Commentary on Daniel

(Verse 1.) In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim king of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came to Jerusalem, and besieged it. Jehoiakim son of Josiah, in whose thirteenth year Jeremiah began to prophesy, under whom also the woman Huldah prophesied, is the same who is called by another name Eliakim, and he reigned over the tribe of Judah and Jerusalem eleven years: to whom succeeded in the kingdom his son Jehoiakim, surnamed Jeconiah; who in the third month of his reign, on the tenth day, was taken by the generals of Nebuchadnezzar, and led into Babylon, and in his place was set up Zedekiah son of Josiah, his uncle, in whose eleventh year Jerusalem was taken and overthrown. Let no one therefore think that the same person is Jehoiakim at the beginning of Daniel, who at the beginning of Ezekiel is written Jehoiachin.

For the latter has the final syllable "chin," the former "kim." And for this reason there seems to be one generation missing in the Gospel according to Matthew, because the second set of fourteen ends with Jehoiakim son of Josiah, and the third begins with Jehoiachin son of Jehoiakim. Not knowing this, Porphyry constructs a calumny against the Church, showing his own ignorance, while he strives to convict the evangelist Matthew of falsehood. (Verse 2.) And the Lord gave into his hand Jehoiakim king of Judah. And the fact that Jehoiakim is said to have been "given up" shows that the victory was not that of the strength of the adversaries, but of the will of the Lord. And part of the vessels of the house of God, and he carried them away into the land of Shinar, into the house of his god, and he brought the vessels into the treasure-house of his god.

The land of Shinar is a place of Babylon in which was the plain of Dura, and the tower which those who had moved their steps from the East tried to build up to heaven. Whence also from the confusion of tongues the place received the name Babylon, which is translated into our language as "confusion." At the same time it must be noted, according to the anagogical sense, that the king of Babylon could not carry away all the vessels of God and place them in the idol-shrine which he had set up for himself, but only part of the vessels of the house of God, which are to be understood as the dogmas of truth. For if you turn over all the books of the philosophers, you must necessarily find in them some part of the vessels of God.

As in Plato, God the maker of the world; as in Zeno, the chief of the Stoics, the underworld and immortal souls, and the one good, honesty; but because they join falsehood to truth, and destroy the good of nature with many evils, therefore they are said to have taken only part of the vessels of the house of God, and not all the vessels whole and perfect. (Verse 3.) And the king said to Ashpenaz the master of his eunuchs, that he should bring in of the children of Israel, and of the royal seed and of the tyrants, youths in whom there was no blemish.

Instead of Ashpenaz I have found in the Vulgate edition ἀβιεσδρὶ written, and instead of φορθομμὶν, which Theodotion put, the Seventy and Aquila translated "chosen," Symmachus "Parthians," understanding a name of a people instead of a word, which we, following the Hebrew edition which is read κατ' ἀκρίβειαν, translated as "tyrants": especially because it is preceded by "of the royal seed." Whence also the Hebrews think that Daniel, and Hananiah, and Mishael, and Azariah were eunuchs, that prophecy being fulfilled which was spoken to Hezekiah through the prophet Isaiah: "And of your seed shall they take, and make them eunuchs in the house of the king of Babylon". But if they were of the royal seed, there is no doubt that they were of the line of David. Unless perhaps that which follows is contrary to this sense: "Youths," or "young men," "in whom there was no blemish," that he might teach them the letters and language of the Chaldeans. Philo supposes that the language of the Hebrews is itself the Chaldean, because Abraham was of the Chaldeans.

But if we accept this, it must be asked how the Hebrew children are now bidden to be taught a language which they already knew: unless perhaps, according to the opinion of some, we should say that Abraham knew two languages, that of the Hebrews and that of the Chaldeans. (Verse 7.) And the master of the eunuchs gave them names: to Daniel, Belteshazzar; and to Hananiah, Shadrach; to Mishael, Meshach; and to Azariah, Abednego. Not only does the master of the eunuchs, or the teacher, and as others have translated, ὁ ἀρχιευνοῦχος, change the names of the holy ones, but Pharaoh also in Egypt called Joseph, Zaphenath-Paneah, unwilling that they should have Jewish names in the land of their captivity. Whence the prophet says in the Psalm: "How shall we sing the song of the Lord in a foreign land?" Moreover, the Lord changes old names for the better, and from the facts imposes names of virtues: as he called Abram, Abraham, and Sarai, Sarah.

In the Gospel too Simon once received the name Peter, and the sons of Zebedee were called sons of thunder: which is not, as many suppose, "boanerges," but is more correctly read "benereem." (Verse 8.) But Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not be defiled with the king's food, and with the wine of his drink, and he asked the master of the eunuchs that he might not be defiled. He who did not wish to eat of the king's food and of the wine of his drink, lest he be defiled, would surely never have consented to say that it was not lawful, if he had known that the wisdom and learning itself of the Babylonians was sin. But they learn, not that they may follow it, but that they may judge and refute it. Just as if someone unlearned in mathematics wished to write against mathematicians, he would be exposed to ridicule, and likewise one disputing against philosophers if he were ignorant of the doctrines of the philosophers.

They learn, therefore, the teaching of the Chaldeans with that same mind with which Moses had learned all the wisdom of the Egyptians. (Verse 9.) Now God gave Daniel grace and mercy in the sight of the prince of the eunuchs. He who had been led into captivity because of the sins of his elders, on account of the greatness of his own virtues at once received a reward. For he had purposed in his heart that he would not be defiled with the king's food, and he had preferred cheap fare to the royal delicacies: therefore he received grace and mercy in the sight of the prince of the eunuchs, by the Lord's bounty. From which we understand that, when the holy are ever loved by unbelievers, for the sake of the necessity of circumstances, this is the mercy of God, not the goodness of perverse men. (Verse 12.) Test us, we beseech you, your servants, for ten days, and let pulse be given us to eat, and water to drink.

The magnitude of their incredible faith is such that they promise themselves not only bodily health from the eating of meaner food, but even set a time limit. It is not, therefore, rashness, but faith, on account of which they despised the royal dainties. (Verse 17.) Now to these youths God gave knowledge and understanding in every book and wisdom; but to Daniel, understanding of all visions and dreams. Note that God gave to the holy youths knowledge and understanding of secular literature in every book and wisdom. For which Symmachus interpreted "the art of grammar," so that they might understand all that they read, and might judge by the Spirit of God concerning the learning of the Chaldeans.

But Daniel had this distinction beyond the three youths, that he discerned with sagacious mind visions and dreams, by which, through certain symbols and enigmas, future things are shown: so that what others saw as in a phantasm, he beheld with the eyes of the heart. (Verse 18.) Therefore, when the days were completed after which the king had said they should be brought in, the chief of the eunuchs brought them in before the sight of Nabuchodonosor. Understand the completed days to be the space of three years, which the king had appointed, so that having been nourished for three years, they should afterward stand in the sight of the king. (Verse 20.) And in every word of wisdom and understanding that the king inquired of them, he found them ten times better than all the diviners and magicians that were in his whole kingdom.

For "diviners and magicians" the common edition translated "sophists and philosophers": not according to this philosophy and sophistic discipline which the learning of the Greeks promises, but according to the teaching of a barbarous nation, by which the Chaldeans still philosophize even to this day. And Daniel continued even unto the first year of king Cyrus. We shall say in what follows how he who is here described as having continued unto the first year of king Cyrus is afterward recorded as having been in the third year of the same Cyrus, and in the first year of Darius.

Verse 1.

In the second year of the reign of Nabuchodonosor, Nabuchodonosor saw a dream, and his spirit was terrified, and his dream fled from him. If the boys entered into his sight after three years, as he himself had commanded, how is it now related that he saw the dream in the second year of his reign? Which the Hebrews explain thus: that here his reign is reckoned from the year of all the barbarous nations, not only Judea and the Chaldeans, but also the Assyrians and Egyptians, and Moabites, and the rest of the nations, which, the Lord granting it, he had overcome. Whence also Josephus, in the tenth book of the Antiquities, writes: "After the second year of the devastation of Egypt, king Nabuchodonosor saw a wonderful dream, and his spirit was terrified, and his dream fled from him." The impious king saw a dream of things to come, so that, by the holy man interpreting what he had seen, God might be glorified; and it might be a great comfort to the captives who served God in captivity.

We read the same thing of Pharaoh, not that Pharaoh and Nabuchodonosor deserved to see, but that Joseph and Daniel proved worthy, who by the interpretation of these things were preferred above all others. (Verse 2.) The king therefore commanded that the diviners, and the magicians, and the sorcerers, and the Chaldeans should be called together, to declare to the king his dreams. And when they had come, they stood before the king. Those whom we call "diviners," others have translated ἐπαοιδοὺς, that is, incantators. Therefore it seems to me that incantators are those who accomplish a thing by words. Magicians are those who philosophize about individual things. Sorcerers are those who make use of blood and victims, and often touch the bodies of the dead. Further, by "Chaldeans" I think are meant those whom the common people call mathematicians, whom the Greeks term γενεθλιαλόγους.

But common usage and ordinary speech takes "magicians" for "sorcerers": who are otherwise regarded among their own nation, in that they are the philosophers of the Chaldeans, and even the kings and princes of the same nation do everything according to the knowledge of this art. Whence also at the nativity of the Lord the Savior, they themselves first understood his rising, and coming to holy Bethlehem, adored the child, the star showing them the way from above. (Verse 3.) And the king said to them: I have seen a dream, and being troubled in mind I know not what I saw. A certain shadow, and, so to speak, a breath and a trace of the dream remained in the king's heart, so that when others reported it, he could recall the things he had seen, and those who lied could in no way deceive him. (Verse 4.) The Chaldeans answered the king in Syriac. What has been read up to this point is narrated in the Hebrew tongue.

From this place up to the vision of the third year of king Balthasar, which Daniel saw at Susa, the text is written indeed in Hebrew letters, but in the Chaldean language, which he here calls "Syriac." (Verse 5.) Unless you shall show me the dream and its interpretation, you shall perish, and your houses shall be made public property. He threatens punishment, and also proposes rewards: so that if they can tell the dream, he might consequently believe also those things which are uncertain, that is, what the dream signifies. But if they could not tell those things, of which the king, being confused in many respects, could still remember, they would also lose credibility for the interpretation to come. Accordingly there follows. (Verses 9, 10.) Therefore tell me the dream, that I may know that you also speak its true interpretation. Then the Chaldeans answered before the king, and said: There is no man upon earth that can fulfil your word, O king.

The magicians confess, the diviners confess, and all the knowledge of secular literature, that foreknowledge of future things belongs not to men, but to God. From this it is proved that the prophets of God spoke by the Spirit, who foretold things to come. (Verses 12, 13.) When he heard this, the king, in fury and great wrath, commanded that all the wise men of Babylon should perish. And the sentence being gone forth, the wise men were being slain. The Hebrews ask why Daniel and the three youths did not go in to the king along with the other wise men, and yet, the sentence having been pronounced, are ordered to perish along with the rest. They explain it thus: that at the time when the king was promising rewards and gifts and the greatest honor, they were unwilling to go, lest they should seem shamelessly to seek riches and Chaldean rank.

Or else, the Chaldeans themselves, envying their glory and knowledge, went in alone, as though they alone would receive the rewards, and afterward wished to have as companions in the danger those whom they had refused as companions in the hope of glory. (Verse 15.) And he who had received authority from the king asked him for what reason so cruel a sentence had gone forth from the face of the king. The Chaldeans, knowing that Daniel and the three youths were wise and understanding ten times above all the diviners and magicians who were in the whole of Chaldea, concealed from them the king's inquiry, lest they should be preferred to themselves in the interpretation of the dream. And for this reason Daniel, who did not know the cause of his own danger, inquired about the cruelty of the sentence. (Verses 16, 17.) When therefore Arioch had made known the matter to Daniel, Daniel went in and asked the king to give him time, that he might show the solution to the king.

And he went into his house, and made known the matter to Ananias, and Misael, and Azarias, his companions. Daniel asks for time: not that by treatment and shrewdness of mind he might search out hidden things, but that he might entreat the Lord of hidden things. And therefore he joins Ananias, and Misael, and Azarias to himself in prayer, lest he alone should seem to presume upon his own merit: so that of those whose peril was common, the prayer also might be common. (Verse 19.) Then was the mystery revealed to Daniel in a vision by night. He learns the king's dream by his own dream: nay rather, both the dream and its interpretation he comes to know by the revelation of God, which the demons did not know, and which the wisdom of the world could not know. Whence also the apostles come to know the mystery which had been unknown to all generations past, by the revelation of the Lord. (Verse 20.) And Daniel blessed the God of heaven, and speaking, said.

To distinguish himself from those who dwell upon the earth, and by demonic arts and sleights of hand delude earthly things, Daniel blessed the God of heaven. For the gods that have not made heaven and earth shall perish. (Verse 21.) And he changes times and ages, and transfers kingdoms, and establishes them. Let us not marvel, then, if at any time we see kings succeed kings, and kingdoms kingdoms, which are governed and changed and brought to an end by the judgment of God. And he who is the founder of all things knows the causes of each, and often permits bad kings to be raised up, that the bad may punish the bad: and at the same time he intimates beforehand, and by a general discussion prepares the hearer, that the dream which he saw was concerning the change and succession of kingdoms.

He gives wisdom to the wise, and knowledge to them that have understanding and discipline. According to that which is written: The wise man will hear, and will add wisdom. For to him who has, it shall be given; and upon the soul that burns with love of wisdom, the Spirit of God is gladly poured. But into a perverse soul wisdom will not enter. (Verse 22.) He reveals deep and hidden things, and knows what is set in darkness, and light is with him. To him to whom God reveals deep things, and who can say: O the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God, that man, the Spirit dwelling within him, searches even the deep things of God, and digs the deepest wells in the depths of his own soul, and turns up all the earth which is wont to cover deep waters; and he keeps the commandment of God, saying: Drink water out of your own vessels, and out of the fountain of your own wells.

And what follows: He knows what is set in darkness, and light is with him—darkness signifies ignorance, and light knowledge and doctrine. And so, as perverse things do not hide from God, so upright things seek him out and surround him. Or it may be interpreted that "dark things" signifies all mystical and deep matters, according to that which we read in Proverbs: he also understands a parable, and a dark saying—this signifies the very thing which we read in the Psalms: Dark water in the clouds of the air.

For he who ascends to the heights, and, leaving earthly things, like the birds desires the most rarefied air and things ethereal, becomes a cloud, to which the truth of God comes, and which is wont to rain upon the saints: and, filled with a multitude of knowledge, he has in his heart many waters, dark and wrapped in mist, into which Moses alone enters, and speaks to God face to face, of whom it is written: He made darkness his hiding place. (Verse 23.) To you, God of my fathers, I give thanks, and I praise you, because you have given me wisdom and strength. Lest what he obtained should seem to be of his own merit, he refers it to the righteousness of his fathers and to the truth of God, who has mercy upon their seed even in captivity.

And now you have shown me what we asked of you. What four ask, is shown to one alone: so that he might both flee arrogance, lest he alone should seem to have obtained it, and give thanks, that he alone had heard the mystery of the dream. (Verse 24.) Destroy not the wise men of Babylon. Bring me in before the sight of the king, and I will tell the king the solution. He imitates the clemency of God, who intercedes for his persecutors, and does not wish those to perish on whose account he himself was about to perish. (Verse 25.) I have found a man of the children of the captivity of Judah, who will declare the solution to the king. He attributes God's grace to his own diligence, and says he has "found," though Daniel had offered himself of his own accord to be brought in to the king; in which the character of courtiers is shown, who, when they announce good news, wish it to appear as their own doing.

And he who promises the solution of the dream will surely relate the dream beforehand. And note that Daniel is of the sons of Judah, not a priest, as the tale of Bel at the end contains. (Verse 26.) Do you think you can truly tell me the dream that I saw. He keeps the order of the question, so that first he asks about the dream, which the magicians had answered that they did not know, and afterward asks the interpretation of the dream: so that when he has heard the dream, and recognized the things he had seen, then he might also believe the interpretation, which admits of varying conjecture. (Verse 27.) The mystery which the king asks about, the wise men, magicians, and diviners, and haruspices cannot show to the king. For "haruspices," which we have rendered, the Hebrew has GAZARENOS, which Symmachus alone has translated θύτας, whom the Greeks are wont to call ἡπατοσκόπους: who inspect entrails, so that from these they may foretell the future.

But by calling it a "mystery," referring to the order of the revealed dream, he shows that whatever is hidden, and unknown by men, can be called a mystery. He also removes from the king a false suspicion, lest he should think that what is reserved for the knowledge of God alone can be found by human skill. (Verse 28.) But there is a God in heaven that reveals mysteries. In vain, therefore, do you seek from men on earth what God alone knows in heaven. And secretly drawing him away from the worship of many gods, he directs him to the knowledge of the one God.

Who has shown you, king Nabuchodonosor, the things that shall come to pass in the latter times. Without the fault of flattery, joined with truth, he flatters him as king: that mysteries have been revealed to him by God, of the things to come in the latter times. And the "latter days" are to be reckoned either from that time in which the dream was revealed to Daniel, up to the consummation of the world; or else this is to be understood, that the whole interpretation of the dream tends toward an end, in which the image and the statue is seen to be ground to pieces.

Your dream and the visions of your head upon your bed are these. He did not say "the visions of your eyes," lest we should think it something corporeal, but "of your head": For the eyes of a wise man are in his head: that is, in the principal part of the heart, according to that which we read in the Gospel: Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. And: Why do you think evil in your hearts? But others, taking occasion from this chapter, suppose that the τὸ hegemonikon, ruling faculty is not in the heart, but, following Plato, in the brain.

Verse 29. Thou, O king, begannest to think in thy bed what should come to pass after this. In place of what is, "after this," the Seventy alone rendered "the last days." But if it is thus read, let us more carefully inquire where the last days are written; and let us refute those who think the world is not going to perish. For never would days be called last, if the world were eternal. And what is said, "Thou, O king, begannest to think," indicates the causes of the dream: that God revealed to him the mysteries of things to come because the king himself wished to know what was to come, and, that Nabuchodonosor might marvel at the grace of the divine inspiration, he sets forth not only what he saw in the dream, but even what he silently thought before the dream. And he who revealeth mysteries showeth thee what things are to come.

That which we read in the Gospel: "Who maketh his sun to rise upon the evil and the good", we understand to have been fulfilled even upon Nabuchodonosor. For so great is the clemency of Almighty God, that He revealed the mysteries of His dispensation, by which He governs the world, even to Nabuchodonosor. Let us ask those who assert that there are diverse natures, of what nature they understand Nabuchodonosor to be, good or evil. If good: why is he called impious? If evil (as is certain): why did God show His sacraments to an evil and earthly man, that is, χοϊκῷ? Verse 30. To me also this mystery is revealed, not by wisdom that is in me more than in all living men, but that the interpretation might be made known to the king, and that thou mightest know the thoughts of thy mind. The king had thought that knowledge of the future could be comprehended by the cleverness of the human mind; and therefore he had ordered the wise men of Babylon to be slain.

Therefore Daniel excuses those who had not been able to tell it, and he himself flees envy, lest anyone should suppose that he had spoken by his own wisdom what he was about to say. But the cause of the prophetic revelation is the desire of the king, who wished to know things to come. Therefore he honors the king, when he says that the mysteries were revealed to him by God on account of the king's desire for knowledge. And this must be considered, that dreams in which future things are signified, and in which the truth is shown as it were through a cloud, are not open to interpreters and to the judgment of the human mind, but to the knowledge of God alone. Verse 31. Thou, O king, sawest, and behold, as it were one great statue. In place of "statue," that is, ἀνδριάντι, which Symmachus alone so rendered, the others translated "image," wishing by this term to show the likeness of things to come.

Let us follow the prophetic interpretation, and, interpreting the words of Daniel, let us set forth more fully what was briefly said by him. Verse 38. Thou therefore art the head of gold. Thou, O king, he says, art the head of gold. By which is shown that the first kingdom, that of Babylon, is compared to most precious gold. Verse 39. And after thee shall arise another kingdom, less than thee, of silver. That is, of the Medes and Persians, which has the likeness of silver, less than the former, and greater than the one following. And a third kingdom of brass, which shall rule over the whole earth. This signifies Alexander, and the kingdom of the Macedonians, and of the successors of Alexander. And it is rightly called brazen: for among all metals brass is the most sonorous, and rings more clearly, and its sound spreads far and wide, so as to show not only the fame and power of the kingdom, but also the eloquence of the Greek language. Verse 40.

And the fourth kingdom shall be as it were of iron: as iron breaketh in pieces and subdueth all things, so shall it break in pieces and bruise all these. Now the fourth kingdom, which clearly pertains to the Romans, is iron, which breaketh in pieces and subdueth all things. But its feet and toes are part of iron and part of clay, which at this time is most manifestly proved. For as in the beginning nothing was stronger and harder than the Roman empire, so at the end of things nothing is weaker: since both in civil wars and against various nations we need the help of other barbarian peoples.

But at the end of all these kingdoms—of gold, silver, brass, and iron—a stone was cut off, the Lord and Savior, without hands, that is, without intercourse and human seed, from the virginal womb, and, all the kingdoms being crushed, it became a great mountain and filled the whole earth: which the Jews and the impious Porphyry wrongly refer to the people of Israel, whom they wish to be strongest at the end of the ages, and to crush all kingdoms, and to reign forever. Verse 45. The great God hath shown the king what things shall come to pass hereafter: and the dream is true, and the interpretation thereof is faithful. Again he says that the revelation of the dream is not of his own merit, but that the interpretation might be made known to the king, and to teach the king that God alone is to be worshipped. Verse 46. Then king Nabuchodonosor fell upon his face, and worshipped Daniel: and commanded that they should sacrifice victims and incense to him.

So the king said, speaking to Daniel. Porphyry slanders this passage, saying that a most proud king would never have worshipped a captive, as though the Lycaonians did not also wish to offer sacrifices to Paul and Barnabas because of the greatness of the signs. Therefore the error of the Gentiles, who think that everything above them is a god, ought not to be imputed to Scripture, which simply relates all the things that were done. But we can also say this, that the king himself set forth the reasons for worshipping and for offering victims and incense and sacrifice, saying to Daniel: Verse 47. Truly your God is the God of gods, and the Lord of kings, and a revealer of mysteries, since thou hast been able to disclose this mystery. Therefore he worships not so much Daniel as, in Daniel, God, who revealed the mysteries. Which we read also that Alexander, the great king of the Macedonians, did to the High Priest Joiada.

But if this displeases anyone, it must be said that Nabuchodonosor, confounded by the greatness and astonishment of the signs, did not know what he was doing, so that, understanding the true Lord and the Lord of kings, he worshipped also His servant, and burned incense to him.

Verse 48. Then the king lifted up Daniel on high, and gave him great and many gifts, and made him ruler over all the provinces of Babylon. And here too the slanderer of the Church tries to reprove the prophet, because he did not refuse the gifts, and gladly received Babylonian honor: not considering that the king saw the dream, and that the mysteries of the interpretation were revealed through the boy, for this purpose—that Daniel might grow, and, in the place of his captivity, might become chief of all the Chaldeans, and that the omnipotence of God might be known. Which indeed we read was also done in the case of Joseph with Pharaoh and Egypt, and in the case of Mardochaeus with Assuerus (Esther, viii), so that in both nations the captive and sojourning Jews might have comfort, seeing a man of their own nation to be ruler of the Egyptians or of the Chaldeans.

Verse 49. But Daniel requested of the king, and he set Sedrach, Misac, and Abdenago over the works of the province of Babylon. But Daniel himself was at the king's gate. He does not forget those with whom he besought the Lord, and who had shared his peril with him. So he makes them judges of the provinces; but he himself does not withdraw from the king's side.

(Verse 1.) King Nabuchodonosor made a golden statue, of the height of sixty cubits, and the breadth of six cubits. Swift is the forgetting of truth, so that he who had recently worshipped the servant of God as it were a God, now orders a statue to be made for himself, that he himself might be worshipped in the statue. But that it is golden, and of boundless weight, has this cause, that it might create astonishment in those who saw it, and that a lifeless thing might be worshipped as God, while each man consecrates his own avarice.

And by occasion of the captives an occasion of salvation is given to barbarous nations: so that those who had first learned, through Daniel's revelation, the power of the one God, might also learn, through the courage of the three youths, to despise death, and not to worship idols.

Verse 1. And he set it up in the plain of Dura, of the province of Babylon. In place of "Dura," Theodotion has "Deira," Symmachus "Durau," the Seventy rendered περίβολον, which we may call an enclosure or a fenced-in place.

Verse 2. Then king Nabuchodonosor sent to gather together the satraps, the magistrates and judges, the captains and rulers, and the governors, and all the chiefs of the regions. High places stand more perilously, and things that are lofty fall the sooner. The princes are gathered together to worship the statue, so that through the princes the peoples too might be seduced. For those who are rich and powerful, while they fear to lose their riches and power, are more easily overthrown. And when the magistrates have been seduced, the subject peoples perish by the example of their betters.

Verse 4. And the herald cried aloud: To you it is commanded, O peoples, tribes, and languages, that at the hour when ye shall hear the sound of the trumpet. Not that all the peoples of all the nations could be gathered together in the plain of Dura, and worship the golden statue, but that, in the princes of all the nations, all the peoples and nations are believed to have worshipped. Going over all Holy Scripture in my mind (unless indeed forgetfulness deceives me), I nowhere find that any of the saints, falling down, worshipped God: but whosoever worshipped idols, and demons, and unlawful things, is said to worship falling down, as in the present passage not once, but repeatedly. And in the Gospel the devil says to the Lord: "All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me".

