeyears, a son named Evilmerodach succeeded to his throne. It was concerning thisking that Jeremiah wrote that in the first year of his reign he raised the headof Jehoiachin, king of Judah, and took him out of his prison (Jer. 52). Josephuslikewise reports that after the death of Evilmerodach, his son [actually hisbrother-in-law] Neriglissar succeeded to his father's throne; after whom in turncame his son (D) Labosordach, [the cuneiform spelling isLabashi-Marduk].Upon the latter's death, his son, Belshazzar [note that Jerome is not awareof Belshazzar's father, Nabonidus], obtained the kingdom, and it is of him thatthe Scripture now makes mention. After he had been killed by Darius, King of theMedes, who was the maternal uncle of Cyrus, King of the Persians, the empire ofthe Chaldeans was destroyed by Cyrus the Persian. It was these two kingdoms [theMedian and the Persian] which Isaiah in chap. 21 addresses as a charioteer of avehicle drawn by a camel and an ass. Indeed Xenophon also writes the same thingin connection with the childhood of Cyrus the Great; likewise Pompeius Trogusand many others who have written up the history of the barbarians. Someauthorities think that this Darius was the Astyages mentioned in the Greekwritings, while others think it was Astyages' son, and that he was called by theother name among the barbarians."And each one of the princes who hadbeen invited drank in the order of his own age."Or else, as othertranslators have rendered it: "The king himself was drinking in thepresence of all the princes whom he had invited." [The latter renderingseems to be the only one justified by the Aramaic original.]|56
Verse 2."Being now drunken, he therefore gave order that(p.519)the golden and silver vessels be brought in which his father,Nebuchadnezzar, had taken away from the temple which was in Jerusalem, in orderthat the king might drink from them...." The Hebrews hand down somesuch story as this: that up until the seventieth year, on which Jeremiah hadsaid that the captivity of the Jewish people would be released (652) (a matterof which Zechariah also speaks in the first part o£ his book), Belshazzar hadesteemed God's promise to be of none effect; therefore he turned the failure ofthe promise into an occasion of joy and arranged a great banquet, scoffingsomewhat at the expectation of the Jews and at the vessels of the Temple of God.Punishment, however, immediately ensued. And as to the fact that the authorcalls Nebuchadnezzar the father of Belshazzar, he does not make any mistake inthe eyes of those who are acquainted with the Holy Scripture's manner ofspeaking, for in the Scripture all progenitors and ancestors are called fathers.This factor also should be borne in mind, that he was not sober when he didthese things, but rather when he was intoxicated and forgetful of the punishmentwhich had come upon his progenitor, Nebuchadnezzar.
Verse 4."They were drinking wine and praising their gods of gold, ofsilver, of bronze, of iron, of wood, and of stone."How great was theirfolly! As they drank from golden vessels, they were praising gods of wood and ofstone. As long as the vessels had been in the idol-temple of Babylon, God wasnot moved to wrath, for they had evidently consecrated the property of God todivine worship, even though they did so in accordance with their own depravedviews of religion. But after they defiled holy things for the use of men, theirpunishment followed upon the heels of their sacrilege. Moreover they werepraising their own gods and scoffing at the God of the Jews, on the ground thatthey were drinking from His vessels because of the victory their own gods hadbestowed upon them. Applying this figuratively, we should have to say that itapplies to all the heretics or to any doctrine which is contrary to truth butwhich appropriates the words of the Biblical prophets and misuses the testimonyof Scripture to suit its own inclination. It furnishes liquor to those whom itdeceives and with whom it has committed fornication.|57It carries off the vessels of God's Temple and waxes drunken by quaffing them;and it does not give the praise to the God whose vessels they are, but to godsof gold and silver, of bronze, of iron, of wood, and of stone. I think that thegolden ones (A) are those which consist of earthly reason. The silver gods arethose which possess the charm of eloquence and are fashioned by rhetoric. Butthose which bring in the fables of the poets and employ ancient traditionscontaining marked divergences from one another in respect to good taste orfolly, (653) such are described as bronze and iron. And those who set forthsheer absurdities are called wooden or stone. The Book of Deuteronomy dividesthese all into two classes, saying: "Cursed is the man who fashions agraven image and a molten image, the work of the hands of an artificer, and setsit up in a secret place" (Deut. 32:15). For all heretics operate secretlyand disguise their fallacious teachings, in order that they may from concealmentshoot their arrows against those who are upright in heart.
Verse 5."At that same hour some fingers appeared as if they were ofa human hand, writing something over against the lampstand upon the surface ofthe wall of the king's palace. And the king watched the joints of the hand as itwrote."He puts it nicely when he says, "At that same hour,"just as we earlier read concerning Nebuchadnezzar, "While the saying wasyet in the king's mouth." This was in order that the offender mightrecognize that his punishment was not inflicted upon him for any other reasonbut his blasphemy.
(p. 520) But as for the circumstance that the fingers seemed to be writing onthe wall over against the lampstand, this was to avoid having the hand and thewritten matter appear at too great a distance from the light (to be clearlyvisible). And the fingers wrote upon the wall of the royal palace in order thatthe king might understand that the inscription concerned himself.
Verse 6."Then the king's expression was altered...." Heretoo it is to be observed concerning those Psalms entitled: "For those whowill suffer alterations (or vicissitudes)," that the alteration of fortuneis not only the lot of the saint but also of the sinner. ["For those whowill suffer alteration" is a remarkable interpretation of the Hebrew(al-shoshannim)----"accordingto lilies" (RSV)----rendered in the Authorized Version as|58"upon Shoshannim." The Vulgate rendering, following that of theSeptuagint, is based upon a very implausible vowel pointing:'al-sheshonim.']For we read in this connection: "King Belshazzar was considerably disturbedand his countenance was altered."
Verse 7.The king therefore cried out vehemently that the magicians shouldbe brought in, and the Chaldeans and the soothsayers...."Forgettingabout the experiences of Nebuchadnezzar, he was following after the ancient andingrained error of his family, so that instead of summoning a prophet of God hesummons the magicians and Chaldeans and soothsayers.
". . .he shall be clothed in purple and he shall have a goldennecklace about his neck."It is, of course, ridiculous of me to argueabout matters of gender in a commentary on the prophets; but inasmuch as anignorant but ostentatious critic has rebuked me for changing"necklace"(torquis)from feminine to masculine, I will makethe brief observation that while Cicero (B) and Vergil use "necklace"in the feminine, Livy uses it in the masculine.
"...and he shall be the third man in my kingdom...." Thatmeans either that he is to be third in rank after the king, or else one of thethree princes of the realm----for we elsewhere read of thetristatai.[Atristatesis one who stands next in rank to the king and queen, i.e., a vizier.]
Verse 10."Now the queen, by reason of what had happened to the kingand his nobles, entered into the banquet-hall...." Josephus says shewas Belshazzar's grandmother, whereas Origen says she was his mother. Shetherefore knew about previous events of which the king was ignorant. So much forPorphyry's far-fetched objection [lit.: "Therefore let Porphyry stay awakenights"----evigilet],who fancies that she was the king's wife, andmakes fun of the fact that she knows more than her husband does.
Verse 10 (=11)."'There is a man in thy kingdom who possesses withinhim the spirit of the holy gods.'"All the authorities exceptSymmachus, who adheres to the Chaldee original, render: "the spirit ofGod."
"'. ..and in the days of thy father, wisdom, and knowledge werefound in him.. . .' "She calls Nebuchadnezzar his father, according tothe custom of the Scriptures, even though,|59as we remarked before, he was actually his great-grandfather. But Daniel's godlymanner of life even amongst the barbarians is worthy of our imitation, for thevery grandmother or mother of the king extolled him with such words of praisebecause of the greatness of his virtues.
Verse 11 (sic!) (=17)."To this Daniel made answer before the king,saying: 'Thy gifts be unto thyself, and bestow the presents of thy house uponsomeone else. .. .'"We should follow the example of a man like Daniel,who despised the honor and gifts of a king, and who without any reward even inthat early day followed the Gospel injunction: "Freely have ye received,freely give." And besides, when one is announcing sad tidings, it isunbecoming for him willingly to accept gifts.
Verse 19."'He slew whomever he would and smote to death whomever hewished to; those whom he wished he set on high, and brought low whomever hewould.' "Thus he sets forth the example of the king'sgreat-grandfather (p. 521), in order to teach him the justice of God and make itclear that his great-grandson too was to suffer similar treatment because of hispride. Now if Nebuchadnezzar slew whomever he would and smote to death whomeverhe wished to; if he set on high those whom he would and brought low whomever hewished to, there is certainly no Divine providence or Scriptural injunctionbehind these honors and slayings, these acts of promotion and humiliation. Butrather, such things ensue from the will [readingvoluntatefor theerroneousvoluntasof the text] of the men themselves who do the slayingand promoting to honor, and all the rest. If this be the case, the questionarises as to how we are to understand the Scripture: "The heart of a kingreposes in the hand of God; He will incline it in whatever direction Hewishes" (Prov. 21:1). Perhaps we might say that every saint is a king(655), for sin does not reign in his mortal body, and his heart therefore iskept safe, for he is in God's hand (Rom. 6). And whatever has once come into thehand of God the Father, according to the Gospel, no man is able to take it away.And whoever is taken away, it is understood that he never was in God's hand atall.
Verses 22, 23. "'Thou too, his son, O Belshazzar, hast not humbledthine heart, even though thou knewest all these things, but hast lifted thyselfup against the ruler of heaven....'"|60Because thy great-grandfather, she says, lifted up his heart and hardened hisspirit in pride, he therefore was put down from his royal throne and his glorywas taken away, and so on (Jer. 4). Therefore in thy case also, because thouknewest these things about thy relative and didst understand that God resiststhe proud and gives grace to the humble, thou shouldest not have lifted up thyheart against the ruler of heaven and scoffed at His majesty and perpetrated thedeeds which thou hast. Some authorities apply this passage to Antichrist, on theground that he has imitated the pride of his father, the Devil, and has raisedhimself up against God. But they must deal with the question of whom Danielrepresents, and who is to be understood as interpreting the inscription of God,and who these Medes and Persians are who put Antichrist to death and succeed tohis royal power. For there is no doubt but what it is the saints who are to ruleafter the Antichrist.
Verses 25-28."This is the inscription which has been set up: MANE,THECEL, PHARES. And this is the interpretation of the sentence: 'MANE' meansthat God has numbered thy kingdom and brought it to an end. 'THECEL' means ithas been weighed in the scales and has been found deficient(Vulg.: thouhast been weighed and hast been found. .. .).'PHARES' means that thy kingdomhas been removed and given to the Medes and Persians."The inscription(A) of these three words on the wall simply meant: "Mane, Thecel,Phares"; the first of which sounds forth the idea of "number,"and the second "a weighing out," and the third "removal."And so there was a need not only for reading the inscription but also forinterpreting what had been read, in order that it might be understood what thesewords were announcing. That is to say, that God had numbered his kingdom andbrought it to an end, and that He had seized hold upon him to weigh him in Hisjudgment-scales, and the sword would slay him before he should meet a naturaldeath; and that his empire would be divided among the Medes and Persians. ForCyrus, the king of the Persians, as we have already mentioned, overthrew theChaldean Empire in alliance with Darius, his maternal uncle.
Verse 29. (p. 522) (656)"Then at the kings order Daniel was clothedwith purple and a golden chain was placed|61around his neck, and he was proclaimed to have authority as third ruler inthe kingdom."Or else, it might be construed as having authority over athird part of the kingdom. At any rate he received the royal insignia ofnecklace and purple, with the result that he appeared more notable to Darius,who was to be the successor in the royal power, and all the more honorablebecause of his notability. Nor was it strange that Belshazzar should have paidthe promised reward upon hearing sad tidings. For either he supposed that hispredictions would take place in the distant future, or else he hoped he wouldobtain mercy by honoring the prophet of God. And if he did not obtain this boon,it was because his sacrilege toward God outweighed the honor he accorded to man.
Verses 30, 31."On that same night Belshazzar, King of the Chaldeans,was slain, and Darius the Mede succeeded to his kingdom at the age ofsixty-two."Josephus writes in his tenth book of theJewishAntiquitiesthat when Babylon had been laid under siege by the Medes andPersians, that is, by Darius and Cyrus, Belshazzar, King of Babylon, fell intosuch forgetfulness of his own situation as to put on his celebrated banquet anddrink from the vessels of the Temple, and even while he was besieged he foundleisure for banqueting. From this circumstance the historical account couldarise, that he was captured and slaughtered on the same night, while everyonewas either terrified by fear of the vision and its interpretation, or else takenup with festivity and drunken banqueting. As for the fact that while Cyrus, Kingof the Persians, was the victor, and Darius was only King of the Medes, it wasDarius who was recorded to have succeeded to the throne of Babylon, this was anarrangement occasioned by factors of age, family relationship, and the territoryruled over. By this I mean that Darius was sixty-two years old, and that,according to what we read, the kingdom of the Medes was more sizable than thatof the Persians, and being Cyrus's uncle, he naturally had a prior claim, andought to have been accounted as successor to the rule of Babylon. Therefore alsoin a vision of Isaiah which was recited against Babylon, after many othermatters too lengthy to mention, an account is given of these things which are totake place: "Behold I Myself will rouse up against them the Medes, a peoplewho do not seek after silver nor desire gold, but who|62slay the very children with their arrows and have no compassion upon women whosuckle their young" (B) (Isa. 13:7). And Jeremiah says: "Sanctifynations against her, even the kings of Media, and the governors thereof and allthe magistrates thereof and all the land under the power thereof" (Jer.51:28). Then follow the words: "The daughter of Babylon is like athreshing-floor during the time of its treading; yet a little while, and thetime of its harvesting will come" (Jer. 51:33). And in testimony of thefact that Babylon was captured (657) during a banquet, Isaiah clearly exhortsher to battle when he writes: "Babylon, my beloved, has become a strangespectacle unto me [this rendering differs from the Hebrew original and theSeptuagint, and seems altogether unjustified]: set thou the table and behold inthe mirrors [the Hebrew says: "set the watch"] those who eat anddrink; rise up, ye princes, and snatch up your shields!" (Isa. 21:4, 5).|63
Verses 1 ff."It pleased Darius to appoint over his kingdom onehundred and twenty satraps, that they might be throughout his whole kingdom; andover them there were three princes, of which Daniel was one."Josephus,of whom we made mention above, in writing an account of this passage, put itthis way: Now Darius (C), who destroyed the empire of the (p. 523) Babyloniansin cooperation with his relative, Cyrus, ---- for they carried on the war asallies ---- was sixty-two years of age at the time he captured Babylon. He wasthe son of Astyages, and was known to the Greeks by another name. Moreover hetook away the prophet Daniel with him and took him to Media, and made him one ofthe three princes who were in charge of his whole kingdom. Hence we see thatwhen Babylon was overthrown, Darius returned to his own kingdom in Media, andbrought Daniel along with him in the same honorable capacity to which he hadbeen promoted by Belshazzar. There is no doubt but what Darius had heard of thesign and portent which had come to Belshazzar, and also of the interpretationwhich Daniel had set forth, and how he had foretold the rule of the Medes andthe Persians. And so no one should be troubled by the fact that Daniel is saidin one place to have lived in Darius's reign, and in another place in the reignof Cyrus. The Septuagint rendered Darius by the name Artaxerxes. But as for thefact that a non-chronological order is followed, so that some history isnarrated in the reign of Darius before material is given for Belshazzar's reign[cf. 7:1 and 8:1, which of course follow chap. 6], whereas we are subsequentlyto read that he was put to death by Darius, it seems to me that the anachronismresults from the fact that the author has brought all the historical portionstogether in immediate sequence. Therefore it is at the close of the earliervision that he had stated: "And Darius the Mede succeeded to the realm atthe age of sixty-two." And so it was under this Darius who put|64Belshazzar to death that the events took place of which we are about to speak.
"Moreover the king was planning to set Daniel over the whole realm.Consequently the princes and satraps sought an opportunity to find out somethingagainst Daniel as touching the king...." Instead of "princes"(658) ----the rendering used by Symmachus ---- Theodotion translated it astaktikoi["military tacticians"], and Aquila assynektikoi["liaisonofficers?"]. And when I inquired as to who these tacticians or liaisonprinces might be, I read it more clearly specified in the Septuagint, whichrenders: "...and the two men whom the king had appointed with Daniel, andalso the one hundred twenty satraps." And so it was the fact that the kingwas planning to appoint Daniel as chief ruler even over the two princes who hadbeen associated with him in a triumvirate that gave rise to the envy andintrigue. (A) They sought an opportunity to find out something against Daniel astouching the king [literally: "from the side of the king,"representing the Aramaic"missad malkuta'"----"from theside of the kingdom"]. And in this passage the Jews have ventured some suchdeduction as this: thesideof the king is tantamount to the queen or hisconcubines and other wives who slept at his side. And so they were seeking for apretext in things of this sort, to see whether they could accuse Daniel of wrongin his speech or touch or movements of his head or any of his sensory organs.But, say the Jews, they could find no cause for suspicion whatsoever. Since hewas a eunuch, they could not even accuse him on the score of lewdness. Thisinterpretation was made by those [Jews], who make a practice of fabricating longtales on the pretext of a single word. I myself would simply interpret this asmeaning that they were unable to discover any pretext of accusation against himin any matter in which he had injured the king, for the simple reason that (p.524) he was a faithful man and no suspicion of blame was discoverable in him.Instead of "suspicion" Theodotion and Aquila have rendered"offense"(amblakema),which isessaithain the Chaldee(B). And when I asked a Jew for the meaning of this word, he replied that thebasic significance of it was "snare," and we may render it as a"lure" orsphalma,that is, a "mistake." FurthermoreEuripides in his|65 "Medea"equates the wordamplakiai["offenses"] (spelling it with apinstead of ab)tohamartiai,that is to say,"sins."
Verse 5."Therefore those men said: 'We will not find any pretextagainst Daniel, except perhaps in the law of his God.'"Blessed indeedis a life so led that even enemies can find no cause for accusation, exceptperhaps in matter pertaining to God's law.
Verse 6."Then the princes and satraps privily withdrew to the kingand thus spoke to him."It was well said that they privily withdrew [or"went surreptitiously"] for they did not come right out with what theywere aiming at, but contrived their plot against a private enemy on the pretextof honoring the king.
Verse 8."Now therefore, O king, confirm the measure and write thedecree so that it may not be altered,(659)according to the customestablished by the Medes and Persians."It is perfectly evident, as wehave remarked above, that there was only one kingdom of the Medes and Persiansboth, under the rule of Darius and Cyrus.
Verse 10."Now when Daniel learned of it, that is, of the law whichhad been enacted, he entered his house, and with the windows in his upper roomopened up in the direction of Jerusalem, he continued to bow his knees threetimes a day and worshipped, and made confession before his God just as he waspreviously accustomed to do."We must quickly draw from our memory andbring together from all of Holy Scripture all the passages where we have read ofdomata,which mean in Latin either "walled enclosures"(menia)(C) or "beds" or "sun-terraces," and also the referencestoanogaia(D), that is, "upper rooms." For after all, our Lordcelebrated the passover in an upper room (Matt. 14), and in the Acts of theApostles the Holy Spirit came upon the one hundred and twenty souls of believerswhile they were in an upper room (Acts 2). And so Daniel in this case, despisingthe king's commands and reposing his confidence in God, does not offer hisprayers in some obscure spot, but in a lofty place, and opens up his windowstowards Jerusalem, from whence he looked for the peace [of God]. He prays,moreover, according to God's behest, and also according to what Solomon had saidwhen he admonished the people that they should pray in the|66direction of the Temple. Furthermore, there are three times in the day when weshould bow our knees unto God, and the tradition of the Church understands themto be the third hour, the sixth hour, and the ninth hour [i.e., 9:00 A.M., 12:00M., and 3:00 P.M.]. Lastly, it was at the third hour that the Holy Spiritdescended upon the Apostles (Acts 3) [misprint for Acts 2:15]. It was at thesixth hour that Peter, purposing to eat, ascended to the upper room for prayer(Acts 10). It was at the ninth hour that Peter and John were on their way to theTemple (Acts 3).
Verse 11."Those men, therefore, conducted an inquisitive search anddiscovered Daniel in prayer and making supplication unto his(p. 525)God."From this passage we learn that we are not to expose ourselves rashly todanger, but so far as it lies in our power, we are to avoid the plots of ourenemies. And so in Daniel's case, he did not contravene the king's authority ina public square or out in the street, but rather in a private place, in orderthat he might not neglect the commands of the one true God Almighty.
Verse 12. "'Hast thou not ordained, O king, that any man who makes arequest of any other person besides thee, whether god or man, shall be throwninto the lion-pit?' The king answered them, saying...." They do notmention Daniel's name, so that when the king has made a general answer as to theorder he gave, he may then be bound by his own word, and not deal with Daniel inany other fashion than he has stated.
" 'What you have said is true, according to the decree of the Medesand Persians, which it is not lawful to violate.' "We repeatedly takenote of every passage which speaks of the kingdom of the Medes and Persians, sothat we may dispose of the knotty problem of why Daniel speaks of the kingdom inone place as being under Darius, and in another as being under Cyrus.
Verse 13."Then they answered before the king and said, 'Daniel, whois of the captivity of Judah, has paid no heed to thy law....'"Inorder to magnify (A) the dishonor involved in this contempt, they speak of theman who showed this contempt for the king's commands as a mere captive.
Verse 14."And when the king heard this|67statement, he became quite grieved and applied himself on Daniel's behalfthat he might deliver him."He realized that he had been tripped up byhis own reply to their question, and also that envy was the motive of theirplot. And so to avoid the appearance of acting against his own law, he wanted todeliver Daniel from danger by ingenuity and strategy rather than by exerting hisroyal authority. And so earnestly did he labor and strive that he would notaccept any food, absolute monarch though he was, even until sunset. And as forthe plotters, so firmly did they persist in their evil purpose that noconsideration of the king's personal desire or of the damage he would sustainhad any effect upon them.
Verse 15."But those men, understanding the king's intent, said tohim: 'Be it known to thee, O king, that no law of the Medes and Persians, norany decree which the king has enacted, is capable of alteration.' "Justas the king understood that the princes were making their accusation out ofmotives of envy, so also they for their part understood what the king's purposewas, namely that he wished to rescue Daniel from imminent death. And so theyallege that according to the law of the Medes and Persians, the commands of aking cannot be nullified.
Verse 16."Then the king gave order, and they brought Daniel and casthim into the pit of lions. And the king said to Daniel: 'Thy God whom thou dostever serve will Himself deliver thee.'"He gives way to the crowd anddares not to withhold from his plotting adversaries the death of his friend, andhe commits to the power of God the purpose which he himself was unable toattain. Nor does he use the language of doubt, so as to say, "If He be ableto deliver thee"; but rather he speaks with boldness and confidence andsays, "The God whom thou dost ever serve shall Himself deliver thee."He had heard, of course, that three youths who were of a lower rank than Danielhimself had triumphed over the flames of Babylon. He had heard that many secretshad been revealed to Daniel, and therefore regarded him highly, (p. 526) andheld him, captive though he was, in the greatest honor.
Verse 17."A single stone was brought and placed over the opening ofthe pit, and the king sealed it with his ring... ."He sealed with hisring the rock by which the|68 openingof the pit was shut up, so that the enemies of Daniel might not make any attemptto harm him. For he had entrusted him to the power of God, and although notworried about lions, he was fearful of men. He also sealed it with the ring ofhis nobles, in order to avoid all ground for suspicion so far as they wereconcerned.
