A Brief Exposition of the Prophecy of Daniel

12. Prophecy of the Seventy Weeks

About fifteen years after beholding the vision of the Ram and Goat, Daniel’s mind was particularly attracted to the subject of the restoration of Judah and Jerusalem.^a The seventy years divinely appointed for the continuance of the Chaldean dynasty of the kingdom of Babylon had expired, and with them its last king had fallen. Judah’s destroyer had been punished, and Daniel, instructed by Jeremiah, began to look for his people’s deliverence. Isaiah informed him that one Koresh, or Cyrus, should appear as a shepherd of Yahweh, and perform his pleasure: “Even saying to Jerusalem, Thou shalt be built; and to the temple, Thy foundation shall be laid.”^b With this Cyrus, thus named so long before his birth, Daniel was now personally acquainted. The first year of Darius the Mede had come, and with it the 68th year of the prophet’s exile from Judea. He was p. Dan. 30 aware that the Holy Land was to rest ten heptades, or seventy years; he could not therefore but be singularly interested in the times, for only two years were wanting to their completion. At last they too had passed away. After reigning two years his friend Darius died, and was succeeded by his nephew Cyrus, the representative of the higher horn of the Ram; and Daniel had the satisfaction of reading his proclamation for the return of Judah, and the rebuilding of the temple.

Under the full and lively expectation of the restoration of his people, Daniel confessed with deep and sincere repentance the rebellion for which they had been righteously punished through the Chaldeans; and besought Yahweh that he would turn away his anger and fury from his city Jerusalem, his holy mountain; and cause his face to shine upon his sanctuary מקדּשׁ mikdósh, then in ruins, for his own sake; seeing that the people and the city were called by his name.

While he was yet speaking in prayer, Gabriel appeared to him at the time of the evening sacrifice. Fifteen or sixteen years before, Gabriel had been authorized to make Daniel understand the vision concerning the tahmid, or evening-morning sacrifice.^a But as we have seen, he only accomplished this to a limited extent. He had left Daniel “astonished at the vision, but none understood.” He saw the destruction of the people of the holy ones; the greatness of their destroyer’s power; his presumption in contending in battle with their Commander-in-Chief; and his final overthrow: but of what was to occur in relation to Messiah the Prince, before the taking away of the evening and morning sacrifice, and the casting down of the foundation of the temple—of these things he had no understanding. Gabriel was therefore sent a second time “to make him skillful of understanding,” that he might “discern the word” he then brought to him, “and understand the thing seen (marai),” in respect to the evening-morning, or tahmid, rendered “the daily.”

Having directed Daniel’s attention to their last interview, Gabriel proceeded to declare “the word” he had received, of which the following is a corrected version.

13. Corrected Version of Gabriel’s Prophecy of the Seventy Weeks

24. Seventy heptades have been decreed^b relatively to thy people and to thine Holy City, for finishing the transgression, and for causing to cease from sin-offerings; and for covering iniquity, and for causing to come in a righteousness of ages, and for sealing the vision and prophet, and for anointing the Holy One of holy ones.

p. Dan. 31 25. Know therefore and understand: from the issuing of a command for causing to return and for building Jerusalem unto the Anointed Prince (shall be) seven heptades, and sixty and two heptades: she shall return; and the broad wall and the breach shall be built, even in the straitness of the times. 26. And after the sixty, and two heptades the Anointed One shall be cut off, though nothing (will be) in him; and the Prince’s people who come in shall destroy the City and the Holy, and the end thereof (shall be) with a sweeping away; and unto the end of the war desolations are decreed.

27. And he shall confirm a covenant for many one heptade; and half of the heptade he shall cause to cease sacrificing and offering; and because of an overspreading of abominations (there shall be) a desolating even to destruction; and that decreed shall be poured out upon the Desolator.

In the twenty-fourth verse Daniel learned that there were six particulars to become accomplished facts before an army should be given to the Romano-Greek Babylonian Little Horn against the evening and morning sacrifice for the suppression of it, and the destruction of the holy city and people, and the consequent abolition of the Mosaic law and constitution. These important particulars may be thus ordinally presented:

1. The perfecting of Judah’s transgression;

2. The causing to cease from sin-offerings;

3. The covering of iniquity;

4. The bringing in a righteousness of ages;

5. The sealing the vision and prophet;

6. The anointing the Holy One of holy ones.

1. In chapter viii. the reason assigned for the standing up of the “King of a fierce countenance” against Judah in the latter time of the northern and southern kingdoms of the Goat is, “so as to cause transgressors to fill up their measure,” which I take to be the meaning of כּחתם הפּשׁעים kh’ hahthaim haph-pohshim, rendered in the English version, “when the transgressors are come to the full.” This is not true in fact. The transgressors in Judah had not filled up their measure in the latter time of the reign of the Kings of Syria and Egypt, when the Roman power stood up in their place against Judah. This is evident from the Lord’s denunciations in which he said to them a hundred years after, “Fill ye up then the measure of your fathers, ye hypocrites.”^a The Roman power was allowed to overshadow Judah as a means of bringing their rebellion against Yahweh to a head, or to perfect it, according to Gabriel. Every reader of the apostolic writings must be familiar with the way this was accomplished. The Lord Jesus appeared among them as “THE HEIR” of the Kingdom and throne of David; and they said, “Come, let us kill him, and let us seize on his inheritance.”^b They p. Dan. 32 arraigned him before the tribunal of the Little Horn on a charge of high treason against it, because he claimed to be King of the Jews, and therefore spoke against the imperial rights of Cæsar. But Pontius Pilate, the Horn’s representative in Judea, apprehending no danger, would have acquitted him with release, knowing that for envy they had delivered him. But he could prevail nothing; for the rebels cried out, saying, “If thou let this man go thou art not Cæsar’s friend; whosoever maketh himself a King, speaketh against Cæsar.” “Behold your King!” said the governor. “Away with him, away with him,” they cried; “crucify him!” The astonished Pilate exclaimed, “Shall I crucify your King?” But, “the Chief Priest answered, We have no King but Cæsar.” Thus was the first particular of Gabriel’s word accomplished. Judah’s rebellion was perfected within a few hours of the expiration of the seventy times seven years from the passover of the 20th year of the reign of Artaxerxes, Ram-king of Babylon.