But this too must be said: that all heretics who, with the brilliance of worldly eloquence, compose a false doctrine, make a golden statue, and, as far as in them lies, compel by persuasion that men, falling down, should worship the idol of falsehood.

Verse 7. After this, therefore, as soon as all the peoples heard the sound of the trumpet, the flute. This is to be taken in the same sense as above, that we understand all the peoples in their princes. For all the nations at once could not be present together.

Verse 8. And immediately, at that very time, certain Chaldean men came near and accused the Jews. They, envying those who had been set over the king's works in Babylon, and offended by their foreign manner of worship and their aversion to idols, having found an occasion, bring accusation before the king. Accordingly it follows: Verse 12. There are certain Jewish men whom thou hast set over the works of the province of Babylon, Sedrach, Misac, and Abdenago, who have despised thy decree. And in a certain way they speak thus: Those whom thou hast set over us, and hast made rulers though captives and slaves, these, being puffed up with pride, despise thy commandments, do not worship thy gods, and do not worship the golden statue which thou hast set up.

What we said at the beginning of this vision is here more clearly confirmed, that the gods of Nabuchodonosor are others, and that the golden statue which he ordered to be erected for the worship of himself is a different thing: for in what follows the king himself says: Ye do not worship my gods, and ye do not worship the golden statue which I have set up. Others say that this is a custom of Holy Scripture, to call one idol by a plural term, as in Exodus concerning the calf: "These are thy gods, O Israel, who brought thee out of the land of Egypt". And in the Book of Kings, Jeroboam, setting up the golden calf in Bethel, is narrated to have made "gods". Conversely, many demons are called by the singular number, as in Isaiah: "He boweth down and worshippeth it, and, making a vow, saith: Thou art my god".

Verse 14. Fall down, and worship the statue which I have made. Although in his fury he had ordered the boys to be brought, yet he grants a space for repentance, so that if they fall down and worship, their former fault may obtain pardon; but if they refuse to worship, the immediate penalty shall be the burning furnace.

Verse 15. And who is the god that shall deliver you out of my hand? That is, he whose servant thou didst formerly worship, whom thou didst truly say to be the God of gods, and the Lord of kings.

Verse 16. King Nabuchodonosor, it is not needful for us to answer thee concerning this matter. In the Hebrew it does not have "king," as in the Septuagint, lest they should seem to flatter the impious man, or to call him king who was compelling them to unjust deeds. But if any contentious person should also read "king": we shall say that they do not thereby brazenly provoke the king to the shedding of their own blood, but so render to the king the honor due him that the worship of God is not thereby injured. As for what they say: "It is not needful for us to answer thee concerning this matter"—the sense is: thou needest not hear words, of which thou wilt soon prove the courage and constancy by the deeds themselves.

Verse 17. For behold, our God, whom we worship, is able to deliver us out of the burning fiery furnace, and to deliver us out of thy hands, O king. Whence he had thought to terrify the boys, thence he sees in them the material of courage. And they do not delay for long, but promise themselves help for the present moment, saying: For behold, our God, whom we worship, He is able to deliver us both from the fire with which thou threatenest, and from thy hands.

Verse 18. But if he will not: Beautifully, to what they had said, He is able to deliver us, they did not add the contrary, if he shall not be able, but if he shall not be willing: so that it is not of God's impossibility, but of his will, if they perish. Be it known to thee, O king, that we do not worship thy gods, and we do not adore the golden statue which thou hast set up. Whether we wish to read "statue," as Symmachus, or "golden image," as the others translated, worshippers of God ought not to adore it. Therefore let the judges and princes of the world, who adore the statues and images of emperors, understand that they are doing this thing which the three youths, by refusing to do, pleased God. And the propriety of the words is to be noted: they say that gods are worshipped, an image is adored, neither of which befits the servants of God.

Verse 19. Then Nabuchodonosor was filled with fury, and the appearance of his face was changed. In certain psalms the titles are inscribed beforehand: For those who shall be changed. The word "change," then, is ambiguous, both from good to bad, and from bad to good. For the change of Nabuchodonosor's countenance cannot be fitted to the good side. Although some also refer the inscription of the Psalms from good to bad: because those who ought naturally to have understood God were changed, against Christ and his saints, by disturbance of mind and fury.

Verse 20. And he commanded that the furnace should be heated seven times more than it had been accustomed to be heated: and he ordered the strongest men of his army to bind the feet of Sedrach, Misac, and Abdenago, and cast them into the furnace of burning fire. As though a simple and usual fire could not have consumed the bodies of the three youths: but fury and wrath, which is close to madness, cannot keep measure. And he wishes to terrify with the threat of manifold punishment those whom he saw ready for death.

Verse 21. And immediately those men, bound with their trousers, and turbans, and shoes, and garments, were cast into the midst of the furnace of burning fire. For "braccis" (סרבלין), which Symmachus translated ἀναξυρίδας, Aquila and Theodotion said "saraballa": and not, as it is corruptly read, "sarabara." Now in the language of the Chaldeans "saraballa" are called the legs of men and the shins: and by homonymy also their trousers, by which the legs and shins are covered, are called as it were "crural" and "tibial" garments. "Tiara," moreover, is a Greek word, turned by usage into Latin; of which also Virgil (Aeneid VII): "And the sceptre and the sacred tiara." It is a kind of cap which the Persian and Chaldean nation uses.

Verse 22. But those men who had cast in Sedrach, Misac, and Abdenago, the flame of the fire slew. Those men, namely, of whom he had said above: And he ordered the strongest men of his army to bind the feet of Sedrach, Misac, and Abdenago, and cast them into the furnace of burning fire. Therefore Nabuchodonosor did not lose just any servants by chance, but strong men from his whole army and most ready for wars: so that he would not only dread the miracle, but also feel the losses of his army.

Verse 23. But these three men Sedrach, Misac, and Abdenago fell down bound into the midst of the burning fiery furnace. And they walked in the midst of the flame praising God, and blessing the Lord.

But Azarias, standing, prayed thus, and opening his mouth in the midst of the fire, said: A great miracle: bound men are cast into the furnace, and fall headlong into the midst of the fire: the bonds with which they are bound burn, and the fearful flame does not touch the bodies of the bound. Thus far the Hebrews read; the middle portions which follow, up to the end of the Song of the Three Youths, are not found in the Hebrew: concerning which, lest we seem to have passed over them entirely, a few things must be said.

Verse 26. Blessed art thou, O Lord God of our fathers, and praiseworthy and glorious is thy name forever, for thou art just in all that thou hast done to us. When we are pressed by various straits, let us speak this with our whole heart's affection, and let us confess that whatever befalls us we bear justly, so that there may be fulfilled in us what is written: The daughters of Judah have exulted and rejoiced in all thy judgments, O Lord.

Verse 29. For we have sinned and dealt unjustly, departing from thee, and we have transgressed in all things. And surely the three youths had not sinned, nor were they of that age when they were led into Babylon, that they should be punished for their own faults. How then do these speak in the person of the people? So must that saying of the Apostle be read: For I do not do the good that I will: but the evil that I hate, that I do, and the rest that is written in the same place.

Verse 37. For, O Lord, we are brought lower than all nations, and we are humbled in all the earth this day for our sins, and there is not at this time a prince, and a prophet, and a leader. These little verses are to be used, whenever the Church, because of the sins of the people, endures a lack of holy men and teachers who are most learned in the law of God, and when, in times of persecution, sacrifice and oblation are not offered. Some refer this passage also to the heavenly Jerusalem, that souls fallen down to earthly things, and placed in a place of tears and confusion, mourn their ancient offenses, and the rest that the prophetic discourse embraces; but the Church of God does not receive these interpretations. Verse 39. But may we be received in a contrite soul and a spirit of humility, as in a burnt offering of rams and bulls. Both from the present passage, and from that which follows: Bless the Lord, ye spirits and souls of the just.

And in the Psalms: A sacrifice to God is an afflicted spirit, a contrite and humbled heart God does not despise, there are those who would have there be another spirit in man, besides the Holy Spirit, and another soul. But they will have trouble showing how, apart from the flesh and the grace of the Holy Spirit, two substances, and two inner men, can be said to exist in one man.

Verse 46. And the king's ministers, who had cast them in, ceased not to heat the furnace with naphtha, and tow. Sallust writes in his histories that naphtha is a kind of kindling among the Persians by which fires are most especially fed. Others think that the pits of olives, which are thrown out with the dried lees of oil, are called naphtha: whence also in Greek it is called πυρίτις, from the fact that it feeds πῦρ, that is, fire.

Verse 49. But the angel of the Lord went down with Azarias and his companions into the furnace, and drove the flame of fire out of the furnace. When a soul, oppressed by disturbances and beset by various troubles, has despaired of human help, and has turned wholly with its mind to the Lord, the angel of the Lord descends to it, namely, the divine word, and drives away the seething heats of the flame; so that the fiery darts of the enemy in no way penetrate the secret places of our heart, nor are we shut up in his furnace.

Verse 57. Bless the Lord, all ye works of the Lord: praise and exalt him above all forever. Bless the Lord, ye angels of the Lord: praise and exalt him. Having set forth a general praise, that every creature ought to praise the Lord, in what follows he exhorts, part by part, the angels and the heavens, the waters and the powers, the sun and the moon, the shower and the dew, wind, fire and heat, cold and burning heat, and the rest which it would be tedious to weave in: so that he also calls upon the fountains and the seas, and the whales and the birds, the beasts and the cattle to the praise of the Lord, and the sons of men, and after every race of men, Israel, and from Israel itself the priests and servants of the Lord, the spirits and souls of the just, the holy and humble of heart: and at the last Ananias, Azarias, Misael, who are called to the praise of the Lord by the present benefit.

Now every creature praises the Lord not by voice, but by deed, because from creatures the Creator is consequently understood, and in each work and effect the magnificence of God is shown forth.

Verse 87. Bless the Lord, ye holy and humble of heart. That there should be humility of heart, both the present verse teaches, and that which is said in the Gospel: Learn of me, because I am meek and humble of heart, and you shall find rest for your souls. But that humility of heart is the same which in another place is called poverty of spirit: so that we are not lifted up by pride, nor seek glory by feigned humility: but are bowed down with our whole heart. Thus far we have briefly touched on a few things from Theodotion's edition, of the confession and praises of the three youths, which are not found in the Hebrew: from here let us follow the Hebrew truth. Verse 91. Then Nabuchodonosor the king was astonished, and rose up hastily, and said to his nobles: Did we not cast three men bound into the midst of the fire? With the princes punished, the king is corrected, that living he might glorify God.

He asks his nobles, by whose accusation and counsel he had cast the three youths into the fire, so that, when they answer that they had cast the three youths into the furnace, he might announce and show to them.

Verse 92. They answered the king and said: True, O king. The king answered, and said: Behold I see four men loose, and walking in the midst of the fire: and there is no hurt in them: and the appearance of the fourth is like the son of God. Again I will say: O how wise the fire, how ineffable the power of God: the bodies are bound tight with chains, the chains burn, the bodies do not burn. As for the appearance of the fourth, which he says is like the son of God, we ought to take it either as an angel, as the Seventy translated, or certainly, as most think, as the Lord the Savior. But I do not know how an impious king should deserve to see the Son of God. Therefore, according to Symmachus, who translated: "But the appearance of the fourth was the likeness of sons," not of God, but of gods; we must understand angels, who are very often called both gods, and sons of gods or of God.

This according to the history. But in type, this angel or son of God prefigures our Lord Jesus Christ, who descended to the furnace of hell, in which the souls both of sinners and of the just were held enclosed, that without burning, and without harm to himself, he might free those who were held enclosed in the bonds of death.

Verse 93. Then Nabuchodonosor approached the door of the burning fiery furnace, and said: Sedrach, Misac, and Abdenago, servants of the most high God, come forth and come hither. And immediately Sedrach, Misac, and Abdenago went out from the midst of the fire. Terrified with dread, he does not seek the youths through messengers, but himself calls them by name, calling them servants of the most high God, and asking that they whom he had cast in bound into the furnace should come forth to him.

Verse 95. Blessed be the God of Sedrach, Misac, and Abdenago, who sent his angel, and delivered his servants that believed in him. Him whom he had above called the son of God, here he calls angel, although above the likeness of the son of God, not the reality, was named. Again, therefore, Nabuchodonosor receives the confession of God, and, condemning idols, praises the three youths, who refused to serve and adore any god except their own God, and marvels that the fire could not touch the holy ones of God. But as to what he says: Verse 96. Therefore I have proposed this decree: that every people, tribe, and tongue, whatsoever shall speak blasphemy against the God of Sedrach, Misac, and Abdenago, shall perish, and his house shall be laid waste. For there is no other God who can so save.

Some very badly refer this to the devil, that at the consummation and end of the world he himself also receives knowledge of God, and exhorts all to repentance, and they wish him to be that king of Nineveh who at the last descended from the throne of pride, and obtained the rewards of humility.

Verse 97. Then the king promoted Sedrach, Misac and Abdenago in the province of Babylon. Those who say that above, the three youths were not judges of the provinces, but overseers of individual works in Babylon, here wish also that they were appointed judges of the provinces. (Ver. 98 ff.) Nabuchodonosor the king, to all peoples, nations, and tongues, that dwell in all the earth: peace be multiplied unto you. The most high God has wrought signs and wonders among me: it has pleased me, therefore, to declare his signs, because they are great, and his wonders, because they are mighty, and his kingdom, because it is an everlasting kingdom, and his power is from generation to generation. The letter of Nabuchodonosor is placed in the volume of the prophet: so that it may be believed not to have been fashioned by another afterward, as a slanderer (Porphyry) falsely claims, but to be the work of Daniel himself.

(Verse 1.) I, Nebuchadnezzar, was at rest in my house, and flourishing in my palace.

The history indeed is manifest and needs no great interpretation, that Nebuchadnezzar, having offended God, was turned into madness, and lived seven years among brute animals, and was fed on the roots of herbs, and afterward, restored by the mercy of God to his kingdom, praised and glorified the King of heaven, because all his works are true, and his ways judgment, and he is able to humble those who walk in pride. But those who wish to understand by Nebuchadnezzar the opposing power, of which the Lord speaks in the Gospel: I saw Satan like lightning falling from heaven; and John in the Apocalypse, that the dragon falling to earth drew a third part of the stars with him; and Isaiah: How is Lucifer fallen, who rose in the morning?—assert that it could by no means have happened that a man nourished in delicacies should feed on hay for seven years, and live for seven years among beasts without any laceration of his body.

And how could dominion have been reserved for a man out of his mind for seven years, and a most powerful kingdom have been without a king for so long a time; or if another succeeded him in the kingdom, of what folly must he be judged, to yield up the empire which he had possessed for so long a time—especially since the histories of the Chaldeans contain nothing of the kind; nor could it be that those who wrote of lesser things should have passed over in silence greater ones. All these things they inquire and repeat, so that, since the history does not hold together, the devil should be signified by Nebuchadnezzar. This we by no means accept, lest all things which we read should seem shadows and fables. For who does not perceive that men out of their minds live like brute animals in the fields and in woodland places?

And to pass over all else, since Greek and Roman histories report that far more incredible things have happened to men—that fables narrate Scylla and Chimaera, the Hydra, and Centaurs, and that birds and beasts, flowers and trees, stars and stones have been made out of men—what wonder is it if, to show the power of God and to humble the pride of kings, this was accomplished by the judgment of God? I was at rest in my house, and flourishing in my palace, or on my throne, as Theodotion interpreted. Now those who follow the contrary meaning understand by the house of the devil this present world. Of which he himself speaks in the Gospel to the Saviour: All these things have been delivered to me. And the Apostle says: The whole world lies in the evil one.

Verse 2. I saw a dream which terrified me, and my thoughts upon my bed. Let them answer what sort of dream the opposing power saw—unless perhaps everything which it seems to possess in this world is a shadow and a dream. And the visions of my head troubled me. Note that Nebuchadnezzar knew visions not of the eyes and heart, but of the head, because, for the sake of the glory of the future servants of God, mysteries are revealed to him. Verse 6. Until my colleague came in before me, Daniel, whose name is Belteshazzar, according to the name of my God. Except for the Seventy translators, who for some reason omitted all these things, the three remaining translators rendered "colleague." Hence, by the judgment of the masters of the Church, their edition has been rejected in this volume; and that of Theodotion is commonly read, which agrees both with the Hebrew and with the other translators.

Whence also Origen, in the ninth volume of the Stromata, asserts that what follows in this place in the prophet Daniel he discusses not according to the Seventy interpreters, who greatly disagree with the Hebrew truth, but according to the edition of Theodotion. Who has the spirit of the holy gods in himself: and I have told the dream before him. For what is said here, "of the holy gods," in the Chaldee tongue in which Daniel was written, we read Elain cadisin (אלהין קדישין), which signifies "holy gods," and not "holy God," as Theodotion interpreted. Nor is it strange if Nebuchadnezzar errs, and thinks that whatever he beholds above himself is not God, but gods. Finally, in what follows also: Belteshazzar, he says, chief of the soothsayers, whom I know to have the spirit of the holy gods in you. Belteshazzar, chief of the soothsayers or enchanters, as others have translated.

It is no wonder that he was made chief of all the soothsayers, since at the king's command he had learned the wisdom of the Chaldeans, and had been found tenfold wiser than all. Let us ask those who in this vision do not accept the history, who this Nebuchadnezzar is who saw the dream; and who this Daniel is who explains his dream and foretells things to come; and how it is that this very Daniel—who according to them, of course, must be understood as the holy power—is appointed by Nebuchadnezzar chief of his soothsayers and called his colleague? Verse 7. I saw, and behold, a tree in the midst of the earth, and its height was exceeding great. The prophet speaks not only of Nebuchadnezzar king of the Chaldeans, but of all the impious: I have seen the wicked highly exalted, and lifted up like the cedars of Lebanon: who are lifted up not by greatness of virtues, but by their own pride; and therefore they are cut down and fall.

Whence it is good to pursue that which the Lord teaches in the Gospel: Learn of me, for I am meek and humble of heart. But as for what he says according to Theodotion, τὸ κύτος, that is, "its height," or ἡ κυρεία, as he himself afterward interpreted, that is, "dominion," for which we have translated "its appearance"—the same despisers of the history slanderously object that Nebuchadnezzar's dominion never possessed the whole world. For he did not rule over the Greeks and Barbarians, and all the nations of the North and West, but held only the provinces of the East, that is, Asia; not Europe and Libya. From which they wish it to be understood that all these things must be referred to the devil—whereas we ought to take all these things as spoken hyperbolically, on account of the pride of an impious king, who boasts so greatly in Isaiah that he vaunts himself as holding heaven, and the whole world as though it were a nest and the eggs of birds.

Verse 10. And behold, a watcher, a holy one, came down from heaven, and cried aloud, and said thus: Cut down the tree, and cut off its branches. For "watcher," Theodotion put the Chaldee word itself, IR, which is written with three letters, AIN, IOD, and RES; and it signifies angels, because they are always watchful, and ready for the command of God. Whence we also, by frequent night-vigils, imitate the office of the angels. And of the Lord it is said: He that keeps Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep. Finally, in what follows we read: In the sentence of the watchers, that is, of the angels, is the decree; and the word of the holy ones, and the petition. Now the custom of Greek and Latin speech calls "iris" that which is said to descend to the earth by way of the multicolored bow.

Verse 16. Then Daniel, whose name is Belteshazzar, began within himself silently to think, as it were for one hour; and his thoughts troubled him. And the king answered and said: Belteshazzar, let not the dream, and its interpretation, trouble you. Belteshazzar answered and said. Daniel silently understood that the dream was against the king; and the pallor of his countenance betokened the fear of his heart, and he grieved for him who had bestowed upon him very great honor. And lest he should seem to insult and rejoice against the king as an enemy, indeed detesting what he understood, he speaks to him: My lord, may this dream be to those who hate you, and its interpretation to your enemies. Nebuchadnezzar, therefore, seeing him afraid, lest he should seem to say something sinister and contrary against the king, encourages him to speak simply and truly what he understands, and to fear nothing.

Verse 17. The tree which you saw, lofty and strong, whose height reached to heaven. Without injury to the king he unfolds the truth, so that he may seem to reprove not his pride but his power. Verse 20. And let it be bound with iron and bronze in the grass outside, and let it be sprinkled with the dew of heaven; and let its portion be with the beasts, until seven times pass over it. And above it is likewise written. Those, then, who contradict the history ask us how Nebuchadnezzar could have been in a bond of iron and bronze; or who bound him and fastened him with fetters—since it is evident that all madmen, lest they hurl themselves down or attack others with iron, are bound with chains. Verse 21. This is the interpretation of the sentence of the Most High, which has come upon my lord the king: They shall drive you out from among men, and your dwelling shall be with the beasts and wild animals.

He tempers the harshness of the sentence with the soothing of his words, so that, since hard things have gone before, he may relieve the mind of the terrified man with milder promises. Finally he adds: Verse 23. Your kingdom shall remain to you, after you have known that power is from heaven. Whence those who contradict the history, and wish the former dignity to be restored to the devil, seize eagerly upon this passage—that after torments, after being turned into a beast, after the food of grass and hay, and the circuits of seven years, he is restored to the Lord, and becomes what he had been before. They must answer how it can be fitting that the angels, who never fell, should again have as their prince one who returned through penitence. Verse 24. Wherefore, O king, let my counsel be pleasing to you, and redeem your sins with alms, and your iniquities with mercies to the poor; perhaps God will forgive your offenses.

If he foretold the sentence of God, which cannot be changed, how does he exhort to almsgiving and mercies to the poor, that God's sentence might be changed? This is easily resolved by the example of King Hezekiah, whom Isaiah had said would die; and of the Ninevites, to whom it was said: Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown. And yet, at the prayers of Hezekiah, and of Nineveh, the sentence of God was changed—not through vanity of judgment, but through the conversion of those who merited indulgence. Otherwise also in Jeremiah God says that He threatens evils upon a nation; and if it does good, He changes the threats by clemency. Again, He asserts that He promises good things to one doing good; and if it does evil, He says He changes His sentence—not toward the men, but toward the deeds which have changed. For God is not angry with men, but with vices; which, when they are not in a man, He by no means punishes what has been changed.

Let us also say otherwise: Nebuchadnezzar indeed did acts of mercy toward the poor according to Daniel's counsel; and therefore the sentence was delayed against him up to the twelfth month; but because afterward, walking in the hall of Babylon, he boasted and said: Is not this great Babylon, which I have built for the house of the kingdom, in the might of my strength, in the glory of my name? He lost the good of mercy through the evil of pride.

Perhaps God will forgive your offenses. Since blessed Daniel, foreknowing future things, doubts about the sentence of God, they act rashly who boldly promise indulgence to sinners. And yet it must be known that if pardon is promised to Nebuchadnezzar upon doing good works, much more is it promised to others who have committed lighter sins. We read also in Jeremiah that it was commanded to the people of the Jews to pray for the Babylonians, because in their peace should be the peace of the captives.

Verse 28. While the word was yet in the king's mouth, a voice rushed in from heaven: It is said to you, Nebuchadnezzar the king, your kingdom shall pass from you, and they shall drive you out from among men. Arrogant boasting is at once punished by the Lord. And therefore the sentence is not delayed, lest mercy to the poor should seem to have profited nothing at all. But as soon as he spoke out of pride, he lost the kingdom which had been reserved on account of his alms.

Verse 29. Until you know that the Most High rules in the kingdom of men. A great consolation of misery it is when, placed in torments, one knows that prosperous things will follow—although Nebuchadnezzar was of such great madness and folly that, in the time of his evils, he did not remember the good things which God had promised him.

Verse 31. I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted up my eyes to heaven, and my understanding was restored to me. Had he not lifted up his eyes to heaven, he would not have recovered his former understanding. Now when he says that his understanding was restored to him, he shows that he had not lost his form, but his mind.

And his kingdom in generation and generation. If we take this, which is said in the Scriptures—"in generation and generation"—simply for that which means "for all future ages," there is no question. But if, as we have often said, "generation and generation" signifies two generations, of the Law and of the Gospel, it must be asked how Nebuchadnezzar came to know the sacraments of God. Unless perhaps we say this—that after he lifted his eyes to heaven, and recovered his former state, and exalted and blessed the living God forever, he was not ignorant of this either.

Verse 32. For according to His own will He does, both among the powers of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth And this he speaks as a man of the world would. For it is not what he wills that he does; but what is good, this God wills. Nebuchadnezzar, however, spoke in such a way that, while proclaiming the power of God, he seems to be finding fault with His justice, as though he had undeservedly borne his punishments. (Verse 33.) And my nobles and my magistrates sought me, and I was restored to my kingdom, and greater magnificence was added to me.

Therefore, according to those who contradict the history, all the angelic powers will seek out the devil; and he will grow to such power that he who once had swelled with pride against God will become greater than he was before his sin. (Verse 34.) Now therefore I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise, and magnify, and glorify the King of heaven: for all his works are true, and his ways are judgments, and he is able to humble those who walk in pride. Nebuchadnezzar understood why he had endured the punishment of seven years; and therefore that he had been humbled because he had swelled with pride against God.

(Verse 1.) King Belshazzar made a great feast for a thousand of his nobles: and everyone drank according to his own age.

