16. THE INTERVAL IN OTHER VISIONS OF DANIEL

WE will now endeavour to trace the scheme of the Seventy Weeks in the other visions of Daniel: for, in accordance with our previous conclusions, we expect to find these also concerned at first with events not later than the destruction of the city and Sanctuary, and then passing over the interval in silence, and resuming their detail in the last Week.

But of course this expectation does not extend to the vision of the image: for that was granted, not to the Hebrew prophet, but to the first head of Gentile dominion. Naturally, therefore, it takes in the whole period of that dominion, revealing its condition during the cessation, as well as during the progress, of God's dealings with the Jews. Hence, in the two legs of the image, it discloses the division of the fourth World-power into two Empires, an event which is not mentioned in Hebrew prophecy, because it was to take place during the interval.

¹ Matt. xxiv. 6.

THE INTERVAL IN OTHER VISIONS OF DANIEL.

On the other hand, the first of the visions seen by Daniel, that of the Four Wild Beasts, entirely ignores the events of the interval. For the Fourth Beast represents the Roman Empire in unity, as it was at the time of the destruction of Jerusalem, and the first part of the description well applies to it up to that period of its history. Then follows the clause, "And it had ten horns," referring to the Ten Kingdoms in which it will ultimately be arranged. Thus the division of the Empire into two parts is omitted, and we are carried on from the destruction of Jerusalem by Titus into the last Week.

Again; the vision of the Ram and the He-goat begins to find its fulfilment in the days of the prophet, although the angel affirms that its main reference is to "the time of the end"—a fact which seems to identify the little horn of this revelation with that of the Ten-horned Beast. The horn of the He-goat, we are told, is Alexander the Great; while the four, which spring up after it has been broken, are the four kingdoms into which the Macedonian Empire was subsequently divided, and the last survivor of which—that is, Egypt—was absorbed into Rome after the battle of Actium, in B.C. 31. The interval, therefore, occurs between the four horns and the little one, and is plainly intimated by the angel, who prefaces his description of the king of fierce countenance with the words, "And in the latter time of their kingdom, when the transgressors are come to the full." Thus the prediction passes on at once from about B.C. 31, which is within the Sixty-nine weeks, to the appearance of Antichrist in the Seventieth.

The last revelation to Daniel, contained in the tenth, eleventh, and twelfth chapters, also begins its disclosures from the times of the prophet, and notices the reigns of Cambyses, Pseudo-Smerdis, Darius Hystaspes, and Xerxes.¹ From the last-mentioned king it passes on to Alexander, and speaks of his great dominion; but at the same time predicts that none of his posterity should retain his power, and that his empire should be divided into four kingdoms.² Then it traces out the fortunes of two of these kingdoms, Syria and Egypt, because their policies and wars affected Palestine which lay between them. With occasional detail of wonderful minuteness it foretells the conflicts of the Seleucidæ and Lagidæ, especially dwelling upon the doings of Antiochus Epiphanes.³ Afterwards there is an evident reference to the Maccabees in the words, "But the people that do know their God shall be strong, and do exploits."⁴

In the next verse it mentions the rise of a very different class of agents, "they that understand among the people," who do no exploits, but "instruct many." This is a description in which we cannot fail to recognize the appearance and work of the Lord Jesus and His disciples. But the instruction would be rejected by the mass of the people, and would not, therefore, avail to forefend the approaching judgment; for the prophecy continues;—"Yet they shall fall by the sword and by flame, by captivity and by spoil, many days."⁵

This is an evident reference to the destruction of the city and Sanctuary by Titus, and the consequent

¹ Dan. xi. 2. ² Dan. xi. 5-32.

³ Dan. xi. 3, 4. ⁴ Dan. xi. 32.

⁵ Dan. xi. 33.

THE KEY TO ALL PROPHECY.

dispersion of the Jews; and our Lord uses similar language in foretelling the same events.¹ He expresses the "many days" of Daniel by saying that "Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled."

Thus we are again brought down to the same crisis as in the prophecy of the Seventy Weeks, and then immediately carried on to the doings of Antichrist: for the thirty-sixth verse introduces the Wilful King. And so the same scheme may be detected in all the great revelations given to Daniel.

VII.