(§ 4) The desecration of the Temple. The Horrible Abomination' is the Abomination of Desolation' of the First Book of the Maccabees (chap. I, § 14). It is the altar to Olympian Zeus. We heard it before called the Horrible Transgression. The exact translation is difficult and doubtful. Some render 'desolating abomination' which is grammatically objectionable; 'horrible abomination' is not much less so. A highly ingenious conjecture has been made by Professor Nestle. The Hebrew word rendered 'horrible' is shomêm, of which the consonants are sh-m-m. The Hebrew for 'abomination' is shekutz. Nestle thinks that shekutz shomêm is an intentional disfigurement of Ba'al shemayim, i. e. Lord of heaven, the Semitic equivalent of the Greek Zeus. The consonants of Shemayim can also be limited to sh-m-m (' y' being omitted). Before long the intentional disfigurement was thought to be an original description, and hence the Septuagint and the author of the First Book of Maccabees trauslate it literally into Greek. If Nestle's view be correct, the altar of Zeus is here called the god, an easy transference, 'just as among the later Jews Abodah zarah (strange worship) means either idolatry or an idol' (Bevan).

Apostates by guile.' Compare the temptation of Mattathias (chap. I, § 17).

They that are wise among the people.' Perhaps those are referred to whom the First Book of Maccabees calls the Hasidæans, that is, the Chasidim,' who offered themselves willingly for the law.' The largest number of victims was furnished by the Chasidim.

'A little help.' The earlier successes of Mattathias or even of Judas. But would our author have written so if the rededication of the Temple lay behind him? The last quotation in chapter I, § 17, from the First Book of Maccabees sufficiently explains and accounts for the words 'many shall cleave to them deceitfully.'

'To purge them.' To test the fidelity of the people, to increase and stimulate their resisting power and the strength of their adherence to the law.

($5) The gods of his fathers.' The reference is doubtful, and the charge is possibly inaccurate. Perhaps Antiochus in his zeal for the gods of Hellas desired to abolish the various local worships and cults of his kingdom. The desire of women.' Is this the goddess Tammuz, 'whose cult had been popular in Syria from time immemorial'? (Bevan).

'The god of fortresses.' This appears to be Zeus polieus: the guardian of the city. But what Polybius and Livy tell us of Antiochus makes it unlikely that he specially honoured any deity whom his fathers knew not. Perhaps our author forgets

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for the moment that the Seleucidae were Greeks, and regards Antiochus' special worship of Zeus as an innovation. It is true that Antiochus was the first of the Seleucidae to introduce the worship of the Olympian Zeus, to whose service he was particularly devoted, into many parts of Syria.

'And he shall garrison the fortresses,' &c. 'Antiochus settled heathen colonists in the fortified cities of Judæa, especially in Jerusalem.' We shall hear of this again in the next quotation from the First Book of the Maccabees.

His

$20. The angel's apocalypse: the death of Antiochus Epiphanes.-The Vision now proceeds to describe the final doings and death of Antiochus. From this point it is no longer a merely literary prophecy or actual retrospect, but a real prediction in which the author ventures to anticipate the future. As a matter of fact Antiochus did not die in the manner here portrayed. He did not make any further attempt upon Egypt, but like his father, Antiochus III, he sought to plunder a temple in Elymais, and died at Tabae, a city in Persia, in the year 164 B. C. death is described in the First Book of Maccabees, and in the following way by Polybius: "In Syria King Antiochus, wishing to enrich himself, determined on an armed attack upon the temple of Artemis, in Elymais. But having arrived in this country and failed in his purpose, because the native barbarians resisted his lawless attempt, he died in the course of his return at Tabae in Persia, driven mad, as some say, by some manifestations of divine wrath in the course of his wicked attempt upon this temple.' The author of Daniel fervently believed that the death of Antiochus would synchronize with the advent of the Messianic age

'And at the time of the End the King of the South shall push at him; and the King of the North shall come against him like a whirlwind, with chariots, and with horsemen, and with many ships; and he shall invade his lands, and shall overflow them and pass over. And he shall enter into the Land of Glory, and thousands shall fall; but there shall escape out of his hand even Edom and Moab and the greater part of the children of Ammon. And he shall

stretch forth his hand over (many) countries, and the land of Egypt shall not escape. And he shall gain possession over the treasures of gold and silver, and over all the precious things of Egypt; and Libyans and Ethiopians shall be in his train. But tidings out of the east and out of the north shall trouble him; and he shall go forth with great fury to

destroy, and utterly to make away many. And he shall pitch his palace-tents between the sea and the Glorious Holy Mountain; and he shall come to his end and none shall help him.'

'Thus Antiochus will encamp between the sea (i. e. the Mediterranean) and Jerusalem. That Palestine, the scene of his greatest crimes, should also be the scene of his final overthrow, was, from the point of view of the persecuted Jews, a very natural expectation. No details are here given, but since in the eighth chapter [i.e. my § 15] we read that Antiochus was to be "broken without a hand," we must suppose that the author looked forward to some divine intervention by which the great enemy would perish "with none to help him" (Bevan).