2. The next thing was to cause to cease from sin-offerings. This did not seem to put a stop to the evening-morning sacrifice; for that was not effected till about thirty-five years after the end of the seventy heptades. It was to cause them to be ceased from by those who should partake in the righteousness to be brought in through the covering for iniquity. We read of no more sin-offerings being presented by the apostles, who had been made clean through the word spoken to them by Jesus; nor did they enjoin sin-offerings upon those who received their teaching. “By the” Abrahamic or “Second Will, they were sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once;” “for by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified;” so that, having thus obtained a permanent remission, “no more offering for sin” was needed. Hence they were superseded by Messiah’s sacrifice, though they continued to be offered by the rebels.

3. A third item to be accomplished before the passing away of the seventy heptades, or periods of seven years, was the covering of iniquity. The verb rendered thus is khahphar, to cover, or overlay, to hide. Hence, khaphporeth, a cover, and therefore applied to the cover of the Ark of the Testimony in the Most Holy Place of the Temple, called the Propitiatory, because propitiation or expiation was made for sin by sprinkling it with the blood of the sacrifices. It was also called the MERCY SEAT. A good conscience is without shame or fear. Transgression of law, or sin, converts a good conscience into a bad one, and develops shame and fear. Before he sinned, Adam’s conscience was good; he was naked, but not at all ashamed, or afraid of the presence of the Elohim: but immediately after, his conscience being defiled, shame and fear caused him to hide himself, because he was uncovered. This teaches us that sin needs to be covered. Adam felt this, and undertook to cover his own sin in the best way he could devise, being ignorant of the manner in which sin is covered by divine appointment. But the Lord God stripped him of his own device, which did not recognize the principle of blood-shedding in the covering of iniquity.

p. Dan. 33 He taught Adam to shed the blood of a lamb, and to cover his nakedness with its skin. This was the lamb slain at the foundation of the world, and represented him who is the Lamb typically slain from the foundation of the world. Adam and his wife were in this way clothed by Yahweh Elohim; and being thus clothed, their iniquity was expiated or covered.

The only Sin-Covering from the Fall to the resurrection of Jesus, the world had ever known, was typical; or a yearly covering of sin that represented the covering foretold by Gabriel. The patriarchs, prophets, and others, who Abrahamically believe the things covenanted to the fathers, and were dead, had died with no other covering for their sins than could be derived from the pouring out of the blood of bulls and goats. But “It is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins;”^a their sins therefore remained uncovered and unexpiated; and as “the wages of sin is death,” if the expiation of the seventy heptades had never been effected, they would never have risen from the dead to eternal life. Hence, speaking of the covering efficacy of Christ’s death, Paul says, “For this cause he is the Mediator of the New (or Abrahamic) Covenant, that by means of death FOR THE REDEMPTION OF THE TRANSGRESSIONS UNDER THE FIRST COVENANT (the Law) they which are called might receive the promise of the everlasting inheritance:”^b and Isaiah says, “For the transgression of my people was he stricken.” Thus, the death and resurrection of the Mediator, and therefore Representative Testator, of the Covenant made with Abraham, brought it into force; so that the already dead who had while living believed the things promised in it, obtain a covering of their sins, the effect of which they will experience after rising from the dead to possess them for the age.

4. If Messiah the Prince had not been cut off for his people “a righteousness of ages,” the fourth item of Gabriel’s word, could not have been brought in. Faith in the things of the Kingdom could not have been counted for righteousness to life in the future ages of glory, without a propitiatory or mercy seat, sprinkled with blood. The cutting off of Jesus provided this indispensable kaphporeth, or cover for sin: so that he being slain and raised from the dead, the means of a sinner’s justification, styled, “The righteousness of God,” was brought in or completed within the period appointed.

Here then were the victim and the covering provided by Yahweh—a victim of expiation for the sins of the faithful; the faithful who believed the promises covenanted to Abraham and David:—a covering garment to hide their sins in putting on the victim by immersion into his name. Thus invested or clothed upon, they are in Christ, who of God becomes to them thus, “wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption.”

When these things should be effected, sin-offerings, and the evening-morning sacrifices, which were merely typical, could well be dispensed p. Dan. 34 with. In relation then to the taking away of the tahmid, and the destruction of the holy city, Daniel would perceive their accomplishment posterior to the fulness of the seventy heptades of years. Hence all those speculations that make Antiochus the Little Horn, and his oppression of the Jews, and defilement of the temple, and so forth, the fulfillment of chap. viii. 11, 23, 24, are entirely inadmissible, and altogether unworthy of a grave or respectful attention.

5. The fifth particular to come to pass before the passing away of the heptades was “the sealing of the vision and prophet.” We are informed that in the early days of Samuel, “The word of Yahweh was precious;” for there was no open vision; and in Jeremiah it is said, “They speak a vision of their own heart.” To speak the word of the Lord is for a prophet to speak what the Lord impresses upon his brain. We perceive before we speak; hence, to reveal our perceptions is to speak what we see, or, to speak a vision. When a man speaks impressions made upon him by the Lord, and the Lord confirms what he speaks, he speaks “an open vision,” and the confirmation is the sealing of it. “Bind together the testimony; seal instruction among my disciples.” This was done in the ministrations of the Lord Jesus. He spoke an open vision, instructing his disciples; and his instructions the Father sealed, by the signs and wonders that accompanied them.

In sealing the vision of the seventieth heptade, the prophet by whom the vision was spoken, was sealed likewise. The confirmation of the vision was the confirmation of its prophet also. “Believe me,” said Jesus, “for the works’ sake.” In another place, he says, “The Father himself, who hath sent me, hath borne witness of me, Have ye never heard his voice nor seen his form?”—the voice from the excellent glory, and the form of the dove? Multitudes had seen this, and were compelled to say, “This is of a truth that prophet that should come into the world.” The sealing of the vision and the prophet go together, and are therefore placed together in Gabriel’s word; and have unquestionable reference to Jesus, who speaking of himself says, “Him has the Father sealed.”