Verse 18."And the king departed to his own house, and went to bedwithout partaking of supper...." How sincere was the king's good will,when he would not touch food night or day or grant his eyelids sleep, but aslong as the prophet was in danger he himself remained in a state of sympatheticsuspense. But if a king who knew not God did such a thing for another man whosedeliverance he desired, how much more ought we to implore God's mercy for ourown sins with fastings and watchings.
Verse 19."Then the king arose at the break of dawn and proceededwith haste to the pit of lions."The term "pit"(lacus)impliesa really deep depression, or dry cistern, in which the lions were fed. And so heproceeded hastily to the pit at the break of dawn, believing that Daniel wasalive. But in Latin the wordlacusis applied to a body of fresh water,such as Lake Benacus [the modern Garda] and Lake Larius [now Lake Como], and therest of them. The Greeks call itlimne,that is, "a body of standingwater"(stagnum).
Verse 20."And approaching the pit, he called out to Daniel with atear-choked voice and addressed him."By his tears he showed his inneremotion, and forgetting his royal dignity, the conqueror ran to his captive, themaster to his servant.
Verse 20b. "'O Daniel, servant of the living God....'"Hecalls Him the living God in order to distinguish Him from the gods of theGentiles, who are but effigies of the dead.
"'Dost thou deem that thy God, whom thou ever servest, has been ableto deliver thee from the lions?' "It was not that he had any doubtsabout the power of the God of whom he had previously affirmed, "Thy God,whom thou ever servest, will Himself deliver thee." But he phrased thesentence doubtfully in order that when Daniel [reading "Daniel"instead of the|69 meaningless ablative"Daniele"] made his appearance unharmed, the king's anger at theprinces might seem the more justified, in proportion to the incredibility of theevent.
Verse 21."'O king, live forever!'"Daniel honors the onewho accords honor to him, and prays for him eternal life.
Verse 22. (662) "'My God sent His angel and shut up the lions'mouths, and they did me no harm.. . .'"The fierceness of the lions wasnot altered, but their gaping jaws were closed by the angel, and also theirvoracious hunger, and that too for the reason that the prophet's good works hadgone before him. And so his deliverance was not so much a matter of grace as ofreward for his unrightness. And these words might be uttered by every saint, forhe has been snatched from the mouths of lions unseen and from the infernal pit,because he has trusted in his God.
Verses 25-27."Then king Darius wrote unto all the peoples, tribesand language-groups who dwelt in all(p. 527)the earth, saying:(A)'Yourpeace be multiplied! I have enacted a decree that in all my empire and kingdommen are to dread and tremble before the God of Daniel. For it is He who is theliving God and the One who abides forever, and His rule shall not be overthown,and His power shall eternally endure. It is He who is the Deliverer and Savior,who performs signs and wonders in heaven and on earth, and who has deliveredDaniel from the pit of lions.'"Just as in the case of Nebuchadnezzar'swriting unto the language-groups and nations one authority has interpreted themto signify hostile powers, so also this same man interprets the action ofDarius, on the ground that he summons them all to repentance. And he poses thequestion as to whether this will take place in this world or in the other world,or even after other worlds have intervened. We deem these speculations to beabsurd and account them as empty fables, and make this single observation: thatthe reason why signs are performed amid barbarian peoples through the agency ofGod's servants is that the worship and religion of the only God may beproclaimed.
Verse 28."Thereafter Daniel lived on until the reign of Darius andthe reign of Cyrus the Persian."And so the statement which we readabove at the end of the first vision, "And Daniel lived until the firstyear of King Cyrus," is not to be|70understood as defining the span of his life. In view of the fact that we read inthe last vision: "In the third year of Cyrus, King of the Persians, a wordwas revealed to Daniel, whose surname was Belteshazzar"; this is what ismeant, that up to the first year of King Cyrus, who destroyed the empire of theChaldeans, Daniel continued in power in Chaldea, but was afterwards transferredto Media by Darius. |71
Verse 1."In the first year of Belshazzar, King[readingregisforregias]of Babylon, Daniel beheld a dream. And a vision of hishead[came to him]upon his bed. And when he wrote the dream down, hecomprehended it in a few words and gave a brief summary of it, saying. ..."This section (663) which we now undertake to explain, and also thesubsequent section which we are going to discuss, is historically prior to thetwo previous sections [i.e., chap. 5 and chap. 6]. For this present section andthat which follows it are recorded to have taken place in the first and thirdyears of the reign of King Belshazzar (Jer. 39). [Jerome's citation of Jer. 39seems quite pointless in this connection.] But the section which we readpreviously to the one just preceding this [i.e., chap. 5], is recorded to havetaken place in the last year, indeed on the final day, of Belshaz-zar's reign.And we meet this phenomenon not only in Daniel but also in Jeremiah [cf. Jer. 35and Jer. 34] and Ezekiel (Ezek. 17), as we shall be able to show, if life sparesus that long. But in the earlier portion of the book, the historical order hasbeen followed, namely the events which occurred in the time of Nebuchadnezzar,and Belshazzar, and Darius or Cyrus. But in the passages now before us anaccount is given of various visions which were beheld on particular occasionsand of which only the prophet himself was aware, and which therefore lacked anyimportance as signs or revelations so far as the barbarian nations wereconcerned. But they were written down only that a record of the things beheldmight be preserved for posterity.
Verses 2, 3."And during the night I saw in my vision, and behold,the four winds of heaven strove upon the great sea, and four great beasts werecoming up out of the sea, differing from one another."The four windsof heaven I suppose to have been angelic powers to whom the principalities havebeen (p. 528) committed, in accordance with what we read in|72Deuteronomy: "When the Most High divided the nations and when He separatedthe children of Adam, He established the bounds of the peoples according to thenumber of the angels. [Jerome here follows uncritically the Septuagint, whichreadbenev 'el("sons of God") instead of theMassoreticbeney Yisra'el("sons ofIsrael"). Since in his own Vulgate translation Jerome followed theMassoretic text and renderedfiliorum Israel,he must have written thisCommentary before he translated the Pentateuch.] For the Lord's portion is Hispeople; Jacob is the line of His inheritance (B) (Deut. 32:8). But the seasignifies this world and the present age, overwhelmed with salty and bitterwaves, in accordance with the Lord's own interpretation of the dragnet cast intothe sea (Matt. 13). Hence also the sovereign of all creatures that inhabit thewaters is described as a dragon, and his heads, according to David, are smittenin the sea (Ps. 73). And in Amos we read: "If he descends to the very depthof the sea, there will I give him over to the dragon and he shall bite him"(Amos 9:3). But as for the four beasts who came up out of the sea and weredifferentiated from one another, we may identify them from the angel'sdiscourse. "These four great beasts," he says, "are four kingdomswhich shall rise up from the earth." And as for the four winds which strovein the great sea, they are called winds of heaven because each one of the angelsdoes for his realm the duty entrusted to him. This too should be noted, that thefierceness and (664) cruelty of the kingdoms concerned are indicated by the term"beasts."
Verse 4."The first beast was like a lioness and possessed the wingsof an eagle. I beheld until her wings were torn away, and she was raised uprightfrom the ground and stood on her feet like a human being, and she was given ahuman heart."The kingdom of the Babylonians was not called a lion buta lioness, on account of its brutality and cruelty, or else because of itsluxurious, lust-serving manner of life. [Actually Jerome errs in rendering'aryehas lioness, for it is the regular masculine form for "lion" inAramaic, "lioness" being'aryuta'.Perhaps Jerome mistook thehein the unpointed text before him as the common feminine ending----ah.Or else he simply relied uncritically upon the Septuagint, which commits thesame error.] For writers upon the natural history of beasts assert thatlionesses are fiercer than|73 lions,especially if they are nursing their cubs, and constantly are passionate intheir desire for sexual relations. And as for the fact that she possessedeagle's wings, this indicates the pride of the all-powerful kingdom, the rulerof which declares in Isaiah: "Above the stars of heaven will I place mythrone, and I shall be like unto the Most High" (Isa. 14). Therefore he istold: "Though thou be borne on high like an eagle, thence will I drag theedown" (Obad.). Moreover, just as the lion occupies kingly rank amongbeasts, so also the eagle among the birds. But it should also be said that theeagle enjoys a long span of life, and that the kingdom of Assyrians had heldsway for many generations. And as for the fact that the wings of the lioness oreagle were torn away, this signifies the other kingdoms over which it had ruledand soared about in the world. "And she was raised up," he says,"from the ground"; which means, of course (C), that the Chaldeanempire was overthrown. And as for what follows, "And she stood upon herfeet like a human being, and she was given a human heart," if we understandthis as applying to Nebuchadnezzar, it is very evident that after he lost hiskingdom and his power had been taken away from him, and after he was once morerestored to his original state, he not only learned to be a man instead of alioness but he also received back the heart which he had lost. But if on theother hand this is to be understood as applying in a general way to the kingdomof the Chaldeans, then it signifies that after Belshazzar was slain [readinginterfectofor the impossibleinperfectoof the text], and the Medes andPersians succeeded to imperial power, then the men of Babylon realized thattheirs was a frail and lowly nature after all. Note the order followed here: thelioness is equivalent to the golden head of the image [in chap. 2] (p. 529).
Verse 5."And behold another beast like a bear stood up on one side;and there were three rows in his mouth and in his teeth; and they said to him:'Arise up and devour flesh in abundance.' "The second beast resemblinga bear is the same as that of which we read in the vision of the statue (2:32):"His chest and arms were of silver." In the former case the comparisonwas based on the hardness of the metal, in this case on the ferocity of thebear. For the Persian kingdom followed a rigorous and frugal manner of life(665) after the manner of the Spartans, and|74that too to such an extent that they used to use salt and nasturtium-cress intheir relish. Let us consult the record of the childhood of Cyrus the Great(i.e., "The Education or Training" of Cyrus) [Jerome refers here toXenophon's "Cyropaideia"]. And as for the fact that the bear is saidto have "stood up on one side," the Hebrews interpret it by sayingthat the Persians never perpetrated any cruelty against Israel. Hence they aredescribed in the Prophecy of Zechariah also as white horses (Zech. 1). But asfor the three rows or ranks that were in his mouth and between his teeth, oneauthority has interpreted this to mean that allusion was made to the fact thatthe Persian kingdom was divided up among three princes, just as we read in thesections dealing with Belshazzar and with Darius that there were three princeswho were in charge of the one hundred and twenty satraps. But other commentatorsaffirm that these were three kings of the Persians who were subsequent to Cyrus,and yet they fail to mention them by name (A). But we know that after Cyrus'sreign of thirty years his son Cambyses ruled among the Persians, and hisbrothers the magi [the plural seems unwarranted, since there was but one brotherinvolved, namely, Smerdis], and then Darius, in the second year of whose reignthe rebuilding of the Temple was commenced at Jerusalem. The fifth king wasXerxes, the son of Darius; the sixth was Artabanus [actually only the assassinof Xerxes; he never became king]; the seventh, Artaxerxes who was surnamedMakrokheir,that isLongimanus("Long-handed"); the eighth, (B) Xerxes;the ninth, Sogdianus [the reigns of the last two totaled no more than eightmonths]; the tenth, Darius surnamedNothos("Bastard"); theeleventh, the Artaxerxes calledMnemon,that is, "TheRememberer"; the twelfth, the other Artaxerxes, who himself received thesurname of Ochus; the thirteenth, Arses, the son of Ochus; and the fourteenth,Darius the son of Arsamus, who was conquered by Alexander, the king of theMacedonians. How then can we say that these were three kings of the Persians? Ofcourse we could select some who were especially cruel, but we cannot ascertainthem on the basis of the historical accounts. Therefore the three rows in themouth of the Persian kingdom and between its teeth we must take to be the threekingdoms of the Babylonians, the Medes, and the Persians, all of which werereduced to a single realm. And as for|75the information, "And thus they spake to him: 'Devour flesh in abundance,'" this refers to the time when in the reign of the Ahasuerus whom theSeptuagint calls Artaxerxes, the order was given, at the suggestion of Haman theAgagite, that all the Jews be slaughtered on a single day (Esth. 3). And veryproperly, instead of saying, "He was devouring them" the accountspecifies, "Thus they spake unto him...." This shows that the matterwas only attempted, and was by no means ever carried out.
Verse 6."After this I beheld, and lo, there was another beast(C)like unto a leopard, and it had jour wings of a bird(666)all its own[?theper sehere is obscure],and there were four heads to thebeast, and power was given to it."The third kingdom was that of theMacedonians, of which we read in connection with the image, "The belly andthighs were of bronze." It is compared to a leopard because it is veryswift andhormetikos[impetuous], and it charges headlong to shed blood,and with a single bound rushes (p. 530) to its death. "And it had fourwings...." There was never, after all, any victory won more quickly thanAlexander's, for he traversed all the way from Illyricum and the Adriatic Sea tothe Indian Ocean and the Ganges River, not merely fighting battles but winningdecisive victories; and in six years he subjugated to his rule a portion ofEurope and all of Asia. And by the four heads reference is made to his generalswho subsequently rose up as successors to his royal power, namely Ptolemy,Seleucus, Philip [i.e., Philip Arrhidaeus, an illegitimate brother of Alexander,who was proclaimed king upon Alexander's death, but never exercised genuinepower, and died after seven years], and Antigonus [the precursor of Seleucus inthe rule of the Asiatic portion of Alexander's empire]. "And power wasgiven to it" shows that the empire did not result from Alexander's braverybut from the will of God.
Verse 7."After this, I beheld in the night-vision, and behold, therewas a fourth beast, terrible and wonderful and exceedingly strong. He had largeiron teeth, devouring and crushing, and everything that was left he stamped topieces under his feet."The fourth empire is the Roman Empire, whichnow occupies the entire world, and concerning which it was said in connectionwith the image, "Its lower legs were of iron, and part of its feet were ofiron, and part of clay." And yet from the iron|76portion itself Daniel calls to mind that its teeth were iron, and solemnly aversthat they were large in size. I find it strange that although he had set forth alioness, a bear and a leopard in the case of the three previous kingdoms, he didnot compare the Roman realm to any sort of beast. Perhaps it was in order torender the beast fearsome indeed that he gave it no name, intending thereby thatwe should understand the Romans to partake of all the more ferociouscharacteristics we might think of in connection with beasts. The Hebrews believethat the beast which is here not named is the one spoken of in the Psalms:"A boar from the forest laid her waste, and a strange wild animal consumedher" (Ps. 79:14). [This is the citation according to the Septuagint andVulgate, whose translation of the Septuagint is here quoted; but the citation inthe Hebrew text is Ps. 80:14, and in the English Version, 80:13.] Instead ofthis the Hebrew reads: "All the beasts of the field have torn her." [Amore accurate rendering of the Hebrew would be: ". . .and the movingcreatures (or "swarms") of the field do feed upon her."] Whilethey are all included in the one Empire of the Romans, we recognize at the sametime those kingdoms which were previously separate. And as for the nextstatement, ". . .devouring and crushing, and pounding all the rest topieces under his feet," this signifies that all nations have either beenslain by the Romans or else have been subjected to tribute and servitude.
". ..But it did not resemble the other beasts which I had previouslyseen"(Vulgate: "...which I had seen before it"). In theearlier beasts he had seen various symbols of fright-fulness, but they were allconcentrated in this one.
"...and it had ten horns."Porphyry assigned the last twobeasts, that of the Macedonians and that of the Romans, to the one realm of theMacedonians and divided them up as follows. He claimed that the leopard wasAlexander himself, and that the beast which was dissimilar to the othersrepresented the four successors of Alexander, and then he enumerates ten kingsup to the time of Antiochus, surnamed Epiphanes, and who were very cruel. And hedid not assign the kings themselves to separate kingdoms, for example Macedon,Syria, Asia, or Egypt, but rather he made out the various kingdoms a singlerealm consisting of a series. This he did of course in order that the words|77which were written: ".. .a mouth uttering overweening boasts" [in thelast part of verse 8] might be considered as spoken about Antiochus instead ofabout Antichrist.
Verse 8. "Iwas looking at the horns, and behold, another small hornrose up out of the midst of them, and three of the earlier horns were torn awaybefore it. And behold, there were in that horn eyes like unto human eyes, and amouth uttering overweening boasts."Porphyry vainly surmises that thelittle (p. 531) horn which rose up after the ten horns is Antiochus Epiphanes,and that the three uprooted horns out of the ten are (A) Ptolemy VI (surnamedPhilometer), Ptolemy VII (Euergetes), and Artaraxias, King of Armenia. The firsttwo of these kings died long before Antiochus was born. Against Artarxias, to besure, we know that Antiochus indeed waged war, but also we know that Artarxiasremained in possession of his original kingly authority. We should thereforeconcur with the traditional interpretation of all the commentators of theChristian Church, that at the end of the world, when the Roman Empire is to bedestroyed, there shall be ten kings who will partition the Roman world amongstthemselves. Then an insignificant eleventh king will arise, who will overcomethree of the ten kings, that is, the king of Egypt, the king of [North] Africa,and the king of Ethiopia, as we shall show more clearly in our later discussion.Then after they have been slain, the seven other kings also will bow their necksto the victor. "And behold," he continues, "there were eyes likeunto human eyes in that horn." Let us not follow the opinion of somecommentators and suppose him to be either the Devil or some demon, but rather,one of the human race, in whom Satan will wholly take up his residence in bodilyform. ". . .and a mouth uttering overweening boasts..." (cf. II Thess.2). For this is the man of sin, the son (668) of perdition, and that too to sucha degree that he dares to sit in the temple of God, making himself out to belike God.
Verse 9."I beheld until thrones were set up, and the Ancient of daystook His seat. His garment was as white as snow, and the hair of His head waslike pure wool. His throne was composed of fiery flames and its wheels were seton fire. From before His presence there issued forth a rushing, fierystream."We read something similar in John'sApocalypse:(Rev.4:2 ff.)|78 "After these things Iwas immediately in the Spirit, and lo, a throne was set up in heaven, and onewas seated upon the throne; and He who sat upon it had the likeness of jasperand sardine stone, and there was a rainbow round about the throne like theappearance of emerald. Around the throne there were twenty-four other thrones,and upon the twenty-four thrones there sat twenty-four elders, clothed inshining garments; upon their heads was a golden crown (B), and lightning flashesissued from the throne, and voices and thunder. And in front of the throne therewere seven torches of burning fire, which were the seven spirits of God. And infront of the throne lay a glassy sea like unto crystal." And so the manythrones which Daniel saw seem to me to be what John called the twenty-fourthrones. And the Ancient (C) of days is the One who, according to John (p. 532)sits alone upon His throne. Likewise the Son of man, who came unto the Ancientof days, is the same as He who, according to John, is called the Lion of thetribe of Judah (Rev. 5), the Root of David, and the titles of that sort. Iimagine that these thrones are the ones of which the Apostle Paul says,"Whether thrones or dominions. . ." (Col. 1:16). And in the Gospel weread, "Ye yourselves shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelvetribes of Israel" (Matt. 10:28). And God is called the One who sits and whois the Ancient of days, in order that His character as eternal Judge might beindicated. His garment is shining white like the snow, and the hair of His headis like pure wool. The Savior also, when He was transfigured on the mount andassumed the glory of His divine majesty, appeared in shining white garments(Matt. 17). And as for the fact that His hair is compared to perfectly purewool, the even-handedness and uprightness of His judgment is shown forth, ajudgment which shows no partiality in its exercise. Moreover He is described asan elderly man, in order that the ripeness of His judgment may be established.His throne consists of fiery flames, in order that sinners may tremble beforethe severity of the (669) torments [of hell], and also that the just may besaved, but so as by fire. The wheels of the throne are set aflame, or else it isthe wheels of His chariot which are aflame. In Ezekiel also God is ushered onthe scene seated in a four-horse chariot (Ez. 1), and everything pertaining toGod is of a fiery consistency. In another place also a statement is made on thissubject: "God|79 is a consumingfire" (Deut. 4:24), that we might know that wood, hay and stubble are goingto burn up in the day of judgment. And in the Psalms we read: "Fire goethbefore Him, and He shall set aflame all His enemies round about Him" (Ps.96:3). A rushing, fiery stream proceeded from before Him in order that it mightcarry sinners to hell (Gehenna).
Verse 10."There were millions ministering unto Him, and a billionstood by His side."[The Aramaic original is more conservative: "Amillion were ministering unto Him, and a hundred million were standing (in Hispresence)."] This was not intended to be a specific number for the servantsof God, but only indicates a multitude too great for human computation. Theseare the thousands and tens of thousands of which we read in the Psalms:"The chariot of God is attended by ten thousands; thousands of them thatrejoice. The Lord is among them" (Ps. 67:18). And in another place:"He who maketh His angels spirits, and His ministers a flaming fire"(Ps. 103:4). [The Protestant reader should always add one to the VulgatePsalm-number in order to arrive at the Psalm-number of the Hebrew Bible or theEnglish Version.] Now the duty of angels is twofold: the duty of one group is tobestow rewards upon just men; the duty of the other is to have charge overindividual calamities [i.e., calamities in the lives of individuals? Theoriginal is:qui singulis praesunt cruciatibus].(D)
". ..The court was in session, and the books were opened."Theconsciences of men, and the deeds of individuals which partake of eithercharacter, whether good or bad, are disclosed to all. One of the books is thegood book of which we (p. 533) often read, namely the book of the living. Theother is the evil book which is held in the hand of the accuser, who is thefiend and avenger of whom we read in Revelation: "The accuser of ourbrethren" (Rev. 12:10). This is the earthly book of which the prophet says:"Let them be written on earth" (Jer. 17:13).
Verse 11. "Ilooked on because of the sound of the lofty words whichthat horn was uttering."The judgment of God descends for the humblingof pride. Hence the Roman Empire also will be destroyed, because [it is] thehorn [which] was uttering the lofty words.
". ..And I saw that the beast was slain and its body|80perished."In the one empire of the Romans, all the kingdoms at onceare to be destroyed, because of the blasphemy of the Antichrist. (670) And the[succeeding] empire shall not be an earthly empire at all, but it is simply theabode of the saints which is spoken of here, and the advent of the conqueringSon of God.
Verses 13, 14."And behold, there came One with the clouds of heavenlike unto the Son of man."He who was described in the dream ofNebuchadnezzar as a rock cut without hands, which also grew to be a largemountain, and which smashed the earthenware, the iron, the bronze, the silver,and the gold is now introduced as the very person of the Son of man, so as toindicate in the case of the Son of God how He took upon Himself human flesh;according to the statement which we read in the Acts of the Apostles: "Yemen of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up towards heaven? This Jesus who has beentaken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen Himgoing into heaven" (Acts 1:11).
". ..And He arrived unto the Ancient of days, and they brought Himbefore His presence, and He gave unto Him authority and honor and royalpower."All that is said here concerning His being brought beforeAlmighty God and receiving authority and honor and royal power is to beunderstood in the light of the Apostle's statement: "Who, although He wasin the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God; but emptiedHimself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men, andwas found in His condition to be as a man: He humbled Himself, becoming obedientunto death, even to the death of the cross" (Phil. 2:6-8). And if the sectof the Arians were willing to give heed to all this Scripture with a reverentmind, they would never direct against the Son of God the calumny that He is noton an equality with God.
"...And He is the one whom all the peoples, tribes, andlanguage-groups shall serve. His authority is an eternal authority which shallnot be removed, and His kingdom shall be one that shall never be destroyed...."Let Porphyry answer the query of whom out of all mankind thislanguage might apply to, or who this person might be who was so powerful as tobreak and smash to pieces the little horn, whom he interprets to be Antiochus?If he replies that the princes of Antiochus were defeated|81by Judas Maccabaeus, then he must explain how Judas could be said to come withthe clouds of heaven like unto the Son of man, and to be brought unto theAncient of days, and how it could be said that authority and royal power wasbestowed upon him, and that all (671) peoples and tribes and language-groupsserved him, and that his power is eternal and not terminated by any conclusion(p. 534).
