The Prophecies of Daniel; Part 7.
Chapter 8, The Ram, Goat and the Little Horn.
November 4, 2020
By JK Sellers
When, Where and The Archangel Gabriel
Ram with Two Horns (Medo-Persian Empire)
The Goat with One Horn (Alexander the Great of Macedonia)
The Little Horn (Antiochus IV Epiphanes)
"Grew in Power to the South . . ."
"Grew in Power . . . to the East and Toward the Beautiful Land"
How Antiochus IV fulfills Daniel Chapter 8 as The Little Horn
"set itself up to be as great as the commander of the army of the LORD"
"it took away the daily sacrifice from the LORD"
"his sanctuary was thrown down"
The Abominations that Causes Desolations
"Because of rebellion, the LORD's people and the daily sacrifice were given over to it"
"prospered in everything it did, and truth was thrown to the ground"
"He will become very strong, but not by his own power"
"He will destroy those who are mighty, the holy people"
"He will cause deceit to prosper and he will consider himself superior"
"When they feel secure, he will destroy many"
"take his stand against the Prince of princes. Yet he will be destroyed, but not by human power"
2,200, 2,300, or 2,400 Days/Evenings and Mornings
Exact Fulfillment of 2,200 Mornings and Evening
Note: Unless otherwise noted, all Bible verses are from the New International Version (NIV).
Introduction
During his long and productive life, Daniel interpreted at least two dreams, read the writing of warning on the wall at Belshazzar's final feast, and had five visions of future events. Daniel's five visions sprang from his desire to understand the prophecies about his people he learned from other prophets and the disturbing images he saw from his interpretation of Nebuchadnezzar's original dream. His first vision, recorded in chapter 7, clarified what he learned in his interpretation of Nebuchadnezzar's dream. The dream and visions all dealt with the kingdoms that followed Babylon and would have a great bearing on Daniel's homeland of Israel and its people who lived in exile in Mesopotamia. This article will examine his second vision found in Daniel chapter 8 which continues to focus in on three of these kingdoms. The ram, the goat, and the little horn.
Historical Perspective
Ancient history is a fickle thing. Historians have a good grasp of the broad picture and even some details of different eras, but many details have been lost in the distant past. Classical Greek and Roman historians are a great source, but some are contradictory and may not be completely reliable. A better source are ancient inscriptions and libraries found by archaeologists but those are rare. One source the secular historians hold in disdain is the records found in the Bible. They see it as fable or fiction, especially the Book of Daniel. They do not believe that a man can be given an accurate vision of hundreds of years into the future, but time and again Daniel has been proven to be true.
For example, take the Babylonia ruler named Belshazzar. Historians laughed at his mention by Daniel, that the king of Babylon at the time of Cyrus' invasion, was Belshazzar. All records had shown that it was Nabonidus who was the king, not Belshazzar. He was not known to even exist, except in the Bible until 1854, when references to Belshazzar were found in Babylonian cuneiform inscriptions, he being the oldest son of Nabonidus and coregent with his father. It is during Belshazzar's third year that Daniel sees this vision.
There are also gaps in the history as written by Daniel himself. We know he was taken as a youth as a slave around the year 605 BC by Nebuchadnezzar. Daniel faithfully served Nebuchadnezzar for forty-three years until the king's death in 562 BC. During this time, he was a valued and trusted adviser to the king, governor of the province of Babylon, and his chief justice.1 Daniel does not mention the four kings who ruled after Nebuchadnezzar until Belshazzar, the coregent with his father, Nabonidus. My guess is, he lost his lofty positions in the Babylonian government after Nebuchadnezzar's death. Those four kings not mentioned in the book of Daniel are Amel-Marduk, Neriglissar, Labashi-Marduk, and Nabonidus.
Here a thumbnail history of those kings. Nebuchadnezzars' son, Amel-Marduk, succeeded him on the throne of Babylon. Berossus, a 3rd century Babylonian writer, noted that Amel-Marduk "governed public affairs after an illegal and impure manner," and ruled "unjustly and lewdly."2 This may explain why Daniel may have lost his positions in the Babylonian government and why Amel-Marduk was killed in a coup, after only two short years into his reign led by Neriglissar, Nebuchadnezzar's son-in-law. The usurper, Neriglissar, ruled six years until his death in 556 BC. His son, Labashi-Marduk, was on the throne for only a few months before Nabonidus seized power in a coup of his own that same year. This is the same Nabonidus who advanced his son, Belshazzar, as coregent and ruler of the province of Babylon, which happens to be Daniel's old position during Nebuchadnezzar's reign.
Nebuchadnezzar ruled Babylon for forty-three years. His reign marked the high point of Babylonian success. After his death the nation he built quickly faded:
"Nebuchadnezzar II in other sources is depicted as a great king who not only restored Babylon to its former glory but transformed it into a city of light. Under his reign, Babylon became a city which was not only wondrous to behold but also a center for the arts and intellectual pursuits. Women enjoyed equal rights with men under Nebuchadnezzar's rule (though not completely equal in status by any modern-day standard) schools and temples were plentiful and literacy, mathematics, the sciences, and craftsmanship flourished along with a tolerance of, and interest in, other gods of other faiths and the beliefs of other cultures.
In many ways, the ceramic map depicting Babylon as the center of the world was accurate. Nebuchadnezzar II envisioned a city which people ever after would view in wonder and then made that vision a reality. He died peacefully in the city he had built after a reign of 43 years but Babylon would not last even another 25 after his death. The city fell to the Persians in 539 BCE and later efforts to restore it by Alexander the Great never elevated it to the heights it had known under the reign of Nebuchadnezzar II."3
This leads us up to the 3rd year of Belshazzar when Daniel received this vision.
Overall View of the Vision
As Daniel pondered his previous vision (The vision of the four beasts) for two years, he received another vision with added detail. (Daniel 8:1) This vision continues to 'zoom in' and focus on the last three king/kingdoms of Nebuchadnezzar's Dream and the last three beasts of Daniel's second vision. This also narrows the time scale of the vision. Instead of beginning with Babylon, it starts with the ram, Cyrus the Great (600 – 530 BC), and ends with the death of Antiochus IV (216 ––164 BC), the little horn.
There are some other notable differences between the two visions besides time scale. In his previous vision, an unidentified angel interprets the vision for Daniel. In this, his second vision, Gabriel the Archangel himself is instructed by God to interpret the vision for Daniel! Another difference is that instead of seeing the kingdoms being represented as predatory animals and carnivores, Daniel sees herbivores, a ram and a goat.
Gabriel identifies the ram as the kings of the Medo-Persian Empire and the goat who slew the ram as representing Alexander the Great of Macedonia. As the vision flows through time, the great horn representing Alexander is broken off as his life is cut short and four horns replace the one. These four horns represent the four Diadochi, Alexander's successors. In the latter part of the Diadochi's reign, one of the horns is broken off and is replaced by a smaller horn, Antiochus IV. This little horn will cause astounding devastation and stop the daily sacrifice for "2,300" evenings and mornings.
After the vision ends, Daniel is again exhausted and appalled by what he saw in this vision as in the last. He will receive three more visions as the Lord clarifies and gives Daniel greater understanding to what will happen to his people, Jerusalem, and the Temple in the future as well as the last days.
1. The Prophecies of Daniel: Part 1, The Historical Setting.
2. The Prophecies of Daniel: Part 5. Chapter 2 Nebuchadnezzar's Image.
3. The Prophecies of Daniel: Part 6. Chapter 7, Daniel's Four Beasts.
4. The Prophecies of Daniel: Part 7. Chapter 8, The Ram, Goat, and the Little Horn.
5. Belshazzar's Banquet and the Writing on the Wall.
6. The Prophecies of Daniel: Part 4. Chapter 9, 70 Weeks-The Coming of the Messiah.
7. The Prophecies of Daniel: Part 8. Chapter 10-12, The Wars of the Kings of the North and the South.
A map showing the location of the city of Susa and the kingdoms of Babylon, Media and Persia circa 540 BC just prior to Cyrus the Great's invasion of Babylon.
