Before anyone mentions feeding habits of sheep go here: Palestine Cry: The Date of Christ's Birth
Let me tell where Western Massachusetts is - it is the same latitude as upstate New York and it is not far from the White Mountains of New Hampshire. The White Mountains of New Hampshire are one of the coldest places there are in Winter, on a par with the Chilkat Valley in Alaska.
Christ was born on Christmas. It was the very early church that preserved this date, not some invention later in the time of Constantine or whatever. The ridiculous idea that sheep could not have been outside at that time of year in the low hills and the Mediterranean latitudes is laughable. Sheep in the Rocky Mountains of the United States survive quite well outside night and day in the very middle of winter - farther to the North in latitude and much higher in elevation, not to mention Massachusetts and Iceland in winter. What do we think the wool coats of sheep are for or why do we use wool for our warm outside winter clothing? Because it keeps you warm day and night in the coldest winter. Pagan feasts were every day of the year. Obviously Our Lord Jesus Christ's birth would coincide with one of them - so what?! That absolutely obviously was not the reason that God would choose the day He chose for God the Son to to be born. The pagan Romans elevated a very minor Roman pagan feast - the Saturnalia, to compete with the Christian celebration of Christmas. Christmas was the birth of Christ. It was originally called and is still called the Feast of the Nativity or the Natal Day of the Lord. All the complaints concocted by Talmudic JudenRatz Protestant Freemasonic Pharisees are meaningless.
click on picture
If St. Judas Maccabeus were alive today he would be leading an army to free Palestine from the Jews. You think Titus was harsh in 70 A.D.? St. Judas Maccabeus would enact the Biblical ban on the Jews in Occupied Palestine - all their forces would be destroyed and they would be driven from the land with no mercy. Their crimes against the Palestinians are secondary though very real. The crime of the nation of the Jews is Deicide and Perfidy and these are the worst crimes that exist. The nation of the Jews, by God's command do not have any right or business being in the Holy Land which is the home of the Holy Family, Jesus, Mary and Joseph.
Edited Under Fr. Leonard Feeney M.I.C.M. — Saint Benedict CenterDecember, 1956
This Christmas men are looking to the Holy Land, and they are listening — not for the strains of “Glory to God in the Highest,” but for the sounds of war upon earth. And we might say: It is just. God long ago crashed the Temple of Jerusalem to the ground, and cursed its people, the Jews, to be forever homeless and wandering. If the world has defied this Divine judgment and supported a Jewish return to Palestine, then let the world bear the consequences of God’s righteous anger.
But this leaves a greater part unsaid. For the Holy Land is infinitely more than a geographical locality which God has forbidden to the Jews. It is, for all time, the precious countryside where God became the Child of a Virginal Mother, and where God as Man walked and taught and died for us. It is, indeed, God’s Land.
If, therefore, we are anxious this Christmas, our concern is this: The leaders of our nation have proposed that Christian boys be ready to shed their blood in order to make the Jews secure within the borders of the Holy Land. But should this happen, should Christian lives be spent to keep God’s Land in the hands of His crucifiers, the price of such betrayal will not be confined to the deserts of the East. We will be paying, in kind, on bloody Main Street, U. S. A.
* * * * *
Though originally set up in 165 B. C., the observance of Chanukah (Hebrew for “Dedication”) has long since lost its holy, Old Testament meaning. Thus, when Jewish leaders decided a few years back to revive and exalt the holiday, they found it expedient also to invest it with a fresh and acceptable significance. They have, accordingly, made it an annual practice to hire the principal halls in the principal cities of the country for the staging of special Chanukah pageants. These loudly-trumpeted extravaganzas (“Inspiring — Breathtaking — Spectacular”) oppose the Birth of the true Messias by dramatizing, with the solemnity of religious ritual, the birth of their own messianic empire: the Jewish state of Israel.
It is, of course, true that the Jews would have been eager to exploit any one of their festivals that was opportune in order to affront the beauty and singularity of Christmas. Yet Chanukah is especially suited for such a use — because it was on that day that Our Lord revealed Himself to the Jews as the Messias, and, for doing so, was almost stoned. The story is told in the Holy Gospel of Saint John (Chap. 10, v. 22-39):
* * * * *
The pride of Jewish rural life is the “kibbutz,” a sort of collective farm settlement, of which there are presently some 250 well-populated examples in the state of Israel. A recent volume to swell the praises of these communes is Harvard University Press’ Kibbutz, Venture in Utopia. The following two extracts from this book provide a raw, startling picture of the Jews who today inhabit the Land of Christ’s Birth:
* * * * *
Each year when the Church commemorates the arrival of the Magi at Bethlehem, on the Feast of the Epiphany, our priests are required to read, as an integral part of their Breviary prayers, the following homily by Pope Saint Gregory the Great:
From Advent through the Epiphany Octave, the texts of the Mass and the Divine Office resound repeatedly with that theme which is at once the fulfilled expectation of the Jews of the Old Law, and the indictment of the deicide Jews of today:
At no point in the Christmas liturgy, however, does the Church’s consciousness of Jewish perfidy becloud her joy at the Birth of the Messias. In this spirit, therefore, we anticipate the coming gladness, and leave our readers with that jubilant exhortation from the Third Mass of Christmas:
Jews called in Christ: St. Isaiah
Jews called in Christ: The way out of the 18 temple benedictions
The Jew false prophet Maimonides (Rabbi Moses Ben Maimon), in order to hide the fact that the Jews KNEW that the Prophet Daniel had prophesied the time of the Messiah's Incarnation and He of course was Jesus Christ, said: "Daniel has elucidated to us the knowledge of the end times. However, since they are secret, the wise [rabbis] have barred the calculation of the days of Messiah's coming so that the untutored populace will not be led astray when they see that the End Times [the appearance of the Messiah - Jesus Christ] have already come but there is no sign of the Messiah" (Igeret Teiman, Chapter 3 p.24.)
",,,the End Times have already come..." 2,000 years ago with the coming of Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, who only is the Messiah. "... but there is no sign of the Messiah" means that Maimonides and the rest of the Perfidious Jews unlawfully and out of utterly unrepentant evil hearts knowingly reject the true Messiah, who is Jesus Christ, and the Jews' nation are therefore damned for the unforgivable sin, forever.
The seventy weeks of Daniel's Prophecy makes it absolute that the only time the Messiah could come in history is the time when Jesus Christ, who alone is the only Messiah and the only one who could be the Messiah, came.
The seventy weeks are weeks of years. Hence 490 years.
The Messiah is the Christ.