Verses 17, 18."These four great beasts are the four kingdoms whichshall arise from the earth. But the saints of the Most High God shall take thekingdom."The four kingdoms of which we have spoken above were earthlyin character. "For everything which is of the earth shall return toearth" (Eccl. 3:20). But the saints shall never possess an earthly kingdom,but only a heavenly. Away, then, with the fable about a millennium! [Cessetergo mille annorum fabula.]
". . .And they shall possess the kingdom unto eternity, even foreverand ever...." If this be taken to refer to the Maccabees, the advocateof this position should explain how the kingdom of the Maccabees is of aperpetual character.
Verse 25."And he shall utter(variant: "he utters")speechesagainst the Lofty One."Or else, as Symmachus has rendered it: "Heutters speeches like God," so that one who assumes the authority of Godwill also arrogate to himself the words of divine majesty.
". ..And he shall crush the saints of the Most High, and willsuppose himself to be able to alter times and laws."The Antichristwill wage war against the saints and will overcome them; and he shall exalthimself to such a height of arrogance (A) as to attempt changing the very lawsof God and the sacred rites as well. He will also lift himself up against allthat is called God, subjecting all religion to his own authority.
". ..And they shall be delivered into his hand for a time, andtimes, and half a time.""Time" is equivalent to"year." The word "times," according to the idiom of theHebrews (who also possess the dual number) represents "two years."[The Aramaic original here, according to the Massoretic vowel pointing, has theplural ending----iyn,not the dual ending----ayin.Tobe sure, the consonantal text could also be pointed as dual.] The half a yearsignifies "six months." During this period the saints|82are to be given over to the power of the Antichrist, in order that those Jewsmight be condemned who did not believe the truth but supported a lie. The Savioralso speaks of this period in the Gospel, saying: "Unless those days hadbeen cut short, no flesh would be saved" (Matt. 24:22). In the final visionwe shall assert the inappropriateness of this period to Antiochus.
Verse 26."And the court will sit in judgment, that(Antichrist's)power may be taken away and be crushed in pieces and utterly perish even untothe end."This refers to Antichrist, that is, to the little horn whichuttered the lofty words, for his kingdom is to be permanently destroyed. (672)
Verse 27."But kingdom and power and a vast realm comprising all thatis under heaven shall be conferred upon the nation of the saints of the MostHigh, whose kingdom is an eternal kingdom, and whom all kings shall serve andobey."Here the reference is to Christ's empire, which is eternal.
Verse 28."Thus far is the end of the word."That is,"the end of that word and discourse which the Lord revealed to me in thispresent vision."
". ..I,Daniel, was much troubled with my thoughts(B),and mycountenance was altered within me; but I preserved the word in my heart."Upto this point the Book of Daniel was written in the Chaldee and Syriac language.All the rest that follows up to the very end of the volume we read in Hebrew.|83
Verse 1. (p. 535)"In the third year of the reign of King Belshazzar,a vision appeared to me. I, Daniel, after what I had seen at the first...."This vision came two years after the previous revelation, for the latter wasbeheld in the first year of Belshazzar, whereas this was beheld in the thirdyear. And so he informs us: ". . .after that which I had seen at thefirst."
Verse 2. "Isaw in my vision while I was in the castle of Susa, whichis in the region of Elam"(Vulgate: "city of Elam"). Or elsewe may render, as Symmachus has translated it, ".. .in thecityofElam," from which of course the region took its name, just as theBabylonians were named from Babylon. So also the Elamites were thus named fromElam, in consequence of which the Septuagint translates it: "the region ofElamais." And Susis [that is, "Susa"] is the chief city of theregion of the Elamites, and there, according to Josephus' account (A), Danielerected a lofty tower fashioned of square blocks of marble, and of suchoutstanding beauty that it seems newly built even up to the present day. Therealso the remains of the kings of the Persians and Medes lie buried, and thecustodian or sacristan and priest of that locality is a Jew. "While I wasin the castle at Susa. ..." Not that the city itself is a castle, for as wehave stated, it is a chief city of great power; but rather that the city is sosolidly built that it looks like a castle.
"And I saw in the vision that I was over the gate of Ulai."Insteadof this Aquila translated:". . .over the Ubal of Ulai"; Theodotionrendered: "above Ubal"; Symmachus: "above the swamp ofUlai"; the Septuagint: (B) "above the gate of Ulai." But itshould be understood that Ulai is the name of a place, or else of a gate, justas there was in Troy a gate called theSkaia["Western"], andamong the Romans there is one calledCarmentalis.In each case the namehas originated from special circumstances. [Actually the Hebrew word "'uwbal"is a common noun|84 meaning"canal"; the proper translation would be: "I was by the UlaiCanal."]
Verse 3."And I lifted up my eyes and saw."Yet of courseone only sees in dreams things which appear as shadowy representations,naturally, and as mere likenesses, rather than our being able to behold thereality of the objects themselves (C).
"And behold, a ram stood in front of the swamp(or: in front ofthe gate ---- the word being UBAL in the Hebrew),having lofty horns, one ofwhich was higher than the other and growing yet larger."He callsDarius, Cyrus's uncle, a ram. He reigned over the Medes after his father,Astyages. And the one horn which was higher than the other, and growing stilllarger, signified Cyrus himself, who succeeded his maternal grandfather,Astyages, and reigned over the Medes and Persians along with his uncle, Darius,whom the Greeks called Cyaxeres.
Verse 4."After this I saw the ram pushing with its horns westward(D) and northward and southward...." Not that he saw the ram itself,that is, the ram of Cyrus or Darius, but rather the ram of the same kingdom astheirs, that is, the second Darius, who was the last king of the Persian power,and who was overcome by the king of the Macedonians, Alexander the son ofPhilip. And as to the fact that Darius was a very powerful and wealthy king,both the Greek and the Latin and the barbarian historical accounts so relate.
Verse 5."And I myself understood...." On the basis of theprevious visions which had symbolized the second kingdom by the ram and thehe-goat, Daniel now also understood that he was looking at the empire of theMedes and Persians.
"And behold, there was a he-goat which was coming from the West abovethe surface of the whole earth, and yet without touching the ground...."So that no one will think that I am attaching a private interpretation to this,let us simply repeat the words of Gabriel as he explained the prophet's vision.He said, "The ram whom thou sawest to possess two horns is the king of theMedes and Persians." This was, of course, Darius the son of Arsames, inwhose reign the kingdom of the Medes and Persians was destroyed. "There wasin addition a he-goat, who was coming from the west," and because of hisextraordinary|85 speed he appeared notto touch the ground. This was Alexander, the king of the Greeks, who after theoverthrow of Thebes took up arms against the Persians. Commencing the conflictat the Granicus River, he conquered the generals of Darius and finally smashedagainst (674) the ram himself and broke in pieces his two horns, the Medes andthe Persians. Casting him beneath his feet, he subjected both horns to his ownauthority.
"And(he had)a large horn...." refers to the firstking, Alexander himself. When he died in Babylon at the age of thirty-two, hisfour generals rose up in his place and divided his empire among themselves. ForPtolemy, the son of Lagos, seized Egypt; the Philip who was also called Aridaeus(var.: Arius), the (half-) brother of Alexander took over Macedonia; SeleucusNicanor took over Syria, Babylonia, and all the kingdoms of the East; andAntigonus ruled over Asia Minor. "But (they shall not rise up) with hispower" (chap. 8:22), since no one was able to equal the greatness ofAlexander himself. "And a long time afterward" there shall arise"a king of Syria who shall be of shameless countenance and shall understand(evil) counsels," even Antiochus Epiphanes, the son of the Seleucus who wasalso called Philopator.
Verse 9. After he had been a hostage to Rome, and had without the knowledgeof the Senate obtained rule by treachery, Antiochus fought with PtolemyPhilometor, that is,"against the South"and against Egypt; andthen again"against the East,"and against those who werefomenting revolution in Persia. At the last he fought against the Jews andcaptured Judea, entering into Jerusalem and setting up in the Temple of God thestatue of Jupiter Olympius."...and against the power of heaven,"thatis, against the children of Israel, who were protected by the assistance ofangels. He pushed his arrogance to such an extreme that he subjected themajority of the saints to the worship of idols, as if he would tread the verystars beneath his feet. And thus it came to pass that he held the South and theEast, that is, Egypt and Persia, under his sway.
Verses 11, 12. And as for the statement,"And he glorified himselfeven against the Prince of Power,"this means that he lifted himself upagainst God and persecuted His saints. He even took away theendelekhismosor"continual offering"|86 whichwas customarily sacrificed in the morning and at even, and he prevailed to thecasting down of the"place of His sanctuary."And he did not dothis by his own prowess, but only"on account of the sins of thepeople."And thus it came to pass that truth was prostrated upon theground, and as the worship of idols flourished, the religion of God suffered aneclipse.
Verse 13."And I heard one of the saints speaking, and one saint saidto another saint(I do not know which one),who was conversing withhim."Instead of "another one which one I do not know" ----the rendering of Symmachus (p. 537) (A)(tini pote)which I too havefollowed ---- Aquila and (675) Theodotion, and the Septuagint as well, havesimply put the Hebrew word(p-l-m-n-y) phelmoni(B) itself. Withoutspecifying the angel's name, I should say that the author indicated some one ofthe angels or other in a general way.
"'How long shall be the vision concerning the continual sacrificeand the sin of the desolation that is made, and the sanctuary and the strengthbe trodden under foot?'"One angel asks another angel for how long aperiod the Temple is by the judgment of God to be desolated under the rule ofAntiochus, King of Syria, and how long the image of Jupiter is to stand in God'sTemple (according to his additional statement: "... and the sanctuary andthe strength be trodden under foot?").
Verse 14. And he answered him, "'Until the evening and the morning,until two thousand three hundred days(C);and then the sanctuary shallbe cleansed.' "If we read the Books of Maccabees and the history ofJosephus, we shall find it there recorded that in the one hundred andforty-third year after the Seleucus who first reigned in Syria after the deceaseof Alexander, Antiochus entered Jerusalem, and after wreaking a generaldevastation he returned again in the third year and set up the statue of Jupiterin the Temple. Up until the time of Judas Macca-baeus, that is, up until the onehundred and eighth year, Jerusalem lay waste over a period of six years, and forthree [of those] years the Temple lay defiled; making up a total of two thousandthree hundred days plus three months. [At least that is what the text seems tosay, following the present word-order. Actually the three months should be addedto the six years in order to come out to a total of approximately 2300 days.] Atthe end of the|87 period the Temple waspurged. Some authorities read two hundred instead of two thousand three hundred,in order to avoid the apparent excess involved in six years and three months.[Actually, however, 2200 days would come out to only six years and nine days;the reasoning here seems obscure.] Most of our commentators refer this passageto the Antichrist, and hold that that which occurred under Antiochus was only byway of a type which shall be fulfilled under Antichrist. And as for thestatement, "The sanctuary shall be cleansed," this refers to the timeof Judas Maccabaeus, who came from the village of Modin, and who being aided bythe efforts of his brothers (D) and relatives and many of the Jewish people[defeated?] [the verb is left out] the generals of Antiochus not far aboveEmmaus (which is now called Nicopolis). And hearing of this, Antiochus, who hadrisen up against the Prince of princes, that is, against the Lord of lords andKing of kings, was earnestly desirous of despoiling the temple of Diana whichwas located in Elimais, in the Persian district, because it possessed valuablevotive offerings. And when he there lost his army, he was destroyed withouthands, that is to say, he died of grief. As for the mention of evening andmorning [in that fourteenth verse], this signifies the succession of day andnight.
Verse 15."And it came to pass that when I, Daniel, had seen thevision, I sought to understand it."He beheld the vision by way of apicture or likeness, and he failed to understand it. Consequently, not everyonewho sees comprehends what he has seen; it is just as if we read the HolyScripture with our eyes and do not understand it with our heart, (p. 538)
"...And behold, one stood before me who resembled the appearance ofa man."Angels, after all, are not actually men by nature, but theyresemble men in appearance. For example, three persons appeared as men toAbraham at the oak of Mamre (Gen. 18), and yet they certainly were not men, forone of them was worshipped as the Lord. And so the Savior also stated in theGospel: "Abraham beheld My day; he beheld it and rejoiced" (John8:56).
Verses 16, 17."And I heard the voice of a man in the midst of theUlai, and he cried out and said: 'Gabriel, make this vision intelligible(Vulgate:make this man to understand|88 thevision).'And he came and stood near to where I was standing."TheJews claim that this man who directed Gabriel to explain the vision to Danielwas Michael [himself]. Quite appropriately it was Gabriel, who has been put incharge of battles, to whom this duty was assigned, inasmuch as the vision had todo with battles and contests between kings and even between kingdoms themselves.For Gabriel is translated into our language as "the strength of, or themighty one of, God." And so at that time also when the Lord was about to beborn and to declare war against the demons and to triumph over the world,Gabriel came to Zacharias and to Mary (Luke 1). And then we read in the Psalmsconcerning the Lord in His triumph: "Who is this king of glory? The Lordstrong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle; He is the King of glory" (Ps.23:8=24:8). [The point of this quotation seems to be that the Hebrew word for"mighty" isgibbowr,from the root of which comesthegabri-of Gabriel.] But whenever it is medicine or healing that isneeded, it is Raphael who is sent, for his name is rendered as "the healingof," or "the medicine of God" (E)---- that is, if one cares toaccept the authority of the Book of Tobias. And then, when favorable promisesare made to the people, andhilasmos,which we might render as"propitiation" or (677) "expiation," is the thing required(F), then it is Michael who is directed to go, for his name means, "Who islike God?" Of course the significance of the name indicates the fact thatthe only true remedy is to be found in God.
"And he said to me: 'Son of man, understand that in the time of theend the vision shall be fulfilled.'"Inasmuch as Ezekiel and Daniel andZechariah behold themselves to be often in the company of angels, they werereminded of their frailty, lest they should be lifted up in pride and imaginethemselves to partake of the nature or dignity of angels. Therefore they areaddressed as sons of men, in order that they might realize that they are buthuman beings.
Verses 18, 19."And he touched me and stood me upon my feet, and saidto me. .. ."Overcome with terror, the prophet was lying on the groundface downward upon his hands and knees, but at the angel's touch he was raisedup to a standing|89 position in orderthat he might without perturbation attend to and understand what was spoken.
Verse 26."Thou therefore seal up the vision, because it shall cometo pass after many days."Having explained the vision which we haveexamined (p. 539) above to the best of our ability, the angel Gabriel adds atthe end: "Thou therefore seal up the vision, because it shall come to passafter many days." By the mention of a seal, he showed that the thingsspoken were of a hidden character and not accessible to the ears of themultitude, or susceptible of comprehension prior to their actual fulfilment bythe events themselves.
Verse 27."And I, Daniel, languished and was sick for some days. Andwhen I rose from my bed, I performed the king's tasks."This is thesame thing as we read in Genesis about Abraham, for after he had heard the Lordspeaking to him, he averred that he was but dust and ashes (Gen. 18). And soDaniel states that he languished as a reaction to the horror of the vision, andsuffered illness. And after he had risen from his sick-bed, he says he performedthe tasks assigned to him by the king, rendering to all men all that was duethem and bearing in mind the gospel principle: "Render unto Caesar thethings that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's" (Luke20:25).
"And I was amazed at the vision, and there was no one who couldinterpret it."If there was no one who could interpret it, how was itthat the angel interpreted it in the previous passage? What he means is that hehad heard mention of kings and did not know what their names were; he learned ofthings to come, but he was tossed about with uncertainty as to what time theywould come to pass. And so he did the only thing he could do: he marveled at thevision, and resigned everything to God's omniscience.|90
Verses 1, 2."In the first year of the Darius who was the son ofAhasuerus of the race of the Medes and who reigned over(678)the kingdomof the Chaldeans, in the first year of his reign. ..."This isthe Darius who in cooperation with Cyrus conquered the Chaldeans andBabylonians. We are not to think of that other Darius in the second year ofwhose reign the Temple was built (as Porphyry supposes in making out a late dateforDaniel); nor are we to think of the Darius who was vanquished byAlexander, the king of the Macedonians. He therefore adds the name of his fatherand also refers to his victory, inasmuch as he was the first of the race of theMedes to overthrow the kingdom of the Chaldeans. He does this to avoid anymistake in the reading which might arise from the similarity of the name.
Verse 2. "I,Daniel, understood by the books the number of the yearsconcerning which the word of the Lord had come to the prophet Jeremiah, thatseventy years would be accomplished for the desolation of Jerusalem."Jeremiahhad predicted seventy years for the desolation of the Temple (Jer. 52:29), atthe end of which the people would again return to Judaea and build the Templeand the city of Jerusalem. But this fact did not render Daniel careless, butrather encouraged him to pray that God might through his supplications fulfilthat which He had graciously promised. Thus he avoided the danger thatcarelessness might result in pride, and pride cause offense to the Lord.Accordingly we read in Genesis (chap. 9) [sic!] that prior to the Deluge onehundred and twenty years were appointed for men to come to repentance; andinasmuch as they refused to repent even within so long an interval of time as ahundred years, God did not wait for the remaining twenty years to be fulfilled,but brought on the punishment earlier which He had threatened for a later time.[This deduction seems to have been based upon the fact that Gen. 5:32 mentionsthat Noah was five hundred years old when he had begotten Ham, Shem, andJapheth, and therefore|91 was still thesame age when God appointed the one hundred twenty years in Gen. 6:3. Since theFlood dried up in the six hundred and first year of Noah (8:13), therefore thewaiting period could not have been more than a hundred years. Yet it could alsohave been that the age given in Gen. 5:32 was the age when, within the onehundred twenty year period, Noah's family was complete, the youngest son beingborn within that period, and being old enough to be married by the time theFlood itself actually occurred.] So also Jeremiah is told, on account of thehardness of the heart of the Jewish people: "Pray not for this people, forI will not hearken unto thee" (Jer. 7:16). Samuel also was told: "Howlong wilt thou mourn over Saul? I also have rejected him" (I Sam. 16:1).(p. 540) And so it was with sackcloth and ashes that Daniel besought the Lord tofulfil what He had promised, not that Daniel lacked faith concerning the future,but rather he would avoid the danger that a feeling of security might producecarelessness, and carelessness produce an offense to God.
Verse 4. "'Ibeseech Thee, O Lord God, who art mighty andterrible....'"That is, Thou art terrible towards those who despiseThine injunctions.
"'...Who keepest covenant and mercy towards those who love Thee andkeep Thy commandments.' "It is not therefore the case that what Godpromises will come to pass without further ado, but rather, He fulfils Hispromises towards those who keep His commandments.
Verse 5. "'We have sinned, we have behaved wickedly(A)andimpiously, and we have departed....'"He reviews the sins of the peopleas if he were personally guilty, on the ground of his being (679) one of thepeople, just as we read the Apostle does also in his Epistle to the Romans.
Verse 7. "'Justice belongeth unto Thee, O Lord, but for us there isonly confusion of face. .. .'"It is of course just that we suffer whatwe deserve.
Verse 8. "'Unto Thee belongeth mercy, O Lord our God, and alsopropitiation. . . .' "Concerning the same God of Whom he hadpreviously said, "To Thee, O Lord, belongeth justice," he now says(since the Lord is not only just but also merciful): "To Thee belongethmercy." He says this in order|92that he might call upon the Judge to show mercy, after His sentence has beenimposed.
Verse 11."'And(the curse)has come upon us drop bydrop.'"That is, Thou hast not poured out upon us all of Thy wrath, forwe should not have been able to bear it, but Thou hast poured forth a meredroplet of Thy fury, in order that we might return unto Thee once we have beenimmeshed in Thy snare.
"'The malediction and the curse which were written in the book ofMoses, the servant of God. .. .' "In Deuteronomy we read the cursesand blessings of the Lord (Deut. 27), which were afterwards uttered in MountGerizim and Ebal upon the righteous and upon the sinners.
Verse 13."'All this evil has come upon us, and we have not entreatedThy face, O Lord our God, that we might turn back from our iniquities andconsider Thy truth.'"Their obduracy was so great that even in themidst of their toils they would not entreat God, and even if they had entreatedHim, it would not have been a genuine entreaty, because they had not turned backfrom their iniquities. Yet to consider the truth of God is equivalent to turningback from iniquity.
Verse 14. "'And the Lord hath kept watch over the evil and hathbrought it upon us. .. .'"Whenever we are rebuked because of our sins,God is keeping watch over us and visiting us with chastenment. But whenever weare left alone by God and we do not suffer judgment but are unworthy of theLord's rebuke, then He is said to slumber. And so we read in the Psalms as well:"The Lord has risen up as one (B) who was slumbering or as a man out of adrunken sleep" (Ps. 77=78). For our wickedness and iniquity inflames Godwith wine, and whenever it is rebuked in our case, God is said to be keepingcareful watch and to be rising up out of His drunken sleep, in order that we whoare drunken with sin may be made to pay careful heed unto righteousness.
Verse 15."'And now, O Lord our God....'"Daniel remembersGod's ancient kindness in order that he may appeal to Him for a similar act ofclemency.
Verse 17."'And show Thy face upon Thy|93sanctuary, which lies desolate.'"By deed fulfil that which Thou (p.541) hast promised in word, for the approximate period of desolation haselapsed.
Verse 18."For Thine own sake, O my God, incline Thine ear and hear;open Thine eyes and behold our desolation...." This appeal is couched(680) in anthropomorphic language(anthropopathos),with the implicationthat whenever our prayers are heard, God seems to incline His ear; and wheneverGod deigns to have regard to us, He appears to open His eyes; but whenever Heturns His face away, we appear to be unworthy of attention either from His eyesor His ears.
Verse 20."Now while I was yet speaking and praying and confessing mysins and the sins of my people, Israel, so as to present(Vulg.: and waspresenting)my petitions in the presence of my God on behalf of the holymountain of my God...." And so, as we have pointed out above, he notonly thought upon the sins of the people but also upon his own sins, as beingone of the people. Or else it was by way of humility, although he had notpersonally committed sin; his purpose being to obtain pardon by reason of hishumility. Observe what he said here: "I was confessing my sins." Forthere are many passages in Scripture where confession does not imply anexpression of repentance so much as an expression of praise to God.
Verse 21."While I was still speaking in my prayer, behold the manGabriel, whom I had seen(A)at the beginning of the vision."Hecalls the previous vision preceding this one the beginning. The effect of hisprayer was considerable, and the promise of God was fulfilled which says,"While thou art yet speaking, lo, I am at hand" (Isa. 58:9). AndGabriel appears not as an angel or archangel, but as a man(vir),a termused to indicate the quality of virtue rather than specifying his sex.
". ..he quickly flew to me and touched me at the time of the eveningsacrifice."It is stated that he flew, because he had made hisappearance as a man. It is said that it was at the time of the eveningsacrifice, in order to show that the prophet's prayer had persisted from themorning sacrifice even unto the evening sacrifice, and that God for that reasondirected His mercy towards him.
Verse 22."And He instructed me and spoke to me,|94saying...." The vision was so obscure that the prophet needed theangel's teaching.
" '...Now, 0 Daniel, I have come forth that I may instruct thee andthat thou mayest understand.'"That is, I have been sent to thee andhave come (B) forth, not from the presence of God in the sense of departing fromHim, but only in the sense of coming unto thee.
Verse 23. "'From the very beginning of thy prayers the word wentforth and I myself have come to show it to thee, because thou art a man ofdesires.'"That is, at the time when thou didst begin to ask God, thoudidst straightway obtain His mercy, and His decision was put forth. I havetherefore been sent to explain to thee the things of which thou art ignorant,inasmuch as thou art a man of desires, that is to say a lovable man, worthy ofGod's love ---- even as Solomon was calledIdida(var:Jedida)or"man of desires." I have been sent because thou art worthy, inrecompense for thine affection for God, to be told the secret counsels of Godand to have a knowledge of things to come (681).