When, Where and The Archangel Gabriel
1 In the third year of King Belshazzar's reign, I, Daniel, had a vision, after the one that had already appeared to me.
2 In my vision I saw myself in the citadel of Susa in the province of Elam; in the vision I was beside the Ulai Canal.
This second vision occurs during the reign of the last Babylonian king, Belshazzar, in 548 BC.4 and only two years after Daniel's vision of the four beasts.5 Daniel would have been around seventy years of age at this time.
Daniel says that he saw himself "in the citadel of Susa in the province of Elam…beside the Ulai Canal". Scholars are divided into two camps about where exactly Daniel was physically during this vision. The first group believes that Daniel was in the capital city of Babylon and that he was carried away "spiritually" to the city of Susa, the former capital of the Babylonian occupied kingdom of Elam. The second group believes that Daniel was serving the king in Susa at the time and was there when he had the vision. The reason for this disparity is that the original language of this verse is convoluted. While the NIV says that Daniel "saw himself" in Susa, other older translations such as the KJV says that "I was at Shushan (Susa)".6
I myself take the former opinion. For one, Elam was a conquered territory of Babylon7 and very important both strategically and economically for the region. That would have been an important post for a man of Daniel's abilities and wisdom. Secondly, when the writing appears on the wall of Belshazzar's feat on the eve of the destruction of Babylon, the people at the feast did not know of Daniel's ability to interpret dreams, thus indicating his absence for a long period of time from palace politics. There is a gap of 11 years between this vision and Daniel's interpretation of the writing on the wall. This may mean that Daniel had been absent for at least a decade from Babylon. There is a large gap in Daniel's story between his service with Nebuchadnezzar and that of Belshazzar. By this time, it was only the Queen who remembered Daniel's gift and tells the King of Daniel's abilities. (Dan. 5:10-13)
Whichever the case, Susa was an appropriate choice for the location of this vision. Susa becomes a capital of both Cyrus of Medo-Persian and that of Alexander of Macedonia. Susa (or Shushan) means "lily." Historians said that lilies grew all about the city and that Susa was beautiful and was a pleasant place to live. Cyrus was the first to make it one of the royal seats of the kingdom. Susa made a perfect location for his expanding empire as it was more centrally located between Babylon and Persia. A wall was raised around a hill where palaces were built as well as a citadel and temples.
The site of ancient Susa.
Aerial view of Susa (looking north), taken October 23, 1935.
The Ulai Canal
There has been some confusion as to what Daniel meant by the Ulai "river or canal." Daniel uses the word 'uwbal, ( אוּבָל ) which is not the most common word for river (nahar, נָהָר). Older translations, such as the King James version, uses the word "river" while newer versions have the more accurate word, "canal."
"What Daniel seems to be referring to is the (now dry) canal that separated the royal city at Susa from the lower city. That canal performed two functions. It provided water into the heart of the city, for both the royal residence (the "citadel") and for the lower city; it also formed something of a barrier that protected the royal city on its eastern side."8
The Vision of Daniel, by Rembrandt van Rijn,1650
Daniel and Gabriel the Archangel
15 While I, Daniel, was watching the vision and trying to understand it, there before me stood one who looked like a man.
16 And I heard a man's voice from the Ulai calling, "Gabriel, tell this man the meaning of the vision."
17 As he came near the place where I was standing, I was terrified and fell prostrate. "Son of man," he said to me, "understand that the vision concerns the time of the end."
18 While he was speaking to me, I was in a deep sleep, with my face to the ground. Then he touched me and raised me to my feet.
19 He said: "I am going to tell you what will happen later in the time of wrath, because the vision concerns the appointed time of the end (Or because the end will be at the appointed time).
After the vision ended, Daniel heard God's voice from the direction of the Ulai canal. God instructed the Archangel Gabriel to help Daniel understand the vision. Gabriel touched Daniel to wake him from his visionary state. Gabriel tells Daniel that the vision "concerns the time of the end" and "what will happen later in the time of wrath, because the vision concerns the appointed time of the end."
Time of the End
This brings us to another widely disputed passage in Daniel's vision. Many have confused the phrases, "the time of the end" and "the appointed time of the end" to mean that these events occur in the last days prior to the Lord's Second coming. However, if one uses the principles of exegesis , the interpretation of Biblical text, and not take these verses out of context, you will find that Gabriel is only speaking of the period of time mentioned in this vision. That would be the time from Cyrus to Antiochus IV. The vision did not explore what happened before Cyrus nor the events that followed Antiochus. My question therefore is, how can these phrases refer to thousands of years later at the Second Coming?
God commanded Gabriel to "tell this man the meaning of the vision." Gabriel's mandate was clear. The vision he was to explain was the vision of the ram, goat and little horn and no other. Not the vision of the four beasts (Daniel 7) from two years ago and certainly not the visions he would receive eleven years later (Daniel 10-12), during the reign of kings Darius and Cyrus.
Gabriel did not explain anything outside the vision. The "time of the end" was the end of the vision, or after Antiochus' death. Samuel Driver, an English religious and Hebrew scholar, put it this way:
The 'time of the end' is a standing expression in Daniel (Daniel 11:35; Daniel 11:40, Daniel 12:4; Daniel 12:9; cf. 'the appointed-time [מועד] of the end' Daniel 8:19, and 'the end' Daniel 9:26 b), and means (spoken from Daniel's standpoint) the period of Antiochus's persecution, together with the short interval, consisting of a few months, which followed before his death . . .9
Joseph Benson in his Bible commentary, agrees:
For at the time, or, to the time, of the end shall be the vision — That is, there is a precise time determined for the accomplishment of the vision, when it shall certainly be fulfilled. Or the meaning may be, that the fulfilling of the vision should not come to pass for a considerable space of time; that it was concerning matters at a distance, namely, at the distance of almost four hundred years.10
It is clear that Gabriel is referring to the end of the suffering of the Jews under Antiochus and is given to Daniel as a comfort. Even though his people will suffer greatly, that these trials would have an end must have been reassuring to the prophet Daniel.
In verse 19, Gabriel tells Daniel that, "I am going to tell you what will happen later in the time of wrath, because the vision concerns the appointed time of the end." Gabriel is explaining that because of the wickedness of the Jews, that they followed after Greek gods and evil practices, God's wrath would descend upon them and they must suffer the evils which Antiochus would inflict upon their people. Gabriel assured Daniel that this time was appointed. Gabriel also assured the prophet that there would be an appointed end, after "2300" days.
Knowing what Antiochus would do to his people must have been hard for Daniel to witness in the vision. It would be understandable to fear for those who would suffer. After all, Antiochus and his troops would torture and slaughter men, women, and children, burn and tear down many building in Jerusalem, desecrate the Temple, and not allow the Jews to keep their covenants with God. The only peace of mind Daniel received from Gabriel was that the persecutions would last a short time. That there would be a "time of end."
Note: Daniel received this vision around 548 BC. The vision begins with the rise of Cyrus the Great in 559 BC and continues on until the death of Antiochus IV and the rededication of the Temple in Jerusalem, in 165 BC.
Ram with Two Horns (Medo-Persian Empire)
3 I looked up, and there before me was a ram with two horns, standing beside the canal, and the horns were long. One of the horns was longer than the other but grew up later.
4 I watched the ram as it charged toward the west and the north and the south. No animal could stand against it, and none could rescue from its power. It did as it pleased and became great.
20 The two-horned ram that you saw represents the kings of Media and Persia.
As the vision opened, Daniel saw a ram with two horns standing near the Ulai canal. It is interesting to note that one of the horns of the ram was larger than the other and also grew later than the other. Gabriel identified the ram as representing the kings of Media and Persia. This would mean the larger horn that grew later represented the rise of Cyrus the Great from Persia that dominated the once powerful Media half of the kingdom. The Medo-Persian kings expanded their kingdom west into Egypt, and Macedonia, north to the Black and Caspian seas and south and east to India.
The Goat with One Horn (Alexander the Great of Macedonia)
5 As I was thinking about this, suddenly a goat with a prominent horn between its eyes came from the west, crossing the whole earth without touching the ground.