The seventy weeks begins in the Old Testament, at that time, with the "going forth of the word to restore and to buildJerusalem
69 weeks or 483 years, takes us to the beginning of Christ's public life.
The Messiah is "cut off" - Crucified, for our sins (Isaiah 53:8) in the midst of the "week." That is after three and one half years.
Traditional Catholic Prayers: The Rebuilt Temple of Remphan in Jerusalem and the Armour Bearer of the Antichrist, the False Prophet
See:
The Antichrist
And the Second Coming of Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, see:
Parousia of Jesus Christ Our Lord
Christmas in winter and sheep. It takes a perfidious Jew to lie like a rug and tell the tall tale that that sheep have a problem with winter cold, whether during the day or night. God designed sheep specifically to do extremely well in the coldest of winters - outside night and day. Why do you think we use wool to stay warm in winter? Even when wool gets wet from snow melting close to a human being's skin of a person who is wearing wool - the wool will keep you warm.  |
| Domestic sheep bred for market in Western Massachusetts in Mid Winter Snow Storm - sheep warm as can be in the midst of very cold winter. |
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Icelandic Sheep in Winter,
|
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40 Icelandic sheep found alive after being buried
in snow for 19 days.
|
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| Sheep in Iceland in Winter |
Notice all the domestic sheep, including the ones buried in snow for nineteen days and nights, which do perfectly fine in Iceland in Winter - far, far to the North.
Christmas is on December 25
Christ was born on Christmas. It was the very early church that preserved this date, not some invention later in the time of Constantine or whatever. The ridiculous idea that sheep could not have been outside at that time of year in the low hills and the Mediterranean latitudes is laughable. Sheep in the Rocky Mountains of the United States survive quite well outside night and day in the very middle of winter - farther to the North in latitude and much higher in elevation, not to mention Massachusetts and Iceland in winter. What do we think the wool coats of sheep are for or why do we use wool for our warm outside winter clothing? Because it keeps you warm day and night in the coldest winter. Pagan feasts were every day of the year. Obviously Our Lord Jesus Christ's birth would coincide with one of them - so what?! That absolutely obviously was not the reason that God would choose the day He chose for God the Son to to be born. The pagan Romans elevated a very minor Roman pagan feast - the Saturnalia, to compete with the Christian celebration of Christmas. Christmas was the birth of Christ. It was originally called and is still called the Feast of the Nativity or the Natal Day of the Lord. All the complaints concocted by Talmudic JudenRatz Protestant Freemasonic Pharisees are meaningless.
(See Link:) Palestine
The lie that shepherds and sheep could not be outside in winter at night is as big a lie as "there are no Palestinians." Another lie by the Perfidious Jews. Of course there are Palestinians!!!, who do you think the Jews are committing genocide against?! It is Newt Gingrich who doesn't exist.
See
Palestine - YouTube: - the Apartheid South Africa
Free Palestine
Viva Palestine
see:
FINAL TRIAL OF CHRISTIANS AND MUSLIMS TOGETHER - THE ONLY TRUE ISRAELO-CHRISTIANS THE PALESTINIANS
FINAL TRIAL OF CHRISTIANS AND MUSLIMS TOGETHER - THE ONLY TRUE ISRAELO-CHRISTIANS THE PALESTINIANS
click on picture
St. Judas Maccabeus and the abomination of desolation - the Jews in Palestine
Now lets dispense with this Hanukkah nonsense. Judas Maccabeus is a Catholic Saint. All faithful Catholics from the first Adam to the last Saint are Saints of the Catholic Church of whom Jesus Christ is the Head. Judas Maccabeus did all he could to fight against an abomination in the temple that defiled it (the first was Antiochus IV Epiphanes, the Seleucid king and his profanation of the temple, who died in 164 B.C.). Judas Maccabeus, if he had been alive during the Apostolate of Christ on earth, would have been Christ's disciple, same as St. Simon Zealotes. Christ revealed Himself to the Jews as the Messiah on His birthday as an adult in the temple on the feast of lights. It was Jesus Christ who warned of the two final abominations of the temple -
1) the 18 temple benedictions which blasphemed God and His Christ and caused the destruction of the temple in 70 A.D.
2) the final Abomination of Desolation which is the Jews invading Palestine and trying to rebuild their accursed temple.
If St. Judas Maccabeus were alive today he would be leading an army to free Palestine from the Jews. You think Titus was harsh in 70 A.D.? St. Judas Maccabeus would enact the Biblical ban on the Jews in Occupied Palestine - all their forces would be destroyed and they would be driven from the land with no mercy. Their crimes against the Palestinians are secondary though very real. The crime of the nation of the Jews is Deicide and Perfidy and these are the worst crimes that exist. The nation of the Jews, by God's command do not have any right or business being in the Holy Land which is the home of the Holy Family, Jesus, Mary and Joseph.
 |
| Jesus, Mary and Joseph |
The Point
Edited Under Fr. Leonard Feeney M.I.C.M. — Saint Benedict CenterDecember, 1956
This Christmas men are looking to the Holy Land, and they are listening — not for the strains of “Glory to God in the Highest,” but for the sounds of war upon earth. And we might say: It is just. God long ago crashed the Temple of Jerusalem to the ground, and cursed its people, the Jews, to be forever homeless and wandering. If the world has defied this Divine judgment and supported a Jewish return to Palestine, then let the world bear the consequences of God’s righteous anger.
But this leaves a greater part unsaid. For the Holy Land is infinitely more than a geographical locality which God has forbidden to the Jews. It is, for all time, the precious countryside where God became the Child of a Virginal Mother, and where God as Man walked and taught and died for us. It is, indeed, God’s Land.
If, therefore, we are anxious this Christmas, our concern is this: The leaders of our nation have proposed that Christian boys be ready to shed their blood in order to make the Jews secure within the borders of the Holy Land. But should this happen, should Christian lives be spent to keep God’s Land in the hands of His crucifiers, the price of such betrayal will not be confined to the deserts of the East. We will be paying, in kind, on bloody Main Street, U. S. A.
THE ENEMIES OF CHRIST AT CHRISTMAS
Soon, the Jews of America will be trying once more to jostle Christmas from its place as the nation’s chief interest in late December. As elbow for this endeavor, the Jews will rely again on their festival of Chanukah — once a minor holiday but recently seized on because of its timely Yuletide occurrence and now celebrated with all the blare and bluster the Jews can produce.Though originally set up in 165 B. C., the observance of Chanukah (Hebrew for “Dedication”) has long since lost its holy, Old Testament meaning. Thus, when Jewish leaders decided a few years back to revive and exalt the holiday, they found it expedient also to invest it with a fresh and acceptable significance. They have, accordingly, made it an annual practice to hire the principal halls in the principal cities of the country for the staging of special Chanukah pageants. These loudly-trumpeted extravaganzas (“Inspiring — Breathtaking — Spectacular”) oppose the Birth of the true Messias by dramatizing, with the solemnity of religious ritual, the birth of their own messianic empire: the Jewish state of Israel.