It must be known that this is not the son of Nebuchadnezzar, as those who read superficially commonly suppose; but according to Berosus, who wrote the history of Chaldea, and Josephus, who follows Berosus, after Nebuchadnezzar, who reigned forty-three years, there succeeded to his kingdom a son named Evilmerodach, of whom Jeremiah writes, that in the first year of his reign he lifted up the head of Jehoiachin king of Judah, and brought him out of the house of prison. The same Josephus reports that after the death of Evilmerodach, his son Neglisar succeeded to his father's kingdom; after him again his son Labosordach; and when he died, his son Belshazzar held the kingdom, whom Scripture now recalls: who, having been slain by Darius the king of the Medes, who was the uncle of Cyrus king of the Persians, and by Cyrus the Persian (which two kingdoms Isaiah [ch. XXI] calls the rider of the chariot, of the camel, and of the ass), the empire of the Chaldeans was destroyed.

This indeed Xenophon also writes in the childhood of the elder Cyrus, and Pompeius Trogus, and many others who wrote the histories of the barbarians. This Darius some in Greek volumes suppose to be Astyages, others the son of Astyages, and among them called by another name. And each of the princes who had been invited drank according to his own age; or, as the other translators have rendered it: The king himself drank wine before all the princes whom he had invited. (Verse 2.) He commanded therefore, now drunk, that the golden and silver vessels which Nebuchadnezzar his father had carried away from the temple which was in Jerusalem should be brought, that the king might drink in them.

The Hebrews hand down a tale of this kind: that up to the seventieth year, at which Jeremiah had said the captivity of the people of the Jews would be ended, of which also Zechariah speaks at the beginning of his volume, Belshazzar, thinking God's promise vain and the promise false, turned to rejoicing, and made a great feast, insulting in a certain manner the hope of the Jews and the vessels of the temple of God; but vengeance followed immediately. But that he calls Nebuchadnezzar the father of Belshazzar does not create an error for those who know the custom of holy Scripture, by which fathers are called all forefathers and ancestors. And this must be considered, that he did not do these things while sober, but drunk, and forgetful of the punishment which had befallen Nebuchadnezzar his great-grandfather. (Verse 4.) They drank wine, and praised their gods of gold, and of silver, of brass, of iron, of wood, and of stone. What great folly! Drinking from golden vessels, they praised gods of wood and of stone.

As long as the vessels were in the idol-temple of Babylon, the Lord was not angry: for they seemed, according to a depraved opinion indeed, nevertheless to have consecrated a thing of God to divine worship; but after they defile divine things with human uses, punishment immediately follows the sacrilege. Moreover they praise their gods, insulting the God of the Jews, since, attributing the victory to them, they drank from his vessels. According to the tropological sense, this must be said: that all heretics, and doctrine contrary to the truth, which takes up the words of the prophets and abuses the testimonies of divine Scripture to its own meaning, and gives drink to those whom it deceives, and with whom it has fornicated: takes away the vessels of the temple of God, and grows drunk in them: and praises not the God whose vessels they are, but gods of gold and silver, and brass, and iron, and wood, and stone. To me the golden ones seem to be those who are composed with secular reasoning.

The silver ones, those who have elegance of speech, and are constructed with rhetorical art. But those who bring in the fables of the poets, and use ancient traditions, having among themselves much difference either of elegance or of foolishness, these are called brazen and iron. But those who propose things wholly inept are called wooden and stone. All of these Deuteronomy divides into two parts, writing: Cursed is he who makes a graven or a molten thing, the work of the hands of a craftsman, and sets it up in a hidden place. For all heretics hide and cover the dogmas of their lies, that they may shoot in the dark at the upright of heart. (Verse 5.) In the same hour there appeared fingers, as it were of a man's hand, writing over against the candlestick upon the surface of the wall of the king's palace. And the king beheld the joints of the hand that wrote.

He well said: In the same hour, just as we read above concerning Nebuchadnezzar: while the word was yet in the king's mouth, a voice fell from heaven; lest he should think that the punishments were inflicted upon him for some other cause, rather than for his blasphemy, he should know it.

Now the fingers seem to write on the wall over against the candlestick, lest, at a greater distance from the light, neither the hand nor what was being written should be visible. And they write on the wall of the king's palace, that the king might understand that what is written pertains to himself. (Verse 6.) Then the king's countenance was changed. And here it must be noted, on account of those psalms which have the titles: For those who shall be changed, that change belongs not only to the saint, but also to the sinner. For in what follows we read: King Belshazzar was greatly troubled, and his countenance was changed. (Verse 7.) The king therefore cried aloud to bring in the magicians, the Chaldeans, and the soothsayers. Forgetful of what had happened to Nebuchadnezzar, he follows the ancient and ingrained error of his people: so that he calls not upon a prophet of God, but upon magicians, and Chaldeans, and soothsayers.

He shall be clothed with purple, and shall have a golden chain about his neck. I am indeed doing a ridiculous thing, to dispute like a grammarian about the genders of words in the exposition of the prophets: but since I have been rebuked by a certain man who knows nothing and promises everything, as to why I translated "torquem" in the feminine gender, I will briefly note that Cicero and Maro used "torquem" in the feminine gender, but Titus Livius in the masculine.

And he shall be the third in my kingdom. Either the third after me, or one of the three princes, whom elsewhere we read called τριστάται.

Now the queen, on account of what had happened to the king and his nobles, came into the banquet house. Josephus writes that she was Belshazzar's grandmother, Origen that she was his mother: whence also she knew things past, of which the king was ignorant. Let Porphyry then awake, who dreams her to be Belshazzar's wife, and mocks the idea that she knew more than her husband. (Verse 10.) There is a man in thy kingdom, who has the spirit of the holy gods in him. Apart from Symmachus, who followed the Chaldaic truth, the others have translated "the spirit of God." And in the days of thy father wisdom and knowledge were found in him. He calls Nebuchadnezzar father, as we said above, meaning his great-grandfather, according to the custom of the Scriptures.

And the conduct of the holy man, even among barbarians, is worthy of imitation, since the king's grandmother or mother extols him with such great praises on account of the greatness of his virtues. (Verse 11.) To which Daniel answering said before the king: Let thy gifts be to thyself, and give the rewards of thy house to another. Let us emulate Daniel, who despised the dignity and gifts of the king, who, bringing forth the truth without price, even at that time followed the Evangelical precept: Freely you have received, freely give. Otherwise, even announcing sad tidings, it would have been unseemly to gladly accept gifts. (Verse 19.) Whom he would, he slew; and whom he would, he struck; and whom he would, he exalted; and whom he would, he humbled. He sets forth the examples of his great-grandfather Nebuchadnezzar, as is that well-known example of Manlius in the third book of Offices, chap. 31, who, having torn off the torque, found the name Torquatus.

The example: both that it may teach the justice of God, and that it may confirm that his great-grandson also, on account of pride, will endure similar things. But if Nebuchadnezzar killed whom he would, and struck whom he would; exalted whom he would, and humbled whom he would: then in such honors and strikings, exaltation and humiliation, there is no providence of God, nor commandment: but their own will strikes whom they wish, and exalts, and so forth. Since this is so, it must be asked in what sense that is to be read: The heart of the king is in the hand of God: whithersoever he will, he shall turn it, unless perhaps we say that every holy man is called a king, in whom sin does not reign in his mortal body, and whose heart is therefore kept, because it is in the hand of God.

But whatever shall have been in the hand of God the Father, according to the Gospel, no one can snatch it out of it; and whoever has been snatched away is understood not to have been in the hand of God. (Verse 22.) Thou also, his son Belshazzar, hast not humbled thy heart, though thou didst know all these things: but hast lifted thyself up against the Lord of heaven. Thy great-grandfather, because his heart was lifted up and his spirit was hardened unto pride, was deposed from the throne of his kingdom, and his glory was taken away, and so forth. Thou therefore, since thou hadst known these things concerning thy forebear, and knew that God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble, ought not to have lifted up thy heart against the Lord of heaven, and to have insulted his majesty, and to have done the things which thou hast done. Some refer this passage to Antichrist, that having imitated the pride of his father the devil, he was lifted up against God.

But it must be asked of them, who is the Daniel who is to interpret God's Scripture for them, and who are the Medes and Persians who slay him and succeed to his kingdom. For no one doubts that after Antichrist the saints shall reign. (Verse 25.) And this is the writing that was drawn up: MENE, TEKEL, PERES. And this is the interpretation of the word: MENE, God has numbered thy kingdom, and has finished it. TEKEL, thou art weighed in the balance, and art found wanting. PERES, thy kingdom is divided, and given to the Medes and Persians. The writing had marked on the wall only three words: Mene, Tekel, Peres, of which the first signifies number, the second, weighing, the third, division.

Therefore not only was reading needed, but also the interpretation of what he had read: that he might understand who these words foretold that God had numbered his kingdom and finished it, and had taken it up in the balance of his judgment, and that the sword would cut him down before nature dissolved him, and his empire would be divided among the Medes and Persians. For Cyrus, as we have already said above, king of the Persians, having joined to himself Darius his uncle, overthrew the empire of the Chaldeans. (Verse 29.) Then by the king's command Daniel was clothed with purple, and a golden chain was put about his neck, and it was proclaimed of him that he should have power as the third in the kingdom. Or of the third part of the kingdom. He received the royal insignia, the chain and the purple, that he might become better known to Darius, who was to succeed to the kingdom, and through this recognition more honored.

Nor is it strange if Belshazzar, hearing sad tidings, nevertheless paid the reward he had promised. For either he believed that what he had said would come to pass only after a long time, or, while honoring the prophet of God, he hoped he would obtain pardon. And if he did not obtain it, it must be believed that the sacrilege against God was greater than the honor toward man. (Verse 30.) That same night Balthasar the Chaldean king was slain, and Darius the Mede succeeded to the kingdom, being sixty-two years old. Josephus writes in the tenth book of the Jewish Antiquities that, Babylon being besieged by the Medes and Persians, that is by Darius and Cyrus, Balthasar the king of Babylon came to such forgetfulness of himself that he entered upon a most celebrated banquet, and drank from the vessels of the temple, and, though besieged, gave himself over to feasting.

Whence the history can stand, that he was captured and slain that same night: while all were either terrified with the fear of the vision and its interpretation, or occupied with the festivity and drunkenness of the banquet. But as to the fact that, though Cyrus king of the Persians and Darius king of the Medes were victorious together, it is written that Darius alone succeeded to the kingdom, this is the order of age, of kinship, and of rule. For Darius was sixty-two years old: and we read that the kingdom of the Medes was greater than that of the Persians: and the uncle, who was prior by the law of nature, ought to be reckoned the successor to the kingdom.

Whence also in the vision concerning Babylon which is read in Isaiah, after many things which it would be tedious to set down, these things are told as future: "Behold, I will stir up against them the Medes, who shall not seek silver, nor desire gold: but shall slay the little ones with arrows, and shall not have mercy on sucklings at the breast". And Jeremiah says: "Sanctify against her the nations, the kings of Media, her leaders, and all her magistrates, and the whole land of her dominion". And in what follows: "The daughter of Babylon is like a threshing floor at the time of its threshing: yet a little while, and the time of her harvest shall come". But that Babylon was captured at a banquet, whom he exhorts to the fight, Isaiah writes more clearly: "Babylon my beloved has become to me a marvel: set the table, watch in the watchtower those eating and drinking: arise, ye princes, take up the shield".

(Verses 1 ff.) It pleased Darius, and he appointed over the kingdom a hundred and twenty satraps, that they should be throughout his whole kingdom: and over them three princes, of whom Daniel was one. Josephus, of whom we spoke above, writing the history of this passage, has spoken thus: But Darius, who destroyed the empire of the Babylonians, with the help and joint effort of Cyrus his kinsman, was in the sixty-second year of his life when he took Babylon: and he was the son of Astyages, who among the Greeks was called by another name: and he took with him the prophet Daniel, and brought him into Media, and made him one of the three princes who were set over his whole kingdom. From which we understand that, Babylon having been overthrown, Darius returned to his kingdom in Media, and brought Daniel with him in the same honor in which he had been advanced by Balthasar.

Nor is it doubtful that he had heard of the sign and portent which had befallen Balthasar, and the interpretation which Daniel had set forth, and how he had foretold the kingdom of the Medes and Persians. Let no one therefore be troubled that Daniel is said to have been, now in the kingdom of Darius, now in the kingdom of Cyrus. For Darius, the Septuagint have rendered Artaxerxes.

But as to the fact that the order is reversed, and the history under Darius is narrated before that under Balthasar, which we are about to read afterward—Balthasar, who was slain by Darius—this seems to me to be the reason: that he joined one history to another at once; for at the end of the preceding Vision he had said: "And Darius the Mede succeeded to the kingdom, being sixty-two years old." Under this Darius, therefore, who slew Balthasar, these things which we are about to relate took place. (Verse 4.) Now the king was thinking of setting him over the whole kingdom, whence the princes and satraps sought occasion, that they might find something against Daniel from the king's side. For "princes," what Symmachus translated, Theodotion rendered τακτικοὺς, and Aquila συνεκτικοὺς. And when I inquired who these princes, τακτικοὶ or συνεκτικοὶ, might be, I read more plainly in the Septuagint edition, which says: and two men whom he set with him, and the satraps a hundred and twenty.

Since, therefore, the king was thinking of making this man first among the two princes, between whom he was third, occasion for envy and plots was born. They sought occasion, that they might find something against Daniel from the king's side. And in this place the Hebrews conjecture I know not what: that the king's side is the queen, or his concubine and the rest of his wives, who sleep at his side. They sought, therefore, occasion in such matters, whether by speech, touch, gesture, or go-between, they might be able to accuse Daniel. But, they say, they could find no cause nor suspicion: because he was a eunuch, and they could not convict him in a matter of unchastity. Let those say this who are wont to weave long fables on the occasion of a single word. Let us interpret simply, that they found no occasion against him whereby he might be guilty toward the king, because he was faithful, and no suspicion of any fault was found in him.

For "suspicion," Theodotion and Aquila rendered ἀμπλάκημα, which in Chaldee is called ESSAITHA. And when I asked a Hebrew what it signified, he replied that the force of the word sounded like δόλεαρ, which we may call "enticement" or σφάλμα, that is, "error": moreover Euripides in the Medea uses ἀμπλακίας, with π and not with β, calling them ἁμαρτίας, that is, "sins." (Verse 5.) Those men therefore said: We shall find no occasion against Daniel, unless perhaps in the law of his God. Happy the manner of life in which enemies find no occasion, except perhaps in the ordinances of God. (Verse 6.) Then the princes and satraps stole in upon the king, and spoke thus to him. He said well, "stole in": for they did not speak what they were plotting to do, but under the guise of the king's honor they contrive plots against the enemy. (Verse 8.) Now therefore, O king, confirm the sentence and write the decree, that it be not changed, according to what has been established by the Medes and Persians.

It becomes clear what we said above, that there was one kingdom under Darius and Cyrus, of the Medes and the Persians. (Verse 10.) When Daniel had learned this, that is, that the law had been established, he went into his house, and, the windows in his upper chamber being opened toward Jerusalem, three times a day he bent his knees, and adored: and gave thanks before his God as he had been accustomed to do before. Of this it must be quickly gathered by holy Scripture, wherever we read θυρίδες, which in Latin are called windows, or lattices, or dormers, and ἀνώγαια, that is, upper chambers. For our Lord also celebrated the Passover in an upper room, and in the Acts of the Apostles the Holy Spirit descended upon a hundred and twenty souls of believers in an upper room. And now Daniel, despising the king's command, and having confidence in God, does not pray in a lowly place, but in a high one: and he opens the windows toward Jerusalem, where he was praying with his face turned.

He prays, moreover, according to the prayer of God, and the sayings of Solomon, who admonished that one ought to pray toward the temple. Now there are three times at which the knees are to be bent to God: ecclesiastical tradition understands these as the third, sixth, and ninth hours. For at the third hour the Holy Spirit descended upon the Apostles. At the sixth hour Peter, about to eat, went up to the upper room to pray. At the ninth, Peter and John were going up to the temple. (Verse 11.) Those men therefore, inquiring more curiously, found Daniel praying and beseeching his God: From this passage we learn not to expose ourselves rashly to dangers, but, as far as is in us, to avoid snares.

Whence Daniel did not act against the king's command in the forum, nor in the streets, but in a hidden place, that he might not neglect the commands of the true Lord God Almighty. (Verse 12.) O king, did you not decree that every man who should ask anything of any god or man, up to thirty days, except of you, O king, should be cast into the lions' den? Answering them the king said: They are silent about Daniel's name, so that, when the king should answer that he had commanded generally, he might be held to his own word: lest he do otherwise concerning Daniel than what he had spoken.

The word is true according to the decree of the Medes and Persians, which it is not lawful to transgress. We repeat frequently, wherever it is said "the kingdom of the Medes and Persians," in order to resolve the very difficult question, why Daniel is remembered as being, now under Darius, now under Cyrus. (Verse 13.) Then answering, they said before the king: Daniel, of the children of the captivity of Judaea, has paid no heed to your law. In order that the unworthiness of his contempt might be greater, they call him a captive who despises the king's commands. (Verse 14.) When the king heard this word, he was greatly grieved, and set his heart on Daniel to deliver him. He understood that he had been deceived by his own answer: and that the cause of the plot was envy. Therefore, lest he seem to act against his own law, he seeks to free Daniel from the danger not by royal authority, but by reasoning and counsel.

And he strives and labors so hard that the most powerful king takes no food until the setting of the sun: and they have such stubbornness in evil that they are moved neither by the king's will nor by his displeasure. (Verse 15.) Those men, however, understanding the king, said to him: Know, O king, that it is the law of the Medes and Persians, that no decree which the king has established may be lawfully changed. As the king understood that the princes were accusing out of envy, so they too understood the king's mind, that he wished to snatch Daniel from imminent death. Whence, according to the law of the Medes and Persians, they say that the king's commands cannot be made void. (Verse 16.) Then the king commanded, and they brought Daniel, and cast him into the den of lions. And the king said to Daniel: May your God, whom you serve continually, deliver you.

He yields to the multitude, and to the agreement of his adversaries, and dares not deny his friend's death; but what he himself could not obtain, he hands over to the power of God. Nor does he speak ambiguously, as if to say, "if he shall be able to deliver you"; but boldly and confidently: "Your God," he says, "whom you serve continually, he himself will deliver you." For he had heard that the three young men, who were of a lower rank than Daniel, had overcome the Babylonian flames; and that many mysteries had been revealed to Daniel, whence he also loved him, and held the captive man in the greatest honor. And a stone was brought and placed over the mouth of the den, which the king sealed with his own ring. He sealed with his own ring the stone by which the mouth of the den was closed, lest the enemies contrive anything against Daniel. For he believed him to be under the power of God: and he who is unafraid of lions fears men.

He also seals it with the ring of his nobles, lest he seem to hold any suspicion against them. (Verse 18.) And the king went to his house, and slept without eating. How great was the king's goodwill, that he took no food either by day or by night; he allowed no sleep to his eyes; but hung in feeling upon the endangered prophet. But if the king, not knowing God, does this for another, whom he wishes to be delivered from danger: how much more ought we, for our own sins, by fasting and vigils, to bend God to mercy. (Verse 19.) Then the king, rising at the first light of dawn, hastened to the den of lions. He calls "den" a pit sunk deep, or a dry cistern, in which lions were kept. He hastens at first dawn to the den, believing him to be alive.

Now "lacus" in Latin denotes a gathering of fresh waters, as the Lacus Benacus, and Larius, and others, which the Greeks call λίμνη, that is, a pool. (Verse 20.) And approaching the den, he called out to Daniel with a tearful voice, and addressed him. He shows the feeling of his heart by his tears; and forgetting his royal dignity, the victor runs to the captive, the master to the servant. Daniel, servant of the living God. He calls him "living," in distinction from the gods of the nations, which are the images of dead men. Your God, whom you serve continually—do you think he has been able to deliver you from the lions? Not that he doubts the power of God, of whom he had said above: "Your God, whom you serve continually, he himself will deliver you"; but he tempers his uncertain statement, so that, when Daniel shall appear unharmed, the more incredible the matter, the more just his indignation against the princes will be. (Verse 21.) O king, live forever.

He honors the one who honors him: and wishes him eternal life. (Verse 22.) My God sent his angel, and shut the mouths of the lions, and they have not harmed me. The ferocity of the lions was not changed: but their gaping jaws and their rage were shut up by the angel, and shut up for this reason, that the prophet's good works had gone before: so that it may be not so much a grace of deliverance as a repayment of justice. Let every holy man utter these words, who has been snatched from the mouth of invisible lions, and from the pit of hell: because he has believed in his God. (Verse 25.) Then king Darius wrote to all peoples, tribes and tongues dwelling in all the earth: Peace be multiplied unto you. It is decreed by me, that in every dominion of my kingdom, men tremble and fear before the God of Daniel.

For he is the living God, and eternal for ever, and his kingdom shall not be destroyed, and his power is unto eternity. He is deliverer and savior, working signs and wonders in heaven and in earth, who delivered Daniel from the den of lions. Just as someone interpreted Nebuchadnezzar's writing to tongues and nations as referring to contrary powers, so also he interprets Darius, as summoning all to repentance. And he asks whether this is to happen in this world, or in another, or indeed after other worlds. These things we, counting them as ravings and empty fables, dismiss, saying only this: that signs are wrought through the servants of God among the barbarian nations for this reason, that the worship and religion of the one God might be proclaimed. (Verse 28.) Moreover Daniel continued even unto the reign of Darius, and the reign of Cyrus the Persian.

Therefore what we read above at the end of the first vision—"And Daniel continued even unto the first year of king Cyrus"—is not to be taken as the time of his life. Since indeed we read in the last vision: "In the third year of Cyrus king of the Persians a word was revealed to Daniel, who is called Belteshazzar": but this signifies that even unto the first year of king Cyrus, who destroyed the empire of the Chaldeans, Daniel was powerful in Chaldea; but afterward he was transferred by Darius to the Medes.

(Verse 1.) In the first year of Belshazzar king of Babylon Daniel saw a dream. And the vision of his head was upon his bed. And writing the dream, he sets it down in brief speech, and summarizing it succinctly, he says. This passage, which we now attempt to expound, and the one following, about which we are going to speak, are, according to the historical order, earlier than the two preceding ones.

For this one and the following are recorded as having occurred in the first and third years of king Belshazzar. But that which was read before the preceding one is written as belonging to the last year, indeed the very last day, of Belshazzar's reign. And this we read not only in Daniel, but also in Jeremiah and Ezekiel: as in those very places, if life shall accompany us, we shall be able to show. But in the foregoing sections the order follows history: what miraculous signs occurred under Nebuchadnezzar and Belshazzar, and Darius, or Cyrus.

But in these are narrated dreams which were seen at their several times: of which the prophet alone is aware, and which have no greatness of sign or revelation among the barbarian nations; but are written down only so that among posterity the memory of the things seen might endure. (Verses 2, 3.) I saw in my vision by night: and behold, the four winds of heaven strove upon the great sea, and four great beasts came up from the sea, diverse one from another. By the four winds of heaven I think are meant four angelic powers, to whom the chief kingdoms have been entrusted, according to that which we read in Deuteronomy: "When the Most High divided the nations: when he separated the sons of Adam, he set the bounds of the peoples according to the number of the angels of God. But the Lord's portion is his people: Jacob is the lot of his inheritance".

The sea signifies this world, this age, overflowing with salt and bitter waves: as the Lord interprets it in the parable of the net cast into the sea. Whence also the dragon is called king of all that are in the waters, and whose heads, according to David, are broken in the sea. And in Amos we read: "If he go down into the depth of the sea, there will I command the serpent, and it shall bite him". But the four beasts which came up from the sea, and were diverse one from another, let us learn from the angel's own explanation. These four great beasts, he says, are four kingdoms which shall arise out of the earth. Now the four winds which strove upon the great sea are called winds of heaven for this reason: because each angel acts on behalf of that kingdom which has been entrusted to him.

And this is to be noted, that the ferocity and cruelty of the kingdoms are signified by the name of beasts. (Verse 4.) The first was like a lioness, and had the wings of an eagle. I beheld till its wings were plucked off, and it was lifted up from the earth, and stood upon its feet as a man (or, stood), and a man's heart was given to it. The kingdom of Babylon, on account of its savagery and cruelty, or on account of luxury and a life devoted to lust, is called not a lion, but a lioness. For those who have written about the natures of beasts say that lionesses are fiercer, especially if they are nursing cubs, and are always eager for mating. But its having the wings of an eagle signifies the pride of a most powerful kingdom, whose prince speaks through Isaiah: "Above the stars of heaven I will set my throne: and I will be like the Most High".

Whence it is said to him: "Though thou be carried up on high as an eagle, thence will I bring thee down" (Abdias). Otherwise, as the lion holds sway among beasts, so the eagle holds dominion among birds. But this too must be said, that the eagle lives a long time, and that the kingdom of the Assyrians held dominion for many ages. But that its wings—that is, of the lioness, or the eagle—were plucked off signifies the other kingdoms, over which it formerly ruled, and which it flew over in the world. "And it was lifted up," he says, "from the earth"—that is, when the empire of the Chaldeans was overthrown.

