like lightning, his eyes were like torches of fire, his arms and feet
gleamed like polished brass,[648] and the sound of his words was as
the sound of a deep murmur.[649] Daniel had companions with him;[650]
they did not see the vision, but some supernatural terror fell upon
them, and they fled to hide themselves.[651]

At this great spectacle his strength departed, and his brightness
was changed to corruption;[652] and when the vision spoke he
fell to the earth face downwards. A hand touched him, and partly
raised him to the trembling support of his knees and the palms of
his hands,[653] and a voice said to him, "Daniel, thou greatly
beloved,[654] stand upright, and attend; for I am sent to thee." The
seer was still trembling; but the voice bade him fear not, for his
prayer had been heard, and for that reason this message had been sent
to him. Gabriel's coming had, however, been delayed for three weeks,
by his having to withstand for twenty days the prince of the kingdom
of Persia.[655] The necessity of continuing the struggle was only
removed by the arrival of Michael, one of the chief princes,[656] to
help him, so that Gabriel was no longer needed[657] to resist the
kings of Persia.[658] The vision was for many days,[659] and he had
come to enable Daniel to understand it.

Once more Daniel was terrified, remained silent, and fixed his eyes
on the ground, until one like the sons of men touched his lips, and
then he spoke to apologise for his timidity and faintheartedness.

A third time the vision touched, strengthened, blessed him, and bade
him be strong. "Knowest thou," the angel asked, "why I am come to
thee? I must return to fight against the Prince of Persia, and while
I am gone the Prince of Greece [Javan] will come. I will, however,
tell thee what is announced in the writing of truth, the book of the
decrees of heaven, though there is no one to help me against these
hostile princes of Persia and Javan, except Michael your prince."

The difficulties of the chapter are, as we have said, of a kind that
the expositor cannot easily remove. I have given what appears to be
the general sense. The questions which the vision raises bear on
matters of angelology, as to which all is purposely left vague and
indeterminate, or which lie in a sphere wholly beyond our cognisance.

It may first be asked whether the splendid angel of the opening
vision is also the being in the similitude of a man who thrice
touches, encourages, and strengthens Daniel. It is perhaps simplest
to suppose that this is the case,[660] and that the Great Prince
tones down his overpowering glory to more familiar human semblance in
order to dispel the terrors of the seer.

The general conception of the archangels as princes of the nations,
and as contending with each other, belongs to the later developments
of Hebrew opinion on such subjects.[661] Some have supposed that
the "princes" of Persia and Javan to whom Gabriel and Michael are
opposed are, not good angels, but demonic powers,--"the world-rulers
of this darkness"--subordinate to the evil spirit whom St. Paul does
not hesitate to call "the god of this world," and "the prince of
the powers of the air." This is how they account for this "war in
heaven," so that "the dragon and his angels" fight against "Michael
and his angels." Be that as it may, this mode of presenting the
guardians of the destinies of nations is one respecting which we have
no further gleams of revelation to help us.

Ewald regards the two last verses of the chapter as a sort of
soliloquy of the angel Gabriel with himself. He is pressed for
time. His coming has already been delayed by the opposition of the
guardian-power of the destinies of Persia. If Michael, the great
archangel of the Hebrews, had not come to his aid, and (so to speak)
for a time relieved guard, he would have been unable to come. But
even the respite leaves him anxious. He seems to feel it almost
necessary that he should at once return to contend against the
Prince of Persia, and against a new adversary, the Prince of Javan,
who is on his way to do mischief. Yet on the whole he will stay and
enlighten Daniel before he takes his flight, although there is no
one but Michael who aids him against these menacing princes. It is
difficult to know whether this is meant to be ideal or real--whether
it represents a struggle of angels against demons, or is merely meant
for a sort of parable which represents the to-and-fro conflicting
impulses which sway the destinies of earthly kingdoms. In any case
the representation is too unique and too remote from earth to enable
us to understand its spiritual meaning, beyond the bare indication
that God sitteth above the water-floods and God remaineth a king for
ever. It is another way of showing us that the heathen rage, and
the people imagine a vain thing; that the kings of the earth set
themselves and the rulers take counsel together; but that they can
only accomplish what God's hand and God's counsel have predetermined
to be done; and that when they attempt to overthrow the destinies
which God has foreordained, "He that sitteth in the heavens shall
laugh them to scorn, the Lord shall have them in derision." These,
apart from all complications or developments of angelology or
demonology, are the continuous lesson of the Word of God, and are
confirmed by all that we decipher of His providence in His ways of
dealing with nations and with men.

FOOTNOTES:

[639] The LXX. date it in "the _first_ year of Cyrus," perhaps an
intentional alteration (i. 21). We see from Ezra, Nehemiah, and the
latest of the Minor Prophets that there was scarcely even an attempt
to restore the ruined walls of Jerusalem before B.C. 444.

[640] Lit. "great warfare." It will be seen that the A.V. and
R.V. and other renderings vary widely from this; but nothing very
important depends on the variations. Instead of taking the verbs as
imperatives addressed to the reader, Hitzig renders, "He heeded the
word, and gave heed to the vision."

[641] Lit. "weeks of days" (Gen. xli. 1; Deut. xxi. 13: "years of
days").

[642] "Bread of desires" is the opposite of "bread of affliction" in
Deut. xvi. 3. Comp. Gen. xxvii. 25; Isa. xxii. 13, etc.

[643] Comp. Amos vi. 6; Ruth iii. 3; 2 Sam. xii. 20, xiv. 2.

[644] He fasted from Abib 3 to 24. The festival of the New Moon might
prevent him from fasting on Abib 1, 2.

[645] Hiddekel ("the rushing") occurs only in Gen. ii. 14. It is the
Assyrian _idiglat_.

[646] For the girdle see Ezek. xxiii. 15. Ewald (with the Vulg.,
Chald., and Syriac) regards Uphaz as a clerical error for Ophir
(Psalm xlv. 9). LXX., Μωφάζ (Jer. x. 9, where alone it occurs). The
LXX. omit it here. Vulg., _Auro obrizo_.

[647] Heb., _eben tarshish_ (Exod. xxviii. 2); Vulg., _crysolithus_;
R.V. and A.V., "beryl" (Ezek. i. 16). Comp. Skr., _tarisha_, "the sea."

[648] Theodot., τὰ σκέλη; LXX., οἱ πόδες (Rev. i. 15)--lit.
"foot-hold"; Vulg., _quæ deorsum sunt usque ad pedes_.

[649] This description of the vision follows Ezek. i. 16-24, ix. 2,
and is followed in Rev. i. 13-15. The "deep murmur" is referred to
the sound of the sea by St. John; A.V., "the voice of a multitude";
LXX., θόρυβος. Comp. Isa. xiii. 4; Ezek. xliii. 2.

[650] Rashi guesses that they were Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi.

[651] Comp. Acts ix. 7, xxii. 11.

[652] Comp. Hab. iii. 16; Dan. viii. 18.

[653] Lit. "shook" or "caused me to tremble upon my knees and the
palms of my hand."

[654] x. 11. LXX., ἄνθρωπος ἐλεεινὸς εἶ; Tert., _De Jejun._, 7, "homo
es miserabilis" (_sc._, "jejunando").

[655] The protecting genius of Persia (Isa. xxiv. 21; Psalm lxxxii.;
Ecclus. xvii. 17).

[656] Michael, "who is like God" (Jude 9; Rev. xii. 7).

[657] Heb., _nôthartî_. "I came off victorious," or "obtained the
precedence" (Luther, Gesenius, etc.); "I was delayed" (Hitzig); "I
was superfluous" (Ewald); "Was left over" (Zöckler); "I remained"
(A.V.); "Was not needed" (R.V. marg.). The LXX. and Theodoret seem to
follow another text.

[658] LXX., "with the army of the king of the Persians."

[659] Again the text and rendering are uncertain.

[660] So Hitzig and Ewald. The view that they are distinct persons
is taken by Zöckler, Von Lengerke, etc. Other guesses are that the
"man clothed in linen" is the angel who called Gabriel (viii. 16); or
Michael; or "the angel of the Covenant" (Vitringa); or Christ; or "he
who letteth" (ὁ κατέχων, 2 Thess. ii. 7), whom Zöckler takes to be
"the good principle of the world-power."

[661] Thus in the LXX. (Dent, xxxii. 8) we read of angels of the
nations. See too Isa. xlvi. 2; Jer. xlvi. 25. Comp. Baruch iv. 7;
Ecclus. xvii. 17; Frankel, _Vorstudien_, p. 66.

                               CHAPTER V

              _AN ENIGMATIC PROPHECY PASSING INTO DETAILS
                  OF THE REIGN OF ANTIOCHUS EPIPHANES_

     "Pone hæc dici de Antiocho, quid nocet religioni
     nostræ?"--HIERON. _ed._ VALLARS, v. 722.

