PUBLIC-DOMAIN CHRISTIAN BOOK
The Expositor's Bible: The Book of Daniel
Farrar, F. W. (Frederic William) · 101,005 words · 152 reading sections
_The Prelude_
At the close of the three years the prince of the eunuchs brought all his young pages into the presence of the King Nebuchadrezzar. He tested them by familiar conversation,[257] and found the four Jewish lads superior to all the rest. They were therefore chosen "to stand before the king"--in other words, to become his …
804 wordsSECTION 62_The Prelude_
But there also lay incidentally in the story a warning against corrupting luxury, the lesson of the need for, and the healthfulness of, "The rule of not too much by temperance taught." "The love of sumptuous food and delicious drinks is never good," says Ewald, "and with the use of the most temperate diet body and so…
464 wordsSECTION 63Footnotes:
[224] Comp. Jer. xxii. 18, 19, xxxvi. 30. [225] See _supra_, p. 45. [226] Jeremiah (lii. 28-30) mentions _three_ deportations, in the seventh, eighteenth, and twenty-third year of Nebuchadrezzar; but there are great difficulties about the historic verification, and the paragraph (which is of doubtful genuineness) is …
707 wordsSECTION 64Footnotes:
[235] The name Daniel occurs among Ezra's contemporaries in Ezra viii. 2; Neh. x. 7, and the other names in Neh. viii. 4, x. 3, 24; 1 Esdras ix. 44. [236] _Balatsu-utsur._ The name in this form had nothing to do with Bel, as the writer of Daniel seems to have supposed (Dan. iv. 5), nor yet with Beltis, the wife of Bel…
773 wordsSECTION 65_The Dream-Image Of Ruined Empires_
[257] LXX., ἐλάλησε μετ' αὐτῶν. Considering the normal degradation of pages at Oriental courts, of which Rycaut (referred to by Pusey, p. 18) "gives a horrible account," their escape from the corruption around them was a blessed reward of their faithfulness. They may now have been seventeen, the age for entering the ki…
927 wordsSECTION 66_The Dream-Image Of Ruined Empires_
There was nothing strange in the notion that God should have vouchsafed a prophetic dream to a heathen potentate. Such instances had already been recorded in the case of Pharaoh (Gen. xli.), as well as of his chief courtiers (Gen. xl.); and in the case of Abimelech (Gen. xx. 5-7). It was also a Jewish tradition that it…
691 wordsSECTION 67_The Dream-Image Of Ruined Empires_
When they were assembled before him, the king informed them that he had dreamed an important dream, but that it produced such agitation of spirit as had caused him to forget its import.[279] He plainly expected them to supply the failure of his memory, for "a dream not interpreted," say the Rabbis, "is like a letter no…
730 wordsSECTION 68_The Dream-Image Of Ruined Empires_
"haunt The lucid interspace of world and world," and are too far above mankind to mingle with their thoughts.[291] Thereupon the unreasonable king was angry and very furious, and the decree went forth that the magi were to be slain _en masse_. How it was that Daniel and his companions were not summoned to help the …
695 wordsSECTION 69_The Dream-Image Of Ruined Empires_
That was the haunting and portentous dream; and this was its interpretation:-- The head of gold was Nebuchadrezzar himself, the king of what Isaiah had called "the golden city"[307]--a King of kings, ruler over the beasts of the field, and the fowls of heaven, and the children of men.[308] After him should come a sec…
1,024 wordsSECTION 70_The Dream-Image Of Ruined Empires_
The reason of the attempt is to make the termination of the prophecy coincide with the coming of Christ, which is then--quite unhistorically--regarded as followed by the destruction of the fourth and last empire. But the interpretation can only be thus arrived at by a falsification of facts. For the victory of Christia…
684 wordsSECTION 71_The Dream-Image Of Ruined Empires_
Since, then, we are told that the first empire represents Nebuchadrezzar by the head of gold, and since we have incontestably verified the fourth empire to be the Greek Empire of Alexander and his successors, it only remains to identify the intermediate empires of silver and brass. And it becomes obvious that they _can…
748 wordsSECTION 72_The Dream-Image Of Ruined Empires_
