gether with those that refer to the Old- Test,
antichrist as the last representative of the Grae
cian world-kingdom (vs. 40—4.5) ; while we saw
cause to regard the portion intervening between
the two just indicated (vs. .5-39) as being com
posed of both genuine and interpolated e'.e
ments. It is impossible to assert that the inter
mediate section is spurious throughout, because
it affords many traces of original prophr.cy,
which may be recognized by the coraparativft
discrepancy of their statements with the cor-
responding facts in the history of the Seleuoidaa
and the Lagid^ (see, e.g.^ vs. 14, 19, 20, 34, 39).
By far the larger portion, however, seems to
have been inserted by a later hand, since the
parallels found in former descriptioES of the
future, viz, : chap. vii. 24, and ^nii. 9, — passages
which likewise refer to the period intervening
between Alexander the Great and /jitiochus
Epiphanes, — are exceeded by it to an almost in-
credible degree in regard to the specific charac-
ter of its predicted details." It follows the
succession of the Seleucid monarohe and their
conflicts with the Ptolemies with such conscien-
tious accuracy, that it may almofl be considered
an attempt to demonstrate t.^e ideal tenfold
number of the horns of the fourth beast in
chap. vii. 24, in the particulars of history. This,
however, becomes improbable from the circum-
stance that the number of the Syrian kings who
are mentioned is by no means exactly ten, but
that, on the contrary, their succession is fol-
lowed in a decidedly imperfect manner, as ap-
pears from the overlooking of Antiochus Soter
(see on v. 0), and from the confused interchange
of the earliest kings in general (see on vs. 5-9),
We observed in a former paragraph (Eth. -fund,
principles on chap. vii. No. 3, a) that it could
not be proven that the writer of this book as-
signs exactly ten kings to the period from Alex-
ander the Great to Antiochus Epiphanes, or
that he was acquainted with precisely /««)• kin^
of Persia, and no more (see on chap. xi. 2). The
arrangement of the series of Seleucid kings ac-
cording to a numerically symbolic plan, can in
nowise be asserted, whether the chapter before
us be regarded as the genuine production of
Daniel throughout, or as enriched [?J bj' later
additions of the Maccabaean age. On the other
hand, there can be no question that it was tlie
design of the originator of this exact description
of the history of the Seleucidas and the Lagidaj,
whether Daniel himself or an inspired ['i\ readel
of his book in the Maccabajan period were that
writer, to demonstrate that the MancabEean pe-
riod, and it alone, formed the point in which
the entire series of prophecies in the book arc
centred, and consequently ihat it constituted
the immediate preparation for the Me.ssianio
period of salvation. It became necessary, '"on
the beginning of the predicted unexampled



* [We dismiss this theory of trte author by once mor^
calling attention to the fact that these so-called interpola-
tions are so intimately blended as component parts with thfl
rest of the prophecy in which they are imbedded, that om
author does not attempt to eliminate them, or even dis
tinctly designate theui. To do so \s-onld result in enervat-
ing and dislocating the Wiiole. The authenticity of thi
entire passage must stand or fall together.)



258



THE PROPHET D.iNIEL



trial, to enable the Jewish nation to trace, step
by step, that it was by the counsel of God that
it should begin under precisely those circum-
stances, and in precisely that juncture of the
progress of history" (Delitzsch). It was neces-
sary â– â–  to connect the advent of the post-Mace-
donian tyrant with the time of Daniel by so
continuous a chain of the most particular events,
that it would be erident that no hiatus could
intervene between the time of D,aniel and that
tyrant, in -which the Messiah might appear "
(Ebrard; see supra on v. 5). Cf. also Fiiller,
pp. 3G3, et. seq., 3G8.