And what follows: "And it stood upon its feet as a man, and a man's heart was given to it," if we understand this of Nebuchadnezzar, it is plain that after he lost his kingdom, and his power was taken away, he was again restored to his former state, and learned that he was not a lioness but a man, and received back the heart which he had lost. But if this is to be understood generally of the kingdom of the Chaldeans, it means that after Belshazzar was slain, and the empire passed to the Medes and Persians, the Babylonians understood themselves to be men, of a humble and fragile nature. Note the order: what is called the head of gold in the image is here called the lioness. (Verse 5.) And behold another beast, like a bear, stood on one side, and there were three rows in its mouth and among its teeth; and they said thus to it: Arise, devour much flesh.

The second beast, like a bear, is that of which we read in the vision of the statue (above II, 32): "Its breast and arms of silver," and this, on account of its harshness and ferocity, is compared to a bear. For the kingdom of the Persians was harsh and of rather sparing fare, after the manner of the Lacedaemonians: so that it used salt and cress for seasoning. Let us read the boyhood (education or upbringing) of the elder Cyrus. And as to what is said, "It stood on one side," the Hebrews interpret this to mean that they did nothing cruel against Israel. Whence also in the prophet Zechariah, horses are called white. But the three rows, or ranks, which were in its mouth and among its teeth, one interpreter explained as meaning that the kingdom of the Persians was divided among three princes: just as we read in the passage concerning Belshazzar and Darius, that there were three princes who were set over one hundred twenty satraps.

Others, however, hold that there were three kings of the Persians after Cyrus, but keep silent about their names. We, however, since we know that after Cyrus, who reigned thirty years, there reigned among the Persians Cambyses his son, and the brothers the Magi, and afterward Darius, in whose second year the temple at Jerusalem began to be built. Fifth, Xerxes son of Darius: sixth, Artabanus: seventh, Artaxerxes, who was surnamed μακρόχειρ, that is, Longimanus: eighth, Xerxes: ninth, Sogdianus: tenth, Darius surnamed νόθος: eleventh, Artaxerxes, who was called μνήμων, that is, Mindful: twelfth, another Artaxerxes, who himself was also surnamed Ochus: thirteenth, Arses, son of Ochus: fourteenth, Darius son of Arsames, who was conquered by Alexander king of the Macedonians: how shall we say that there were three kings of the Persians? Unless perhaps we choose some most savage ones, whom we cannot find out of the histories.

Therefore by the three rows in the mouth of the kingdom of the Persians, and among its teeth, we ought to understand three kingdoms, of the Babylonians, the Medes, and the Persians: which were reduced into one kingdom. And what is added: "And they said thus to it: devour much flesh," signifies that time when under Ahasuerus, whom the Seventy call Artaxerxes, at the suggestion of Haman the Agagite, all the Jews were commanded to be slaughtered in one day (Esther III). And beautifully it does not say, "it devoured them"; but, "they said thus to it": so that it was only an attempt, and by no means attained its outcome. (Verse 6.) After this I beheld, and behold another, like a leopard, and it had upon it four wings of a bird, and the beast had four heads, and power was given to it.

The third kingdom, of the Macedonians, of which we read in the statue: "Its belly and thighs of brass," is compared to a leopard, a most swift and impetuous (ὁρμητική) beast, which rushes headlong to blood, and leaps into death. "And it had four wings." For nothing was swifter than the victory of Alexander, who from Illyricum and the Adriatic Sea even to the Indian Ocean and the river Ganges ran through, not so much in battles as in victories, and in six years subdued to himself a part of Europe, and all of Asia. By the four heads he means those same generals of his, who afterward became successors to the kingdom: Ptolemy, Seleucus, Philip, Antigonus.

And what is added: "And power was given to it," shows that this was not of Alexander's own strength, but of the will of the Lord. (Verse 7.) After this I beheld in the vision of the night, and behold a fourth beast, terrible and wonderful, and exceedingly strong: it had great iron teeth, eating and crushing, and trampling the rest with its feet. The fourth, which now holds the city of the earth, is the empire of the Romans, of which it is said in the statue: "Its legs of iron"; a certain part of the feet of iron, a certain part of clay; and yet even here it recalls the iron in part, testifying that its teeth were of iron, and great.

And I much wonder that, whereas above he set the lioness, and the bear, and the leopard for the three kingdoms, he compared the Roman kingdom to no beast: unless perhaps, in order to make the beast the more fearsome, he withheld its name, so that whatever fiercer thing we might imagine among beasts, we should understand the Romans by it. What is here left unsaid, the Hebrews think is stated in the Psalms: "The boar out of the wood has laid it waste; and the wild solitary beast has devoured it". For which the Hebrew has: "All the beasts of the field have torn it"; since in the one empire of the Romans we recognize all the kingdoms together, which formerly had been separate. And what follows: "eating and crushing, and trampling the rest with its feet," signifies all the nations, either slain by them, or made subject to tribute and servitude.

And it was unlike the other beasts which I had seen before. For in the earlier beasts there were single marks of dread, in this one all are combined. And it had ten horns.

Porphyry places the two later beasts, of the Macedonians and the Romans, together in the one kingdom of the Macedonians, and divides them: wishing the leopard to be understood as Alexander himself: but the beast unlike the other beasts he takes as the four successors of Alexander, and then, down to Antiochus surnamed Epiphanes, he enumerates ten kings, who were most cruel: and he does not set these kings as belonging to one kingdom, for example Macedonia, Syria, Asia, and Egypt, but he makes an order of kingship out of diverse kingdoms, so that, namely, the things which are written, "a mouth speaking great things," may be believed to be said not of Antichrist, but of Antiochus. (Verse 8.) I considered the horns, and behold another little horn sprang up out of the midst of them, and three of the first horns were plucked up before its face. And behold, there were eyes like the eyes of a man in this horn, and a mouth speaking great things.

In vain does Porphyry suppose that the little horn, which sprang up after the ten horns, is Antiochus Epiphanes, and that of the ten horns the three plucked-up horns are the sixth Ptolemy, surnamed Philometor, the seventh Ptolemy Euergetes, and Artaxias king of Armenia, of whom the earlier ones died long before Antiochus was born. Indeed we know that Antiochus fought against Artaxias: but that he remained in his former kingdom. Let us therefore say what all the ecclesiastical writers have handed down: that at the consummation of the world, when the kingdom of the Romans is to be destroyed, there shall be ten kings, who shall divide the Roman world among themselves, and that an eleventh little king shall arise, who shall overcome three of the ten kings, that is, the king of the Egyptians, and of Africa and Ethiopia, as we shall say more plainly in what follows. When these have been slain, seven other kings also shall bow their necks to the victor.

"And behold," he says, "there were eyes like the eyes of a man in this horn." Lest we should think him, according to the opinion of some, to be either the devil or a demon; but one of mankind, in whom the whole of Satan shall dwell bodily. "and a mouth speaking great things". For he is the man of sin, the son of perdition, so that he dares even to sit in the temple of God, making himself as though he were God. (Verse 9.) I beheld till thrones were placed, and the Ancient of days sat. His garment was white as snow, and the hair of his head like clean wool. His throne was flames of fire: its wheels burning fire: a fiery and rapid stream issued from before him.

We read something similar also in the Apocalypse of John. After these things straightway I was in the spirit, and behold a throne was set in heaven, and one sitting on the throne, and he that sat had a likeness of a stone of jasper and sardine, and there was a rainbow round about the throne, like in appearance to an emerald, and round about the throne were four and twenty other thrones, and upon the four and twenty thrones, four and twenty elders sitting, clothed in white garments, and upon their heads crowns of gold, and out of the throne proceeded lightnings, and voices, and thunders. And seven lamps of fire burning before the throne, which are the seven spirits of God. And before the throne, as it were a sea of glass like unto crystal. The many thrones, therefore, which Daniel saw, seem to me to be these which John calls the four and twenty thrones. But the Ancient of days is he who, according to John, alone sits upon the throne.

The Son of man also, who comes to the Ancient of days, is he who according to John is called the lion of the tribe of Judah; the root of David, and other things similar to these. These thrones I consider to be those of which the Apostle Paul speaks: whether thrones, or dominions. And in the Gospel we read: But you shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. He that sits, moreover, and is called the Ancient of days, is God, that the demeanor of the eternal judge may be shown. His garment white as snow, and the hair of his head like clean wool. The Saviour also, transfigured on the mountain, and assuming the glory of the divine majesty, is seen in white garments. And that his hair is compared to the purest wool, shows that judgment is pure and sincere, and receives no respect of persons in judging. He is also described as old, that the maturity of the sentence may be established.

His throne is flames of fire, that sinners may be terrified by the greatness of the torments, and that the just may be saved, yet so as by fire. His wheels burning fire, or his chariot. And in Ezekiel, God is represented sitting upon a four-horsed chariot, and all things of God are of flame. Of whom it is also said elsewhere: God is a consuming fire: that we may know wood, hay, stubble, are to be burned in the day of judgment. And in the Psalms we read: Fire shall go before him, and shall burn up his enemies round about. A fiery and rapid stream went forth from his face, that it might draw sinners into hell. (Verse 10.) Thousands of thousands ministered to him, and ten thousand times a hundred thousand stood before him. Not that the number of God's ministers is thereby limited, but because human speech has not been able to explain a greater multitude.

These are the thousands, and these the myriads, of which we read in the Psalms: The chariot of God is attended by ten thousands, thousands of them that rejoice: the Lord is among them. And in another place: Who makes his angels spirits, and his ministers a burning fire. There is, moreover, a twofold office of angels; of some who bestow rewards on the just, of others who preside over the several torments. The judgment sat, and the books were opened. The consciences and works of individuals, whether good or evil, are revealed to all on either side. The good book is that which we often read of, the book of the living. The evil book is that which is held in the hand of the accuser, who is the enemy and the avenger, of whom we also read in the Apocalypse: The accuser of our brethren.

This book is an earthly one, of which also the Prophet says: Let them be written in the earth. (Verse 11.) I beheld because of the voice of the great words which that horn spoke. The judgment of God comes to humble pride. Therefore the Roman empire shall be destroyed, because that horn spoke great things. And I saw that the beast was slain, and its body perished. In the one Roman empire, on account of the blaspheming Antichrist, all kingdoms together are to be destroyed, and there shall no longer be an earthly empire, but the conversation of the saints, and the coming of the Son of God triumphing, of whom it is said: (Verse 13.) And behold, one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven.

He who, in the dream of Nebuchadnezzar, is described as a stone cut out without hands, and grown into a great mountain, and crushing the clay, iron, brass, silver, and gold, is now introduced under the person of the Son of man, that the assumption of human flesh in the Son of God might be signified, according to that which we read in the Acts of the Apostles: Men of Galilee, why stand you looking up to heaven? This Jesus who is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come as you have seen him going into heaven. (Verse 14.) And he came even to the Ancient of days, and they presented him before him, and he gave him power, and honor, and a kingdom.

All that is said, that he was presented to Almighty God, and received power, and honor, and a kingdom, is to be understood according to that saying of the Apostle: Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men, and in habit found as a man: he humbled himself, becoming obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. All which things, if the Arian heresy would consider with a devout mind, it would never bring the calumny of inequality against the Son of God.

And all peoples [. All people], tribes, and languages shall serve him. His power is an everlasting power, which shall not be taken away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed. Let Porphyry answer to whom among men this can apply; or who is that so powerful that he broke and crushed the little horn, which he interprets as Antiochus? If he should reply that the princes of Antiochus were overcome by Judas Maccabeus, he ought to teach how he comes with the clouds of heaven, as it were the Son of man, and is offered to the Ancient of days, and power and a kingdom are given to him, and all peoples, tribes, and languages serve him, and his power is eternal, closed by no end. (Verse 17.) These four great beasts are four kingdoms which shall arise out of the earth. But the saints of the most high God shall receive the kingdom. The four kingdoms, of which we have spoken above, were earthly.

For everything that is of the earth shall return into the earth: but the saints shall by no means have an earthly kingdom, but a heavenly one. Let the fable of the thousand years cease, then. And they shall possess the kingdom forever, and forever and ever. If this is understood of the Maccabees, let him who contends for this teach how their kingdom is perpetual. (Verse 25.) And he shall speak words against the Most High. Or, as Symmachus interpreted it: He shall speak words as it were God, so that he who assumes the power of God may also claim for himself the divine words of majesty. And he shall wear out the saints of the Most High, and shall think that he may be able to change times and laws.

For Antichrist will fight against the saints, and will overcome them: and he will be raised to such pride, that he will attempt to change the laws and ceremonies of God, and will be exalted above all that is called God, subjecting all religion to his own power. And they shall be given into his hand until a time, and times, and half a time. A time signifies a year. Times, according to the property of the Hebrew language, which also itself has a dual number, prefigure two years. But half a time, six months: during which the saints are to be given over to the power of Antichrist, that the Jews may be condemned, who, not believing the truth, received a lie. Of which time the Saviour also speaks in the Gospel: Unless those days had been shortened, no flesh should be saved.

We shall say that these times agree with Antiochus, in the last vision. (Verse 26.) And judgment shall sit, that his power may be taken away, and be broken to pieces, and perish even to the end. This concerns Antichrist, that is, the little horn, which spoke great things, because his kingdom is to be destroyed forever. (Verse 27.) And the kingdom, and the power, and the greatness of the kingdom, which is under the whole heaven, may be given to the people of the saints of the most High, whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all kings shall serve him, and obey him. This speaks of the empire of Christ, which is eternal. Hitherto is the end of the word. Of this word and discourse, which the Lord revealed to me in the present vision. (Verse 28.) I Daniel was much troubled with my thoughts, and my countenance was changed in me: but I kept the word in my heart. Thus far the book of Daniel is written in the Chaldee and Syriac language.

The rest which follows to the end of the volume, we read in Hebrew.

(Verse 1.) In the third year of the reign of king Belshazzar, a vision appeared to me. I Daniel, after that which I had seen in the beginning. This vision came two years after the former revelation. For that was in the first year of Belshazzar: this is seen in the third. Hence he adds: After that which I had seen in the beginning. (Verse 2.) I saw in my vision, when I was in Susa the castle, which is in the region of Elam. Or, as Symmachus interpreted it, city, from which also the region took its name, just as from Babylon, the Babylonians, and from Elam, the Elamites, for which the Septuagint interpreted the region Elymais. Susa, moreover, is the metropolis of the region of the Elamites, in which Daniel, according to the history of Josephus, built a lofty tower, constructed of squared marble, and of such greatness and beauty, that even to the present it seems to be new.

In it are preserved the remains of the kings of the Persians and Medes, and the keeper or warden, and priest of that place is a Jew. When I was in Susa the castle. Not that the castle is itself the city, as we have said, the metropolis and most powerful city, but because it was built with such strength that it seems to be a castle.

And I saw in the vision that I was above the gate of Ulai. For which Aquila translated, above Ubal Ulai: Theodotion, above Ubal; Symmachus, above the marsh of Ulai; the Septuagint, above the gate of Ulai. It should be known, however, that Ulai is the name of a place; or of a gate, as in Troy, the Scaean gate, and among the Romans, it is called the Carmental gate: each having origins of their names from their own causes.

And I lifted up my eyes and saw. Although the things which are seen in a dream are seen as it were in shadow and image: yet we cannot even see those things themselves. (Verse 3.) And behold, a ram stood before the marsh (or before the gate, which in Hebrew is called UBAL) having high horns, and one higher than the other, and growing up. By the ram, Darius means the uncle of Cyrus, who reigned over the Medes after his father Astyages. But the one horn higher than the other and growing up signifies Cyrus himself, who, after his maternal grandfather Astyages, together with his uncle Darius, whom the Greeks call Cyaxares, ruled over the Medes and Persians. (Verse 4.) Afterward I saw the ram pushing with his horns westward, and northward, and southward. Not the ram himself, that is, Cyrus, or Darius, but the ram of the same kingdom, that is, the second Darius, who was the last king of the Persians, and whom Alexander, the son of Philip, king of the Macedonians, overcame.

That this Darius, moreover, was a most powerful and wealthy king, both the Greek, and the Latin, and the barbarian histories relate.

And I understood. For from the former visions, in which the second kingdom was signified by the ram and the he-goat, he now also understands that he perceives the empire of the Medes and Persians. (Verse 5.) But behold, a he-goat of the goats came from the west over the face of the whole earth, and touched not the ground. Lest anyone should think that I am setting forth my own opinion, let us give the words of Gabriel expounding the vision to the prophet. The ram, he says, which you saw having two horns, is the king of the Medes and Persians. That is, Darius, son of Arsames, in whom the kingdom of the Medes and Persians was destroyed.

Moreover the he-goat of the goats, which came from the west, and by reason of excessive speed seemed not to touch the earth, is Alexander, king of the Greeks, who, having overthrown Thebes, turned his arms against the Persians, and having joined battle at the river Granicus, overcame the generals of Darius, and at last struck down the ram himself, and broke his two horns, the Medes and the Persians; and cast him beneath his feet, and subjected both horns to his own rule. But the great horn is that same first king Alexander, upon whose death in Babylon in the thirty-second year of his age, four generals of his arose in his place, who divided the empire among themselves. For Ptolemy, son of Lagus, held Egypt; Philip, who was also called Arideus, brother of Alexander, held Macedonia; Seleucus Nicanor held Syria, and Babylon, and all the kingdoms of the East; Antigonus reigned over Asia. But not, he says, in his strength. For none could be equalled to the greatness of Alexander.

And after many times there shall arise a king of Syria, impudent of face, and understanding dark sentences, Antiochus Epiphanes, son of Seleucus, who was also called Philopator. He, having been a hostage at Rome, and having seized the empire by fraud without the knowledge of the senate, fought against Ptolemy Philometor, that is, against the South, and against the Egyptians. And again toward the East, and against those who were attempting revolution in Persia; at last, warring against the Jews, having taken Judea, he entered Jerusalem; and in the temple of God he set up an image of Jupiter Olympius: and even to the strength of heaven, that is, the sons of Israel, who were fortified by the aid of angels, he raised up his magnificence, so that he subjected very many of the holy ones to idolatry; and trampled underfoot, as it were, the stars of heaven. And thus it came to pass, that he held the South and the East, that is, Egypt and Persia, under his rule.

And whereas he says: He was magnified even to the prince of the strength, this signifies that he raised himself up against God, and persecuted His saints; and took away the ἐνδελεχισμὸν, that is, the continual sacrifice, which was offered morning and evening, and defiled and cast down the place of His sanctification. And this not by his own power, but on account of the sins of the people. And thus it came to pass, that truth was cast down to the ground, and, while the worship of idols flourished, the religion of God fell silent. (Verse 13.) And I heard one of the saints speaking: and one saint said to another, I know not whom, who was speaking. Instead of "to another I know not whom," which Symmachus interpreted as τινί ποτε, whom also we have followed, Aquila and Theodotion, and the LXX (פלמוני) φελμονί, set down the very Hebrew word. Concealing therefore the name of the angel, he indicated generally any one of the angels.

How long shall be the vision, and the continual sacrifice, and the sin of desolation which has been made, and the sanctuary, and the strength be trodden under foot? One angel asks another angel, until what time, by the judgment of God, under Antiochus king of Syria, the temple shall be desolate, and the image of Jupiter shall stand in the temple of God, according to what he adds, saying: And the sanctuary and the strength shall be trodden under foot. (Verse 14.) And he said to him: Unto evening and morning two thousand three hundred days, and the sanctuary shall be cleansed.

Let us read the books of the Maccabees, and the history of Josephus, and there we shall find it written, that in the one hundred and forty-third year from Seleucus, who first reigned in Syria after Alexander, Antiochus entered Jerusalem, and laid waste all things, and returning in the third year, set up in the temple the statue of Jupiter, and up to Judas Maccabeus, that is, up to the one hundred and forty-eighth year, through six years of the desolation of Jerusalem, but three of the contamination of the temple, two thousand three hundred days and three months were completed; after which the temple was purified. Some read, instead of two thousand three hundred, two thousand two hundred, lest six years and three months should seem to remain over. Very many of our writers refer this passage to Antichrist, and say that what was done under Antiochus in a type, is to be fulfilled under him in truth.

But as to what he adds: The sanctuary shall be cleansed—it signifies the times of Judas Maccabeus, who, from the village of Modin, with his brothers and kinsmen striving together with him, and many of the people of the Jews, overcame the generals of Antiochus near Emmaus, which is now called Nicopolis. Which when Antiochus heard—he who had risen up against the prince of princes, that is, the Lord of lords, and the King of kings—desiring to plunder the temple of Diana in Elymais, which is a region of the Persians, which had precious offerings, there also, having lost his army, he was crushed without hands, that is, he perished by the disease of grief. But "evening and morning" signifies the succession of day and night. (Verse 15.) Now it came to pass, when I, Daniel, saw the vision, and sought understanding. He saw the vision by picture and image, and did not know its meaning.

Therefore not everyone who sees, understands: as it is if we read Holy Scripture with our eyes and do not understand with our heart.

And behold, there stood before me as it were the appearance of a man. For angels are not men, but are seen in the appearance of men. As with Abraham at the oak of Mamre, three men were seen, who assuredly were not men; of whom one is worshipped as the Lord. Whence also the Saviour speaks in the Gospel: Abraham saw my day; he saw it, and was glad. (Verses 16 and 17.) And I heard the voice of a man between the banks of Ulai, and he cried, and said: Gabriel, make him understand this vision. And he came, and stood near where I stood. And when he had come, I fell trembling upon my face. This man who commanded Gabriel to make Daniel understand the vision, the Jews suppose to be Michael. Consequently, however, because the vision was concerning wars, and the contests of kings, or rather the successions of kingdoms, Gabriel, who is set over wars, is assigned to this office.

For Gabriel is rendered in our tongue "strength," or "the strong one of God." Whence also at the time when the Lord was about to be born, and to declare war upon the demons, and to triumph over the world, Gabriel came to Zachariah, and to Mary. And afterward in the Psalms we read of the Lord triumphing: Who is this King of glory? The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle; he is the King of glory. But wherever healing and remedy is necessary, Raphael is sent, who is interpreted "healing," or "medicine of God"; if indeed it pleases anyone to accept the book of Tobias. Further, where prosperous things are promised to the people, and δασμὸς—which we may call either propitiation or expiation—is needed, Michael is sent, who is interpreted "Who is like God?"—the interpretation of the name signifying, of course, that in God is the true medicine.

And he said to me: Understand, son of man, that at the time of the end the vision shall be fulfilled. Ezekiel, and Daniel, and Zachariah: who often perceive themselves to be among angels, lest they should be lifted up into pride, and believe themselves to be of angelic nature or dignity, are reminded of their frailty, and are called sons of men, that they might know themselves to be men. (Verse 18.) And he touched me; and set me upright in my place. And he said to me. The prophet, who through fear had fallen and lay prone and on all fours upon the ground, is raised up at the touch of the angel, so that he might be able, without dread, to hear and understand the things that are said. (Verse 26.) Thou therefore seal up the vision: for it shall come to pass after many days.

The angel Gabriel, having expounded the vision, which we have discussed above as best we could, sets down at the end: Thou therefore seal up the vision: for it shall come to pass after many days. By the word "seal" he shows that the things spoken were obscure, and not open to the hearing of many, nor able to be understood beforehand, unless they be fulfilled by facts and events. (Verse 27.) And I Daniel languished, and was sick for some days. And when I was risen up, I did the king's business. This is that which we read in Genesis concerning Abraham: that after he had heard the Lord speaking to him, he said that he himself was dust and ashes.

Therefore Daniel says that he languished and was sick at the horror of the vision; and when he had risen, that he did the works which had been commanded him by the king, rendering to all their due, and knowing that saying of the Gospel: Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and unto God the things that are God's.

And I was astonished at the vision, and there was none to interpret it. If there was none to interpret it, how then did the angel interpret it above? But what he means is this: he had heard of kings, and did not know their names; he had learned of future things, and was uncertain, wavering, as to at what time they would come to pass. And so, the only thing he could do, he was astonished at the vision, and left everything to the knowledge of God.

(Verse 1.) In the first year of Darius, son of Ahasuerus, of the seed of the Medes, who reigned over the kingdom of the Chaldeans, in the first year of his reign. This is that Darius, who together with Cyrus overcame the Chaldeans and Babylonians; let us not suppose him to be that Darius, in whose second year the temple was built (which Porphyry supposes, that he might extend the years of Daniel), or him who was overcome by Alexander king of the Macedonians.

He therefore adds the name of the father, and adds the victory, because he was the first of the seed of the Medes to overturn the kingdom of the Chaldeans, so as to remove, on account of the similarity of the name, an error of reading. (Verse 2.) I, Daniel, understood by books the number of the years, concerning which the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah the prophet, that the desolation of Jerusalem should be accomplished in seventy years. Jeremiah had foretold seventy years of the desolation of the temple: after which the people would come again into Judea, and the temple and Jerusalem would be built; which fact does not make Daniel negligent, but rather stirs him up to entreat, so that what God had promised by His clemency, He might fulfill through this man's prayers, lest negligence give birth to pride, and pride to offense.

Finally, we read in Genesis, that one hundred and twenty years of repentance were appointed before the flood; but because for so long a time, that is, for a hundred years, they were unwilling to do penance, He by no means waits for the other twenty to be completed also, but brings on beforehand what He had afterward threatened. Whence also it is said to Jeremiah, on account of the hardness of the heart of the people of the Jews: Pray not for this people: for I will not hear thee. And to Samuel: How long dost thou mourn for Saul? Seeing I have rejected him. In ashes therefore and sackcloth he asks that what God had promised be fulfilled: not that he doubted the future things; but lest security should give birth to negligence, and negligence to offense.