"'Thou therefore pay heed to the word and understand the vision.'"Thus [readingsicinstead ofsi] Daniel is told,"Pay diligent heed, in order that thou mayest hear and understand what thouseest." We too should do (p. 542) this, for our eyes have been blinded bythe shadows of ignorance and the darkness of sins.
Verses 24----27. "'Seventy weeks are shortened upon thy people andupon thy holy city,(C)that transgression may be finished, and sin mayhave an end, and iniquity may be abolished, and everlasting justice may bebrought to bear, and that the vision and prophecy may be fulfilled that the HolyOne of the saints may be anointed. Know therefore and take note that from thegoing forth of the word to build up Jerusalem again, unto Christ the prince,there shall be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks, and the street shall be builtagain, and the walls, in distressing times. And after sixty-two weeks Christshall be slain, and((D)the people that shall deny Him) shall not beHis. And a people, with their leader that shall come, shall destroy the city andthe sanctuary. And the end thereof shall be devastation, and after the end ofthe war there shall be the appointed desolation. And he shall confirm thecovenant with many in one xveek; and in the middle of the week|95both victim and sacrifice shall fail. And there shall be in the Temple theabomination of desolation, and the desolation shall continue even unto theconsummation and the end.' "Because the prophet had said, "Thoudidst lead forth Thy people, and Thy name was pronounced upon Thy city and uponThy people," Gabriel therefore, as the mouthpiece of God, says byimplication: "By no means are they God's people, but only thy people; noris Jerusalem the holy city of God, but it is only a holy city unto thee, as thousayest." This is similar to what we read in Exodus also, when God says toMoses, "Descend, for thy people have committed sin" (Ex. 32:7). Thatis to say, they are not My people, for they have forsaken Me. And so, becausethou dost supplicate for Jerusalem and prayest for the people of the Jews,hearken unto that which shall befall thy people in seventy weeks of years, andthose things which will happen to thy city.
I realize that this question has been argued over in various ways by men ofgreatest learning, and that each of them has expressed his views according tothe capacity of his own genius. And so, because it is unsafe to pass judgmentupon the opinions of the great teachers of the Church and to set one aboveanother, I shall simply repeat the view of each, and leave it to the reader'sjudgment as to whose explanation ought to be followed. In the fifth volume ofhisTempora["Chronology"], Africanus has this to sayconcerning the seventy weeks (682) (and I quote him verbatim): "The chapter(E) which we read in Daniel concerning the seventy weeks contains manyremarkable details, which require too lengthy a discussion at this point; and sowe must discuss only what pertains to our present task, namely that whichconcerns chronology. There is no doubt but what it constitutes a prediction ofChrist's advent, for He appeared to the world at the end of seventy weeks. AfterHim the crimes were consummated and sin reached its end and iniquity wasdestroyed. An eternal righteousness also was proclaimed which overcame the mererighteousness of the law; and the vision and the prophecy were fulfilled,inasmuch as the Law and the Prophets endured until the time of (F) John theBaptist (Luke 16), and then the Saint of saints was anointed. And all thesethings were the objects of hope, prior to Christ's incarnation, rather (p. 543)than the objects of actual possession. Now the angel himself specified|96seventy weeks of years, that is to say, four hundred and ninety years from theissuing of the word that the petition be granted and that Jerusalem be rebuilt.The specified interval began in the twentieth year of Artaxerxes, King of thePersians; for it was his cupbearer, Nehemiah (Neh. 1), who, as we read in thebook of Ezra [the Vulgate reckons Nehemiah as II Esdras], petitioned the kingand obtained his request that Jerusalem be rebuilt. And this was the word, ordecree, which granted permission for the construction of the city and itsencompassment with walls; for up until that time it had lain open to theincursions of the surrounding nations. But if one points to the command of KingCyrus, who granted to all who desired it permission to return to Jerusalem, thefact of the matter is that the high priest Jesus [Jeshua] and Zerubbabel, andlater on the priest Ezra, together with the others who had been willing to setforth from Babylon with them, only made an abortive attempt to construct theTemple and the city with its walls, but were prevented by the surroundingnations from completing the task, on the pretext that the king had not soordered. And thus the work remained incomplete until Nehemiah's time and thetwentieth year of King Artaxerxes. Hence the captivity lasted for seventy yearsprior to the Persian rule. [This last sentence is bracketed by the editor.] Atthis period in the Persian Empire a hundred and fifteen years had elapsed sinceits inception, but it was the one hundred and eighty-fifth year from thecaptivity of Jerusalem when Artaxerxes first gave orders for the walls ofJerusalem to be built. [Actually only 141 years, the interval between 587 B.C.and 446 B.C.] Nehemiah was in charge of this undertaking, and the street wasbuilt and the surrounding walls were erected. Now if you compute (683) seventyweeks of years from that date, you can come out to the time of Christ. But if wewish to take any other date (A) as the starting point for these weeks, then thedates will show a discrepancy and we shall encounter many difficulties. For ifthe seventy weeks are computed from the time of Cyrus and his decree ofindulgence which effectuated the release of the Jewish captives, then we shallencounter a deficit of a hundred years and more short of the stated number ofseventy weeks [only seventy-eight years, by more recent computation, for Cyrus'sdecree was given in 538 B.C.]. If we reckon from the day when the angel spoke|97to Daniel, the deficit would be much greater [actually not more than a fewmonths or a year]. An even greater number of years is added, if you wish to putthe beginning of the weeks at the commencement of the captivity. For the kingdomof the Persians endured for two hundred and thirty years until the rise of theMacedonian kingdom; then the Macedonians themselves reigned for three hundredyears. From that date until the sixteenth (i.e., the fifteenth) year of TiberiusCaesar, when Christ suffered death, is an interval of sixty [sic!] years[reckoning from the death of Cleopatra, the last of the Macedonian Ptolemies].All of these years added together come to the number of five hundred and ninety,with the result that a hundred years remain to be accounted for. On the otherhand, the interval from the twentieth year of Artaxerxes to the time of Christcompletes the figure of seventy weeks, if we reckon according to the lunarcomputation of the Hebrews, who did not number their months according to themovement of the sun, but rather according to the moon. For the interval from theone hundred fiftieth year of the Persian Empire, when Artaxerxes, as kingthereof, attained the twentieth year of his reign (and this was the fourth yearof the eighty-third Olympiad), up until the two hundred and second Olympiad (forit was the second year of that Olympiad which was the fifteenth year of TiberiusCaesar) comes out to be the grand total of four hundred seventy-five years. Thiswould result in four hundred ninety Hebrew years, reckoning according to thelunar months as we have suggested. For according to their (p. 544) computation,these years can be made up of months of twenty-nine (variant: twenty-eight) anda half days each. This means that the sun, during a period of four hundredninety years, completes its revolution in three hundred sixty-five days and aquarter, and this amounts to twelve lunar months for each individual year, witheleven and a fourth days left over to spare. Consequently the Greeks and Jewsover a period of eight years insert three intercalary months(embolimoi).(684)For if you will multiply eleven and a quarter days by eight, you will come outto ninety days, which equal three months. Now if you divide the eight-yearperiods into four hundred seventy-five years, your quotient will be fifty-nineplus three months. These fifty-nine plus eight-year periods produce enoughintercalary months to make up fifteen|98years, more or less; and if you will add these fifteen years to the four hundredseventy-five years, you will come out to seventy weeks of years, that is, atotal of four hundred and ninety years."
Africanus has expressed his views in these very words which we have copiedout. Let us pass on to Eusebius Pamphili [the famous church historian, whoassumed the cognomen Pamphili in honor of his beloved mentor, Bishop Pamphilus],who in the eighth book of hisEuangelike Apodeixis[the full title wasEuangelikesApodeixeos Proparaskeueor "Preparation for the Demonstration of theGospel"; the Latin title isPraeparatio Evangelica]venturessome such conjecture as this: "It does not seem to me that the seventyweeks have been divided up without purpose, in that seven is mentioned first,and then sixty-two, and then a last week is added, which in turn is itselfdivided into two parts. For it is written: 'Thou shalt know and understand thatfrom the issuing of the word (command) that the petition be granted andJerusalem be built until Christ the Prince there shall be seven weeks andsixty-two weeks.' And after the rest which he relates in the interveningsection, he states at the end: 'He shall confirm a testimony (covenant) withmany during one week.' It is clear that the angel did not detail these things inhis reply to no purpose or apart from the inspiration of God. This observationseems to require some cautious and careful reasoning, so that the reader may paydiligent attention and inquire into the cause for this division (variant:vision). But if we must express our own opinion, in conformity with the rest ofthe interpretation which concerns this present context, in the angel'sstatement: 'From the issuing of the word that the petition be granted and thatJerusalem be built, until the time of Christ the Prince,' we are only to thinkof other princes who had charge of the Jewish people subsequent to this prophecyand subsequent to the return from Babylon. That is to say, we are to think ofthearkhiereis[high priests] and pontiffs to whom the Scripture attachesthe title of christs, by reason of the fact that they have been anointed. Thefirst of these was Jesus [Jeshua] the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, andthen the rest who had that office up until the time of the advent of our Lordand Savior. And it is these who are intended by the prophet's prediction when itstates: 'From the issuing of the word that the petition be granted and Jerusalembe built even unto|99 Christ the Princethere shall be seven weeks, and sixty-two weeks.' (685) That is to say, thepurpose is that seven weeks be counted off, and then afterward sixty-two weeks,which come to a total of four hundred and eighty-three years after the time ofCyrus. And lest we appear to be putting forth a mere conjecture too rashly andwithout testing the truth of our statements, let us reckon up those who boreoffice as christs over the people from the time of Jeshua, the son of Jehozadak,until the advent of the Lord; that is to say, those who were anointed for thehigh priesthood. First, then, as we have already stated, subsequent to Daniel'sprophecy, which occurred in the reign of Cyrus, and subsequent to the return of(p. 545) the people from Babylon, Jeshua the son of Jehozadak was the highpriest, and together with Zerubbabel, son of Shealtiel, they laid thefoundations of the temple. And because the undertaking was hindered by theSamaritans and the other surrounding nations, seven weeks of years elapsed (thatis to say, forty-nine years), during which the work on the temple remainedunfinished. These weeks are separated by the prophecy from the remainingsixty-two weeks. And lastly, the Jews also followed this view when they said tothe Lord in the Gospel-narrative: 'This temple was built over a period offorty-six years, and shalt thou raise it up in three days' (John 2:20). For thiswas the number of years which elapsed between the first year of Cyrus, whogranted to those Jews who so desired the permission to return to theirfatherland, and the sixth year of King Darius, in whose reign the entire workupon the temple was finished. [Actually the two dates involved are 538 B.C. and516 B.C., an interval of only twenty-two years.] Furthermore Josephus added onthree more years, during which theperiboloi(precincts) and certainother construction left undone were brought to completion; and when these areadded to the forty-six years, they come out to forty-nine years, or seven weeksof years. And the remaining sixty-two weeks are computed from the seventh yearof Darius. At that time Jeshua the son of Jehozadak, and Zerubbabel (who hadalready reached his majority) were in charge of the people, and it was in theirtime that Haggai and Zechariah prophesied. After them came Ezra and Nehemiahfrom Babylon and constructed the walls of the city during the high priesthood ofJoiakim, son of Jeshua, who had the surname of Jehozadak. After him Eliashibsucceeded|100 to the priesthood, thenJoiada and Johanan after him. Following him there was Jaddua, in whose lifetimeAlexander, the king of the Macedonians, founded Alexandria, (686) as (A)Josephus relates in his books of theAntiquities,and actually came toJerusalem and offered blood-sacrifices in the Temple. Now Alexander died in theone hundred and thirteenth Olympiad, in the two hundred thirty-sixth year of thePersian Empire, which in turn had begun in the first year of the fifty-fifthOlympiad. That was the date when Cyrus, King of the Persians, conquered theBabylonians and Chaldeans. After the death of the priest Jaddua, who had been incharge of the temple in Alexander's reign, Onias received the high priesthood.It was at this period that Seleucus, after the conquest of Babylon, placed uponhis own head the crown of all Syria and Asia, in the twelfth year afterAlexander's death. Up to that time the years which had elapsed since the rule ofCyrus, when computed together, were two hundred and forty-eight. From that datethe Scripture of the Maccabees computes the kingdom of the Greeks. FollowingOnias, the high priest Eleazar became head of the Jews. That was the period whenthe Seventy translators(Septuaginta interpretes)are said to havetranslated the Holy Scriptures into Greek at Alexandria. After him came OniasII, who was followed by Simon, who ruled over the people when Jesus the son ofSirach wrote the book which bears the Greek title ofPanaretos("ACompletely Virtuous Man"), and which is by most people falsely attributedto Solomon. Another Onias followed him in the high priesthood, and that was theperiod when Antiochus was trying to force the Jews to sacrifice to the gods ofthe Gentiles. After the death of Onias, Judas Maccabaeus cleansed the Temple andsmashed to bits the statues of the idols. His brother Jonathan followed him, (p.546) and after Jonathan their brother Simon governed the people. By his deaththe two hundred and seventy-seventh year of the Syrian kingdom had elapsed, andthe First Book of Maccabees contains a record of events up to that time. And sothe total number of years from the first year of Cyrus, King of Persia, untilthe end of the First Book of Maccabees and the death of the high priest Simon isfour hundred twenty-five. After him John [Hyrcanus] occupied the high priesthoodfor twenty-nine years, and upon his death Aristobulus became head of the peoplefor a year and was the first|101 manafter the return from Babylon to associate with the dignity of high priesthoodthe authority of kingship. His successor was Alexander, who likewise was highpriest and king, and who governed the people for twenty-seven years. Up to thispoint, the number of years from the first year of Cyrus and the return of thecaptives who desired to come back to Judaea is to be computed at four hundredand eighty-three. This total is made up of the seven weeks and the sixty-twoweeks, or sixty-nine weeks altogether. And during this whole period high priestsruled over the Jewish people, and I now believe that they are those referred toas christ-princes. And when the last of them, Alexander, had died, the Jewishnation was rent in this direction and that into various factions, and washarrassed by internal seditions in its leaderless condition; and that too tosuch an extent that Alexandra, who was also called Salina, and who was the wifeof the same Alexander, seized power and kept the high priesthood for her son,Hyrcanus. But she passed on the royal power to her other son, Aristobulus, andhe exercised it for ten years. But when the brothers fought with each other incivil war and the Jewish nation was drawn into various factions, then GnaeusPompey, the general of the Roman army, came upon the scene. Having capturedJerusalem, he penetrated even to the shrine in the temple which was called theHoly of holies. He sent Aristobulus back to Rome in chains, keeping him for histriumphal procession, and then he gave the high priesthood to his brother,Hyrcanus. Then for the first time the Jewish nation became tributary to theRomans. Succeeding him, Herod, the son of Antipater, received the royalauthority over the Jews by senatorial decree, after Hyrcanus had been killed;and so he was the first foreigner to become governor of the Jews. Moreover whenhis parents had died, he handed over the high priesthood to his children, eventhough they were non-Jews, utterly contrary to the law of Moses. Nor did heentrust the office to them for long, (B) except upon their granting him favorsand bribes, for he despised the commands of God's law."
The same Eusebius offered another explanation also, and if we wanted totranslate it into Latin, we should greatly expand the size of this book. And sothe sense of his interpretation is this, that the number of years from the sixthyear of Darius, who|102 reigned afterCyrus and his son, Cambyses, ---- and this was the date when the work on thetemple was completed ---- until the time of Herod and Caesar Augustus isreckoned to be seven weeks plus sixty-two weeks, which make a total of fourhundred eighty-three years. (688) That was the date when the christ, that is tosay, Hyrcanus, being the last high priest of the Maccabaean line, was murderedby Herod, and the succession of high priests came to an end, so far as the lawof God was concerned. It was then also that a Roman army (p. 547) under theleadership of a Roman general devastated both the city and the sanctuary itself.Or else it was Herod himself who committed the devastation, after he had throughthe Romans appropriated to himself a governmental authority to which he had noright. And as for the angel's statement, "For he shall establish a compactwith many for one week (variant: "a compact for many weeks"), and inthe midst of the week the sacrifice and offering shall cease," it is to beunderstood in this way, that Christ was born while Herod was reigning in Judaeaand Augustus in Rome, and He preached the Gospel for three years and six months,according to John the Evangelist. And he established the worship of the true Godwith many people, undoubtedly meaning the Apostles and believers generally. Andthen, after our Lord's passion, the sacrifice and offering ceased in the middleof the week. For whatever took place in the Temple after that date was not avalid sacrifice to God but a mere worship of the devil, while they all cried outtogether, "His blood be upon us and upon our children" (Matt. 27:25);and again, "We have no king but Caesar." Any reader who is interestedmay look up this passage in theChronicleof this same Eusebius, for Itranslated it into Latin many years ago. But as for his statement that thenumber of years to be reckoned from the completion of the temple to the tenthyear of the Emperor Augustus, that is, when Hyrcanus was slain and Herodobtained Judaea, amounts to a total of seven plus sixty-two weeks, or fourhundred eighty-three years, we may check it in the following fashion. Thebuilding of the temple was finished in the seventy-sixth (here and in the otherplace read: "sixty-seventh" ---- Migne) Olympiad, which was the sixthyear of Darius. In the third year of the one hundred and eighty-sixth Olympiad,that is, the tenth year of Augustus, Herod seized the rule over the Jews. Thismakes the interval four hundred and|103eighty-three years, reckoning up by the individual Olympiads and computing themat four years each. This same Eusebius reports another view as well, which I donot entirely reject (A), that most authorities extend the one [last] week ofyears to the sum of seventy years, reckoning each year as a ten-year period[reading the corruptupputatioassupputatio]. They also claimthat thirty-five years intervened between the passion of the Lord and the reignof Nero, and that it was at this latter date when the weapons of Rome were first(689) lifted up against the Jews, this being the half-way point of the week ofseventy years. After that, indeed, from the time of Vespasian and Titus (and itwas right after their accession to power that Jerusalem and the temple wereburned) up to the reign of Trajan another thirty-five years elapsed. And this,they assert, was the week of which the angel said to Daniel: "And he shallestablish a compact with many for one week." For the Gospel was preached bythe Apostles all over the world, since they survived even unto that late date.According to the tradition of the church historians, John the Evangelist livedup to the time of Trajan. Yet I am at a loss to know how we can understand theearlier seven weeks and the sixty-two weeks to involve seven years each, andjust this last one to involve ten years for each unit of the seven, or seventyyears in all.
So much for Eusebius. But Hippolytus has expressed the following opinionconcerning these same weeks (B): he reckons the seven weeks as prior to thereturn of the people from Babylon, and the sixty-two weeks as subsequent totheir return and extending to the birth of Christ. But the dates do not (p. 548)agree at all. If indeed the duration of the Persian Empire be reckoned at twohundred and thirty years, and the Macedonian Empire at three hundred, and theperiod thereafter up to the birth of the Lord be thirty years, then the totalfrom the beginning of the reign of Cyrus, King of the Persians, until the adventof the Savior will be five hundred and sixty years. Moreover Hippolytus placesthe final week at the end of the world and divides it into the period of Eliasand the period of Antichrist, so that during the [first] three and a half yearsof the last week the knowledge of God is established. And as for the statement,"He shall establish a compact with many for a week" (Dan. 9:27),during the other three years under the Antichrist the sacrifice and offeringshall|104 cease. But when Christ shallcome and shall slay the wicked one by the breath of His mouth, desolation shallhold sway till the end.
On the other hand Apollinarius of Laodicea in his investigation of theproblem breaks away from the stream of the past and directs his longing desirestowards the future, very unsafely venturing an opinion concerning matters soobscure. And if by any chance those of future generations should not see thesepredictions of his fulfilled at the time he set, then they will be forced toseek for some other solution and to convict the teacher himself of erroneousinterpretation. And so, in order to avoid the appearance of slandering a man ashaving made a statement he never made, he makes the following assertion ---- andI translate him word for word: "To the period of four hundred and ninetyyears the wicked deeds are to be confined (690) as well as all the crimes whichshall ensue from those deeds. After these shall come the times of blessing, andthe world is to be reconciled unto God at the advent of Christ, His Son. Forfrom the coming forth of the Word, when Christ was born of the Virgin Mary, tothe forty-ninth year, that is, the end of the seven weeks, [God] waited forIsrael to repent. Thereafter, indeed, from the eighth year of Claudius Caesar[i.e., 48 A.D.] onward, the Romans took up arms against the Jews. For it was inHis thirtieth year, according to the Evangelist Luke, that the Lord incarnatebegan His preaching of the Gospel (Luke 1) [sic!]. According to the EvangelistJohn (John 2 and 11), Christ completed two years over a period of threepassovers. The years of Tiberius' reign from that point onward are to bereckoned at six; then there were the four years of the reign of Gaius Caesar,surnamed Caligula, and eight more years in the reign of Claudius. This makes atotal of forty-nine years, or the equivalent of seven weeks of years. But whenfour hundred thirty-four years shall have elapsed after that date, that is tosay, the sixty-two weeks, then [i.e. in 482 A.D.] Jerusalem and the Temple shallbe rebuilt during three and a half years within the final week, beginning withthe advent of Elias, who according to the dictum of our Lord and Savior (Luke 1)[sic!] is going to come and turn back the hearts of the fathers towards theirchildren. And then the Antichrist shall come, and according to the Apostle[readingapostolumforapostolorum] he is going to sit in the|105temple of God (II Thess. 2) and be slain by the breath of our Lord and Saviorafter he has waged war against the saints. And thus it shall come to pass thatthe middle of the week shall mark the confirmation of God's covenant with thesaints, and the middle of the week in turn shall mark the issuing of the decreeunder the authority of Antichrist that no more sacrifices be offered. For theAntichrist shall set up the abomination of desolation, that is, an idol orstatue of his own god, within the Temple. Then shall ensue the final devastationand the condemnation of the Jewish people, who after their rejection of Christ'struth shall embrace the lie of the Antichrist. Moreover this same Apollinariusasserts that he conceived this idea about the proper dating from the fact thatAfricanus, (p. 549) the author of theTempora[Chronology],whoseexplanation I have inserted above, affirms that the final week will occur at theend of the world. Yet, says Apollinarius, it is impossible that periods solinked together be wrenched apart, but rather the time-segments must all bejoined together in conformity with Daniel's prophecy.
The learned scholar Clement, presbyter of the church at Alexandria, regardsthe number of years as a matter of slight consequence, (691) asserting that theseventy weeks of years were completed by the span of time from the reign ofCyrus, King of the Persians, to the reign of the Roman emperors, Vespasian andTitus; that is to say, the interval of four hundred and ninety years, with theaddition in that same figure of the two thousand three hundred days of which wemade earlier mention. He attempts to reckon in these seventy weeks the ages ofthe Persians, Macedonians, and Caesars, even though according to the mostcareful computation, the number of years from the first year of Cyrus, King ofthe Persians and Medes, when Darius also bore rule, up to the reign of Vespasianand the destruction of the Temple amounts to six hundred and thirty.
When Origen came to deal with [readingpraefuissetinstead ofprofuisset]this chapter, he urged us to seek out what information we do not possess; andbecause he had no leeway for allegorical interpretation, in which one may arguewithout constraint, but rather was restricted to matters of historical fact, hemade this brief observation in the tenth volume of theStromata:"Wemust quite carefully ascertain the amount of time between|106the first year of Darius, the son of Ahasuerus, and the advent of Christ, anddiscover how many years were involved, and what events are said to have occurredduring them. Then we must see whether we can fit these data in with the time ofthe Lord's coming."