21 The shaggy goat is the king of Greece, and the large horn between its eyes is the first king.
Daniel now sees a goat appear from the west that had one large horn. This goat raced so swiftly across the land that its feet didn't touch the ground. Gabriel identifies the goat as the first king, Alexander the Great of Macedonia (Greece).
Goat Attacks the Ram
6 It came toward the two-horned ram I had seen standing beside the canal and charged at it in great rage.
7 I saw it attack the ram furiously, striking the ram and shattering its two horns. The ram was powerless to stand against it; the goat knocked it to the ground and trampled on it, and none could rescue the ram from its power.
8 The goat became very great, but at the height of its power the large horn was broken off, and in its place four prominent horns grew up toward the four winds of heaven.
22 The four horns that replaced the one that was broken off represent four kingdoms that will emerge from his nation but will not have the same power.
The goat attacks the ram, defeating it utterly and becoming very great. At the height of its power the goat's horn is broken off and four horns replace it. This obviously represents the rapid rise of Alexander the Great and his conquest of the Medo-Persians. Alexander's conquest was unstoppable by the Persians. At the height of his power, Alexander dies at the age of 32.
After his death, the Macedonian Empire was divided between Alexander's generals, commonly called the Diadochi (successors). The fragile unity of the Diadochi soon collapsed, and 40 years of war between the Alexander's successors ensued. The Hellenistic world eventually settled into four stable power blocs: Ptolemaic Egypt, Seleucid Mesopotamia/Central Asia, Cassander Macedonia, and Lysimachus Thrace/Asia Minor. These kingdoms represent the four horns that grew from the prominent broken horn, Alexander.
The Little Horn (Antiochus IV Epiphanes
9 Out of one of them came another horn, which started small but grew in power to the south and to the east and toward the Beautiful Land.
10 It grew until it reached the host of the heavens, and it threw some of the starry host down to the earth and trampled on them.
11 It set itself up to be as great as the commander of the army of the LORD; it took away the daily sacrifice from the LORD, and his sanctuary was thrown down.
23 "In the latter part of their reign, when rebels have become completely wicked, a fierce-looking king, a master of intrigue, will arise.
24 He will become very strong, but not by his own power. He will cause astounding devastation and will succeed in whatever he does. He will destroy those who are mighty, the holy people.
25 He will cause deceit to prosper, and he will consider himself superior. When they feel secure, he will destroy many and take his stand against the Prince of princes. Yet he will be destroyed, but not by human power.
The little horn in Daniel chapter 8 is the same as the little horn in Daniel chapter 7. In Part 6 of my series on the book of Daniel I show that the little horn which uprooted three of the ten horns was in fact, Antiochus IV. This is the same little horn that replaced the Seleucus horn of the goat.
Antiochus IV Epiphanes
Antiochus IV was a very ambitious and devious man. After Heliodorus assassinated his brother, king Seleucus Philopater, in 175 BC, Antiochus immediately traveled to Syria, killed Heliodorus, and seized the throne for himself. He did this by marrying his brother's widow, who happened to be his own sister. He then declared himself regent to his young nephew, completely bypassing Demetrius Soter, the oldest son and heir of the dead king who was conveniently, a hostage in Rome. Thus, Antiochus killed the usurper and passed over a presumptive to the throne, Demetrius Soter. A few years later he had his young regent killed. By devious planning and assassination, Antiochus Epiphanes, became sole ruler of the Seleucid Kingdom.
Once Antiochus gained the throne, he immediately made overtures of peace with the growing powerful empire advancing into Asia, the Romans. He sent an embassy to Rome with a large fortune that was owed to the Republic on an old indemnity. This and a new treaty guaranteed a secure border in the north. This allowed Antiochus to set his sights on the ancient Seleucid enemy, Ptolemaic Egypt.
Antiochus IV invades Ptolemaic Egypt, 170 BC
"Grew in Power to the South . . ."
King Ptolemy VI of Egypt, thinking the Seleucid kingdom was in disarray from the assassination of their king, thought to take advantage of the chaos and declared war upon Antiochus, demanding the return of the disputed border territory of Coele-Syria. Antiochus was way ahead of Ptolemy. He had prepared for this eventuality and had planned his own invasion of Egypt.
Crossing the northern Sinai desert, Antiochus met the Ptolemy army at Pelusium, who happened to be on their way to invade Coele-Syria. The Seleucid army routed the surprised Ptolemies in a decisive battle. As the routed Ptolemaic soldiers fled the battlefield, Antiochus rode at the head of his pursuing troops, sparing the enemy soldiers from slaughter. Most of these fleeing troops were mercenaries of Macedonian lineage, just as those of Seleucia. Antiochus offered the mercenaries employment, and the riches that come with the victors. Many of Ptolemy's army jumped at the chance and changed alliances, joining with Antiochus and his march on Memphis.
Hearing of the Seleucid victory and the collapse of their army, the child-king, Ptolemy VI Philometor, fled in a ship to Ptolemy controlled Cyprus. Antiochus was prepared for this eventuality and sent ships to capture the young king. After defeating and scattering the Ptolemy army at Pelusium and with the young king in hand, Antiochus now found himself in the perfect position to annex Ptolemaic Egypt into his empire. His problem was that Rome was an ally of the Ptolemies and would oppose such a bold move. At this time, Rome was embroiled in its own war with Macedonia and was powerless to send troops to stop Antiochus. Not wanting to anger the most powerful empire of the region, Antiochus decided, rather than annex Egypt completely, he would reinstall the child-king Ptolemy VI Philometor upon the throne as his puppet. It helped that Ptolemy VI was related to Antiochus, he was his nephew. Antiochus decided to use this relationship as a fig leaf to, in all intents and purposes, control Egypt, just as he did when he took control of the Seleucid kingdom by claiming to be regent of his dead brother's young son.
Seleucid war elephants. Diadochi Wars by Manuel Krommenacker
After taking the fortifications at Pelusium and with no Egyptian army to oppose him, Antiochus now had all of Egypt at his feet. He first marched to the key city of Memphis, the old capital of the pharaohs. The undefended city quickly surrendered without a fight. Antiochus established Memphis as the new capital of Ptolemy Egypt with his puppet, Ptolemy VI Philometor, on the throne and himself as the new champion of the "legitimate" king. Antiochus also built a bridge across the Nile and cut off the food supply to the Nile delta and Alexandria, the original capital, and the largest city in Egypt. Alexandria was the jewel of Egypt and Antiochus' main target of the conquest. Antiochus, with control of the king and the major route of food for the country, he was in a commanding position over the whole of Egypt.
While Antiochus was busy in Memphis the power brokers in Alexandria were in turmoil. They enthroned Ptolemy's brother, Ptolemy VIII Euergetes, as king of Egypt, splitting the kingdom's rule. With Seleucia in control of the Nile and the food supply, they knew they were in deep trouble. An emissary was sent to Memphis to negotiate a peace treaty. They offered to give up their claim to Coele-Syria if Antiochus would return their king and the territory he had captured. Antiochus had Egypt in a chokehold. His ambitions were much bigger than the border territory of Coele. Making Egypt a vassal state to Seleucia was the dream of generations of Seleucid kings. Now it was at his fingertips. Antiochus refused the paltry offer and marched his army to Alexandria and laid siege to the city in a bid to conquer the whole kingdom.
Unfortunately for Antiochus, he could not force an effective siege on Alexandria. While his troops completely surrounded the landward side of Alexandria, his naval force was too meager to seal the seaward side of the city from relief. Antiochus knew that a full-scale assault on the city would be too costly in casualties. He did not have the manpower to fight a house to house, street-by-street bloody battle to take such a large city. Antiochus decided to lift his failed siege in 169 BC. Antiochus settled for leaving his puppet in Memphis, a decimated Egyptian army, and a divided Egypt, and withdrew his armies back to Antioch.
With the armies of Antiochus gone, the two brothers reconciled their differences and agreed to rule Egypt jointly, thus foiling Antiochus' attempt to precipitate a civil war that would have lasted years and caused even more damage to the country.
