Commentary on Daniel 1 part 9/11

'Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, until the transgression be grown old, and sin be finished, and sin be sealed up, and iniquities be blotted out, and to make atonement for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up vision and prophet, and to anoint the Holy of Holies.' Before all else one must observe that, whereas the prophet in his prayer says to God concerning both the people and Jerusalem:

'Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city' — as though he did not deem worthy to call his own the people formerly named his, nor indeed the city likewise formerly styled his.

And this he did also in the case of great Moses.

For when, having fashioned the calf, they offered to it the divine worship, God said to the prophet:

'Hasten, get thee down quickly hence;

for thy people, whom thou broughtest out of Egypt, has transgressed.' God therefore says to him through the archangel that: 'Having accepted thy supplication, I will both permit Jerusalem to be built, and command that thy people obtain their return.'

And after the building of Jerusalem, they shall continue four hundred and ninety years, living according to the Law;

for so much time do the seventy weeks make, each day being taken for a year.

he has set the limit, having unfolded this period sevenfold upon itself, thus bounding the polity according to the Law.

'Seventy weeks are determined' means: they were tried and judged;

for so some of the interpreters have rendered it;

'upon thy people and upon thy holy city, until the transgression be grown old, and sin be finished' — that is, until their impious daring be increased, and sin reach its end.

And he calls the sin being finished, and the transgression being made old — that is to say, increasing and coming to its uttermost — the cross that was dared against the Lord.

For before this, though they had dared countless evils, they paid the penalty and rendered satisfaction for the offences they had committed, yet again, obtaining pardon, they were counted worthy of loving-kindness;

but now, more than four hundred and forty years having run their course, they have remained scattered abroad, and sojourners over the whole inhabited world.

'Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world' — fittingly he added:

'And to seal up sins, and to blot out iniquities, and to make atonement for injustices.' For he blotted out the iniquities of those who believed in him, wiping out the handwriting that was against us, as the blessed Paul says.

And he sealed up sins, having brought to an end the polity according to the Law, and having bestowed the grace of the Spirit, by which, being helped, they who live spiritually gain the mastery over the passions.

For concerning it the blessed Paul says:

'Ask,' he says, 'the kingdom of God, and his righteousness'; of necessity the holy Gabriel said:

'And to bring in everlasting righteousness.' And he added:

'And to seal up vision and prophet'; that is, to give an end to all the prophecies;

For Christ is the end of the Law unto righteousness to every one that believes; and moreover to bring to a stop for the future the prophetic grace from the nation of the Jews.

He therefore fulfils, and as it were seals up and confirms the things foretold by the prophets, doing and suffering all that was oracularly declared by them.

To these things he added again:

'And to anoint the Holy of Holies.' But who is this Holy of Holies? let the Jews say;

to enjoy the divine gifts after their wont, until they should dare that unholy and dreadful deed — I mean the cross against the Saviour — who, being named Holy of Holies, inasmuch indeed as he is the fountain of holiness, is anointed according to his humanity with the Holy Spirit, and seals and confirms the ancient prophecies, fulfilling all that was foretold by them, and bestows remission of sins upon those who have believed in him.

Then the divine archangel teaches from whence one must begin the number of the seventy weeks.

for at that time the building of the temple received its due completion, since the neighbouring peoples, through their enmity toward the Jews, had for a time in the interval hindered the building, and Cambyses the son of Cyrus, having been deceived by them, had forbidden the building.

But none of these things holds the truth.

For, first, a greater number of years will be found, if one should wish to reckon from this point;

But if these things be so, and they who bid the number of the weeks be reckoned thus agree, let them number the four hundred and ninety years from the bottom upward.

and he raises up also the walls of the city, and having fortified it round about with towers, he sets on the gates; and having urged on the priests, he makes the city, which was desolate of inhabitants, full of dwellers.

This too the divine archangel hinted at when he said:

'And you shall know and understand: from the going forth of the word to answer and to rebuild Jerusalem, until Christ the ruler, there are seven weeks and sixty-two weeks.'