2. The fundamental ethical and Messianic
principle of the section coincides substantially
^vith its aim, as it was pointed out in the pre-
ceding paragraph, and as we are compelled to
formulate it in common with nearly all the
orthodox expositors of recent times, despite our
doubts concerning its unimpaired genuineness.
God will not desert his people in the changing
fortunes of the world, or amid the tempestuous
thronging of the u.ations and the tumults of the
wars incited Vjy the monarchs of the earth.
Even though they be pressed during centuries
between mighty contending empires as between
two millstones, and be unable in their own
power to prevent the raging of such foes, God
will not permit them to be either ground or
crushed. He does not permit the chosen people
of His heritage to be overwhelmed, even though
the oppressor's power should reach its highest
stage, and though to his violent attempts to
suppress that people by force should be added
the most flattering arts of dissimulation and the
most dangerous spiritual trials (cf. v. 31 et seq. ).
Indeed, it is precisely when the need is highest,
that He comes nighest with His aid and deliv-
erance ; precisely when to human wisdom every
prospect of rescue has been lost, does the judg-
ment of God break in on the oppressor and
snatch him away to irretrievable ruin — " and
there is none to help him" (v. 45). The par-
ticularizing description of the tedious conflicts
between the kingdoms of the north and south
is evidently designed to illustrate these truths,
which are closely connected with the funda-
mental thought of chap. viii. These truths
would still constitute the ethical kernel of this
section, even if the portion that is probably in-
terpoLated, vs. 5-3'J (where the prophecy becomes
transformed into actual history), were conceived
of as being vhuUy expunged ; but they form its
leading thought in a more obvious sense, when
it is remembered that that portion is at least
largely composed of genuine prophecies relating
to the time between Alexander and Antiochus
Epiphanes. It must accordingly be admitted,
even on the assumption of the partially inter-
polated character of the section which we have
adopted, that the prophecy enters upon the
course of history from the Persian £era to the
Asmonacan period with an unusual fulness of
detail, and does this because it accorded with
the Divine purpose to afford the suffering con-
fessors of the latter epoch a strong certainty
that their artiictions constituted the woes, the
immediate precursors of the Measianic aera of
deliverance. To the extraordinary trials of the
Maccabsean age, the wise providence of God
designed to oppose a means of comfort and
strength possessing extraordinary power, in this



unusually specific portion of Daniel's prophe-
cies. " If that affliction was unique in it«
kind, is it wonderful that the people was armed
against it, .and strengthened to endure it, by
means that are likewise unique in their kind ? . . .
The war which Antiochus waged against Israel
was not like other wars. He aimed to destroy
its religion ; and therefore this war is repre-
sented as a contest against God and His service.
In such a war Israel stood alone and without
allies, in the resistance it opposed to the pow-
erful king .and his armies. In proportion as it
was deprived of ordinary means of power and
resistance, and was confined to the exercise
of confidence in the aid of its God, in that pro-
portion it was necessary to strengthen its trust ;
and this was accomplished by means of this
vmique detailed prophetic description of the
tribulation .and the history which should pre-
cede it" (Fiiller, p. 303; cf. Hofmann, Wcissag.
n. Erf., I. 313). — We have assumed that a
pious [!] theocratic investigator of the Scrip-
tures in that period of trial, affected and sur-
prised by the marvellously exact correspondence
between the prophecy and the history of hia
time, sought to give a still more direct form to
that correspondence, and to remove the last
remains of apparent discrepancy between the
prediction and the recent historical past, by in-
serting into the prophetic text a series of reiti-
cinia ex etentu ; but this can no more destroy
the incomparable value and the inspired charac-
ter of the prophecy before us, than, for in-
stance, the interpolations perpetrated on the
somewhat analogous predictions of the abbot
Joachim of Floris (f 1202) by later mystical
observers of the history of the Middle Ages, for
the purpose of adapting them as accurately as
possible to the facts in which they were realized,
can throw doubt upon the high prophetic en-
dowment of that personage [?], or can bring
into question the occurrence of really genuine
prophecies in his writings (cf. Neander, Kirchen-
gesch., vol. II., p. 451 et seq. ; Gieseler. II. 2,
p. 354, No. 8 ; 35(i, No. 9). The interpolating
activity of his later admirers did not destroy
the fame as a genuine prophet of that celebrated
apocalyptist of the twelfth century, who, as is
well known, foretold the rise of two new orders,
a preaching order and a contemplative order,
during the period immediately subsequent to his
own, and by that very means gave occasion to the
more strict (or spiritual) party among the Fitm-
ciscans in the thirteenth century to construct
as perfect a concordance as was possible be-
tween his predictions and the history of the
origin of their own order and that of the Do-
minicans; nor was his contemporary, S. Hilde-
gard (t 1107), who predicted the Reformation
and the order of the Jesuits (Epist., p. 160; cf.
Neander, itnil., p. 448 et seq.) deprived of her
fame as a richly endowed prophetess [?] , by the
interpolated additions which were doubtless
made to her prophecies at a later period.* With
equal, and stUl greater truthfulness, it may be
asserted th.at the prophetic and inspired charac-
ter of this book is not materially injared, in any