I beseech thee, O Lord, God great and terrible. Against those who despise thy commandments. (Verse 4.) Who keepest the covenant and mercy to them that love thee, and keep thy commandments. Therefore not everything that God promises comes to pass at once; but He fulfills His promises upon those who keep His commandments. (Verse 5.) We have sinned, we have committed iniquity, we have done wickedly, and have revolted. He enumerates the sins of the people, since he is one of the people, in his own person, which we read the Apostle also doing in the Epistle to the Romans. (Verse 7.) To thee, O Lord, justice; but to us confusion of face. For we justly suffer what we deserve. (Verse 8.) To thee, the Lord our God, belongeth mercy, and forgiveness.

Concerning whom he had said above: To thee, O Lord, belongeth justice; now, because the Lord is not only just, but also merciful, he says: To thee, O Lord, belongeth mercy, that after the sentence of the judge, he might provoke Him to clemency. (Verse 11.) And it hath dropped upon us. Thou hast not poured out upon us the whole of thy wrath, which we could not bear; but a drop of thy fury, so that, chastened by the blow, we might return to thee.

The curse and the malediction which is written in the book of Moses the servant of God. In Deuteronomy we read the curses and blessings of God, which were afterward spoken on mount Gerizim, and Ebal, above the just and the sinners. (Verse 13.) All this evil is come upon us, and we entreated not thy face, O Lord our God, that we might return from our iniquities, and might think upon thy truth. Great hardness, that being placed under the blows, they did not entreat God; and even if they had entreated, they would not have entreated for this reason, that they had not turned back from their iniquities. But to turn back from iniquity is to think upon the truth of God.

Verse 14. And the Lord watched over the evil, and brought it upon us. When we are chastened for our sins, God watches over us, and permits us. But when we are forsaken by God, and are not judged, and are unworthy of the correction of the Lord, then He is said to sleep. Whence also we read in the Psalms: The Lord arose as one sleeping, and as one who had been overcome by wine. For our malice and iniquity inebriates God: which, when it is corrected in us, He is said to watch, and to rise up from His drunkenness; that righteousness may make us, drunk with sin, awake.

Verse 15. And now, O Lord our God. He remembers the ancient benefit, that he may call forth a like clemency from God.

Verse 17. And show thy face upon thy sanctuary, which is desolate. Fulfill in deed what thou hast promised in word: the time of desolation draws near to its fulfillment.

Verse 18. Incline thine ear, O my God, for thine own sake, and hear: open thine eyes, and see our desolation. He speaks these things ανθρωποπαθως [in a manner suited to human feeling], so that when we are heard, God may seem to incline His ear: when God deigns to look upon us, to open His eyes: but when He turns away His face, we seem unworthy of both His eyes and His ears.

Verse 20. And while I was yet speaking, and praying, and confessing my sins, and the sins of my people Israel, and presenting my supplications in the sight of my God for the holy mountain of my God. Therefore, as we have said above, he recounts not only the sins of the people, but also his own; because he is one of the people: or humbly, since he himself had not committed sin, he joins himself to the sinning people, that from humility he may obtain pardon. Note that here he said, confessing my sins. For in many places of holy Scripture, confession signifies not repentance, but praise.

Verse 21. While I was yet speaking in prayer, behold, the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision at the beginning. He calls the former vision "the beginning," which this one follows. And the effect of great prayer is realized; and the promise of the Lord is fulfilled, who says: While thou art yet speaking, I will say, Behold, I am here. Now Gabriel is seen, not as an angel or archangel, but as a man: so that he might show, not sex, but the name of virtue.

Flying swiftly, he touched me at the time of the evening sacrifice. He is said to fly, because he appeared as a man, and at the time of the evening sacrifice: for the prophet's prayer had persisted from the morning sacrifice to the evening sacrifice; and therefore he turned the mercy of God toward himself.

Verse 22. And he instructed me, and spoke to me, and said. So obscure is the vision that the prophet needs the teaching of the angel.

Daniel, now I have come forth to teach thee, and that thou mightest understand. Now I have been sent to thee, and have come forth, not from the face of God, so as to depart from Him, but so as to come to thee.

Verse 23. From the beginning of thy prayers the word went forth: but I have come to show it to thee, because thou art a man of desires. As soon as thou didst begin to pray, thou didst at once obtain the mercy of God: and the sentence went forth, and I was therefore sent, that I might explain to thee what thou dost not know; because thou art a man of desires, either beloved, and worthy of the love of God, as Solomon was called Idida, or a man of desires, because, for thy desire, thou hast deserved to hear the secrets of God, and to be made privy to things to come.

Do thou therefore mark the word, and understand the vision. If Daniel is told: attend diligently, that thou mayest hear and understand what thou seest: what ought we to do, whose eyes are blinded by the darkness of ignorance, and the gloom of vices? (Verse 24.) Seventy weeks are shortened upon thy people, and upon thy holy city, that transgression may be finished, and sin may have an end, and iniquity may be abolished, and everlasting justice may be brought in, and vision and prophecy may be fulfilled, and the Saint of saints may be anointed. Know thou therefore, and take notice, that from the going forth of the word, for Jerusalem to be built again, unto Christ the prince, there shall be seven weeks, and sixty-two weeks: and the street shall be built again, and the walls, in straitness of times.

And after sixty-two weeks Christ shall be slain: and it shall not be his people (the people who shall deny him), and a people with their prince that shall come, shall destroy the city and the sanctuary: and the end thereof shall be waste, and after the end of the war the appointed desolation. And he shall confirm the covenant with many, in one week: and in the half of the week the victim and the sacrifice shall fail. And there shall be in the temple the abomination of desolation: and the desolation shall continue even to the consummation, and to the end. Because the Prophet had said: Thou hast brought forth thy people, and thy name is invoked upon thy city, and upon thy people, therefore Gabriel speaks in the person of God: It is not the people of God, but thy people: nor is it the holy city of God, but holy, as thou sayest, thine.

We read something similar in Exodus also, when God speaks to Moses: Go down, for thy people hath sinned, that is, not my people, since it has deserted me. Since therefore thou dost petition for Jerusalem, and pray for the people of the Jews, hear what shall come to pass for thy people and thy city in the seventy weeks of years which follow. I know that on this question the most learned men have argued variously, and that each has said, according to the capacity of his own genius, what he thought. Since therefore it is dangerous to pass judgment on the opinions of the teachers of the Church, and to prefer one to another, I will state what each has thought, leaving it to the judgment of the reader which exposition he ought to follow.

Africanus, in the fifth volume of his Chronography, speaks thus word for word concerning the seventy weeks: The chapter which we read in Daniel concerning the seventy weeks contains many marvelous things, which it would now be too long to relate: therefore, as pertains to the present work, we must discuss the times. There is no doubt that this is a prophecy of the coming of Christ, who appeared to the world after seventy weeks, after whom sins were finished, and sin received its end, and iniquity was blotted out: and everlasting justice was announced, which should surpass the justice of the law: and vision and prophecy were fulfilled: because the law and the Prophets were until John the Baptist. And the Saint of saints was anointed: all which things, before Christ assumed a human body, were rather hoped for than possessed.

Now the Angel himself says that the seventy weeks of years, that is, four hundred ninety years, have their beginning from the going forth of the word that an answer be given, and that Jerusalem be built, in the twentieth year of Artaxerxes, king of the Persians. For Nehemiah, his cupbearer (Neh. 1), as we read in the book of Esdras, asked the king, and received an answer, that Jerusalem should be built. And this was the word that went forth which gave permission for the building of the city and the surrounding of it with walls: which until that time lay open to the incursions of neighboring nations. For indeed, at the command of Cyrus the king, who had given power to those willing to return to Jerusalem, Jesus the High Priest and Zorobabel, and afterward Esdras the Priest, and the others who had wished to set out with them, attempted to build the Temple and the city and its walls, the nations round about hindering, lest the work be completed, as though the king had not ordered it.

Thus the work remained unfinished until Nehemiah, and the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes: [So the captivity was 70 years before the reign of the Persians.] at which time, of the reign of the Persians, one hundred fifteen years had elapsed, and of the captivity of Jerusalem it was the one hundred eighty-fifth year: then first Artaxerxes ordered the walls of Jerusalem to be built: over which work Nehemiah presided, and the street was built, and the walls surrounded it: and from that time, if you wish to count, you will be able to find the seventy weeks of years extending to Christ. But if we wish to take the beginning of these from any other time, the times will not agree, and we shall find many contradictions.

For if from Cyrus, and his first act of clemency, by which the captivity of the Jews was relaxed, we should count seventy weeks, we shall find a hundred years and more, exceeding the fixed number of seventy weeks: and much more if from the day on which the angel spoke to Daniel; and a still greater number is added if you wish the beginning of the weeks to be reckoned from the start of the captivity. For the kingdom of the Persians lasted, up to the beginning of the Macedonians, two hundred thirty years: and the Macedonians themselves reigned three hundred years: and from then until the sixteenth year of Tiberius Caesar, when Christ suffered, sixty years are counted, which together make five hundred ninety years, so that a hundred years remain over. But from the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes to Christ, seventy weeks are completed, according to the lunar reckoning of the Hebrews, who count months not according to the course of the sun, but according to that of the moon.

For from the one hundred fifteenth year of the reign of the Persians, when Artaxerxes, king of that same empire, was in the twentieth year of his reign, and it was the fourth year of the eighty-third Olympiad, up to the two hundred second Olympiad, and the second year of that same Olympiad, and the fifteenth year of Tiberius Caesar, four hundred seventy-five years are gathered, which make four hundred ninety Hebrew years, according to the lunar months (as we have said). These, according to their reckoning, can make twenty-nine and a half days per month: so that the circle of the sun over four hundred ninety years has three hundred sixty-five days and a quarter of a day more, and over the twelve months of each year eleven days and a quarter of a day more is found. Whence the Greeks and Jews, every eight years, insert intercalary months of three months.

For if you wish to reckon eight times eleven and a quarter, you will make ninety days, that is, three months, and in four hundred seventy-five years there are found fifty-nine eight-year periods and three months: which together make fifteen years, more or less: which, if you wish to add to four hundred seventy-five years, you will make seventy weeks of years, that is, four hundred ninety years all together. These things Africanus said in the very words we have set forth. Let us pass to Eusebius Pamphili, who in the eighth book of the Evangelical Demonstration conjectures something like this: “It does not seem to me that the division of the seventy weeks was made without purpose: that first seven should be said, then sixty-two, and last one week should be added, which itself is again cut into two parts. For it is written: Know thou and understand, from the going forth of the word: that an answer be given, and Jerusalem be built, unto Christ the prince, seven weeks, and sixty-two weeks.

And after other things which he related in between, he places at the end: he shall confirm the covenant with many in one week. That the Angel did not answer these things without purpose and without the inspiration of God is manifest. This observation seems to demand a careful and diligent reasoning, so that the reader may attend diligently and inquire into the cause of the division. But if it is necessary for us to say what we think, according to another explanation which pertains to the present reading, in that which the Angel says: From the going forth of the word that an answer be given and Jerusalem be built unto Christ the prince, we think that none other are meant than the rulers who, after this prophecy and the return from Babylon, presided over the Jewish people, that is, the ἀρχιερεῖς, and Pontiffs whom Scripture calls Christs, from the fact that they were anointed: of whom the chief was Jesus the son of Josedec, the high priest, and those who continued until the coming of the Lord Saviour.

And the prophetic oracle signifies these, saying: From the going forth of the word, that an answer be given and Jerusalem be built, unto Christ the prince, seven weeks, and sixty-two weeks, that is, that seven weeks, and afterward sixty-two, which make four hundred eighty-three years, be counted from Cyrus. And lest we seem to bring forward a mere bold opinion without proving what we say, let us number those who, after Jesus the son of Josedec, presided over the people up to the coming of the Lord, as Christs, that is, anointed unto the pontificate.

The first, then, as we have already said, after the prophecy of Daniel, which was made under King Cyrus, after the people returned from Babylon, was Jesus the son of Josedec, the high priest, and Zorobabel the son of Salathiel, who laid the foundations of the temple: and the work being hindered by the Samaritans and other nations round about, the years of seven weeks were completed, that is, forty-nine, during which the work of the temple remained unfinished: and these the prophecy separates from the remaining sixty-two weeks. Indeed the Jews also in the Gospel speak from this understanding to the Lord: Forty-six years was this temple in building, and wilt thou raise it up in three days? For so many years there are from the first year of King Cyrus, who gave liberty to the Jews willing to return to their homeland, up to the sixth year of King Darius, under whom all the work of the temple was completed.

Moreover Josephus added three more years, in which the περίβολοι of the temple, and certain other things that remained, were completed: which, added to the forty-six years, make forty-nine years, that is, seven weeks of years. But the remaining sixty-two weeks they reckon from the seventh year of that same Darius. At which time Jesus the son of Josedec, and Zorobabel, already of greater age, presided over the people: under whom Haggai and Zechariah prophesied: after whom Esdras and Nehemiah, coming from Babylon, built the walls of the city, Joachim, the son of Jesus, surnamed Josedec, holding the pontificate: after whom Eliasub succeeded to the priesthood, and then Joiada, and afterward John: after whom Jaddus, in whose time Alexander, king of the Macedonians, founded Alexandria, as Josephus says in the books of Antiquities: and he came to Jerusalem, and offered victims in the temple.

Now Alexander died in the one hundred thirteenth Olympiad, the two hundred thirty-sixth year of the reign of the Persians: which had begun in the first year of the fifty-fifth Olympiad: at which time Cyrus, king of the Persians, conquered the Babylonians and Chaldeans, and after the death of Jaddus the priest, who under Alexander presided over the temple, Onias took up the pontificate: at which time Seleucus, having subjugated Babylon, placed the diadem of all Syria and Asia upon his own head, in the twelfth year after the death of Alexander. To which time all the years from the empire of Cyrus number two hundred forty-eight. From which age Scripture reckons the kingdom of the Greeks in the book of Machabees. After Onias, Eleazar the priest presided over the Jews.

At which time the Seventy Translators are said to have turned the Holy Scriptures into the Greek tongue at Alexandria: after whom another Onias, whom Simon succeeded, under whose rule of the people Jesus the son of Sirach wrote the book which in Greek is called πανάρετος, and by many is falsely attributed to Solomon. To him succeeded in the pontificate another Onias, at which time Antiochus was compelling the Jews to sacrifice to the gods of the nations. After his death, Judas Machabeus purged the temple, and broke the idols. To him succeeded his brother Jonathan: and after him Simon, brother of both, ruled the people, in whose death the two hundred seventy-seventh year of the kingdom of Syria was completed: and up to this time, the first book of Machabees contains the history. And from the first year of Cyrus king of the Persians, up to the end of the first book of Machabees, and the death of Simon the pontiff, four hundred twenty-five years are reckoned.

After him John held the pontificate for twenty-nine years: after whose death Aristobolus presided over the people for one year: who was the first, after the return from Babylon, to assume the diadem, the insignia of royal power, together with the honor of the pontificate. His successor was Alexander, likewise both king and pontiff, who ruled the people for twenty-seven years: and up to this point, from the first year of King Cyrus, and the return of the captives who wished to come into Judea, four hundred eighty-three years are reckoned: which the seven and the sixty-two weeks, that is, sixty-nine together, make up. And during all this time the pontiffs ruled the people of the Jews, whom I now think are called Christ-leaders.

But after the death of the last of them, Alexander, the nation of the Jews was tossed about here and there into various parties by seditions, without any leader, to such an extent that Alexandra, who was also called Salina, the wife of that same Alexander, obtained the government, and reserved indeed the pontificate for her son Hircanus, but handed over the kingdom to her other son Aristobolus, which he held for ten years. But while the brothers fought against each other in internal sedition, and drew the nation of the Jews into diverse factions, Cneus Pompeius, the leader of the Roman army, came upon them, and having taken Jerusalem, entered even into the inner shrines of the temple, which were called the holy of holies: and sent Aristobolus in chains to Rome, keeping him for his triumph, and handed over the pontificate to his brother Hircanus. Then for the first time the nation of the Jews was made tributary to the Romans.

After him Herod, the son of Antipater, having killed Hircanus, received the kingdom of the Jews by decree of the senate, and was the first foreigner to preside over the Jews. He also did not hand over the pontificate, as the law of Moses required, upon the death of the parents, to their children, but to strangers, and not even to them for long, except for favor and price, despising the commands of the divine law. This same Eusebius also gives another explanation, which, if we wished to translate it into Latin, would extend the size of the book.

This, then, is the substance of his interpretation: From the sixth year of Darius, who reigned in Persia after Cyrus and Cambyses his son, when the works of the temple were completed, up to Herod and Caesar Augustus, he numbers seven and sixty-two weeks, which make four hundred eighty-three years: when Christ, that is, Hircanus, the last pontiff of the race of the Machabees, was slain by Herod, and the succession of pontiffs according to the law of God ceased. The city also, and the sanctuary itself, under a Roman leader, the Roman army laid waste, or Herod himself, who through the Romans seized undue power over the Jews.

And that which he adds: For he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week, and in the half of the week the victim and sacrifice shall fail, he interprets thus: that while Herod reigned over Judea, and Augustus over the Romans, Christ was born, who for three years and six months, according to the Evangelist John, preached the Gospel, and confirmed the worship of the true God among many: doubtless among the apostles and believers, when after the passion of the Lord, again in the half of a week, the victim and sacrifice failed. For whatever was done afterward in the temple was not a sacrifice to God, but a worship of the devil, all crying out together: His blood be upon us and upon our children. And: We have no king but Caesar. This passage the diligent reader will be able to find more fully discussed in the Chronicle of this same Eusebius, which many years ago we translated into the Latin tongue.

That the completion of the temple, up to the tenth year of the Emperor Augustus, when, after Hircanus was killed, Herod obtained Judea, amounts to seven and sixty-two weeks, that is, four hundred eighty-three years, we can thus prove: in the first year of the sixty-sixth [Read in both places, seventh] Olympiad, that is, the sixth year of Darius, the building of the temple was completed, and in the third year of the one hundred eighty-sixth Olympiad, that is, the tenth year of Augustus, Herod took the government of the Jews: which years make four hundred eighty-three, counting four years to each Olympiad. This same Eusebius also states another opinion, which in part I do not reject: that many extend one week of years to seventy years, counting ten years for each year of the week.

And they hold that from the passion of the Lord to the reign of Nero there were thirty-five years; when the Roman arms were first stirred up against the Jews, and that this is the half-week of the seventy years. But afterward, from Vespasian and Titus, and thereafter, when Jerusalem and the temple were burned, up to Trajan, there are another thirty-five years, and this is the week of which the angel speaks to Daniel: He shall confirm the covenant with many for one week. For the Gospel was preached to the whole world through the apostles, who persevered even unto that time, the ecclesiastical histories relating that John the Evangelist lived even to the times of Trajan. But I do not know how we can take the earlier seven and sixty-two weeks by years of seven each, and this one week by tens, that is, by seventy years. So Eusebius.

Hippolytus, however, thought thus concerning these same weeks: He counts seven weeks before the return of the people, and sixty-two after the return, up to the birth of Christ; whose times do not agree at all. For the reign of the Persians is reckoned at two hundred thirty years, and that of the Macedonians three hundred, and after them, up to the birth of the Lord, thirty years, that is, from the beginning of the reign of Cyrus, king of the Persians, up to the coming of the Savior, five hundred sixty years. He also places the last week at the consummation of the world, which he divides into the times of Elijah and of Antichrist, so that in the three and a half years of the last week, the knowledge of God may be confirmed. Of which it is said: He shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the other three years, under Antichrist, the victim and sacrifice shall fail.

And when Christ comes, and slays the wicked one with the spirit of his mouth, the desolation shall persist even to the consummation and the end. Apollinaris of Laodicea, however, freeing himself from every question of past times, extends his conjectures into the future, and dangerously puts forth an opinion about uncertain things. Which, if perchance those who are to live after us do not see fulfilled at the appointed time, they will be compelled to seek another solution, and to accuse the teacher of error. He says therefore, that I may interpret word for word, lest I seem to slander one who says nothing: In four hundred ninety years, sins, and all the vices that arise from sins, are to be suppressed: after which good things are to come, and the world is to be reconciled to God at the coming of Christ his Son.

For from the going forth of the Word, when Christ was born of the Virgin Mary, up to the forty-ninth year, that is, the end of the seven weeks, the expected repentance of Israel is to occur. But afterward, from the eighth year of Claudius Caesar, the Roman arms were taken up against the Jews. For in the thirtieth year of his age, according to the evangelist Luke, the Lord began in the flesh to preach the Gospel, and according to the evangelist John, through three passovers he fulfilled two more years afterward, and from then six years of Tiberius are reckoned, and four of Gaius Caesar, surnamed Caligula, and eight of Claudius, that is, forty-nine years together, which make seven weeks of years.

But when four hundred thirty-four years after this had elapsed, that is, sixty-two weeks, then, from Elijah, who is to come according to the word of the Lord the Savior, to turn the heart of the fathers to the children, in the last week Jerusalem and the temple are to be built, for three and a half years: and Antichrist is to come, and, according to the apostle, to sit in the temple of God, and to be slain by the spirit of the Lord the Savior, after he has fought against the saints: and thus it comes to pass, that the middle of the week confirms the covenant of God with the saints, and again the middle proclaims the cessation of sacrifices under Antichrist, who shall set the abomination of desolation, that is, the idol and image of his own god in the temple, and there shall be the final desolation, and the condemnation of the people of the Jews, who, having spurned the truth of Christ, received the lie of Antichrist.

This same Apollinaris asserts that he derives this conjecture of times because Africanus, the writer of chronology, whose exposition I set forth above, testifies that the last week is at the end of the world: and that it cannot be that ages joined together be divided; but that all times must be joined together according to the prophecy of Daniel.

Clement, a most learned man, presbyter of the Church of Alexandria, setting little store by the number of years, says that from Cyrus king of the Persians up to Vespasian and Titus, the Roman emperors, the seventy weeks of years were completed, that is, four hundred ninety years, adding to that very number the two thousand three hundred days of which we spoke above: and he tries to reckon within these weeks the times of the Persians, the Macedonians, and the Caesars, though according to the most careful reckoning, from the first year of Cyrus, king of the Persians and Medes, in which Darius also reigned, up to Vespasian, and the destruction of the temple, six hundred thirty years are reckoned.

Origen, when he had treated this same chapter, exhorted us to seek what we do not understand, and since there was no place for allegory, in which there is free disputation, being confined by the truth of history, briefly noted this in the tenth volume of the Stromata: “The times must be more diligently inquired into, from the first year of Darius the son of Ahasuerus up to the coming of Christ, how many years there are, and what is said to have happened in them, and it must be seen whether we can fit these to the coming of the Lord.” That Tertullian said the same we shall be able to know from that book which he wrote against the Jews, whose words must be briefly set down: “Whence then shall we show that Christ came within sixty-two weeks? Let us count from the first year of Darius, since it was at that very time that this vision was shown to Daniel.

For he says to him: Understand, and reckon from the prophecy of the word that I am answering thee these things. Whence we ought to compute from the first year of Darius, when Daniel saw this vision. Let us see, then, how the years are fulfilled up to the coming of Christ. Darius reigned nineteen years; Artaxerxes forty years; Ochus, who is also Cyrus, twenty-four years; Argus one year. Another Darius, who was also named Melas, twenty-one years. Alexander of Macedon twelve years. Then after Alexander (who had reigned over both the Medes and Persians, whom he had conquered, and had established his kingdom at Alexandria, when he also called it by his own name), Soter reigned there in Alexandria for thirty-five years: whom Philadelphus succeeded, reigning thirty-eight years. After him Evergetes reigned twenty-five years: then Philopator seventeen years, and after him Epiphanes twenty-four years. Likewise another Evergetes twenty-nine years. Soter thirty-eight years. Ptolemy thirty-seven years. Cleopatra twenty years and five months. Likewise Cleopatra co-reigned with Augustus for thirteen years.

After Cleopatra, Augustus reigned alone for another forty-three years. For all the years of the reign of Augustus were fifty-six in number. Let us see, however, that in the forty-first year of the reign of Augustus, who reigned after the death of Cleopatra, Christ was born, and this same Augustus survived, from the time Christ was born, fifteen years more. And there will remain, of the years up to the day of the Nativity of Christ, reckoning to the forty-first year of Augustus after the death of Cleopatra, four hundred thirty-seven years, five months. Whence are fulfilled sixty-two weeks and a half, which make four hundred thirty-seven years, six months, up to the day of the Nativity of Christ. And everlasting justice was manifested, and the Saint of saints was anointed, that is, Christ, and the vision and prophecy were sealed, and sins were forgiven, which through that same name of Christ are granted to all who believe in him. But what is meant by saying that the vision and prophecy are sealed?

Because all the prophets announced concerning him that he was to come, and was to suffer. There were, then, fifty-six years.” Soon in Tertullian follows again: “Likewise Cleopatra still co-reigned under Augustus,” since the prophecy was fulfilled through his coming, he therefore said that the vision and prophecy would be sealed, since he himself is the seal of all the prophets, fulfilling all the things which the prophets of old had announced concerning him. For after his coming and his passion, there is no longer vision, nor prophecy which announces that Christ is to come. And a little after he says: Let us see, he says, in what act the other seven and a half weeks, which are subdivided from the cutting off of the earlier weeks, were fulfilled. For after Augustus, who survived after the birth of Christ, fifteen years are reckoned. To him succeeded Tiberius Caesar, who held the empire for twenty-two years, seven months, and twenty-eight days.