If this chapter were indeed the utterance of a prophet in the
Babylonian Exile, nearly four hundred years before the events--events
of which many are of small comparative importance in the world's
history--which are here so enigmatically and yet so minutely
depicted, the revelation would be the most unique and perplexing in
the whole Scriptures. It would represent a sudden and total departure
from every method of God's providence and of God's manifestation of
His will to the minds of the prophets. It would stand absolutely
and abnormally alone as an abandonment of the limitations of all
else which has ever been foretold. And it would then be still more
surprising that such a reversal of the entire economy of prophecy
should not only be so widely separated in tone from the high moral
and spiritual lessons which it was the special glory of prophecy to
inculcate, but should come to us entirely devoid of those decisive
credentials which could alone suffice to command our conviction of
its genuineness and authenticity. "We find in this chapter," says
Mr. Bevan, "a complete survey of the history from the beginning
of the Persian period down to the time of the author. Here, even
more than in the earlier vision, we are able to perceive how the
account gradually becomes more definite as it approaches the latter
part of the reign of Antiochus Epiphanes, and how it then passes
suddenly from the domain of historical facts to that of ideal
expectations."[662] In recent days, when the force of truth has
compelled so many earnest and honest thinkers to the acceptance of
historic and literary criticism, the few scholars who are still able
to maintain the traditional views about the Book of Daniel find
themselves driven, like Zöckler and others, to admit that even if
the Book of Daniel as a whole can be regarded as the production of
the exiled seer five and a half centuries before Christ, yet in this
chapter at any rate there must be large interpolations.[663]

There is here an unfortunate division of the chapters. The first
verse of chap. xi. clearly belongs to the last verses of chap. x.
It seems to furnish the reason why Gabriel could rely on the help
of Michael, and therefore may delay for a few moments his return
to the scene of conflict with the Prince of Persia and the coming
King of Javan. Michael will for that brief period undertake the sole
responsibility of maintaining the struggle, because Gabriel has put
him under a direct obligation by special assistance which he rendered
to him only a little while previously in the first year of the Median
Darius.[664] Now, therefore, Gabriel, though in haste, will announce
to Daniel the truth.

The announcement occupies five sections.

FIRST SECTION (xi. 2-9).--Events from the rise of Alexander the
Great (B.C. 336) to the death of Seleucus Nicator (B.C. 280). There
are to be three kings of Persia after Cyrus (who is then reigning),
of whom the third is to be the richest;[665] and "when he is waxed
strong through his riches, he shall stir up the all[666] against the
realm of Javan."

There were of course many more than four kings of Persia[667]: viz.--

                                                    B.C.
                 Cyrus                              536
                 Cambyses                           529
                 Pseudo-Smerdis                     522
                 Darius Hystaspis                   521
                 Xerxes I.                          485
                 Artaxerxes I. (Longimanus)         464
                 Xerxes II.                         425
                 Sogdianus                          425
                 Darius Nothus                      424
                 Artaxerxes II. (Mnemon)            405
                 Artaxerxes III.                    359
                 Darius Codomannus                  336

But probably the writer had no historic sources to which to refer,
and only four Persian kings are prominent in Scripture--Cyrus,
Darius, Xerxes, and Artaxerxes. Darius Codomannus is indeed mentioned
in Neh. xii. 22, but might have easily been overlooked, and even
confounded with another Darius in uncritical and unhistorical
times. The rich fourth king who "stirs up the all against the realm
of Grecia" might be meant for Artaxerxes I., but more probably
refers to Xerxes (Achashverosh, or Ahasuerus), and his immense and
ostentatious invasion of Greece (B.C. 480). His enormous wealth is
dwelt upon by Herodotus.[668]

Ver. 3 (B.C. 336-323).--Then shall rise a mighty king (Alexander the
Great), and shall rule with great dominion, and do according to his
will. "Fortunam solus omnium mortalium in potestate habuit," says his
historian, Quintus Curtius.[669]

Ver. 4 (B.C. 323).--But when he is at the apparent zenith of his
strength his kingdom shall be broken, and shall not descend to any of
his posterity,[670] but (B.C. 323-301) shall be for others, and shall
ultimately (after the Battle of Ipsus, B.C. 301) be divided towards
the four winds of heaven, into the kingdoms of Cassander (Greece and
Macedonia), Ptolemy (Egypt, Cœle-Syria, and Palestine), Lysimachus
(Asia Minor), and Seleucus (Upper Asia).

Ver. 5.--Of these four kingdoms and their kings the vision is only
concerned with two--the kings of the South[671] (_i.e._, the Lagidæ,
or Egyptian Ptolemies, who sprang from Ptolemy Lagos), and the kings
of the North (_i.e._, the Antiochian Seleucidæ). They alone are
singled out because the Holy Land became a sphere of contentions
between these rival dynasties.[672]

B.C. 306.--The King of the South (Ptolemy Soter, son of Lagos) shall
be strong, and shall ultimately assume the title of Ptolemy I., King
of Egypt.

But one of his princes or generals (Seleucus Nicator) shall be
stronger,[673] and, asserting his independence, shall establish a
great dominion over Northern Syria and Babylonia.

Ver. 6 (B.C. 250).--The vision then passes over the reign of
Antiochus II. (Soter), and proceeds to say that "at the end of
years" (_i.e._, some half-century later, B.C. 250) the kings of the
North and South should form a matrimonial alliance. The daughter of
the King of the South--the Egyptian Princess Berenice, daughter of
Ptolemy II. (Philadelphus), should come to the King of the North
(Antiochus Theos) to make an agreement. This agreement (marg.,
"equitable conditions") was that Antiochus Theos should divorce
his wife and half-sister Laodice, and disinherit her children, and
bequeath the throne to any future child of Berenice, who would
thus unite the empires of the Ptolemies and the Seleucidæ.[674]
Berenice took with her so vast a dowry that she was called "the
dowry-bringer" (φερνόφορος).[675] Antiochus himself accompanied her
as far as Pelusium (B.C. 247). But the compact ended in nothing but
calamity. For, two years after, Ptolemy II. died, leaving an infant
child by Berenice. But Berenice did "_not retain the strength of
her arm_,"[676] since the military force which accompanied her
proved powerless for her protection; nor did Ptolemy II. abide,
nor any support which he could render. On the contrary, there was
overwhelming disaster. Berenice's escort, her father, her husband,
all perished, and she herself and her infant child were murdered by
her rival, Laodice (B.C. 246), in the sanctuary of Daphne, whither
she had fled for refuge.

Ver. 7 (B.C. 285-247).--But the murder of Berenice shall be well
avenged. For "out of a shoot from her roots" stood up one in his
office, even her brother Ptolemy III. (Euergetes), who, unlike the
effeminate Ptolemy II., did not entrust his wars to his generals, but
came himself to his army. He shall completely conquer the King of the
North (Seleucus II., Kallinikos, son of Antiochus Theos and Laodice),
shall seize his fortress (Seleucia, the port of Antioch).[677]

Ver. 8 (B.C. 247).--In this campaign Ptolemy Euergetes, who earned
the title of "Benefactor" by this vigorous invasion, shall not only
win immense booty--four thousand talents of gold and many jewels,
and forty thousand talents of silver--but shall also carry back with
him to Egypt the two thousand five hundred molten images,[678] and
idolatrous vessels, which, two hundred and eighty years before (B.C.
527), Cambyses had carried away from Egypt.[679]

After this success he will, for some years, refrain from attacking
the Seleucid kings.[680]

Ver. 9 (B.C. 240).--Seleucus Kallinikos makes an attempt to avenge
the shame and loss of the invasion of Syria by invading Egypt, but he
returns to his own land totally foiled and defeated, for his fleet
was destroyed by a storm.[681]

SECOND SECTION (vv. 10-19).--Events from the death of Ptolemy
Euergetes (B.C. 247) to the death of Antiochus III. (the Great, B.C.
175). In the following verses, as Behrmann observes, there is a sort
of dance of shadows, only fully intelligible to the initiated.

Ver. 10.--The sons of Seleucus Kallinikos were Seleucus III. (Keraunos,
B.C. 227-224) and Antiochus the Great (B.C. 224-187). Keraunos only
reigned two years, and in B.C. 224 his brother Antiochus III. succeeded
him. Both kings assembled immense forces to avenge the insult of the
Egyptian invasion, the defeat of their father, and the retention
of their port and fortress of Seleucia. It was only sixteen miles
from Antioch, and being still garrisoned by Egyptians, constituted a
standing danger and insult to their capital city.

Ver. 11.--After twenty-seven years the port of Seleucia is wrested
from the Egyptians by Antiochus the Great, and he so completely
reverses the former successes of the King of the South as to conquer
Syria as far as Gaza.

