of worship are everywhere in this book regarded
as separate in time. On the contrary, they
designate the same juncture of time at the end,
as seen in the prophet's perspective, which
appears from their indiscriminate application,
or in other words, from the substitution of one
for another; cf. vii. 25 with 26; viii. 14 with
25 et seq.; ix. 24 with 26, 27 ; xi. 45 with xii.

1 For the rest, the profanation of the

temple which an Antiochus Epiphanes imposed
on Israel during three years, continues to be a
historical exemplification of the facts revealed
to Daniel's prophetic vision, in the face of the
1290 days, and despite the fact that in the na-
ture of the case it accords but relatirdy witli
them in a formal aspect. " * — Verse 1 2. Blessed
is he that waiteth (or '• is steadfast to the
end") and cometh to the thousand three hun-
dred and five and thirty days. In view of
its connection with the foregoing, the meaning
of this exclamation can only be as follows :
"After 1290 days have expired, the tribula-
tion .shall end ; it shall not be completely ended,
however, until forty-five additional days (one
and a half months) have elapsed, hence, until a
total of 1335 days has been reached." Here
again we believe ourselves obliged to rest satis-
fied with finding a symbolic and approximate
value in the relation of the several numbers to
each other ; cf. the remarks on this point in a
former connection, Eth.-fimd. principles, etc.,
on chap. viii. No. 1. Among the various at-
tempts that have been made to explain with
historical accuracy the difference of forty-five
days between the time fixed by v. 11 and that
given in v. 12, none have succeeded in realizing
an entirely satisfactory result: e.g., (1) that of
Hitzig, based on the assumption that the 1335
days extend to the reception from Tabje of the
tidings respecting the death of Antiochus, forty-
five (?) days subsequent to his demise ; (2) tha



* fit seems to ns that the following explanations of Stu-
art fairly and sufficiently meet the difficulties or "dis-
crepancies" raised by the author: '-The 1290 days are
more specific than the phra-^e. ■ time, times and a half,' in
ver. 7, and also in vii. 25. The latter (' time.' etc.) is, as it
were, a round number, three and a half first equalling the
one halt of the sacred number seven, and the fractional
part equalling the half of one year. In snch a case minute
exactness of course is not to be expected. But the thirty
additional days here (over 1260 days = forty-two months =
three and a half years) are doubtlef,s designed as an exact
account of time ilurmg which the detestable (desolatirgi
abomination continued in the temple. The terminux a quu
is the time when Antiochus first removed the daily sacrifice,
which probably was near the end of May or at the beginning
of June in B.C. 168. Judas llaccabajus removed this
f^p™! and purified the temple, Dec. 26th of B.C. 165,
making the time in question, i.e., three and a half years, aa
nearly as historv will enable ns to compute it. There can
harilly be room "for doubt that the statement in our text 1«
minut<'ly correct. The work of Judas there is th« urmi
nU8 ad quern of the period in question."]



CHAP. XIL 1-13.



269



assamption of Fuller, that the loth Xanthicus
(April) of the year B.C. 164 ('■), when a letter
from Antiochus V. Eupator to the Jews reached
Jerusalem, aceording to 2 Mace. xi. , fl-hich con-
tained the welcome proffer of peace, marks the
end of the 1335 days; and (3) the theory of
Bertholdt, Havernick. Von Lengerke, Wieseler,
etc, , that while the 1290 days extended to the
dedication of the temple, the 1335 days reached
down to the death of Antiochus, forty-five days
afterward. Against the latter opinion it may
be objected that the interval between the dedi-
cation of the temple and the death of Antiochus
was unquestionably longer than forty-five days ;
or, in other words, that Epiphanes did not die
as early as the month of Shebat in the year 148
£B. Sel., as those scholars (including Wieseler in
Herzog's Real-Jiitci/khp., I. 387, Art. Antiochus)
assume, in contradiction of 1 Mace. vi. 10 (cf.
also Hitzig, p. 220, and FuUer, p. 357 et seq. ).*
The two former theories, on the other hand, are
open to the objeotion that the reception of the
news from Tabae of the king's death, and also
of the offers of peace from Antioch, were events
of far too little importance to lead the writer
(whether prophesying tx ecoitu, or by virtue of
a disclosure of the future from God) to assign
to either of them the dignity of marking the
fiual conclusion of aU troubles. The letter
from Eupator was merely an offer of peace, and



