The Greek Period
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Daniel
The Book of the
Prophet Daniel
“But you, Daniel, shut up
the words and seal the book, until the time of the end.”
Daniel
12:4
Chapter 8:1-27 The Greek Period
1. In the third year of the reign of
King Belshazzar a vision appeared to me, Daniel, after that which appeared to
me at the first.
2. And I saw in the vision; and when I
saw, I was in Susa the citadel, which is in the province of Elam. And I saw in
the vision, and I was at the Ulai canal.
3. I raised my eyes and saw, and
behold, a ram standing on the bank of the canal. It had two horns, and both
horns were high, but one was higher than the other, and the higher one came up
last.
4. I saw the ram charging westward and
northward and southward. No beast could stand before him, and there was no one
who could rescue from his power. He did as he pleased and became great.
5. As I was considering, behold, a male
goat came from the west across the face of the whole earth, without touching
the ground. And the goat had a conspicuous horn between his eyes.
6. He came to the ram with the two
horns, which I had seen standing on the bank of the canal, and he ran at him in
his powerful wrath.
7. I saw him come close to the ram, and
he was enraged against him and struck the ram and broke his two horns. And the
ram had no power to stand before him, but he cast him down to the ground and
trampled on him. And there was no one who could rescue the ram from his
power.
8. Then the goat became exceedingly
great, but when he was strong, the great horn was broken, and instead of it
there came up four conspicuous horns toward the four winds of heaven.
9. Out of one of them came a little
horn, which grew exceedingly great toward the south, toward the east, and
toward the glorious land.
10. It grew great, even to the host of
heaven. And some of the host and some of the stars it threw down to the ground
and trampled on them.
11. It became great, even as great as
the Prince of the host. And the regular burnt offering was taken away from him,
and the place of his sanctuary was overthrown.
12. And a host will be given over to it
together with the regular burnt offering because of transgression, and it will
throw truth to the ground, and it will act and prosper.
13. Then I heard a holy one speaking,
and another holy one said to the one who spoke, "For how long is the
vision concerning the regular burnt offering, the transgression that makes
desolate, and the giving over of the sanctuary and host to be trampled
underfoot?"
14. And he said to me, "For 2,300
evenings and mornings. Then the sanctuary shall be restored to its rightful
state."
Daniel
now writes in Hebrew to his people, because this vision has consequences that
effect “the glorious land”. As is the case with the rest of the Old Testament,
we, as non-Jews, must be grafted into the history, the literature and the
prophecy of Israel. Everyone must humble himself and come to that small land
that God has chosen for His own and receive instruction from its people, as
many did, in Old and New Testament times.
A
man does not receive divine illumination by the power of his will, but according
to the purpose of God. God chooses the thing, which He will reveal, and the
time and the place, in which it will be revealed. Man has nothing to do with
it, except for his disposition and availability. Daniel’s dream took place at
the beginning of Belshazzar’s reign, in 553 B.C. and now, some two years later
in 551 B.C., he had this additional vision. He was fully awake this time in
Susa, at the site of the Ulai River and he lifted his eyes.
His
dream concerned four beasts and the vision revealed more about two of these
beasts in another form. The bear in the dream was now depicted as a ram with
two horns, one above the other, the higher one succeeding the lower. This
chapter shows the leopard as a goat with a “conspicuous” horn. So this vision was
progressive, adding detail to the former dream. In this progression, we have a
spiritual principle, which is at work in the life of every believer: “The path of the righteous is like the
light of dawn, which shines brighter and brighter until full day” (Pr.4:18).
Daniel,
either physically or by vision, was at the site of the future Persian capital,
Susa, about 250 miles from Babylon, a fortress in the time of Belshazzar. It
was situated in the nearby province of Elam, next to the central Babylonian province.
Esther lived in the palace of the city at the height of Persian power, when it
reigned over 127 provinces from Ethiopia to India. The river Ulai ran by the city
and flowed into the united Tigris/Euphrates rivers.
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| Alexander the Great |
It was at the banks of the river Ulai that the ram
stood, unchallenged, conquering at will in almost all directions. A male goat came
swiftly out of the west, so swiftly that his feet did not touch the ground, and
he came in fury against the ram. His wrath was such that he thoroughly destroyed
the ram, breaking both horns and trampling on him, as he lay defenseless and
without an ally to help.
As the goat reached the apex of his power, his
horn was broken and four horns took its place. One of these horns is
particularly important in prophecy, although it is called in the beginning, a “little
horn”. It became great in the south, the
east, and in the “glorious land”. This horn took on spiritual proportions, when
it rose up against the purposes and people, chosen by heaven, represented by
stars. It had some success in its spiritual warfare and cast some of the stars
down and, as its predecessor, it trampled on its defeated foes.