The following year (168 BC), Antiochus, realizing his attempt to incite a civil war in Egypt failed, as well as losing control of his puppet in Memphis, decided to again invade Egypt. In a two-pronged attack, he sent a fleet to capture the strategic island of Cyprus and marched his armies into Egypt. The condition of the Ptolemaic army, not having recovered from the previous defeats, allowed Antiochus free access to Egypt as he marched unopposed to Memphis. After retaking Memphis, he turned north toward Alexandria. On his way, he was met by a Roman ambassador and friend, Gaius Popillius Laenas. The Roman Senate had threatened Antiochus that he must leave Egypt immediately or risk war with Rome. Their encounter made, "draw a line in the sand" a famous idiom we still use today. The Roman historian, Titus Livius, recorded the event:
"After receiving the submission of the inhabitants of Memphis and of the rest of the Egyptian people, some submitting voluntarily, others under threats, [Antiochus] marched by easy stages towards Alexandria. After crossing the river at Eleusis, about four miles from Alexandria, he was met by the Roman commissioners, to whom he gave a friendly greeting and held out his hand to Popilius. Popilius, however, placed in his hand the tablets on which was written the decree of the senate and told him first of all to read that. After reading it through he said he would call his friends into council and consider what he ought to do. Popilius, stern and imperious as ever, drew a circle round the king with the stick he was carrying and said, "Before you step out of that circle give me a reply to lay before the senate." For a few moments he hesitated, astounded at such a peremptory order, and at last replied, "I will do what the senate thinks right." Not till then did Popilius extend his hand to the king as to a friend and ally. Antiochus evacuated Egypt at the appointed date, and the commissioners exerted their authority to establish a lasting concord between the brothers, as they had as yet hardly made peace with each other." (Ab Urbe Condita", xlv.12.)
Popilius sent as an embassy to Antiochus Epiphanes to stop the course of its devastation in Egypt, Louis-Jean-François Lagrenée (1725–1805)
Antiochus withdrew from Egypt carrying with him the wealth he had looted from the country. He left behind a much weaker enemy and had the assurances from Rome that there would no reprisals from the Ptolemies. With secure borders in the north and south, Antiochus, enriched and confident now, could move east.
"Grew in Power . . . to the East and Toward the Beautiful Land"
After returning from his successful campaign in Egypt, Antiochus IV, was notified that the Jews had rebelled against the high priest whom he himself had installed in Jerusalem, Menelaus. The previous high priest, Jason, had heard a rumor that Antiochus had been killed in the fighting in Egypt. Jason saw a chance to remove the corrupt and unpopular high priest, Menelaus, and raised a force of a thousand men with whom he removed the high priest. Both Jason and Menelaus as high priests had led the people to break their covenants with God. What's worse, in order to gain favor with their Greek rulers, the priests had adoptedd pagan practices and worship. The most egregious, being the practice of homosexuality and pedophilia that was common in Greek culture. They had introduced Gymnasiums into Jerusalem where homosexuality and pedophilia were practiced. Many Jewish leaders and priests participated in this activity to flatter their Greek masters. All participants went nude, so in order to fit in with the uncircumcised Greeks, the leaders and priest were required to disguise their circumcisions from their Greek overseers.11
When Antiochus heard of the revolt, he immediately led his army to Jerusalem. The Greek soldiers quickly stormed Jerusalem and sacked the city. This is how it is described in 2 Maccabees:
"Raging like a wild animal… He ordered his soldiers to cut down without mercy those whom they met and to slay those who took refuge in their houses. There was a massacre of young and old, a killing of women and children, a slaughter of young women and infants. In the space of three days, eighty thousand were lost, forty thousand meeting a violent death, and the same number being sold into slavery… Antiochus carried off eighteen hundred talents from the temple and hurried back to Antioch."12
Shortly thereafter, Antiochus began a campaign to eradicate Jewish culture and religion:
- He plundered the Temple and stripped it bare of its treasure and furnishings, and as Josephus says, "left nothing at all remaining".13
- He looted the city and set fire to it, demolished many houses and Jerusalem's surrounding walls.14
- Desecrated the Temple by sacrificing swine on its sacred altar and then making. broth and sprinkling it around the Temple15.
- He killed and enslaved tens of thousands16.
- Banned the daily sacrifices in the Temple17.
- Erected a statue of Jupiter on the Temple's altar and forced all to worship it18.
- Tortured and crucified any who would not deny their faith in God19.
- Turned the rooms of the Temple into a public brothel20.
- Put to death any woman who had their child circumcised by hanging the baby from her neck and then throwing them both off the high wall of the city21.
- Destroyed any copy of the scriptures that were found and executed those hiding them22.
- He forced the Jews to adhere to Greek customs on pain of death23.
- Antiochus IV, in his effort to completely Hellenize the Jews, forced them to abandon their calendar of Holy Days and Feasts and adopt the Greek calendar, thus fulfilling another prediction of Daniel that he would "change the set times and the laws"(Dan. 7:25)24.
[From, The Prophecies of Daniel: Part 6, Daniel's Four Beasts, The Description of the Fourth Beast]
How Antiochus IV fulfills Daniel Chapter 8 as The Little Horn
9 Out of one of them came another horn, which started small but grew in power to the south and to the east and toward the Beautiful Land.
10 It grew until it reached the host of the heavens, and it threw some of the starry host down to the earth and trampled on them.
11 It set itself up to be as great as the commander of the army of the LORD; it took away the daily sacrifice from the LORD, and his sanctuary was thrown down.
23 "In the latter part of their reign, when rebels have become completely wicked, a fierce-looking king, a master of intrigue, will arise.
24 He will become very strong, but not by his own power. He will cause astounding devastation and will succeed in whatever he does. He will destroy those who are mighty, the holy people.
25 He will cause deceit to prosper, and he will consider himself superior. When they feel secure, he will destroy many and take his stand against the Prince of princes. Yet he will be destroyed, but not by human power.
"grew until it reached the host of the heavens, and it threw some of the starry host down to the earth and trampled on them"
In Jeremiah, the Lord compared the descendants of David and the Levite priests as a stary host25. When Antiochus entered Jerusalem by deception, he put down the "rebellion" of the high priest, Jason, and the other priests who opposed the unpopular Menelaus. In retribution, Antiochus burned the priest's homes, killed thousands of men, women, and children, and took the surviving rebels as slaves26. Antiochus certainly did throw a host of priests and their families down and trampled them.
"set itself up to be as great as the commander of the army of the LORD"
Antiochus was an evil and narcissistic ruler. He gave himself the title, Epiphanes, literally "god manifest." This was a distorted imitation of the phrase, "God with us."
When the angel appeared to Joseph in a dream, he announced that his fiancée, Mary, had conceived a child through the Holy Ghost (Matthew 1:20–21). The angel (I like to think that this was the same angel, Gabriel, who appeared to Mary, Zacharias, and Daniel himself.) told Joseph that Mary would bare a son and that his name should be Jesus. Matthew, revealing the fulfillment of prophecy, quoted from Isaiah 7:14:
"All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: "The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel" (which means "God with us"). (Matthew 1:22–23).
Antiochus, perhaps unknowingly, took the title of the Messiah who would come to save His people and all of mankind. Antiochus was the first Seleucid king to ever claim himself to be a god. The Jews, because of his cruel and blasphemous behavior, gave him the title, Epimanes, meaning "The Mad One," a takeoff of Epiphanes. It was Antiochus IV who rebelled against the true God and systematically forbade, under penalty of death, Sabbath and holy day observances, circumcision, and the reading or possession of the scrolls of the Tanakh, the Bible. He executed those who refused to eat swine's flesh and all who would not bow down to Greek pagan idols.
"it took away the daily sacrifice from the LORD"
Antiochus stopped the priests from their duty of daily sacrifices at the Temple on pain of death. In it's place he forced the construction of pagan altars and the daily sacrifice of swine on the Temple's altar and others he had built in other Jewish towns and villages.
The Desecration of the Temple, from the book, Historie des Ouden en Nieuwen Testaments
"his sanctuary was thrown down"
Note: Because of the convoluted language of verse 11, the orientalist and Biblical scholar, Anthony Bevan, called this verse, "the most difficult verse in this whole book."27 The Septuagint, the earliest Greek translation of the Bible, uses the phrase: "and the holy place shall be made desolate" rather than "throne down."28 Perhaps this is why the book of Maccabees uses the term "desolate" twice when referring to the Temple29.