* [The author is far too positive concerning the irrecon-
cilabiUty of this period with the lieath of .\ntiochus, as the
following comjiutation by Stuart will suffice to show ; " It
appears from chap. .\i. 40—^4 above, that Antiochus made
another and final invasion of EfTypt. near the close of his
life, after which he marched against Palestine. Mattathias
and his sons, in the mean time, had been organizing the
party of the pious, and Antiochus was e.xceetlingly mdig-
nant at the efforts which they made anil the success with
which ihoy were attended. In 1 Mace. ii. 2G-37, we have
au account of the situation of Antiochus while in the
'glorious land.' His treasury was empty. He had already
robbed the temple of all which it contained that was of any
value, and he was necessitated to look to another quarter.
He left half of his army, therefore, with Lysias, one of his
favorite officers, and passed over the Euphrates in order to
ritle the countries of the East. First he went through and
subdued Armenia (ra^ knavm \topai^ V. 37), and then turned
off to rob the temple at Elymais, where he met nith dis-
grace, and finally with death. Not long aft«r the departure
of Antiochns Lysias began the contest in Palestine in
Berious earnest ; but Judas uniformly triumphed in all his
encounters ; and so decisive was one of them over Lysias,
that Judas proceeded to purify the temple and to restoie its
worship, 1 Mace. iv. 36 seq. All this must have occupied
some months ; .and the consecration of the temple took
place the 2")th of Dec. 165 B.C. Of course Antiochus had
had sulhcient time for his conquest in Armenia and for his
advance to Elymais before the winter had far advanced.
It was in early spj-ing that he undertook the robbery of the
temple in Elymais ; after which, on his retreat, the news
met him of total defeat in Palestine, and helped to increase
the malady under which he was then laboring. In 1 Mace.
vi, 1 seq., is an account of the close of the life of .\ntiochus,
aud of bis failure at Elymais. If we now count onward,
fl'om the consecration of the temple by Judas to the time
when Antiochus deceased, we shall perceive at once that
the period of l-i33 days is in all probability the period of
Antiochus' death. From the time that the daily burnt-offer-
ing was removed by ApoUonius, at the command of An-
tiochus, to the time of the reconsccration, were ISiH). From
the same iermiiius a quo to the death of Antiochus were
1335 days, i.e., forty-five days more than is included in
the preceding period. History has not anywhere recorded
the precise day of Antiochus' death ; so that we cannot
compare the passage before us with that. But we are cer-
tain as to the order of events, and as to the season of the
year, as well as the year itself, in which the death of this
king took place. Of the general accuracy there can be no
doubt ; and such are the chronological designations of this
book that we mry safely rely, in this case, on its minute
•curacy."]



and not the peace itself ; and at the time both
of its arrival and of the tidings from Tabse, the
horizon of Juda3a was far too dark to enable a
pseudo-Daniel, writing at that day, to an-
nounce the end of all the sufferings of his na-
tion a.s having already arrived, or as being
immediately at hand (cf. 1 Mace. iv. 35; vi. 17
et seq.), on the ground merely that such mes-
sages had been received. The mode of escape
from the difficulty that is adopted by Kirmss,
Bleek, Delitzsch, et al. , is however still more
questionable than the reference of the 1385 days
to any of the events that were adduced in sup-
port of the foregoing theories. It assumes that
some other fact of an encouraging nature,
which is no longer found in our historical docu-
ments, formed the tenninus ad qacia of the
1335 days of the prophet ; and is clearly nothing
more than an expedient prompted by embar-
rassment and helpless di.scouragement, which
feelings our theory of the merely symbolic value
of the designation of time serves to justify bet
ter than any other hypothesis. Cf. Kliefoth,
p. 514 : " In extending this period of 121)0 da.Ta
by forty-five, the design probabl.v was merely
to indicate that whoever should live in patience
and religious faith beyond the 1200 days, i.e.,
beyond the death of the wicked oppressor An-
tiochus, should be accounted blessed. The
forty-five days are mentioned for the purpose
merely of expressing that idea of surviving, and
the form of the expression was governed solely
by a desire to retain the analogy of v. 11." Also
Kranichfeld, p. 416 : " The period of final con-
flict which leads to the victory is here described ,
as being very brief, comparatively, for the pur-
pose of comforting and encotu'aging the pious
ones ; it is not measured by years, but merely
by fractious of months. The half of a cycle of
three months here takes the place of the limited
period in the mind of the writer, according to
ix. 26 ; vui. 25, etc. ; and by the arithmetical
measurement of time by days which is current
in this book, it obtains the forty-five days which
lie outside of the period of 1290 days or three
and a half times,'" etc. Cf. also the Eth. -fund,
principles. No. 2.

