'expressed metaphorically, as if it were a resurrection 'from the dead.' 1 Macc. ii. 28, 29; 2 Macc. viii. 1.

But Jerom says, that the tribulations here spoken of are better understood of the times of antichrist.

Grotius, however, does not altogether reject Porphyry's k interpretation.

19.- -Ver. 7, " And I heard the man clothed in linen, which was upon the waters of the river, when he held up his right hand, and his left hand to heaven, and sware by him that liveth for ever and ever, that it shall be for time, times, and a half."

Upon which Jerom observes: This "time, and times, • and half a time," Porphyry interprets, as meaning three 'years and a half; nor do we deny this to be agreeable to the style of scripture. And Porphyry, referring this to 'Antiochus, says, that by his means the temple was deserted 'for three years and a half; but,' says Jerom, Josephus and 'the book of Maccabees mention no more than three years, 'during which space the temple was defiled, and the image of Jupiter stood there by the order of Antiochus Epiphanes. Therefore,' as Jerom adds, that space of three years and a half relates not to Antiochus, but to antichrist." Of this I may take some further notice hereafter; at present we proceed. 20. Same ver. 7, " And when he shall have accomplished to scatter the power of the holy people, all these things shall be finished."

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in

That is,' says Jerom, When the people of God shall

k Et multi, de his qui dormiunt in terræ pulvere, evigilabunt.'] Bene vertas: Et multi, qui cubârunt in pulverulentâ humo, exsurgent; id est, qui ob religionem ejecti urbe, oppidis, vicis, et villis, non habuerunt ubi caput reponerent, (ut Christus de se loquitur, Lucæ ix. 58.) redibunt in urbem, et alia loca habitata. Reddendum est Porphyrio quod ei debetur testimonium: est enim hunc locum optime interpretatus de iis qui ob legis cultum diu extorres ad sua rediere; sic tamen ut voces mirâ arte ita sint temperatæ, ut resurrectionis mysterium, quod aperte ante evangelium revelari non debuit, innuant magis quam explicent. Nihil potuit dici verius.

Alii in vitam æternam.' Sensus primus hic est. • Illi quidem' [consurgent] ad vitam longam,' quâ Deus eos donabit ob constantiam et mala tolerata, &c. Grot. ad locum.

1 Tempus, et tempora, et dimidium temporis, tres et semis annos interpretatur Porphyrius: quod et nos juxta scripturarum sanctarum idioma non negamus- -Si itaque superiora refert Porphyrius ad Antiochum, et ad tres et semis annos, quibus templum dicit desertum--Legimus in Macchabæorum libris. Josephus quoque in eandem consentit sententiam, quod tribus annis templum pollutum fuerit in Jerusalein, et in eo Jovis idolum steterit sub Antiocho Epiphane. -Sub antichristo autem non tres anni, sed tres et semis, hoc est, mille ducenti nonaginta dies, desolationis templi sancti, et eversionis futuræ esse dicuntur. p. 1136. et 1133. bis.

m

Quando, inquit, populus Dei dispersus fuerit, vel Antiocho persequente,

'be dispersed in the persecution of Antiochus, as Porphyry will have it; or in the time of antichrist, as our people

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' truly show, then all these things shall be fulfilled.'"

21. Ver. 11, " And from the time that the daily sacrifice shall be taken away, and the abomination that maketh desolate set up, there shall be a thousand two hundred and ninety days."

These thousand two hundred and ninety days, Porphyry says, were fulfilled in the time of Antiochus, and in the desolation of the temple; whereas Josephus and the book of Maccabees, as before said, mention three years only. Whence it is manifest, that the three years and a half are to be understood of the times of antichrist, who 'will persecute the saints for three years and a half, that is, a thousand two hundred and ninety days.'

So writes Jerom, not considering that three years and a half, computing 360 days to a year, make no more than twelve hundred and sixty days. To which are added thirty days in the number one thousand two hundred and ninety days; which, possibly, might be accounted for without any very great difficulty.P

22. Ver. 12, " Blessed is he that waiteth, and cometh to the thousand three hundred and five and thirty days."

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q

Porphyry says, that the five and forty days over and above the one thousand two hundred and ninety, show the 'time of the victory gained over the generals of Antiochus; ' when Judas the Maccabee fought valiantly, and cleansed

ut vult Porphyrius, vel antichristo, ut nostri verius probant, tunc hæc omnia complebuntur. p. 1133. bis.

nEt cum completa fuerit dispersio manûs populi sancti.'] Id est, cum maxime extra urbes et vicos per agros sparsi erunt pii Judæi. Vide 1 Maccab. ii. 29; 2 Macc. viii. 1. Grot. in loc.