Antiochus appointed evil and wicked men, Jason and Menelaus, as high priests to oversee the Temple services and ordinances, and to lead the priests of Levi. The Temple itself was not literally torn down, but it was certainly profaned, rendered useless, and "made desolate":
- Antiochus looted the Temple treasury and stripped it bare of its furnishings, veils and even the gold leaf on all the decorative surfaces. (1 Macc. 1:21-23)
- He turned the Temple itself into a public brothel. (2 Macc. 6:4)
- He placed a statue of Jupiter upon the Temple's altar and forced the priests to sacrifice swine upon it. (2 Macc.6:1-2)
- Antiochus changed the name of the temple to the Temple of Jupiter and had it dedicated to the pagan God. (2 Macc 6:2)
The Temple is described as being 'laid waste like a wilderness' (1 Macc. 8:39), and 'trampled down (καταπατούμενον).' (1 Macc 3:45) The Maccabees who defeated the armies of Antiochus and founded the Hasmonean dynasty found the Temple in a state of desolation after three years of desecration:
"They found the sanctuary desolate, the altar desecrated, the gates burnt, weeds growing in the courts as in a thicket or on some mountain, and the priests' chambers demolished. Then they tore their garments and made great lamentation; they sprinkled their heads with ashes and prostrated themselves. And when the signal was given with trumpets, they cried out to Heaven." (1 Macc. 4:38-40)
A lamentation in the Book of Maccabees reads:
"Jerusalem was uninhabited, like a wilderness;
not one of her children came in or went out.
The sanctuary was trampled on,
and foreigners were in the citadel;
it was a habitation for Gentiles.
Joy had disappeared from Jacob,
and the flute and the harp were silent." (1 Maccabees 3:45)
Antiochus corrupted the priesthood of God and made His House profane, desolate, and a place of debauchery and wickedness. He certainly did make the holy place "desolate" and figuratively "throne down."
Abominations that Cause Desolations
The Abominations that Causes Desolations
"Because of rebellion, the LORD's people and the daily sacrifice were given over to it"
The people of Israel are a covenant making people. God made a covenant with the people of Israel through Abraham30, Isaac31, Jacob32, Moses33, and Solomon34. These covenants came with a blessing as well as a curse if broken. Jehovah told the people that if they would:
"walk in obedience to him, and to keep his commands, decrees and laws; then you will live and increase, and the LORD your God will bless you in the land you are entering to possess." (Deuteronomy 30:16)
Then came an admonition and a curse if they broke their covenants:
"But if your heart turns away and you are not obedient, and if you are drawn away to bow down to other gods and worship them. I declare to you this day that you will certainly be destroyed. You will not live long in the land you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess. This day I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live and that you may love the LORD your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. For the LORD is your life, and he will give you many years in the land he swore to give to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob." (Deuteronomy 30:17-20)
In verses 12 & 13 the angel informs Daniel what causes the desolation:
12 Because of rebellion, the LORD's people and the daily sacrifice were given over to it. It prospered in everything it did, and truth was thrown to the ground.
13 Then I heard a holy one speaking, and another holy one said to him, "How long will it take for the vision to be fulfilled—the vision concerning the daily sacrifice, the rebellion that causes desolation, the surrender of the sanctuary and the trampling underfoot of the LORD's people?"
It is the rebellion of Israel that brings down the desolation upon themselves. In other visions the angels use the word 'abomination.' In the 70-week prophecy Daniel 9:27 (KJV) we are told that because of "the overspreading of abominations he (the Lord) shall make it (Jerusalem) desolate." In his last vision, the angel tells Daniel that the king of the north, Antiochus Epiphanes, "will set up the abomination that causes desolation." (Daniel 11:31) Jesus Christ used the same phrase while He taught the disciples on the Mount of Olives, just prior to His crucifixion and resurrection: the wickedness of His generation and the coming destruction of the Temple by the Romans.(Matthew 24:15).
So, what kind of 'rebellions' are an abomination to God? In the covenant Israel made with God, He gave them a specific warning that idol worship would lead to their destruction (Deut. 30:17-18). Besides Idolatry, child sacrifice and sexual sins such as adultery, homosexuality, and bestiality are also called abominations. (Lev. 18:22-23, 29-30)
Was Israel guilty of any of these 'abominations'? Yes! The high priest Menelaus, to gain favor with their Greek rulers, encouraged pagan practices and idol worship35. The most egregious, being the practice of bestiality36, homosexuality, and pedophilia37 that was the norm in Greek culture. He introduced Gymnasiums into Jerusalem where homosexuality and pedophilia were practiced. Many Jewish leaders and priests participated in this activity to flatter the Greek hierarchy. All participants went nude, so the leaders and priest disguised their circumcisions to fit in with the uncircumcised Greeks.38
The Lord withdraws His protection from Israel when they turn away from Him, break His laws and covenants, and worship other gods. God allowed Nebuchadnezzar to destroy Jerusalem and the Temple in 587 BC, because of the wickedness of the king and the priests who drew the people to worship Baal and commit sins such as infanticide and adultery.
Again, we see the same pattern occur when the high priests, Jason and Menelaus, who led the people to participate in homosexuality, pedophilia, other sins, the worship of Jupiter, the building and sacrificing of swine on the Temple's altars, and the perverting the House of the Lord. Because of this wickedness, Antiochus was allowed to desecrate and trample down the Temple, burn the city, destroy its walls, kill and enslave thousands and persecute the Lord's people.
The pattern continued when the covenant people of the Lord rejected and killed their promised Messiah. This was the ultimate "abomination" that Israel could have committed. As a result, millions of Jews were killed and enslaved, Jerusalem and the Temple burned and completely destroyed, and its people scattered over much of the earth by the armies of Rome in 70 AD.
In the last days, after the return of scattered Israel, Jerusalem will be attacked again. However, this event will end differently. The Lord will remember the covenants He has made and will come to save His people!
"A day of the LORD is coming, Jerusalem, when your possessions will be plundered and divided up within your very walls. I will gather all the nations to Jerusalem to fight against it; the city will be captured, the houses ransacked, and the women raped. Half of the city will go into exile, but the rest of the people will not be taken from the city. Then the LORD will go out and fight against those nations, as he fights on a day of battle. On that day his feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, east of Jerusalem, and the Mount of Olives will be split in two from east to west, forming a great valley, with half of the mountain moving north and half moving south." (Zechariah 14:1-4)
When people of Israel commit abominations and do not repent, desolation has always been the tragic result.
"prospered in everything it did, and truth was thrown to the ground"
Antiochus prospered when he defeated the armies of Egypt and sacked its cities, twice. He expanded and secured his borders and went on to loot Jerusalem and the rich treasures of the Temple. He threw truth to the ground when he ordered every copy of the Tanakh, the scriptures, to be burned and anyone found hiding them killed22.
"In the latter part of their reign, when rebels have become completely wicked, a fierce-looking king, a master of intrigue, will arise"
This comes from Gabriel's warning to Daniel and to those in the future who would read Daniel's writings, that in the latter part of the reign of the four horns, the Diadochi, an evil king would arise. This would be at a time when the rebels, the rebellious high priest, Jacob, and his followers, would be involved in wickedness as noted above. [The Abomination that Causes Desolation]
Antiochus truly was a fierce looking king in his anger toward the Jews, a master of intrigue who deceived his way to the throne of the Seleucid kingdom, put his puppet upon the throne of Egypt, and deceived the people of Israel by gaining entrance to Jerusalem in making an offer of peace.
"the King (Antiochus) came up to Jerusalem: and, pretending peace, he got possession of the city by treachery."17
"He will become very strong, but not by his own power"
Antiochus could not have become king without the help of King Eumenes of Pergamon, who escorted Antiochus through enemy held lands to arrive safely to Antioch and kill the usurper, Heliodorus, and take the throne by deceit. He could not have invaded Egypt without the peace treaty with Rome and their subsequent war in Macedonia, which kept them from interfering in his successive invasions of Egypt.