Verse 13. Concluding fxfiortation and pi'mni.se.
But go thou thy way (rather, " on ") till the
end. '"IPS*], properly, "and thou," with con-
clusive -,, but which may also be taken in an
adversative sense, because it leads over from the
foregoing to the close in an encouraging manner.
Ti?.^ "H^. is of course to be understood according
to the analogy of v. 9 : "go on, toward the final
point of the predicted events;" not "go thy
way " (Hitzig), nor yet "go toward iliy end"
(Havernick, Fiiller, Kliefoth, etc.), for 7P. is
clearly shown by the article to refer to the same
end as that mentioned in v. 9. — For thou shalt
rest and stand in thy lot at the end of the
days; i.e., thou shalt rest in the grave, in the
quiet sleep of death (cf. Isa. Ivii. 2, and supra,
V. 2). The meaning is, " that thou mavest rest,
and enter on thy lot," etc.. i.e., that thou may-
est receive thy portion of the inheritance at the
judgment of eternal recompense; cf. chap. vii.
18, 27 ; Rev. x.x. 6. The thought refers back
undeniably to vs. 2, 3, hence to the jSIess-ianic
recompense, of which Daniel also should par-



270



THE PBOPHET DANIEL.



take, and a majority of interpreters recognize
that fact ; but they generally pervert the mean-
ing of T^yril, so as to malte it apply to the
resurrection (standing up) for the purpose of
being thus recompensed. The correct view in
this respect is advocated, e.(j., by Ewald, Kamp-
hausen, Kranichfeld, etc. — Hitzig's interpreta-
tion is very flat and exceedingly forced (in par-
tial imitation of Grotius and Dathej : " And
thou, go on to the goal, and thou mayest be
content (!), and attend to thy oiiice (!) for the
end of days." — [" ^'^'13, lot, of the inheritance
divided to the Israelites by lot, referred to the
inheritance of the saints in Ught (Col. i. 12),
which shall be possessed by the righteous after
the resurrection from the dead in the heavenly
Jerusalem. D^tt'l'n 7pb, to = at the end of the
days, i.e., not = d^Jp^T riins, in the Mes-
sianic (rather Antiochian) time, but in the last
days, when, after the judgment of the world,
the kingdom of glory shall appear.- — Well shall
it be for us if in the end of our days we too are
able to depart hence with such consolation of
hope ! " — Keil.]

ETUICO-FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES BELATED
TO THE HISTORY OF SALVATION, APOLO-
GETICAL REMARKS, AND HOMILETICAL
SUGGESTIONS.

1. The fundamental dogmatic thought that is
I especially prominent in this closing section is
the future resurrection of the dead and their
eternal destiny, as predicted in vs. 1-3, and as
again repeated and confirmed in the closing
words of V. 13. That in the meaning of the
book this resurrection is not to be regarded as
confined to Israel only, but rather as universal
in its scope, has been shown in the remarks on
v. 2. It remains only to briefly answer the im-
portant question respecting the relation of that
prediction to the Maccab^an age, which prima-
rily aiforded a typical and preliminary realiza-
tion only of the prophecies of Daniel in general.
Is it necessary, for in.stance, to take the entire
prophecy in a fgiirative sense, as Dereser does,
and to apply it merely to a spiritual or national
resurrection of the nation from its former con-
dition of apparent helplessness and death ? *
Or are we, with Bertholdt, Hitzig, and the
remaining rationalistic exegetes, to charge the
prophet with having committed a gross error,
in conceiving of the end of the world, the resur-
rection, and the judgment as immediately con-
sequent on the death of Ant. Epiphanes ? —
Neither of the two would be coixect ; on the
contrary, we are again reminded of the perspec-
tive character of prophetic vision in this connec-
tion, according to which the interval between
the preliminary and the ultimate end was over-
looked, from the point of view occupied by the

