[629] Any one who thinks the inquiry likely to lead to any better

results than those here indicated has only to wade through Zöckler's

comment in Lange's _Bibelwerk_ ("Ezekiel and Daniel," i. 186-221). It

is hard to conceive any reading more intolerably wearisome; and at

the close it leaves the reader in a state of more hopeless confusion

than before. The discussion also occupies many pages of Pusey (pp.

162-231); but neither in his hypothesis nor any other are the dates

exact. He can only say, "It were not of any account if we could not

interpret these minor details. _De minimis non curat lex._" On the

view that the seventy weeks were to end with the advent of Christ

we ask: (1) Why do no two Christian interpreters agree about the

interpretation? (2) Why did not the Apostles and Evangelists refer to

so decisive an evidence?

[630] On this, however, we may remark with Cornill, "Eine Apokalypse,

deren ἀποκαλύψεις unenthülbar sind, wäre ein _nonsens_, eine

_contradictio in adjecto_" (_Die Siebzig Jahrwochen_, p. 3). The

indication was obviously _meant_ to be understood, and to the

contemporaries of the writer, familiar with the minuter facts of the

day, it probably was perfectly clear.

[631] Luke ii. 25, 26, 38; Matt. xxiv. 15. Comp. 2 Thess. ii.; Jos.,

_Antt._, X. xxii. 7.

[632] "Scio de hac quæstione ab eruditissimis viris varie disputatum

_et unumquemque pro captu ingenii sui dixisse quod senserat_" (Jer.

_in Dan._, ix.). In other words, there was not only no received

interpretation in St. Jerome's day, but the comments of the Fathers

were even then a chaos of arbitrary guesses.

[633] Pusey makes out a table of the divergent interpretation

of the commentators, whom, in his usual ecclesiastical fashion,

he charitably classes together as "unbelievers," from Corrodi

and Eichhorn down to Herzfeld. But quite as striking a table of

divergencies might be drawn up of "orthodox" commentators.

[634] Thus Eusebius, without a shadow of any pretence at argument

makes the _last week_ mean _seventy years_! (_Dem. Evan._, viii.).

[635] Jost (_Gesch. d. Judenthums_, i. 99) contents himself with

speaking of "die Liebe zu prophetischer Auffassung der Vergangenheit,

mit möglichst genauen Zahlenagaben, befriedigt, _die uns leider nicht

mehr verständlich erscheinen_."

[636] In Clem. Alex., _Strom._, i. 21.

[637] Cornill, p. 14; Bevan, p. 54.

[638] Schürer, _Hist. of Jewish People_, iii. 53, 54 (E. Tr.). This is

also the view of Graf, Nöldeke, Cornill, and many others. In any case

we must not be misled into an impossible style of exegesis of which

Bleck says that "bei ihr alles möglich ist und alles für erlaubt gilt."

CHAPTER IV

_INTRODUCTION TO THE CONCLUDING VISION_

The remaining section of the Book of Daniel forms but one vision, of

which this chapter is the Introduction or Prologue.

Daniel is here spoken of in the third person.

It is dated in the third year of Cyrus (B.C. 535).[639] We have already

been told that Daniel lived to see the first year of Cyrus (i. 21).

This verse, if accepted historically, would show that at any rate

Daniel did not return to Palestine with the exiles. Age, high rank,

and opportunities of usefulness in the Persian Court may have combined

to render his return undesirable for the interests of his people.

The date--the last given in the life of the real or ideal Daniel--is

perhaps here mentioned to account for the allusions which follow to the

kingdom of Persia. But with the great and moving fortunes of the Jews

after the accession of Cyrus, and even with the beginning of their new

national life in Jerusalem, the author is scarcely at all concerned. He

makes no mention of Zerubbabel the prince, nor of Joshua the priest,

nor of the decree of Cyrus, nor of the rebuilding of the Temple; his

whole concern is with the petty wars and diplomacy of the reign of

Antiochus Epiphanes, of which an account is given, so minute as either

to furnish us with historical materials unknown to any other historian,

or else is difficult to reconcile with the history of that king's reign

as it has been hitherto understood.

In this chapter, as in the two preceding, there are great

difficulties and uncertainties about the exact significance of some

of the verses, and textual emendations have been suggested. The

readers of the Expositor's Bible would not, however, be interested

in minute and dreary philological disquisitions, which have not

the smallest moral significance, and lead to no certain result.

The difficulties affect points of no doctrinal importance, and

the greatest scholars have been unable to arrive at any agreement

respecting them. Such difficulties will, therefore, merely be

mentioned, and I shall content myself with furnishing what appears to

be the best authenticated opinion.

