The Pulpit Commentary — Daniel — Section 301

s1tnotuary of Daphne. We know tbe orgies Behrme.nn's tre.nsle.tton is indefensible, "No that oonsool'8ted tbe groves of D1tpbne. one reme.ins to him, i.e. follows him;" he These would me.ke De.phne tbe le.st plitce gives no pe.rticulo.r reference. Thie view in "'hioh " Jewish high priest would seek assumes Onie.s III. to be the Mesail\h. He refuge; if bis very prP-senoe in the s1tno- wo.s, according to Josephus, on hie deoth tuRry would not be held by the Greekt! M sucoeeded by fint one and then the other polluting it. Thu&, even though we he.d of hie two brothen, bceo.ueo hie son we.a not the express e\"idence of Josephus e.gitinet too young for the office. The further I\R• it. the ne.rnttive is eeU-oondemned. The sumption hl\s to be ml\de that, in the whole story is be.sPleee, e.nd, whether true opinion of the pious, they were not suo- or folse, did not aff<>ct Jewish imltgine.tion oessore of Onie.a. The pious of that time in the wa"\'" e.ssumed bv critios. Had the be.ve left no reoord of their opinions, .And story been· that, while high priest, he we.a the 'f'OOpk of the prince that aliall come shall allured from the sacred precincts of the destr-oy the oity and the aapotuary. The temple at Jerusll.lem and been murdered, word translated "prince " is rarely to be then the legend., e"l'"en if untrue, might rendered" king." The only cases are those well have affected the Jews deeply. But of Solomon (1 Chron. u.ix:. 22) o.nd Hezekiah e. high priest who be.d surrendered bis (2 Kings xx. 5). The former was anointed, offioe e.nd retired into a bee.then city we.s e. ,•;:i, while his father was still living; the .ess sacred person, and his allurement from latter occurs in e. poetical passage. Priests a heathen se.nctue.ry e.nd his murder was e. are sometimes called "princes,'' or "rnlurs," Ieee heinous crime. The whole notion that but that is simply in regard to the house of Onie.s III. can be thought of here is an God e.nd the so.cerdotal o.rrangements. If e.beurdity that would have been scoutod e.t the verse stood by itself, there wonld seem once by these oritics, bad any necessity of little possible d.ifficnlty in regard to o.ccept- argument required it. The origin of this ing the old Jewish interpretation which legend of the murder of Onie.s III. is to me.de " the prince " Titus, who was left to be sought in the murder or execution of carry on the siege of Jerusalem while his Onie.s Menele.us by order of Antiocbus fe.ther was in Rome, busied with the duties Eupe.tor (Jos., • .Ant.,' xii. 9. 5 ; 2 Me.co. incumbent on the oocupant of the imperial xiii. 5). Is the anointed one Seleucus throne. Certainly the Romans, the people Phllope.tor? Bleek, von Lengerke, Maurer, of the prince, did destroy the city e.nd the e.nd Ewald bold this view. Seleucus is sanctuary in a more thorough we.y the.n alleged to have been murdered by Helio- e.ny one since Nebuchadnezzar. .And the dorus : this rests on the sole authority of elld thereof ,hall be tllith a flood. It is Appian, in e. narrative in which there is evi- di.ffinlt to decide the reference of "there- dence of confusion. Even if it be granted, of" here. The reference grammatically it is di.ffi.cnlt to imagine e. heathen prince seems to be restricted to "the people," a.a called•· Messiah." Certainly Cyrus is called that is the nominative of the preceding so in the Second Isa.iab, but this is because verb. It may, however, without muoh of the work he is to do for Israel. There grammatical strain, refer to the prince. seems e. necessity to maintain that it was In regard to propbeoy, especially apoca- some one who was to be the anointed prince lyptic prophecy, grammar cannot be re- of the Jewish people, who should thus be cut garded e.s affording e. tine.I canon for inter- off. But not for 1,i:m,aelf. Great di1ference of pretation. The me.in subject of the verse ia opinion exists e.s to the precise meaning of the Messiah who she.11 be cut off. There this phre.ae. The meaning expressed by might, therefore, be e. reference to him, •• his the Authorized Version wonld have required end " being the vengeance that came upon at least in normal Hebrew, not i~ J'Nl (fl'ayin the people for deserting him. This is the interpretation of the Septuagint, " The lo), but ~ th) (""lo' lo). The Revised Version kingdom of the heathen shall destroy the is preferable, "and shall have nothing." city and the sanctuary with the Messiah,'' It may mean "he shall not be,'' but that is identifying "prince" with "Messiah,'' and not so natnra.1. The Revised, however, is his end shall come with wrath." Thcodotion vague, e.nd one is inclined to seek for an refers to the city and the sanct119.ry, for he explaD.11.tion in a parallel passage in eh. xi has, "They shall be cut off with a Jlood." 45, ~S ~i:V !'~), "And there was no helper to The Peshitta refers to the king that cometh. Lim." It is no Sllfficient &newer to se.y, as The Vetus has finem belli. Jerome has fin'• doee Professor Beve.n, tbat eh. xi. 45 applies eju, fJastita,, his reference being to the city. to Epiphe.nee, and this does not. The same The idea of Hitzig, the.t the prenomine.l statement might be made of two di1ferent suffix refers to the campaign, seems the pc:rsoru, It seems to be a more condensed most natural one. Of course, Hitzig refers ":q,ression of what we find in Isa. !xiii. 3, it to the campaign of Antiochus, but the '"Of th" people there was none with me." interpretation does not necessitate that. cm. IX. 1-27.J 'l'IIE BOOK OF DANrnL. 