Ver. 12 (B.C. 217).--But at last the young Egyptian King, Ptolemy IV.
(Philopator), is roused from his dissipation and effeminacy, advances
to Raphia (southwest of Gaza) with a great army of twenty thousand
foot, five thousand horse, and seventy-three elephants, and there,
to his own immense self-exaltation, he inflicts a severe defeat
on Antiochus, and "_casts down tens of thousands_."[682] Yet the
victory is illusive, although it enables Ptolemy to annex Palestine
to Egypt. For Ptolemy "_shall not show himself strong_," but shall,
by his supineness, and by making a speedy peace, throw away all the
fruits of his victory, while he returns to his past dissipation (B.C.
217-204).[683]

Ver. 13.--Twelve years later (B.C. 205) Ptolemy Philopator died,
leaving an infant son, Ptolemy Epiphanes. Antiochus, smarting from
his defeat at Raphia, again assembled an army which was still greater
than before (B.C. 203), and much war-material. In the intervening
years he had won great victories in the East as far as India.

Ver. 14.--Antiochus shall be aided by the fact that many--including his
ally Philip, King of Macedon, and various rebel-subjects of Ptolemy
Epiphanes--stood up against the King of Egypt and wrested Phœnicia and
Southern Syria from him. The Syrians were further strengthened by the
assistance of the "children of the violent" among the Jews, "_who shall
lift themselves up to fulfil the vision of the oracle;_[684] _but
they shall fall_." We read in Josephus that many of the Jews helped
Antiochus;[685] but the allusion to "the vision" is entirely obscure.
Ewald supposes a reference to some prophecy no longer extant. Dr. Joël
thinks that the Hellenising Jews may have referred to Isa. xix. in
favour of the plans of Antiochus against Egypt.

Vv. 15, 16.--But however much any of the Jews may have helped
Antiochus under the hope of ultimately regaining their independence,
their hopes were frustrated. The Syrian King came, besieged, and took
a well-fenced city--perhaps an allusion to the fact that he wrested
Sidon from the Egyptians. After his great victory over the Egyptian
general Scopas at Mount Panium (B.C. 198), the routed Egyptian
forces, to the number of ten thousand, flung themselves into that
city.[686] This campaign ruined the interests of Egypt in Palestine,
"the glorious land."[687] Palestine now passed to Antiochus, who took
possession "_with destruction in his hand_."

Ver. 17 (B.C. 198-195).--After this there shall again be an attempt
at "equitable negotiations"; by which, however, Antiochus hoped to
get final possession of Egypt and destroy it. He arranged a marriage
between "_a daughter of women_"--his daughter Cleopatra--and Ptolemy
Epiphanes. But this attempt also entirely failed.

Ver. 18 (B.C. 190).--Antiochus therefore "_sets his face in another
direction_," and tries to conquer the islands and coasts of Asia
Minor. But a captain--the Roman general, Lucius Cornelius Scipio
Asiaticus--puts an end to the insolent scorn with which he had spoken
of the Romans, and pays him back with equal scorn,[688] utterly
defeating him in the great Battle of Magnesia (B.C. 190), and forcing
him to ignominious terms.

Ver. 19 (B.C. 175).--Antiochus next turns his attention ("_sets his
face_") to strengthen the fortresses of his own land in the east and
west; but making an attempt to recruit his dissipated wealth by the
plunder of the Temple of Belus in Elymais, "_stumbles and falls, and
is not found_."

THIRD SECTION (vv. 20-27).--Events under Seleucus Philopator down to
the first attempts of Antiochus Epiphanes against Egypt (B.C. 170).

Ver. 20.--Seleucus Philopator (B.C. 187-176) had a character the
reverse of his father's. He was no restless seeker for glory, but
desired wealth and quietness.[689] Among the Jews, however, he had a
very evil reputation, for he sent an _exactor_--a mere tax-collector,
Heliodorus--"_to pass through the glory of the kingdom_."[690] He
only reigned twelve years, and then was "broken"--_i.e._, murdered
by Heliodorus, neither in anger nor in battle, but by poison
administered by this "tax-collector." The versions all vary, but I
feel little doubt that Dr. Joël is right when he sees in the curious
phrase _nogesh heder malkooth_, "one that shall cause a raiser of
taxes to pass over the kingdom"--of which neither Theodotion nor
the Vulgate can make anything--a cryptographic allusion to the name
_Heliodorus_;[691] and possibly the predicted fate may (by a change
of subject) also refer to the fact that Heliodorus was checked,
not by force, but by the vision in the Temple (2 Macc. v. 18, iii.
24-29). We find from 2 Macc. iv. 1 that Simeon, the governor of the
Temple, charged Onias with a trick to terrify Heliodorus. This is a
very probable view of what occurred.[692]

Ver. 21.--Seleucus Philopator died B.C. 175 without an heir. This
made room for a contemptible person, a reprobate, who had no real
claim to royal dignity,[693] being only a younger son of Antiochus
the Great. He came by surprise, "_in time of security_," and obtained
the kingdom by flatteries.[694]

Ver. 22.--Yet "_the overflowing wings of Egypt_" (or "the arms of
a flood") "_were swept away before him and broken; yea, and even
a covenanted or allied prince_." Some explain this of his nephew
Ptolemy Philometor, others of Onias III., "the prince of the
covenant"--_i.e._, the princely high priest, whom Antiochus displaced
in favour of his brother, the apostate Joshua, who Græcised his name
into Jason, as his brother Onias did in calling himself Menelaus.[695]

Ver. 23.--This mean king should prosper by deceit which he practised
on all connected with him;[696] and though at first he had but few
adherents, he should creep into power.

Ver. 24.--"_In time of security shall he come, even upon the fattest
places of the province._" By this may be meant his invasions of
Galilee and Lower Egypt. Acting unlike any of his royal predecessors,
he shall lavishly scatter his gains and his booty among needy
followers,[697] and shall plot to seize Pelusium, Naucratis,
Alexandria, and other strongholds of Egypt for a time.

Ver. 25.--After this (B.C. 171) he shall, with a "_great army_,"
seriously undertake his first invasion of Egypt, and shall be met by
his nephew Ptolemy Philometor with another immense army. In spite of
this, the young Egyptian King shall fail through the treachery of his
own courtiers. He shall be outwitted and treacherously undermined by
his uncle Antiochus. Yes! even while his army is fighting, and many
are being slain, the very men who "_eat of his dainties_," even his
favourite and trusted courtiers Eulæus and Lenæus, will be devising
his ruin, and his army shall be swept away.

Vv. 26, 27 (B.C. 174).--The Syrians and the Egyptian King, nephew
and uncle, shall in nominal amity sit at one banquet, eating from
one table;[698] but all the while they will be distrustfully
plotting against each other and "_speaking lies_" to each other.
Antiochus will pretend to ally himself with the young Philometor
against his brother Ptolemy Euergetes II.--generally known by
his derisive nickname as Ptolemy Physkon[699]--whom after eleven
months the Alexandrians had proclaimed king. But all these plots and
counter-plots should be of none effect, for the end was not yet.

FOURTH SECTION (vv. 28-35).--Events between the first attack of
Antiochus on Jerusalem (B.C. 170) and his plunder of the Temple to
the first revolt of the Maccabees (B.C. 167).

Ver. 28 (B.C. 168).--Returning from Egypt with great plunder, Antiochus
shall set himself against the Holy Covenant. He put down the usurping
high priest Jason, who, with much slaughter, had driven out his rival
usurper and brother, Menelaus. He massacred many Jews, and returned to
Antioch enriched with golden vessels seized from the Temple.[700]

Ver. 29.--In B.C. 168 Antiochus again invaded Egypt, but with none of
the former splendid results. For Ptolemy Philometor and Physkon had
joined in sending an embassy to Rome to ask for help and protection.
In consequence of this, "_ships from Kittim_"[701]--namely, the Roman
fleet--came against him, bringing the Roman commissioner, Gaius
Popilius Lænas. When Popilius met Antiochus, the king put out his
hand to embrace him; but the Roman merely held out his tablets, and
bade Antiochus read the Roman demand that he and his army should at
once evacuate Egypt. "I will consult my friends on the subject," said
Antiochus. Popilius, with infinite haughtiness and audacity, simply
drew a circle in the sand with his vine-stick round the spot on which
the king stood, and said, "You must decide before you step out of
that circle." Antiochus stood amazed and humiliated; but seeing that
there was no help for it, promised in despair to do all that the
Romans demanded.[702]

Ver. 30.--Returning from Egypt in an indignant frame of mind, he
turned his exasperation against the Jews and the Holy Covenant,
especially extending his approval to those who apostatised from it.

Ver. 31.--Then (B.C. 168) shall come the climax of horror. Antiochus
shall send troops to the Holy Land, who shall desecrate the sanctuary
and fortress of the Temple, and abolish the daily sacrifice (Kisleu
15), and set up the abomination that maketh desolate.[703]

Ver. 32.--To carry out these ends the better, and with the express
purpose of putting an end to the Jewish religion, he shall pervert
or "make profane" by flatteries the renegades who are ready to
apostatise from the faith of their fathers. But there shall be a
faithful remnant who will bravely resist him to the uttermost. "_The
people who know their God will be valiant, and do great deeds._"

Ver. 33.--To keep alive the national faith "_wise teachers of the
people shall instruct many_," and will draw upon their own heads the
fury of persecution, so that many shall fall by sword, and by flame,
and by captivity, and by spoliation for many days.