In his greatness, he challenged the Prince of the
host, the Messiah to come, to Whom all sacrifices pointed. He directed his
attack against the temple, or the sanctuary, in particular, the morning and
evening whole burnt offerings. Because of the sin of the people, he was given
power to take over the sanctuary and prosper in throwing truth to the ground.
However, his success was temporary, as is all prosperity
of men and devils. A holy one spoke and another holy one asked him a question for
Daniel’s benefit. He did it also for the benefit of his readers, the Jew first,
but also all who come to God through the word of the Jew and their prophet,
Daniel.
The question concerned the limited time, given to
the horn, in his success against the daily sacrifice and in trampling upon the
sanctuary and its host of stars. A term was used, which in similar form will
appear from now until the end of the book… “the transgression that makes
desolate.” The other holy one gave the answer and stated that it will take
place for 2,300 days of evening and morning sacrifices (6 years and 110 days),
before things will return to their rightful, God-given state. The prophecies of
Daniel are precise to the day. This is of extreme importance to future Jews,
and because Daniel is writing in Hebrew now, he is directing the prophecy to
them.
15. When I, Daniel, had seen the vision,
I sought to understand it. And behold, there stood before me one having the
appearance of a man.
16. And I heard a man's voice between
the banks of the Ulai, and it called, "Gabriel, make this man understand
the vision."
17. So he came near where I stood. And
when he came, I was frightened and fell on my face. But he said to me,
"Understand, O son of man, that the vision is for the time of the
end."
18. And when he had spoken to me, I fell
into a deep sleep with my face to the ground. But he touched me and made me
stand up.
19. He said, "Behold, I will make
known to you what shall be at the latter end of the indignation, for it refers
to the appointed time of the end.
20. As for the ram that you saw with the
two horns, these are the kings of Media and Persia.
21. And the goat is the king of Greece.
And the great horn between his eyes is the first king.
22. As for the horn that was broken, in
place of which four others arose, four kingdoms shall arise from his nation,
but not with his power.
23. And at the latter end of their
kingdom, when the transgressors have reached their limit, a king of bold face,
one who understands riddles, shall arise.
24. His power shall be great—but not by his own power; and he shall cause fearful
destruction and shall succeed in what he does, and destroy mighty men and the
people who are the saints.
25. By his cunning he shall make deceit
prosper under his hand, and in his own mind he shall become great. Without
warning he shall destroy many. And he shall even rise up against the Prince of
princes, and he shall be broken—but by no human
hand.
26. The vision of the evenings and the
mornings that has been told is true, but seal up the vision, for it refers to
many days from now."
27. And I, Daniel, was overcome and lay
sick for some days. Then I rose and went about the king's business, but I was
appalled by the vision and did not understand it.
God’s
experiences are not for the sake of just having experiences, but they always
have significance and meaning. Daniel searched for an interpretation of the
vision. A being in the form of a man stands before Daniel and God speaks to
this one, calling him Gabriel, a mighty
one of God, who approached him. Here,
near the end of the Old Testament, a name is given to an angel for the first
time.
Hundreds of
years later, this same angel appeared to an old country priest, named Zachariah,
from the hills of Judea, serving for a month inside the Jerusalem temple. It
was probably the first and last time that he ever had that privilege. Gabriel
appeared “on the right side of the altar of incense” (Lk.1:11,19),
announcing the miraculous birth of a son, who would become John the Baptist. In
the sixth month of his wife’s pregnancy, Gabriel came to a young virgin, Mary,
declaring that she would become the mother of the Christ-child.
We will hear
more from Gabriel in this book. The presence of an angel frightened the man of
God to the extent that he fell on his face. Not only did he fall, he “fell into
a deep sleep”, and it took an angelic touch to revive him. Image the impact upon Saul of Tarsus and the
apostle John, when they had an encounter with the glorified Son of God.
The first
statement concerned the time of the fulfillment of this vision, “the time of
the end”. The angel later defined that time more clearly as “the latter end of
the indignation… the appointed time of the end… and at the latter end of their
kingdom”. It occurred at the completion of all things revealed in this vision,
that is, at the end of the Grecian period.
You may have
already discerned the interpretation of the ram and the goat, since we have
already seen them as the second and third beast in Daniel’s dream. Now clearly,
the angel revealed that the ram represents the Median and Persian kingdoms.
Media was the oldest and then, Persia formed and became the more powerful of
the two.