God gives power to men to accomplish the Lord's purposes.39 God did not stay the hand of Antiochus and stop his evils upon God's people. Israel had been warned by every one of their prophets to not rebel against God. Isaiah put it succinctly:
"but if you resist and rebel, you will be devoured by the sword." For the mouth of the LORD has spoken." (Isaiah 1:20)
"He will destroy those who are mighty, the holy people"
This phrase varies depending on the version of the Bible we read. The King James version and the Septuagint, among others, has the "mighty" and the "holy people" as separate classes of people:
King James Version–– "and shall destroy the mighty and the holy people." (Dan 8:24)
Brenton Septuagint Translation–– "and shall destroy mighty men, and the holy people." (Dan. 8:24)
The "mighty men" Gabriel was referring to may have been the mighty men of Egypt and their armies. Antiochus IV in his two invasions of Egypt decimated the Ptolemy army and looted the wealth of the country. The historian, John D. Grainger, said that Antiochus IV, "had conducted a successful war against Ptolemaic Egypt, in the process reducing that kingdom to international impotence."40
Antiochus laid low the mighty men of Ptolemaic Egypt, as well as the holy people of God.
"He will cause deceit to prosper and he will consider himself superior"
Antiochus IV by all accounts was a crafty and devious man. He persuaded an enemy, king Eumenes of Pergamon, to help him gain the throne. He induced those in power at Antioch to accept his usurpation of the throne from his brother, Demetrius Soter, convince his own sister to marry him so that he could become the regent of the next in line to be king, his nephew Antiochus, who he had slain a few years later. He placed a puppet on the throne in Egypt and split that nation's loyalty for a time. He entered Jerusalem by a ruse of peace, then slaughtered the people who came to honor him.
By all accounts Antiochus was a deceitful, devious and covetous despot with great ambitions to expand his kingdom to the former glories of past great kings of the Seleucid kingdom.
"When they feel secure, he will destroy many"
When Heliodorus assassinated the Seleucid king, Seleucus Philopater, in 175 BC, Ptolemy of Egypt intended to take advantage of the disarray within the kingdom of his ancient enemy, the Seleucids. Ptolemy assumed that his enemy was in political turmoil, especially when a short time later Antiochus executed Heliodorus and usurped the throne. Ptolemy jumped at the chance and declared war on Antiochus and made preparations to invade southern Coele-Syria and take it from the Seleucids. Feeling strong and secure from all enemies, Ptolemy gathered his armies on the border and prepared the invasion. Instead of finding an enemy in disarray, Egypt found a united and superior enemy. Antiochus easily defeated the invading army and routed them.
Antiochus destroyed the Egyptian army that had felt confident and secure just prior to their utter defeat.
"take his stand against the Prince of princes. Yet he will be destroyed, but not by human power"
Antiochus stood and fought against the Lord (Prince of princes) and His people as illustrated above.
After Antiochus sacked Jerusalem and the Temple, he placed Macedonians and renegade Jews as overseers of the Jewish people with the goal to stamp out their religion and completely Hellenize the people.
After sacking Jerusalem twice, and with the riches of Israel filling his war chest and the "rebellion" stamped out, Antiochus set his eyes to the east. Antiochus' goal was to reunite the independent, far-off provinces of his kingdom who had gained autonomy after the death of his father, Antiochus the Great. Antiochus IV gathered a large army of Macedonian mercenaries, war elephants, archers, and cavalry in preparation. To begin his campaign, Antiochus marched north into Armenia. There, he forced king Artaxias to submit to his rule and pay a large tribute, after which Antiochus marched south and east into what is present-day Iraq and Iran.
Judah, Woodcut from "Die Bibel in Bildern", 1860.
While Antiochus was in the east with his main army, a rebel force of Jews, led by the Jewish priest, Mattathias and his five sons, stood up against the Greek's tyrannical rule in 166 BC. Mattathias died early in the fighting that same year. His son Judah, known as Judah Maccabee ("the Hammer"), took command of the rebel force and led them on to many victories. By 163 BC the Jews had driven the Greeks from the region using guerilla tactics, speed, and mobility and defeated almost every Seleucid force sent against them.
After removing the Greeks from Jerusalem, Judah lead his men into the city and found the Temple in a shambles.
"But as soon as he, with the whole multitude, was come to Jerusalem, and found the temple deserted, and its gates burnt down, and plants growing in the temple of their own accord, on account of its desertion, he and those that were with him began to lament, and were quite confounded at the sight of the temple."41
Judah called upon the priests to purify themselves in preparation to cleanse and restore the Temple. The priests rebuilt the altar, hung a new veil, and replaced all the stolen vessels and doors. On the early morning of "the twenty-fifth day of the ninth month, that is, the month of Kislev, in the year one hundred and forty-eight (Dec. 164 BC) and offered sacrifice according to the law on the new altar for burnt offerings that they had made." (1 Mac. 4:52-53)
This event is celebrated every year with the Festival of Lights, Hanukkah. For more information, go to The Story of Chanukah.
"The Punishment of Antiochus" by Gustave Dore, 1866
Once Antiochus heard of the defeat of his forces in Judea, he swore in his arrogance, "I will make Jerusalem the common graveyard of Jews as soon as I arrive there."42 soon after Antiochus was struck down by a horrible disease and died:
"So the all-seeing Lord, the God of Israel, struck him down with an incurable and invisible blow; for scarcely had he uttered those words when he was seized with excruciating pains in his bowels and sharp internal torment, fit punishment for him who had tortured the bowels of others with many barbarous torments. Far from giving up his insolence, he was all the more filled with arrogance. Breathing fire in his rage against the Jews, he gave orders to drive even faster. As a result he hurtled from the speeding chariot, and every part of his body was racked by the violent fall. Thus he who previously, in his superhuman presumption, thought he could command the waves of the sea, and imagined he could weigh the mountaintops in his scales, was now thrown to the ground and had to be carried on a litter, clearly manifesting to all the power of God. The body of this impious man swarmed with worms, and while he was still alive in hideous torments, his flesh rotted off, so that the entire army was sickened by the stench of his corruption. Shortly before, he had thought that he could reach the stars of heaven, and now, no one could endure to transport the man because of this intolerable stench."43
Thus, Antiochus was "destroyed, but not by human power."
2,200, 2,300, or 2,400 Days/Evenings and Mornings
14 He said to me, "It will take 2,300 evenings and mornings; then the sanctuary will be reconsecrated."
26 "The vision of the evenings and mornings that has been given you is true, but seal up the vision, for it concerns the distant future."
Now we come to another controversial verse of Daniel. There is a debate among scholars as to the correct number and phraseology found in verse 14. It all depends on which version of the Bible you use. The King James Version is different than most of the other versions. The KJV uses "days" instead of "evenings and mornings" and the number "2,300." Most other translations use "2,300" along with the phrase "evenings and mornings" rather than "days." In this category are the New International Version, New American Standard Bible, English Standard Version, and New English Translation, among others. The Septuagint uses the number "2,400" along with "evenings and mornings." Josephus and Jarome, who had access to the earliest versions of the Bible which we no longer possess, used the number "2,200" as well as "evenings and mornings."
From the newest to oldest here are the different readings of Daniel 8:14:
He said to me, "To 2,300 evenings and mornings; then the sanctuary will be put right again."
English Standard Version, 2001
And he said to me, "For 2,300 evenings and mornings. Then the sanctuary shall be restored to its rightful state."
New International Version, 1973
He said to me, "It will take 2,300 evenings and mornings; then the sanctuary will be reconsecrated."
New American Standard Bible, 1971
He said to me, "For 2,300 evenings and mornings; then the holy place will be properly restored."
And he said unto me, Unto two thousand and three hundred (2,300) days; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed.
Jerome, 405–420 AD
"Some authorities read two hundred instead of two thousand three hundred" (2,200)44
Flavius Josephus, 84 AD
"1100 evenings and 1100 mornings" (2,200)45
Septuagint, LXX, 2nd century BC
14 And he said to him, Evening and morning two thousand and four hundred days (2,400); and the sanctuary shall be cleansed.
So why are there so many variations to Daniel 8:14? The answer is in two parts. First, the use of incorrect exegesis. The second reason for the variant readings of verse 14 is scribal error.