The first and second verses are rendered partly by Ewald and

partly by other scholars, "_Truth is the revelation, and distress

is great;_[640] _therefore understand thou the revelation, since

there is understanding of it in the vision._" The admonition calls

attention to the importance of "the word," and the fact that reality

lies beneath its enigmatic and apocalyptic form.

Daniel had been mourning for three full weeks,[641] during which

he ate no dainty bread,[642] nor flesh, nor wine, nor did he anoint

himself with oil.[643] But in the Passover month of Abib or Nisan,

the first month of the year, and on the twenty-fourth day of that

month,[644] he was seated on the bank of the great river, Hiddekel or

Tigris,[645] when, lifting up his eyes, he saw a certain man clothed

in fine linen like a Jewish priest, and his loins girded with gold

of Uphaz.[646] His body was like chrysolite,[647] his face flashed

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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"A work of no ordinary merit; indeed, it is but rare that such

exegetical power and mature scholarship are united with an ease of

style and a fertility of modern illustration that leave but little to

desire."--_Speaker._

THE EXPOSITOR'S BIBLE.

==Fourth Series.==

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

=The Gospel of St. John. Vol. I.=

By the =Rev. Prof. MARCUS DODS, D.D.=

"Dr. Dods' exposition, besides being characterised by all the literary

grace by which his previous works are distinguished, is also thoroughly

evangelical in tone, without, however, being at all narrow; while the

arguments which this portion of Scripture so powerfully suggests in

proof of the divinity of Christ are handled in such a way as will carry

them home to all who accept the narrative as authentic."--_Scotsman._

=The Acts of the Apostles. Vol. I.=

By the =Rev. Prof. G. T. STOKES, D.D.=

"One of the most valuable contributions to the history of the

Primitive Church that have appeared within recent years."--_Dundee

Advertiser._

=The Book of Leviticus=

By the =Rev. S. H. KELLOGG, D.D.=

"The relation of law and gospel is grandly exhibited, and a difficult

portion of Holy Writ explained in detail and with power."--_Christian._

"He has certainly succeeded in investing with fresh interest this old

book of laws."--_Scotsman._

=The Book of Proverbs=

By the =Rev. R. F. HORTON, M.A., D.D.=

"Ably and freshly written."--_Church Times._

"A book which may be read by all with pleasure and profit, and which,

by ministers of all orders, may be taken as a model of one kind of

expository teaching."--_Christian World._

"The expositor has done his work in a most masterly

fashion."--_Glasgow Herald._

=The Epistles of St. James and St. Jude=

By the =Rev. A. PLUMMER, D.D.=, Master of University

College, Durham.

"It is even a better piece of work than his former volume on the

Pastoral Epistles. It contains everything that the student can

desire by way of introduction to the two Epistles, while for those

who read with an eye to the manufacture of sermons, or for their own

edification, the doctrinal and moral lessons are developed in a style

redolent of books, yet singularly easy and unaffected. Points of

interest abound."--_Saturday Review._

"A very able and interesting exposition.... An excellent example of

Scriptural exegesis."--_Academy._

=The Book of Ecclesiastes=

=With a New Translation.=

By the =Rev. SAMUEL COX, D.D.=

"The most luminous, original, and practical exposition of

Ecclesiastes which is within the reach of ordinary English

readers."--_Speaker._

"Dr. Cox's work is likely to count as one of the most interesting

of the many interesting studies of which Ecclesiastes has been the

basis."--_Guardian._

THE EXPOSITOR'S BIBLE.

==Fifth Series.==

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

=The Epistles to the Thessalonians=

By the =Rev. JAMES DENNEY, D.D.=

"As an expositor we are able to say that Mr. Denney seems to have

entered very fully into the spirit of the Apostle Paul, and to have

succeeded in expressing very clearly, and impressing very forcibly, the

general meaning of the Apostle's words.... It is a very ably written

work, and one which is well calculated to make the Apostle's teaching

in these two epistles more intelligible and more telling."--_Scotsman._

=The Book of Job=

By the =Rev. R. S. WATSON, D.D.=, Author of "Gospels

of Yesterday," etc.

"Dr. Watson does not fall behind his predecessors in doing justice to

this magnificent effort of Hebrew genius or inspiration. The opening

scene on earth and the opening scene in heaven are brought before us

with graphic power, and the problem raised by the situation of Job

by the unmerited suffering of the good man stated and discussed with

much force and philosophical insight. Dr. Watson has written with

conspicuous ability and a thorough mastery of his subject."--_Scotsman._

=The Gospel of St. John. Vol. II.=

By =Prof. MARCUS DODS, D.D.=

"Dr. Dods appears to us always to write with clearness and

vigour.... He has the gift of lucid expression, and by means of apt

illustrations he avoids the cardinal sin of dryness, so that the

interest even of the general reader will not flag as he smoothly

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.