We may learn what Tertullian had to say on the subject by consulting the bookwhich he wrote against the Jews(Contra Judaeos),and his remarks may beset forth in brief: "How, then, are we to show that Christ came within thesixty-two (A) weeks? This calculation begins with the first year of Darius,since that was the time when the vision itself was revealed to Daniel. For hewas told: 'Understand and conclude from (B) the prophesying (692) of the commandfor me to give thee this reply. ...' Hence we are to commence our computationwith the first year of Darius, when Daniel beheld this vision. Let us see, then,how the years are fulfilled up to the advent of Christ. Darius reigned nineteen(p. 550) years; Artaxerxes forty years; the Ochus who was surnamed Cyrustwenty-four years; (C) Argus, one year. Then Darius II, who was called Melas,twenty-one (D) years. Alexander the Macedonian reigned twelve years. And thenafter Alexander (who had ruled over both the Medes and the Persians, after hehad conquered them, and had established his rule in Alexandria, calling it afterhis own name), Soter reigned (E) there in Alexandria for thirty-five years, andwas succeeded by Philadelphus, who reigned for thirty-eight years (F). After himEuergetes reigned for twenty-five years, and then Philopator for seventeenyears, followed by Epiphanes for twenty-four years. Furthermore the secondEuergetes ruled for twenty (G) and nine years, and Soter for thirty-eight years.Ptolemy [sic!] for thirty-seven (H) years, and Cleopatra for twenty years andfive months (I). Furthermore Cleopatra shared the rule with Augustus forthirteen years. After Cleopatra Augustus reigned forty-three years more. For allof the years of the reign of Augustus were fifty-six in number. And let us see(variant: we see) that in the forty-first year of the reign of Augustus, whoruled after the death of Cleopatra (J), (693) Christ was born. And this sameAugustus lived on for fifteen years after the time when Christ was born. And sothe resultant periods of years up to the day of Christ's birth and theforty-first year of Augustus, after the death of Cleopatra [actually onlytwenty-nine|107 years afterCleopatra's death ---- the language here is confusing], come to the total figureof four hundred and thirty-seven years and five months. This means thatsixty-two and a half weeks were used up, or the equivalent of four hundred andthirty-seven years and six months, by the day when Christ was born. Then eternalrighteousness was revealed, and the Saint of saints was anointed, namely Christ,and the vision and prophecy were sealed, and those sins were remitted which areallowed through faith in Christ's name to all who believe in Him." But whatis the meaning of the statement that the "vision and prophecy are confirmedby a seal"? It means that all the prophets made proclamation concerning[Christ] Himself, saying that He was going to come and that He would have tosuffer. Hence we read shortly thereafter in this Tertullian passage, "Theyears were fifty-six in number; furthermore, Cleopatra continued to reignjointly under Augustus...." (p. 551) It was because the prophecy wasfulfilled by His advent that the vision was confirmed by a seal; and it wascalled a prophecy because Christ Himself is the seal of all the prophets,fulfilling as He did all that the prophets had previously declared concerningHim. Of course after His advent and His passion (variant; the passion ofChrist), there is no longer any vision or prophecy (variant: or prophet) whichdeclares that Christ will come [?]. And then a little later Tertullian says,"Let us see what is the meaning of (A) the seven and a half weeks, which inturn are divided up into a subsection of earlier weeks; by what transaction werethey fulfilled? Well, after Augustus, (B) who lived on after Christ's birth,fifteen years elapsed. He was succeeded by Tiberius Caesar, and he held sway fortwenty-two years, seven months and twenty-eight (C) days. In the fifteenth yearof his reign (D) Christ suffered, being about (694) thirty-three when Hesuffered. Then there was Gaius Caesar, also named Caligula, who reigned forthree years, eight months and thirteen days. [Note that Claudius' reign of 13years is here omitted.] Nero reigned for nine years, nine months and thirteendays. Galba ruled for seven months and twenty-eight (E) days; Otho for threemonths and five days; and Vitellius for eight months and twenty-eight (F) days.Vespasian vanquished the Jews in the first year of his reign, bringing thenumber of years to a total of fifty-two, plus six months. For he ruled foreleven years, and so by the date of his|108storming Jerusalem, the Jews had completed the seventy weeks foretold byDaniel."
As for the view which the Hebrews hold concerning this passage, I shall setit forth summarily and within a brief compass, leaving the credibility of theirassertions to those who asserted them. And so let me put it in the form of aparaphrase(paraphrastikds)in order to bring out the sense more clearly."O Daniel, know that from this day on which I now speak to thee (and thatwas the first year of the Darius who slew Belshazzar and transferred theChaldean Empire to the Medes and Persians) unto the seventieth week of years(that is, four hundred and ninety years) the following events shall befall thypeople in stages [literally: part by part]. First of all, God shall be appeasedby thee in view of the earnest intercession thou hast just offered Him, and sinshall be canceled out and the transgression shall come to an end. For althoughthe city at present lies deserted and the Temple lies destroyed to its veryfoundations [readingfundamentafor the non-existentfrudamenta],so that the nation is plunged into mourning, yet within a fairly short timeit shall be restored. And not only shall it come to pass within these seventyweeks that the city shall be rebuilt and the Temple restored, but also theChrist, who is the eternal righteousness, shall be born. (p. 552) And so shallthe vision and the prophecy be sealed, with the result that there shall be nomore any prophet to be found in Israel, and the Saint of saints shall beanointed. We read concerning Him in the Psalter: 'Because God, even Thy God,hath anointed Thee with the oil of gladness (695) above thy fellows' (Ps. 44:8=45:7). And in another passage He says of Himself: 'Be ye holy, for I also amholy' (Lev. 19:2). Know therefore that from this day on which I speak to theeand make thee the promise by the word of the Lord that the nation shall returnand Jerusalem shall be restored, there shall be sixty-two weeks numbered untothe time of Christ the Prince and of the perpetual desolation of the Temple; andthat there shall also be seven weeks in which the two events shall take placewhich I have already mentioned, namely that the nation shall return and thestreet shall be rebuilt by Nehemiah and Ezra. And so at the end of the weeks thedecree of God shall be accomplished in distressing times, when the Temple shallagain be destroyed, and the city taken captive. For|109after the sixty-two weeks the Christ shall be slain, and the nation who shallreject Him shall go out of existence" ---- or, as the Jews themselves putit, the kingdom of Christ which they imagined they would retain (G) shall noteven be. And why do I speak of the slaying of Christ, and of the nation's utterforfeiture of God's help, since the Roman people were going to demolish the cityand sanctuary under Vespasian, the leader who was to come? Upon his death theseven weeks or forty-nine years were complete, and after the city of Aelia wasestablished upon the ruins of Jerusalem, Aelius Hadrian vanquished (H) therevolting Jews in their conflict with the general, Timus Rufus. It was at thattime that the sacrifice and offering (ceased and) will continue to cease evenunto the completion of the age, and the desolation is going to endure until thevery end. We are not, say the Jews, greatly impressed by the fact that the sevenweeks are mentioned first, and afterwards the sixty-two, and again a single weekdivided into two parts. For it is simply the idiomatic usage of the Hebrewlanguage, as well as of antique Latin, that in quoting a figure, the smallnumber is given first and then the larger. For example, we do not, according togood usage say in our language, "Abraham lived a hundred and seventy-fiveyears"; on the contrary the Hebrews say, "Abraham lived five andseventy and one hundred years" (I). And so the fulfilment is not to followthe literal order of the words, but it shall be accomplished in terms of thewhole sum, taken together. I am also well aware that some of the Jews assertthat as for the statement about the single week, (696) "He shall establisha covenant with many (p. 553) for one week," the division is between thereigns of Vespasian and Hadrian. According to the history of Josephus, Vespasianand Titus concluded peace with the Jews for three years and six month. And the[other] three years and six months are accounted for in Hadrian's reign, whenJerusalem was completely destroyed and the Jewish nation was massacred in largegroups at a time, with the result that they were even expelled from the bordersof Judaea. This is what the Hebrews have to say on the subject, paying littleattention to the fact that from the first year of Darius, King of the Persians,until the final overthrow of Jerusalem, which befell them under Hadrian, theperiod involved is a hundred and seventy-four Olympiads or six hundredninety-six years, which total up to|110ninety-nine Hebrew weeks plus three years ---- that being the time whenBarcochebas, the leader of the Jews, was crushed and Jerusalem was demolished tothe very ground. |111
Verse 1."In the third year of Cyrus, King of the Persians, a wordwas revealed unto Daniel, who was surnamed Belteshazzar, and it was a true wordand great strength. For there is need of understanding in a vision."Andhow is it that we read at the end of the first vision, "And Daniel liveduntil the first year of Cyrus the King"? Well then, we understand that heenjoyed his former high position among the Chaldeans and was clothed in purpleand fine linen right up until the first year of King Cyrus, when Cyrus overthrewthe Chaldeans, and afterwards Daniel commenced service under Darius, the son ofAhasuerus of the Median line, who reigned over the kingdom of the Chaldeans. Orelse, indeed, that Darius had already died in whose first year Daniel hadlearned of the mystery of the seventy weeks, and he is now relating that hebeheld these things in the third year of King Cyrus. "And it was a trueword and great strength" refers either to the strength of the God who wasgoing to perform these things or to the strength of the prophet who wouldcomprehend them.
Verses 2, 3."In those days I, Daniel, mourned for the days of threeweeks; I ate no desirable bread, and neither flesh or wine entered into mymouth; neither was I anointed with ointment until the days of three weeks wereaccomplished."By this example we are taught to abstain from thepleasanter types of food (I think that the term "desirable bread" isthat inclusive) during a period of fasting, and that we neither eat flesh nordrink (A) wine, (697) and especially that we desire no anointing with ointments.This custom is maintained among the Persians and Indians even to this day, thatthey use ointment as a substitute for baths. Also, Daniel afflicted his soul forthree consecutive weeks, so that his intercession might not appear cursory orcasual. By inference, indeed, we ought to make the observation that a person inmourning who (p. 554) bemourns the absence of one betrothed partakes of nodesirable bread though|112 it comesdown from heaven itself; neither does he touch solid food, which is to beunderstood in the sense of meat, nor does he drink any wine, which gladdens theheart of man, or make his face cheerful with oil (as we read in the Psalms:"That he may make the face cheerful with oil" Ps. 103 [=104]: 15). Bymeans of such a fast as this (B) the betrothed girl sheds tears which will beconvincing, when her fiance has been taken from her. Daniel also did well tosupplicate the Lord with boldness, inasmuch as in the first year of Cyrus'sreign the captivity of the Jews had already been somewhat relaxed in itsseverity.
Verse 4."And in the twenty-fourth day of the first month, I wasbeside the great river which is the Tigris."Ezekiel also had seen agreat vision beside a river, the Chebar (Ez. 1). And it was by the stream of theJordan that the heavens were opened to the gaze of our Lord and Savior and alsoto John the Baptist (Matt. 3). (C) Therefore those critics should leave offtheir foolish objections who raise questions about the presence of shadows andsymbols in a matter of historical truth and attempt to destroy the truth itselfby imagining that they should employ allegorical methods to destroy thehistoricity of rivers and trees and of Paradise [mentioned in Scripture].
Verse 5."And I lifted my eyes and saw."We must lift up oureyes if we are to be able to discern a mystical vision.
"And behold, a person clothed in linen."Instead of"linen," as Aquila rendered it, Theodotion simply putsbaddim[amere transcription of the Hebrew word], whereas the Septuagint renders it asbyssus[fine linen], and Symmachus asexaireta(choice vestments), (D), thatis, "distinguished clothing"(praecipua).And instead of whatwe have rendered as, "Behold, a man," on the basis of the Hebrew text,Symmachus puts, "One like unto a man," inasmuch as he was not actuallya man but only had the appearance of one.
"And his loins were girt about with pure gold."The Hebrewterm for this is (E)'wpzorophaz[actually pointed as'uwpazin the Massoretic Text], a word which Aquila has rendered in this fashion:"And his loins were girt about with the color ofophax"[aGreek word which does not otherwise exist]. (698).
Verse 6."And his body was like chrysolite."(F)|113For "chrysolite," one of the twelve gems inserted in the oracularbreastplate of the high priest, the Hebrew hastrs'ys(tharsis) [actuallytarsiysortarshish],a word which Theodotion andSymmachus simply left unchanged in transcription; but the Septuagint called it"the sea," according to the usage in the Psalms: "With a violentgale Thou dashest the ships ofTharsisin pieces," i.e., "theships of the sea" (Ps. 47:8). Jonah, also, was desirous of fleeing, not toTarsus, the Cilician city (as most people suppose), substituting one letter foranother), nor to some region in India (as (G) Josephus imagines), but simply outto the high seas in general (Jonah 1). (p. 555)
Verse 7."And I, Daniel, alone saw the vision, for the men who werewith me saw it not; but an exceeding great terror fell upon them, and they fledaway and hid themselves."The Apostle Paul had a similar experience inthe Book of Acts, in that while the others could see nothing, he alone beheldthe vision (Acts 22).
Verse 10."And behold, a hand touched me, and lifted me up upon myknees...." The angel appeared in the form of a man and laid his handupon the human prophet as he lay upon the ground, in order that he might not beterrified, beholding a form like his own.
Verse 11."And he said to me, 'Daniel, thou man of desires. . ..'"It was fitting that he be addressed as a man of desires, for by dintof urgent prayer and affliction of body and the discipline of severe fasting hedesired to learn of the future and to be informed of the secret counsels of God.Instead of "man of desires," Symmachus rendered it as "desirableman." The term is apt, for every saint possesses a beauty of soul and isbeloved by the Lord.
Verse 12."And he said to me: 'Fear not, Daniel, for from the firstday when thou didst set thine heart to understand and to afflict thyself in thesight of thy God(variant: thy Lord),thy words have been heard andgranted, and I have come forth in response to thy words"(Vulgate: onaccount of thy words). On the twenty-fourth day of the first month, that is, ofNisan, after three weeks or twenty-one days had elapsed, he beheld this vision,and he heard from the angel that on the very|114first day he had begun to pray and to afflict himself before God, his words hadbeen heard and granted. The question arises why, if he had been heard, was theangel not sent (699) to him right away. Well, by reason of the delay anopportunity was afforded him of praying to the Lord at greater length, so thatin proportion as his earnest desire was intensified, he might by his effort themore fully deserve to hear [or else: "might deserve to hear more, i.e.,than he would otherwise"]. And as for the angel's statement, "And Ihave come in response to thy words," his meaning is this: "After thoudidst begin to invoke God's mercy by good works and tearful supplication andfasting, then I for my part embraced the opportunity of entering in before Godand praying for thee."
Verse 13."But the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me fortwenty-one days."In my opinion this was the angel to whose chargePersia was committed, in accordance with what we read in Deuteronomy: "Whenthe Most High divided the nations and distributed the children of Adam abroad,then He established the bounds of the nations according to the number of theangels of God" (Deut. 32:8). [See note at VII: 2, Migne p. 528.] These arethe princes of whom Paul also says: "We speak forth among the perfect awisdom which none of the princes of this world knew. For if they had known it,they would never have crucified the Lord of Glory" (I Cor. 2:6). And so theprince or angel of the Persians offered resistance, acting on behalf of theprovince entrusted to him, in order that (p. 556) the entire captive nationmight not be released. And it may well be that although the prophet wasgraciously heard by God from the day when he set his heart to understand, theangel was nevertheless not sent to proclaim to him God's gracious decision, forthe reason that the prince of Persia opposed him for twenty-one days,enumerating the sins of the Jewish people as a ground for their justly beingkept in captivity and as proof that they ought not to be released.
"And behold, Michael, one of the chief princes, came to myassistance."That is, while the angel of the Persians was resisting thypetitions and my representations on thy behalf as I presented thy prayers toGod, then there came to my assistance the angel Michael, who has oversight ofthe people of Israel. By chief princes we are of course to understandarchangels.|115
"And I remained there close by the king of the Persians."Hedesignates the angel or prince by the term "king of the Persians," andshows that he had tarried with Michael for a little as he spoke in opposition tothe prince of the Persians.
Verse 14."And I have come to teach thee what things shall befall thypeople in the last days."The very petition which Daniel had requestedis the thing which he deserves to hear from God, namely what is going to happento the people of Israel, not in the near future, but (700) in the last days,that is, at the end of the world.
Verse 16. (A)"O my lord, at the sight of thee my joints are loosed...."Theodotion interprets it this way, in accordance with what we readin the One Hundred and Second Psalm [i.e. the 103rd]: "Bless the Lord, O mysoul, and all that is within me, bless His holy name." For our inwardnature must direct its gaze without, before we deserve to behold a vision ofGod; and when we actually have beheld a vision of God, then our inward nature isconverted within us and we become wholly of the number of those concerning whomit is written in another Psalm: "All the glory of the daughter of kings (B)is within, in golden borders" (Ps. 44:14).
Verse 19."And as he spoke with me, I recovered strength and said,'Speak, my Lord, for thou hast reassured me' And he said...." Forunless the angel had reassured him by touching him like a son of man, so thathis heart was freed of terror, he would not have been able to hearken to God'ssecrets. For that reason he now says, "Speak, for thou hast reassured me;for thou hast enabled me both to hear and understand what thou sayest."
Verse 20. "'Dost thou know why I have come to thee? And now I willreturn to fight against the prince of the Persians.'"What he means isthis: I have indeed come to teach thee of the things thou hast received inanswer to prayer; but I am going to return once more to contend against theprince of the Persians in the sight of God, for he is unwilling that thy peoplebe released from captivity.
"For(Vulgate: Therefore)as I was coming away, the prince ofthe Greeks appeared and entered in(Vulgate: and came|116up)." He means, "I myself was departing (p. 557) from God's presencein order to announce to thee [readingtibifor the inappropriateubi]theevents which are to befall thy people in the last days; and yet I am still notsecure, since the prince of the Persians stands to plead against the granting ofthy petitions and the acceptance of my advocacy on thy behalf. And behold, theprince of the Greeks, or Macedonians, had just come, and he entered in beforeGod's presence to lodge accusation against the prince of the Medes and Persians,in order that the kingdom of the Macedonians might succeed in their place."Truly marvelous are the secret counsels of God, for it indeed came to pass thatafter the Jewish people had been freed from captivity, Alexander, king of theMacedonians, slew Darius and overthrew the kingdom of the Persians and Medes, sothat the prince of the Greeks did overcome the prince of the Persians.
Verse 21."Nevertheless I will relate to thee what has been set downin the Scripture of truth."That is, this is the order which the wordsfollow. The fulfilment is still in doubt. For even though thou dost beseech theLord (701) and I present thy prayers to Him, yet the prince of the Persianstakes his stand on the opposite side, and is unwilling that thy people be freedfrom captivity. But because the prince of the Greeks has come, and in themeantime is contending against the prince of the Persians, and also because Ihave Michael there as my assistant, I shall, during their mutual conflict,report to thee the coming events which God has foretold to me and has bidden merelate to thee. And let no one be disturbed by the question as to why mention ismade of the prince of the Greeks orHellenesrather than of theMacedonians, for Alexander, king of the Macedonians, did not take up armsagainst the Persians until he had first overthrown Greece and subjected it tohis power.
"And no one is my helper in all these things except Michael, yourprince."He implies, "I am that angel who presents thy prayers toGod, and I have no other helper in petitioning God on your behalf except thearchangel Michael, to whose charge the Jewish nation has been entrusted. Andmeanwhile the prince of the Greeks is engaged in a common effort with me at thisparticular time, contending against the prince of the Persians. We should reviewour ancient history and (A) consider whether|117by any chance that was the date of the conquest of the Persians by the Greeks.According to the Vulgate edition (of the Septuagint), this same vision isreckoned as extending to the end of the book, that is, the vision which appearedto Daniel in the third year of Cyrus, King of the Persians. On the other hand,according to the Hebrew original, the ensuing sections are separate from this,and recorded in an inverted order. The causes for this phenomenon we havealready mentioned; that is, the matters here recorded are related as havingoccurred in the first year of the Darius who overthrew Belshazzar, not in thethird year of Cyrus.|118
Verse 1."And from the first year of Darius theMede, I stood up that he might be strengthened and confirmed."Danielimplies, "From the first year of the reign of Darius, who overthrew theChaldeans and delivered me from the hand of my enemies to the extent of hisability (for even his sealing of the pit of lions with his signet ring was formy protection, lest my adversaries should slay me), I for my part stood beforeGod, and I besought God's mercy upon him, in view of the man's love for me, inorder that either he or his kingdom might be strengthened and confirmed. Andsince I persevered in my prayer, I was answered by God and given to understandthe following information. After all, it is a customary thing (p. 558) with theprophets to bring in new speakers abruptly and without warning. So it is inPsalm Thirty-one [i.e., Thirty-two]: for when the prophet has petitioned God andsaid: "Thou art my refuge from my tribulation (B) which compassed me about;O Thou, who art my rejoicing, deliver me from those who now encompass me,"then God is abruptly brought in as the speaker, replying, "I will give theeunderstanding, and I will instruct thee in this way in which thou shalt go; Iwill fasten Mine eyes upon thee" (verses 7 and 8). So also here, as theprophet relates, "From the first year of Darius the Mede, I stood up andinterceded that he might be strengthened and that his rule might beconfirmed," God suddenly responds:
Verse 2."And now I shall proclaim the truth tothee."And the meaning is this: "Because thou desirest to knowwhat shall befall the kings of Persia, hearken thou to the order of events andhear the answer to thy request."
"And behold, three more kings shall arise inPersia, and the fourth shall be enriched exceedingly above them all, and when heshall have grown mighty through his wealth, he shall stir up all men against thekingdom of Greece."He states that four kings shall arise in Persiaafter Cyrus, namely Cambyses,|119 theson of Cyrus, and the Magus named Smerdis, who married Pantaptes, the daughterof Cambyses. Then, when he was slain by seven Magi and Darius had succeeeded tohis throne, the same Pantaptes married Darius, and by him gave birth to Xerxes,who became a most powerful and wealthy king, and led an innumerable host againstGreece and performed those deeds which are related by the Greek historians. Forin the archonship of Callias he destroyed Athens by fire, and about that sametime waged the war at Thermopylae and the naval battle at Salamis. It was in histime that Sophocles and Euripides became famous [hardly Euripides, whose firstplay was given in 455, nine years after Xerxes' death], and Themistocles fled inexile to Persia, where he died as a result of drinking the blood of a bull. Andso that writer [apparently Tertullian, cf. p. 550] is in error who records asthe fourth king that Darius who was defeated by Alexander, for he was not thefourth king, but the fourteenth king of the Persians after Cyrus. It was in theseventh year of his rule that Alexander defeated and slew him. Moreover itshould be observed that after he has specified four kings of Persia after Cyrus,the author [i.e., Daniel] omits the nine (C) others and passes right on toAlexander. For the Spirit of prophecy was not concerned about preservinghistorical detail but in summarizing only the most important matters. (703)
Verses 3, 4."But there shall rise up a strongking and shall rule with great power, and he shall do whatever he pleases. Andwhen he shall have arisen, his kingdom shall be broken."He clearlyrefers to Alexander the Great, king of the Macedonians, and son of Philip. Forafter he had overcome the Illyrians and Thracians, and had conquered Greece anddestroyed Thebes, he crossed over into Asia. And when he had routed Darius'sgenerals and taken the city of Sardis, he afterwards captured India and foundedthe city of Alexandria. And then, when he had attained the age of thirty-two andthe twelfth year of his reign, he died of poison.