It is, of course, true that the Jews would have been eager to exploit any one of their festivals that was opportune in order to affront the beauty and singularity of Christmas. Yet Chanukah is especially suited for such a use — because it was on that day that Our Lord revealed Himself to the Jews as the Messias, and, for doing so, was almost stoned. The story is told in the Holy Gospel of Saint John (Chap. 10, v. 22-39):
“And the Dedication was in Jerusalem: and it was winter. And Jesus walked in the temple, in Salomon’s porch. The Jews therefore compassed him round about, and said to him, How long doest thou hold our soul in suspense? If thou be Christ, tell us openly. Jesus answered them, I speak to you: and you believe not, the works that I do in the name of my Father, they give testimony of me, but you do not believe, because you are not of my sheep. My sheep hear my voice: and I know them, and they follow me. And I give them life everlasting: and they shall not perish for ever, and no man shall pluck them out of my hand. My father, that which he hath given me, is greater than all: and no man can pluck them out of the hand of my father. I and the Father are one. The Jews took up stones, to stone him. Jesus answered them, Many good works I have showed you from my father, for which of those works do you stone me? The Jews answered him, For a good work we stone thee not, but for blasphemy, and because thou being a man, makest thyself God. Jesus answered them, Is it not written in your law, that I said, you are God’s? If he called them God’s, to whom the word of God was made, and the scripture can not be broken: whom the Father hath sanctified and sent into the world, say you, That thou blasphemest, because I said I am the son of God? If I do not the works of my Father, believe me not. But if I do, and if you will not believe me, believe the works: that you may know and believe that the Father is in me, and I in the Father. They sought therefore to apprehend him: and he went forth out of their hands.”Because it is reckoned by the Jewish calendar, the day on which Chanukah falls may vary from year to year by as much as a month. This year it is due to fall on its earliest possible date. But Jews have never been ones to let liturgical niceties stand in the way of more vital considerations, and so, the Jews of Boston (the only segment of whose plans we have heard) are making an adroit adjustment in their schedule. Their annual Chanukah pageant at the Boston Garden will be held this year, not when the calendar says Chanukah should occur, but some three weeks later, on December the twenty-third — just a stone’s throw from Christmas.
“In its attempt to create a better world, the kibbutz has found that it faces considerable opposition, and it has come to view this opposition with an intense hatred. Indeed, it is not unfair to say the kibbutz hates almost everybody, since it views almost everybody as an opponent. Outside of Israel, all the ‘bourgeois’ countries are hated, and only the Soviet Union and ‘People’s Democracies’ are ‘loved.’“As for marriage, they believed — and still believe — that a union between a man and woman was their own affair, to be entered into on the basis of love and to be broken at the termination of love; neither the union nor the separation were to require the permission or the sanction of the community. Today, for example, if a couple wishes to marry, the partners merely ask for a joint room; if they wish a divorce, they return to separate rooms.”
“All things which He had made, bore witness that their Maker was come ... And yet, up to this very hour, the hearts of the unbelieving Jews will not acknowledge that He, to Whom all nature gave testimony, is their God. Being more hardened than the rocks, the Jews refuse to be rent by repentance.”This is but one instance of what the Jews would term the “anti-Semitism” of the Church’s Advent and Christmas Season liturgy. With the possible exception of Holy Week in Lent, there is no period in the whole liturgical year which more emphasizes the bridgeless chasm separating Christian faith and Jewish infidelity.
From Advent through the Epiphany Octave, the texts of the Mass and the Divine Office resound repeatedly with that theme which is at once the fulfilled expectation of the Jews of the Old Law, and the indictment of the deicide Jews of today:
“Behold, O Israel, your king ... Blow ye the trumpet in Zion, for the day of the Lord is nigh ... It is the birth of the Christ, O Jerusalem ... The Savior of the world will be our King ... He shall sit upon the throne of David His father.”These are the tidings of great joy which plague the Jews as sorely this December as they did more than nineteen hundred years ago. And among these tidings there is, for the Jews, no more hateful information than the exultant shouts that the Baby of Bethlehem is the true Son of David, inheriting a royal title from His foster father, Saint Joseph, and royal blood from His Spotless Mother, the Virgin Mary. It was precisely to attack this central truth of Christmas that the rabbis of the early Christian centuries concocted that unprintably-filthy version of the Birth of Christ which is now found in the Jews’ “holy” book, the Talmud. We have determined never to reprint, in direct quotation, these blasphemous assaults against the purity of the Mother of God. But that they were invented by the rabbis, for the express purpose of challenging Our Lord’s title to the Throne of David, is abundantly admitted by Jewish authorities. The Jewish Encyclopedia, for example, blithely states, in its article on “Jesus,” that, “For polemical purposes it was necessary for the Jews to insist on the illegitimacy of Jesus as against the Davidic descent claimed by the Christian Church.”
At no point in the Christmas liturgy, however, does the Church’s consciousness of Jewish perfidy becloud her joy at the Birth of the Messias. In this spirit, therefore, we anticipate the coming gladness, and leave our readers with that jubilant exhortation from the Third Mass of Christmas:
“Come ye Gentiles and adore the Lord, for this day a great light hath descended upon the earth!”God and His Messiah Jesus Christ our Lord - our right and duty to witness to Him: Food for thought
The prophets of the Old Testament so exactly predicted the coming of the Messiah that Herod knew within two years time that it was Jesus (Yeshua) at His birth. Anyone, especially Jews who know their Torah of Moses and the Prophets from Moses to the time of Jesus Christ, Yeshua ha Maschiach, should avail themselves of the Book of Isaiah, Chapters 52 and 53 and the Book of Daniel, Chapter 9 in order to show some of the more important proofs to themselves of the fact that Jesus of Nazareth is the Christ promised to the Jews and Gentiles alike. Faith in Him is salvific.
Jews called in Christ: St. Isaiah
Jews called in Christ: The way out of the 18 temple benedictions
The Jew false prophet Maimonides (Rabbi Moses Ben Maimon), in order to hide the fact that the Jews KNEW that the Prophet Daniel had prophesied the time of the Messiah's Incarnation and He of course was Jesus Christ, said: "Daniel has elucidated to us the knowledge of the end times. However, since they are secret, the wise [rabbis] have barred the calculation of the days of Messiah's coming so that the untutored populace will not be led astray when they see that the End Times [the appearance of the Messiah - Jesus Christ] have already come but there is no sign of the Messiah" (Igeret Teiman, Chapter 3 p.24.)