Not only was the Messianic prediction unfulfilled in its literal aspect "in the days of these kings,"[317] but even yet it has by no means received its complete accomplishment. The "stone cut without hands" indicated the kingdom, not--as most of the prophets seem to have imagined when they uttered words which meant mor…
796 wordsSECTION 73Footnotes:
That the King of Babylon should be represented as at once acknowledging the God of Daniel as "a God of gods," though he was a fanatical votary of Bel-merodach, belongs to the general plan of the Book. Daniel received in reward many great gifts, and is made "ruler of all the wise men of Babylon, and chief of the governo…
674 wordsSECTION 74Footnotes:
[284] LXX. Theodot., καιρὸν ἐξαγοράζετε (not in a _good_ sense, as in Eph. v. 16; Col. iv. 5). [285] Theodot., συνέθεσθε. Cf. John ix. 22. [286] Theodot., ἔως οὗ ὁ καιρὸς παρέλθῃ. [287] Esther iii. 7. [288] The word _Aramîth_ may be (as Lenormant thinks) a gloss, as in Ezra iv. 7. [289] A curious parallel is adduc…
731 wordsSECTION 75Footnotes:
[309] Pusey, p. 63. [310] Comp. Jer. xxxi. 27. [311] Bevan, p. 66. [312] The interpretation is first found, amid a chaos of false exegesis, in the Epistle of Barnabas, iv. 4, § 6. [313] See Bevan, p. 65. [314] On the distinction in the writer's mind between the Median and Persian Empires see v. 28, 31, vi. 8, 12, …
379 wordsSECTION 76_The Idol Of Gold, And The Faithful Three_
"Every goldsmith is put to shame by his molten image: for his molten image is vanity, and there is no breath in them. They are vanity, a work of delusion: in the time of their visitation they shall perish."--JER. li. 17, 18. "The angel of the Lord encampeth around them that fear Him, and shall deliver them."--PSAL…
777 wordsSECTION 77_The Idol Of Gold, And The Faithful Three_
Then the king proclaimed a solemn dedicatory festival, to which he invited every sort of functionary, of which the writer, with his usual πύργωσις and rotundity of expression, accumulates the eight names. They were:-- 1. The Princes, "satraps," or wardens of the realm.[334] 2. The Governors[335] (ii. 48). 3. The Cap…
702 wordsSECTION 78_The Idol Of Gold, And The Faithful Three_
Observing the defiance of the king's edict, certain Chaldeans, actuated by jealousy, came near to the king and "accused" the Jews.[346] The word for "accused" is curious and interesting. It is literally "_ate the pieces of the Jews_,"[347] evidently involving a metaphor of fierce devouring malice.[348] Reminding the k…
817 wordsSECTION 79_The Idol Of Gold, And The Faithful Three_
"Justum et tenacem propositi virum Non civium ardor prava jubentium Non vultus instantis tyranni Mente quatit solidâ." It is man's testimony to his indomitable belief that the things of sense are not to be valued in comparison to that high happiness which arises from obedience to the law of conscience, and that no …
662 wordsSECTION 80_The Idol Of Gold, And The Faithful Three_
How powerfully the story struck the imagination of the Jews is shown by the not very apposite Song of the Three Children, with the other apocryphal additions. Here we are told that the furnace was heated "with rosin, pitch, tow, and small wood; so that the flame streamed forth above the furnace forty and nine cubits. A…
674 wordsSECTION 81Footnotes:
And the startling decree of Nebuchadrezzar finds its analogy in the decree published by Antiochus the Great to all his subjects in honour of the Temple at Jerusalem, in which he threatened the infliction of heavy fines on any foreigner who trespassed within the limits of the Holy Court.[370] [327] The false prophets A…
669 wordsSECTION 82Footnotes:
[350] The phrase is unique and of uncertain meaning. [351] Exod. v. 2; Isa. xxxvi. 20; 2 Chron. xxxii. 13-17. [352] Dan. iii. 16. LXX., οὐ χρείαν ἔχομεν; Vulg., _non oportet nos_. To soften the brusqueness of the address, in which the Rabbis (_e.g._, Rashi) rejoice, the LXX. add another Βασιλεῦ. [353] Jerome explain…
655 wordsSECTION 83Chapter Iv
_THE BABYLONIAN CEDAR, AND THE STRICKEN DESPOT_ "Pride goeth before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall."--PROV. xvi. 18. Thrice already, in these magnificent stories, had Nebuchadrezzar been taught to recognise the existence and to reverence the power of God. In this chapter he is represented as having…