Ver. 34.--But in the midst of this fierce onslaught of cruelty they
shall be "_holpen with a little help_." There shall arise the sect
of the _Chasidîm_, or "the Pious," bound together by _Tugendbund_
to maintain the Laws which Israel received from Moses of old.[704]
These good and faithful champions of a righteous cause will indeed be
weakened by the false adherence of waverers and flatterers.

Ver. 35.--To purge the party from such spies and Laodiceans, the
teachers, like the aged priest Mattathias at Modin, and the aged
scribe Eleazar, will have to brave even martyrdom itself till the
time of the end.

FIFTH SECTION (vv. 36-45, B.C. 147-164).--Events from the beginning
of the Maccabean rising to the death of Antiochus Epiphanes.

Ver. 36.--Antiochus will grow more arbitrary, more insolent, more
blasphemous, from day to day, calling himself "God" (Theos) on his
coins, and requiring all his subjects to be of his religion,[705] and
so even more kindling against himself the wrath of the God of gods by
his monstrous utterances, until the final doom has fallen.

Ver. 37.--He will, in fact, make himself his own god, paying no regard
(by comparison) to his national or local god, the Olympian Zeus, nor to
the Syrian deity, Tammuz-Adonis, "the desire of women."[706]

            "Tammuz came next behind,
             Whose yearly wound in Lebanon allured
             The Syrian damsels to lament his fate
             In amorous ditties all a summer day.
             While smooth Adonis from his native rock
             Ran purple to the sea--supposed with blood
             Of Tammuz yearly wounded. The love tale
             Infected Zion's daughters with like heat."

Ver. 38.--The only God to whom he shall pay marked respect shall be
the Roman Jupiter, the god of the Capitol. To this god, to Jupiter
Capitolinus, not to his own Zeus Olympios, the god of his Greek
fathers, he shall erect a temple in his capital city of Antioch, and
adorn it with gold and silver and precious stones.[707]

Ver. 39.--"_And he shall deal with the strongest fortresses by the
help of a strange god_"[708]--namely, the Capitoline Jupiter (Zeus
Polieus)--and shall crowd the strongholds of Judæa with heathen
colonists who worship the Tyrian Hercules (Melkart) and other idols;
and to these heathen he shall give wealth and power.

Ver. 40.--But his evil career shall be cut short. Egypt, under the
now-allied brothers Philometor and Physkon, shall unite to thrust at
him. Antiochus will advance against them like a whirlwind, with many
chariots and horsemen, and with the aid of a fleet.

Vv. 41-45.--In the course of his march he shall pass through
Palestine, "_the glorious land_,"[709] with disastrous injury; but
Edom, Moab, and the bloom of the kingdom of Ammon shall escape his
hand. Egypt, however, shall not escape. By the aid of the Libyans
and Ethiopians who are in his train he shall plunder Egypt of its
treasures.[710]

How far these events correspond to historic realities is uncertain.
Jerome says that Antiochus invaded Egypt a third time in B.C. 165,
the eleventh year of his reign; but there are no historic traces of
such an invasion, and most certainly Antiochus towards the close
of his reign, instead of being enriched with vast Egyptian spoils,
was struggling with chronic lack of means. Some therefore suppose
that the writer composed and published his enigmatic sketch of
these events before the close of the reign of Antiochus, and that
he is here passing from contemporary fact into a region of ideal
anticipations which were never actually fulfilled.

Ver. 43 (B.C. 165).--In the midst of this devastating invasion of
Egypt, Antiochus shall be troubled with disquieting rumours of
troubles in Palestine and other realms of his kingdom. He will set
out with utter fury to subjugate and to destroy, determining above
all to suppress the heroic Maccabean revolt which had inflicted such
humiliating disasters upon his generals, Seron, Apollonius, and
Lysias.[711]

Ver. 45 (B.C. 164).--He shall indeed advance so far as to pitch his
palatial tent[712] "_between the sea and the mountain of the High
Glory_"; but he will come to a disastrous and an unassisted end.[713]

These latter events either do not correspond with the actual history,
or cannot be verified. So far as we know Antiochus did not invade
Egypt at all after B.C. 168. Still less did he advance from Egypt,
or pitch his tent anywhere near Mount Zion. Nor did he die in
Palestine, but in Persia (B.C. 165). The writer, indeed, strong in
faith, anticipated, and rightly, that Antiochus would come to an
ignominious and a sudden end--God shooting at him with a swift arrow,
so that he should be wounded. But all accurate details seem suddenly
to stop short with the doings in the fourth section, which may refer
to the strange conduct of Antiochus in his great festival in honour
of Jupiter at Daphne. Had the writer published his book _after_
this date, he could not surely have failed to speak with triumphant
gratitude and exultation of the heroic stand made by Judas Maccabæus
and the splendid victories which restored hope and glory to the Holy
Land. I therefore regard these verses as a description rather of
ideal expectation than of historic facts.

We find notices of Antiochus in the Books of Maccabees, in Josephus,
in St. Jerome's Commentary on Daniel, and in Appian's _Syriaca_. We
should know more of him and be better able to explain some of the
allusions in this chapter if the writings of the secular historians
had not come down to us in so fragmentary a condition. The relevant
portions of Callinicus Sutoricus, Diodorus Siculus, Polybius,
Posidonius, Claudius, Theon, Andronicus, Alypius, and others are
all lost--except a few fragments which we have at second or third
hand. Porphyry introduced quotations from these authors into the
twelfth book of his _Arguments against the Christians_; but we only
know his book from Jerome's _ex-parte_ quotations. Other Christian
treatises, written in answer to Porphyry by Apollinaris, Eusebius,
and Methodius, are only preserved in a few sentences by Nicetas and
John of Damascus. The loss of Porphyry and Apollinarius is especially
to be regretted. Jerome says that it was the extraordinarily minute
correspondence of this chapter of Daniel with the history of
Antiochus Epiphanes that led Porphyry to the conviction that it only
contained _vaticinia ex eventu_.[714]

Antiochus died at Tabæ in Paratacæne on the frontiers of Persia
and Babylonia about B.C. 163. The Jewish account of his remorseful
deathbed may be read in 1 Macc. vi. 1-16: "He laid him down upon
his bed, and fell sick for grief; and there he continued many days,
for his grief was ever more and more; and he made account that he
should die." He left a son, Antiochus Eupator, aged nine, under the
charge of his flatterer and foster-brother Philip.[715] Recalling the
wrongs he had inflicted on Judæa and Jerusalem, he said: "I perceive,
therefore, that for this cause these troubles are come upon me; and,
behold, I perish through great grief in a strange land."

FOOTNOTES:

[662] _Daniel_, p. 162.

[663] On this chapter see Smend, _Zeitschr. für Alttest.
Wissenschaft_, v. 241.

[664] Ewald, _Prophets_, v. 293 (E. Tr.).

[665] Doubtless the three mentioned in Ezra iv. 5-7: Ahasuerus
(Xerxes), Artaxerxes, and Darius.

[666] Heb., _Hakkôl_--lit. "the all." There were probably Jews in his
army (_Jos. c. Ap._, I. 22: comp. Herod., vii. 89).

[667] Zöckler met the difficulty by calling the number four
"symbolic," a method as easy as it is profoundly unsatisfactory.

[668] Herod., iii. 96, iv. 27-29.

[669] Q. Curt., X. v. 35.

[670] See Grote, xii. 133. Alexander had a natural son, Herakles,
and a posthumous son, Alexander, by Roxana. Both were murdered--the
former by Polysperchon. See Diod. Sic., xix. 105, xx. 28; Pausan.,
ix. 7; Justin, xv. 2; Appian, _Syr._, c. 51.

[671] The King of the Negeb (comp. Isa. xxx. 6, 7). LXX., Egypt.
Ptolemy assumed the crown about B.C. 304.

[672] See Stade, _Gesch._, ii. 276. Seleucus Nicator was deemed so
important as to give his name to the Seleucid æra (1 Macc. i. 10, ἔτη
βασιλείας Ἑλλήνων).

[673] Diod. Sic., xix. 55-58; Appian, _Syr._, c. 52. He ruled from
Phrygia to the Indus, and was the most powerful of the Diadochi. The
word _one_ is not expressed in the Hebrew: "but as for _one_ of his
captains." There may be some corruption of the text. Seleucus can
scarcely be regarded as a vassal of Ptolemy, but of Alexander.

[674] Appian, _Syr._, c. 55; Polyænus, viii. 50; Justin, xxvii. 1. See
Herzberg, _Gesch. v. Hellas u. Rom._, i. 576. Dates are not certain.

[675] Jer., _ad loc._ (Dan. xi. 6).