"And it shall be divided towards the four windsof heaven, but not unto his own posterity nor according to his power with whichhe had borne rule."After Alexander his kingdom was divided towards thefour (p. 559) winds, namely to the east, the west, the south, and the north. InEgypt, that is in the south,|120Ptolemythe son of Lagos was the first to become king. In Macedonia, that is in thewest, the Philip who was also called Aridaeus, a brother of Alexander, becameking. The king of Syria and Babylon and the remoter regions, that is, the east,was Seleucus Nicanor. Antigonus was king of Asia Minor and Pontus and of theother provinces in that whole area, that is, in the north. So much for thevarious regions of the world as a whole; but from the standpoint of Judeaitself, the north would be Syria and the south would be Egypt. And as for thestatement, "But not unto his own posterity," the implication is thatAlexander would have no children, but rather, his kingdom would be rent asunderand fall to others who were not of his family, except of course for Philip, whokept Macedonia. Nor would it be according to the power of him who had bornerule, for the kingdom became feebler by division into four parts, for theyconstantly fought among themselves and raged with internecine fury.
"For his kingdom shall be rent in pieces(variant:destroyed),and that too among strangers besides these."Besides thefour kingdoms of Macedonia, Asia Minor, Syria, and Egypt, the kingdom of theMacedonians was torn asunder among other rulers of less prominence and amongpetty kings. The reference here is to Perdiccas and Craterus and Lysimachus, forCappadocia, Armenia, Bithynia, Heracleia, Bosphorus and various other provinceswithdrew themselves from the Macedonian power and set up various kings forthemselves.
Verse 5."And the king of the South shall bestrengthened."The reference is to Ptolemy, son of Lagos, who was thefirst to become king in Egypt, and was a very clever, mighty and wealthy man,and possessed such power that he was able to restore Pyrrhus, King of Epirus, tohis kingdom after he had been driven out, and also to seize Cyprus andPhoenicia. And after he had conquered Demetrius, the son of Antigonus, herestored to Seleucus that portion of his kingdom which Antigonus had taken awayfrom him. He also acquired Caria and many islands, cities, and districtsunnecessary to detail at this time. But no further notice is taken of the otherkingdoms, Macedonia and Asia Minor, because Judaea lay in a midway position andwas held now by one group of kings and now by another. And it is not the purposeof Holy Scripture to cover external history|121apart from the Jews, but only that which is linked upwith the nation of Israel.
"And one of his princes shall prevail over him,and he shall rule with great power, for his dominion shall be great."Theperson mentioned is Ptolemy Philadelphus, the second king of Egypt and the sonof the former Ptolemy. It was in his reign that the Seventy(Septuaginta)translatorsare said to have translated the Holy Scripture into Greek. He also sent manytreasures to Jerusalem for the high priest Eleazar, and votive vessels for theTemple. The curator of his library was Demetrius of Phalerum, a man ofreputation among the Greeks as an orator and philosopher. Philadelphus isreported [readingnarraturinstead of the inappropriatenarrantur]to have possessed such great power as to surpass his father Ptolemy. For historyrelates that he possessed two hundred thousand infantrymen, twenty thousandcavalry, and even two thousand chariots and four hundred elephants, which he wasthe first to import from Ethiopia. He also had a thousand five hundred (p. 560)war galleys of the type now known as Liburnian, and a thousand others for thetransporting of military provisions. So great was his treasure of gold andsilver that he received a yearly revenue from Egypt amounting to fourteenthousand eight hundred talents of silver, as well as grain in the amount of fiveor ten hundred thousandartabae(a measure containing three and a halfmodii[amodiusbeing about three and a half pecks]).
Verse 6."And at the end of the years they shallbe leagued together(or, as Theodotion renders: And after his years theyshall be united).And the daughter of the king of the South shall come to theking of the North in order to make friendship, but she shall not obtain strengthof arm nor shall her seed endure. And she herself shall be handed over, as wellas her young men(Vulgate: youths)who brought her and who werestrengthening her in(these)times."As we have already said, itwas Seleucus, surnamed Nicanor, who first ruled over Syria. The second king wasAntiochus, who was called Soter. The third was Antiochus himself, (705) who wascalledTheos,that is the Divine. He was the one who waged numerous warswith Ptolemy Philadelphus, who was the second ruler in Egypt, and he also foughtwith all the Babylonians and the men of the East, And so after|122many years Ptolemy Philadelphus wished to have donewith this vexatious struggle, and so he gave his daughter, named Berenice, inmarriage to Antiochus, who had already had by a previous wife, named Laodice,two sons, namely Seleucus, surnamed Callinicus, and the other, Antiochus. AndPhiladelphus conducted her as far as Pelusium and bestowed countless thousandsof gold and silver by way of a dowry, from which circumstance he acquired thenickname ofphernophorosor Dowry-giver(dotalis).But as forAntiochus, even though he had said he would regard Berenice as his royal consortand keep Laodice in the status of a concubine, he was finally prevailed upon byhis love for Laodice to restore her to the status of queen, along with herchildren. But she was fearful that her husband might in his fickleness restoreBerenice to favor once more, and so she had him put to death by her servantswith the use of poison. And she handed over Berenice and the son whom she hadborn by Antiochus to Icadio and Genneus, princes of Antiochus, and then set upher elder son, Seleucus Callinicus, as king in his father's place. And so thisis the matter referred to in this passage, namely that after many years PtolemyPhiladelphus and AntiochusTheoswould conclude a friendship, and thedaughter of the king of the South, that is Ptolemy, would go to the king of theNorth, that is Antiochus, in order to cement friendly relations between herfather and her husband. And the text says that she will not be able to gain herend, nor shall her posterity remain upon the throne of Syria, but instead bothBerenice and the men who had escorted her thither shall be put to death. Andalso the king, Antiochus, who had strengthened her, that is, through whom shecould have obtained the mastery, was killed by his wife's poison.
Verses 7-9."And a plant of the bud of her rootsshall arise, and he shall come with an army and shall invade the province of theking of the North. And he shall abuse them and shall prevail. And he shall alsocarry away captive into Egypt their gods and their sculptures and their preciousvessels of gold and silver; he shall prevail against the king of the North. Andthe king of the South shall enter into the kingdom and shall return to his ownland."After the murder of Berenice and the death of her father,Ptolemy Philadelphus, in Egypt, her brother, who was also named Ptolemy|123and surnamed Euergetes, succeeded to the throne asthe third of his dynasty, being in fact an offshoot of the same plant and a budof the same root as she was, inasmuch as he was her (p. 561) brother. He came upwith a great army and advanced into the province (706) of the king of the North,that is Seleucus Callinicus, who together with his mother Laodice was ruling inSyria, and abused them, and not only did he seize Syria but also took Ciliciaand the remoter regions beyond the Euphrates and nearly all of Asia as well. Andthen, when he heard that a rebellion was afoot in Egypt, he ravaged the kingdomof Seleucus and carried off as booty forty thousand talents of silver, and alsoprecious vessels and images of the gods to the amount of two and a halfthousand. Among them were the same images which Cambyses had brought to Persiaat the time when he conquered Egypt. The Egyptian people were indeed devoted toidolatry, for when he had brought back their gods to them after so many years,they called him Euergetes (Benefactor). And he himself retained possession ofSyria, but he handed over Cilicia to his friend, Antiochus, that he might governit, and the provinces beyond the Euphrates he handed over to Xanthippus, anothergeneral.
Verse 10."And his sons shall be provoked, andthey shall assemble a multitude of great armies, and he shall come with hastelike a flood. And he shall return and be stirred up, and he shall join battlewith his army."After the flight and death of Seleucus Callinicus, histwo sons, the Seleucus surnamed Ceraunus and the Antiochus who was called theGreat, were provoked by a hope of victory and of avenging their father, and sothey assembled an army against Ptolemy Philopator and took up arms. And when theelder brother, Seleucus, was slain in Phrygia in the third year of his reignthrough the treachery of Nicanor and Apaturius, the army which was in Syriasummoned his brother, Antiochus the Great, from Babylon to assume the throne.And so this is the reason why the present passage states that the two sons wereprovoked and assembled a multitude of very sizable armies. But it implies thatAntiochus the Great came by himself from Babylon to Syria, which at that timewas held by Ptolemy Philopator, the son of Euergetes and the fourth king to rulein Egypt. And after he had successfully fought with his generals, or rather hadby the betrayal of Theodotius obtained|124possession of Syria (which had already been held by asuccession of Egyptian kings), he became so emboldened by his contempt forPhilopator's luxurious manner of life and for the magical arts which he was saidto employ, that he took the initiative in attempting an invasion of Egyptitself.
Verses 11, 12."And the king of the South, beingprovoked, shall go forth and shall prepare an exceeding great multitude, and amultitude shall be given into his hand. And he shall take(707) amultitude, and his heart shall be lifted up,because (Vulgate: and)heshall cast down many thousands. But he shall not prevail."The Ptolemysurnamed Philopator, having lost Syria through the betrayal of Theodotius,gathered together a very great multitude and launched an invasion against (p.562) Antiochus the Great, who now bears the title of king of the North, at theregion where Egypt borders upon the province of Judaea. For owing to the natureof the region, this locality lies partly to the south and partly to the north.If we speak of Judaea, it lies to the north of Egypt and to the south of Syria.And so when he had joined battle near the town of Raphia at the gateway ofEgypt, Antiochus lost his entire army and was almost captured as he fled throughthe desert. And after he had conceded the loss of Syria, the conflict wasfinally brought to an end upon the basis of a treaty and certain conditions ofpeace. And this is what the Scripture means here by the statement that PtolemyPhilopator "shall cast down many thousands" and yet shall not prevail.For he was unable to capture his adversary. The sequel now follows.
Verses 13, 14."And the king of the North shallreturn and shall prepare a much greater multitude than before, and in the end oftimes and years he shall come in haste with a large army and great resources.And in those times many shall rise up against the king of the South."Thisindicates that Antiochus the Great, who despised the worthlessness of PtolemyPhilopator (for he had fallen desperately in love with a lute-player namedAgathoclea and also her brother, retaining Agatho-cles himself as his concubineand afterwards appointing him as general of Egypt), assembled a huge army fromthe upper regions of Babylon. And since Ptolemy Philopator was now dead,Antiochus broke his treaty and set his army in motion against|125Philopator's four-year-old son, who was calledEpiphanes. For so great was the dissoluteness and arrogancy of Agathoclea, thatthose provinces which had previously been subjected to Egypt rose up inrebellion, and even Egypt itself was troubled with seditions. Moreover Philip,King of Macedon, and Antiochus the Great made peace with each other and engagedin a common struggle (708) against Agathocles and Ptolemy Eprphanes, on theunderstanding that each of them should annex to his own dominion those cities ofPtolemy which lay nearest to them. And so this is what is referred to in thispassage, which says that many shall rise up against the king of the South, thatis, Ptolemy Epiphanes, who was then a mere child.
"Moreover the children of the transgressors ofthy people shall lift themselves up, that they may fulfil the vision, and thenfall to ruin(Vulgate: and they shall fall to ruin)." During theconflict between Antiochus the Great and the generals of Ptolemy, Judaea, whichlay between them, was rent into contrary factions, the one group favoringAntiochus, and the other favoring Ptolemy. Finally the high priest, Onias, fledto Egypt, taking a large number of Jews along with him, and was given by Ptolemyan honorable reception. (A) He then received the region known as Heliopolis, andby a grant of the king, he erected a temple in Egypt like the temple of theJews, and it remained standing up until the reign of Vespasian, over a period oftwo hundred (B) and fifty years. But then the city itself (C), which was known(p. 563) as the City of Onias, was destroyed to the very ground because of thewar which the Jews had subsequently waged against the Romans. There isconsequently no trace of either city or temple now remaining. But as we weresaying, countless multitudes of Jews fled to Egypt on the occasion of Onias'spontificate, and the land was filled with a large number from Cyrene as well.For Onias affirmed (A) that he was fulfilling the prophecy written by Isaiah:"There shall be an altar of the Lord in Egypt, and the name of the Lordshall be found in their territories" (Isa. 19:19). And so this is thematter referred to in this passage: "The sons of the transgressors of thypeople," who forsook the law of the Lord and wished to offerblood-sacrifices to God in another place than what He had commanded. They wouldbe lifted up in pride and would boast that they were fulfilling the|126vision, that is, the thing which the Lord hadenjoined. But they shall fall to ruin, for both temple and city shall beafterwards destroyed. And while Antiochus held Judaea, a leader of the Ptolemaicparty called Scopas (B) Aetholus was sent against Antiochus, and after a boldcampaign he took Judaea and took the aristocrats of Ptolemy's party back toEgypt with him on his return. (709)
Verses 15, 16."And the king of the North shallcome, and shall cast up a mound and capture the best fortified cities, and thearms of the South shall not withstand. And his chosen ones shall rise up toresist, and they shall have no strength. And he shall come upon him and doaccording to his own desire, and there shall be none to stand against his face.And he shall stand in the glorious land and it shall be consumed by hishand."Purposing to retake Judaea and the many cities of Syria,Antiochus joined battle with Scopas, Ptolemy's general, near the sources of theJordan near where the city now called Paneas was founded, and he put him toflight and besieged him in Sidon together with ten thousand of his soldiers. Inorder to free him, Ptolemy dispatched the famous generals, Eropus, Menocles andDamoxenus (Vulgate: Damoxeus). Yet he was unable to lift the siege, and finallyScopas, overcome by famine, had to surrender and was sent away with hisassociates, despoiled of all he had. And as for the statement, "He shallcast up a mound," this indicates that Antiochus is going to besiege thegarrison of Scopas in the citadel of Jerusalem for a long time, while the Jewsadd their exertions as well. And he is going to capture other cities which hadformerly been held by the Ptolemaic faction in Syria, Cilicia and Lycia(variant: Lydia). For at that time Aphrodisias, Soloe, Zephrion, Mallos,Anemurium (variant: Anemurum), Selenus, Coracesium, Coricus, Andriace, Lymira,Patara (variant: Patra), Xanthus, and finally Ephesus were all captured. Thesethings are related by both Greek and Roman historians. And as for the statement,"And he shall stand in the glorious land, and it shall be consumed (or,finished) by his hand," the term "glorious land," or, as theSeptuagint interprets it, "the land of desire" (that is, in which Godtakes pleasure) signifies Judaea, and particularly Jerusalem, to which Antiochuspursued those men of Scopas's party who had been honorably (C) received there.Instead of the|127phrase,"glorious land," as (p. 564) Aquila rendered it, Theodotion simplyputs the Hebrew word itself, (D)Sabin;instead of that Symmachustranslated it "land of bravery."
Verses 17-19."And he shall set his face to comeand possess all his kingdom, and he shall make upright conditions with him. Andhe shall give him the daughter of women, that she may overthrow him"(Vulgate:it). That is to say, the intention is to overthrow him, that is, Ptolemy, orelse to overthrow it, that is, his kingdom. Antiochus not only wished to takepossession of Syria, Cilicia, and (710) Lycia, and the other provinces which hadbelonged to Ptolemy's party, but also to extend his empire to Egypt. Hetherefore used the good offices of Eucles of Rhodes to betroth his daughter,Cleopatra, to young Ptolemy in the seventh year of his reign; and in histhirteenth year she was given to him in marriage, professedly endowed with allof Coele-syria and Judaea as her marriage-portion. By pleonasm she is called adaughter of women, just as the poet says:
. . .Thus she spake with her mouth.
. . .And with these ears did I drink in her voice.
[The second line is quoted from Vergil'sAeneid,iv,359; the first line I have not been able to locate; neither seems to beparticularly appropriate to the context.]
"And she shall not stand, neither shall she befor him. And he shall turn his face to the islands and shall capture many; andshe shall cause the prince of her reproach to cease, and his reproach shall beturned upon him. And he shall turn his face to the empire of his own land; andhe shall stumble and fall, and shall not be found."For he was unableto take possession of Egypt, because Ptolemy Epiphanes and his generals detectedthe strategem and followed a cautious policy. And besides, Cleopatra inclinedmore to her husband's side than to her father's. And so he turned his attentionto Asia Minor, and by carrying on naval warfare against a large number ofislands, he seized Rhodes, Samos, Colophon (variant: Colophonia and Bocla),Phocea and many other islands. But he was opposed by Lucius Scipio Nasica andalso his brother, Publius Scipio Africanus, who had vanquished Hannibal. Forsince the consul Nasica, the brother of Africanus, was of a somewhat sluggishdisposition, the Roman senate was unwilling to entrust to him a|128war against so mighty a king as Antiochus. Africanustherefore offered to assume the post of deputy on a voluntary basis, in order toobviate any damage that his brother might cause. Consequently Antiochus wasvanquished and commanded to confine his rule to the other side of the Taurusrange. And so he took refuge in Apamia and Susa and advanced to the easternmostcities of his realm [readingregniforregi]. And during a waragainst the Elymaeans he was destroyed together with his entire army. And sothis is what the Scripture refers to in this passage, when it states that hewould capture many islands, and yet because of the Roman conqueror he would losethe kingdom of Asia; and that the disgrace he had inflicted would come back uponhis own head; and that in the end he would flee from Asia Minor and return tothe empire of his own land, and would then stumble and fall, so that his placewould not be found.
Verse 20."And there shall stand up in his placeone most vile and unworthy of kingly honor, and in a few days he shall bedestroyed, not in rage nor in a battle."The reference is to theSeleucus surnamed Philopator, (711) the son of Antiochus the Great, who duringhis reign performed no deeds worthy of Syria or of his father, but (p. 565)perished ingloriously without fighting a single battle. Porphyry, however,claims that it was not this Seleucus who is referred to, but rather PtolemyEpiphanes, who contrived a plot against Seleucus and prepared an army to fightagainst him, with the result that Seleucus was poisoned by his own generals.They did this because when someone asked Seleucus where he was going to get thefinancial resources for the great enterprises he was planning, he answered thathis financial resources consisted in his friends. When this remark was publiclynoised abroad, the generals became apprehensive that he would deprive them oftheir property and for that reason did him to death by nefarious means. Yet howcould Ptolemy be said to rise up in the place of Antiochus the Great, since hedid nothing of the sort? This is especially improbable since the Septuaginttranslated: "And there shall stand up a plant from his root," that is,"of his issue and seed," who should deal a severe blow to the prestigeof the empire; "and within a few days he shall be destroyed without wrathor battle." The Hebrews claim that it is Trypho who was intended by the manwho was most|129vileand unworthy of kingly honor, for as the boy-king's guardian he seized thethrone for himself.
Verse 24."And there shall stand up in his placeone despised, and the kingly honor shall not be given him; and he shall comeprivately and shall obtain the kingdom by fraud. And the arms of the fightershall be overcome before his face and shall be broken, and the prince of thecovenant as well. And after friendly advances he shall deal deceitfully withhim, and shall go up and shall overcome with a small people. And he shall enterinto rich and prosperous cities, and shall do things which his fathers neverdid, nor his fathers' fathers. He shall scatter their spoil and their booty andtheir wealth, and shall undertake plots against the best fortified cities, andshall continue thus for a time."Up to this point the historical orderhas been followed, and there has been no point of controversy between Porphyryand those of our side (variant: and us). But the rest of the text from here onto the end of the book he interprets as applying to the person of the Antiochuswho was surnamed Epiphanes, the brother of Seleucus and the son of Antiochus theGreat. He reigned in Syria for eleven years after Seleucus, and he seizedJudaea, and it is under his reign that the persecution of God's Law is related,and also the wars of the Maccabees. But those of our persuasion believe allthese things are spoken prophetically of the Antichrist who is to arise in theend time. But this factor appears to them as a difficulty for our view, namelythe question as to why the prophetic discourse should abruptly cease mention ofthese great kings and shift from Seleucus to the end of the world. The answer isthat in the earlier historical account where mention was made of the Persiankings, only four kings of Persia were presented, following after Cyrus, and(712) many who came in between were simply skipped over, so as to come quicklyto Alexander, king of the Macedonians. We hold that it is the practice ofScripture not to relate all details completely, but only to set forth what seemsof major importance. Those of our school insist also that since many of thedetails which we are subsequently to read and explain are appropriate to theperson of Antiochus, he is to be regarded as a type of the Antichrist, and thosethings which happened to him in a preliminary way are to be completely fulfilledin the case of the Antichrist. We hold that it is the habit of Holy|130Scripture to set forth by means of types the realityof things to come, in conformity with what is said of our Lord and Savior in theSeventy-first [i.e Seventy-second] Psalm, a psalm which is noted at thebeginning as being Solomon's, and yet not all the statements which are madeconcerning can be applied to Solomon. For certainly he neither endured"together with the sun and before the moon from generation togeneration," nor did he hold sway from sea (p. 566) to sea, or from theRiver unto the ends of the earth; neither did all the nations serve him, nor didhis name endure before the sun; neither were all the tribes of earth blessed inhim, nor did all races magnify him. But in a partial way these things were setforth in advance, by shadows as it were, and by a mere symbol of the reality, inthe person of Solomon, in order that they might be more perfectly fulfilled inour Lord and Savior. And so, just as the Savior had Solomon and the other saintsas types of His advent, so also we should believe that the Antichrist veryproperly had as a type of himself the utterly wicked king, Antiochus, whopersecuted the saints and defiled the Temple. Let us therefore follow along withthe explanation point by point, and let us briefly observe in the case of eachitem what it signifies to those of the other school of thought and what itsignifies to those of our school, in accordance with each of the twoexplanations. Our opponents say that the one who was to "stand up in theplace of" Seleucus was his brother, Antiochus Epiphanes. The party in Syriawho favored Ptolemy would not at first grant him the kingly honor, but he latersecured the rule of Syria by a pretense of clemency. And as Ptolemy fought andlaid everything waste, his arms were overcome and broken before the face ofAntiochus. Now the word arms implies the idea of strength, and therefore alsothe host of any army is known as a hand [i.e.manus,"hand,"may also signify a "band of armed men"]. And not only does the textsay that he conquered Ptolemy by fraud, but also the prince of the covenant heovercame by treachery, that is, Judas Maccabaeus. Or else this is what isreferred to, that after he had secured peace with Ptolemy and he had become theprince of the covenant, he afterwards devised a plot against him. Now thePtolemy meant here was not Epiphanes, who was the fifth Ptolemy to reign inEgypt, but Ptolemy (713) Philometor, the son of Antiochus' sister, Cleopatra;and so Antiochus was his|131maternaluncle. And when after Cleopatra's death Egypt was ruled by Eulaius, the eunuchwho was Philometor's tutor, and by Leneus, and they were attempting to regainSyria, which Antiochus had fraudulently seized, warfare broke out between theboy Ptolemy and his uncle. And when they joined battle between Pelusium and Mt.Casius, Ptolemy's generals were defeated. But then Antiochus showed leniencytowards the boy, and making a pretense of friendship, he went up to Memphis andthere received the crown after the Egyptian manner. Declaring that he waslooking out for the lad's interests, he subjected all Egypt to himself with onlya small force of men, and he entered into rich and prosperous cities. And so hedid things which his father had never done, nor his fathers' fathers. For noneof the kings of Syria had ever laid Egypt waste after this fashion and scatteredall their wealth. Moreover he was so shrewd that he even overcame by his deceitthe well-laid plans of those who were the boy-king's generals. This is the lineof interpretation which Porphyry followed, pursuing the lead of (A) Sutoriuswith much redundancy, discoursing of matters which we have summarized within abrief compass. But the scholars of our viewpoint have made a better andcorrecter interpretation, stating that the deeds are to be performed by theAntichrist at the end of the world. It is he who is destined to arise from asmall nation, that is from the Jewish people, and shall be so lowly and despisedthat kingly honor will not be granted him. But by means of intrigue anddeception he shall secure the government and by him shall the arms of thefighting nation of Rome be overcome and broken. He is to effect this result bypretending to (p. 567) be the prince of the covenant, that is, of the Law andTestament of God. And he shall enter into the richest of cities and shall dowhat his fathers never did, nor his fathers' fathers. For none of the Jewsexcept the Antichrist has ever ruled over the whole world. And he shall form adesign against the firmest resolves of the saints and shall do everything [hewishes] for a time, for as long as God's will shall have permitted him to dothese things.