",,,the End Times have already come..." 2,000 years ago with the coming of Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, who only is the Messiah. "... but there is no sign of the Messiah" means that Maimonides and the rest of the Perfidious Jews unlawfully and out of utterly unrepentant evil hearts knowingly reject the true Messiah, who is Jesus Christ, and the Jews' nation are therefore damned for the unforgivable sin, forever.
The seventy weeks of Daniel's Prophecy makes it absolute that the only time the Messiah could come in history is the time when Jesus Christ, who alone is the only Messiah and the only one who could be the Messiah, came.
The seventy weeks are weeks of years. Hence 490 years.
The Messiah is the Christ.
The seventy weeks begins in the Old Testament, at that time, with the "going forth of the word to restore and to build
69 weeks or 483 years, takes us to the beginning of Christ's public life.
The Messiah is "cut off" - Crucified, for our sins (Isaiah 53:8) in the midst of the "week." That is after three and one half years.
DANIEL
9:24-27
CHAPTER IX.
Daniel's confession and prayer; Gabriel informs him
concerning the seventy weeks to the coming of Christ.
24
*Seventy weeks are shortened upon thy people, and upon thy holy city, that
transgression may be finished, and sin may have an end, and iniquity may be
abolished; and everlasting justice may be brought; and vision and prophecy may
be fulfilled; and the Saint of saints may be anointed.
25
Know thou, therefore, and take notice: that from the going forth of the
word, to build up Jerusalem again, unto Christ, the prince, there shall be
seven weeks, and sixty-two weeks: and the street shall be built again, and the
walls, in straitness of times.
26
And after sixty-two weeks Christ shall be slain: and the people that shall deny
him shall not be his. And a people, with
their leader, that shall come, shall destroy the city, and the sanctuary: and
the end thereof shall be waste, and after the end of the war the appointed
desolation.
27
And he shall confirm the covenant with many, in one week: and in the half of
the week the victim and the sacrifice shall fail: and there shall be in the
temple the abomination of desolation: and the desolation shall continue even to
the consummation, and to the end.
____________________
*
1: A.M. 3467, A.C. 537.
2: Jer. xxv. 11. and xxix. 10.
4: 2 Esd. i. 5.
5: Bar. i. 17.
11: Deut. xxvii. 14.
15: Bar. i. 1.; Ex. xiv. 22.
18: Jer. xxv. 29.; Ps. xlviii. 2. 9. and ci. 8.
21: Supra viii. 16.
24: Mat. xxiv. 15.; John i. 45.
====================
Ver.
24. Seventy weeks (viz. of years, or
seventy times seven, that is, 490 years) are shortened; that is, fixed
and determined, so that the time shall be no longer. Ch. — This is not a conditional
prophecy. Daniel was solicitous to know
when the seventy years of Jeremias would terminate. But something of far greater consequence is
revealed to him, (W.) even the coming and death of the Messias, four hundred
and ninety years after the order for rebuilding the walls should be given, (C.)
at which period Christ would redeem the world, (W.) and abolish the sacrifices
of the law. C. — Finished,
or arrive at its height by the crucifixion of the Son of God; (Theod.) or
rather sin shall be forgiven. Heb.
"to finish crimes to seal (cover or remit) sins, and to expiate
iniquity." — Anointed.
Christ is the great anointed of God, the source of justice, and the end
of the law and of the prophets, (Acts x. 38. and 1 Cor. i. 30. Rom. x. 4.
C.) as well as the pardoner of crimes.
These four characters belong only to Christ. W.
Ver.
25. Word, &c. That is, from the twentieth year of king
Artaxerxes, when, by his commandment, Nehemias rebuilt the walls of Jerusalem,
2 Esd. ii. From which time, according to
the best chronology, there were just sixty-nine weeks of years, the is 483
years, to the baptism of Christ, when he first began to preach and execute the
office of Messias. Ch. — The
prophecy is divided into three periods: the first of forty-nine years, during
which the walls were completed; (they had been raised in fifty-two days, (2
Esd. vi. 15.) but many other fortifications were still requisite) the second of
four hundred and thirty-four years, at the end of which Christ was baptized, in
the fifteenth of Tiberius, the third of three years and a half, during which
Christ preached. In the middle of this
last week, the ancient sacrifices became useless, (C.) as the true Lamb of God
had been immolated. Theod. — A week
of years denotes seven years, as Lev. xxv. and thus seventy of these weeks
would make four hundred and ninety years.
V. Bede. Rat. temp. 6 &c. W. —
Origen would understand 4900 years, and dates from the fall of Adam to the ruin
of the temple. Marsham begins twenty-one
years after the captivity commenced, when Darius took Susa, and ends in the
second of Judas, when the temple was purified.
This system would destroy the prediction of Christ's coming, and is very
uncertain. Hardouin modifies it, and
acknowledges that Christ was the end of the prophecy, though it was fulfilled
in figure by the death of Onias III. See
1 Mac. i. 19. Senens. Bib. viii. hær.
12. and Estius. From C. vii. to xii. the
changes in the East, till the time of Epiphanes, are variously described. After the angel had here addressed Daniel,
the latter was still perplexed; (C. x. 1.) and in order to remove his doubts,
the angel informs him of the persecution of Epiphanes, as if he had been speaking
of the same event. We may, therefore,
count forty-nine years from the taking of Jerusalem (when Jeremias spoke, C.
vi. 19.) to Cyrus, the anointed, (Is. xlv. 1.) who was appointed to free
God's people. They would still be under
the Persians, &c. for other four hundred and thirty-four years, and then
Onias should be slain. Many would join
the Machabees; the sacrifices should cease in the middle of the seventieth
week, and the desolation shall continue to the end of it. Yet, though this system may seem plausible,
it is better to stick to the common one, which naturally leads us to the death
of Christ, dating from the tenth year of Artaxerxes. C. — He had reigned ten years already
with his father. Petau. — All the
East was persuaded that a great king should arise about the time; when our
Saviour actually appeared, and fulfilled all that had been spoken of the
Messias. C. Diss. — Ferguson says, "We have
an astronomical demonstration of the truth of this ancient prophecy, seeing
that the prophetic year of the Messias being cut off was the very same with the
astronomical." In a dispute between
a Jew and a Christian, at Venice, the Rabbi who presided...put an end to the
business by saying, "Let us shut up our Bibles; for if we proceed in the
examination of this prophecy, it will make us all become Christians." Watson, let. 6. — Hence probably the
Jews denounce a curse on those who calculate the times, (H.) and they have
purposely curtailed their chronology. C.