6. The sixth and last of Gabriel’s specifications in this verse is the anointing the Holy One of holy ones. This personage was the Messiah, a name signifying an anointed one. There have been many anointed ones, but the one here referred to was to be preëminently such; and to be anointed within the limits of the seventieth heptade; that is, sometime between the end of the sixty-ninth and the end of the seventieth, as appears from verse 25. Believing that Jesus is Messiah the Prince, we are at no loss where to place the anointing. Peter says, “God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power;” and Luke, after relating the particulars concerning it, says, that “Jesus himself began to be about thirty years of age.”^a This fixes the baptism and anointing at three years and a few months before the crucifixion. Thus, “God anointed him with the oil of p. Dan. 35 gladness above his associates.”^a He is therefore the Holy One of those holy associates, or the Holy One of holy ones, as I have rendered the text; the Most Holy or Holiest of All.

Having specified these six things to be accomplished before the expiration of the seventy heptades, Gabriel proceeded to specify the commencement of them. He stated that to Mashiach Nahgid, the Anointed Prince, should be “seven heptades, and threescore and two heptades,” that is, sixty-nine. This period extended to the proclamation of Messiah the Prince being at hand; that is, to the beginning of John’s preaching, who said that he came baptizing in water that He might be made manifest to Israel^b which manifestation is styled “His coming.”^c Sixty-nine heptades of years, calculated from this announcement, gives 483 years and nine months; that is, it carries us up to the twentieth year of the reign of Artaxerxes, Persian King of Babylon, when Nehemiah, his cup-bearer, received commandment to go and restore and build Jerusalem, and set up the wall. How Nehemiah executed this work is fully detailed in the portion of scripture that passes by his name.

This commandment of Artaxerxes did not issue till 114 years after Gabriel’s visit to Daniel; who might still be ignorant of the commencement of the “many days” of the vision he had seen in the third year of Belshatzar’s reign. He would not understand that the 2,400 and the seventy Heptades began at the issuing of the commandment; when that authorization for the restitution of Jerusalem and the Wall should be granted, he could not, and, it is probable, that even Gabriel himself was unable to tell. All they knew was, that it would be 483 years to the proclamation of repentance, because Messiah the Prince was in the midst of Israel, and about to appear; but whether 483 years from the first year of Cyrus, or from more than a hundred years afterwards, they did not know.

It may be remarked here, that there were four decrees, or commands, promulgated by kings of the Ram Dynasty, in favor of Judah and Jerusalem. The first was in the first year of Cyrus, two years after Gabriel’s visit; and authorized the Jews to return to Palestine and rebuild the temple.^d This was seventy years after Jehoiakim’s rebellion against Nebuchadnezzar, in the first of Cyrus’s sole reign; and B. C. 540.

The second decree^e was issued by Darius the Persian, eighteen years after; that is, in the second of his reign, enforcing that of Cyrus, being seventy years from the burning of the temple, in the 19th of Nebuchadnezzar, B. C. 592. The temple was finished four years afterwards, in the sixth of his reign,^f answering to seventy years from the twenty-third of Nebuchadnezzar, when 745 persons were carried captive to Babylon.

The third decree was promulgated in the 7th of Artaxerxes, for the restoration of the Commonwealth of Judah.^g This was fifty-three p. Dan. 36 years after the temple was finished, and seventy-one from the decree of Cyrus.—B. C. 469.

The fourth decree was thirteen years after, in the 20th of Artaxerxes, B.C. 456 years and 9 months. This was for the building of the broad wall and the setting up of the gates of Jerusalem.^a

From these chronological data the reader will perceive that the last decree is the only one from which the Seventy Heptades of the 2,400 evening and morning, or day of Judah’s trouble, can reasonably be commenced; for the others all fall short of the proclamation of “the King of the Heavens having approached” by many years. The 20th of Artaxerxes may, therefore, be regarded as the established terminus a quo, or point of departure in the calculation of the time.

It is proper, however, to mention that the usual reckoning of the B.C., answering to the 20th Artaxerxes, is 445 years. This would make the end of the 69 heptades five years after the crucifixion; and removing this event seven years later, as happening at the end of the 70th heptade. But by reference to my chronology at the end of Eureka, Vol. II., it will be found that the numbers indicating the duration of the reigns placed opposite the kings, and which I culled out of Rollin’s History, between the 20th Artaxerxes and the birth of Jesus, make exactly 455 years and 9 months. From the birth to the baptism (on the authority of Luke), was 30 years, making 485 and 9 months. This was 2 years and 9 months after the end of the 69th Heptade; and consequently so far advanced into the seventieth week. But the common reckoning is flagrantly erroneous in divers places, and of no authority where critical accuracy is desired.

Having indicated the beginning and ending of the 69 heptades, and divided them into successive portions of seven heptades and sixty-two heptades, Gabriel informed Daniel that the Messiah should be cut off after the sixty-two heptades had passed away. But, at this part of the revelation he did not tell him, how soon after their termination, the cutting off should transpire. He informed him, furthermore, that after the cutting off, destruction should come upon the City and the Holy by a people of the Prince, and that at the end of the destruction there should be a flood of evil, and unto an end of the war desolations were decreed. The cutting off, the destruction, and the desolations, were consecutive events, but not immediately so. Between the cutting off of Messiah and the destruction of the City and Holy were about thirty-eight years, and between the city’s overthrow and the war of the Romans against Barchochebas, was upwards of forty. This last war completely prostrated them. They had massacred hundreds of thousands of Greeks and Egyptians in cold blood; at length the Little Horn “stamped upon them,” after causing a loss to Judah of 580,000 on the field of battle in two years.