[676] The rendering is much disputed, and some versions, punctuating
differently, have, "his seed [_i.e._, his daughter] shall not stand."
Every clause of the passage has received varying interpretations.

[677] Polyb., v. 58.

[678] Heb., _nasîkîm_; LXX., τὰ χωνευτά; Vulg., _sculptilia_.

[679] Herodotus (iii. 47) says that he ordered the images to be
burnt. On the Marmor Adulitanum, Ptolemy Euergetes boasted that he
had united Mesopotamia, Babylonia, Persia, Susiana, Media, and all
countries as far as Bactria under his rule. The inscription was seen
at Adules by Cosmas Indicopleustes, and recorded by him (Wolf u.
Buttmann, _Museum_, ii. 162).

[680] R.V. marg., "He shall continue more years than the King of
the North." Ptolemy Euergetes died B.C. 247; Seleucus Kallinikos,
B.C. 225. It must be borne in mind that in almost every clause the
readings, renderings, and interpolations vary. I give what seem to be
the best attested and the most probable.

[681] Justin, xxvii. 2.

[682] See 3 Macc. i. 2-8; Jos., _B. J._, IV. xi. 5. The Seleucid army
lost ten thousand foot, three hundred horse, five elephants, and more
than four thousand prisoners (Polyb., v. 86).

[683] Justin says (xxx. i): "Spoliasset regem Antiochum si fortunam
virtute juvisset."

[684] _Chāzôn_, "the vision." Grätz renders it, "to cause the Law to
totter"; but this cannot be right.

[685] _E.g._, Joseph, and his son Hyrcanus.

[686] Polyb., xxviii. 1; Liv., xxxiii. 19; Jos., _Antt._, XII. iii.
4. See St. Jerome, _ad loc._

[687] Vulg., _terra inclyta_; but in viii. 9, _fortitudo_.

[688] In the choice of the Hebrew words _qatsîn cher'patho lo_, Dr.
Joël suspects a sort of anagram of Cornelius Scipio, like the ἀπὸ
μέλιτος for Ptolemy, and the ἵον Ἥρας for Arsione in Lycophron; but
the real meaning and rendering of the verse are highly uncertain.

[689] Liv., xii. 19: "Otiosum, nullisque admodum rebus gestis
nobilitatum."

[690] 2 Macc. iii. 7 ff. The reading and rendering are very uncertain.

[691] Joël, _Notizen_, p. 16.

[692] See Jost, i. 110.

[693] Vulg., _vilissimus et indignus decore regio_; R.V., "to whom
they had not given the honour of a kingdom"; Ewald, "upon him shall
not be set the splendour of a kingdom." Dr. Joël sees in _nibzeh_ a
contemptuous paronomasia on "Epiphanes" (_Notizen_, p. 17).

[694] Dan. viii. 22; 2 Macc. v. 25.

[695] Jos., _Antt._, XII. v. 1.

[696] Jerome, _amicitias simulans_.

[697] See 1 Macc. iii. 30; 1 Macc. i. 19; Polyb., xxvii. 17; Diod.
Sic., xxx. 22. What his unkingly stratagems were we do not know.

[698] Liv., xliv. 19: "Antiochus per honestam speciem majoris
Ptolemæi reducendi in regnum," etc.

[699] Or "Paunch." He was so called from his corpulence. Comp. the
name Mirabeau, _Tonneau_.

[700] 2 Macc. v. 5-21; 1 Macc. i. 20-24.

[701] The LXX. render this ἥξουσι Ῥωμαῖοι. Comp. Numb. xxiv. 24;
Jerome, _Trieres et Romani_. On "Chittim" (Gen. x. 4) see Jos.,
_Antt._, I. vi. 1.

[702] Polyb., xxix. 11; Appian, _Syr._, 66; Liv., xlv. 12; Vell.
Paterc., i. 10. According to Polybius (xxxi. 5), Epiphanes, by his
crafty dissimulation, afterwards completely hoodwinked the ambassador
Tiberius Gracchus.

[703] 2 Macc. vi. 2. Our best available historical comments on this
chapter are to be found in the two books of Maccabees.

[704] 1 Macc. ii. 42, iii. 11, iv. 14, vii. 13; 2 Macc. xiv. 6.

[705] Diod. Sic, xxxi. 1; 1 Macc. i. 43. Polybius (xxxi. 4) says "he
committed sacrilege in most of the temples" (τὰ πλεῖστα τῶν ἱερῶν).

[706] Jahn (_Heb. Com._, § xcii.) sees in the words "neither shall he
regard the desire of women" an allusion to his exclusion of women from
the festival at Daphne. Some explain the passage by his robbery of the
Temple of Artemis or Aphrodite in Elymais (Polyb., xxxi. 11; Appian,
_Syr._, 66; 1 Macc. vi. 1-4; 2 Macc. ix. 2). All is vague and uncertain.

[707] Polyb., xxvi. 10; 2 Macc. vi. 2; Liv., xii. 20. The Hebrew
_Eloah Mauzzîm_ is understood by the LXX., Theodotion, the Vulgate,
and Luther to be a god called Mauzzim (Μαωζείμ). See Herzog,
_Real-Encycl._, _s.v._ "Meussin." Cicero (_c. Verr._, vii. 72) calls
the Capitol _arx omnium nationum_. The reader must judge for himself
as to the validity of the remark of Pusey (p. 92), that "all this is
alien from the character of Antiochus."

[708] R.V. The translation is difficult and uncertain.

[709] The LXX. here render this expression (which puzzled them, and
which they omit in vv. 16, 41) by θέλησις. Theodot., τὴν γῆν τοῦ
Σαβαείμ.

[710] Ewald takes these for metaphoric designations of the
Hellenising Jews. Some (_e.g._, Zöckler) understand these verses as
a recapitulation of the exploits of Antiochus. The whole clause is
surrounded by historic uncertainties.

[711] The origin of the name Maccabee still remains uncertain. Some
make it stand for the initials of the Hebrew words, "Who among the
gods is like Jehovah?" in Exod. xv. 11; or of Mattathias Kohen
(priest), Ben-Johanan (_Biesenthal_). Others make it mean "the
Hammerer" (comp. Charles _Martel_). See Jost, i. 116; Prideaux, ii.
199 (so Grotius, and Buxtorf, _De Abbreviaturis_).

[712] Vulg., Aphadno. The LXX. omit it. Theodot., Apadano; Symm.,
"his stable."

[713] Porphyry says that "he pitched his tent in a place called Apedno,
between the Tigris and Euphrates"; but even if these rivers should be
called seas, they have nothing to do with the Holy Mountain. Apedno
seems to be a mere guess from the word אפדן, "palace" or "tent," in
this verse. See Jer. xliii. 10 (Targum). Roland, however, quotes
Procopius (_De ædif. Justiniani_, ii. 4) as authority for a place
called Apadnas, near Amida, on the Tigris. See Pusey, p. 39.

[714] Jahn, § xcv.

[715] 2 Macc. ix.; Jos., _Antt._, XII. ix. 1, 2; Milman, _Hist. of
the Jews_, ii. 9. Appian describes his lingering and wasting illness
by the word φθίνων (_Syriaca_, 66).

                               CHAPTER VI

                             _THE EPILOGUE_

The twelfth chapter of the Book of Daniel serves as a general
epilogue to the Book, and is as little free from difficulties in the
interpretation of the details as are the other apocalyptic chapters.

The keynote, however, to their right understanding must be given
in the words "_At that time_," with which the first verse opens.
The words can only mean "the time" spoken of at the end of the last
chapter, the days of that final effort of Antiochus against the holy
people which ended in his miserable death.

"At that time," then--_i.e._, about the year B.C. 163--the guardian
archangel of Israel, "Michael, the great prince which standeth for
the children of thy people," shall stand up for their deliverance.

But this deliverance should resemble many similar crises in its
general characteristics. It should not be immediate. On the
contrary, it should be preceded by days of unparalleled disorder
and catastrophe--"a time of trouble, such as never was since there
was a nation even to that same time." We may, for instance, compare
with this the similar prophecy of Jeremiah (xxx. 4-11): "And these
are the words which the Lord spake concerning Israel and concerning
Judah. For thus saith the Lord; We have heard a voice of trembling,
of fear, and not of peace.... Alas! for that day is great, so that
none is like it: it is even the time of Jacob's trouble; but he shall
be saved out of it. And it shall come to pass in that day, saith the
Lord, that I will burst thy bonds.... Therefore fear thou not, O
Jacob, My servant, saith the Lord; neither be dismayed, O Israel....
For I am with thee, saith the Lord, to save thee. For I will make a
full end of all the nations whither I have scattered thee, but I will
not make a full end of thee: but I will correct thee with judgment,
and will in nowise leave thee unpunished."[716]

The general conception is so common as even to have found expression
in proverbs,--such as, "The night is darkest just before the dawn";
and, "When the tale of bricks is doubled, Moses comes." Some shadow
of similar individual and historic experiences is found also among
the Greeks and Romans. It lies in the expression θεὸς ἀπὸ μηχανῆς,
and also in the lines of Horace,--

            "Nec Deus intersit nisi _dignus vindice nodus_
             Intersit."