Out of Context, Days/Evenings and Mornings
The Hebrew word "day" (Yowm) does not appear in verse 14. Instead we find the words "morning" (Boqer) and "evening" (`ereb). Even though the word "Yowm", day, appears 20 times in the book of Daniel, it is absent in verse 14. The team of translators who worked on the King James Version assumed that since the phrase, "mornings and evenings", was similar to a phrase found in Genesis 1:5, "And the evening and the morning were the first day," that the "mornings and evenings" here must mean a period of one day. Unfortunately, they did not apply one of the most important rules of exegesis, and took the phrase, "mornings and evenings," out of context.
In the previous verse, 13, there is an angel asking another angel when will the prophecy be fulfilled. The other says, speaking of the daily sacrifices in the temple, that it will be fulfilled after a certain number of daily sacrifices (morning and evening). In the temple rites, two lambs were sacrificed each day, one in the morning and another in the evening (Ex. 29:38-39). The two angels were not speaking of a Genesis' "evening and morning" as a day, but rather, the two daily sacrifices in the Temple, one in the morning and one in the evening. That is why Daniel didn't use the word "yowm." The number in verse 14 did not represent a day but rather how many sacrifices, one in the morning and one in the evening, which would cease to be performed until the prophecy was fulfilled. To determine the number of days, one must divide the number by 2 since there are two sacrifices each day. The number of days would thus be either 1,100, 1,500, or 1,200.
Now on to the actual number.
Jewish scribes at the Tomb of Ezekiel in Iraq, c. 1914
Examples of ancient reed pens and a pen case. From the British Museum
Scribal Errors
The second variation in verse 14 is the number of daily sacrifices, 2,200, 2,300, or 2,400. This type of disparity is not due to incorrect exegesis but rather to a scribal error.
We must remember that prior to the printing press (first invented by Johannes Gutenberg around 1436), each copy of the bible required it to be meticulously copied by hand with pen and ink. Hebrew scribes were trained from their youth to make exact copies of the scriptures, even to the point of reproducing errors from the older copies in their possession. In an article intitled, "The Reality of Copyists' Errors", the authors, B. Thompson and E. Lyons explain:
They were, nevertheless, still human. And humans are prone to make mistakes, regardless of the care they take or the strictness of the rules under which they operate. The copyists' task was made all the more difficult by the sheer complexity of the Hebrew language, and by the various ways in which potential errors could be introduced (even inadvertently) into the copying process.46
Scribal errors can be placed into 5 categories:
- Errors of the Ear: This arises when one scribe misunderstands another during dictation.
- Errors of the Eye: Errors due to the eye are repetitions, transpositions, omissions, mistaking one letter for another, and so forth.
- Errors of Memory: Occurs when a synonymous word is used in parallel passages.
- Errors of Carelessness and Ignorance: This occurs when the wrong word is used ("son" changed to "daughter") or a number is dropped out (from "thirty" to "three").
- Misunderstanding: Failure to understand the sense resulting in the wrong division into words.47
Gleason Archer, a biblical scholar, theologian, educator, and author, wrote:
"Even the earliest and best manuscripts that we possess are not totally free of transmissional errors. Numbers are occasionally miscopied, the spelling of proper names is occasionally garbled, and there are examples of the same types of scribal error that appear in other ancient documents as well."48
2,200, 2,300, or 2,400
So, which is the correct number, 2,200, 2,300, or 2,400? If it is a scribal error, then we can assume that the oldest manuscript would be the most correct. The oldest copies of Daniel are found among the Dead Sea Scrolls. Unfortunately for us, of the 8 scrolls of Daniel, none include verse 14 of chapter 8. Who had access to older manuscripts of the Old Testament? That was Flavius Josephus.
The 1st century Roman portrait bust of Flavius Josephus, conserved in the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, Copenhagen, Denmark
Flavius Joseph (37 AD to 100 AD) was born into wealth and privilege; his mother was of royal blood and his father a priest. As a high born and of the priestly class, he would have been well educated in several languages, history, and the arts.
Josephus fought in the First Jewish––Roman war as a leader in Galilee against the Romans. He was captured and served as a slave for Vespasian, the Roman General. While serving under Vespasian, he gained his trust and friendship. Before the Temple was torn down, Titus, Vespasian's son, allowed Josephus to remove the Temple library and save it from destruction49. This would have been the library that Nehemiah assembled when he rebuilt Jerusalem and reassembled again by Judas Maccabee after the depredations of Antiochus IV:
13 The same things also were reported in the writings and commentaries of Neemias (Nehemiah); and how he founding a library gathered together the acts of the kings, and the prophets, and of David, and the epistles of the kings concerning the holy gifts.
14 In like manner also Judas gathered together all those things that were lost by reason of the war we had, and they remain with us,
This is the resource material Josephus used to write his, Antiquities of the Jews, the history of the Jewish people, from the creation all the way to 93 AD. William Whiston, the biographer and translator of Josephus wrote:
"That the copy of the books of the Old Testament laid up in Herod's temple, and thence used by Josephus, the Jewish Historian, in his Antiquities, was no other than that most ancient collection or library made by Nehemiah, in the days of Artaxerxes, the son of Xerxes; and was free from the several additions and alterations made afterwards in the other copies, which are now extant."50
Josephus says that the correct number is 2,200. Also, Jerome, the 4th century theologian, and historian, also confirmed that some copies of Daniel had 2,200 rather than 2,300. The theory goes that Manuscript A, the original, had "two thousand and two hundred" in verse 14. Then an error was inserted, let's call it Manuscript B, when a scribe repeated the number "two hundred" by making a scribal error resulting in a new reading, "two thousand two hundred two hundred." Following scribes shortened "two thousand two hundred two hundred" to "two thousand four hundred." Thus, the reading of 2,400 in the Septuagint. Now comes a team of scribes who have a conundrum. Copies of Manuscript A has 2,200 while other copies in their possession of Manuscript B has 2,400 in verse 14. So, which do they use, 2,200 or 2,400? They came to the decision to create another reading, let's call it Manuscript C. The scribes decided to split the difference and insert, "two thousand three hundred" rather than choosing two hundred or four hundred, one of which must be wrong. This is a logical explanation on how we can have three different numbers in verse 14 of chapter 8 of Daniel, 2,200, 2,300, and 2,400.
Dead Sea Scroll Fragments of Daniel 1:16-2:3351
Exact Fulfillment of 2,200 Mornings and Evening
If 2,200 mornings and evenings is the correct reading of verse 14, then we should be able to test it by examining history and see if it fulfills the prophesy. The book of Maccabee gives us the exact dates of the commencement and the end of the desolating abomination. The desolation began when Antiochus desecrated the Temple and forced the Jews to end their daily sacrifices:
54 On the fifteenth day of the month Kislev, in the year one hundred and forty-five, the king erected the desolating abomination upon the altar of burnt offerings, and in the surrounding cities of Judah they built pagan altars.
The desolation ended after years of fighting and the liberation of Jerusalem by Judah Maccabee and the Jewish rebels. The priests of Israel rebuilt and rededicated the temple and renewed the daily sacrifices:
52 They rose early on the morning of the twenty-fifth day of the ninth month, that is, the month of Kislev, in the year one hundred and forty-eight,
53 and offered sacrifice according to the law on the new altar for burnt offerings that they had made.
The period of the desolating abomination began on the 15th of Kislev (December), the 145th year of Seleucid Kingdom. The last day of the desolation was the 24th of Kislev, the148th year. I will use the 24th since that is the last day there were no sacrifices. The Temple was dedicated the very next day, the 25th, with a return of the daily sacrifices.
Note: The Hebrew calander is a lunisolar calendar, a combination of a lunar calendar (each month is one cycle of the moon, 29/30 days) and a solar calendar (one revolution of the earth around the sun is one year divided into months). Since the lunar "year" is 11 days shorter than the solar year, every three years or so there is a "leap month" added to realine it with the solar year.
Each Hebrew year has an average of 354 days. Three years would equal to 1,062 days.
Now we'll add the leap month of 29 days to 1,062 which brings us to a total of 1,091 days.
The number of days between the 15th and the 24th of Kislev is 9. Add 9 to 1,091 and you get a total of 1,100 days!