— Times, &c. (angustia temporum) which may allude both
to the difficulties and opposition they met with in building, and to the
shortness of the time in which they finished the wall, viz. fifty-two
days. Ch.
Ver.
26. Weeks, or four hundred and
thirty-eight years, which elapsed from the twentieth of Artaxerxes to the death
of Christ, according to the most exact chronologists. C. — Slain. Prot. "cut off, but not for himself, and
the people of the prince that," &c.
H. — S. Jerom and some MSS. read, Christus, et non erit ejus. The sense is thus suspended. The Jews lose their prerogative of being
God's people. C. — Christ will
not receive them again. S. Jer. —
Gr. "the unction shall be destroyed, and there shall not be judgment in
him." The priesthood and royal
dignity is taken from the Jews. Theod. —
The order of succession among the high priests was quite deranged, while the
country was ruled by the Romans, and by Herod, a foreigner. C. — Leader. The Romans under Titus. Ch. C.
Ver.
27. Many.
Christ seems to allude to this passage.
Mat. xxvi. 28. He died for all;
but several of the Jews particularly, would not receive the proffered
grace. C. — Of the week,
or in the middle of the week, &c.
Because Christ preached three years and a half: and then, by his
sacrifice upon the cross, abolished all the sacrifices of the law. Ch. — Temple. Heb. "the wing," (C.) or pinnacle,
(H.) the highest part of the temple. C. —
Desolation. Some understand this
of the profanation of the temple by the crimes of the Jews, and by the bloody
faction of the zealots. Others, of the
bringing in thither the ensigns and standard of the pagan Romans. Others, in fine, distinguish three different
times of desolation: viz. that under Antiochus; that when the temple was
destroyed by the Romans; and the last near the end of the world, under
antichrist. To all which, as they
show, this prophecy has a relation.
Ch. — Prot. "For the overspreading of abominations he shall
make it desolate, even unto the consummation; and that determined, shall be
poured upon the desolate." H. —
The ruin shall be entire. C.
Traditional Catholic Prayers: The Rebuilt Temple of Remphan in Jerusalem and the Armour Bearer of the Antichrist, the False Prophet
DANIEL
11
CHAPTER XI.
The angel declares to Daniel many things to come, with
regard to the Persian and Grecian kings: more especially with regard to
Antiochus, as a figure of antichrist.
1
And from the first year of Darius, the Mede, I stood up, that he might be
strengthened, and confirmed.
2
And now I will shew thee the truth.
Behold, there shall stand yet three kings in Persia, and the fourth
shall be enriched exceedingly above them all: and when he shall be grown mighty
by his riches, he shall stir up all against the kingdom of Greece.
3
But there shall rise up a strong king, and shall rule with great power: and he
shall do what he pleaseth.
4
And when he shall come to his height, his kingdom shall be broken, and it shall
be divided towards the four winds of the heaven: but not to his posterity, nor
according to his power with which he ruled.
For his kingdom shall be rent in pieces, even for strangers, besides
these.
5
And the king of the south shall be strengthened, and one of his princes shall
prevail over him, and he shall rule with great power: for his dominion shall be
great.
6
And after the end of years they shall be in league together: and the daughter
of the king of the south shall come to the king of the north to make
friendship, but she shall not obtain the strength of the arm, neither shall her
seed stand: and she shall be given up, and her young men that brought her, and
they that strengthened her in these times.
7
And a plant of the bud of her roots shall stand up: and he shall come with an
army, and shall enter into the province of the king of the north: and he shall
abuse them, and shall prevail.
8
And he shall also carry away captive into Egypt their gods, and their graven
things, and their precious vessels of gold and silver: he shall prevail against
the king of the north.
9
And the king of the south shall enter into the kingdom, and shall return to his
own land.
10
And his sons shall be provoked, and they shall assemble a multitude of great
forces: and he shall come with haste like a flood: and he shall return, and be
stirred up, and he shall join battle with his forces.
11
And the king of the south being provoked, shall go forth, and shall fight
against the king of the north, and shall prepare an exceeding great multitude,
and a multitude shall be given into his hand.
12
And he shall take a multitude, and his heart shall be lifted up, and he shall
cast down many thousands: but he shall not prevail.
13
For the king of the north shall return, and shall prepare a multitude much
greater than before: and in the end of times, and years, he shall come in haste
with a great army, and much riches.
14
*And in those times many shall rise up against the king of the south, and the
children of prevaricators of thy people shall lift up themselves to fulfil the
vision, and they shall fall.
15
And the king of the north shall come, and shall cast up a mount, and shall take
the best fenced cities: and the arms of the south shall not withstand, and his
chosen ones shall rise up to resist, and they shall not have strength.
16
And he shall come upon him, and do according to his pleasure, and there shall
be none to stand against his face: and he shall stand in the glorious land, and
it shall be consumed by his hand.
17
And he shall set his face to come to possess all his kingdom, and he shall make
upright conditions with him: and he shall give him a daughter of women,
to overthrow it: and she shall not stand, neither shall she be for him.
18
And he shall turn his face to the islands, and shall take many: and he shall
cause the prince of his reproach to cease, and his reproach shall be turned
upon him.
19
And he shall turn his face to the empire of his own land, and he shall stumble,
and fall, and shall not be found.
20
And there shall stand up in his place one most vile, and unworthy of kingly
honour: and in a few days he shall be destroyed, not in rage nor in battle.
21
And there shall stand up in his place one despised, and the kingly honour shall
not be given him: and he shall come privately, and shall obtain the kingdom by
fraud.
22
And the arms of the fighter shall be overcome before his face, and shall be
broken; yea, also the prince of the covenant.
23
And after friendships, he will deal deceitfully with him: and he shall go up,
and shall overcome with a small people.
24
And he shall enter into rich and plentiful cities: and he shall do that which
his fathers never did, nor his fathers' fathers: he shall scatter their spoils,
and their prey, and their riches, and shall forecast devices against the best
fenced places: and this until a time.
25
And his strength, and his heart, shall be stirred up against the king of the
south, with a great army: and the king of the south shall be stirred up to
battle with many and very strong succours: and they shall not stand, for they
shall form designs against him.
26
And they that eat bread with him, shall destroy him, and his army shall be
overthrown: and many shall fall down slain.
27
And the heart of the two kings shall be to do evil, and they shall speak lies
at one table, and they shall not prosper: because as yet the end is unto
another time.
28
And he shall return into his land with much riches: and his heart shall be
against the holy covenant, and he shall succeed, and shall return into his own
land.