In the fifteenth year of his reign Christ suffers, being about thirty-three years old when he suffered. Likewise Gaius Caesar, also called Caligula, three years, eight months, thirteen days. Nero nine years, nine months, thirteen days. Galba seven months, twenty-eight days. Otho three months, five days. Vitellius eight months, twenty-eight days. Vespasian, in the first year of his reign, subdued the Jews, and the total number comes to fifty-two years, six months. For he reigned eleven years, and thus down to the day of his conquest, the Jews had completed the seventy weeks foretold by Daniel. What the Hebrews think about this passage I will briefly touch upon, leaving the credit of what is said to those by whom it is said. Let us then speak paraphrastically, so that the sense may become clearer.

O Daniel, know that from this day on which I now speak to you (it was the first year of Darius, who slew Belshazzar, and transferred the kingdom of the Chaldeans to the Persians and Medes) until the seventieth week of years, that is, four hundred ninety years, these things will happen to your people by parts. First God will be propitiated toward you, whom you now greatly entreat, and sin will be blotted out, and transgression will receive its end. For now, with the city deserted, and the temple destroyed down to its foundations, the people are set in mourning; but not after a great time it will be restored. And not only will this happen in these seventy weeks, that the city be built and the temple be restored, but Christ will be born, that is, everlasting righteousness. And the vision and the prophecy will be sealed, so that no prophet at all is found in Israel, and the Holy of Holies will be anointed.

Of whom we read in the Psalter: Therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness above your fellows. Who also says of himself in another place: Be holy, for I also am holy. Know therefore that from this day on which I speak this to you, and promise by the word of God, that the people will return, and Jerusalem will be restored, until Christ the leader, and the perpetual desolation of the temple, sixty-two weeks are to be counted, as well as another seven weeks, in which, according to their order, two things will happen, of which I have already spoken before, that the people return, and the street be built by Nehemiah and Ezra. At the end of the weeks, therefore, God's sentence will be fulfilled in the straitness of the times, when again the temple will be destroyed, and the city will be taken.

For after sixty-two weeks Christ will be killed, and his people will not be his who is going to deny him—or, as they say, his empire will not exist, which they thought they would retain. And what am I saying about Christ being killed, and the people being utterly abandoned by God's help, when the Roman people, with the coming leader Vespasian, will scatter the city and the sanctuary? When he died, seven weeks having passed, that is, forty-nine years, Aelius Hadrian, and afterward the city of Aelia was founded out of the ruins of Jerusalem, he overcame the rebelling Jews, with Tinnius Rufus, master of the army, fighting. And then the victim and sacrifice will cease, and the desolation will persist until the consummation of the world, and the end. Nor should it move us, they say, that first seven weeks are counted, and then sixty-two, and again one, which is divided into two parts.

For this is an idiom of the Hebrew language, and of the ancient Latin speech, that they reckon the smaller number before, and then the larger. For example, we do not now say, according to the property of our language: Abraham lived one hundred seventy-five years; they, on the contrary, say: Abraham lived five, and seventy, and a hundred years. It is not, therefore, fulfilled as it is read, but as the whole is reckoned together, thus it reaches its end. Nor are we unaware that some of them say that the one week, of which it is written: He will confirm the covenant with many for one week, is divided between Vespasian and Hadrian: because, according to the history of Josephus, Vespasian and Titus made peace with the Jews for three years and six months. And three years and six months are reckoned under Hadrian, when Jerusalem was utterly overthrown, and the Jewish nation slaughtered in droves, so that they were driven even from the borders of Judea.

These things the Hebrews say, not much concerned that from the first year of Darius king of the Persians, up to the final overthrow of Jerusalem, which befell them under Hadrian, one hundred seventy-four Olympiads are reckoned, that is, six hundred ninety-six years, which make ninety-nine Hebrew weeks, and three years: when Cochebas, leader of the Jews, was crushed, and Jerusalem was razed to the ground.

(Verse 1.) In the third year of Cyrus king of the Persians, a word was revealed to Daniel, surnamed Belteshazzar, and the word was true, and the strength great; and he understood the word. For understanding is needed in a vision. And how do we read at the end of the first vision: Now Daniel was there until the first year of King Cyrus?

We understand, therefore, that he was among the Chaldeans in his former dignity, clothed in purple and fine linen, up to the first year of King Cyrus, when he overthrew the Chaldeans, and afterward began to be with Darius the son of Ahasuerus of the seed of the Medes, who ruled over the kingdom of the Chaldeans. Or certainly, Darius having now died, in whose first year he had learned the mysteries of the seventy weeks: now in the third year of King Cyrus he is said to have seen these things. And the word was true, and the strength great: whether of God, who is about to do these things, or of the prophet, who understood these things. (Verse 2.) In those days I, Daniel, was mourning for the days of three weeks: I did not eat desirable bread, and flesh and wine did not enter into my mouth, nor was I anointed with ointment, until the days of the three weeks were completed.

By this example we are taught, at the time of fasting, to abstain from more delicate foods (which I think is what is now called desirable bread), and neither to eat flesh, nor to drink wine, and moreover, not to seek ointments. Which custom is kept among the Persians and Indians even today, so that they use ointments instead of baths. And he joins three weeks together, afflicting his soul, lest the entreaty seem transitory and fortuitous. According to the Anagoge, however, this must be said: that he who is in mourning, and mourns the absence of the bridegroom, does not eat the desirable bread which came down from heaven; nor does he take solid food, which is understood as flesh; nor does he drink wine, which gladdens the heart of man; nor does he make his face cheerful with oil, according to what we read in the Psalms: That he might make his face cheerful with oil. By this fasting the bride makes her tears effective, when the bridegroom has been taken away from her.

Rightly, too, Daniel dares to entreat the Lord, because already, in part, in the first year of King Cyrus, the captivity of the Jews had been relaxed. (Verse 4.) Now on the twenty-fourth day of the first month, I was beside the great river which is the Tigris. And Ezekiel, beside the river Chebar, saw a great vision. And to the Lord Savior, and to John the Baptist, over the waters of the Jordan, the heavens are opened. Whence let the ravings of those be silenced, who, seeking shadows and images in truth, attempt to overturn truth itself, so as to think that rivers, and trees, and paradise ought to be subverted by the laws of allegory. (Verse 5.) And I lifted up my eyes, and saw. There is need of an elevation of the eyes, that we may be able to discern the mystical vision. And behold a certain man clothed in linen.

For "linen," which Aquila interpreted, Theodotion put BADDIM; the Septuagint, byssine [garments]; Symmachus, exaireta, that is, "excellent." But for what we, following the Hebrew, translate: behold a man, Symmachus put "as it were a man": for he was not a man, but had the likeness of a man. And his loins were girded with fine gold. For which in the Hebrew is read כתם אופז, which Aquila interpreted thus: And his loins were girded with the color ophaz. (Verse 6.) And his body like chrysolite. For "chrysolite," which is one of the twelve stones placed in the Pontiff's Logeion, the Hebrew has תרשיש THARSIS, which Theodotion and Symmachus interpreted with the same word; but the Septuagint called it "sea," according to what we read in the psalm: With a violent spirit you will break the ships of Tharshish, that is, of the sea.

And Jonah desired to flee, not to Tarsus, the city of Cilicia, as many suppose, taking one letter for another, nor to the region of India, as Josephus thinks: but simply into the open sea. (Verse 7.) But I, Daniel, alone saw the vision: for the men who were with me did not see it; but a great terror fell upon them, and they fled into hiding. And the apostle Paul suffered something similar in the Acts of the Apostles, so that, while the others did not perceive it, he alone beheld the vision. (Verse 10.) And behold, a hand touched me, and set me upon my knees. The angel is seen in the figure of a man, and sends a human hand to the prophet lying prostrate: so that, seeing a body of his own kind, he might in no way be afraid. (Verse 11.)—And he said to me: Daniel, man of desires.

Fittingly he is called a man of desires, who, through persistence in prayer, and affliction of body, and the hardness of fasting, desires to know things to come, and to learn the secrets of God. For "man of desires," Symmachus interpreted "a desirable man." For every saint, having in himself the beauty of the soul, is loved by the Lord. (Verse 12.) And he said to me: Do not fear, Daniel: for from the first day on which you set your heart to understand, so as to afflict yourself in the sight of your God, your words were heard, and I came forth on account of your words. On the twenty-fourth day of the first month, that is, Nisan, twenty-one days having elapsed, he sees this vision; and he hears from the angel, that from the first day on which he began to pray, and to afflict himself in the sight of God, his words were heard. It is asked, if he was heard at once, why the angel was not sent to him at once.

Through the delay an occasion was given him of entreating God the more: that from the fact that he desires more, he might deserve, through labor, to hear more. But as to what he says: And I came in unto your words, it has this sense: After you began to invoke the mercy of God by good works, and tears, and fasting, I too received the occasion to enter into the sight of God, and to pray for you. (Verse 13.) But the prince of the kingdom of the Persians withstood me twenty-one days. This seems to me to be the angel to whom the Persians were entrusted, according to what we read in Deuteronomy: When the Most High divided the nations, and scattered the sons of Adam, he set the boundaries of the peoples according to the number of the angels of God. These are the princes of whom the apostle Paul also speaks: We speak wisdom among the perfect, which none of the princes of this age has known.

For if they had known it, they would never have crucified the Lord of glory. But the prince, that is, the angel of the Persians, withstood, acting on behalf of the province entrusted to him, lest the whole people of the captives be released. And perhaps, although the prophet was heard by God on the very first day on which he set his heart to understand, the angel who was to announce God's indulgence to him was not sent at once for this reason: because for twenty-one days the prince of the Persians withstood him, reckoning up the sins of the Jewish people, that they were justly held captive, and ought not to be released. And behold, Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me. While the angel of the Persians resisted your prayers, and my embassy, as I offered your prayers to God, the angel Michael, who is set over the people of Israel, came to my help. And by "chief princes" we understand the archangels.

And I remained there beside the king of the Persians. He calls the angel, that is, the prince, "the king of the Persians," and shows that he lingered a little while beside Michael, who was speaking against the prince of the Persians. (Verse 14.) But I have come to teach you what things are to befall your people in the latter days. What Daniel entreated, this he deserves to hear from God: what is to happen to the people of Israel, not in the near time, but in the latter days, that is, at the consummation of the age.

Verse 16. My lord, in thy vision my joints were dissolved. So Theodotion has interpreted it, according to that which we read in the hundred and second psalm: Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all my inward parts, his holy name. For before we merit to see the vision of God, our inward parts look outward; but when we have seen the vision of God, our inward parts will be turned toward us, and we shall be wholly within them, concerning which it is also written in another psalm: All the glory of the king's daughter is from within, in golden borders.

Verse 19. And when he spoke to me, I grew strong, and I said: Speak, my lord, for thou hast strengthened me. And he said. For unless the touch, as it were of the son of man, had strengthened him, and fear had withdrawn from his heart, he could not hear the mysteries of God, and therefore he now says: Because thou hast strengthened me, speak, my lord. For thou hast caused that I am able both to hear and to perceive what thou sayest.

Verse 20. Dost thou know why I have come to thee? And now I will return to fight against the prince of the Persians. What he says is this: I have indeed come that I might teach thee that thy prayers have been heard: but I am about to return again to fight against the prince of the Persians in the sight of God, who does not wish thy people to be released from captivity. For when I went forth, the prince of the Greeks appeared, coming in. I, he says, was going forth from the sight of God, to announce to thee the things that are to come upon thy people in the last days: although I am not yet secure, since the prince of the Persians still stands, contradicting thy prayers and my mission. And behold, the prince of the Greeks, that is, of the Macedonians, was coming, and entered into the sight of God, to accuse the prince of the Persians and of the Medes: so that the kingdom of the Macedonians might succeed in their place.

And truly, wondrous are the mysteries of God; for when the people of the Jews had been released from captivity, Alexander, king of the Macedonians, overthrew the kingdom of the Persians and the Medes, having slain Darius, and the prince of the Greeks conquered the prince of the Persians.

Nevertheless I will announce to thee that which is set down in the scripture of truth. This is the order of the reading: The matter is still in doubt. For while thou art beseeching the Lord, and I am offering thy prayers, the prince of the Persians stands opposed, and does not wish thy people to be released from captivity. But I, because the prince of the Greeks has come, and meanwhile fights against the prince of the Persians, having Michael there as a help, until they contend with one another, will relate to thee what God has foretold to me of the future, and has commanded to be told to thee. And let no scruple arise in anyone as to why he called the prince of the Macedonians the prince of the Greeks, that is, Ἑλλήνων. For Alexander, king of the Macedonians, having first overthrown Greece and subjected it to his power, then took up arms against the Persians.

And there is no one to help me in all these things, except Michael your prince. I am, he says, that angel who offers your prayers to God, and there is no other who is my helper in asking God on your behalf, except Michael the archangel, to whom the people of the Jews has been entrusted. And meanwhile at this time I and the prince of the Greeks fight together in common labor against the prince of the Persians. The old histories must be reviewed, and consideration given as to whether this perhaps signifies the time when the Persians were conquered by the Greeks. According to the Vulgate edition, up to the end of the book it is thought to be one vision, which appeared to Daniel in the third year of Cyrus, king of the Persians. But according to the Hebrew truth, the things that follow are separated, and written in a reversed order.

Concerning the reasons for this we have spoken above: for these things that are written are related not under the third year of Cyrus, but under the first year of Darius, who overthrew Belshazzar.

(Verse 1.) But I, from the first year of Darius the Mede, stood, that he might be strengthened and made strong.

I, says Daniel, from the first year of king Darius, who overthrew the Chaldeans, and delivered me, as far as it was in him, from the hand of my enemies (for my safekeeping even sealing the lions' den with his own ring, lest my adversaries should kill me), stood in the sight of God, and besought his mercy for him who loved me, that he himself, or his kingdom, might be strengthened and made strong. And while I persisted in prayer, I learned these things by the Lord's response.

Now it is the custom of the prophets suddenly to introduce persons without any preface of words: as is that in the thirty-first psalm; for when the prophet had besought the Lord, and had said: Thou art my refuge from the tribulation which has surrounded me; my exultation, deliver me from those who surround me; suddenly the person of God is introduced answering: I will give thee understanding, and I will instruct thee in this way in which thou shalt walk: I will fix my eyes upon thee (Verse 7. 8). So also now, as the prophet narrates: From the first year of Darius the Mede, I stood and prayed, that his empire might be strengthened and made strong, God suddenly answered: Verse 2.—And now I will announce to thee the truth. And the meaning is: Since thou wishest to know what is to come concerning the kings of the Persians, hear the order of events, and listen to what thou seekest.

And behold, three more kings shall stand up in Persia: and the fourth shall be enriched with exceeding great wealth above all: and when he has grown strong by his riches, he shall stir up all against the kingdom of Greece. He says that four kings will arise after Cyrus in Persia: Cambyses son of Cyrus, and Smerdis the Magus, who married Pantaptes, daughter of Cambyses. When he had been slain by the seven Magi, and Darius had taken up the empire in his place, this same Pantaptes married Darius, and by him bore Xerxes as son, who, a most powerful and richest king, led an innumerable army against Greece, and did those things which the histories of the Greeks relate. For he burned Athens under the archon Callias, and war was waged at that time at Thermopylae, and there was a naval battle at Salamis: when Sophocles and Euripides were held famous, and Themistocles, fleeing to the Persians, perished after drinking bull's blood.

In vain, therefore, does someone write that the Darius who was overcome by Alexander was the fourth king; he was not the fourth, but the fourteenth king of the Persians after Cyrus: whom Alexander both defeated and killed in the seventh year of his reign. And it should be noted that, having enumerated four kings of the Persians after Cyrus, he passed over nine, and went on to Alexander. For it was not the concern of the prophetic spirit to follow the order of history, but to touch upon only the most notable matters.

Verse 3. But there shall arise a mighty king, and he shall rule with great power: and he shall do according to his pleasure. And when he shall have stood up, his kingdom shall be broken. He speaks plainly of the great Alexander, king of the Macedonians, who was the son of Philip: for he, having overcome the Illyrians and Thracians, and having conquered Greece and overthrown Thebes, crossed over into Asia: and having put to flight the generals of Darius, took the city of Sardis: and afterward, India having been taken, and the city of Alexandria founded, when he was thirty-two years of age, and in the twelfth year of his reign, he died of poison in Babylon.

Verse 4. And it shall be divided toward the four winds of heaven; but not to his posterity, nor according to the power with which he ruled. After Alexander, his kingdom was divided toward the four winds of heaven: that is, east, west, south, and north. In Egypt, first reigned Ptolemy, son of Lagus, that is, toward the south. In Macedonia, Philip, also called Arideus, brother of Alexander, that is, toward the west. Over Syria and Babylon and the upper regions, Seleucus Nicanor, that is, toward the east. Over Asia and Pontus and the other provinces in that region, Antigonus, that is, toward the north. We speak these things according to the quarters of the whole world. But as for the one in Judea, he has Syria to the north, and Egypt to the south. Now what he says: but not to his posterity, signifies that he had no children: but that his kingdom was torn apart among strangers, except for his brother Philip, who held Macedonia. Nor according to the power with which he ruled.

For the kingdom, divided into four parts, was weaker: while they fought among themselves, and raged with internal fury.

For his kingdom shall be torn apart even to outsiders: besides these. Besides the four kingdoms—of Macedonia, Asia, Syria, and Egypt—the kingdom of the Macedonians was also torn apart among other more obscure and lesser kings. He signifies Perdiccas, and Craterus, and Lysimachus. For Cappadocia, and Armenia, Bithynia, and Heraclea, the Bosphorus, and other provinces, withdrawing from the power of the Macedonians, established various kings for themselves.

Verse 5. And the king of the south shall be strengthened. He indicates Ptolemy, son of Lagus, who first reigned in Egypt, and was a most prudent, most valiant, and most wealthy man, and of such power that he restored Pyrrhus, king of the Epirotes, when expelled, to his kingdom, and obtained Cyprus and Phoenicia: and having conquered Demetrius, son of Antigonus, restored to Seleucus that part of his kingdom which had been taken away by Antigonus: he also obtained Caria, and many islands, cities, and regions, of which it is not the concern of this occasion to write. Therefore, dismissing the other kingdoms—namely of Macedonia and Asia—he only relates the kings of Egypt and Syria: because Judea, placed in the middle, was held now by these, now by those kings. And it is the purpose of the sacred Scripture not to weave a history foreign to the Jews, but that which is bound up with the people of Israel.

And of his princes one shall prevail over him, and he shall rule with great dominion. For his dominion shall be great. This is Ptolemy Philadelphus, second king of Egypt, son of the former Ptolemy: under whom the LXX translators are said to have translated the sacred Scripture at Alexandria into the Greek language: who also sent to Eleazar the high priest many gifts to Jerusalem, and vessels for the treasury of the temple: whose library was presided over by Demetrius Phalereus, himself an orator and philosopher among the Greeks: and he is related to have been of such power that he surpassed his father Ptolemy. For the histories relate that he had two hundred thousand foot soldiers, twenty thousand horsemen, two thousand chariots, and four hundred elephants, which he was the first to bring out of Ethiopia.

Long ships, which are now called Liburnians, one thousand five hundred; others for carrying provisions to the soldiers, one thousand: also a great weight of gold and silver: so that he received from Egypt every year fourteen thousand eight hundred talents of silver: and of grain, artabae (a measure which holds three modii and a third of a modius), one million five hundred thousand.

Verse 6. And after the end of years they shall be allied by treaty (or, as Theodotion has interpreted it: And after his years they shall be mingled together). And the daughter of the king of the south shall come to the king of the north, to make friendship: and she shall not retain the strength of her arm, nor shall her seed stand; and she shall be given up, and the young men who brought her, who supported her in those times. First reigned in Syria, as we have said, Seleucus, surnamed Nicanor. Second, Antiochus, who was called Soter. Third, another Antiochus, who was called Θεὸς, that is, God. This one waged very many wars against Ptolemy Philadelphus, who was second ruler over the Egyptians, and fought with all the forces of Babylon and the East. And so Ptolemy Philadelphus, wishing after many years to end their troublesome strife, gave his daughter, named Berenice, in marriage to Antiochus, who by his former wife, named Laodice, had two sons, Seleucus, surnamed Callinicus, and another Antiochus.

And he escorted her as far as Pelusium: and gave infinite thousands of gold and silver as a dowry: from which he was called φερνοφόρος, that is, "dowry-bearing." But Antiochus, saying that he had Berenice as consort of the kingdom, and Laodice in the place of a concubine, after much time, overcome by love, brought Laodice back with her children into the royal palace. She, fearing her husband's wavering mind, lest he should bring Berenice back, had her husband killed by poison through her attendants. Berenice, however, together with the son who had been born of Antiochus, she handed over to be killed to Icadion and Genneus, princes of Antioch: and she established her elder son Seleucus Callinicus as king in his father's place. And this is what is now said: After many years Ptolemy Philadelphus and Antiochus Θεὸς shall make friendships: and the daughter of the king of the south, that is, of Ptolemy, shall come to the king of the north, that is, to Antiochus, that she might join in friendship the father and the husband.

And she shall not be able, he says, to retain it, nor shall her seed stand in the kingdom of Syria; but both Berenice herself, and those who brought her, shall be slain. King Antiochus also, who supported her, that is, through whom she could have prevailed, was killed by his wife's poison. (Verses 7-9.) And there shall stand up out of the offspring of his roots one to plant: and he shall come with an army, and shall enter into the province of the king of the North, and shall abuse them, and shall prevail. Moreover he shall carry into Egypt their gods also, and their molten images, and their precious vessels of gold and silver, captive: he shall prevail against the king of the North. And the king of the South shall come into the kingdom, and shall return to his own land.

Berenice having been slain, and Ptolemy Philadelphus her father having died in Egypt, his brother, this same Ptolemy surnamed Evergetes, succeeded as the third in the kingdom, of the planting and of the offspring of his root, in that he was her own brother: and he came with a great army, and entered the province of the king of the North, that is, of Seleucus surnamed Callinicus, who was reigning in Syria along with his mother Laodice, and he abused them, and prevailed, to such an extent that he took Syria and Cilicia, and the upper regions beyond the Euphrates, and almost the whole of Asia. And when he had heard that a sedition was stirring in Egypt, plundering the kingdom of Seleucus, he carried off forty thousand talents of silver, and precious vessels and images of the gods, two thousand five hundred, among which were also those which Cambyses, upon the capture of Egypt, had carried off to the Persians.

Finally, the Egyptian nation, given over to idolatry, because after many years he had brought back their gods, called him Evergetes. And Syria indeed he himself retained; but Cilicia he handed over to his friend Antiochus to govern, and the provinces beyond the Euphrates to Xanthippus, another general. (Verse 10.) But his sons shall be stirred up: and they shall assemble a multitude of great forces: and one shall come speedily, and overflow, and return, and shall be roused to anger, and shall join battle with his strength.

After the flight and death of Seleucus Callinicus, his two sons, Seleucus surnamed Ceraunus, and Antiochus who was called the Great, roused by hope of victory and by desire to avenge their parent, having assembled an army, took up arms against Ptolemy Philopator. And when Seleucus, the elder brother, in the third year of his reign, had been slain in Phrygia by the treachery of Nicanor and Apaturius, the army which was in Syria summoned his brother Antiochus, surnamed the Great, from Babylon to the kingdom. And therefore it is now added that the two sons indeed were stirred up, and assembled a multitude of very great forces.

But that only one, Antiochus the Great, came from Babylon into Syria, which at that time was held by Ptolemy Philopator, son of Evergetes, who reigned fourth in Egypt; and that he fought against his generals, indeed by the treachery of Theodotus obtained Syria, which had already through succession been held by the kings of Egypt, he came to such boldness—having held in contempt the luxury of Philopator, and by magic arts, to which he was said to be devoted—that of his own accord he attempted to bring war upon the Egyptians. (Verses 11, 12.) And the king of the South, being provoked, shall go forth, and shall fight against the king of the North: and he shall prepare an exceeding great multitude, and the multitude shall be given into his hand. And he shall take the multitude, and his heart shall be lifted up: because he shall cast down many thousands: but he shall not prevail.

For Ptolemy, surnamed Philopator, Syria having been lost through the treachery of Theodotus, gathered together a very great multitude, and went forth against Antiochus the Great, whom he now calls the king of the North, according to the position of Egypt and the province of Judea; for the same place, according to the character of the region, is situated to the south with respect to one, and to the north with respect to another. For example: if we speak from Judea, Egypt lies to the north, Syria to the south. In the first engagement, therefore, near the town of Raphia, which is at the entrance of Egypt, Antiochus lost his entire army, and fleeing through the deserts, was nearly captured. And when Syria had been given up, at last the war was ended by treaty and certain conditions. And this is what Scripture now says: He shall cast down many thousands, that is, Ptolemy Philopator; but he shall not prevail. For he was not able to capture his adversary.

And what follows: (Verses 13, 14.) And the king of the North shall return, and shall prepare a multitude much greater than before: and at the end of times and years he shall come with a great army and exceeding great riches. And in those times many shall rise up against the king of the South.