Having extended Daniel’s view to the destruction of the people of p. Dan. 37 the Saints, by the Little Horn power,^a that is, by the host or army that was given to it^b by the Prince, or Messiah,^c against the rebels and the tahmid, Gabriel recalled his attention to the last of the Seventy Heptades; and informed him what the work was that should be accomplished by the Prince in the course of that seven years, from 483 to 490 of the period. “He shall confirm a covenant for many in the course of one heptade; and half of the heptade he shall cause to cease^d sacrificing and offering.” The covenant to be confirmed was the New, or Abrahamic, Covenant. This had been typically confirmed of God, concerning Christ, 430 years before the night of the departure from Egypt. Abraham’s sacrifices which were consumed by fire from heaven, represented, or pointed to, the cutting off of Messiah, the Prince, as the sacrifice, whose blood is the blood of the Covenant, “shed for many.” On the night on which he was betrayed, while eating the Passover with his disciples, Jesus said, “I even I covenant for you, as my Father hath covenanted for me, a kingdom; that ye may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom, and may sit upon thrones, judging the Twelve Tribes of Israel.”^e He was made a covenant in confirmation of this promise, in being cut off as an expiation for the sins of Abraham and his heirs; and in so dying, to bring the covenant made for them into force. That covenant, or will, was like all other wills, which are of no force while the testator liveth. Messiah, the Prince, being the Mediatorial Testator, Yahweh’s representative in the affair, was the confirmer of the covenant for its many heirs; for if he had not voluntarily surrendered himself to death, all the work of the previous seven years would have been null and void. In dying and rising again he made it sure, having dedicated it with his blood. This is, therefore, the antitypical blood of the Abrahamic covenant, to the things of which all are entitled who believe them, and whose hearts have been sprinkled with it. It is for them the Prince confirmed the covenant with his own blood. They are the “many” referred to by Gabriel, Daniel, and the prophets, and so forth, among the number. “I will give thee,” saith Yahweh, in prophecy to his Son, “for a covenant of the people, to establish the land, to cause to possess the desolate estates.”^f The promise of this gift was redeemed in the gift of a Son to Israel,^g and the acceptance of him as the covenant purifier of his brethren. The covenant being confirmed, then, the land promised to Abraham and his Seed, and to all in them, will assuredly become the dwelling-place p. Dan. 38 of glory, and they will possess it with all that is requisite to make it “the inheritance of the saints in light.”

The phrase khatzi hasshahvua is very incorrectly rendered “in the midst of the week” in the English version. It is the accusative of time how long, and not a precise point of time. Khatzi signifies one-half, or one division of the whole seven years. Daniel was not informed which of the equal divisions of the last heptade was to witness the desisting from sacrifice and oblation, by divine authority. He might infer that it would be the end of the latter half of the heptade, as the causing to desist was the last incident revealed, included in the whole seventy sevens, or heptades of years. He might conclude that Messiah, the Prince, would not cause to desist from sacrifice and oblation till a covering were made for iniquity, and the righteousness of ages were brought in. This conclusion would have been correct; still he was left to inference, as Gabriel did not satisfy him on the point. We, however, are not left to inference. The prediction being long since an accomplished fact, we know that the khatzi referred to is the latter part of the seventieth heptade, and on the last day thereof, that is, of the crucifixion, which was exactly 490 years, or Seventy Heptades, from the month Nisan of the 20th of Artaxerxes, B. C. 456.

The verb shahvath, rendered cause to cease in the common version, signifies to desist as well as to cease. The common rendering has puzzled all who have attempted an interpretation of the text. Some have assumed that the Prince who sends his army to destroy the city is Titus; others, that he is Antiochus; and that consequently, as no personage is introduced into the text after him, Titus, or Antiochus, is the confirmer of the covenant, and the causer of the sacrifice and oblation to cease, when they took away the daily!! Moses Stuart, that Prince of Blind Guides, says, it was “Antiochus dictated the firm league between himself and the Jewish apostates!” This is his interpretation of “He shall confirm a covenant for many.” But I will not waste time, ink, and paper, in refuting such nonsense; I will only add, that he says, Antiochus caused the sacrifice and the oblation to cease by violence over 160 years before Christ; while others affirm that Titus did it 73 years after his birth. These opinions result from a supposition, that causing the sacrifice and oblation to cease is the same thing as taking away the daily. But as we have seen, they are totally different events. The former was to happen within the 490 years; while for the latter, “no man knew the day and hour, no, not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father.”^a Jesus, the Prince of the future kings of the earth, causing to cease from sacrifice and oblation is intelligible, in keeping with the time, and with the doctrine of the apostles, through which he caused all his disciples no longer to seek expiation and righteousness by the law and institutions of Moses.

A doctrine being introduced which was calculated to cause those p. Dan. 39 of Judah, who received it, to cease from sacrificing and offering, the seventy sevens of years were fully accomplished. What now remained were the “days of vengeance, that all things which were written might be fulfilled.”^a The vengeance was “the judgment to come” on Judah, because of their having perfected their rebellion in rejecting Jesus as their king, and putting him to death. The city and the holy nation, their constitution and country, were to be desolated by an overspreading destruction, which was to prevail without mitigation until the end of the 2,400, after which preparation would be made for the avenging of the holy. This decree is expressed in those words of Gabriel, which have so puzzled and confounded all the critics, contained in the last verse of the ninth chapter. I will quote them as they ought to read: “And because of an overspreading of abominations there shall be a desolating even to destruction, and that decreed shall be poured out upon the desolator.” The things to be destroyed when the desolation should be consummated were the people and holy city; and the Desolator, the “king of fierce countenance, who shall stand up against the sar sahrim,” or the Commander-in-Chief of Judah, who shall be broken by him, and so come to his end, with none to help him in a “time of trouble such as never was since there was a nation to that same time.”^b

Since the “days of vengeance” which came upon Judah thirty-eight years after the ending of the seventy weeks, various “abominations” have rested like a כנף kĕnaph upon the land. These have all been of a desolating character, such as the Romano-Greek, Persian, Saracen, and Ottoman abominations. Hence they have been כנף שקוצים kenaph shikkutzim, an overspreading of abominations, משמם mĕshomaim, making desolate, The holy is under this covering still. The 1290 years of abomination, the greater part of which has been Moslem, have passed away; and “that decreed” has been “pouring out, upon its desolator, as Gabriel foretold. The Turk is the desolator pertaining to the Moslem abomination that still overspreads the Holy Land; and the day of his evaporation has arrived. The sixth vial has been pouring out upon him since 1820, and is visibly pouring upon him at this juncture. But when he goes down to the sides of the pit, the Russianized Latino-Greek Babylonian power will invade the land under Gog, the king of the north, and encamp against the Holy Mountain. The consummating judgments of the sixth vial will then fall upon him as the latter-day representative of the Little Horn of the Goat. His fate is therefore that of the fierce king, as Daniel hath described it.