• The RevehUloiiei! of S. Brirlget ( t K'iS I miplit also be
nilduced as an example in point : likewise the t^ttatraiiui of
Nostradamus (t ISfilil. etc. [The Rationalistic tone of
these comparisons of ft book of Holy Writ with pseudo-apoo-
ryphal pretondera of modern tir les, is palpable.]



CHAP. XI. 2^45.



259



way whatever, by the opinion that the present
section has received certain adaptations and
particularizing additions from a later hand, and
that by this opinion, c.f/., its accurate references
to the expedition of Ptol. Evergetes for con-
quest (vs. 7, 8), to the warlike operations of
Antiochus Magnus (vs. 11-19). and to the three
E^'yptian campaigns of Epiphanes (vs. 22-30)
are most readily explained."

3. This chapter apparently presents but few
points, or none at all, for practical or homiletical
treatment, as it is composed almost exclusively
of prophetic descriptions of special historical
events. Even the thought just presented, that
the wonderful adaptation of the prediction to
particular events, was conditioned upon the ex-
traordinary .severity of the Maccabsan suffer-
ings and oppressions, seems to afford but little
opportunity for practical and edifying applica-
tion. Instead of emphasizing that idea in a
one-sided manner, it will be better to seize on
the ethical centre of the entire prophetic his-
torical picture, or. in other words, on the truth
that God iriU not desert His people iind His holy
covenant in any of the storms and changing
events of the history of the nati/jns, but tltat He
inll send deliverance in the precite moment ichen
their need has reached itji highest point — and to
make this the starting-point and principal ob-
ject of study. The practical fundamental
thought of the section is consequently the same
in substance as that contained in Psa. xlvi. 2-6 :
" God is our refuge and strength, a very present
help in trouble. Therefore will we not fear
though the earth be removed, and though the
mountains be carried into the midst of the sea ;
though the waters thereof roar and be troubled,
though the mountains shake with the swelling
thereof. Still the city of God shall be glad
with its fountain [so Luther], where are the
holy tabernacles of the Most High. God is in
the midst of her; she shaU not be moved ; God
shall help her, and that right early." — The fun-
damental thought, reduced to a briefer form,
may also be expressed as follows : The Lord
causes the mighty millstones (the northern and
southern kingdoms) between which the people
of his heritage is placed like an insignificant
and impotent grain of com, to crush each other
rather than that object of their bitter oppres-
sion ; or. Where the need is highest, there is
God's aid nighest ; or, " For a small moment
have I forsaken thee ; but with great mercies
will I gather thee " (Isa. liv. 7 ; cf. Lam. v. 20;
Psa. xxxvii. 2."); Heb. xiii. 5, etc.).

JlomUettc suggestions ori, particular paitsages.

