The Pulpit Commentary — Daniel — Section 255

to him by the grace of God, who had given chadnezze.r and Dalsho.zzar, wheroaa the it in e. new vision to Daniel. The king ln.tter two are empires,; the third, tho <lrc>ams of a co!oSl'ft.l image, with head of Medo-Persio.n ; and the fourth, the Greok. gohl, arms and ohest of silver, belly and He, however, takes the second series of thighs of bmss, legs of iron, and feet partly symbols, that of the beasts in the seventh of iron e.nd partly of clay. Then suddenly chapter, e.s all mone.rohies. Hitzig n.ssigus a ~tone, e.ut out of the mouritains without no very clear rce.son for his ohn.nge in viAW bands, smites the ima~e on the feet, and it -for taking the four heuts o.s four distinct fnlls nnd becomes n.s the small dust of the monarchies, and splitting the Medo-Pereian threshing-floor, and is carried e.we.y of the into tbe Median and Persilln. The other wind. while the stone beoomes e. great interpreter, who divides the two visions, ie mountain e.nd fills the earth. Thie ie Dr. Bonnar, of Ee.et Kilbride, in hie book interpreted of four successive monarchies, • The Great Interregnum.' He mllintllins the first of these being the Babylonian. that I.he vision of tae seventh chapter ro- Th is vision is narro.ted in the second chapter, presents history posterior to thllt symbolized which forms the beginning of the Ararnaio by the vision of Nebuchlldnezz!lr. His portion of Daniel. me.in argument for this is that the same The second vision is given to Daniel truth would not be present in two different himself, and is rein.led in the seventh sets of symbols. Thn.t difficulty wonld not chapter, which forms the conclnsion of the be urged by any one who had studied the Aramaic portion of Daniel. This ie a non-onnonico.l !lpoco.lypses; there repeatedly vision of four beasts the.t snccessively rise are there double sets of symbols. 1 The out of the great see., presumably the number of the kingdoms, being four, pointa llleditermnean. The first beast was like a to an identity, as o.lso the fact the.t both lion, and had wings like an eagle; its wings assert tbn.t the Messianic kingdom-the were plucked, and a man's bee.rt was given terminus ad quem of all apoco.lypse-will be to it. The second beast was like a bear, revealed after the setting up of the fourtl1 that raised itself up on one side, and had kingdom without any intercalated power. in its jaws three ribs. The third beast was 0 We shall, then, assume these two visions to like a leopn.rd which hn.d four wings. The present the so.me scheme of universlll history fourth beast was great and terrible, unlike under different n.spects. any of the former beasts, breaking in pieces When we look at this double vision, the and trampling under foot. It bad ten home. first thing that strikes us ie the unique In the midst of its home another, e.n eleventh breadth of view exhibited. If we me.y for hom, sprang up, and there were rooted o'!-t the nonce o.ccept the traditional interpre- before it three of the former homs. At this tation, we see the whole conrse of history, point the end of the solemn drama is placed from the days of Nimrod down to the present -God, the Ancient of Days, appears to time, portrayed; ne.y, beyond the present, judn-meut. Then comes a Son of man in on to the millennium o.nd the lo.at judgment. the ebeuvens, o.nd the dominion is gi-ren to It seems difficult to imagine that a nameless • him. Thus the judgment here described Jew, living in the days of Epiphanes, coul,l is not the final judgment. The fourth devise such a scheme of universal history. beast is bnmt np with fire; the other beD.!,tS It me.y be answered that, according to tha have their duminion to.ken away. The criticn.l hypothesis, he brought down his interpretation folluws, which makes the scheme only to the days of Epiphn.nes, lln<l four bensts four kings, or four monarchies. that he expected the advent of the lllcseinh The fourih is to ~ diverse from all its during the persecution of those do.ye. This predecessors, o.nd to make war ago.inst the does not lessen the marvel, but really in- pcuple of God. creases it, that ll man, intending to portrlly Such, then, are the visions, the inter- in symbol history up only to his own day, pretation of which we would now essay. has given a pictorial representation which It has genera.Uy been assumed that these has been interpreted by the great majority two visions are really two aspects of one of those following him-some as near o.s the and the same great scheme of history. Two very century following that in which ho di1ferent interpreters, proceeding on totally lived--fl.s referring to events that were not distinct lines, deny the identity of the in the faintest degree showing above tho meaning of these two visions. The first horizon in his day. On the hypothesis that is Hitzig, who, while he makes the two he was an inspired prophet, and spoke words seri(;S terminate at the same point, makes a full of a significance which he did not grasp difference between them in regard to the 1 A similar instance of duplication of e,nlier members. According to bis scheme, in ~ebucbadnezzo.r'e dream the first two symbols-which, though not apocalyptic, is portions-the golden head and the silvern very pertinent-is the _twofold dream of fhuulders-fl.re the two monarchs Nebu- Phare.oh. Oil. VII, 1-28.] THE BOOK OF DANIEL. 221