1,100 days is a total of 2,200 morning and evening sacrifices. Fulfilling the prohecy to the exact day!
Josephus declared that the 2,200 morning and evening sacrifices was fufilled acording to the vision:
"And indeed it so came to pass, that our nation suffered these things under Antiochus Epiphanes, according to Daniel's vision; and what he wrote years before, they came to pass." 52
Bottom Line:
- Josephus, who had access to the original Nehemiah library, gives the correct phrasing of verse 14 of chapter 8––2,200 moning and evening sacrifices.
- Jarome comfirmed that 2,200 was an accurate reading.
- The book of Maccabees confirms the dating and period of the desolation to the exact day.
Exhausted and Appalled
27 I, Daniel, was worn out. I lay exhausted for several days. Then I got up and went about the king's business. I was appalled by the vision; it was beyond understanding.
Again as in each previous vision Daniel was not only exhausted, but appalled by what he saw: how far the Jews would fall into inequity and sin, the desecration and desolation of the temple, the persecution, and the murder and enslavement of his people. This did not end Daniel's search for answers. His next vision on Antiochus and the Seleucid Kingdom would be the most detailed prophecy and fulfillment in the Bible, so much so, that scholars claim the book of Daniel was written after it was fulfilled! But that will be for another article.
Conclusion
Daniel was serving the Babylonian king in Susa when he had this vision. Afterward, God directed the Archangel Gabriel to interpret the vision for Daniel. In the vision, Daniel saw a ram with two horns representing the Medo-Persian Empire attacked by a goat with one large horn, Alexander the Great and the Macedonian Empire who defeats and kills the ram. The goat grew and at the height of its greatness, the horn (Alexander) dies and is replaced by four other horns. These are the Diadochi, Ptolemaic Egypt, Seleucid Mesopotamia, and Central Asia, Attalid Anatolia, and Antigonid Macedon. One of the horns (Seleucid) is broken, and replaced by a smaller horn. Antiochus IV Epiphanes fulfills the little horn exactly. At the time of Antiochus IV, Israel falls into inequity suffer from the "abomination that causes desolation," not for the first or even last time. A period of 1,100 days of desolation occurs until the Jewish people rise up under the leadership of the Maccabees who resort the Temple rites and daily sacrifices.
Again, like Daniel's prophecy of the Seventy Weeks, his vision is fulfilled to the exact day!
The Symbolisms Found in the Book of Daniel
With this vision we now have a better picture of what Daniel saw and have a better understanding of who and what the image, beast and animals represented. Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon is the head of gold in the image of Nebuchadnezzar's dream and the winged lion of the vision of four beasts. Cyrus the Great of Medo-Persia is the silver arms and chest of the image, the bear with three ribs in his mouth, and the ram with two horns. Alexander the Great of Macedonia is the belly and thighs of bronze, the four headed-leopard, and the goat with one large horn. Seleucus I of the Seleucid empire is the legs of iron, and the feet and toes of clay mixed with iron are the many kingdoms that rose up after the breakup of the empire. The fourth beast of chapter 7 is the Seleucid kingdom and the little horn of both the beast and the goat represent Antiochus IV Epiphanes.
Notes:
2. Hirsch, E.G. et al. "Evil-Merodach in Singer, Isidore; Adler, Cyrus"; (eds.) et al. (1901–1906) The Jewish Encyclopedia. Funk and Wagnalls, New York. LCCN 16-014703
3. Mark, Joshua J. "Nebuchadnezzar II." Ancient History Encyclopedia. Ancient History Encyclopedia, 07 Nov 2018. Web. 06 Oct 2020.
4. Chronological Order of the Book of Daniel
5. The Prophecies of Daniel: Part 6, Daniel's Four Beasts
6. Bible Hub, Daniel 8:2.
7. Smith's Bible Dictionary, edited by William Smith , Shushan, London, John Murray, 1863.
8. "Daniel in the City of Susa". See also: "Site-Seeing: Surprising Susa", Biblical Archaeology Society.
9. Driver, Samuel Rolles, et al. Daniel 8:17, Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges, Cambridge University Press, 1900.
10. Benson, Joseph, Daniel 8:17, Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments, 1857, 5 vols. New York, T. Carlton & J. Porter.
11. "Homosexuality in Ancient Greek." From Facts and Details.Com
13. Josephus, Flavius, Antiquities of the Jews, Book XII, Ch. 5, 4
14. 1 Maccabees 1:31
15. 1 Maccabees 1:47
17. Josephus, Flavius, Antiquities of the Jews, Book XII, Ch. 5, 4
18. 2 Maccabees 6:2
20. 2 Maccabees 6:4
21. 1 Maccabees 1:60-61; 2 Mac. 6:10
24. Vanderkam, J.C., "2 Maccabees 6, 7A And Calendrical Change in Jerusalem," Journal for the Study of Judaism in the Persian, Hellenistic, and Roman Period, Vol. 12, No.1 (1981) pp. 52-74
25. Jeremiah 33:22
26. 2 Maccabees 5:11-21; Josephus, Flavius, Antiquities of the Jews, Book XII, Ch. 5, 3
27. Editors, Spence, H. D. M and Exell, Joseph S., Pulpit Commentary, Daniel 8. VI Edition, 1805, Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner, &Co.
29. 1 Macc. 1:39 ; 1 Macc. 4:38
30. Genesis 17:1-14; Genesis 22:16-18
32. Genesis 28; 35:9–15; 48:3–4
33. Exodus 19:3-8
34. 1 Kings 8
35. 1 Macc. 1:11-15
36. "Bestiality" has no equivalent word in ancient Greek, Alexandridis noted, but art from that culture did depict zoophilia: a "strong emotional bond between humans and animals that can also include sex acts." 'Divine or monstrous love': Alexandridis on bestiality in ancient Greek art, By Gwen Glazer, September 23, 2011
37. 1 Macc. 1:48-49
38. Homosexuality in Ancient Greek. From Facts and Details.Com and Homosexuality and the Maccabean Revolution
39. John 19:11; Isaiah 10:5: Daniel 2:37-38
40. Grainger, John D., The Fall of the Seleukid Empire, Pen & Sword Books Ltd, 2015, p. 35
41. Josephus, Flavius, Antiquities of the Jews, Book XII, Chapter 7 para. 6
42. 2 Maccabees 9:4
44. St. Jerome, Commentary on Daniel (1958). pp. 15-157
45. Whiston, William, Six Dissertations: Dissertation II, London, 1734: p. 126-32
46. Thompson, B. and Lyons, E., "The Reality of Copyists' Errors"
47. See: "How Are We to Explain the Scribal Errors in the Hebrew Manuscripts?" By Edward D. Andrews
48. Archer, Gleason L. (1982), Encyclopedia of Bible Difficulties (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan). (1982, p. 27).
49. Whiston, William, Six Dissertations: Dissertation II, London, 1734: p. 81-84
50. Whiston, William, Six Dissertations: Dissertation II, London, 1734: p. 81
51. Ulrich, Eugene. "Daniel Manuscripts from Qumran. Part 1: A Preliminary Edition of 4 QDan a." Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research, no. 268, 1987, pp. 17–37, Fig 4. JSTOR,.
52. Josephus, Flavius, Antiquities of the Jews, Book X, chap 11, para 7.
JK Sellers
Coming Soon: The Prophecies of Daniel: Part 8. Chapter 10-12, The Wars of the Kings of the North and the South.
See also:
The Prophecies of Daniel: Part 1, The Historical Setting
The Prophecies of Daniel: Part 2, Who was Daniel
The Prophecies of Daniel: Part 3, Daniel and Alexander the Great.
The Prophecies of Daniel: Part 4. Chapter 9, 70 Weeks-The Coming of the Messiah.
The Prophecies of Daniel: Part 5. Chapter 2 Nebuchadnezzar's Image.
The Prophecies of Daniel: Part 6. Chapter 7, Daniel's Four Beasts.
The Prophecies of Daniel: Part 8. Chapter 10-12, The Wars of the Kings of the North and the South.
The Prophecies of Daniel Part 9. Daniel's Fourth Beast was not Rome. It was the Seleucid Empire.