On v. 2, Melancthon, " Est hcfc prcedictio tes-

* [This apology of the author for the wTecks of this pas-
page after tlie e.xpiirgation from fiplirions additions — to an
ill-defined extent— is a vain plea. Once admit the fact of
such interpolations, in any considerable degree at least, and
the credit of the prophecy is irretrievably destroyed. Kvery
one will be at liberty to expunge ad iiiiUian what he fan-
cies to be a vaticinium ex epentu.}



timoninm illnstre, quod a Deo trnditam esst
Prophitanun doctriuam ostendit. Et quia pol-
licttiir liliirationem, significat Deo euro: esse hiinc
populttm, qui doctrinum propheticam amplecti-
tur. ConfirmantuT ergo pii, ne a Deo dejiciant,
ne ahjiciant Inijiis doctrines professioncm. Per-
tinet autem postrema pars Juijus longes concionis
etiam ad hanc ultiniam mundi aitatem et ad Ec-
clesice (Brumnas, quas tulit jam niuttis secculis ;
dum alibi Malunnetica rabies conatur prorsus
delere nomen Filii Dei, alibi reirnant Episcopi
ethnico more et studin ecclcsiasti^u negligunt,
sinunt extingid lucem Evangelii, proponunt idola
et lihidinei, injusle occidunt himiinei innoeentes
propter verce doctrinm professionem (therefore
the supplanting of Christianity by the Pope and
the Turks — a New-Test, counterpart to the ad-
vance of the northern and southern kingdoms
against Israel). H(tc mala pii considerent, ut
primum a Deo petant, vt ipse Ecdesiam siiam
servet, regat, foveat et augeat ; deinde si qni pos-
sunt aliquibus ^uineribus m^dei-i, annitantur pre
sua focatitine" etc.

On V. 33, Calvin: 'â– ^ Htvc cireumstantia mag-
7i7im pondus in se continet, quia cidemus mxdtos
ad tempus satis virili esse et intrepido animo,
postea languescere et tandem etanescere, ut fiant
prorsus sui dissimiles. Angelas autem hie pro-
mittit fore insuperabilem constantiam eorum,
qui sustinebuntur Dei spiritu, ita ut non una
tantum die ml mense vel anno certent, sed sub-
inde cnUigant aniinos et nova eertamina, neque
unquam dffciant." — Cramer: "God supports
his own even in the most violent persecutions,
and preserves them from apo-stasy." — Starke :
"A real Christian must venture his body, life,
and all that he has, for the glory of God."

On v. 35, Calvin : " Sequitur, nullos pollere
tanta sanctimonia et puritate. quin adhuc resi-
deant in ipsis aliquee sordes. qua; purgationem
(xigunt, ita ut ipsis necesse sit transire per for-
nacem, et mnndari instar auri et argcnti. . Hoc
ad omnes Dei martyres extendilur. Unde etiam
videmus. quam insulse Papistic iniagineiitur
merita Sanctorum ad nos redumdare, quoiiiam
plus quam necesse erat pnesiiterint.''^ — Osiander:
" God has set a limit to every persecution, be-
yond which it cannot pass." — Starke: "The
trial is succeeded by the time of refreshing, and
the suffering by the time of rejoicing; Tob. iii.
31."

On V. 39 et seq. : "Upon the surface the
worshippers of the beast seem to prosper, but
they are eventually compelled to realize that
their honors and possessions are not eternal in
their duration, while the followers of the Lamb
shall enjoy evcrlastmg glory .... (On v. 44 et
seq. ) : Although God permits many an evil pur-
pose to be executed, His forbearance toward
the godless is always merely for a time ; Psa.
1. 21."



260 THE PROPHET DANIEL.



c. Condition of the vision. The Messianic deliverance and glorifying of God's people, together with
a reference to tlte definite determination by God of tfie time at which the Messiah's coming tc
ddiver should transpire.

Chap. XII.