14. “Messiah The Prince”

It may be in place here briefly to consider the titles given to the chieftain in this prophecy who is to deliver Judah, and break the p. Dan. 40 adversary in pieces. In the eighth chapter he is designated by two titles; the one, שר־הצבא Sar-hatz-zavah, Commander of the army; and the other, שר־שרים Sar-sahrim, Commander of commanders, or Commander-in-Chief of the army. In the seventh chapter, the Son of Man and the holy ones, and their people, are introduced upon the arena of the Dragon-power, with judgment given to them for its destruction; but the military relation they were to sustain towards one another in the work, though it might be inferred, was not expressed. In the chapter before us, however, this deficiency is supplied: the Son of Man is styled Commander-in-Chief; the holy ones, Commanders; and their people, the army of the heavens. Thus, a military power is prospectively prepared for the work of destroying the armies of the Gentiles when, as in the days of Joshua, Israel shall be commissioned to go up and possess the Holy Land, and to subdue the kingdoms of the west.

The Bible is full of testimony to this effect, which in the New Testament is pictorially illustrated. There the Commander-in-Chief is represented as a King and General riding a white horse, clothed with a vesture dipped in blood, and a sharp sword going out of his mouth, that with it he should smite the nations. This symbol is declared to be representative of the King of kings, and Lord of lords, who judges and makes war in righteousness, and treads the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God.^a In another chapter, he is styled “The Lamb.” Speaking of the papal kings of the west, the Spirit says: “These shall make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them: for he is Lord of lords and King of kings.”^b As to the person represented by the Lamb, he is defined as one that had been slain, and had redeemed his companion kings and lords from among Israel and the nations.^c No person intelligent in the Scriptures can deny that these symbols are representative of Jesus Christ in the character of a Royal Military Commander in active service against the armies of the Gentiles. The white horse that bears the Conquering Hero is Judah; and the “sword going forth from his mouth” is Ephraim, or the Ten Tribes of Israel with them; as is proved by the following testimonies: “Yahweh of armies hath visited the house of Judah, and hath made them as his goodly horse in the battle: and they shall be as mighty men who tread down their enemies in the mire of the streets in the battle; and they shall fight, because Yahweh is with them.”^d “Israel is Yahweh’s inheritance: therefore thus saith Yahweh, Thou art my battle-axe and weapons of war; for with thee will I break in pieces the nations, and with thee will I destroy kingdoms; with thee will I break in pieces captains and rulers.”^e “Behold, I will make thee a new sharp threshing instrument having teeth; thou shalt thresh the mountains, and beat them small, and shalt make the hills as chaff. Thou shalt fan them, and the wind shall carry them away, and the whirlwind shall scatter p. Dan. 41 them: and thou shalt rejoice in Yahweh, and shalt glory in the Holy One of Israel.”^a “I will render double unto thee when I have bent Judah for me, filled the (Judah) bow with Ephraim, (as the arrow,) and raised up thy sons, O Zion, against thy sons, O Greece, and made thee (Zion) as the sword of a mighty man. And Yahweh shall be seen over them, and his arrow (Ephraim) shall go forth as the lightning: and Adonai Yahweh shall blow the trumpet, and shall go forth as whirlwinds of the south.”^b

In these testimonies there are things affirmed that never have come to pass since they were written. Judah has never been since then Yahweh’s goodly horse in the battle, fighting because He was with them, and seen over them. Instead of Israel breaking in pieces the nations, destroying kingdoms, and reducing the empires of the Gentiles to chaff, they have been themselves the broken and destroyed. What is here testified remains to be accomplished in the simultaneous breaking to pieces of the gold, the silver, the brass, the iron, and the clay, of Nebuchadnezzar’s Image; and the reducing them to the likeness of the chaff of the summer threshingfloors: and in the overcoming of the armies of the Beast and the kings of the Latino-Greek dominion. In this war, which will be the last on the Babylonian earth for a thousand years, “Israel will do valiantly”^c as the goodly horse and sword of the Mighty One, as represented in the apocalypse of John.

The commanders of whom the Lord Jesus is the royal chief, are represented as his body-guards, or staff, in the apocalyptic vision. They are there styled “τα στρατευματα, ta strateumata, the body-guards in the heaven that follow him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white, and clean.” As they are his associate commanders of Judah, their king’s goodly horse, they are fitly represented as all riding horses similar to his. The Commander-in-Chief’s vesture is dipped in human blood; because before the things represented in the nineteenth chapter, he had “trodden the winepress alone, and stained all his raiment” at Bozrah,”^d when he shatters the Russo-Gogian Image into fragmental parts, previous to “breaking them to pieces together.” After the overthrow at Bozrah, he prepares to subdue the West; and in this preparation he summons his soldiery to the conflict under his companions in arms his joint-commanders of Israel. Until the battle of Bozrah, their vestments are unstained with the blood of the enemy, and therefore represented simply as emblematic of their character. To be clothed in “fine linen, white and clean,” is significative of the wearer’s righteousness. This is the interpretation put upon the symbolic raiment in the eighth verse of this chapter; for, speaking of these holy ones as constituents of the Bride ready for union with the Lamb, it is there written: “To her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white; for the fine linen is (or represents) the righteousness of the holy ones.” They therefore who are represented as clothed with this p. Dan. 42 figurative raiment are the holy ones spoken of in Daniel; and prepared to go forth with Jesus as the One Yahweh, to judge and make war in righteousness. They are the lords and kings of whom he is the Lord and King—“the called, and chosen, and faithful that are with him;”^a the “redeemed from among men, who follow him whithersoever he goeth.”^b