We find the same expectation in the apocryphal Book of Enoch,[717]
and we find it reflected in the Revelation of St. John,[718] where he
describes the devil as let loose and the powers of evil as gathering
themselves together for the great final battle of Armageddon before
the eternal triumph of the Lamb and of His saints. In Rabbinic
literature there was a fixed anticipation that the coming of the
Messiah must inevitably be preceded by "pangs" or "birth-throes," of
which they spoke as the משיח בלי.[719] These views may partly have
been founded on individual and national experience, but they were
doubtless deepened by the vision of Zechariah (xii.).

"Behold, a day of the Lord cometh, when thy spoil shall be divided in
the midst of thee. For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to
battle; and the city shall be taken, and the houses rifled, and the
women ravished; and half of the people shall go forth into captivity,
and the residue of the people shall not be cut off from the city. Then
shall the Lord go forth, and fight against those nations, as when He
fought in the day of battle. And His feet shall stand in that day upon
the Mount of Olives.... And it shall come to pass in that day, that the
light shall not be light, but cold and ice:[720] but it shall be one
day that is known unto the Lord, not day and not night: but it shall
come to pass that at evening time there shall be light."[721]

The anticipation of the saintly writer in the days of the early
Maccabean uprising, while all the visible issues were still
uncertain, and hopes as yet unaccomplished could only be read by the
eyes of faith, were doubtless of a similar character. When he wrote
Antiochus was already concentrating his powers to advance with the
utmost wrath and fury against the Holy City. Humanly speaking, it
was certain that the holy people could oppose no adequate resistance
to his overwhelming forces, in which he would doubtless be able to
enlist contingents from many allied nations. What could ensue but
immeasurable calamity to the great majority? Michael indeed, their
prince, should do his utmost for them; but it would not be in his
power to avert the misery which should fall on the nation generally.

Nevertheless, they should not be given up to utter or to final
destruction. As in the days of the Assyrians the name Shear-jashub,
which Isaiah gave to one of his young sons, was a sign that "a
remnant should be left," so now the seer is assured that "thy people
shall be delivered"--at any rate "every one that shall be found
written in the book."

"Written in the book"--for all true Israelites had ever believed that
a book of record, a book of remembrance, lies ever open before the
throne of God, in which are inscribed the names of God's faithful
ones; as well as that awful book in which are written the evil deeds
of men.[722] Thus in Exodus (xxxii. 33) we read, "Whosoever hath
sinned against Me, him will I blot out of My book," which tells us
of the records against the guilty. In Psalm lxix. 28 we read, "Let
them be blotted out of the book of life, and not be written with
the righteous." That book of the righteous is specially mentioned
by Malachi: "Then they that feared the Lord spake one with another:
and the Lord hearkened and heard, and a book of remembrance was
written before him for them that feared the Lord and called upon
His Name."[723] And St. John refers to these books at the close
of the Apocalypse: "And I saw the dead, the great and the small,
standing before the throne; and books were opened: and another book
was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out
of the things which were written in the books, according to their
works.... And if any one was not found written in the book of life,
he was cast in the lake of fire."[724]

In the next verse the seer is told that "many of them that sleep in
the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some
to shame and everlasting abhorrence."[725]

It is easy to glide with insincere confidence over the difficulties
of this verse, but they are many.

We should naturally connect it with what goes before as a reference
to "that time"; and if so, it would seem as though--perhaps with
reminiscences of the concluding prophecy of Isaiah[726]--the writer
contemplated the end of all things and the final resurrection.[727]
If so, we have here another instance to be added to the many in
which this prophetic vision of the future passed from an immediate
horizon to another infinitely distant. And if that be the correct
interpretation, this is the earliest trace in Scripture of the
doctrine of individual immortality. Of that doctrine there was no
full knowledge--there were only dim prognostications or splendid
hopes[728]--until in the fulness of the times Christ brought life
and immortality to light. For instance, the passage here seems to be
doubly limited. It does not refer to mankind in general, but only to
members of the chosen people; and it is not said that all men shall
rise again and receive according to their works, but only that "many"
shall rise to receive the reward of true life,[729] while others
shall live indeed, but only in everlasting shame.

To them that be wise--to "the teacher,"[730] and to those that turn
the many to "righteousness"--there is a further promise of glory. They
"shall shine as the brightness of the firmament, and as the stars for
ever and ever." There is here, perhaps, a reminiscence of Prov. iv. 18,
19, which tells us that the way of the wicked is as darkness, whereas
the path of the just is as the shining light that shineth more and
more unto the perfect day. Our Lord uses a similar metaphor in his
explanation of the Parable of the Tares: "Then shall the righteous
shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father."[731] We find
it once again in the last verse of the Epistle of St. James: "Let him
know, that he who hath converted a sinner from the error of his way
shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins."

But there is a further indication that the writer expected this
final consummation to take place immediately after the troubles
of the Antiochian assault; for he describes the angel Gabriel as
bidding Daniel "to seal the Book even to the time of the end." Now
as it is clear that the Book was, on any hypothesis, meant for
the special consolation of the persecuted Jews under the cruel
sway of the Seleucid King, and that then first could the Book be
understood, the writer evidently looked for the fulfilment of his
last prophecies at the termination of these troubles. This meaning
is a little obscured by the rendering, "many _shall run to and fro_,
and knowledge shall be increased." Ewald, Maurer, and Hitzig take
the verse, which literally implies movement hither and thither, in
the sense, "many shall _peruse_ the Book."[732] Mr. Bevan, however,
from a consideration of the Septuagint Version of the words, "and
knowledge shall be increased"--for which they read, "and the land be
filled with injustice"--thinks that the original rendering would be
represented by, "many shall rush hither and thither, and many shall
be the calamities." In other words, "the revelation must remain
concealed, because there is to ensue a long period of commotion and
distress."[733] If we have been convinced by the concurrence of many
irresistible arguments that the Book of Daniel is the product of the
epoch which it most minutely describes, we can only see in this verse
a part of the literary form which the Book necessarily assumed as
the vehicle for its lofty and encouraging messages.

The angel here ceases to speak, and Daniel, looking round him,
becomes aware of the presence of two other celestial beings, one of
whom stood on either bank of the river.[734] "And one said to the man
clothed in linen, which was above the waters of the river, How long
to the end of these wonders?"[735] There is a certain grandeur in the
vagueness of description, but the speaker seems to be one of the two
angels standing on either "lip" of the Tigris. "The man clothed in
linen," who is hovering in the air above the waters of the river, is
the same being who in viii. 16 wears "the appearance of a man," and
calls "from between the banks of Ulai" to Gabriel that he is to make
Daniel understand the vision. He is also, doubtless, the "one man
clothed in linen, whose loins were girded with fine gold of Uphaz,
his body like the beryl, his face as flashing lightning, his eyes as
burning torches, and his voice like the deep murmur of a multitude,"
who strikes such terror into Daniel and his comrades in the vision of
chap. x. 5, 6;--and though all is left uncertain, "the great prince
Michael" may perhaps be intended.

The question how long these marvels were to last, and at what period
the promised deliverance should be accomplished, was one which would
naturally have the intensest interest to those Jews who--in the
agonies of the Antiochian persecution and at the beginning of the
"little help" caused by the Maccabean uprising--read for the first time
the fearful yet consolatory and inspiring pages of this new apocalypse.
The answer is uttered with the most solemn emphasis. The Vision of the
priest-like and gold-girded angel, as he hovers above the river-flood,
"held up both his hands to heaven," and swears by Him that liveth for
ever and ever that the continuance of the affliction shall be "for a
time, times, and a half." So Abraham, to emphasise his refusal of any
gain from the King of Sodom, says that he has "_lifted up his hand_
unto the Lord, the Most High God, that he would not take from a thread
to a shoe-latchet." And in Exod. vi. 8, when Jehovah says "I did
swear," the expression means literally, "_I lifted up My hand_."[736]
It is the natural attitude of calling God to witness; and in Rev. x.
5, 6, with a reminiscence of this passage, the angel is described as
standing on the sea, and lifting his right hand to heaven to swear a
mighty oath that there should be no longer delay.

The "time, two times, and half a time" of course means three years
and a half, as in vii. 25. There can be little doubt that their
commencement is the _terminus a quo_ which is expressly mentioned in
ver. 11: "the time that the daily sacrifice shall be taken away." We
have already had occasion to see that three years, with a margin which
seems to have been variously computed, does roughly correspond to the
continuance of that total desecration of the Temple, and extinction of
the most characteristic rites of Judaism, which preceded the death of
Antiochus and the triumph of the national cause.

