The Pulpit Commentary — Daniel — Section 254

nnd dominion, o.nd the grea tneaa of the threo years of our Lord's minislry ls of kingdom under the whole heaven, ■hall be more moment for tho history of the raco given to the people of the saint■ of the :Moat than e.ll the millennia. the.t preceded it. High, whose kingdom is an everlaating Ver. 28.-Hitherto is the end of the kingdom, and all dominions ■hall ■erve and matter. Aa for me De.~11, my cogitations obey him. The versions do not present much troubled me, e.nd my countenance much of note in,ver. 25, eave that the Greek ohanged in me: but I kept the matter in nrijione imply tho.t dominion over all is my bee.rt. The first clause here is in the given to the oppressors. Throughout the LXX. joined to the preceding verse, nnrl Septuagint hne trnces of explnno.tory ex- rendered, "And all power shall be given to pnneion. He shall ~peal, 1DO'l'd1 against the him, and they shall obey him to the end of Most Higl,. The word "age.inst," l•tzad, is the matter "-a connection that in many 'really "to the side of." This clause may ways is suite.l,le. The clifficulty is tlrn,wn refer to blasphemy age.inst God, but more further back. To whom is this pow~r to be nnturo.lly refers to self-exo.lto.tion to e. place given, e.nd whom are all to obey? Thr, alongside of God. Shall wear out the saint, Septuagint cleo.rly takes the reference to ho of the Most High. Persecute them, or ma.in- to the little horn, as " end " is renJered by to.in war age.inst them; the nature.I meaning ,ca-raA-rpo,p-f). The more common view is of the word is "afflict." And shall think to the.t of Kliefoth, Keil, o.nd others, e.nd is that change times and laws. It ought not to be the reference here is to the Son of m<Ln as "le.we," in the plural, but "law." It may the Head or the embodiment of the :Mes- refer to the marked chnngee intrnduced sianic kingdom. The remnining portiou of into the calendo.r by Julius 0msnr. Cer- the verse is rendered, "I Daniel was ex- tainly the law or constitution of the Roman ceedingly overcome with astonishment, anJ state wo.s changed by him. .Aud they ,hall my habit (<{«) was changed to me, anJ tl.e be given into his hand until a time and timlJII word I confirmed in my bee.rt "-a trans- and the dividing of time. Who she.II be lation that does not seriously differ from given into his hands? It is usually e.sB11med the Massoretic. Theodotion o.nd the Pc- that it is the saints: but the LXX. asserts shitta render from e. text practically ickn- the.t it is universal dominion that is given tice.l with the Mlll!soretic. As fer me into the ho.nds of the oppressors. We ho.ve Daniel, 111y cogitations much troubl~d me. no right to assume that 'idclan, "e. time," The prophet himself clid not Ullderstarnl means "a year : " it is really any defined the revelation tho.t had bern made to Lim, time. Certainly it does approximate to the even after he had received the explanation. time during which the temple wns polluted Further, there •was the thought of tlio with bee.then offerings: but it e.lso coin- distress thnt would befall his 01vn people. cides with equal accuracy to the campaigns .And my countenance changed in me. "My of Vcspasie.n and Titus age.inst the Jews. splendour," "brightness." Dt1niel wus Vespe.sie.n landed in Galilee in the begin- now e.n old me.n ; but yet there might be ning of A.D. 67, and Jerusalem fell on e. certain brightne68, the remains of his September 5, A.D. 70. There wns thus, e.p- former personal beauty. He hecomes pille proximo.tely, three years and e. he.If occupied and emaciated as he meditates on what ho by this we.r. But "centuries" might e.lso he.s seen. But I kept the matter in my heart. be meant. From the birth of our Lord, on Thus Mary retained in her heo.rt o.ll the whom the oppression we.s first exercised, till wonders she he.d seen regnrding her Son. the accession of Constantine, we.s three This statement is introduced e.s a guarantee centuries and e. portion of e. century. The tho.t the vision is correctly recorded.. Daniel judgment shall sit. Not necessarily the last retained the vision in his minJ, o.nd so judgment, but the evil thnt is being done we.a ready to recognize the fulfilment of a comes before God for judgment. The portion. to.king awe.y of the kingdom and dominion is immediately at the end of the period ExcuTsus on the Fouf' MonaTchies of Daniel. iudico.ted by "a time and times o.nd e. dividing of time." The dominion we.s not Among the visions in Daniel, two nre to.ken a.way from Epiphanes then, nor from conspicuous e.s being nil but universttlly V cspasian: it <lid, however, pass from the e.cknow )edged to be po.rullel to ea.eh other- heathenish empiro when Constantine as- to be twofold symbols of the same gre,it cemled the throne. At the snme time, e.ny truth. They he.ve this peculiarity, that such purely limited explanation is age.inst they are parts of the Arawe.io portion of the whole symbolic charo.cter of this vision. Daniel, which is otherwise me.inly hi..;torical. It is e. period of time measured by " seven " The first of these visions is given to liu!L·es. The times me.y receive their defl- Nebuohe.dnezzar, and is intensified to him nitiou, not from the calendar, but from their by the fe.ot the.t after he had forgotten it, or 11pil'itual import or dyne.mio content. The had bound himself not to tell it, it is recnllcd  THE BOOK OF DANIEL, [eu. vn. 1-29,