29
At the time appointed he shall return, and he shall come to the south, but the
latter time shall not be like the former.
30
And the galleys and the Romans shall come upon him, and he shall be struck, and
shall return, and shall have indignation against the covenant of the sanctuary,
and he shall succeed: and he shall return, and shall devise against them that
have forsaken the covenant of the sanctuary.
31
And arms shall stand on his part, and they shall defile the sanctuary of
strength, and shall take away the continual sacrifice, and they shall place there
the abomination unto desolation.
32
And such as deal wickedly against the covenant shall deceitfully dissemble: but
the people that know their God shall prevail and succeed.
33
And they that are learned among the people shall teach many: and they shall
fall by the sword, and by fire, and by captivity, and by spoil for many days.
34
And when they shall have fallen, they shall be relieved with a small help: and
many shall be joined to them deceitfully.
35
And some of the learned shall fall, that they may be tried, and may be chosen,
and made white, even to the appointed time: because yet there shall be another
time.
36
And the king shall do according to his will, and he shall be lifted up, and
shall magnify himself against every god: and he shall speak great things
against the God of gods, and shall prosper, till the wrath be
accomplished. For the determination is
made.
37
And he shall make no account of the God of his fathers: and he shall follow the
lust of women, and he shall not regard any gods: for he shall rise up against
all things.
38
But he shall worship the god Maozim, in his place: and a god whom his fathers
knew not, he shall worship with gold, and silver, and precious stones, and
things of great price.
39
And he shall do this to fortify Maozim with a strange god, whom he hath
acknowledged, and he shall increase glory, and shall give them power over many,
and shall divide the land gratis.
40
And at the time prefixed the king of the south shall fight against him, and the
king of the north shall come against him like a tempest, with chariots, and
with horsemen, and with a great navy, and he shall enter into the countries,
and shall destroy, and pass through.
41
And he shall enter into the glorious land, and many shall fall: and these only
shall be saved out of his hand, Edom, and Moab, and the principality of the
children of Ammon.
42
And he shall lay his hand upon the lands: and the land of Egypt shall not
escape.
43
And he shall have power over the treasures of gold, and of silver, and all the
precious things of Egypt: and he shall pass through Lybia, and Ethiopia.
44
And tidings out of the east, and out of the north, shall trouble him: and he
shall come with a great multitude to destroy and slay many.
45
And he shall fix his tabernacle, Apadno, between the seas, upon a glorious and
holy mountain: and he shall come even to the top thereof, and none shall help
him.
____________________
*
14: Isai. xix. 1.
====================
DANIEL
11
CHAPTER
XI.
Ver.
1. Confirmed. Gabriel assisted Michael to comply with God's
orders. C. x. 21. C. — The angel continues his speech,
and informs us that he had prayed for Darius after the fall of Babylon, seeing
that he was well-inclined towards the Jews, as his successor Cyrus (who
liberated them) was also. W.
Ver.
2. Three, &c. Cambyses, Smerdis magus, and Darius the son
of Hystaspes. Ch. W. — Cyrus had been mentioned
before. C. x. 13. 20. Smerdis, or Artaxerxes, (1 Esd. iv. 7.) was
the chief of the seven magi, and usurped the throne for six months after the
death of Cambyses. C. — He had
been declared king before (H.) by Patizites, his own brother. The news excited the fury of Cambyses, who
mounting on horseback gave himself a mortal wound in the thigh. Herod. iii. 21. See Ezec. xxxviii. 21. H. — Fourth: Xerxes. Ch. — He invaded Greece with an
immense army, forcing those on the road to join him. Just. i. 10.
Herod. vii. and viii. C.
Ver.
3. A strong king: Alexander. Ch. — The sequel clearly points him
out. Before fifteen years had elapsed,
his mother, brother, and children were slain.
Arideus, his brother, was declared regent till it should be seen what Rozanna
should bring forth. After the death of
those who might be heirs of Alexander, four general took the title of
kings. Others governed in different
places, but were destroyed by degrees.
Ver.
4. These four; Ptolemy, Seleucus,
Antigonus, and Antipater, kings of Egypt, Syria, Asia, and Greece. C. vii. 6. and viii. 22. Besides the other generals, (C.) foreigners
began to erect new kingdoms in what had formed the empire of Alexander. S. Jer.
Livy xlv. C.
Ver.
5. South: Ptolemeus, the son of Lagus,
king of Egypt, which lies south of
Jerusalem. Ch. —S. Irenæus (iv.
43.) observes, that all prophecies are obscure till they be fulfilled. History shews that this relates to
Ptolemy. The kingdoms of Egypt and of
Syria are more noticed, as they had much to do with the Jews. W. — Ptolemy took Cyprus (C.) and
Jerusalem. Jos. Ant. xii. 12. — His
princes (that is, one of Alexander's princes) shall prevail over him;
that is, shall be stronger than the king of Egypt. He speaks of Seleucus Nicator, king of Asia
and Syria, whose successors are here called the kings of the north, because
their dominions lay to the north in respect to Jerusalem. Ch. — Nicator means a
"conqueror." H. —This
king was master of all from Media and Babylonia to Jerusalem. Appian, &c. C. —Philadelphus was more powerful
than his father. W.
Ver.
6. South. Bernice, daughter of Ptolemeus Philadelphus,
given in marriage to Antiochus Theos, grandson of Seleucus, (Ch.) and king of
Syria. She brought a great
"dowry," and was therefore styled Phernophoros. Antiochus agreed to repudiate Laodicea; but
he soon took her back. Fearing his
inconstancy, she poisoned him, and slew his son by Bernice. This lady in a rage mounted her chariot, and
having knocked down the cruel minister of such barbarity, trampled upon his
body. The rest pretended that the infant
was still living, and delivered up a part of the palace to Bernice, yet slew
her as soon as they had an opportunity.
S. Jer. Usher, A. 3758. V. Max. ix. 10. &c. C.
Ver.
7. A plant, &c. Ptolemeus Evergetes, the son of
Philadelphus. Ch. — Three of
Bernice's maids of honour (H.) covered her body, and pretended that she was
only wounded, till her brother Evergetes came and seized almost all Asia,
Callinicus not daring to give him battle.
S. Jer. &c. Vaillant. A. 79.
Lagid. C. — He laid waste
Syria. W.
Ver.
8. Gods.
He took back what Cambyses had conveyed out of Egypt; and it was on this
account that the people styled him "benefactor." S. Jer.
C. — North.
Seleucus Callinicus. Ch. —
If Evergetes had not been recalled into Egypt by civil broils, he would have
seized all the kingdom of Seleucus.