1 And at [in] that time shall Michael stand vp, the great prince which [who]
standeth for [ore;- against] «/ie children of thy people; and there shall he a time
of trouble, such as [which] never was' since there was a nation even to [till]
that same time: and at [in] that time thy people shall be delivered, every one

2 that shall he found written in the book. And many of them that sleep in the
dust [ground] of the earth [dust] shall awake, some' [these] to everlasting life,

3 and so^ne [these] to shame [reproaches] and [to] everlasting contempt. And
thei/ that be Avise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament ; and they that
turn [the] manv to righteousness, as the stars for ever and ever.

â–  4 But [And] thou, Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to
[till] the time of the end : many shall run to and fro [run through the book],
and [the] knowledge [of it] shall be increased.

5 Then [And] I Daniel looked, and, behold, there stood other two, the one on
this side of the bank [iiither at the lip] of the river,' and the other [one] on that

6 side of the bank [hither at the lip] of the river.' And one said to the man
clothed in linen, which [who] was upon the w.aters ' of the river,' How long

7 [Till when] .shall it be to the end of these [the] wonders ? And I heard the man
clothed in linen, which [who] was upon the waters' of the river, when [and]
he held up his right hand and his left hand nnto heaven [toward the heavens],
and sware by him that liveth for ever, that it shall be for a time, times, and a
half; and when he shall have accomplished to scatter [as (at) the finishing of
scattering] the power [hand] of the holy people, all these things shall be fin-
ished.

8 And I* heard, but I understood not [could not understand] : then [and] said

9 I, my Lord, what shall be the end [sequel] of these things .^ And he said, Go
thy way, Daniel ; for the words are closed up and sealed till the time of the
end.

10 Many shall be purified [purify themselves], and made white [whiten them-
selves], and tried [be smelted] ; but the wicked shall do wickedly : and none
of the wicked shall understand ; but [and] the wise [prudent] shall understand.

11 And from the time that the daily [continual] sacrifice shall be taken away, and
the abomination that maJceth desolate set ^cp [to the giving of the desolate

12 abomination], there shall be a thousand two hundred and ninety days. Blessed
is he that waiteth, and cometh to the thousand three hundred and five and

thirty days. r in i i i

13 But [And] go thou' thy way till [to] the end he: for [and] thou shalt rest,
and stand in [to (at)] thy lot at the end of the days.

LEXICAL AND GRAMMATICAL NOTES.
[' nrT'n:, wm maOe tn exist, or mm gone through, contains tho idea of exhaustion.—' ns";n, strictly, the canal,
proiierly applied to the -Vite, but here used of any aUuvial stream.— = The reduplicated forms ^XJ-'ob ^J^?? seem to
tall special attention to the position of this being, which was not precisely defined before, ch. x. 5.-« The pronoun ll
emphatic.]

shall come to his end " without a helper." * In

EXEGETICAL BEMARKS. • [Kcil (as we have seen) makes the transition from the

Antiochian to the Messianic rera occur at an earlier point in

Verses 1-3. The Messianic deliverance and the the prophecy, and 'je"'^8es the connective force on^^^^

. , . ^ . t i -i *• A»^ ..f +v.«t troductory clau'ie of the verse, espo'-ially tne ^ ot convccu-

jiidnment for eternal retribution. And at that '■ro""'-^ s v„«„t „,. intKrvni rin be admitted

/.■'.•' ^ ., ,. •*■]•„ 4.„j /„; AW tion. as a proof that no break or mterval can oe an mute a

time; i.e.. at the time ]ust indicated (xi. 40), ^^^^ This is an unnecessary straining of the phra-eology.

when judgment shall overtake the impious ^^ ^^^^ phrases of date, like Kinn nSa heie, nsually

oppressor, Antiochus Epiphanes, and when he . - •■



CHAP. XII. 1-13.