• Hos mille, ducentos, nonaginta dies, Porphyrius in tempore Antiochi, et in desolatione templi dicit completos: quem et Josephus et Macchabæorum (ut diximus) liber, tribus tantum annis fuisse commemorant. Ex quo perspicuuin est tres ipsos, et semis annos, de antichristi dici temporibus, qui tribus et semis annis, hoc est, mille ducentis nonaginta diebus sanctos persecuturus est- -p. 1133. bis.

P 6 dies mille ducenti nonaginta.'] Jam designatius ostendit dies aliquot excursuros ultra triennium et semestre tempus, post quod totum tempus, et non diutius, cessabit ó evdeλexioμos, sacrificium juge.' In eo tempore comprehenditur etiam collocatio idoli vastantis in templo. Vide quæ diximus, vii. 25. Grot. in loc.

4 Porphyrius hunc locum ita edisserit, ut quadraginta quinque dies, qui super mille ducentos nonaginta sunt, victoriæ contra duces Antiochi tempus significent; quando Judas Macchabæus fortiter dimicavit, et emundavit templum, idolumque contrivit, et victimas obtulit in templo Dei. Quod recte diceret, si Macchabæorum liber tribus et semis annis templum scriberet esse pollutum, et non tribus. p. 1134. bis.

'the temple, broke the idol in pieces, and offered sacrifices in the temple; which might be rightly said, if the book of Maccabees had related that the temple was polluted three years and a half, and not three years.'

So writes Jerom. But this additional number of five ' and forty days' may be understood to reach to the time of the death of Antiochus, when the deliverance of the Jewish people would be completed, and their tranquillity further secured."

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S

Jerom, as we have seen, insists upon the term of three ' years,' mentioned by Josephus and the book of the Maccabees; and indeed Josephus in one place computes the time of the desolation of the temple, as said by Jerom, at three years.' In other placest he mentions' three years and a half. According to different computations of the beginning and ending of the troubles of the Jewish people, the numbers may vary a little without any detriment to the true" history. Prideaux has shown largely, as well from the books of the Maccabees as from Josephus, that the desolation of the temple happened just three years and six months before it was again restored by Judas Maccabæus. And therefore that restoration having been made on the twenty-fifth day of the ninth month of the Jews, called Cisleu, in the 148th year of the era of the Seleucidæ ; ' it follows, that the time of this desolation must have been 'inor about the twenty-fifth day of their third month, called Sivan, in the era of the Seleucida 145, which answers to • the year before Christ 168; then it was, that by the com'mand of Autiochus, and the wicked agency of Apollonius, the daily sacritices, whereby God was honoured every 'morning and evening at Jerusalem, were made to cease, and the temple turned into desolation.'

W

At the end of that period of three years and a half the temple was cleansed and dedicated by Judas Maccabæus; and an annual feast of eight days was appointed in memory

Ad dies mille trecentos triginta quinque.'] Ad mortem usque Antiochi, indicatam supra, xi. 45. quo tempore Judæi non malis tantum, sed et omni malorum metu levabuntur. Grot. in loc.

S

t

Antiq. 1. xii. cap. x. [al. cap. 7.] sect. 6.

και κατασχων ετεσι τρισι και μησιν έξ. De B. Jud. Pr. sect. 7. αυτος και τον ναον εσυλησε, και τον ενδελεχισμον των καθ' ἡμεραν εναγιασμων επαυσεν επ' ετη τρια και μηνας έξ. De. B. J. l. i. cap. i. in.

Quorum omnium facilis est conciliatio. Stetit enim in templo idolum tribus annis non amplius. Ab urbe vero captâ et interdictis ritibus sex præterea menses effluxerant, cum diebus paucis, qui numeri rotundi gratiâ negliguntur. Aldrich. ad Joseph. De B. J. 1. i. cap. i. sect. i.

▾ Year before Christ 168. Conn. P. 2. B. 3. p. 175. * 1 Mac. i. 59; iv. 52, 54; 2 Mac. x. 5.

X

of that deliverance, as related, 1 Macc. iv. 36-to the end, and 2 Macc. ch. x. and by Josephus. Which feast was still observed by the Jews at Jerusalem in our Saviour's time, as we learn from the gospels.