This signifies Antiochus the Great, who, holding in contempt the sloth of Ptolemy Philopator—because he doted upon Agathoclea the harp-player, and had her brother, this same Agathocles, as his catamite, whom he afterwards made governor of Egypt—gathered together an incredible army from the upper regions of Babylon. And when Ptolemy Philopator was dead, he moved his army, the treaty having been broken, against his son, who then was four years old, and was called Ptolemy Epiphanes. For such was the dissolution and pride of Agathocles that the provinces formerly subject to Egypt rebelled, and Egypt itself was harassed by seditions. Philip too, king of the Macedonians, and Antiochus the Great, having made peace, fought together against Agathocles and Ptolemy Epiphanes, on this condition, that each should join to his own kingdom the cities nearest to it out of the kingdom of Ptolemy. And this is what he now says, that many should rise up against the king of the South, namely against Ptolemy Epiphanes, who was of boyish age.

The sons also of them that transgress against thy people shall lift themselves up, that they may fulfil the vision, and they shall fall.

While Antiochus the Great and the generals of Ptolemy were fighting against each other, Judea, placed in the midst, was being torn asunder into opposing factions: some favoring Antiochus, others Ptolemy. At length Onias the priest, taking with him a very great number of the Jews, fled into Egypt, and being received honorably by Ptolemy, obtained that region which was called Heliopolis; and, with the king's permission, built a temple in Egypt like the temple of the Jews, which remained until the reign of Vespasian, for two hundred fifty years. But the city itself, which was called the City of Onias, when afterward the Jews were warring against the Romans, was destroyed even to its foundations: and neither of the city nor of the temple does any trace remain. On the occasion, therefore, of Onias the high priest, countless swarms of Jews fled to Egypt. At that time it was filled also with a multitude of Cyrenians.

For Onias asserted that he was fulfilling the prophecy of Isaiah, who wrote: There shall be an altar of the Lord in Egypt, and a monument of the Lord at the borders thereof. And this is what he now says: The sons of them that transgress against thy people, who abandoned the law of the Lord, wishing in another place than that which had been commanded to offer sacrifices to God, shall lift themselves up into pride, and shall boast that they are fulfilling the vision, that is, the commandment of the Lord. But they shall fall: because both the temple and the city shall afterward be destroyed.

And when Antiochus held Judea, Scopas the Aetolian, general of Ptolemy's party, being sent, fought vigorously against Antiochus, and took Judea, and, carrying off with him the chief men of Ptolemy's party, returned into Egypt. (Verses 15, 16.) And the king of the North shall come, and shall cast up a mound, and shall take the most fortified cities: and the arms of the South shall not withstand him: and his chosen ones shall rise up to resist, and there shall be no strength. And he coming against him shall do according to his own will, and there shall be none that shall stand before his face: and he shall stand in the glorious land, and it shall be consumed by his hand. For Antiochus, wishing to recover Judea, and very many cities of Syria, put to flight Scopas, general of Ptolemy, near the sources of the Jordan, where Paneas is now built, having joined battle; and with ten thousand armed men besieged him shut up in Sidon.

For his deliverance Ptolemy sent famous generals, Eropus, and Menocles, and Damoxenus. But he was not able to raise the siege, until Scopas, overcome by famine, surrendered, and was sent away stripped, along with his allies. And when it says, He shall cast up a mound, it signifies that he besieged for a long time, with the Jews' assistance, the garrison of Scopas in the citadel of Jerusalem, and took other cities, which had previously been held by Ptolemy's party, of Syria, and Cilicia, and Lycia. For at that time Aphrodisias was taken, and Soloe, and Zephyrium, and Mallos, and Anemurium, and Selenus, and Coracesium, and Coricus, and Andriace, and Limyra, and Patara, and Xanthus, and at last Ephesus: concerning all of which both Greek and Roman history relate.

And when he adds: And he shall stand in the glorious land, and it shall be consumed, or perfected, in his hand—the glorious land, or, as the Septuagint translated, the land of the will, that is, which pleases God, signifies Judea, and properly Jerusalem, in which he treated honorably those who received him, being of the party of Scopas. For "glorious land," which Aquila translated, whom we have followed in this passage, Theodotion put the very Hebrew word, for which Symmachus rendered, the land of strength. (Verse 17.) And he shall set his face to come to hold the whole of his kingdom, and he shall do uprightly with him. And he shall give him the daughter of women, to destroy him. To destroy him, that is, Ptolemy, or it, that is, his kingdom.

Antiochus, wishing not only to possess Syria, Cilicia, Lycia, and other provinces which had belonged to Ptolemy's party, but to extend his kingdom into Egypt also, betrothed his daughter Cleopatra, through Eucles the Rhodian, in the seventh year of the young man's reign, to Ptolemy, and gave her in the thirteenth year, Syria and Judea being given as her dowry. He calls her "the daughter of women" by a pleonasm, as is that poetic phrase: "So spake she with her mouth, and I drank in the voice with these ears." (Verses 18, 19.) And he shall not stand, nor shall it be his. And he shall turn his face to the islands, and shall take many: and shall cause the prince of his reproach to cease, and his reproach shall be turned upon him. And he shall turn his face to the empire of his own land, and he shall stumble, and shall fall, and shall not be found.

For neither was he able to obtain Egypt: because Ptolemy Epiphanes and his generals, perceiving the trick, acted more cautiously, and Cleopatra favored her husband's side rather than her father's. Whereupon he turned himself toward Asia, and fighting a naval battle against very many islands, took Rhodes, and Samos, and Colophon, and many other islands. But there met him Lucius Scipio Nasica, with his brother Publius Scipio Africanus, who had conquered Hannibal. For since Nasica the consul, Africanus's brother, was of a somewhat duller mind, and the senate was unwilling to entrust him with war against so powerful a king, Africanus offered a voluntary embassy for the wrong done to his brother. Antiochus, therefore, having been defeated, was ordered to reign within the Taurus, and thence fled to Apamea, and Susa, and penetrated the farthest cities of his kingdom. And when he was fighting against the Elymaeans, he was destroyed together with his whole army.

And this is what he now says, that he took many islands: and, the Roman conquering, lost the kingdom of Asia: and his reproach was turned upon his own head: and at last, fleeing from Asia, he returned to the empire of his own land, and stumbled and fell, and his place was not found. (Verse 20.) And there shall stand up in his place one most vile, and unworthy of royal honor: and in a few days he shall be broken, not in fury, nor in battle. He means Seleucus, surnamed Philopator, son of Antiochus the Great, who did nothing worthy of the empire of Syria and of his father, and perished ingloriously without any battles. Now Porphyry does not wish this to be Seleucus, but Ptolemy Epiphanes, who plotted treachery against Seleucus, and prepared an army against him, and was therefore slain by poison by his own generals. For when one asked him whence, in undertaking such great enterprises, he had money, he replied that his friends were his riches.

And when this had become known among the peoples, the generals feared lest he should take away their substance, and therefore killed him by evil arts. But how can Ptolemy, who did not do this at all, be said to stand in the place of Antiochus the Great: especially since the Seventy translated, "and there shall stand up from his root one to plant," that is, from his offspring and seed, one who shall strike down the dignity of the empire: and in a few days he shall be broken without wrath and without battle? The Hebrews wish the one "most vile and unworthy of royal honor" to be understood as Tryphon, who, being guardian of the boy, seized the tyranny. (Verses 21 and following.) And there shall stand up in his place one despised: and royal honor shall not be given to him, and he shall come secretly, and shall obtain the kingdom by fraud.

And the arms of him that fights shall be overcome from before his face, and shall be broken; yea, also the prince of the covenant shall be broken. And after friendships, he shall deal deceitfully with him, and he shall go up, and shall overcome with a small people. And he shall enter into abundant and rich cities: and he shall do what his fathers never did, nor his fathers' fathers: he shall scatter their spoil, and their prey, and their riches, and shall devise designs against the strongest holds, and this until a time. Up to this point the order of history follows, and there is no dispute between Porphyry and our writers. All that follows to the end of the volume, he interprets as concerning the person of Antiochus who was surnamed Epiphanes, brother of Seleucus, son of Antiochus the Great, who reigned in Syria eleven years after Seleucus, and obtained Judea, under whom the persecution of the Law of God and the wars of the Maccabees are recorded.

But our writers think that all these things are prophesied of Antichrist, who is to come in the last time. And when it seems to be objected to them: why has the prophetic discourse left so great a gap in the middle, from Seleucus to the consummation of the world? They reply that in the earlier history also, where the Persian kings were spoken of, only four kings after Cyrus of the Persians were set down, and, many being passed over in between, it suddenly comes to Alexander king of the Macedonians: and that this is the custom of holy Scripture, not to narrate everything, but to set forth those things which seem to be of greater moment. And since many things which we are afterward to read and expound agree with the person of Antiochus, they hold him to be a type of Antichrist: and that the things which in him occurred in part, are to be fulfilled wholly in Antichrist.

And that this is the manner of holy Scripture, that it prefigures the truth of things to come by types, according to that which is said of the Lord the Saviour in the seventy-first Psalm, which is entitled of Solomon, and all the things said of him cannot fittingly apply to Solomon: For he did not endure with the sun and before the moon, throughout the generations of generations; nor did he have dominion from sea to sea, and from the river unto the ends of the earth, nor did all nations serve him, nor did his name endure before the sun; nor were all the tribes of the earth blessed in him, nor did all nations magnify him. But in part, and as it were in a shadow and image of the truth, these things were prefigured in Solomon, that they might be more perfectly fulfilled in the Lord the Saviour.

As therefore the Saviour has both Solomon and the other saints as a type of his own coming, so also Antichrist is rightly to be believed to have had as his type the most wicked king Antiochus, who persecuted the saints and profaned the temple. Let us therefore follow the order of the exposition, and briefly note, according to each explanation, what seems to the adversaries, and what to our own. There shall stand, they say, in the place of Seleucus, his brother Antiochus Epiphanes, to whom at first royal honor was not given by those in Syria who favored Ptolemy, but afterward he obtained the kingdom of Syria by a pretense of clemency. And the arms of Ptolemy, who fought and laid waste everything, were overcome before the face of Antiochus and broken. Now he calls arms strength: whence also a multitude of army is called a hand. And not only, he says, did he conquer Ptolemy by fraud, but he also overcame by guile the prince of the covenant, that is, Judas Maccabeus.

Or what he says means this: when he himself had offered peace to Ptolemy, and had been the prince of the covenant, afterward he devised treachery against him. Now by Ptolemy here is not meant Epiphanes, who was the fifth to reign in Egypt, but Ptolemy Philometor, son of Cleopatra, sister of Antiochus, whose uncle he was. And when, after the death of Cleopatra, Eulaeus the eunuch, the tutor of Philometor, and Lenaeus were governing Egypt, and were reclaiming Syria which Antiochus had fraudulently seized, a battle arose between the uncle and the boy Ptolemy. And when they joined battle between Pelusium and Mount Casius, the generals of Ptolemy were defeated. Then Antiochus, sparing the boy, and feigning friendship, went up to Memphis, and there, receiving the kingdom according to the custom of Egypt, and saying that he was providing for the boy's affairs, subdued all Egypt to himself with a small people, and entered into abundant and most rich cities. And he did what his fathers had not done, nor his fathers' fathers.

For none of the kings of Syria so laid waste Egypt; and he scattered all their riches; and he was so cunning that by his fraud he overturned the prudent designs of those who were the guardians of the boy. Following these things, Porphyry, in a most tangled discourse, pursued the matter through Sutorius, which we have stated in brief compendium. But our writers interpret both better and more correctly: that at the end of the world Antichrist is to do these things, who is to arise from a small nation, that is, from the people of the Jews, and shall be so lowly and despised that royal honor shall not be given him, and by treachery and fraud he shall obtain the principate, and the arms of the fighting Roman people shall be overcome by him, and broken: and this he shall do because he shall feign to be the prince of the covenant, that is, of the Law and Testament of God.

And he shall enter the richest cities, and shall do what his fathers never did, nor his fathers' fathers. For no Jew apart from Antichrist has ever reigned in the whole world. And he shall devise a plan against the firmest counsels of the saints, and shall do all things until a time: until the will of God permits him to do these things. (Verses 25, 26.) And his strength, and his heart shall be stirred up against the king of the South with a great army. And the king of the South shall be provoked to war with many succours, and very strong: and they shall not stand, because they shall devise plans against him. And they that eat bread with him, shall destroy him: and his army shall be overwhelmed, and many shall fall down slain. Porphyry interprets these things of Antiochus, who set out against Ptolemy, the son of his sister, with a great army.

But the king of the South also, that is, the generals of Ptolemy, were provoked to war with many succours, and very strong ones, and could not resist the fraudulent designs of Antiochus, who feigned peace with his sister's son, and ate bread with him, and afterward seized Egypt. But our writers, according to the sense given above, interpret all these things of Antichrist, who is to be born of the people of the Jews, and to come from Babylon, and shall first overcome the king of Egypt, who is one of the three horns of which we have already spoken above. (Verses 27, 28.) And the heart of both the kings shall be to do evil, and at one table they shall speak lies, and they shall not prosper: because as yet the end is for another time. And he shall return into his own land with much substance.

There is no doubt that Antiochus made peace with Ptolemy, and entered into a banquet with him, and contrived treachery, and profited nothing: because he could not gain his kingdom, but was expelled by the soldiers of Ptolemy. But because Scripture now says that there were two kings whose heart was deceitful, so that they might do evil to each other, this cannot be shown according to history. For Ptolemy was small in age, and, deceived by the fraud of Antiochus, how could he have thought evil against him? Whence our writers wish to refer all these things to Antichrist and to the king of Egypt, whom he first overcame. (Verses 29, 30.) And his heart shall be against the holy Covenant, and he shall do, and shall return into his own land. At the time appointed he shall return, and come toward the South: and the latter shall not be like the former. And ships and Romans shall come upon him. Or, as another has interpreted: and they shall threaten him.

Both Greek and Roman history relate that after Antiochus, having been expelled by the Egyptians, returned, he came into Judea, that is, against the holy Covenant, and despoiled the temple, and took very much gold, and, having placed a garrison of Macedonians in the citadel, returned to his own land. And after two years he again gathered an army against Ptolemy, and came toward the South.

And when the two brothers of Ptolemy, sons of Cleopatra, whose uncle he was, were besieged at Alexandria, Roman legates came: one of whom, Marcus Popilius Laenas, having found him standing on the shore, gave him the decree of the senate, by which he was ordered to withdraw from the friends of the Roman people, and to be content with his own realm; and when he had put off his answer to the request of his friends, Laenas is said to have drawn a circle in the sand with the staff he held in his hand, encircling the king, and to have said: The senate and people of Rome command that you answer in this very place what counsel you are taking. At these words he, terrified, said: If this pleases the senate and people of Rome, I must withdraw, and immediately moved his army. And he is said to have been struck, not because he perished, but because he lost the whole magnitude of his arrogance.

Concerning Antichrist no one doubts that he will fight against the holy Covenant, and, fighting first against the king of Egypt, will straightway be terrified by the help of the Romans. These things, however, went before in image under Antiochus Epiphanes, so that the most wicked king, who persecuted the people of God, might prefigure Antichrist, who is to persecute the people of Christ. Whence many of our writers think, on account of the magnitude of his cruelty and shamefulness, that Domitius Nero will be Antichrist.

And he shall return, and shall be indignant against the Covenant of the sanctuary, and he shall do, and shall return, and shall devise plans against those who have forsaken the Covenant of the sanctuary. We read these things more fully in the deeds of the Maccabees: that after the Romans drove him from Egypt, he came in indignation against the Covenant of the sanctuary, and was invited by those who had forsaken the Law of God and had mingled themselves with the ceremonies of the heathen. This is to be more fully fulfilled under Antichrist, who shall be indignant against the Covenant of God, and shall devise plans against those whom he wishes to forsake the Law of God. Whence Aquila has interpreted more meaningfully: And he shall devise, that the covenant of the sanctuary may be abandoned. (Verse 31.) And arms shall stand up from him, and they shall pollute the sanctuary of strength, and shall take away the continual sacrifice, and shall place there the abomination unto desolation.

Instead of arms, another has interpreted seeds, so as to signify stock and progeny. Now they wish these to signify those who were sent by Antiochus after two years, when he had despoiled the temple, to exact tribute from the Jews, and to take away the worship of God, and to place in the temple of Jerusalem the image of Jupiter Olympius and statues of Antiochus, which he now calls the abomination of desolation, when the holocaust and the continual sacrifice were taken away. All these things, our writers contend, went before as a type of Antichrist, who is to sit in the temple of God, and to make himself as God. But the Jews wish this to be understood neither of Antiochus Epiphanes nor of Antichrist, but of the Romans, of whom it was said above: And ships shall come, or the Italians and Romans, and he shall be humbled.

After many times, he says, from these very Romans, who came to the aid of Ptolemy and threatened Antiochus, there shall arise the king Vespasian; his arms and seed shall arise, Titus his son, with an army, and they shall pollute the sanctuary, and take away the continual sacrifice, and hand over the temple to eternal desolation. Siim (צים), indeed, and chethim (כתים), which we have interpreted as ships and Romans, the Hebrews wish to be understood as Italians and Romans. (Verse 32). And the wicked shall dissemble the covenant deceitfully: but the people that know their God shall prevail and succeed. This too we read in the Maccabees, that some indeed feigned themselves to be keepers of the Law of God, and afterward made a pact with the nations: while others remained steadfast in religion; which I think will also happen in the times of Antichrist, when the charity of many shall grow cold. Concerning whom the Lord speaks in the Gospel: Do you think that when the Son of man comes, he will find faith on the earth?

And they that are learned among the people shall instruct many, and they shall fall by the sword, and by flame, and by captivity, and by spoil of days. How much the Jews suffered from Antiochus, the books of the Maccabees relate, and their triumphs bear witness: they who, for the keeping of the law of God, endured flames, and swords, and servitude, and spoils, and the ultimate punishments. Let no one doubt that these things are to happen under Antichrist, with many resisting his power, and fleeing in various directions. The Hebrews interpret these things of the final overthrow of the temple, which happened under Vespasian and Titus, that there were very many of the people who knew their Lord, and were slain for the keeping of his Law. (Verses 34, 35.) And when they shall have fallen, they shall be relieved with a little help, and many shall join themselves to them deceitfully.

And some of the learned shall fall, that they may be tried, and chosen, and made white, even to the time appointed, for it is yet for another time. Porphyry thinks that the little help signifies Mathathias, of the village of Modin, who rebelled against the leaders of Antiochus, and strove to preserve the worship of the true God (1 Mac. Ii). But he calls it a little help, he says, because Mathathias was slain in battle, and afterwards Judas his son, who was called Machabaeus, fell fighting, and the rest of his brothers were deceived by the fraud of their adversaries. Read the books of the Machabees. All these things, he says, were done for this reason, that the saints might be tried and chosen, and made white, until the appointed time, because the victory was deferred to another time. Our writers wish this little help to be understood of Antichrist, because the saints gathered together will resist him, and will use a little help, and afterwards many of the learned shall fall.

And this shall come to pass, that they may as it were be tried in the furnace, and be made white, and be chosen, until the appointed time come, because the true victory shall be at the coming of Christ. Certain of the Hebrews understand these things of the princes Severus and Antoninus, who greatly loved the Jews. Others, however, of the emperor Julian: that when they shall have been oppressed by Gaius Caesar, and shall have suffered many things in the straits of captivity, he shall rise up, pretending to love the Jews, and promising that he will offer sacrifice in their temple: in whom they will have a small hope of help, and many of the Gentiles will join themselves to them, not in truth, but in falsehood. For instead of the worship of idols, they will feign friendship with him. And this they will do, that those who have been tried may become manifest.

For the time of their true salvation and of help is to be Christ, whom they falsely think is yet to come, whereas they are to receive Antichrist. (Verse 36.) And the king shall do according to his own will, and he shall be lifted up, and magnified against every god, and against the God of gods he shall speak great things: and he shall prosper until the wrath be accomplished, for the determination is made. Or, as another has translated: for in him shall be the consummation. From this passage the Jews think it is said of Antichrist, that after the little help of Julian a king shall arise who shall do according to his own will, and shall be lifted up against everything that is called god, and shall speak great things against the God of gods: so that he shall sit in the temple of God, and make himself God, and his will shall be directed, until the wrath of God be fulfilled, because in him shall be the consummation. Which indeed we also understand of Antichrist.

But Porphyry and the rest who follow him think that this is said of Antiochus Epiphanes, that he was lifted up against the worship of God, and came to such pride that he ordered his own image to be set up in the temple at Jerusalem. And as for what follows: and he shall prosper, until the wrath be accomplished, for in him shall be the consummation, they understand it thus: that he shall be able to do so only so long, until God be angry with him, and order him to be slain.

For Polybius and Diodorus, who write the histories of their Libraries, relate that he not only acted against the God of Judaea, but, being inflamed by the torches of avarice, also attempted to plunder the temple of Diana in Elymais, which was most wealthy: and being overpowered by the guardians of the temple and the neighboring peoples, and driven into madness by certain apparitions and terrors, finally perished of disease; and they record that this happened to him because he had attempted to violate the temple of Diana. But we say that even if this happened to him, it happened for this reason, that he had exercised much cruelty against the saints of God, and had polluted His temple.

For he is not to be believed to have been punished for what he attempted to do, and, repentance following, ceased to accomplish, but for what he actually did. (Verse 37, ff.) And he shall not regard the God of his fathers, and he shall be in the lusts of women: nor shall he care for any of the gods, for he shall rise up against all things. But he will venerate in his own place the god MAOZIM; and a god whom his fathers knew not he shall worship with gold, and silver, and precious stones, and things of price. And he shall act so as to fortify MAOZIM with a strange god whom he has acknowledged, and he shall multiply glory, and shall give them power over many, and shall divide the land for a price. Instead of what we have translated, and he shall be in the lusts of women, the Septuagint rendered, and he shall not be subject to the lusts of women.

Again, for the God MAOZIM (מעוזים), which is in the Hebrew, Aquila translated, the God of strengths; the Septuagint, the strongest God. But because in the Hebrew, instead of what we have said: and he shall be in the lusts of women, it is put ambiguously, as Aquila says, who rendered word for word: καὶ ἐπὶ θεὸν πατέρων αὐτοῦ οὐ συνήσει, καὶ ἐπὶ ἐπιθυμίαν γυναικῶν, καὶ ἐπὶ πάντα θεὸν οὐ συνήσει, that is, and he shall not understand concerning the God of his fathers, and concerning the lust of women, and concerning every god he shall not understand. By these words it is understood that he both has the lust of women, and does not have it. If we read and understand it ἀπὸ κοινοῦ, "and concerning the lust of women he shall not understand," the interpretation is easier as regards Antichrist: that he feigns chastity in order to deceive very many.

But if we read it thus, "and concerning the lust of women," so that "he shall be" is understood, it will fit better the person of Antiochus, who is said to have been most luxurious, and to have come to such disgrace through debaucheries and corruptions of royal dignity, that he was publicly joined even with mimes and harlots, and fulfilled his lust in the presence of the people. Porphyry ridiculously interpreted the god MAOZIM, saying that in the village of Modin, whence came Mathathias and his sons, the leaders of Antiochus set up a statue of Jupiter, and compelled the Jews to offer victims to him, that is, to the god of Modin. But what follows, "and a god whom his fathers knew not he shall worship," this fits Antichrist rather than Antiochus. For we read that Antiochus had the worship of the idols of Greece, and compelled the Jews and Samaritans to the veneration of his own gods.

Also what follows, "and he shall act so as to fortify MAOZIM with a strange god whom he has acknowledged: and he shall multiply glory, and shall give them power over many, and shall divide the land for a price," Theodotion translated: "And he shall do these things so as to fortify garrisons with a strange god: and when he shall have shown him to them, he shall multiply honour, and shall make them rule over many, and shall divide the land freely." For "garrisons," Symmachus translated "refuges": which Porphyry expounds thus: he shall do all these things so as to fortify the citadel of Jerusalem, and place garrisons in the other cities, and teach the Jews to worship a strange god: no doubt meaning Jupiter.

Whom, when he has shown him to them, and persuaded them that he ought to be worshipped, then he will give to the deceived honour and very great glory, and will make them rule over the rest who shall have dwelt in Judaea, and will divide possessions in return for their apostasy, and distribute gifts. Antichrist likewise will bestow many gifts on the deceived, and will divide the land among his army: and those whom he cannot subdue by terror, he will subjugate by avarice. (Verses 40, 41.) And at the time appointed the king of the South shall fight against him: and the king of the North shall come against him like a tempest, with chariots, and with horsemen, and with a great fleet: and he shall enter into the countries, and shall crush them, and pass through. And he shall enter into the glorious land, and many shall fall. For which Symmachus translated: and many thousands shall fall: Theodotion, and many shall be weakened.

Understand that "many shall fall," according to Aquila, refers either to cities, or regions, or provinces. And Porphyry refers these things to Antiochus: that in the eleventh year of his reign he again fought against Ptolemy Philometor, the son of his sister. Who, hearing that Antiochus was coming, gathered together many thousands of the peoples. But Antiochus, like a mighty tempest, with chariots, and horsemen, and a great fleet, entered very many lands, and in passing through laid all things waste: and came to the glorious land, that is, Judaea, which Symmachus translated "the land of strength"; for which Theodotion put the very Hebrew word SABAI (צבי): and fortified the citadel from the ruins of the city walls, and so proceeded into Egypt.