261



opposition to Havemick's attempt to interpret
8t*nn r.T:^ in the indefinite sense of '• once, at
a certain time," nearly all recent expositors
have justly contended: (1) that the copula t
connects this new designation of time most in-
timately with the preceding ; (2) that it is
impossible to regard the words <^'^~!1 a'1''3i
â– which Havernick adduces in comparison, other-
wise than as a reference to the time indicated in
the context immediately preceding; (3) that
the time referred to is immediately afterward
characterized as a time of trouble, which shows
with sufficient clearness, that, like the mention
â– of the n-b"'3â„¢'a in V. 3 (cf . xi. 35), the allusion
is to the period of persecution under Antiochus
as heretofore described.* — Shall Michael stand
up, the great prince, which staudeth for the
children of thy people. This introdviction of
Michael as the heavenly ally and protector of
Israel (not as the Son of God or the Messiah
himself, — as Havernick, in accord with the older
exegesis, still supposes^, refers back to chap. xi.
1, and also to the preliminaries to the vision as
a whole in chap, x,, and especially to x., 13, 21,
in the same way as ^'^'^\} ~??^ refers to the
close of the preceding chapter. In both plaoes
n>23> is employed Keiisii bellkn, and denotes an
aimed and martial appearance (cf. xi. 14, 16,
etc.). 35, following T3>'n, serves to express
the idea of protecting oversight over. etc. , as in
Esth. viii. 11; ix. l(i. He "stands up" or
"stands there" for the children of thy people,
t. e. , he represents their interests in the way of
actively supporting them and of protecting
them ; cf. chap. x. 13.— And there shall be a
time of trouble, suoli as never was since there
â– was a nation even to that same time ; i.e., the
trouble of the faithful shall then reach its high-
est intensity, shall have reached its climax when
deliverance flnaUy arrives ; cf. chap. xi. 45 ; ix.
26, 27. On the relative clause nrr^n: sb -ir»
'i31, which describes this as a time of unheard
of, unprecedented trouble, cf. Ex. ix. 18, 24 ;
Joel ii. 3, and particularly Jer. xxx. 7, which



Indicate a tran.«;ition rather than a close Kequence, Cf.
Stuart, who instances especially Isa. xix. 2^3 ; xxvi. 1 ; and
even Dan. ii. 4-4.]

• [Keil, on the other hand, thinks that " STIPI r531
points back to yp PSa (ch. xi. 40)," which he interprets

as "the time of the end, when tlie hostile persecutor rises
up to subdue the whole world," i.e.. the final Antichrt.st.
The trans;tion appears to us precisely analogous to that
found in our Lord's cschatolo-acal discourse, Matt. xxiv.
29 ; Mark xiii. 24 : and it seems to stand h^re. as there, for
a connecting link between the near and the remote applica-
tion of the prediction. The distress of the Antiochian per-
secution, like that of the final siege of Jerusalem, is made
the symbol of the ecclesiastico-pulitical throes of the final
catastrophe, the downfall of Judaism being there the pre-
cursor of that of the world itself. The phrase, "Mn that
time," thus becomes parallel with the formula, •* In that
day," or, " In those days." " In the last day." etc., as a
stereotyped desiirnation of the Messianic tera. It is the
constant i>raciice of the prophet* to view these serie of
future events on the same plane and in the same perspec-
tive, the interval, as well that between the close of the Old
Dispensation and the introduction of the New, as that
between the establishment of the latter and its ultimate tri-
umph, being left out of view. There is thus always a meas-
ure of indcfin-.teness in the prophetical utterances on these
points, especially in the phraseology relating to these '* times
ai>d seasons,"!



latter passage seems to have served generally as
a prototype of the text. — And at that time thy
people shall be delivered. Kranichfeld re-
marks properly, that " the deliverance of Israel
^''"."?~) which is here conceived of t\s accom-
plished under the direction of IXD^Ja, is coinci-
dent in fact with the descriptions of chap. vii.
18, 26 et seq., 14 ; ix. 24 ; and the entrance to
the Ancient of days 'vii- 13) of him who was like
the son of man, and who was the spiritually en •