Unhappily the reading, rendering, and interpretation of the next
clause of the angel's oath are obscure and uncertain. It is rendered
in the R.V., "and when they have made an end of breaking in pieces
the power of the holy people, all these things shall be finished."
As to the exact translation many scholars differ. Von Lengerke
translates it, "and when the scattering of a part of the holy people
should come to an end, all this should be ended." The Septuagint
Version is wholly unintelligible. Mr. Bevan suggests an alteration of
the text which would imply that, "when the power of the shatterer of
the holy people [_i.e._, Antiochus] should come to an end, all these
things should be ended." This no doubt would not only give a very
clear sense, but also one which would be identical with the prophecy
of vii. 25, that "they [the times and the law] shall be given unto
his hand until a time and times and half a time."[737] But if we stop
short at the desperate and uncertain expedient of correcting the
original Hebrew, we can only regard the words as implying (in the
rendering of our A.V. and R.V.) that the persecution and suppression
of Israel should proceed to their extremest limit, before the woe was
ended; and of this we have already been assured.[738]

The writer, in the person of Daniel, is perplexed by the angel's
oath, and yearns for further enlightenment and certitude. He makes
an appeal to the vision with the question, "O my lord, what shall
be the issue [or, latter end] of these things?" In answer he is
simply bidden to go his way--_i.e._, to be at peace, and leave all
these events to God,[739] since the words are shut up and sealed
till the time of the end. In other words, the Daniel of the Persian
Court could not possibly have attached any sort of definite meaning
to minutely detailed predictions affecting the existence of empires
which would not so much as emerge on the horizon till centuries after
his death. These later visions could only be apprehended by the
contemporaries of the events which they shadowed forth.

"Many," continued the angel, "shall purify themselves, and make
themselves white, and be refined; but the wicked shall do wickedly:
and none of the wicked shall understand; the teachers shall
understand."[740]

The verse describes the deep divisions which should be cleft among
the Jews by the intrigues and persecutions of Antiochus. Many would
cling to their ancient and sacred institutions, and purified by pain,
purged from all dross of worldliness and hypocrisy in the fires of
affliction, like gold in the furnace, would form the new parties
of the _Chasidîm_ and the _Anavîm_, "the pious" and "the poor."
They would be such men as the good high priest Onias, Mattathias
of Modin and his glorious sons, the scribe Eleazar, and the seven
dauntless martyrs, sons of the holy woman who unflinchingly watched
their agonies and encouraged them to die rather than to apostatise.
But the wicked would continue to be void of all understanding, and
would go on still in their wickedness, like Jason and Menelaus,
the renegade usurpers of the high-priesthood. These and the whole
Hellenising party among the Jews, for the sake of gain, plunged into
heathen practices, made abominable offerings to gods which were no
gods, and in order to take part in the naked contests of the Greek
gymnasium which they had set up in Jerusalem, deliberately attempted
to obliterate the seal of circumcision which was the covenant pledge
of their national consecration to the Jehovah of their fathers.

"And from the time that the continual burnt offering shall be taken
away, and the abomination that maketh desolate set up, there shall be
a thousand two hundred and ninety days."

If we suppose the year to consist of twelve months of thirty days,
then (with the insertion of one intercalary month of thirty days)
twelve hundred and ninety days is exactly three and a half years.
We are, however, faced by the difficulty that the time from the
desecration of the Temple till its reconsecration by Judas Maccabæus
seems to have been exactly three years;[741] and if that view be
founded on correct chronology, we can give no exact interpretation of
the very specific date here furnished.

Our difficulties are increased by the next clause: "Blessed is he
that waiteth, and cometh to the thousand three hundred and five and
thirty days."

All that we can conjecture from this is that, at the close of twelve
hundred and ninety days, by the writer's reckoning from the cessation
of the daily burnt offering, and the erection of the heathen
abomination which drove all faithful Jews from the Temple, up to the
date of some marked deliverance, would be three and a half years,
but that this deliverance would be less complete and beatific than
another and later deliverance which would not occur till forty-five
days later.[742]

Reams of conjecture and dubious history and imaginative chronology
have been expended upon the effort to give any interpretation of
these precise data which can pretend to the dignity of firm or
scientific exegesis. Some, for instance, like Keil, regard the
numbers as _symbolical_, which is equivalent to the admission that
they have little or no bearing on literal history; others suppose
that they are _conjectural_, having been penned before the actual
termination of the Seleucid troubles. Others regard them as only
intended to represent _round numbers_. Others again attempt to give
them historic accuracy by various manipulations of the dates and
events in and after the reign of Antiochus. Others relegate the
entire vision to periods separated from the Maccabean age by hundreds
of years, or even into the remotest future. And none of these
commentators, by their researches and combinations, have succeeded
in establishing the smallest approach to conviction in the minds
of those who take the other views. There can be little doubt that
to the writer and his readers the passage pointed either to very
confident expectations or very well-understood realities; but for
us the exact clue to the meaning is lost. All that can be said is
that we should probably understand the dates better if our knowledge
of the history of B.C. 165-164 was more complete. We are forced to
content ourselves with their general significance. It is easy to
record and to multiply elaborate guesses, and to deceive ourselves
with the merest pretence and semblance of certainty. For reverent
and severely honest inquiries it seems safer and wiser to study and
profit by the great lessons and examples clearly set before us in the
Book of Daniel, but, as regards many of its unsolved difficulties, to
obey the wise exhortation of the Rabbis,--

            "Learn to say, 'I do not know.'"

FOOTNOTES:

[716] See too Joel ii. 2.

[717] Enoch xc. 16.

[718] Rev. xvi. 14, xix. 19.

[719] Comp. Matt. xxiv. 6, 7, 21, 22.

[720] Such is the reading of the LXX., Vulgate, Peshitta, Symmachus,
etc.

[721] Zech. xiv. 1-7.

[722] Comp. vii. 10: "And the books were opened."

[723] Mal. iii. 16.

[724] Rev. xx. 12-15. Compare too Phil. iv. 3: "With Clement also,
and the rest of my fellow-workers, whose names are in the book of
life."

[725] "Many sleepers in the land of dust" seems to mean the dead.
Comp. Jer. li. 39; Psalm xxii. 29; 1 Thess. iv. 14; Acts vii. 60. For
"shame" see Jer. xxiii. 40. The word for "abhorrence" only occurs
in Isa. lxvi. 24. The allusion seems to be to the ἀνάστασις κρίσεως
(John v. 29), the δεύτερος θάνατος of Rev. xx. 14. Comp. Enoch xxii.

[726] Isa. lxvi. 24.

[727] It is certain that the doctrine of the Resurrection acquired
more clearness in the minds of the Jews at and after the period of the
Exile; nor is there anything derogatory to the workings of the Spirit
of God which lighteth every man, in the view which supposes that they
may have learnt something on this subject from the Babylonians and
Assyrians. See the testimonies of St. Peter and St. Paul as to some
degree of Ethnic inspiration in Acts x. 34, 35, xvii. 25-31.

[728] See Ezek. xxxvii. 1-4.

[729] Theodoret says that "many" means "all," as in Rom. v. 15; but
there it is "_the_ many," and the parallel is altogether defective.
Hofmann gets over the difficulty by rendering it, "And in multitudes
shall they arise." Many commentators explain it not of the final but of
some partial resurrection. Few will now be content with such autocratic
remarks as that of Calvin: "Multos hic ponit pro omnibus ut certum est."

[730] Lit. "those that justify the multitude." Comp. Isa. liii. 11,
and see Dan. xi. 33-35.

[731] Matt. xiii. 43; 1 Cor. xv. 41; Rev. ii. 28.

[732] Comp. Zech. iv. 10. This sense cannot be rigidly established.

[733] He refers to 1 Macc. i. 9, which says of the successors of
Alexander, καὶ ἐπλήθυναν κακὰ ἐν τῃ γῃ.

[734] Jerome guesses that they are the angels of Persia and Greece.
The word הַיְאר lit. "the canal," is often used of the Nile.

[735] The LXX. reads καὶ εἷπα, "and I said," making Daniel the
speaker (so too the Vulgate); but the form of the passage is so
closely analogous to viii. 13, as to leave no doubt that here too
"one saint is speaking to another saint."

[736] Comp. Gen. xiv. 22; Deut. xxxii. 40, "For I lift up My hand
unto heaven, and say, I live for ever"; Ezek. xx. 5, 6, etc.

[737] Those who can rest content with such exegesis may explain this
to imply that "the reign of _antichrist_ will be divided into three
periods--the first long, the second longer, the third shortest of all,"
just as the seventy weeks of chap. ix. are composed of 7 × 62 × 1.

[738] By way of comment see 1 Macc. v.; 2 Macc. viii.

[739] לֵךְ is encouraging, as in ver. 13.

[740] Comp. Rev. xxii. 11.

[741] The small heathen altar to Zeus was built by Antiochus upon
the great altar of burnt offering on Kisleu 15, B.C. 168. The revolt
of Mattathias and his seven sons began B.C. 167. Judas the Maccabee
defeated the Syrian generals Apollonius, Seron, and Gorgias B.C. 166,
and Lysias at Beth-sur in B.C. 165. He cleansed and rededicated the
Temple on Kisleu 25, B.C. 165.