In the ninth of Daniel, as we have seen, this great commander of heaven’s forces against the Russianized Græco-Latin confederacy occupying the Holy Land, is styled the Holy One of holy ones, which is equivalent to the Most Holy of them. He was to be anointed by the Spirit of Yahweh, which was done at his immersion in the Jordan. He was therefore the Anointed Most Holy One of the Father, who had constituted him the heir of the throne of His Kingdom of Israel. For this cause he is styled משיח נגיד mahshiach nahgid, the anointed prince royal; or as in the common version, MESSIAH THE PRINCE. In the twenty-sixth verse in one sentence he is termed the Anointed One; and in another simply nahgid, or prince royal. In the Syriac version, “the anointed prince royal” is expressed by “the Anointed One the King,” as though it were melekh instead of nahgid. But, I conceive, that there is all the difference between melekh and nahgid as that existing between the heir-apparent and the king upon his throne. Till the Anointed One ascends the throne of his father David he is Prince Royal, or king expectant, not king in fact. It must be so; for a melekh, or king, is one who reigns, and not one who expects to reign. This distinction is maintained by Jesus himself in the twenty-fifth of Matthew. In the thirty-first of that chapter, when speaking of his appearing in glory to sit upon the throne of his glory, he styles himself simply “the Son of Man;” but when he possesses that throne, and invites the blessed of the Father to occupy the kingdom in verse 34, he terms himself “the King.”

But, if Sar mean “prince,” in the sense in which the Son of Man is a prince royal, as the common version has it for nahgid, נשיא nahsi, as well as sar, why is he not styled the anointed Sar? If the revelator did not intend to convey distinct ideas concerning the Son of Man, I do not see why these three words should be all applied to him. King James’ translators discerned no reason for the employment of these various words; so they rendered them all by the one word, “prince.” But I see no reason to follow their example. I take it rather that there was design in the variety; each word being adapted to the Son of Man in the part he was represented as enacting at the time; thus, while breaking the Russo-Gogian confederacy he is called Sar; when making expiation for iniquity his military character is veiled, and he is styled the anointed most holy one, or nahgid; and when elevated to the throne in Israel, he is termed nahsi: so that a sar anointed becomes a nahgid; and a nahgid elevated to his throne a nahsi.

This verbal criticism is in harmony with after developments. At p. Dan. 43 the end of the sixty-nine heptades, or 483 years, John the immerser heralded the approaching manifestation of a royal personage, a nahgid, not of a military commander, or Sar; but of the future majesty of the kingdom of the heavens. The Son of Man was to appear as the rightful claimant of David’s throne and the Holy Land; that is, to establish his right to it; not to gather Israel to his standard at that time for a contest with the Latino-Greek Little Horn, then “waxed exceeding great.” The time had not come for that, as he told Pontius Pilate. He came, not only to prove his claim, but to bring the Abrahamic Covenant into force by his death and resurrection; that by virtue of it he might afterwards rightfully lay hold of the sovereignty of Israel and the nations, and compel the latter by the edge of the sword to recognize him as king of all the earth. No other conqueror by whom he will have been preceded since the days of Nimroud will have been able to prove his right to universal dominion by virtue of a legal instrument divinely attested and confirmed. Their right has been derived from their own swords; and they have reigned on the principle that “might is right; therefore keep who can.” Israel’s Commander-in-Chief claims all existing dominions by right derived from the Deity; and proclaims his intention to meet them upon their own principle, and laying hold upon them with a strong arm, to wrest from them their thrones, and to keep them by his might.

Had Gabriel told Daniel that it should be 483 years to the anointed one the Sar, he would perhaps have expected him in the capacity of a military chieftain within the 490 years; and then, if Gabriel had added, the Anointed One shall be cut off, or “slain,” as the Syriac has it, he might have inferred, that he would be slain in battle: but when he heard that he was to be put to death as prince royal, he would understand that it was in connection with the question of his right to the royalty, as we learn it really was from the testimony of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. He was put to death as prince royal, not as Sar—as heir of David, and therefore Israel and Judah’s king.

Speaking of the prince, Gabriel said, “The people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the holy.” This refers to the “days of vengeance,” or “judgment to come,” preached by the apostles; and referred to by Jesus when he apostrophized the hypocritical Scribes and Pharisees, saying, “Ye are the children of them who killed the prophets. Fill up then the measure of your fathers. Serpents, generation of vipers, how can ye escape from the judgment of Hinnom’s Vale—απο της χρισεως της γεεννης, apo tēs kriseos tēs gĕēnnēs?”^a Many of those who very properly reject the notion of the book of Daniel revealing nothing beyond the reign of Antiochus Epiphanes, as erroneously imagine that “the prince” was Titus the Roman general, whose troops destroyed the holy, and took away the daily, and cast down the truth, Mosaically typified, to the ground.

p. Dan. 44 But Titus was certainly not the prince. He was Sar of the Gentile forces, not a nahgid; and no reason exists why this word should be applied to any other person than the Anointed Prince Royal referred to in the context. This was the prince, and the Romans were his people in the same sense in which Nebuchadnezzar and the Chaldees were the Deity’s. When Yahweh sent Nebuchadnezzar and his forces against Judah and other nations to destroy them for their wickedness, they were the sword of Yahweh. Speaking of this conqueror, he styles him, “Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, my servant;” and in overthrowing Tyre, Yahweh says, “The Chaldeans wrought for me;” and in their operations against Egypt, he says, “I will strengthen the arms of the king of Babylon, and put my sword in his hands.” It was so with the Romans, although they knew it not. They wrought for the Prince Royal of Israel against rebellious Judah, who refused to acknowledge him as their king. See the parable comparing the kingdom of the heavens to a certain king who makes a marriage for his son. After he is raised from the dead, messengers are sent to invite Judah to the marriage; but they took his servants and slew them. “But when the king heard thereof he was wroth; and he sent forth his armies, and destroyed those murderers, and burned their city.”^a What armies were these Jesus styles the king’s armies? There is but one answer that can be given—they were the Royal Father’s, and therefore also the Prince Royal, his Son’s; or in the words of the man Gabriel, “the people of the Prince.” This explains the meaning of “an army being given to the Little Horn of the Goat against the evening-morning sacrifice.” The Prince put them in commission for that work; and no doubt, though invisible, superintended the operations of the siege. Hence the coming of the Roman eagles against Judah’s carcass,^b as Moses had predicted,^c was also the coming,^d though not the appearing, of the Son of Man. If the prince had not given the army against the city, the Roman eagles would have been stripped of all their feathers; and have met with a fate not less disastrous than that of the Assyrians of old.