Verses 25, 26."And his strength and his heartshall be stirred up against the king of the South with a great army. And theking of the South shall be aroused to war with many and very strong auxiliaryforces; and they shall not stand, for they|132shall form designs against him. And they that eatbread with him shall destroy him, and his army shall be crushed,(714)andmany shall fall down slain."Porphyry interprets this as applying toAntiochus, who set forth with a great army on a campaign against his sister'sson. But the king of the South, that is the generals of Ptolemy, were alsoroused to war with many and very powerful auxiliary forces, but they could notstand against the fraudulent schemes of Antiochus. For he pretended to be atpeace with his sister's son and ate bread with him, and afterwards he tookpossession of Egypt. But those of our view with greater plausibility interpretall this as applying to the Antichrist, for he is to be born of the Jewishpeople and come from Babylon, and is first of all going to vanquish the king ofEgypt, who is one of the three horns of which we have already spoken earlier.
Verses 27----30."And the heart of the two kingsshall be to do evil, and they speak falsehood at one table, and they shall notprosper, because as yet the end is unto another time. And he shall return intohis land with much riches."There is no doubt but what Antiochus didconclude a peace with Ptolemy and ate at the same table with him and devisedplots against him, and yet without attaining any success thereby, since he didnot obtain his kingdom but was driven out by Ptolemy's soldiers. But it cannotbe proved from this set of facts that the statement of this Scripture was everfulfilled by past history, namely that there were two kings whose hearts weredeceitful and who inflicted evil upon each other. Actually, Ptolemy was a merechild of tender years and was taken in by Antiochus' fraud; how then could hehave plotted evil against him? And so our party insist that all these things (A)refer to the Antichrist and to the king of Egypt whom he has for the first timeovercome.
"And his heart shall be against the holycovenant, and he shall succeed and return into his own land. At the timeappointed he shall return and shall come to the South; but the latter time shallnot be like the former. And the galleys shall come upon him, and the Romans, andhe shall be dealt a heavy blow."Or, as another has rendered it,"... and they shall threaten him with attack." Both the Greek and theRoman historians relate that after Antiochus had (p. 568) been expelled fromEgypt and had gone back once more, he came to Judaea, that is, against|133the holy covenant, and that he despoiled the Templeand removed a huge amount of gold; and then, having stationed a garrison in thecitadel, he returned to his own land. And then two years later he gathered anarmy against (715) Ptolemy and came to the South. And while he was besieging histwo nephews, the brothers of Ptolemy and sons of Cleopatra, at Alexandria, someRoman envoys arrived on the scene, one of whom was Marcus (B) Popilius Laenas.And when he had found Antiochus standing on the shore and had conveyed thesenatorial decree to him by which he was ordered to withdraw from those who werefriends of the Roman people and to content himself with his own domain, thenAntiochus delayed his reply in order to consult with his friends. But Laenas issaid to have made a circle in the sand with the staff which he held in his hand,and to have drawn it around the king, saying, "The senate and people ofRome give order for you to make answer in this very spot as to what yourdecision is." At these words Antiochus was greatly alarmed and said,"If this is the good pleasure of the senate and people of Rome, then I mustwithdraw." And so he immediately set his army in motion. But he is said tohave been dealt a heavy blow, not that he was killed but that he lost all of hisproud prestige. As for the Antichrist, there is no question but what he is goingto fight against the holy covenant, and that when he first makes war against theking of Egypt, he shall straightway be frightened off by the assistance (C) ofthe Romans. But these events were typically prefigured under AntiochusEpiphanes, so that this abominable king who persecuted God's people foreshadowsthe Antichrist, who is to persecute the people of Christ. And so there are many(D) of our viewpoint who think that Domitius Nero [actually Domitius was thename of Nero's father, Ahenobarbus] was the Antichrist because of hisoutstanding savagery and depravity.
"And he shall return and shall be angry at thecovenant of the sanctuary, and he shall succeed; and he shall return and takethought concerning(Vulgate: against)those who have abandoned thecovenant of the sanctuary."We read of these matters at greater lengthin the exploits of the Maccabees (I Macc. 1), where we learn that after theRomans expelled him from Egypt, he came in anger against the covenant of thesanctuary and was welcomed by those who had forsaken the law of God and|134taken part in the religious rites of the Gentiles.But this is to be more amply fulfilled under the Antichrist, for he shall becomeangered at the covenant of God and devise plans against those whom he wishes toforsake the law of God. And so Aquila has rendered in a more significant way:(716) "And he shall devise plans to have the compact of the sanctuaryabandoned."
Verse 31."And arms shall stand on his part, andthey shall defile(Vulgate: that (?) they may defile)the sanctuary ofstrength, and they shall take away the continual sacrifice, and shall placethere the abomination unto desolation."Instead of "arms,"(E) another writer has rendered it as "seed," so as to imply (p. 569)descendants and progeny. But those of the other viewpoint claim that the personsmentioned are those who were sent by Antiochus two years after he had plunderedthe Temple in order to exact tribute from the Jews, and also to eliminate theworship of God, setting up an image of Jupiter Olympius in the Temple atJerusalem, and also statues of Antiochus himself. These are described as theabomination of desolation, having been set up when the burnt offering andcontinual sacrifice were taken away. But we on our side contend that all thesethings took place in a preliminary way as a mere type of the Antichrist, who isdestined to seat himself in the Temple of God, and make himself out to be asGod. The Jews, however, would have us understand these things as referring, notto Antiochus Epiphanes or the Antichrist, but to the Romans, of whom it wasearlier stated, "And war galleys shall come," whether Italian orRoman, "and he shall be humbled." Considerably later, says the text, aking, Vespasian, shall emerge from the Romans themselves, who had come toPtolemy's assistance and threatened Antiochus. It is his arms or descendants whowould rise up, namely his son Titus, who with his army would defile thesanctuary and remove the continual sacrifice and devote the temple to permanentdesolation. By the termssiim (Siyyim)andchethim (Kittiym),whichwe have rendered as "galleys" and "Romans," the Jews wouldhave us understand "Italians" and "Romans."
Verse 32."And ungodly men shall deceitfullydissemble against the covenant. But the people who know their God shall prevailand succeed."And in Maccabees we read that there were some who, to besure, pretended that they were custodians of|135God's law, and later they came to terms with theGentiles; yet the others adhered to their religion. But in my opinion this willtake place in the time of the Antichrist, when the love of many shall wax cold.It is concerning these people that our Lord says in the Gospel, "Dost thouthink that the Son of man, when He comes, will find faith upon the earth?"(Luke 18:8).
Verse 33."And they that are learned among thepeople shall teach many and(717)they shall fall by the sword and byfire and by captivity and by spoil for many days."The books ofMaccabees relate the great sufferings the Jews endured at the hands of Antiochusand they stand as a testimony of their triumph; for they endured fire and sword,slavery and rapine, and even the ultimate penalty of death itself for the sakeof guarding the law of God. But let no one doubt that these things are going tohappen under the Antichrist, when many shall resist his authority and flee awayin various directions. The Jews, of course, interpret these things as takingplace at the destruction of the Temple, which took place under Vespasian andTitus, and they claim that there were very many of their nation who knew theirLord and were slain for keeping His law.
Verses 34, 35."And when they shall have fallen,they shall be relieved with a small help; and many shall be joined to themdeceitfully. And some of the learned shall fall, that they may be refined as byfire and that they may be chosen and made white even to the time beforeappointed, because there shall yet be another time."Porphyry thinksthat the "little help" was Mattathias of the village of (variant:mountain of) Modin, for he rebelled against the generals of Antiochus andattempted to preserve the worship of the true God (I Macc. 2). He says he iscalled a little help because Mattathias was (p. 570) slain in battle; and lateron his son Judas, who was called Maccabaeus, also fell in the struggle; and therest of his brothers were likewise taken in by the deceit of their adversaries.Consult the books of Maccabees for the details. And all these events took place,he asserts, for the purpose of testing and choosing out the saints, that theymight be made white until the time before appointed, inasmuch as victory wasdeferred until another time. Our writers, however, would have it understood thatthe small help shall arise under the reign of the Antichrist, for the saintsshall gather together to|136resisthim, and afterwards a great number of the learned shall fall. And this shalltake place in order that they may be refined as by fire in the furnace, and thatthey may be made white and may be chosen out, until the time before determinedarrives ---- for the true victory shall be won at the coming of Christ. Some ofthe Jews understand these things as applying to the princes Severus andAntoninus, who esteemed the Jews very highly. But others understand the EmperorJulian as the one referred to; for after they had been oppressed by Gaius Caesarand had steadfastly endured such suffering in the afflictions of theircaptivity, Julian rose up as one who pretended love for the Jews, promising thathe would even offer sacrifice in their temple. They were to enjoy a little helpfrom him, and a great number of the Gentiles (718) were to join themselves totheir party, although falsely and insincerely. For it would only be for the sakeof their own idolatrous religion that they would pretend friendship to the Jews.And they would do this in order that those who were approved might be mademanifest. For the time of their true salvation and help will be the coming ofthe Christ; for the Jews mistakenly imagine (A) that he (i.e., their Messiah) isyet to come, for they are going to receive the Antichrist (when he comes) (ICor. 11).
Verse 36."And the king shall do according to hiswill, and he shall be lifted up and shall magnify himself against every god; andhe shall speak arrogant words against the God of gods, and shall managesuccessfully until the wrath be accomplished(Vulgate: indignation);forthe determination is made." Orelse, as another has translated it:"for in him shall be the consummation." The Jews believe that thispassage has reference to the Antichrist, alleging that after the small help ofJulian a king is going to rise up who shall do according to his own will andshall lift himself up against all that is called god, and shall speak (B)arrogant words against the God of gods. He shall act in such a way as to sit inthe Temple of God and shall make himself out to be God, and his will shall beprospered until the wrath of God is fulfilled, for in him the consummation willtake place. We too understand this to refer to the Antichrist. But Porphyry andthe others who follow his lead suppose the reference to be to AntiochusEpiphanes, pointing out that he did raise himself up against the worship of God,and pushed his arrogance so far as to|137command his own statue to be set up in the Temple inJerusalem. And as for the subsequent statement, "And he shall managesuccessfully until the wrath be accomplished, for the consummation shall be inhim," they understand it to mean that his power will endure until such timeas God becomes angry at him and orders him to be killed. For indeed Polybius andDiodorus, who composed the histories of the (C)Bibliothecae(Libraries),relate that Antiochus not only took measures against the God of Judaea, but alsowas impelled by an all-consuming avarice to attempt the plunder of the temple of(D) Diana in Elymais, because it was so wealthy. But he was so beset by thetemple guard (p. 571) and the neighboring populace, and also by certain fearfulapparitions, that he became demented and finally died of illness. And thehistorians record that this befell him because he had attempted to plunder thetemple of Diana. But we for our part maintain that even though this thing befellhim, it did so because he had perpetrated great cruelty upon the saints of Godand had defiled His Temple. For we ought not to suppose that it was because ofsomething he (719) only attempted to do but from which he then desisted by anact of repentance, but rather because of something he actually did he waspunished.
Verses 37-39."And he shall make no account ofthe god of his fathers, and he shall be engrossed in lust for women; nor shallhe have regard for any of the gods, for he shall rise up against everything. Buthe shall worship the god Maozim in his place, and a god which his fathers knewnot shall he worship with gold and silver and precious stones and things ofgreat price. And he shall take measures to fortify Maozim, together with astrange god whom(A)he has acknowledged. And he shall increase glory andshall grant them power over many and shall divide the land as a free gift."Instead of our rendering, the Septuagint translates: ".. .and he willnot be subject to the lusts of women." And again, instead of "the godMaozim(m'dym)[the Massoretic text hasmd'uzziym]," as theHebrew has it, Aquila renders, "the God of mighty powers (fortitudinum),"whereas the Septuagint says, "the most mighty God." But because thereis an ambiguity of position in the Hebrew original of the phrase we rendered by,"And he shall be engrossed in lust for women," Aquila renders itsimply word for word (in Greek): "And he shall|138have no understanding with regard to the god of hisfathers, and (B) in regard to the desire of women and in regard to every god heshall have no understanding"; that is (in Latin): "And concerning thegod of his fathers he shall not understand, and concerning the lust for women,and concerning every god he shall not understand." There are twointerpretations current concerning these words, that he cherished lust forwomen, and that he cherished no lust for them. If we read it one way andunderstand it as anapo koinou[the use of a common word in two differentclauses]: "And he shall have no knowledge concerning a lust forwomen," then it is more easily applied to the Antichrist; i.e., that hewill assume a pretense of chastity in order to deceive many. But if we read itin this fashion: "And occupied with lust for women," understanding,"...he shall be," then it is more appropriate to the character ofAntiochus. For he is said to have been an egregious voluptuary, and to havebecome such a disgrace to the dignity of kingship through his lewdness andseductions, that he publicly had intercourse with actresses and harlots, andsatisfied his sexual passions in the presence of the people. As for the godMaozim, Porphyry has offered an absurd explanation, asserting that Antiochus'sgenerals set up a statue of Jupiter in the village of Modin, from which cameMattathias and his sons; moreover they compelled the Jews to offerblood-sacrifices to it, that is, to the god of Modin. The next statement,". . .and he shall worship a god whom his fathers did not know" ismore appropriate to the Antichrist than to Antiochus. For we read that Antiochusheld to the religion of the (720) idols of Greece and compelled the Jews andSamaritans to worship his own gods. Likewise in regard to the statement,".. .and he shall take measures to fortify Maozim, together with a strangegod whom he has acknowledged; and he shall increase glory and grant them powerover many, and shall divide the land as a free gift," Theodotion hasinterpreted (p. 572) as follows: "And he shall conduct these affairs so asto fortify garrisons with a strange god, and with them he shall manifest andincrease glory; and he shall cause them to bear rule over many and divide up theland as a free gift." Symmachus rendered it "refuges" instead of"garrisons." Porphyry explained this as meaning that the man is goingto fortify the citadel in Jerusalem and will station garrisons in the rest ofthe|139 cities, and will instruct theJews to worship a strange god, which doubtless means Jupiter. And displaying theidol to them, he will persuade them that they should worship it. Then he willbestow upon the deluded both honor and very great glory, and he shall deal withthe rest who have borne rule in Judaea, and apportion estates unto them inreturn for their falsehood, and shall distribute gifts. The Antichrist likewiseis going to make lavish bestowal of many rewards upon those whom he hasdeceived, and will divide up the land to his soldiery. And those whom he willnot be able to subject to himself by fear he will subject through theircupidity.
Verses 40, 41."And at the predetermined time theking of the South shall war against him, and the king of the North shall comeagainst him like a tempest with chariots, with horsemen and with a great navy;and he shall invade lands and destroy them and pass through. And he shall enterinto the glorious land, and many shall fall."Theodotion rendered:". . .and many shall be enfeebled." And according to Aquila, the manythat fell are to be understood as cities or districts or provinces. This too isreferred by Porphyry to Antiochus, on the ground that in the eleventh year ofhis reign he warred for a second time against his nephew, Ptolemy Philometor.For when the latter heard that Antiochus had come, he gathered many thousands ofsoldiery. But Antiochus invaded many lands like a mighty tempest, with hischariots and horsemen and large navy, and laid everything waste as he passedthrough. And he came to the glorious land, that is, Judaea, which Symmachusrendered as "land of strength." In place of this Theodotion used theHebrew word itself,Sabai(variants:SabamandSaba) (sby).AndAntiochus used the ruins of the wall of the city to fortify the citadel, (721)and thus he continued on his way to Egypt. But those of our viewpoint referthese details also to the Antichrist, asserting that he shall first fightagainst the king of the South, or Egypt, and shall afterwards conquer Libya andEthiopia, for these constitute the three broken horns about which we readpreviously. And then he shall come to the land of Israel, and many cities orprovinces shall be given into his hands.
"And only these cities shall be saved from hishands: Edom, Moab, and the principality of the children of Ammon."|140They say that in his haste to fight Ptolemy, the kingof the South, Antiochus left untouched the Idumaeans, Moabites, and Ammonites,who dwelt to the side of Judaea, lest he should make Ptolemy the stronger byengaging in some other campaign. The Antichrist also is going to leave Idumaea,Moab, and the children of Ammon (i.e., Arabia) untouched, for the saints are toflee thither to the deserts.
Verses 42, 43."And he shall lay his hand uponthe lands, and the land of Egypt shall not escape; and he shall have power overthe treasures of gold and of silver, and over all the precious things of Egypt.And likewise he shall pass through[readingtransibitfortransivit](p. 573)the Libyans(Vulgate: Libya and Ethiopia)and theEthiopians."We read that Antiochus partially accomplished this. But asfor the added detail, "He shall pass through the Libyans andEthiopians," our school insists that this is more appropriate to theAntichrist. For Antiochus never held Libya, which most writers understand to beNorth Africa, nor Ethiopia; unless, of course, his capture of Egypt involved theharrassment of those provinces of Egypt which lay in the same general region asEthiopia, and which lay as distant neighbors to it, on the other side of thedeserts. Hence there is no assertion of his conquering them, but only thestatement that he passed through the Libyans and the Ethiopians.
Verses 44, 45."And tidings from the East andfrom the North shall trouble him. And he shall come thither with a great host todestroy and slay very many. And he shall pitch his tent in Apedno between (A)the two seas, upon the famous and holy mountain; and he shall come even unto itssummit, and none shall help him."Even for this passage Porphyry hassome nebulous application to Antiochus, asserting that in his conflict with theEgyptians, Libyans, and Ethiopians, passing through them he was to hear of warswhich had been stirred up against him in the North and the East. Thence he wasto turn back and overcome the resistance of the Aradians [Aradus was an islandoff the coast of Phoenicia], and lay waste the entire province along thecoastline of Phoenicia. (722) And then he was to proceed without delay againstArtaxias, the king of Armenia, who was moving down from the regions of the East,and having slain a large number of his troops, he would pitch his tent in the|141place called Apedno which is located between the twobroadest rivers, the Tigris and the Euphrates. But it is impossible to stateupon what famous and holy mountain he took his seat, after he had proceeded tothat point. After all, it cannot be shown that he took up his seat between twoseas, and it would be foolish to interpret the two seas as being the two riversof Mesopotamia. But Porphyry gets around this famous mountain by following therendering of Theodotion, who said: ". . .upon the sacred Mount Saba betweenthe two seas." And even though he supposes that Saba was the name of amountain in Armenia or Mesopotamia, he cannot explain why it was holy. [TheMassoretic text has the common noun,sebiy,whichmeans "beauty" or "honor," and gives no room for any propernoun,Saba.] To be sure, if we assume the right of making things up, wecan add the detail which Porphyry fails to mention, that the mountain, forsooth,was called holy, because it was consecrated to idols in conformity with thesuperstition of the Armenians. The account then says: "And he shall comeeven unto the summit of that same mountain," ----supposedly in the provinceof Elam, which is the easternmost Persian area. And there when he purposed toplunder the temple of Diana, which contained countless sums of money, he wasrouted by the barbarians, for they honored that shrine with a remarkableveneration. And Antiochus, being overcome with grief, died in Tabes, a town inPersia. By use of a most artificial line of argument Porphyry has concoctedthese details as an affront to us; but even though he were able to prove thatthese statements applied to Antiochus instead of the Antichrist, what does thatmatter [readingquidinstead of the inappropriatequi]tous? For do we not on the basis of all the passages of Scripture prove the comingof Christ and the falsehood of the Antichrist? For assume that these things didrefer to Antiochus, what injury does that inflict upon our religious faith? Isit not true that in the earlier vision also, (p. 574) which contained a prophecyfulfilled in Antiochus, there is some reference to the Antichrist? And so letPorphyry banish his doubts and stick to manifest facts. Let him explain themeaning of that rock which was hewn from the mountain without hands, and whichgrew to be a great mountain and filled the earth, and which smashed to piecesthe fourfold image. And let him say who that Son of man is who|142is going to come with clouds and stand before theAncient of Days and have bestowed upon him a kingdom which shall never come toan end, and who is going to be served by all [readingomnesforomnem]nations, tribes, and language-groups. (723) Porphyry ignores these things whichare so very clear and maintains that the prophecy refers to the Jews, althoughwe are well aware that they are to this very day in a state of bondage. And heclaims that the person who composed the book under the name of Daniel made itall up in order to revive the hopes of his countrymen. Not that he was able toforeknow all of future history, but rather he records events that had alreadytaken place. Thus Porphyry confines himself to false claims in regard to thefinal vision, substituting rivers for the sea, and positing a famous and holymountain, Apedno (B) even though he is unable to furnish any historical sourcein which he has read about it. Those of our party, on the other hand, explainthe final chapter of this vision as relating to the Antichrist, and stating thatduring his war against the Egyptians, Libyans, and Ethiopians, in which he shallsmash three of the ten horns, he is going to hear that war has been stirred upagainst him in the regions of the North and East. Then he shall come with agreat host to crush and slay many people, and shall pitch his tent in Apednonear Nicopolis, which was formerly called Emmaus, at the beginning of themountainous region in the province of Judaea. Finally he shall make his waythence to go up to the Mount of Olives and ascend to the area of Jerusalem; andthis is what the Scripture means here: "And when he has pitched histent...." at the foothills of the mountainous province between two seas.These are, of course, that which is now called the Dead Sea on the east, and theGreat Sea on the shore of which lie Caesarea, Joppa, Ashkelon, and (C) Gazae.Then he shall come up to the summit thereof, that is of the mountainousprovince, or the apex of the Mount of Olives, which of course is called famousbecause our Lord and Savior ascended from it to the Father. And no one shall beable to assist the Antichrist as the Lord vents his fury upon him. Our school ofthought insists that Antichrist is going to perish in that spot from which theLord ascended to heaven. Apedno is a compound word, which upon analysis yieldsthe meaning of "his throne" (the Greekthronou autou),or (inLatin) "thy throne" [or, iftui|143is a misprint forsui,his throne]. And the meaning is that he shallpitch his tent (D) and his throne between the seas upon the famous, holymountain. Symmachus translated this passage (724) as follows (in Greek):"And he shall stretch out the tents of his stable between the seas in theholy mountain of power, and he shall come even unto its height"; whichmeans in Latin: "And he shall stretch forth the pavilions of his cavalrybetween the seas, upon the holy mountain of power, and shall come even unto theapex of the mountain." Theodotion (p. 575) renders it: "And he shallpitch his tent in (A) Aphedanum between the seas in the holy Mount Saba, and heshall come to the region thereof." Aquila says: "And he shall set upthe tent of his headquarters in (Greek)Aphadanonbetween the seas, inthe glorious, holy mountain, and he shall come even unto its border." Onlythe Septua-gint frees itself from the problem about the name by translating:"And he shall establish his tent there between the seas and the holymountain of desire and he shall come to the hour of his final end."Adhering to this rendering, Apollinarius omits all mention of the name Apedno. Ihave gone into this matter at some length not only for the purpose of exposingPorphyry's misrepresentation (for either he was ignorant of all these matters orelse he pretended not to know them) but also to show the difficulty in HolyScripture. And yet men who altogether lack experience lay special claim tounderstanding it apart from the grace of God and the scholarship of precedinggenerations. Now it should be observed that Hebrew has no letterP,butuses instead the letterphe,which has the force of the Greekphi.[Aninteresting observation, but rather puzzling. Ordinarily the Hebrewpeisspirantized only after a vowel sound, and is hard the rest of the time. It ishard and doubled in this particular word,'appadnow,accordingto the Massoretic pointing.] It is simply that in this particular place theHebrews write the letter (B)phe,yet it is to be pronounced asp.Butthat the Antichrist is going to come to the summit of the holy, famous mountainand perish there is a fact upon which Isaiah expatiates more fully, saying:"The Lord shall in the holy mountain cast down the face of the ruler of thedarkness which is over all races, and him who rules over all peoples, and the(C) anointing which is applied against (variant: with which he was anointedagainst) all the|144 nations."[This rather incoherent quotation varies very considerably from Jerome's ownrendering of Isaiah 25:7 in the Vulgate, and also from the Septuagint rendering.The editors were apparently so dubious about it that they failed to give thecitation at all.]|145
Verses 1-3."But at that time shall Michael riseup, the great prince, who stands for the children of thy people, and a timeshall come such as never occurred from the time that nations began to exist evenunto that time. And at that time shall thy people be saved, even everyone whoshall be found written in the book. And many of those who sleep in the dust ofthe earth shall awake, some unto life everlasting, and others unto reproach,that they may behold it always. But those who are instructed shall shine as thebrightness of the firmament; and they that instruct many as to righteousness, asthe stars for all eternity."Up until this point Porphyry somehowmanaged to maintain his position and impose upon the credulity of the naive[readingimperitisforimperitus]among our adherents as well asthe poorly educated among his own. But what can he say of this chapter, in whichis described the resurrection of the dead, with one group being revived foreternal life and the other group for eternal disgrace? He cannot even specifywho the people were under Antiochus who shone like the brightness of thefirmament, and those others who shone like the stars for all eternity. But whatwill pigheadedness not resort to? Like some bruised serpent, he lifts up hishead as he is about to die, and pours forth his venom upon those who arethemselves at the point of death. This too, he declares, was written withreference to Antiochus, for after he had invaded Persia, he left his army withLysias, who was in charge of Antioch and Phoenicia, for the purpose of warringagainst the Jews and destroying their city of Jerusalem. All these details arerelated by Josephus, the author of the history of the Hebrews. Porphyry contendsthat the tribulation was such as had never previously occurred, and that a timecame along such as had never been from the time that races began to exist evenunto that time. But when victory was bestowed upon them, and the generals ofAntiochus had been slain, and Antiochus himself had died in Persia, the peopleof Israel|146 experienced salvation,(p. 576) even all who had been written down in the book of God, that is, thosewho defended the law with great bravery. Contrasted with them were those whoproved to be transgressors of the Law and sided with the party of Antiochus.Then it was, he asserts, that these guardians of the Law, who had been, as itwere, slumbering in the dust of the earth and were cumbered with a load ofafflictions, and even hidden away, as it were, in the tombs of wretchedness,rose up once more from the dust of the earth to a victory unhoped for, andlifted up their heads, rising up to everlasting life, even as the transgressorsrose up to everlasting disgrace. But those masters and teachers who possessed aknowledge of the Law shall shine like the heaven, and those who have exhortedthe more backward peoples to observe the rites of God shall blaze forth afterthe fashion of the stars for all eternity. He also adduces the historicalaccount concerning the Maccabees, in which it is said that many Jews under theleadership of Mattathias and Judas Maccabaeus fled to the desert and hid incaves and holes in the rocks, and came forth again after the victory (I Macc.2.) These things, then, were foretold in metaphorical language (726) as if itconcerned a resurrection of the dead. But the more reasonable understanding ofthe matter is that in the time of the Antichrist there shall occur a tribulationsuch as there has never been since nations began to exist. For assume thatLysias won the victory instead of being defeated, and that he completely crushedthe Jews instead of their conquering; certainly such tribulation would not havebeen comparable to that of the time when Jerusalem was captured by theBabylonians, the Temple was destroyed, and all the people were led off intocaptivity. And so after the Antichrist is crushed and destroyed by the breath ofthe Savior's mouth, the people written in God's book shall be saved; and inaccordance with the merits of each, some shall rise up unto eternal life andothers unto eternal shame. But the teachers shall resemble the very heavens, andthose who have instructed others shall be compared to the brightness of thestars. For it is not enough to know wisdom unless one also instructs others; andthe tongue of instruction which remains silent and edifies no one else canreceive no reward for labor accomplished. This passage is expressed byTheodo-tion and the Vulgate edition [of the Septuagint] in the following|147fashion: "And those who understand shall shine forth like the radiance ofthe firmament, and many of the righteous like the stars forever and ever."Many people often ask whether a learned saint and an ordinary saint shall bothenjoy the same reward and one and the same dwelling-place in heaven. Well then,the statement is made here, according to Theodotion's rendering, that thelearned will resemble the very heavens, whereas the righteous who are withoutlearning are only compared to the brightness of the stars. And so the differencebetween learned godliness and mere godly rusticity shall be the differencebetween heaven and the stars.