[742] The "time, times, and a half." The 1,290 days, 1,335 days
and the 1,150 days, and the 2,300 days of viii. 14 all agree in
indicating three years with a shorter or longer fraction. It will be
observed that in each case there is a certain reticence or vagueness
as to the _terminus ad quem_. It is interesting to note that in Rev.
xi. 2, 3, the period of 42 months = 1,260 days = 3-1/2 years of
months of 30 days with no intercalary month.

                    APPROXIMATE CHRONOLOGICAL TABLES

                                                  B.C.
  Jehoiakim                                       608-597
  Zedekiah                                        597-588
  Jerusalem taken                                 588
  Death of Nebuchadrezzar                         561
  Evil-merodach                                   561
  Neriglissar                                     559
  Laborosoarchod                                  555
  Nabunaid                                        555
  Capture of Babylon                              538
  Decree of Cyrus                                 536
  Cambyses                                        529
  Darius, son of Hystaspes                        521
  Dedication of the Second Temple                 516
  Battle of Salamis                               480
  Ezra                                            458
  Nehemiah                                        444
  Nehemiah's reforms                              428
  Malachi                                         420
  Alexander the Great invades Persia              334
  Battle of Granicus                              334
  Battle of Issus                                 333
  Battle of Arbela                                331
  Death of Darius Codomannus                      330
  Death of Alexander                              323
  Ptolemy Soter captures Jerusalem                320
  Simon the Just high priest                      310
  Beginning of Septuagint translation             284
  Antiochus the Great conquers Palestine      (?) 202

                                           B.C.
  Accession of Antiochus Epiphanes         176  Dan. vii. 8, 20.

  Joshua (Jason), brother of Onias III.,
    gets the priesthood by bribery, and
    promotes Hellenism among the Jews      174  Dan. xi. 23-24, ix. 26.

  First expedition of Antiochus against
    Egypt.--Murder of Onias III            171

  His second expedition                (?) 170

  His plunder of the Temple and massacre
    at Jerusalem                           170  Dan. viii. 9, 10; xi. 28.

  Third expedition of Antiochus            169  Dan. xi. 29, 30.

  Apollonius, the general of Antiochus,
    advances against Jerusalem with an
    army of 22,000.--Massacre.--The
    abomination of desolation in the            Dan. vii. 21, 24, 25;
    Temple.--Antiochus carries off some           viii. 11-13, 24, 25;
    of the holy vessels (1 Macc. i. 25);          xi. 30-35, etc.
    forbids circumcision; burns the
    books of the Law; puts down the
    daily sacrifice                        169-8

  Desecration of the Temple.--Jews
    compelled to pay public honour
    to  false gods.--Faithfulness of
    scribes and _Chasidîm_.--Revolt of
    Maccabees                              167  Dan. xi. 34, 35; xii. 3.

  Jewish war of independence.--Death
    of the priest Mattathias.--Judas
    Maccabæus defeats Lysias               166

  Battles of Beth-zur and                       Dan. vii. II, 26; viii.
    Emmaus.--Purification of Temple               14; xi. 45, etc.
    (Kisleu 25)                            165

  Death of Antiochus Epiphanes             163

  Judas Maccabæus dies in battle at
    Eleasa                                 161

                   GENEALOGICAL TABLE OF THE LAGIDÆ,
                        PTOLEMIES, AND SELEUCIDÆ

       Seleucus Nicator,
        B.C. 312-280.                        Ptolemy Soter (Dan. xi. 5).
            |                                     |
       Antiochus I. (Soter),                Ptolemy Philadelphus.
       B.C. 280.                                  |
            |                                     |
     +------+----------------+        +-----------+------+
     |                       |        |                  |
  Laodice==Antiochus II.  (Theos)==Berenice.         Ptolemy Euergetes,
          | B.C. 260-246.         |                  B.C. 285-247
          |                       |                  (Dan. xi. 7,8).
          |                 An infant, murdered          |
    +-----+-----------+        by Laodice.               |
    |                 |                              Ptolemy Philopator,
  Seleucus II.     Antiochus.                        B.C. 222-205
  (Kallinikos),                                      (Dan. xi. 10-12).
  d. B.C. 226.                                           |
      |                                                  |
   +--+------------------+                               |
   |                     |                               |
  Seleucus III.     Antiochus III. ("the Great"),        |
  (Keraunos).       B.C. 224 (Dan. xi. 10-12, 14).       |
                         |                               |
     +-------------------+------------------+            |
     |                   |                  |            |
  Seleucus         Antiochus IV.        Cleopatra==Ptolemy Epiphanes,
  Philopator.   (Epiphanes), B.C. 175.           |  B.C. 205-181
     |                   |                       |  (Dan. xi. 14).
     |                   |                +------+--------------+
  Demetrius.         Antiochus V.,        |                     |
                     B.C. 164.        Ptolemy Philometor,    Ptolemy
                                       B.C. 181-146        Euergetes II.
                                      (Dan. xi. 25-30).

For a fuller list and further identifications see Driver, pp. 461,
462, and _supra_. For the genealogical table see Mr. Deane (Bishop
Ellicott's _Commentary_, v. 402).

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glides through these chapters."--_Guardian._

  =The Epistle to the Ephesians=
        By the =Rev. Prof. G. G. FINDLAY, B.A.=

"Every page shows that he has made a minute and careful examination
of the text, while in every chapter there are inferences drawn and
suggestions thrown out which will find their way into many sermons.
They who know this Epistle best will be the first to acknowledge the
value of Prof. Findlay's exposition."--_Expositor._

  =The Acts of the Apostles. Vol. II.=
        By the =Rev. Prof. G. T. STOKES, D.D.=

"The second volume is as readable as the first, full of learning
without a spice of pedantry.... The volume is highly to be commended
for knowledge, sobriety, and manly piety."--_Saturday Review._

  =The Psalms. Vol. I.=
        By the =Rev. ALEXANDER MACLAREN, D.D.=

"Dr. Maclaren has evidently mastered his subject with the aid of the
best authorities, and has put the results of his studies before his
readers in a most attractive form; and if we add that his commentary
really helps to the better understanding of the Psalms, that, far
from degrading, it vivifies and illuminates these sublime stories,
and that it is written in a charming style, very seldom falling below
the dignity of the subject, we believe we only give it the praise
which is its due."--_Scotsman._

                         THE EXPOSITOR'S BIBLE.

                           ==Sixth Series.==

   _Subscription Price_, =24s.= _Separate Volumes_, =7s. 6d.= _each_.

  =The Epistle to the Philippians=
        By the =Rev. Principal RAINY, D.D.=

"A piece of good and thorough work, the work of a sound and well-read
expositor, and especially of an orthodox Scotch divine."--_London
Quarterly Review._

  =The First Book of Kings=
        By the =Venerable F. W. FARRAR, D.D., F.R.S.=, Archdeacon
        of Westminster.

"Dr. Farrar brings his versatile literary powers to bear upon
these majestic and imposing scenes, with all his gifts of poetic
description, his wealth of quotations, and his aptitude for
picturesque comparisons."--_Guardian._

  =Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther=
        By the =Rev. Prof. W. F. ADENEY, M.A.=

"Mr. Adeney has evidently grasped the whole story with clearness and
force: his portraits are lifelike; he has all the instinct of the
expositor in high development. It is no small triumph to have done so
well with one of the least pictorial and fascinating of Old Testament
histories."--_Independent._

  =The Book of Joshua=
        By the =Rev. Prof. W. G. BLAIKIE, D.D., LL.D.=

"We have no hesitation in saying that for every-day working purposes
expositors of the Book of Joshua will find this volume more helpful
than many more critical and modernised works.... His expositions are
usually fresh and interesting, and there is an eye for the practical
in all he writes."--_Glasgow Herald._

  =The Psalms. Vol. II.=
        By the =Rev. ALEXANDER MACLAREN, D.D.=

"The volume is as attractive as the first, and shows throughout the
same high qualities of penetration and spiritual sympathy. Its pages
give abundant evidence of care, critical study, and acquaintance with
the best that our most competent scholars have contributed to the
exposition of the Psalms."--_Critical Review._

  =The Epistles of Peter=
        By the =Rev. Prof. LUMBY, D.D., Cambridge.=

"A sound and finely practical commentary."--_Saturday Review._

"We have been impressed by the carefulness, fulness, and almost
minuteness of the expositions which Dr. Lumby gives in this
volume."--_Literary World._

⁂ =_For List of Volumes in the 7th and the concluding (8th) Series
see back of title._=

           LONDON: HODDER AND STOUGHTON, 27, PATERNOSTER ROW.

Transcriber's Notes:

Obvious punctuation and spelling errors have been fixed throughout.

Inconsistent hyphenation is as in the original.