§ 21. The angel's apocalypse: the Resurrection and the Messianic Age. And now hard upon the death of Antiochus there follows the description of the End, that End which was also to be a Beginning. The words of our author are reserved and restrained he keeps his imagination in sober control. In the history of religion and of Judaism this concluding chapter of our book marks an epoch, and is of momentous importance. For here we have the doctrine of the Resurrection for the first time fully and clearly stated in Jewish literature, just as not very long afterwards in the Wisdom of Solomon we have, also for the first time in Jewish literature, the nobler and purer doctrine of the Immortality of the Soul.

'And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince who standeth up for the children of thy people and there shall be a time of trouble, such as there never hath been since there was a nation even to that same time: and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book. And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to Everlasting Life, and some to shame and everlasting abhorrence. And they that are wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn the many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever.

'But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the End: many shall rush hither and thither, and great shall be the calamities.'

Then I Daniel looked, and, behold, there stood two others, the one on this side of the bank of the river, and the other

THE FINAL AWAKENING

727 on that side of the bank of the river. And one said to the man clothed in linen, who was over the waters of the river, 'How long shall it be to the end of these wonders?' And I heard the man clothed in linen, who was over the waters of the river, and he held up his right hand and his left hand unto heaven, and sware by him that liveth for ever: 'For a time, and (two) times, and an half time; and when the power of the destroyer of the holy people shall come to an end, all these things shall be finished.'

And I heard, but I understood not: then said I, 'O my Lord, what shall be the last of these things?' And he said, 'Go thy way, Daniel: for the words are closed up and sealed till the time of the End. Many shall be purified and made white and tried; but the wicked shall do wickedly and none of the wicked shall understand; but the wise shall understand.

'And from the time that the daily sacrifice shall be taken away, and the Horrible Abomination set up, there shall be a thousand two hundred and ninety days. Happy is he that waiteth, and cometh to one thousand three hundred and five and thirty days.

'But do thou depart and rest, and thou shalt arise up to receive thy portion at the End of the Days.'

'A time of trouble.' The horrors culminate: they form the dark crisis out of which the day of deliverance begins to dawn. 'Written in the book': i. e. God's book in which the names of the righteous are inscribed. An old idea or metaphor.

'Everlasting Life.' A momentous phrase. It means and implies, as Professor Bevan says, 'individual immortality.' We have three points to note about this phase of the Resurrection dogma.

(1) It is probably limited to Israelites, and does not seem to apply even to all of them. It was, as it were, suggested to religious faith on account of two classes of persons: the very good and the very bad. The latter, prosperous apostates perhaps in their mortal career upon earth, must rise again to receive an adequate punishment. The former, faithful to the law and martyrs for its teaching, must rise again to receive their adequate reward. was the idea of divine justice which produced the idea of the resurrection, and perhaps the punishment of the prosperous sinner seemed to require it at least as much as the reward of the suffering righteous. But the higher conception of progress and purification is also not wholly wanting: many shall be purified

6

It

destroy, and utterly to m pitch his palace-tents betw Mountain; and he shall help him.'

These words refer to the time before evitable that the idea on which they to the life' after 'death' as well. rently to last for ever. The word literally. And one notes with pain 'Thus Antiochus will en o apply to the sinner as well as to the terranean) and Jerusalem. of shame and everlasting abhorrence greatest crimes, should alsgnify remains wisely unsaid and unwas, from the point of equent word painters of a future life natural expectation. No tion and equal restraint!

eighth chapi.e. my $rlasting life is earth, and so far as may gathered from the d or inferred from later developments, the strange idea was held that the resurrection life would be a bodily one, and that the new or risen bodies would bear some sort of relation to the other body which had been deposited in the tomb. This clinging to the corporeal gave occasion for all kinds of wild conjectures and baseless fancies, some of which have shown genius and others ingenuity, but all of which not only vainly attempt to pass beyond the barriers of human knowledge, but confound and confuse together the body and the soul. Far purer, because far less material, is the hope of our Alexandrian sage: 'the souls of the righteous are in the hands of God; no evil shall touch them.'

Of a truth the causes which went to build up the belief in personal immortality were of varied value. The desire to reconcile Divine or Perfect Righteousness with the phenomena of earthly life is one with which no one can quarrel. It is ethically and religiously pure and high. Furthermore, as was suggested at the end of the Book of Job, it is very hard to cling in perfect faith to that idea without a belief in some form of personal immortality. But the reasons why that immortality is craved and yearned for and believed in are not mercenary or revengeful. We do not seek for 'reward.' We do not ask for 'punishment.' Everlasting punishment' has become to us a far greater violation of perfect righteousness than the most absolute annihilation. Divine punishment has no meaning to us except as purification.

'They that are wise.' These and they that turn (or have turned) the many to righteousness' are apparently one and the same. We met with them at an earlier stage of the vision as 'they that are wise among the people.' Their position in the resurrection life is one of exceptional glory.

Many shall rush hither and thither.' A very doubtful and obscure sentence. The ordinary translation of the Hebrew is 'Many shall run to and fro and knowledge shall be increased,' to which no reasonable meaning can be assigned. The translation