* Cf. Dcrecer on the passage 1 " ilany Israelites who hved
during the persecution .... in rocky caverns, where the
dead were bestowed, or who peenied to lie in the dust like a
lifuleascorpee, ahfcll, ^oto jpeajc, awake to renewed life through
the goodness and powei- cf G-jd, and shall perform actions
hy which they shall lJ7e forever iu history. On the other

hand, ^he apostate Jews shulJ be branded with ever-

lasting sba'ne.^*



prophesying seer long before either came t<

pass. By virtue of this perspective vision, the
Old-Test, and the New-Test. Antichrifits become
one, which is true also of all the circumstancea
and results connected with their appearance.
'■ As Antiochus became a type of Antichiist, so
the oppression of the Old-Test, community of
God's people by him became a type of the op-
pression of the New- Test, congregation of the
people of God by the latter. And as little as it
surprises us that Joel iii. 1 et seq. should make
the preliminary signs of the end follow imme-
diately upon the pouring out of God's Spirit,
with which the last world-period begins, without
remarking the period intervening between them ;
or as easily as we can explain the fact that Amoa
is. should predict the restoration of the fallen
tabernacle of David and the final return of Israel
to its native land, immediately after the judg-
ment which he denounces upon the nation, thua
overlooking the whole of the immense period in
the course of which Israel indeed returned to ita
country, but was a second time expelled ty the
Romans ; or as little as we charge untruthful-
ness upon the prophet Ezekiel, when, in chap,
xxxvi. , he announces to the moimtains of Israel
the future return of the nation, and adds that
God would show greater kindness to them than
ever before, because this was not fulfilled on
their first return ; or as natural as we find it
that in chap. xi. Isaiah should connect a descrip-
tion of the glory and peace of Christ's kingdom,
which shall only be realized at His second com-
ing, with the words, '' there shall come forth a
rod out of the stem of Jesse," which are regard-
ed as bearing on the appearance of Christ in.
lowliness, thus viewing Christ's first and second
advents together ; so little should it surprise us
or seem incompatible with the nature of pro-
phecy, that the present prediction should repre-
sent the Seleucid persecution as being imme-
diately followed by the full and final deliverance
of the nation, without observing that a long
series of years intervenes between the two. . . .
Call it prophetic limitation, or whatever else we
will, it is nevertheless the manner of the pro-
phets ; and the fact that we find it exemplified
in the present instance is to us an evidence that
the prophecy is genuine. Why do its opponents
neglect to show how the prophecy respecting the
resurrection of the dead immediately after the de-
cease of Antiochus can be reconciled ^vith their
view concerning the composition of the book ?
If it was written immediately before the death of
Antiochus, what was there to excite the hope
that the time of blessing and the resurrection of
the dead should follow immediately afterward ?
And if it was felt that such a hope was war-
ranted, and it was 7iot realised, were men not
deceived ? Who would have attached further
value to such a mistaken prophecy '? — But if it
was composed after the death of Antiochus, it
becomes whoUy inconceivable that the false pri/phet
slimdd have compromised his pretended projyhecy
by THIS conchision. But the features that are
inconceivable on the presumption that the pro-
phecy is spurious, are readily explained on the
view that it was the actual Daniel who prophe-
sied thus, centuries before Antiochus. The
truth of his prophecy was in that case so incon-
testably assured in the time of Antiochus, that



CHAP. XII. 1-13.



^71



the apparent failure of its prediction concerning
the resurrection of the dead (or, more properly,
the delay of its fulfilment) was no longer suffi-
cient to cast a doubt upon it. In one word, this
passage of our book, usually considered so diffi-
cult, is so little worthy to be regarded as the
heel of Achilles in the case, that it rather con-
stitutes its .<itrength, before which its assailants
are put to shame" (Fuller, p. 343 et seq.). — It
should, however, be observed in this connection
that the leading idea in the prophecy in vs. 1-3
is not the prediction of the resurrection, but
rather the universal and eternal recompense to be
meted out to them. The rising of the many
" sleepers in the dust of the earth." as predicted
in V. 2, is at bottom a mere auxiliary thought,
or a preparation for the principal feature of the
prophecy, consisting in the promise of everlast-
ing life to the pious, and the denouncing of
everlasting shame and torment upon the wicked.
Inasmuch as the judgment upon the Old-Test.
Antichrist, as foretold in a former passage (chap,
xi. 45', forms, in a measure, the opening act
and point of commencement of this great recom-
pensing judgment, all subsequent instances of
such judgment must appear as a continued series
of displays of the Divine righteousness, whose
final conclusion at the last judgment wUl consti-
tute the highest and most perfect, but not the
only fulfilment of this prophetic passage. Among
such displays of God's justice may be reckoned
the end of the tyrant Herod and the destruction
of Jerusalem by the Romans, the subjugation of
the Eastern churches by Islamism and the over-
throw of the Middle-age Papal church by the
Reformation. — As the eternal recompense, so
the awaking of the dead, which forms its sub-
stratum and preliminaiy condition, reaches far
into the history of time and earth, extending
itself close to the historical position of our pro-
phet, even though Jesus Christ, as the first fruits
of them that sleep, began the blessed series of
those who shall have a part in the " resurrec-
tion of the just" (Luke xiv. 14 ; sx. 36; 1 Cor.
XT. 20 et seq.), and though, consequently. He
was the first who could say with entire truth,
" The hour is coming, and now is, when the
dead shall hear the voice of the Sou of God ; and
they that hear him shall live " (John v. 25 ; cf.
vs. 28, 29). Both the preliminary judgment of
the world, which is transpiring in the events of
history, and the ethical resurrection in Christ
Jesus of the spiritually dead, which is the basis
and pre-condition of the future resurrection of
aU flesh.^both these have their beginning at the
very point where the prophet's scope of v-ision
ends, and by that fact attest the truth and the
Divine origin of his predictions, to which the
Lord would assuredly not have repeatedly ap-
pealed and referred, had He not considered this
book equal, in its inspired character, to any of
the remaining prophets of the Old Covenant (cf.
the Introd. § 6).