Verse 4."But Thou, O Daniel, shut up the wordsand seal the book, even to the time appointed. Many shall pass over, andknowledge shall be manifold."He who had revealed manifold truth toDaniel now signifies that the things he has said are matters of secrecy, and heorders him to roll up the scroll containing his words and set a seal upon thebook, with the result that many shall read it and inquire (p. 577) as to itsfulfilment in history, differing in their opinions because of its greatobscurity. And as for the statement, "Many shall pass over" or"go through," this indicates that it will be read by many people. Forit is a familiar expression to say: "I have gone through a book," or,"I have passed through an historical account." Indeed this is the ideawhich Isaiah also expressed in regard to the obscurity of his own book:"And the sayings of that book shall be like the words of a book that issealed. And if they shall give it to an illiterate man, saying, 'Read it,' hewill reply, (727) 'I do not know how to read.' But if they give it to a man whodoes know how to read and say, 'Read the book,' he will reply, 'I cannot readit, because it is sealed up' " (Isa. 39:11). Also in the Revelation ofJohn, there is a book seen which is sealed with seven seals inside and outside.And when no one proves able to break its seals, John says, "I wept sore;and a voice came to me, saying, 'Weep not: behold the Lion of the tribe ofJudah, the Root of David, has prevailed to open the book and break its seals'" (Rev. 5:4). But that book can be opened by one who has learned themysteries of Scripture and understands its hidden truths, and its words whichseem dark because of the greatness of the secrets they contain. He it is who caninterpret the parables|148 andtransmute the letter which killeth into the spirit which quickeneth.
Verses 5, 6."And I Daniel looked, and behold asit were two other persons were standing, one on this side upon the river-bank,and the other upon that side, on the other bank of the river. And I said to theman that was clothed in linen, that stood upon the waters of the river, 'Howlong shall it be to the end of these wonders?'"Daniel saw two angelsstanding on either side upon the bank of the river of Babylon. Although it ismentioned here without specifying its name, I suppose that in line with thepreceding vision it would be the Tigris River, which is calledEddecel(H-d-q-l)in Hebrew. Yet Daniel does not address his question to those whowere standing upon either bank, but rather to the one whom he had seen at thebeginning, who was clothed in vesture of linen or byssus, which is calledbaddim(b-d-y-m)in Hebrew. And this same angel was standing upon the waters of theriver of Babylon, treading upon them with his feet. From this fact we understandthat the former pair of angels whom he saw standing upon the bank and did notquestion or deem worthy of interrogation were the angels of the Greeks andPersians. But this first angel was the gracious one who had presented Daniel'sprayers before God during the twenty-one days while the angel of the Persianswas opposing him. And Daniel was asking him (variant: asks him) about thesewonders spoken of in the present vision, as to the time when they should beaccomplished. Porphyry, of course, assigns this time to the period of Antiochus,after his usual fashion, whereas we assign it to the time of Antichrist.
Verse 7."And I heard the man that was clothed inlinen, that stood upon the waters of the river: when he had lifted up his righthand and his left hand to heaven and had sworn by Him that liveth(728)forever,that it should be unto a time and times and half a time."Porphyryinterprets a time and times and half a time to mean three and a half years; andwe for our part do not deny that this accords with the idiom of SacredScripture. For we read in an earlier section (p. 578) that seven times passedover Nebuchadnezzar, that is, the seven years of his existence as a wild beast.The expression was also used in the vision of the four beasts, the lion, thebear, the leopard, and the|149otherbeast whose name was not specified but which represented the kingdom of theRomans. Right afterwards the statement is made concerning the Antichrist that(A) he will humble kings and utter speeches against the Exalted One and willcrush the saints of the Most High; moreover he will imagine that he can altertimes and laws. And the saints shall be turned over to his power unto a time andtimes and half a time. And the court will sit for judgment, in order that powermay be removed and utterly broken and vanish away until the very end. Andclearly the reference is to the coming of Christ and the saints when it is said:"But kingdom and power and the greatness of the kingdom which lies beneaththe whole heaven shall be bestowed upon the people of the saints of the MostHigh, whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom; and all the kings shall serve andobey Him." If therefore the earlier references which were plainly writtenconcerning the Antichrist are assigned by Porphyry to Antiochus and to the threeand a half years during which he asserts the Temple was deserted (cf. Verse 1,above), then he is under obligation to prove that the next statement, "Hiskingdom is eternal, and all kings shall serve and obey him," likewisepertains to Antiochus, or else (as he himself conjectures) to the people of theJews. But it is perfectly apparent that such an argument will never stand. Weread in the books of Maccabees----and Josephus also concurs in the same opinion(Book 11, chap. 10) ---- that the Temple in Jerusalem lay defiled for threeyears, and under Antiochus Epiphanes an idol of Jupiter stood within it (B);that is to say, from Chislev, the ninth month, of the one hundred forty-fifthyear of the Macedonian rule until the ninth month of the one hundredforty-eighth year, which amounts to three years. But under the Antichrist it isnot stated that the desolation and overthrow of the holy Temple shall endure forthree years, but for three years and a half, that is, one thousand two hundredand ninety days.
"And when the scattering of the band(729)ofthe holy people shall be accomplished, all these things shall befulfilled."When it is stated that the people of God shall have beenscattered ---- either under the persecution of Antiochus, as Porphyry claims, orof Antichrist, which we deem to be closer to fact ---- at that time shall allthese things be fulfilled.
Verses 8-10."And I heard, and understood not.|150And I said, 'O my lord, what shall happen afterthese things?' And he said, 'Go, Daniel, for the words are shut up and sealeduntil the time (C) of the end. Many shall be chosen and made white and shall betried as fire; and the wicked shall deal wickedly. And none of the wicked shallunderstand, but the learned shall understand.'"The prophet wished tocomprehend what he had seen, or rather, what he had heard, and he desired tounderstand the reality of the things to come. For he had heard of the variouswars of kings, and of battles between them, and a detailed narrative of events;but he had not heard the names of the individual persons involved. And if theprophet himself heard and did not understand, what will be the case with thosemen who presumptuously expound a book which has been sealed, and that too untothe time of the end, a book which is (p. 579) shrouded with many obscurities?But he comments that when the end comes, the ungodly will lack comprehension,whereas those who are learned in the teaching of God will be able to understand."For wisdom will not enter the perverted soul, nor can it impart itself toa body which is subject to sins." [The editors do not cite the source ofthis quotation.]
Verse 11."And from the time that the continualsacrifice shall be taken away, and the abomination unto desolation shall be setup, there shall be a thousand two hundred and ninety days."Porphyryasserts that these one thousand two hundred and ninety days were fulfilled inthe desolation of the Temple in the time of Antiochus, and yet both Josephus andthe Book of Maccabees, as we have said before, record that it lasted for onlythree years. From this circumstance it is apparent that the three and a halfyears are spoken of in connection with the time of the Antichrist, for he isgoing to persecute the saints for three and a half years, or one thousand twohundred and ninety days, and then he shall meet his fall on the famous, holymountain. And so from the time of the removal of theendelekhismos,whichwe have translated as "continual sacrifice," i.e., the time when theAntichrist shall obtain possession of the world (variant: the city) and forbidthe worship (A) of God, unto the day of his death the three and a half years, orone thousand two hundred and ninety days, shall be fulfilled. (730).
Verse 12."Blessed is he that waiteth and cometh|151untoa thousand three hundred and thirty-five days."He means that he isblessed who waits for forty-five days beyond the predetermined number, for it iswithin that period that our Lord and Savior is to come in His glory. But thereason for the forty-five days of inaction after the slaying of the Antichristis a matter which rests in the knowledge of God; unless, of course, we say thatthe rule of the saints is delayed in order that their patience may be tested.Porphyry explains this passage in the following way, that the forty-five daysbeyond the one thousand two hundred and ninety signify the interval of victoryover the generals of Antiochus, or the period when Judas Maccabaeus fought withbravery and cleansed the Temple and broke the idol to pieces, offeringblood-sacrifices in the Temple of God. He might have been correct in thisstatement if the Book of Maccabees had recorded that the Temple was pollutedover a period of three and a half years instead of just three years (I Mace. 4).
Verse 13."But thou,(B)Daniel, go thyway until the time appointed, and take thy rest(Vulgate: thou shalt rest)andthou shalt stand in thy lot unto the end of the days."Instead of thisTheodotion translated it: "But go thy way and take thy rest, and thou shaltrise up again in thy turn at the end of the days." From this remark it isdemonstrated that the whole context of the prophecy has to do with theresurrection of all the dead, (p. 580) at the time when the prophet also is torise. And it is vain for Porphyry to claim that all these things which werespoken concerning the Antichrist under the type of Antiochus actually refer toAntiochus alone. As we have already mentioned, these false claims have beenanswered at greater length by Eusebius of Caesarea, Apollinarius of Laodicea,and partially also by that very able writer, the martyr Methodius; and anyonewho knows of these things can look them up in their writings. (C) Thus far wehave been reading Daniel in the Hebrew edition; but the remaining matter to theend of the book has been translated from Theodotion's edition.|152
Verses 1, 2."Now there was a man that dwelt inBabylon whose name was Joakim; and he took a wife whose name was Susanna, thedaughter of Helcias, a very beautiful woman and one who feared the Lord"(Vulgate:God). Having expounded to the best of my ability the contents of the book ofDaniel according to the Hebrew, I shall briefly set forth the comments of Origenconcerning the stories of Susanna and of Bel contained (731) in the Tenth Bookof hisStromata.These remarks are from him (D) and one may observe themin the appropriate sections (i.e., of Origen's work).
Verse 3."And being righteous folk, her parentshad educated their daughter in conformity with the law of Moses(Vulgate:because they were righteous, they had instructed...." This verse should beused as a testimony in order to urge parents to teach their daughters inaccordance with God's law and holy Word, as well as their sons.
Verse 5."And there were(E)two of theelders of the people(the Vulgate omits: of the people)who wereappointed judges that year."There was a Jew who used to allege thatthese men were Ahab and Zedekiah (variant: Alchias and Zedekiah), of whomJeremiah wrote: "The Lord do to thee as Ahab and Zedekiah, whom the king ofBabylon roasted in the fire because of the iniquity they had wrought in Israeland because they had committed adultery (variant: were committing adultery) withthe wives of their citizens" (Jer. 29). [In Jer. 21:23; 29:21 they arementioned as Ahab, the son of Koliah, and Zedekiah, the son of Maaseiah, twofalse prophets who were denounced by Jeremiah.]
"It was concerning them that the Lord said thatiniquity came forth from Babylon on the part of the ancient judges who appearedto govern the people. They used to frequent the house of Joakim...."Veryappropriately it is not said of these sinful elders, "They governed thepeople," but rather, "They|153appeared to govern." For those who furnish good leadership to the peopleare the ones who govern them, but those who merely have the title of judge andlead the people unjustly only appear to govern the people rather than actuallydoing so.
Verse 8."And they were inflamed with lust(F)for her, and they perverted their own mind and turned their eyes away thatthey might not look toward heaven nor remember just judgments."Whatthe Greeks callpathoswe render more correctly by "emotion"than by "passion." And so it was this emotion, this lustful desire,which (p. 581) aroused or even smote the hearts of the elders. But in order thatthey might lay some basis for it in their hearts and might plan how to satisfytheir desires, they perverted their own minds. And as their minds weresubverted, they turned away their eyes that they might not regard heavenlythings or remember righteous judgments, or God, or honor, or character, thefactors for good which are inherent in all men. "And behold, Susanna wastaking a walk according to her custom." [This is Verse 13 according to theSeptuagint, not according to Theodotion, who does not include the verse at all.]It has been stated already that Susanna was actually in the habit of takingwalks in the mornings. For the sake of pleasing those people who seek outScriptural precedent for everything we do, it would not be inappropriate toseize upon this passage about taking walks, and say that it is a good thing fora person to take walks for the invigorating of his body. Origen says that he hastaken this particular passage from the Septuagint; by this statement he showsthat he has not discussed the rest of the chapter on the basis of the Septuaginttranslation.
Verse 19. [Vulgate: XIII:22]"Susanna sighed andsaid: 'I am straitened on every side.'"Anyone who has attained to theacme of perfect virtue never says that she is faced with a crisis of decision,when she is unable to escape the hands of adulterers who say, "Consent tous and have intercourse with us; for otherwise, if thou art unwilling, we willwitness against thee that a young man was with thee and thou sentest away thymaidens from thee for this purpose." It is of course a characteristic ofhuman frailty to fear a death which is inflicted upon one because of hisuprightness. To be sure we might interpret her distress as arising not from theprospect of death but from the contumely|154and disgrace which would be heaped upon her by thoseaccusers who would claim: "A young man was with her, and she sent away hermaidens for that reason."
Verse 22. "'For if I do this, it is death to me;but if I do not. .. ."She speaks of sin as death. For just as in thecase of one who commits adultery, the adultery means death, so also every sinwhich results in death is to be equated with death. And we believe we die asoften as we sin unto death. And therefore on the other hand we rise again andare made alive just as often as we perform deeds which are worthy of life.
Verse 23. "'But it is better for me to fall intoyour hands without doing the deed than to sin in the sight of the Lord.'"Inthe Greek the word is nothairetoteron,or "better" [actually:more preferable], buthaireton,which we may render by "good"[more accurately: "preferable"]. And so she chose her words well whenshe avoided saying, "It is better for me to fall into the hands of myenemies, the elders, than to sin in the sight of the Lord"; for thus sheavoided calling somethingbetterin comparison with sin, which was not agood thing at all. But, she remarks, it is good for me not to do the wickedthing, and to fall into your clutches without sinning in God's sight. (733)Therefore one should not use the comparative and say, "It is better for meto fall into your (p. 582) clutches than to sin in God's sight," but ratherthe positive, "It is good for me not to do the wicked thing and fall intoyour clutches, rather than to commit sin in God's sight."
Verse 24."And Susanna cried out with a greatvoice...." Her voice was great, not because of the intense vibrationsit sent through the air nor because of the outcry that came from her lips, butbecause of the greatness of the chastity with which she called out to the Lord.And so for this reason the Scripture did not attribute a great voice to theoutcry of the elders, for the following statement is merely: "The eldersalso cried out against her."
Verse 42."But Susanna cried out with a greatvoice...." Her voice was rendered the clearer because of the emotion ofher heart, the honest sincerity of her avowal, and the uprightness of herconscience. And so, although men would not listen to it, her outcry to God wasgreat.|155
Verse 45."And as she was being led away to die,the Lord raised up the holy spirit of a young boy."By this language itis shown that the Holy Spirit did not then enter into Daniel, but rather that Hewas already within him, and only because of the tenderness of his years He hadremained inactive. Nor could He show forth His works until an occasion arose andthe Lord stirred him up on behalf of the holy woman.
Verse 46."And he cried out with a great voice:'I am innocent of the blood of this woman. .. .'"Because the HolySpirit was roused up within him and dictated to the boy what he should say, hisvoice was great. And if there is any place in Holy Scripture where the voice ofa sinner is called great, it has (yet) to be noted. (734)
Verses 54 ff. "'Tell me under which tree thousawest them conversing with each other.' And he answered, 'Under the mastictree.' And Daniel said to him, 'Well hast thou lied against thine own head; forbehold, the angel of God, having received His sentence from Him, shall cleavethee in twain.' And a little while later the other elder said, 'Under the holmtree.' And Daniel said to him, 'Well hast thou lied against thine own head; butthe angel of the Lord waiteth with a sword to sever thee in twain.'"Sincethe Hebrews reject the story of Susanna, asserting that it is not contained inthe Book of Daniel, we ought to investigate carefully the names of the trees,theskhinosand theprinos,which the Latins interpret as"holm-oak" and "mastic-tree," and see whether they existamong the Hebrews and what their derivation is ---- for example, as"cleavage" [Latin(scissio)is derived from "mastic"[Greekskhinos],and "cutting" or "sawing" [Latinsectio,serratio]is derived from "holm tree" [Greekprinos,whichresembles the Greek word for "to saw":prio] in the language ofthe Greeks. But if no such derivation can be found, then we too are of necessityforced to agree with the verdict of those who claim that this chapter [Greekpericope]was originally composed in Greek, because it contains Greek etymology not foundin Hebrew. [That is, because Daniel twice makes a sinister wordplay based uponthe Greek names of these two trees, and a similar pun could not be made out fromthe Hebrew names, if any, of these trees, the story itself could never have beencomposed in Hebrew.] But if anyone can show (A) that the derivation|156of the ideas of cleaving and severing from the namesof the two trees in question is valid in Hebrew, then we may accept thisscripture also as canonical.
Verse 60."And the whole congregration(Vulgate:assembly)cried out with a great voice and blessed God, who(p. 583)saveththose who trust in Him...." If the whole congregation put them todeath, the view which we mentioned earlier is apparently refuted (A), namelythat these were the elders Ahab and Zedekiah, in conformity with Jeremiah'sstatement (chap. 29). The only other possibility is that instead of taking thestatement, "They killed them," literally, we interpret it as meaningthat they gave them over to the king of Babylon to be put to death. (735) Thatwould be just like when we say that the Jews put the Savior to death; not thatthey smote Him themselves, but they gave Him over to be slain and cried out,"Crucify Him! Crucify Him!" (John 19:15).
Verse 63."But Helcias and his wife praised Godfor their daughter Susanna...." Like true saints they praise God aftera worthy fashion, not simply on the ground of Susanna's deliverance from theclutches of the elders ---- for that would hardly be sufficient (p. 584) matterfor praise or of any decisive importance, even if she had not been so delivered---- but rather on the ground that no immorality was found in her.|157
"And as soon as he had opened the door, the king(736)looked upon the table and cried out with a great voice: 'Great art thou, OBel, and there is no deceit with thee.'"The statement of Scripture inthis passage, "He cried out with a great voice," may seem, because ofits reference to an idolator ignorant of God, to refute the observation putforth a little previously, that the expression "great voice" is foundonly in connection with saints. This objection is easily solved by assertingthat this particular story is not contained in the Hebrew of the Book of Daniel.If, however, anyone should be able to prove that it belongs (B) in the canon,then we should be obliged to seek out some answer to this objection.
Footnotes moved to the end. Most of the notes were placed in thebody of the text in square brackets.
1. 1 Here Jerome gives the Hebrewconsonants, by mistake substitutingheforhethin the lastletter. Actually the Hebrew word means: "to the choir-leader." (C)
2. 2 Not an actualquotation, but a collocation of words from Daniel 1:54-59 according to theSeptuagint version. Actually there is noprisaithere, but the verbappears as the compoundkataprise.
3. 3 ReadingEcclesiaeinsteadof the meaninglessEcclesiamof the text.
This text was transcribed by Roger Pearse, 2004. All material on this page is in the public domain - copy freely.
Material in () is the KJV verse no; material in[] is comments by Gleason Archer. (p.584) is the page number in Migne;(A-D) are the sections on a page in Migne.
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