Just. xvii. — As he passed by Jerusalem (v. 9.) he made great
presents, and caused victims of thanksgiving to be offered up. Jos. c. Ap. ii.
Ver.
10. His sons. Seleucus Ceraunius and Antiochus the great,
the sons of Callinicus. Ch. — The
former was poisoned after three years' reign, as he marched against
Attalus. Just. xxix. — Antiochus
the great reconquered many provinces from Egypt, but was beaten at Raphia, on
the confines, and lost Cœlo-syria. C. —
He shall, &c. Antiochus the
great. Ch. — He prosecuted the
war, as his brother was prevented by death.
W.
Ver.
11. South.
Ptolemeus Philopator, son of Evergetes.
Ch. — He was an indolent prince; but his generals gained the
victory. C.
Ver.
12. Prevail. Many fell on both sides. H. — But Antiochus did not prevail;
(W.) or rather Philopator neglected the opportunity of dethroning his rival,
(C.) as he might have seized all his dominions, if he had not been too fond of
ease. Just. xxx. — He followed
the suggestions of his proud heart, when he attempted to enter the most
holy place of the temple; and though he was visibly chastised by God, he would
have vented his resentment on the Jews, if Providence had not miraculously
protected them. 3 Mac. C. See
Eccli. l. H.
Ver.
13. Times, seventeen years after the
battle of Raphia. When Philopator was
dead, and his son Epiphanes not above five years old, Antiochus and Philip of
Macedon basely attempted to divide his dominions. Scopas engaged Antiochus, but lost the
battle, and all that Philopator had recovered.
C. — Many revolted in Egypt on account of the arrogance of
Agathocles, who ruled in the king's name.
v. 14. S. Jer.
Ver.
14. Vision. Many Jews, deceived by Onias, erected a
temple in Egypt, falsely asserting that they fulfilled the prophecy of Isaias,
xix. 19. W. — This Onias was the
son of Onias III. who was slain at Antioch.
C. ix. 25. H. — The temple
of Onion was called after him. All allow
that he transgressed the law, by offering sacrifice there after God had pitched
upon Jerusalem. But this was done (C.)
under Philometor, forty-seven years (Usher) or longer after those times,
when Epiphanes fought against Antiochus.
The rebellion of the Jews against Egypt may therefore be meant. It was decreed that they should by under
Antiochus, that his son might cause them to fall, (C.) and punish them
for their crimes. H.
Ver.
15. Cities; Sidon, Gaza, and the citadel
of Jerusalem, &c. C.
Ver.
16. Upon him. Antiochus shall come upon the king of the
south. — Land: Judea. Ch. —
Consumed, or "perfected."
Antiochus was very favourable to the Jews; (C.) invited all to return to
Jerusalem, and furnished what was requisite for the sacrifices. Jos. Ant. xii. 3.
Ver.
17. Kingdom, viz. all the kingdom of
Ptolemeus Epiphanes, son of Philopator.
Ch. — The Romans interrupted Antiochus, who resolved to lull the
young prince asleep, till he had subdued these enemies. C. — Of women. That is, a most beautiful woman, viz. his
daughter Cleopatra. — It, viz. the kingdom of Epiphanes; but his
policy shall not succeed; for Cleopatra shall take more to heart the interest
of her husband than that of her father.
Ch. — He came with her to Raphia, and gave her Judea, &c. for
her dowry, reserving half of the revenues.
Heb. and Gr. have, "to corrupt her;" (C.) Vulg. eam; as
he wished his daughter to act perfidiously, that he might seize the whole
kingdom. H. — Epiphanes and his
generals were on their guard, and Cleopatra took part with her husband. S. Jer.
Ver.
18. Islands, near Asia. He also went into Greece, and was master of
that country when the Romans declared war against him. C. — Of his reproach. Scipio, the Roman general, called the prince
of his reproach, because he overthrew Antiochus, and obliged him to submit to
very dishonourable terms, before he would cease from the war. Ch. — Prot. "for a prince for his
own behalf shall cause the reproach offered by him to cease, without his own
reproach he shall cause it to turn upon him." H. — Being defeated at Magnesia, he
chose the wisest plan of avoiding fresh reproach, by making peace, though (C.)
the terms were very hard. Livy xxxvii. —
He jokingly observed, that he was obliged to the Romans for contracting his
dominions. Cic. pro Dejot.
Ver.
19. Found.
Antiochus plundered the temple of the Elymaites to procure money; but
they, (S. Jer.) or the neighbouring barbarous nations, rose up and slew him. Just. xxxii.
Ver.
20. One more vile. Seleucus Philopator, who sent Heliodorus to
plunder the temple; and was shortly after slain by the same Heliodorus. Ch. — He reigned about twelve years;
and had sent his own son, Demetrius, to be a hostage at Rome instead of
Epiphanes, whom he designed to place at the head of an army to invade
Egypt. Heb. "one who shall cause
the exactor to pass over the glory of the kingdom," the temple. 2 Mac. iii.
C.
Ver.
21. One despised; viz. Antiochus
Epiphanes, who at first was despised and not received for king. What is here said of this prince, is
accommodated by S. Jerom and others to antichrist, of whom this Antiochus was a
figure. Ch. — He lived and died
basely; as the origin and end of antichrist will be ignominious. W. — All that follows, to the end of
C. xii. regards Epiphanes. He had no
title to the crown, which he procured by cunning, and held in the most shameful
manner. He canvassed for the lowest
offices, so that many styled him Epimanes, "the madman." Diod. in Valesius, p. 305. C.
Ver.
22. Fighter. That is, of them that shall oppose him, and
shall fight against him. Ch. —
Heliodorus, who had murdered his brother and usurped the throne, and Ptolemy
Epiphanes, were discomfited. The latter
was making preparations against Seleucus, and said that his riches were in the
purses of his friends, upon which they poisoned him. S. Jer.
C. — Covenant, or of the league. The chief of them that conspired against him;
or the king of Egypt, his most powerful adversary. Ch. — This title belongs to
antichrist, who will join the Jews, and be received as their Messias. S. Iren. v. 25. S. Jer. &c. Jo. 543. W.
Ver.
23. People. Ephiphanes pretended to be tutor of
Philometor. But the nobles of Egypt
distrusted him; whereupon he came to a battle, near Pelusium, and the young
king surrendered himself. His uncle thus
took possession of Egypt with surprising facility. Yet the people of Alexandria crowned
Evergetes, which occasioned a civil war.
C.
Ver.
24. Places. Theodot. reads, "Egypt," omitting
the b, (H.) which gives a good sense. — C.
Ver.