The goat was
Alexander the Great who, with a small army of 35,000, came from the west and,
in a period of only twelve years, brought the entire world into subjection. He
is said to have wept, because there was no more world to conquer and he died at
33 years of age. He represented the fury of Greece, caused by repeated Persian
invasions, and the Greeks, although not conquered, never forgot the wrongs
attempted by the Persians. Alexander spread Greek culture and language around
the world, but he was broken by an early death and his conquests were divided
among four generals… “the four winds of heaven”.
None of these generals
had the power of Alexander, but they continued to spread Greek culture and
language in their four dynasties. The Greek influence (Hellenization) continued
through the time of Christ and that is the reason our New Testament was
originally written in ancient Greek. General Seleucus obtained control of an
area, which included Syria, Phoenicia, Babylonia, and Media. Another important
area included Egypt and Arabia and that was taken by Ptolemy.
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| Antiochus Epiphanes |
The term little horn is the same as that used in
chapter seven; however they do not represent the same thing. The little horn in
chapter seven appeared among 10 horns, related to the Roman Empire, and
replaced three. This one appears among four horns, relating to the Grecian
period. The little horn in chapter seven depicts the Antichrist, but the little
horn in chapter eight also has an important significance among students of
prophecy. The name Antiochus Epiphanes
is a familiar one to these students and is one, to which all the readers of
these commentaries should become familiar.
He is a fore
type of the Antichrist, because of his mistreatment and interference with the
Jews and their worship. He is also a fore type, because he came before the
first coming of Christ, and the final Antichrist will come before His second
coming. There is an historic book, called Maccabees, which describes the events
of his day. Antiochus inherited the Syrian section of Greek domination, eight
generations after the death of Alexander, between 176 and 164 B.C. and Antioch
was the capital city.
As was the
case with many other enemy nations, God empowered him in order to bring
discipline upon his people, because “transgressions have reached their limit”. Antiochus
prospered by deceit, at first, feigning peaceful relations with the Jews. He
ended his rule by shaking his fist at the God of Israel and His coming Christ, persecuting
the priests and desecrating their temple, by sacrificing a sow on the altar.
We can be sure
that he introduced the pagan, idolatrous Greek religion*. In 167 B.C. he killed
40,000 inhabitants of Jerusalem and sold 40,000 more as slaves. He caused
desolation in the city of Jerusalem and particularly in temple worship,
bringing an end to the sacrificial system. Consequently, he was broken by
insanity and a disease of the bowels and died a horrible death, under the just
judgment of God.
The 2,300 days
at last were numbered and the Greek power came to its “latter end”. As
mentioned in verse 14, the sanctuary was cleansed, a priesthood was appointed
to serve there and a new feast was inaugurated, called in the New Testament, “The
Feast of Dedication” (Jn.10:22) or “The Feast of Lights”. The whole city was
illuminated, in an expression of joy. You have probably heard the Jewish
greeting, “Happy Hanukkah”, which begins on December 15 and continues for eight
days, and so the feast continues to this day. Shortly thereafter the Roman
period began.
*One reason, among several, that I am dogmatically
opposed to ¨Christian¨ drama, especially mime, which, by the way, has only
become popular in the evangelical church during the last several decades, is
because it comes directly from ancient Greek religion. Greek culture was totally
idolatrous and perverse. (Homosexual practice was common in Greek society and
Alexander the Great was well-known as a homosexual.) The words drama and mime are direct translations from the Greek. Wikipedia explains, “The
performance of mime originates at its earliest in Ancient Greece; the name is
taken from a single masked dancer called Pantomimus.”
In Jesus’ day, the Romans, in a great many ways, had
adopted the Greek culture and religion; theaters were very popular throughout
the Middle East. They also existed in Israel. There is absolutely no suggestion
in the New Testament of making use of dramas as a way of presenting the gospel.
It is inconceivable to anyone, who has been instructed on the nature of the
biblical Christ, that He should participate in any such thing, or teach His
disciples to do so. The gospel is a real and legitimate declaration of a reality that is biblically presented by preaching. To present the
gospel through drama is playacting and discredits its very message. It is a
perversion and surely Paul would define it as “another gospel”.
Jesus used the word hypocrisy as a condemnation of the religious people of His day.
Hypocrisy is also a Greek word, related to the theater. Again Wikipedia defines
it: “The word hypocrisy comes from
the Greek ὑπόκρισις
(hypokrisis), which means "jealous", "play-acting",
"acting out", "coward" or "dissembling". Alternatively,
the word is an amalgam of the Greek prefix hypo-, meaning
"under", and the verb krinein, meaning "to sift or
decide". Thus the original meaning implied a deficiency in the ability to sift or decide. This deficiency, as
it pertains to one's own beliefs and feelings, informs the word's contemporary
meaning.”
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