The last place in which Messiah is mentioned in Daniel is where he is styled “Michael the great prince.”^e Here the word is Sar, not nahgid, as might be expected; seeing that the passage speaks of the time when the Russianized-Latino-Greek confederacy is to be broken on the mountains of Israel by Judah’s king. The phrase would have been better rendered “Michael the great Commander,” whose name well expresses his omnipotence, signifying “Who like to POWER.” Because Gabriel in the tenth of Daniel speaks of a contemporary angel whom he calls Michael, some there are who think that Michael the great commander is he. But the identity of name is no proof that the same person is referred to in both places. Michael who aided Gabriel against the Angel-Prince of the kingdom of Persia was no p. Dan. 45 doubt the angel-sar Yahweh appointed over Israel in the days of Moses, concerning whom he said, “Beware of him, and obey his voice; for my name (or divine power) is in him.”^a But in the time of trouble this angel is superseded by Jesus, who is the great power of Deity, and therefore styled “Michael the great commander.”

15. What shall Befall Judah in the Latter Days

The thing recorded in the eighth and ninth chapters gave Daniel more particularly to understand what should befall Judah and Jerusalem in “the last days” of the Mosaic constitution of things. The idea of a great national overthrow after the expiration of the Seventy Heptades, or 490 years, was distinctly impressed on his mind. But, then there was a long lapse of time to be accounted for in the history of Judah, first from the appearance of the Four Horns of the Goat in the place of the great horn that was broken until the occupation of Judea by the Little Horn that was to arise out of the Northern Horn of the Four: and secondly, from the destruction of the Holy City and suppression of the Daily unto the breaking of the Little Horn of the Goat without help to save it, and consequent deliverance of Judah by their great commander and prince in “the latter days” of the seven times of the kingdom of men. This was a דבר dahvahr, subject, Daniel desired much to hear discoursed upon. His anxiety to understand had at length become so acute, that he mourned for its gratification during three whole weeks.

At the end of that period, while near the Tigris, a man appeared to him whose appearance was representative of the perfect Prince Royal in glory. He saw him whom he styles “a certain man,” in the third year of Cyrus, the year of his decease, now 2,407 years ago—Dan. i. 21; x. 1-5. That certain man represented to him, was what Paul styles in Eph. iv. 4; i. 22, 23, the “One Body, the Ecclesia,” of which Christ is “the Head.” Daniel describes this body corporate of the quickened just ones, as “a man clothed in linen, whose loins were girded with fine gold of Uphaz: his body also like the beryl, and his face as the appearance of lightning, and his eyes as lamps of fire, and his arms and his feet like in color to polished brass, and the voice of his words like the voice of a multitude.” Of this host, Daniel was assured he should be one, “at the end of 1335 days:” which would reach from a given event to the epoch of resurrection “in the latter days.” Now, while contemplating “this great vision,” he was subjected to an operation indicative of his approaching decease; and of the process he and others would have to go through, in passing from the death-sleep of Sheol, to the firmamental and enduring brightness of the kingdom.

The decease he was about to accomplish, and which he speaks of as though he were already in the dust of death, is specified in the p. Dan. 46 words, “I was left alone, and there remained no strength in me; for my vigor was turned in me into corruption, and I retained no strength. Then was I in a deep sleep on my face, and my face upon the earth. I was dumb; nor is breath left in me.” Now, after remaining thus an indefinite period, the time arrived for him to awake from this death sleep; and to be raised from his recumbent position on the ground. He did not make a sudden and vigorous leap to an upright position in which he was fearless, fluent of speech, corruptionless, and strong, as some imagine the dead to be, when they dream of their leaping forth incorruptible and immortal. No, he had to progress by stages from his proneness in corruption, to a state of confidence and power. In the first stage of the process, a hand touched him. This was the application of power for his resuscitation. Its effect was partial, not complete. It gave him existence; but it was not vigorous: for it only placed him upon his knees and the palms of his hands; and in a state of mind apparently expressed by the word quandary. He was awake, but in perplexity, not knowing what move to make; he was, however, relieved of this, by being invited to “stand upon his feet.” Although he was addressed as “a man greatly beloved,” he arose from his hands and knees with fear and trembling. “I stood,” said he, “trembling.”

Daniel was now in the second stage of the process. Standing upright, he was the subject of anastasis, or “standing up;” but he was nevertheless in trembling and fear: and still tending earthward, and speechless. But. he was bidden not to fear; and was further encouraged by assurances of good, based upon his previous devotion to the word, and his conduct before God. This judicial conference, though it would gladden the heart of Daniel, did not of itself impart vigor to his constitution. He was still earthward and speechless; for after the words of comfort were spoken, he says, “I set my face earthward (pahnai artzah) and I was dumb.”