But our writers, referring these things to Antichrist, say that he will first fight against the king of the South, that is, of Egypt, and afterwards will overcome the Libyans and Ethiopians, which we read above, of the ten horns, as three horns plucked up; and that he will come into the land of Israel, and that many cities or provinces will surrender to him.

But these only shall be saved out of his hand, Edom, and Moab, and the chief of the children of Ammon. Antiochus, they say, hastening against Ptolemy king of the South, did not touch the Idumaeans, and the Moabites, and the Ammonites, who were on the side of Judaea, lest, being occupied in another war, he should make Ptolemy stronger. Antichrist likewise will leave untouched Idumaea, and the Moabites, and the children of Ammon, that is, Arabia: because the saints will flee thither into the deserts. (Verses 42, 43.) And he shall lay his hand upon the countries, and the land of Egypt shall not escape: and he shall have dominion over the treasures of gold and silver, and over all the precious things of Egypt. And he shall pass through Libya also and Ethiopia. We read that Antiochus did these things in part. But what follows, "he shall pass through Libya and Ethiopia," our writers rather assert to belong to Antichrist.

For Antiochus did not hold Libya, which many understand to be Africa, nor Ethiopia: unless perhaps because the provinces of Egypt are in that same climate, and being far off through the deserts, adjacent, when the Egyptians were taken, these provinces also were thrown into confusion. Whence it does not say that he took them, but that he passed through Libya and Ethiopia. (Verses 44, 45.) And rumor shall trouble him from the East and from the North. And he shall come with a great multitude, to crush and slay very many. And he shall pitch his tabernacle in Apedno: between the two seas upon a glorious and holy mountain, and he shall come even unto the top thereof, and none shall help him.

And in this place Porphyry dreams up I know not what concerning Antiochus, saying: Fighting against the Egyptians, and passing through Libya and Ethiopia, he shall hear that wars are being stirred up against him from the North and from the East; whence also, returning, he shall capture the Aradians who resist him, and shall lay waste the whole province on the coast of Phoenicia. And forthwith he shall press on toward Artaxias king of Armenia, who shall be roused from the regions of the East; and having slain very many of his army, he shall pitch his tabernacle in the place Apedno, which is situated between two very broad rivers, the Tigris and the Euphrates. But when he has gone this far, on what glorious and holy mountain he sat, he cannot say: although he cannot prove that he sat between two seas, and it would be foolish to interpret two rivers of Mesopotamia as two seas.

But he passed over the glorious mountain because he followed the interpretation of Theodotion, who says: between the midst of the seas upon the holy mount Saba. And though he supposes Saba to be the name of a mountain, either of Armenia or of Mesopotamia, he cannot say why it is called holy: yet with this same license of lying, we too may add what he has passed over in silence: that the mountain is called holy because, according to the error of the Armenians, it is consecrated to idols. And he shall come, he says, even unto the summit of that mountain, in the province of Elymais, which is the farthest region of the Persians toward the East; and there, wishing to plunder the temple of Diana, which had countless offerings, he was put to flight by the barbarians, who regarded that shrine with wondrous veneration, and he died, consumed with grief, in Tabes, a town of Persia.

These things he composed with the most artful speech to our derision; but even if he could prove that they were spoken not of Antichrist but of Antiochus, what is that to us, who do not prove the coming of Christ and the lie of Antichrist from all the places of Scripture? For suppose these things are said of Antiochus—what harm does that do to our religion? Is anything said of Antichrist even in the earlier Vision, where the prophecy was fulfilled in Antiochus? Let him therefore dismiss what is doubtful, and cling to what is manifest; and let him say who is that stone which, cut from the mountain without hands, grew into a great mountain and filled the whole earth, and crushed the four-formed image: who is that Son of Man, who is to come with the clouds, and stand before the Ancient of Days, and to whom a kingdom is to be given that shall have no end; and whom all peoples, tribes, and tongues shall serve.

These things, which are manifest, he passes by, and asserts that it is prophesied of the Jews, whom we know to be in servitude even to this day. And he says that he who wrote the book under the name of Daniel lied in order to rekindle the hope of his own people—not because he could know all future history, but because he was recounting things already done; and he lingers over the calumnies of the last vision, putting rivers in place of the sea, and the glorious and holy mountain of Apedno, which, wherever he reads of it, he can produce no history for.

But our own writers expound the last chapter of this Vision as being about Antichrist, in this way: that fighting against the Egyptians and Libyans and Ethiopians, and crushing three horns out of the ten horns, he shall hear that wars are rising up against him from the parts of the North and of the East; that coming with a great multitude, to crush and slay very many, he shall pitch his tabernacle in Apedno near Nicopolis, which was formerly called Emmaus, where the mountainous regions of the province of Judea begin to rise. Then, raising himself from there even to the Mount of Olives, the region of Jerusalem is ascended; and this is what Scripture now says: And when he shall have pitched his tabernacle at the roots of the mountainous province between the two seas—namely the sea which is now called the Dead Sea to the East, and the Great Sea, on whose shore Caesarea, Joppa, Ascalon, and Gaza are situated.

Then he shall come even to the top of its mountain, that is, of the mountainous province, that is, to the summit of the Mount of Olives, which is called glorious because from it the Lord and Savior ascended to the Father, and none shall be able to help Antichrist while the Lord rages against him. And they assert that Antichrist is to perish there, whence the Lord ascended into the heavens. Apedno is a compound word, which, if you divide it, can be understood as θρόνου αὐτοῦ, that is, "of his throne." And the sense is: And he shall pitch his tabernacle and his throne between the seas, upon a glorious and holy mountain. This passage Symmachus interpreted thus: καὶ ἐκτενεῖ τὰς σκηνὰς τοῦ ἱπποστασίου αὐτοῦ μεταξὺ τῶν θαλασσῶν εἰς τὸ ὄρος τῆς δυνάμεως τὸ ἅγιον, καὶ ἥξει ἕως ἄκρου αὐτοῦ, which in Latin means: and he shall extend the pavilions of his cavalry between the seas, upon the holy mountain of strength, and he shall come even unto the top of the mountain. Theodotion: And he shall pitch his tabernacle in Aphedano between the seas on the holy mount Saba, and he shall come even unto its part.

Aquila: And he shall plant the tabernacle of his praetorium in Aphadano between the seas, upon the glorious and holy mountain, and he shall come even unto its end. The Septuagint alone, freeing themselves from every question of the name, translated: And he shall then set up his tabernacle between the seas, and the holy mountain of will, and the hour of his consummation shall come. Apollinarius, following them, kept entirely silent about the name Apedno. I have set this out at greater length in order to show both the calumny of Porphyry, who was ignorant of all these things, or pretended not to know them, and the difficulty of Holy Scripture—whose understanding, without the grace of God and the teaching of our forefathers, the most unlearned claim for themselves in the highest degree. It should be noted that the Hebrew language does not have the letter P, but uses in its place PHE, whose force the Greek φ expresses.

In this place alone among the Hebrews it is indeed written PHE, but read as P. But that Antichrist comes even to the summit of the holy and glorious mountain, and there perishes, Isaiah speaks more fully: The Lord shall cast down upon the holy mountain the face of the ruler of darkness over all nations, and him who rules over all peoples, and the anointing that is anointed against all the nations.

(Verses 1 ff.) And at that time shall Michael rise up, the great prince, who stands for the children of thy people, and there shall come a time such as has not been from the time that nations began to exist until that time. And at that time thy people shall be saved, everyone who shall be found written in the book. And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake: some to everlasting life, and some to reproach, that they may see always.

But they who are learned shall shine as the brightness of the firmament, and they who instruct many unto righteousness, as stars for perpetual eternities. Up to this point Porphyry has somehow held his ground, and has imposed both on the unlearned among ours and on the badly educated among his own; but what will he say about this chapter, in which the resurrection of the dead is described—some raised to everlasting life, and others to everlasting reproach? Nor can he say who were those who shone as the brightness of the firmament under Antiochus, and others as stars for perpetual eternities. But what will not stubbornness do? Like a crushed serpent it lifts its head, and, though dying, spreads its venom upon those who are also about to die.

And this, he says, was written of Antiochus, who, going into Persia, left his army to Lysias, who was in charge of Antioch and Phoenicia, that he might fight against the Jews and overthrow their city Jerusalem—all of which Josephus, the author of Hebrew history, narrates, saying that such was the tribulation as never was, and a time came such as had not been from the time that nations began to exist until that time. But victory being restored, and the leaders of Antiochus slain, and Antiochus himself having died in Persia, the people of Israel were saved: all those who were written in the book of God, that is, those who most bravely defended the Law; and conversely those were blotted out of the book who had become transgressors of the Law and had been on Antiochus's side.

Then, he says, those who were as though sleeping in the dust of the earth, and were covered with the weight of their evils, and were as it were hidden in the tombs of their miseries, rose up from the dust of the earth to an unexpected victory, and lifted their heads from the ground—the keepers of the Law rising to eternal life, and the transgressors to everlasting reproach. But the teachers and doctors who had knowledge of the Law shall shine like heaven, and those who exhorted the lower ranks of people to keep the ceremonies of God shall shine like the stars for perpetual eternities. He also relates the history of the Maccabees, in which it is said that many of the Jews under Mattathias and Judas Maccabeus fled to the desert and hid in caves and in the clefts of rocks, and afterward advanced to victory. And these things are said, metaphorically, as though foretold of the resurrection of the dead.

But it is more truly understood that, in the time of Antichrist, there shall be such tribulation as never was from the time nations began to exist. For let us grant that Lysias, who was defeated, had conquered, and that the Jews, who conquered, were utterly crushed—was there ever such tribulation as at the time when Jerusalem was taken by the Babylonians, the temple overthrown, and the whole people led into captivity? Therefore, when Antichrist has been crushed, and the breath of the Savior has extinguished him, the people who shall be found written in the book of God shall be saved, and according to the diversity of their merits, some shall rise to everlasting life, and others to everlasting reproach. But the teachers shall bear the likeness of heaven, and those who taught others shall be compared to the brightness of the stars. For it is not enough to know wisdom, unless you also teach others; and a silent word of doctrine, not building up another, cannot receive the reward of its work (or, of its leisure).

This passage Theodotion and the Vulgate edition rendered thus: And they that understand shall shine as the brightness of the firmament, and of the just, very many (or, very many of the just) as stars forever and ever. Some are wont to ask whether a learned saint and a simple saint have the same reward, and one dwelling place in the heavens. Whence now, according to Theodotion, it is said that the learned have the likeness of heaven, while the righteous who lack learning are compared to the brightness of the stars: and that there is as much difference between learned holiness and holy simplicity as there is between heaven and the stars. (Verse 4.) But thou, Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book until the appointed time. Many shall pass through it, and knowledge shall be manifold.

He who had revealed to Daniel manifold truth, signifying that the very things he had spoken were hidden, commanded him to wrap up the words and seal the book, so that many might read it and seek the truth of the history, and, on account of the greatness of its obscurity, hold various opinions. But when he says: They shall pass through, that is, they shall run through it, many shall read it. For we are accustomed to say: I ran through the book, I passed through the history. This indeed Isaiah also says concerning the obscurity of his volume: And the words of this book shall be as the words of a sealed volume, which if they give to a man who does not know letters, saying, Read this: he shall answer, I know not letters. But if they give it to a man who knows letters, and say, Read the book: he shall answer, I cannot read it, for it is sealed.

And in the Apocalypse of John a book is seen sealed with seven seals within and without. And when no one could loose its seals, John says: I wept exceedingly. And a voice came to me, saying: Weep not: behold, the lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David, has prevailed to open the book, and to loose its seals. But that book he alone can loose who has known the mysteries of the Scriptures, and understands the riddles and the dark sayings on account of the greatness of the mysteries, and interprets the parables, and transfers the killing letter into the life-giving spirit. (Verses 5, 6.) And I, Daniel, looked, and behold, as it were two others stood, one on this side upon the bank of the river, and the other on the other side upon the other bank of the river. And I said to the man clothed in linen, who stood upon the waters of the river: How long shall be the end of these wonders?

Daniel saw two angels standing on either side upon the bank of the Babylonian river, which, though it is put here without a name, I think, according to the preceding vision, to be the Tigris, which in Hebrew is called EDDECEL (חדקל). And yet he does not question those who stood on either bank, but him whom he had seen at the beginning, who was clothed in linen or byssus garments, which in Hebrew is called BADDIM (בדים). And this same angel stood upon the waters of the Babylonian river, treading them with his foot. From which we understand that the two former angels, whom he saw standing on the bank, and whom he does not question, nor deems worthy of inquiry, are the angels appointed over the Persians and the Greeks. But this one is the most merciful angel, who had offered up Daniel's prayers in the sight of God, when for twenty-one days the angel of the Persians resisted him.

Now he was asking at what time these wonders which are spoken of in the present Vision should be fulfilled—which Porphyry, after his manner, interprets of Antiochus, and we of Antichrist.

Verse 7. And I heard the man clothed in linen, who stood upon the waters of the river, when he had lifted up his right hand and his left hand unto heaven, and had sworn by him that liveth for ever, that it should be for a time, times, and half a time. Porphyry interprets "a time, times, and half a time" as three and a half years, which we too do not deny, following the idiom of the holy Scriptures. For above we read that seven times passed over Nebuchadnezzar, that is, seven years of his brutish state; and in the vision of the four beasts it is written of the lion, the bear, the leopard, and another beast whose name is not given, which signifies the kingdom of the Romans; and afterward it is said of Antichrist that he shall humble kings and speak words against the Most High, and shall wear down the saints of the Most High, and shall think, it says, that he can change times and laws.

And they shall be given into his hand until a time, and times, and half a time. And judgment shall sit, that his power may be taken away and broken and utterly destroyed unto the end. And plainly it speaks of the coming of Christ and of the saints: But the kingdom, and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven shall be given to the people of the saints of the Most High, whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all kings shall serve and obey him. If, then, Porphyry refers what is written above plainly of Antichrist to Antiochus, and to the three and a half years during which he says the temple was left desolate (above 1): then also he ought to prove what follows—"His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all kings shall serve and obey him"—concerning Antiochus, or, as he himself supposes, concerning the people of the Jews: which it is manifestly impossible to maintain.

We read in the books of the Maccabees, and Josephus agrees with the same opinion (Joseph. Lib. Xi, cap. 10), that for three years the temple was polluted in Jerusalem, and in it stood the idol of Jupiter under Antiochus Epiphanes, in the one hundred forty-fifth year of the kingdom of the Macedonians, from the ninth month of Casleu of that same year, until the ninth month of the one hundred forty-eighth year, which make three years. But under Antichrist it is said to be not three years, but three and a half—that is, one thousand two hundred ninety days—of the desolation of the holy temple and of the future overthrow.

And when the scattering of the hand of the holy people shall be accomplished, all these things shall be finished: When, it says, the people of God shall have been scattered—whether by the persecution of Antiochus, as Porphyry would have it, or of Antichrist, as our writers more truly prove—then all these things shall be fulfilled. (Ver. 8 and following.) And I heard, and understood not. And I said: O my lord, what shall be after these things? And he said: Go, Daniel, for the words are shut up and sealed until the time appointed. Many shall be chosen, and made white, and shall be tried as fire; and the wicked shall deal wickedly, and none of the wicked shall understand; but the learned shall understand. The prophet wishes to understand what he had seen, or rather what he had heard, and desires to know the truth of things to come. For he had heard of various wars of kings and battles among themselves, and a manifold history: but he had not heard the names of the individuals.

Now if the prophet heard and did not understand, what shall they do who, with the presumption of their own mind, expound a sealed book, wrapped in many obscurities even to the time of the consummation? But when, he says, the end shall come, the wicked shall not understand, and those who have been taught by the discipline of God will be able to understand. For wisdom will not enter into a perverse soul, nor can it pour itself into a body subjected to sins.

Verse 11. And from the time when the continual sacrifice shall be taken away, and the abomination unto desolation shall be set up, there shall be a thousand two hundred and ninety days. Porphyry says that these one thousand two hundred ninety days were completed in the time of Antiochus and in the desolation of the temple, which both Josephus and the book of Maccabees (as we have said) record to have lasted only three years. From which it is clear that these three and a half years are said of the times of Antichrist, who for three and a half years, that is, one thousand two hundred ninety days, will persecute the saints, and afterward will fall on the renowned and holy mountain. From the time, therefore, of the ἐνδελεχισμός, which we have translated "the continual sacrifice," when Antichrist, having seized the world, shall have forbidden the worship of God, until his destruction, three and a half years, that is, one thousand two hundred ninety days, will be completed.

Verse 12. Blessed is he that waiteth, and cometh unto a thousand three hundred and thirty-five days. Blessed, he says, is he who, after Antichrist has been slain, awaits the forty-five days beyond the number previously fixed, during which the Lord and Savior is to come in his majesty. But why there should be a silence of forty-five days after the slaying of Antichrist belongs to divine knowledge; unless perhaps we should say that the delay of the kingdom of the saints is a proof of patience. Porphyry expounds this passage so as to say that the forty-five days beyond the one thousand two hundred ninety signify the time of victory against the generals of Antiochus, when Judas Maccabeus fought bravely, and cleansed the temple, and broke the idol, and offered victims in the temple of God. This he might rightly say, if the book of Maccabees wrote that the temple was polluted for three and a half years, and not three.

Verse 13. But go thou, Daniel, unto the time appointed, and rest, and thou shalt stand in thy lot at the end of the days. For which Theodotion has translated thus: But go thou and rest, and thou shalt rise again in thy order at the consummation of the days. By which word it is shown that all prophecy is close to the resurrection of all the dead, since even the prophet is to rise again. And it is in vain that Porphyry wishes to refer all things that were said under the type of Antiochus concerning Antichrist to Antiochus alone. To whose calumnies (as we have said) Eusebius of Caesarea and Apollinarius of Laodicea, and in part the most eloquent man, the martyr Methodius, have answered more fully; whoever wishes to know these things may find them in their own books. Thus far we have read Daniel from the Hebrew volume: the rest that follows, to the end of the book, is translated from the edition of Theodotion.

(Verse 1, 2.) And there was a man dwelling in Babylon, and his name was Joacim: and he took a wife whose name was Susanna, the daughter of Helcias, a very beautiful woman, and one that feared the Lord. Having set forth, as best I could, what is contained in the book of Daniel according to the Hebrew, I shall briefly set down what Origen said in the tenth book of his Stromata concerning the fables of Susanna and Bel. These are his words, which you will note in their places.

Verse 3. And her parents being just, taught their daughter according to the law of Moses. This testimony must be used as an exhortation to parents, that they teach according to the law of God, and by the divine word, not only their sons, but also their daughters.

Verse 4. And two ancients of the people were appointed judges that year. A Hebrew related that these were Ahab and Zedekiah, of whom Jeremiah writes: The Lord make thee like Ahab and Zedekiah, whom the king of Babylon fried in the fire, because of the iniquity which they committed in Israel, and they committed adultery with the wives of their fellow citizens.

Verse 5. Of whom the Lord spoke: because iniquity came out of Babylon from the ancient judges, who seemed to govern the people. These frequented the house of Joacim. Beautifully, of the sinning elders, it does not say: Who governed the people; but, who seemed to govern. For those who preside well over the people, govern the people; but those who have only the name of judges, and preside unjustly over the people, seem to govern the people rather than actually govern it.

Verse 8. And they burned in lust for her, and perverted their own mind, and turned away their eyes, that they might not look unto heaven, nor remember just judgments. What the Greeks call πάθος we more correctly translate as "perturbation" rather than "passion." This perturbation, then, and the desire of lust ... [these are nearly the words of Origen in his letter to Africanus concerning the history of Susanna, no. 7: I remember indeed having conversed with a Hebrew fond of learning, who was styled among them the son of a wise man ... having conferred with him on several points; from whom, as one who did not reject the history of Susanna, I learned also the names of the elders, as they occur in Jeremiah in this manner: The Lord make thee like Zedekiah and like Ahiah, whom]...touched, or rather struck, the hearts of the elders.

But that the foundation might lie in their souls, and that they might contemplate fulfilling their desires, they themselves perverted their own mind: which being subverted, their eyes were turned away, so that they did not see heavenly things, nor did they remember just judgments—whether of God, or of honor, or of nature, which is implanted in all toward the good.

And behold Susanna walked, according to her custom. It was said before that Susanna used to walk early in the morning. Nor is it inappropriate, to appease those who seek from the holy Scriptures examples for everything we do, to take up this matter of walking: for one might rightly walk to invigorate the little body. This passage, he says, I have now given from the edition of the Seventy: by which statement Origen shows that he has discussed the rest not according to the Seventy interpreters.

Verse 19. And Susanna sighed, and said: I am straitened on every side. He who has come to the summit of perfect virtue never says that danger threatens him if he does not escape the hands of adulterers who say: Consent to us, and lie with us. Otherwise, even if you refuse, we will bear witness against you, that a young man was with you, and for this reason you sent away the maids from you. For it is a matter of human frailty to fear the death which is inflicted for the sake of justice: unless perhaps we should interpret the straitening not as of imminent death, but of the reproach and ignominy with which she was to be overwhelmed by their accusation and saying: A young man was with her, and for that reason she sent away the maids.

Verse 22. For if I do this thing, it is death to me: and if I do it not. He calls sin death. Just as for him who commits adultery, adultery is death, so every sin which leads to death must be called death. And we are believed to die as often as we sin unto death. Whence, on the contrary, we rise again and are made alive as often as we do works worthy of life.

Verse 23. But it is good for me to fall into your hands without doing it, than to sin in the sight of the Lord. In the Greek it does not say αἱρετώτερον, that is, "better," but αἱρετόν, which we may interpret as "good." Whence elegantly she did not say: It is better for me to fall into the hands of wicked elders, than to sin in the sight of the Lord: lest, by comparison with sin, that which was not good should seem to be called better. But it is good, she says, for me not to do evil, and to fall into your hands, lest I sin in the sight of the Lord. It must not, then, be read by way of comparison: It is better for me to fall into your hands than to sin in the sight of the Lord; but absolutely: It is good for me not to do evil, and to fall into your hands, lest I sin in the sight of the Lord.

Verse 24. And Susanna cried out with a loud voice. The voice was great, not by the striking of the air and the clamor of the throat, but by the greatness of her chastity, through which she cried out to the Lord. Whence also holy Scripture, in the outcry of the elders, did not add "a loud voice." For it follows: And the elders also cried out against her.

Verse 42. The affection of the heart, and the pure confession of the mind, and the good of conscience, had made her voice clearer. Whence her outcry to God was great, though it was not heard by men.

Verse 44. And as she was led to death, the Lord raised up the holy spirit of a young boy. By this expression it is shown that the Holy Spirit did not enter into Daniel then for the first time; but that he who was in him, and who was at rest because of the weakness of his age, and could not manifest his own works, was, upon an occasion arising for the sake of the holy woman, raised up by the Lord.

Verse 46. And he cried out with a loud voice: I am clear from the blood of this woman. With the Holy Spirit raised up within him, and suggesting to him what the boy ought to say, his voice was great. And it should be noted that here, if anywhere in the holy Scriptures, a sinner's voice is called great. (Verses 58, 59.) Tell under what tree you saw them speaking to each other. He said, under a mastic tree; and Daniel said to him: You have rightly lied against your own head; for behold, the angel of God, having received the sentence from him, will cut you in two. And after a little the other elder said, under a holm-oak; and Daniel said to him: You too have rightly lied against your own head. But the angel of God stands ready, holding a sword to cut you in two.

Because the Hebrews reject the history of Susanna, saying that it is not found in the volume of Daniel, we ought carefully to inquire into the words σχῖνον and πρῖνον, which the Latins render as “holm-oak” and “mastic-tree,” whether they exist among the Hebrews, and what etymology they have, so that from σχίνος one might derive “cleaving,” and from πρῖνος “cutting” or “sawing,” in their own tongue. But if this cannot be found, we shall be compelled by necessity to agree also with the opinion of those who hold that this passage belongs only to the Greek tongue, having only a Greek etymology and none in Hebrew. But if anyone shall show that the etymology of these two trees, of cleaving and cutting, holds good in Hebrew, then we shall be able to accept this Scripture as well. (Verse 60.) Then the whole assembly cried out with a loud voice, and blessed God, who saves those who hope in him.

If the whole assembly killed them, that opinion which we mentioned above seems to be refuted, namely, that according to Jeremiah, they were the elders Ahab and Zedekiah: unless perhaps we should interpret what is written, “They killed them,” as meaning that they handed them over to the king of Babylon to be killed. Just as we also say that the Jews killed the Savior—not because they themselves struck him, but because they handed him over to be killed, and crying out said: Crucify him, crucify him. (Verse 63.) But Hilkiah and his wife praised God for their daughter Susanna.

Fittingly do they praise God as holy persons: not because Susanna was delivered from the hand of the elders—for this in itself is not sufficiently praiseworthy, nor of great peril, if she had not been delivered—but because no shameful thing was found in her.

(Verse 1.) And immediately, when he had opened the doors, the king, looking upon the table, cried out with a loud voice: Great are you, Bel, and there is no deceit in you. This statement of Scripture now, “He cried out with a loud voice,” since it is said of an idolater and one ignorant of God, seems to overturn our earlier observation, in which we asserted long ago that a loud voice is found only among the saints. Whoever says that this history is not found in the book of Daniel among the Hebrews will easily resolve this. But if anyone can prove that it belongs to the canon, then we must inquire what answer we ought to give to him.