'And it shall return and the broad place shall be built, and the surrounding wall, and the seasons shall be renewed.' For if you begin, he says, to count from the rebuilding of the city—when it had recovered its own walls and received a multitude of inhabitants, so that it became broad because of the throng of those dwelling in it—you will find until Christ the ruler seven weeks and sixty-two weeks.

And he again named him 'Christ the ruler,' the very one whom he called 'Holy of Holies,' just as the blessed Peter said when addressing the Jews:

'But the Author of life you killed, whom God raised from the dead, loosing the pangs of death.' And he is our ruler according to his humanity, as the firstborn of all creation—that is, of the new creation.

For 'if anyone is in Christ,' he says, 'he is a new creation.' And as the firstborn from the dead, that he might become, as Paul says, in all things himself preeminent. For this reason the holy Gabriel also addressed him as 'Christ the ruler.'

let us set forth the number of the years themselves.

And from the beginning of Julius Caesar until the fifteenth year of Tiberius Caesar—when John the Baptist came to the Jordan proclaiming a baptism of repentance and crying out:

'Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world'—there are seventy-three years.

These, taken together, make up a number of four hundred sixty-nine years;

but these, in Hebrew years, make four hundred eighty-three;

and so many the seven and sixty-two weeks make.

For one must know that the Hebrews, reckoning the year according to the course of the moon, produce eleven surplus days, which we also call intercalary;

for the course of the moon is completed in twenty-nine days and six hours.

And reckoning in this way, they make the year of three hundred fifty-four days.

for when these are added, four hundred eighty-three years will be found;

and so many the seven and sixty-two weeks amount to.

For from the rebuilding of Jerusalem, which took place under Nehemiah and Ezra, until Hyrcanus, the last high priest from the Asamonaeans (Hasmonaeans), whom Herod slew, the number of the sixty-two weeks is completed;

and from his slaughter until the appearing of our Saviour and his arrival at the Jordan, the remaining seven weeks reach their end.

But in this period—after the killing of Hyrcanus, I mean, until the appearing of our Saviour—the high priests henceforth came to office unlawfully.

For while the law commanded that the high priests should serve as priests for life, and that after their death their successors should take office, Herod and the Romans after him, making the high priesthoods purchasable, effected frequent successions of them;

and some, not even descended from the priestly line, they appointed as high priests.

And teaching this, Josephus the Hebrew historian speaks thus:

'Herod, having been entrusted with the kingdom by the Romans, no longer appointed as high priests those of the Asamonaean line (these were the ones called Maccabees), but certain obscure men who were merely of Hebrew descent.' And after a few lines he again speaks thus:

'Archelaus his son also did the like to Herod concerning the appointment of the Jewish high priests, and after him the Romans who had taken over the government.' And elsewhere he says:

'Valerius Gratus, the Roman prefect, having stopped Ananus from serving as priest, appointed Ishmael the son of Phabi as high priest;

and having removed this man not long after, he appointed as high priest Eleazar the son of Ananus the high priest;

and when a year had passed, having stopped him too, he handed over the high priesthood to Simon the son of Camithus.'

And no more than a year's time passed for this man too as he held the office, and Josephus, also called Caiaphas, became his successor. Teaching these things, the blessed Luke also says:

Foretelling these things, the holy Gabriel:

he set the sixty-two weeks first, and after these the seven, in which, he says, the anointing shall be utterly destroyed—that is, the grace that flourished upon the high priests.

And since those who were unlawfully appointed were also called high priests, he fittingly added:

'And there is no judgment in him.' For even if they are anointed, he says, yet they are not anointed according to reason, but they dare to do this unlawfully.

And above he has made it plain that he set the seven weeks last;

for 'until Christ the ruler, seven weeks and sixty-two weeks.' For up until the ruler Christ he placed the sevens, which are to be multiplied into weeks, right beside the mention of him himself, so that we might know that if we wish to count from Christ upward, we shall find the seven weeks first, and then the sixty-two.