2. The prophecy, which forms the second lead-
ing thought of this section, relates to the point
of time of the end. It repeats in substance the
mystical [?] measure of time noticed in a former
section, by which the Last severe trouble of God's
people should continue during three and a half
times, and adds a further period of one and a half
months, during which the last remnants of suf-
fering and trouble shall be removed. It was



shown above that the historical conditions of
the Maccabseau period afford but little counte-
nance to the as.sumption that these periods of
1290 and 1333 days were invented to accord with
the course of events in the experience of the
past. It was also shown in a former instance
(on chap. vii. So) that the underlying idea, which
is common to all the parallel mystical limitations
of time (the half-week, the three and a half
times, the 1150, 1290, 1335 days), is that the
time of suffering should be sliortencd, — that the'
time of tribulation should indeed begin, but
should be broken through at the middle, and by
the grace of God should quickly be brought to
its close. It is consequently a time to which
the words of the Saviour respecting the shorten-
ing of the days of tribulation (lio'/M.iu&ijuni, Matt.
xxiv. 22 ; Mark xiii. 20) wUl apply. It will be
sufficient to notice, in this connection, that this
mysterious period, which received a first ap-
proximate [!] fulfilment in the great religious
persecution of the Jews by Antiochus Epiphanes,
appeared a second time in the Jewish war, which
ended in the destruction of Jerusalem by Titus
(A.D. 66-70), and that a thiid and final fulfil-
ment of the same period is in anticipation, in the
last days before the return of Christ, according
to Rev. xii. 14 ; xiii. 5, when the church shall
be overtaken by a time of severe trial and puri-
fication. Cf. Auberlen (Daniel, p. 287), who,
somewhat vaguely and generally characterizes
the three and a half times as ' • the period of the
world-power, during which the supremacy over
the kingdom of heaven is given to the earthly
kingdoms," and then proceeds : " So, then, this
number is resumed in the Apocalypse, in order
to characterize the times of the heathen, during
which Jerusalem is trodden under foot, and in
which, con.sequently, the kingdom of God has
wholly lost its outward and visible existence in
the earth — hence the times from the Roman de-
struction of Jerusalem to the return of Christ
(more correctly, without doubt, the last and
most momentous epoch of that time, or the
epoch of the New-Test. Antichrist). Cf. Luke
xxi. 24, and Rev. xi. 2, both of which speak of
the treading under foot of the holy city by the
heathen, to continue, according to the former
passage, until the times of the Gentiles are ful-
filled, and, according to the latter, until forty-
two months! = 3A years = 12li0 days) are past.
To this negative designation Rev. xiii. 5 adds a
positive, according to which the forty-two
months denote the duration of the power of the
beast, i.e., of the world-power. The only re-
maining passage in the Apocalypse which men-
tions the 1260 days, chap. xi. 3, might likewise
be explained by this opinion. . . . The congre-
gation therefore finds room in the heathen world,
but it is also given over to the dominion of the
world-power ; it rests under the protection of
that power, but also under its pressure ; it is a
suffering and militant church to this day. Pre-
cisely this correlation of protection and oppres-
sion forms the specific feature of the relation of
the congregation to the world-power throug'nout
the history of the church." Delitzsch (p. 285)
is more cautious, that is, he avoids the excessive
extension of the three and a half times until
they cover a period of many centuries, and con-
tents himself with observing that " in the anti-
typical history of the last times, these measures



272



THE PROPHET DANIEL.



of time, the three and a half years, 1390 and