He had now arrived at the third stage in which he was to be quickened into courageousness, tranquillity, and strength; by which he might “stand in his lot at the end of the days;” and shine a star of great brilliancy in the constellations of the “New Heavens,” in which alone righteousness shall reign. This quickening is accomplished by “one like the similitude of the sons of men,” touching him. In this way he alludes to Jesus, then unborn, who, in “the time of the dead,” shall touch him with spirit-power; and impart to him the peace, wisdom, and potency of incorruptibility and life. His ability to speak, and so to give account of himself in regard to his existence, had been restored to him in the second stage by the touching of his lips; but this did not make him “strong,” nor give him “peace.” It only enabled him to confess his condition of utter feebleness. It remained, therefore, that there should be a greater impartation of power by which his whole man should be strengthened. He was thus touched a second time by the same “appearance of a man;” not upon the lips, but upon the body. “He came again, and touched me; and said, O man greatly beloved, fear not: peace p. Dan. 47 be unto thee; be strong, yea, be strong. And when he had spoken unto me, I was strengthened.”

Such was the preface, dramatically exhibited, of a prophecy revealing to Daniel the awakening and recompensing of sleepers in the dust in “the time of the end.” It was the last of his visions, and the greatest of them all; because it culminated in “the Apocalypse of the Sons of the Deity”—Rom. viii. 19. In the vision John had in Patmos, a like instance occurs in Rev. xi. 1, in which a prophecy ending in resurrection and judgment (verses 18, 19) is prefaced by the dramatic rising of the prophet himself. The things seen by Daniel in his last vision began to transpire “in the first year of Darius the Mede,” which was two years before he had the vision; and are strewn along a period reaching “to the time of the end,” in which is the resurrection of himself and people. It is an amplification of what he saw in the third year of Belshatzar, when he was also a subject of symbolic resurrection—ch. viii. 18; and for the same reason. From the tenth chapter to the end of his book is one continuous record of “that which is noted in the scripture of truth.”

Having recovered from the effects of “this great sight,” the glorious-looking personage informed him that he was sent to him to answer to his desire; and that his mission was to make him understand what should befall his people in the latter days; because the vision was still for days; that is, beyond the 490 years of the Seventy Heptades: and that he would show him what was noted in the scripture of truth. The eleventh and twelfth chapters contain the revelator’s discourse, which Daniel says he understood.

In the beginning of the tenth chapter he informs us that “the time appointed was long.” When the truth of the matter was revealed to Daniel, the third year of Cyrus had arrived, B. C. 540. The first event of the vision he had witnessed; that, namely, of the Persian Horn of the Ram exceeding the Median Horn in altitude. This was 116 years before the commencement of the Seventy Weeks, or 490 years. The vision, however, is still for days, which will not expire until the Seven Times of the kingdom of Babylon shall have ended in the reconcentration of the power of the עם־קדש am-kodesh, or Holy People. Then all things foretold in the Book of Daniel will be finished.^a Well might it be said, “the time appointed is long.” Upwards of 2,400 years have elapsed since the first year of Cyrus’ sole reign, or the third after his conquest of Babylon, when “the word was revealed unto Daniel;” and, some forty at least will still be required for the full accomplishment of the things which are noted in the Scriptures of truth.

The word revealed, then, may be distributed into three sections: the first terminates at the end of the thirty-fifth verse of the eleventh chapter; the second ends at the conclusion of the thirty-ninth; and to the third belongs the rest of the chapter to the end of the twelfth. p. Dan. 48 From the third verse of the eleventh chapter the discourse treats of the Goat’s notable horn in respect of the succession to his dominion; and from the fifth to the twenty-ninth. of the mutual rivalries, wars, and policy of the northern and southern horns of the Goat; and from the thirtieth to the thirty-third inclusive, of the indignation of the northern horn against Judah, Jerusalem, and the evening-morning sacrifice; and the thirty-fourth and thirty-fifth verses, of the help the Jews experienced under the Asmoneans till they were subjected to the Little Horn of the Goat, or “nation of a fierce countenance, whose tongue they did not understand.” The second section is descriptive of the Latino-Greek Babylonian power which established its dominion over the territories of the northern and southern horns of the Goat, and over the Holy Land; and which was to prosper, or maintain its position to the exclusion of Judah till the indignation against them should be accomplished, or for a short space after the termination of the 2,400 years.

The third section of the discourse reveals the reappearance of the southern and northern horns of the Goat upon their ancient territories, and their reaction upon the Moslemized Latino-Greek Little Horn; the pushing at this, and the subjection of the southern horn, by the northern horn; the invasion of the Holy Land by this Horn; the destruction of this power by Michael the great commander; the deliverance of Judah: the resurrection of some of the dead; and the reconcentration of the power of all the tribes of Israel, in a time of trouble such as the world has never known since the confusion of human speech.

If we may judge from the utter failures of commentators to interpret the eleventh of Daniel, it may be pronounced to be the most difficult and incomprehensible chapter in the Bible. Moses Stuart, formerly “Professor of Sacred Literature in the Theological Seminary at Andover,” tells us, that, at verse 20, “we come upon Antiochus Epiphanes, whose history (as we may almost name it) occupies the rest of the chapter!!!” This absurdity is but a specimen of the rest. In his “Commentary,” he says, he follows “the simple grammatical interpretation;” hence, having assumed that the last verse of the eleventh refers to Antiochus’s death, he makes the first verse of the twelfth announce the standing up of Michael to be at that time! This shows how little the grammatical interpretation is to be depended on apart from an understanding of the gospel of the Kingdom of God. Seeing then that these mere grammarians are ignorant of this gospel, it is no use wasting precious time in considering their speculations, which can never come out right, inasmuch as the gospel is no constituent of the materials from which they work out their conclusions. We shall be better employed in excavating the truth for ourselves. Let us, then, apply ourselves to the agreeable task, and see in what our labor will result.

In presenting the reader with an interpretation of this chapter, I shall have regard to the above divisions of the revelator’s discourse. I shall give it in the form of paraphrases, incorporating the prophecy p. Dan. 49 with the interpretation, but at the same time giving the angel’s words in italics to distinguish them from my own. I may remark as to the date, that the revelator introduces his discourse with an allusion to “the first year of Darius the Mede.” This was also the first year of Cyrus, who reigned conjointly with Darius; so that the third year of Cyrus was the first of his reign by himself. The reigns of Darius and Cyrus will therefore count as one, after which four are to be reckoned.

16. Paraphrase of the Eleventh of Daniel