And making this yet clearer:

'It shall return,' he says, 'and the broad place shall be built, and the surrounding wall, and the seasons shall be renewed.' That is, the time before the rebuilding.

'And after the weeks,' he says, 'the sixty-two, the anointing shall be utterly destroyed.' And he did not say 'after the seven,' but 'after the sixty-two,' after which come the seven, in which the anointing shall be utterly destroyed, and there is no judgment in him—while Herod, a foreigner, was reigning;

for on his father's side he was an Ascalonite, and on his mother's side an Idumaean;

and while those called high priests were not anointed according to the law, but were appointed by the foreign rulers—Herod and Archelaus and the Roman prefects.

Then he tells also of the utter destruction that would overtake both the city and this very foreign kingdom and the unlawful high priesthood, and he says:

'And he shall destroy the city and the holy place together with the ruler who comes.' For the city, he says, shall be laid waste, and the holy temple shall receive a complete dissolution.

And these things the city shall suffer together with the ruler who comes—that is, with the unlawful rulers who are coming.

For by 'the ruler who comes' he named the foreign kingdom and the unlawful high priesthood.

Then, teaching that they would endure evils far worse than the former ones, he added:

'And they shall be cut off as in a flood'—that is, they shall endure an utter destruction such as the men of old endured when the flood covered the whole earth.

And teaching that they would obtain no recall or relief whatsoever, he says: 'And unto the end of the war, cut short by desolations.' For, he says, they shall endure a complete annihilation, as though handed over to war as to some flood, and to the very end they shall be bowed down beneath these evils, and shall never at any time obtain any recall.

Having thus prophesied concerning the utter destruction of the Jews, he returns again to the number of the seventy weeks, and adds the one that was lacking to the sixty-nine, and says:

'And he shall confirm a covenant with many for one week, and in the midst of the week sacrifice and libation shall be taken away, and upon the temple shall be the abomination of desolation, and until the consummation of the season a consummation shall be given upon the desolation.' What then shall come to pass after the sixty-two weeks, in the seven weeks, I have already said, he says;

but it is fitting also to learn the things that shall come to pass in the other week.

'And in the midst of this week sacrifice and libation shall be taken away.' The sacrifice according to the law shall cease, he says, when the true sacrifice is offered—that of the spotless Lamb, who takes away the sin of the world.

For once this had been offered, that other one thereafter received its end.

For this reason, immediately when the sacrifice was accomplished and our Saviour had given up the spirit, the veil of the temple was torn from top to bottom, making things formerly unseen visible to all, and declaring accessible the things untouchable and untrodden.

…things formerly accessible to the high priest alone.

And this came to pass on behalf of the whole world, when the sacrifice had been offered.

But if anyone wishes also to ascertain the time, he shall learn it from the Gospel according to John.

For after the Lord had preached for about three years and a half, and had confirmed his holy disciples by teaching and by miracles, then he endured the Passion;

Then, after the things dared by the Jews concerning the holy Stephen, the others were scattered throughout the cities of Judaea, while the divine apostles, having spent a short time in Jerusalem, went about to Samaria and Caesarea, and to Lydda and Joppa, hastening to bring the saving doctrines to all men.

Then he divides the week in two, and says:

'And in the midst of the week sacrifice and libation shall be taken away.' For when the true sacrifice is offered, the shadow of the law shall receive its end.

'And a sign of the desolation shall come to be'—certain images forbidden by the law, brought into this place.

And this Pilate did, bringing the imperial images by night into the divine temple, contrary to the divine law.

And this the Lord also foretold in the holy Gospels to his holy disciples:

'Then let those who are in Judaea flee to the mountains, and let him who is on the housetop not come down to take anything from his house.' And these things he said, signifying the swiftness of the utter destruction that would overtake them.

And a little before these he says:

'Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those sent to her, how often would I have gathered your children together, in the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you would not!'