IV. I shall now make some observations upon the preceding objections, and the answers made to them.

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1. From what has been now transcribed from St. Jerom, we may be able to form some notion of the nature of that part of Porphyry's work, so far as it related to the book of Daniel; we may likewise be able to discern some defects in the answers which were made to it by christian writers. Says Dr. Prideaux: The prophecies of Daniel concerning the Persian kings, and the Macedonians, that reigned as well in Egypt as Asia, having been all, according to the best historians, exactly fulfilled, Porphyry could not disprove them by denying their completion: ' and therefore for overthrowing their authority he took the quite contrary course, and laboured to prove their truth; and from hence alleged, that being so exactly true in all 'particulars, they could not therefore be written by Daniel so many years before the facts were done, but by some one else under his name, who lived after the time of Antiochus Epiphanes; for which purpose he made use of the best Greek historians then extant. Such were Callinicus 'Sutorina, Diodorus Siculus,and from them made evi'dent proof, that all that is written in the eleventh chapter ' of Daniel was truly, in every particular, acted and done in 'the order as there related. And from this exactness of 'completion endeavoured to infer the assertion mentioned; that these prophecies were written after the facts were 'done; and therefore are rather historical narratives, relating things past, than prophetical predictions, foreshowing things afterwards to come.'--Jerom and Porphyry exactly agree in their explication of the eleventh chapter ' of Daniel till they come to the 21st verse. But what fol'lows thence to the end of the chapter, was all explained by Porphyry to belong to Antiochus Epiphanes, and to have been all transacted in the time of his reign. But 'Jerom here differs from him, and saith, that most of this, as well as some parts of the viii. and xii. chapters of the same book, relate principally to antichrist; that though some particulars in these prophecies had a typical completion in Antiochus Epiphanes, yet they were all of them wholly and ultimately fulfilled only in antichrist. And

a

> John x. 22. 7 Connection. a Ib. p. 207, 208.

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this, he saith, was the general sense of the fathers of the 'christian church in his time.'

b

But what need was there to bring in antichrist, in any answers to Porphyry or other heathen adversaries? Some, as Grotius did, may think this one defect in our ancient apologists. Those prophecies of Daniel relating to Antiochus, and the state of the Jews in his time, were punctually fulfilled. Porphyry himself showed, that all recorded relating to him was actually true; he proved it from the best authors extant at that time. The christians might thank him for it, and stand to their point, that all this was not history, but prophecy formerly delivered; and history had shown the accomplishment. The predictions were so clear, and the fulfilment so manifest, that, as Jerom well said in his preface to his Commentary upon this book, a determined adversary was compelled to say, that the book of Daniel was not a prophecy of things to come, but a narra'tive of what had already happened. Which kind of op'position,' as he added, was a confession of truth, and testimony to it.' And as all things foretold concerning Antiochus were fulfilled, so likewise were the prophecies of the same book concerning the coming of the Messiah. And if there were in it predictions of things after his appearance, and in late ages of the world, the fulfilment might be safely expected and relied upon.

C

2. Porphyry was in the wrong to deny the genuineness of the book of Daniel; which had been always received by the Jews; as we perceive from the books of Maccabees, and Josephus, and from our evangelists; not now to men

b Inter Græcos autem ad sensum horum vaticiniorum proxime accessit Polychronius, Porphyrii lector diligens, et Chrysostomus. Bene autem intelligi hæc vaticinia refert plurimum: primum ut eo lucidius appareat Dei providentia et præscientia: deinde ne prava interpretatio, tempora confundens, impediat Judæos Messiæ tempora agnoscere. Quod vel maxime ii faciunt, qui quæ de Antiocho Illustri dicta sensum habent manifestum, ad antichristum trahunt, ut Hippolytus, multique alii. Grot. Pr. ad Daniel.

с

-cujus ille auctoritatem ut eluderet, scriptos dixit libros post eventum. Quod quam sit impudens, alibi diximus. Grot. Pr. ad Daniel.

A Daniele vero translatio imperii ab Assyriis ad Medos ac Persas, (significata,) inde ad Alexandrum Macedonem; cujus deinde ex parte successores forent Lagidæ, et Seleucidæ : quæque mala populus Hebræus ab his omnibus maxime vero ab Antiocho Illustri, accepturus esset, adeo perspicue, ut Porphyrius, qui historias Græcas suo adhuc tempore extantes, cum vaticiniis istis contulit, aliter se expedire non potuerit, quam ut diceret ea, quæ Danieli tribuebantur, post eventum fuisse scripta. Quod perinde est, quasi quis neget, quæ sub Virgilii nomine extant, et pro Virgilianis habita sunt semper, ab ipso scripta Augusti ævo. Non enim de isto, quod dicimus, magis unquam dubitatum inter Hebræos fuit, quam de hoc apud Romanos. Grot. de V. R. C. I. i. cap. 18.

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