The Pulpit Commentary — Daniel — Section 300

atBnd how "the people of the prince thBt IO 1 Kinge xxi. 13, "curse God and kincr." RhBll oome" oould ba read " the kingdom We take "Moeeiah" here as equivaJ.•nt"to of tho Gentiles," SBV0 by s~ppoeing a some- "the Messiah" above mentioned. Who ie what 11rbitrnry p11mphrase. 'l'he le.et o)ause it that is here referred to? Tho common hns prob11bly 11ssumed the J•resent shape cri~ice.1 position e.seurning, without reaHon through the insertion of some po.rt of the e.ee,_gned, that "anointed" wiLhont any verb en',, and the omission of the end of subJect may refer to a priest, 1tsHerte thrtt the verso. Theodotion's rendering ill in the reference here ie to Onias III. Tho olosor agreement with the Mo.ssoretio text, account of hie murder ie given in 2 l\foee,. yet is wido from it too, "Aftor the sixty-two iv. 39. He had succeeded hie fnther weeks anointing sh111l be utterly destroyed, Simon II., as high priest, B.c. 108. I~ and judgment is not in it (or 'him,' a.l,,rrp), connection with hie high-priesthood ie the and ha (it) shall destroy the city and the legendary story told (2 Mace. iii.) of the sanctuary with the leader that cometh; they attempt of Heliodorue to spoil the temple. shall be l.'Ut off with a fiood, even until the On the accession of Epiphanes, Ja.son, the end of the war, having been arranged by brother of Oniae, endeavoured to undermine disappearances in order." The introduction him with the king, and succeeded; Onia.o of 1tpCµ.a ill difficult to explain, except as an displaced; in favour of Jason, retired ~ explanatory addition from Isa. liii. B. Still Antioch. Three years after Jaeon, in tum, more difficult is it to understand the was superseded by Menelaus, who, accord- genesis of the last clause. The Peshitta, ing_ to 2 Maccabeee, wae e. Benjamitc. though considerably closer to tho Ma.ssoretic Oma.a rebuked Menele.us for selling some in the beginning of the verse, is as far of the sacred veseels; Menelaus bribed apart in the last clause, "And after the A.ndronicus to put Onias to death, which sixty-two weeks, the anointed shall be he did, alluring him from the sanctuary of killed, and there WBB not to him, and the Daphne, in which he had ta.ken refuge. city of the holy shall be destroyed with the Josephus gives a different account of king that oometh, and his end is with a matters (' Ant.,' xii 5), "A.bout this time fiood, even until the end of the war of the Onie.a having died, he (Epiphanes) give~ fragments of destruction." The Vetus, as the hlgh-priesthood to hia brother Jesus, represented by the quotation in Tertullian, for the eon whom Onias left was only is not 80 close to the LXX. as it usually a child. This Jesus, who was brother of is, "And after the sixty-two weeks, even Onie.s, was deprived of the high-priesthood. the anointing shall be destroyed, and shall The king, being angry with him, gave it to not be, and with the coming leader he shall his youngest brother Onias." Josephus adds, destroy the holy city, and thus shall be "These two brothers changed their names destroyed in the end of the war, because -Jesus became Jason, and Onie.a Menelaus. he shall be destroyed even to death." This After a little, Onias (Menelaus) was ex- version agrees neither with the LXX. nor pelled from Jerusalem, and retired to .A.ntio- with Theodotion. Jerome translates into chus and abjured his religion." In 1 Mac- an eminently Christian sense, "And after cahees there is no reference to the death sixty-two weeks Christ shall be slain, of Onie.a at eJL Certainly the First Book of and his people who will deny him will not Macca.bees does not take up this part of the be. And his people with a leader a.bout to history, but if this Onia.s wae murdered, and come, will destroy the oity and se.nctue.rv, !iis murder 80 affected Jewish feeling, that its end we.sting, and after the end of the wor it became a date of superlative interest in desolation determined." And after three Jewish history-the writer would at lee.at score and two weeks shall the Messiah be cut have referred to it. The whole story, as off. The period of sixty-two weeks must told in 2 Ma.ccabeee, has a doubtful look. begin after the seven weeks have ended, as Even if we disregard the Heliodorus the completed period to Messiah the prince legend altogether, and the suspicion of the is seven weeks and sixty-two weeks. The whole history which it engenders, we have Messiah : the word has no article, and, there- Menele.us, a man who, according to 2 Mac- fore, it is argued, it ought to be rendered oabees, is a Benjamite, intruded into e.n "an anointed one;" but the use of the oflfoe for whioh only Aaronites wtre eligible, article is not so rigid. It is omitted in without a hint the.t the writer thought it poetio and semi-poetio passages : e.g. the an additional element in the guilt of the first word in the Hebrew Bible ie ane.rthrous, usurper. Josephus mentions it as a point although we a.re obliged to tr11Dslate it with against Aloimus, that he we.snot of the high- the article. Further, the MeBBia.h 'the priestly family(' A11t.,' xi. 9. 5), yet Alcimus Princo has already been mentioned, and, was a descendant of Aaron (l Mac0. vii. tLcrefore, comes somewhat into the region IS). We he.Ye, further, a. zealous Jew of proper names, us Awos vii. 12, "the retiring to Antioch, und, when ii~ dan~er s:wctuary of hi119," instelld of " the king ; " betuking Jiimself for safety to the hcatl1e~  272 THE BOOK OF DANIEL. [OH, IX, 1-27,