25. The king. Ptolemeus Philometor. Ch. — Epiphanes came under the pretext
of restoring Philometor, and gained a victory over Evergetes; but returned in
Syria, that the two brothers might weaken each other, (C.) while the Syrians
formed designs against both. H.
Ver.
26. Slain.
This was the perfidious policy of Epiphanes, who expected that the two
brothers would destroy each other, so that he might easily seize Egypt, of
which he kept the key, retaining the city of Pelusium. They were however reconciled, and reigned
together. The Scripture often represents
that as done which is only intended.
Ver.
27. Two kings: Epiphanes and Philometor. —
Time. Epiphanes, vexed that he
should thus be duped, returned again into Egypt. v. 29.
Ver.
28. Riches, taken in Egypt (C.) and in
Jerusalem. H. — The people had
refused to receive Jason; and Epiphanes treated them in the most barbarous
manner, profaned the temple, &c. 1
Mac. i. 23. and 2 Mac. vi. 21. C.
Ver.
30. Galleys. Heb. "ships of Chittim." H. — The ambassadors probably came in
vessels belonging to Macedonia, (C.) which they found at Delos. Livy xliv. — Romans. Popilius and the other Roman ambassadors, who
came in galleys, and obliged him to depart from Egypt. Ch. — He was only four or seven miles
from Alexandria, and went to meet the ambassadors, who gave him the senate's
letter, ordering him to desist from the war.
He said he would consult his friends: but Popilius formed a circle round
him with his wand, requiring an answer before he went out of it. Hereupon the king withdrew his forces. Polyb. xcii.
V. Max. vi. 4. — Succeed.
Apollonius massacred many Jews on the sabbath. 1 Mac. i. 30. — Against. Heb. "respecting." Prot. "have intelligence with
them," &c. H. — These
wretches prompted him to make such edicts, for he was attached to no
religion. 2 Mac. iv. 9.
Ver.
31. Arms, (brachia) or strong men,
Apollonius, Philip, &c. (2 Mac. vi.) and likewise the senator from Antioch,
who executed his decrees. C. — Abomination. The idol of Jupiter Olympius, which Antiochus
ordered to be set up in the sanctuary of the temple, which is here called the sanctuary
of strength, from the Almighty that was worshipped there. Ch. — Other idols were set up, and the
people were compelled to sacrifice. C. —
Yet even in the hottest persecutions some remained faithful. W.
Ver.
32. Dissemble. Thus acted the officers and apostate Jews. —
Know. Such were the Assideans,
Eleazar, and the Machabees.
Ver.
33. Learned; the priests, Matthathias,
&c. Mal. ii. 7.
Ver.
34. Help.
The victories of the Machabees were miraculous. — Deceitfully,
like those who took the spoils of idols, and were slain. Heb. may imply, "secretly." C.
Ver.
35. Fall, or became martyrs. H. — Such were Eleazar, &c. C. — Another time, after death;
(H.) or the perfect deliverance shall take place later, v. 27.
Ver.
36. Every god. "He plundered many (C. or most; pleista. H.)
temples." Polyb. Athen. v. 6. —
The Samaritans, and even the priests of the Lord, obeyed the impious decree; so
that the king looked upon himself as a sort of god. — Accomplished
against the Jews, when Epiphanes shall be punished.
Ver.
37. God.
He laughed at religion, yet sometimes offered splendid presents and
victims, which shewed his inconstancy.
C. — Women. He kept
many concubines, (Diod.) and committed the greatest obscenities publicly: mimis
et scortis. S. Jer. — Heb.
may have quite a different sense. He had
no regard for the sex, (C.) killing all indiscriminately. Grot.
Ver.
38. The god Maozim. That is, the god of forces or strong
holds. Ch. — Mahuzzim
denotes "strong ones," (H.) guardians, &c. Dr. Newton (Diss.) explains, the king
(v. 36.) of the Roman state; and supposes that here the guardian saints
and angels are meant, whose worship he shews "began in the Roman empire,
very soon after it became Christian.
This exposition seems far preferable to that which interprets" Jupiter
or the heavens, and understands the idol set up by Epiphanes. See Univ. Hist. x. Parkhurst. — If these authors speak of
the inferior veneration shewn to saints and angels in the Catholic Church, it
had a much earlier commencement, being coeval with religion itself. But only the blindest prejudice can represent
this as idolatrous, and of course this system must fall to the ground. H. — Others suppose that Mars,
Hercules, Azizus, or Jupiter, may be designated. Heb. "He will rise up against all, (38)
and against the strong God (of Israel. v. 31. C. viii. 10.
C.) he will, in his place, worship a strange god, " &c. Jun. — None of the ancestors of
Epiphanes had ever adored Jupiter on the altar of holocausts. C. — He and antichrist adore either
the great Jupiter or their own strength.
W.
Ver.
39. To.
Heb. "in the most strong holds, with," &c. H. — He built a fortress near the
temple, styled Maoz, (Ezec. xxiv. 25.) on account of its strength. C. — Glory. He shall bestow honours, riches, and lands,
upon them that shall worship his god.
Ch. — He will entrust the strong places to them.
Ver.
40. Fight.
Epiphanes made war on Egypt, till the Romans forced him to desist. The prophet explains his preceding attempts,
to which he only alluded. v. 29, 30.
Ver.
41. Land; Egypt, or rather Judea. C. — Ammon. He will not divide his forces. S. Jer.
Ver.
43. Ethiopia. Heb. "the Lubim and Cushim shall be at
his steps." Theodot. reads,
"in their fortresses." He had
troops from these nations, or Egypt was guarded by them.
Ver.
44. North.
Judas continued victorious.
Armenia (C.) and Parthia rebelled.
Tacit. v. 8. — Many.
Epiphanes left three generals and half his army to destroy the
Jews. C.
Ver.
45. Apadno. Some take it for the proper name of a place;
others, from the Heb. translate it, his palace. Ch. — He fixed his royal tent between
the Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. W. —Porphyrius
explains this of the march beyond the Euphrates, which S. Jerom does not
disapprove. Apadno may denote
Mesopotamia, which is styled Padan Aram. — Glorious. Heb. Zebi, C. or Tsebi, (H.)
may allude to Mount Taba, where the king perished, without help. 1 Mac. vi. 11. and 2 Mac. ix. 9. S. Jerom and many others explain all this of
antichrist, and no doubt he was prefigured.
The final events will take place again towards the end of the
world. The particulars are summed up in the Church Fathers, see below: The Antichrist. Here we have adhered to the history of Antiochus. C.
The Antichrist
And the Second Coming of Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, see:
Parousia of Jesus Christ Our Lord
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