787 wordsSECTION 84Chapter Iv
Aware, then, of some dim traditions that Nebuchadrezzar at the close of his life ascended his palace roof and there received some sort of inspiration, after which he mysteriously disappeared, the writer, giving free play to his imagination for didactic purposes, after the common fashion of his age and nation, worked up…
668 wordsSECTION 85Chapter Iv
So too Nebuchadrezzar in his dream had seen a tree in the midst of the earth, of stately height, which reached to heaven and overshadowed the world, with fair leaves and abundant fruit, giving large nourishment to all mankind, and shade to the beasts of the field and fowls of the heaven. The LXX. adds with glowing exag…
739 wordsSECTION 86Chapter Iv
To Daniel, when he had heard the dream, it seemed so full of portentous omen that "he was astonished for one hour."[394] Seeing his agitation, the king bids him take courage and fearlessly interpret the dream. But it is an augury of fearful visitation; so he begins with a formula intended as it were to avert the threat…
732 wordsSECTION 87Chapter Iv
In _Baba Bathra_, f. 10, 1, and _Rosh Hashanah_, f. 16, 2, we have "_alms_ delivereth from death," as a gloss on the meaning of Prov. xi. 4.[404] We cannot tell that the writer shared these views. He probably meant no more than that cruelty and injustice were the chief vices of despots, and that the only way to avert …
814 wordsSECTION 88Chapter Iv
And something like this we see again and again in what the late Bishop Thirlwall called the "irony of history"--the very cases in which men seem to have been elevated to the very summit of power only to heighten the dreadful precipice over which they immediately fall. He mentions the cases of Persia, which was on the v…
751 wordsSECTION 89Chapter Iv
When the seven "times"--whether years or brief periods--were concluded, Nebuchadrezzar "lifted up his eyes to heaven," and his understanding returned to him. No further light is thrown on his recovery, which (as is not infrequently the case in madness) was as sudden as his aberration. Perhaps the calm of the infinite a…
252 wordsSECTION 90Footnotes:
[371] Comp. 1 Macc. i. 41, 42: "And the king [Antiochus Epiphanes] wrote to his whole kingdom, that all should be one people, and every one should leave his laws." [372] Isa. xxvi. 9. [373] Professor Fuller follows them in supposing that the decree is really a letter written by Daniel, as is shown by the analogy of s…
663 wordsSECTION 91_The Fiery Inscription_
[406] Birs-Nimrod (Grote, _Hist. of Greece_, III., chap. xix.; Layard, _Nin. and Bab._, chap. ii.). [407] Arist., _Polit._, III. i. 12. He says that three days after its capture some of its inhabitants were still unaware of the fact. [408] Acts xii. 20-23; Jos., _Antt._, XIV. viii. 2. [409] For further information o…
880 wordsSECTION 92_The Fiery Inscription_
Then the wild king, with just such a burst of folly and irreverence as characterised the banquets of Antiochus Epiphanes, bethought him of yet another element of splendour with which he might make his banquet memorable, and prove the superiority of his own victorious gods over those of other nations. The Temple of Jeru…
653 wordsSECTION 93_The Fiery Inscription_
his eye caught _something_ visible on the white stucco of the wall above the line of frescoes.[432] He saw it over the lights which crowned the huge golden _Nebrashta_, or chandelier.[433] The fingers of a man's hand were writing letters on the wall, and the king saw the hollow of that gigantic supernatural palm.[434] …
730 wordsSECTION 94_The Fiery Inscription_
And now what was the writing? Daniel at the first glance had read that fiery quadrilateral of letters, looking like the twelve gems of the high priest's ephod with the mystic light gleaming upon them. +----+----+----+ | M. | N. | A. | +----+----+----+ | M. | N. | A. | +----+----+----+ | T. | Q. | L. | +----+----…
723 wordsSECTION 95Footnotes:
We can now proceed to the examination of the next chapter unimpeded by impossible and half-hearted hypotheses. We understand it, and it was meant to be understood, as a moral and spiritual parable, in which unverified historic names and traditions are utilised for the purpose of inculcating lessons of courage and faith…
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[437] Doubtless suggested by Gen. xli. 42 (comp. Herod., iii. 20; Xen., _Anab._, I. ii. 27; _Cyrop._, VIII. v. 18), as other parts of Daniel's story recall that of Joseph. Comp. Esther vi. 8, 9. The word for "scarlet" or red-purple is _argona_. The word for "chain" (_Q'rî. ham'nîka_) is in Theodotion rendered μανιάκης,…
699 wordsSECTION 97_Stopping The Mouths Of Lions_
As regards the Medes, they are placed _after_ the Persians in Isa. xxi. 2, Esther i. 3, but generally _before_ them. [445] LXX., ἔδωκεν ἐξουσίαν αὐτῳ τοῦ τρίτου μέρους; Theodot., ἄρχοντα τρίτον. See _supra_, p. 210. [446] The LXX. evidently felt some difficulty or followed some other text, for they render it, "And _A…
724 wordsSECTION 98_Stopping The Mouths Of Lions_
The sixth chapter puts into concrete form such passages of the Psalmist as: "My soul is among lions: and I lie even among them that are set on fire, even the sons of men, whose teeth are spears and arrows, and their tongue a sharp sword";[462] and--"Break the jaw-bones of the lions, O Lord";[463] and--"They have cut of…
759 wordsSECTION 99_Stopping The Mouths Of Lions_
Daniel's age--for by this time he must have passed the allotted limit of man's threescore years and ten--might have exempted him from envy, even if, as the LXX. adds, "he was clad in purple." But jealous that a captive Jew should be exalted above all the native satraps and potentates by the king's favour, his colleague…
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The king, without giving another thought to the matter, at once signs the irrevocable decree. It naturally does not make the least difference to the practices or the purpose of Daniel. His duty towards God transcends his duty to man. He has been accustomed, thrice a day, to kneel and pray to God, with the window of hi…
790 wordsSECTION 101Footnotes:
"Then King Darius wrote to all the nations, communities, and tongues who dwell in the whole world, May your peace be multiplied! I make a decree, That in every dominion of my kingdom men tremble and fear before the God of Daniel: for He is the living God, and steadfast for ever, and His kingdom that which shall not be …
642 wordsSECTION 102_Vision Of The Four Wild Beasts_
We now enter upon the second division of the Book of Daniel--the apocalyptic. It is unquestionably inferior to the first part in grandeur and importance as a whole, but it contains not a few great conceptions, and it was well adapted to inspire the hopes and arouse the heroic courage of the persecuted Jews in the terri…
686 wordsSECTION 103_Vision Of The Four Wild Beasts_
Such is the vision, and its interpretation follows. The heart of Daniel "is pierced in the midst of its sheath" by what he has seen, and the visions of his head troubled him. Coming near to one of them that stood by--the angelic ministrants of the Ancient of Days--he begs for an interpretation of the vision. It is giv…
791 wordsSECTION 104_Vision Of The Four Wild Beasts_
IV. The bear, which places itself upon one side, is the Median Empire, smaller than the Chaldean, as the bear is smaller and less formidable than the lion. The crouching on one side is obscure. It is explained by some as implying that it was lower in exaltation than the Babylonian Empire; by others that "it gravitated,…
528 wordsSECTION 105B.C.
1. Seleucus I. (_Nicator_)[507] 312-280 2. Antiochus I. (_Soter_) 280-261 3. Antiochus II. (_Theos_) 261-246 4. Seleucus II. (_Kallinikos_) 246-226 5. Seleucus III. (_Keraunos_) 226-223 6. Antiochus III. (_Megas_) 223-187 7. Seleucus IV. (_Philopator_) 187-176 Then followed the three kings (actual or potential) …
798 wordsSECTION 106B.C.
The triumph of this blasphemous and despotic savagery was arrested, first by the irresistible force of determined martyrdom which preferred death to unfaithfulness, and next by the armed resistance evoked by the heroism of Mattathias, the priest at Modin. When Apelles visited the town, and ordered the Jews to sacrifice…
777 wordsSECTION 107B.C.