2i3 ---------- Will, a floo<l; not 1L litoml floor!. This upon mitny," ie e. donl,lct of the clnusr ,rnrrl rloos not olsowhere refor to 1L numbor "when he shall confirm the covono.nt t,; of mon, s1tve in tho eleventh chapter of this m11ny weeks." The clnuee, "and arter s~•,rn book; tho.t cb11ptor, however, ie of clonbtful and seventy times a.nrl sixty-two yc,:ue," is o.uthonticity. All th11t wo <lr1Lw from the 1Lcloublet of the beginning of thetwrnty-sixth use of ,hateph, "n flood," for "a multitude verse; "Till the end of the war, and the rlr•eo- of men," and of ,hatapli, "to overflow," "to lation shall be ta.ken awe.y," ie an altcrnntive overrun," ie that, in the opinion of the version of the last clause of the twenty- nutbor of the olevonth ch11pter, the phro.eo sixth verse. When those extrnnr,ons horo means" a multitude of men." "Wrath," elements are got rid of, we have left a. or" devaet11tion," eoeme to be the beet me1Ln- rendering of the twenty-seventh verse, which ing of the word. Tbe IRttcr seems, on the may afford us light as to the text. "The whole, the more no.ture.l rendering bore. If covenant shall be strong upon many" ia a. eo, no one co.n fail to see how a.pt a descrip- possible rendering of the Hebrew (sea Pa. tion it gives of the eto.te of Judme., e.nd xii. 5). The alternative reading, "when he especially of Jerue1Llem, aftor the we.r shall confirm (iv Tlf 1«1-r<CTXuCTa,) the covenant whioh wae concluded by the capture of during ma.ny weeks," implies the infinitive the city by Titus. .And unto the end of with the preposition :;i, an,I " weeks" in the the war desolations are determined. Re.ther plure.1, and "one" omitted-the latter ie it should be rendered, "until the end was omitted, indeed, by both. " And in the end the deoree of deeolo.tions," viz. the encl of of the week "-reading i"i?. (qayfz) instead of this campaign above referred to, and until 'll_r:1 (1).•tz:ee}-" sacrifice and offering shall be that end is reached, we.r, which ie itself a decree of deeole.tions, ie determined, taken e.way, and upon the temple shall be Taken thus, this olauee explains that which the abomination of deeolo.tion " - reading has gone before. The text here, however, w:;ip (qodesh), "holy," instead of "It, (kenaph), is evidently in such a corrupt state that no "wing," "outspreading," or it may be ren- decision ce.n be made with e.ny feeling of dered "wing of temple"-" until the end, confidence. The Septuagint Rppears to and an end be given to desolation "-reading he.ve read yilla1J.ayin instead of nehresheth, li:1{: (looftan), "is given," or "appointed." in- and has omitted the lRst word altogether. stead of "l\1Y:' (tiltak), "poured out." Theo- Theodotion has, "by order in disappear- dotion is closer to the Massoretic, "And one e.nces," but ono cannot tell what Hebrew week shall confirm (Bvv«µWCTfl) a covenant to words these represent. The Vetus, which many, and in the middle (-1,µ(CT.,)of the week ueuRlly ste.nde closely related to the Septua- my sacrifice and offering shall be taken gint, omits a number of words. The un- away "-reading •rt:;i) (zeb'iJ,ee) instead of~?.! certainty of the text renders one chary of (zeba1J.), a.nd possibly minlJ,ath, instead of euggesting meanings. min1J.ah-"a.nd upon the temple (shnll be) Ver. 27.-And he she.ll confirm the cove- the abomination of desolations, all(l till (o.t) nant with me.ny for one week: and in the the end of the time a.n end is set (given) to midst of the week he shall oause the sacrifice the desole.tion." It will be observed that and the oblation to cease, and for the over- Theodotion agrees with the LXX. in reading spreading of abominations he shall me.ke it lli:;ip ( qodesh) instea.d of "I!?. (k"naph ), and ii:'~ desolate, even until the consumme.tion, and (toottan) insteadof 1i:,r;, (tittak). 1 TbePeshitta tha.t determined shall be poured upon the desofate. The verse in the Septuagint is closer still to the Me.ssoretic, but the corresponding to this is evidently mixed up lllBt verb the translator seems to have read with confluent ree.dingsand notes astoee.rlier as tanah, "shall rest." Tertullian, in his verses, "And the covenant sho.ll be strong quotation from the Vetus, shows that in this upon many, and again he shall turn verse it follows Theodotion, or rather the ('repent'? br,CT-rpb/m), o.nd it shall be built version which he made his basfa. He, how- in breadth and length, and according to the ever, conneets "half a week" with " one end of times until theendofthewe.r,and o.ftcr week." The Vulgate rendering is, "One seven e.nd seventy times and sixty-two years week also sho.11 con firm the covenn.nt to until the end of the war; und the desolation sho.ll be to.ken o.wa.y in oonfirming (or' when 1 The Vatican• n.nd • and the Alexandrian he shall confirm') the covenant to many have o. singulnraddition. After" the middle weeks; and in the end of the week the so.ori- of tho week" they add, "be shall ea.use to fice o.nd the oblation shall be taken o.we.y, and cease altar e.nd ee.crifice, e\"en until the wing of upon the temple dhall be the 11bomination of desolation, e.nd until completion ( CTullTe,\d«s) desolation until tha end, and an end shall e.nd diligence, be shall arrange to dise.ppear- be given to the des0lation. •• In thiH mass o.nce;" then they repeat the first clause. of confusion this much is clenr-the clause, This is prob.,bly a case of contluence of " the covcnnnt sht\ll bo strong (Buv«CT-rE~"") readings. J)ANH:L, 'l'  2i4 THE BOOK OF DANIEL. [cu. 1:1. 1-27,