Such were the fortunes of the king whom the writer shadows forth under the emblem of the little horn with human eyes and a mouth which spake blasphemies, whose power was to be made transitory, and to be annihilated and destroyed unto the end.[526] And when this wild beast was slain, and its body given to the burning fi…
773 wordsSECTION 108Footnotes:
The chapter closes with the words: "Here is the end of the matter. As for me, Daniel, my thoughts much troubled me, and my brightness was changed in me: but I kept the matter in my heart." [487] Except in the heading of chap. x. [488] In the opinion of Lagarde and others this chapter--which is not noticed by Josephus…
656 wordsSECTION 109Footnotes:
[513] Comp. xi. 36. [514] Jos., _B. J._, I. i. 2, VI. x. 1. In _Antt._, XII. v. 3, Josephus says he took Jerusalem by stratagem. [515] Jahn, _Hebr. Commonwealth_, § xciv.; Ewald, _Hist. of Isr._, v. 293-300. [516] 2 Macc. iv. 9-15: "The priests had no courage to serve any more at the altar, but despising the Temple,…
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This vision is dated as having occurred in the third year of Belshazzar; but it is not easy to see the significance of the date, since it is almost exclusively occupied with the establishment of the Greek Empire, its dissolution into the kingdoms of the Diadochi, and the godless despotism of King Antiochus Epiphanes. …
680 wordsSECTION 111_The Ram And The He-Goat_
Daniel sought to understand the vision, and immediately there stood before him one in the semblance of a man, and he hears the distant voice of some one[553] standing between the Ulai--_i.e._, between its two banks,[554] or perhaps between its two branches, the Eulæus and the Choaspes--who called aloud to "Gabriel." Th…
670 wordsSECTION 112_The Ram And The He-Goat_
The dismemberment of his empire immediately followed. In B.C. 322 its vast extent was divided among his principal generals. Twenty-two years of war ensued; and in B.C. 301, after the defeat of Antigonus and his son Demetrius at the Battle of Ipsus, four horns are visible in the place of one. The battle was won by the c…
687 wordsSECTION 113_The Ram And The He-Goat_
In the further explanation given to Daniel by Gabriel a few more touches are added. Antiochus Epiphanes is described as a king "bold of visage, and skilled in enigmas." His boldness is sufficiently illustrated by his many campaigns and battles, and his braggart insolence has been already alluded to in vii. 8. His skil…
651 wordsSECTION 114_The Ram And The He-Goat_
In neither case do the calculations agree with the twelve hundred and ninety or the thirteen hundred and thirty-five days of xii. 12, 13. Entire volumes of tedious and wholly inconclusive comment have been written on these combinations, but by no reasonable supposition can we arrive at close accuracy. Strict chronolog…
568 wordsSECTION 115Footnotes:
Jeremiah's prophecy in Jer. xxv. 12 605 Jeremiah's prophecy in Jer. xxix. 10 594 Destruction of the Temple 586 or 588 Return of the Jewish exiles 537 Decree of Artaxerxes Longimanus (Ezra vii. 1) 458 Second decree (Neh. ii. 1) 445 Accession of Antiochus Epiphanes (August, Clinton) 175 Usurpation of the high-prie…
700 wordsSECTION 116Footnotes:
[556] Ben-Adam (Ezek. ii. 1). [557] Comp. Isa. xiv. 9: "All the great goats of the earth." A ram is a natural symbol for a chieftain.--Hom., _Il._, xiii. 491-493; Cic., _De Div._, i. 22; Plut., _Sulla_, c. 27; Jer. l. 8; Ezek. xxxiv. 17; Zech. x. 3, etc. See Vaux, _Persia_, p. 72. [558] "Strength of face" (LXX., ἀναι…
661 wordsSECTION 117_The Seventy Weeks_
[581] Matt. xxiv. 22. [582] "These five passages agree in making the final distress last during three years and a fraction: the only difference lies in the magnitude of the fraction" (Bevan, p. 127). [583] 1 Macc. iv. 41-56; 2 Macc. x. 1-5. [584] See on this period Diod. Sic., _Fr._, xxvi. 79; Liv., xlii. 29; Polyb.…
678 wordsSECTION 118_The Seventy Weeks_
What was the explanation of this startling apparent discrepancy between "the sure word of prophecy" and the gloomy realities of history? The writer saw it in a _mystic_ or allegorical interpretation of Jeremiah's seventy years. The prophet could not (he thought) have meant seventy _literal_ years. The number seven ind…
734 wordsSECTION 119_The Seventy Weeks_
In the first division of the prayer (vv. 4-10) Daniel admits the faithfulness and mercy of God, and deplores the transgressions of his people from the highest to the lowest in all lands. In the second part (vv. 11-14) he sees in these transgressions the fulfilment of "the curse and the oath" written in the Law of Mose…
724 wordsSECTION 120_The Seventy Weeks_
The _precise_ meaning attached in the writer's mind to the events which are to mark the close of the four hundred and ninety years--namely, (α) the ending of transgression; (β) the sealing up of sins; (γ) the atonement for iniquity; (δ) the bringing in of everlasting righteousness; and (ε) the sealing up of the vision …
747 wordsSource & rights
Public domain in the USA; original historical text digitized by Project Gutenberg.
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Historical Christian writing; not Scripture.