'Upon the temple the abomination of desolation.' And lest the Jews should think that the divine temple would again recover its former comeliness and glory, he necessarily added:

'And until the consummation of the season a consummation shall be given upon the desolation.' For until the consummation of the age, he says, the consummation of the desolation shall remain, admitting no change.

'In the wrath of consummation they shall no longer exist, and they shall know that God rules over Jacob and over the ends of the earth.' And they shall know it when they see the sign of the Son of Man in heaven.

For then they shall mourn tribe by tribe, then they shall look on him whom they pierced. But if these things are not so—since the number of the four hundred ninety years has passed, and besides these more than four hundred forty others—let them show upon whom the oracle of the archangel took its end.

of Epiphanes, in whose time the Maccabees, filled with zeal, took the affairs of the nation in hand, is about three hundred and seventy-two years.

Moreover, which of these was ever called the Holy of Holies? Judas, or Jonathan, Simon, or the one who came after them? Indeed, not even Abraham the patriarch, nor Moses the lawgiver, nor Elijah the greatest of the prophets, was ever addressed as the Holy of Holies.

Therefore both the time and the titles have clearly foreshadowed for us the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ; and having believed in Him and awaiting His second coming, let us beseech that we may obtain His loving-kindness in the day of judgment;

which may it be granted to us all to obtain, by the grace and loving-kindness of our Lord Jesus Christ, with whom, together with the Holy Spirit, be glory to the Father unto the ages of ages.

For he did not say, 'until the first year of Cyrus the king,' but 'until the first year.' He wishes, as it seems to me, to teach those who read the prophetic writing that it indeed lasted even up to Cyrus, the king of the Persians, who, having declared free those of the captive Jews who so desired, commanded them to return to their homeland and to rebuild the divine temple.

'And it came to pass in the first year of Cyrus, I stood up for might and strength'—that is:

'As soon as Cyrus began to reign, I continued to labour at every affair, so as to deliver the people from their captivity.'

And at the end of the book as well:

so that from every side the number of the third year is shown.

'And the word was true, and great power and understanding were given to him in the vision.' Fittingly he calls it both a word and a vision;

for he beheld holy angels, and heard them conversing, and learned accurately the things that were to be.

And he says that the word is true, so that all may without hesitation receive the things that are to be spoken.

'I ate no pleasant bread, neither came flesh nor wine into my mouth, nor did I anoint myself at all, until three whole weeks of days.' It is necessary to inquire into the cause of the mourning;

for the prophecy teaches it obscurely.

For, in the first place, no occasion for despondency lay upon him;

rather, the prophet had occasions for gladness.

For when the king had granted freedom and return to all who wished it, the greater number, having built houses in Babylon and being held by that bond, despised the return and preferred the foreign land to their own;

but only the lovers of piety, the guardians of the ancestral laws, having despised their possessions in Babylon, preferred the desolation of their homeland even to the kingdom itself.

For seeing the unfailing truth of the divine promise, and the gentleness and kindness of the king, and yet the disobedience and stubbornness of the people, he was greatly grieved in his soul, and continued mourning and lamenting.

But one might reasonably inquire why on earth, while mourning and lamenting over the others as being slothful and having despised the return, he himself did not go back to his homeland.

One will find the solution by considering the very cause of the captivity itself.

For just as God allowed him to become a captive not because of his own transgressions, but providing for the benefit of the people, and sending him along with them as a kind of guardian and teacher;

so also at the time of the return, when the majority chose to keep their dwelling in Babylon, the divine prophet is again compelled to remain among them, lest, being bereft of spiritual guardianship, they should slip away entirely into impiety.

For this reason he also passed three weeks without food;

'For,' he says, 'I ate no pleasant bread, neither came flesh nor wine into my mouth, nor did I anoint myself, until three weeks of days.' 'For in all these days,' he says, 'I bestowed no care upon the body, neither anointing from without nor food from within.'

And well and very fittingly did he add the word 'pleasant' not to the flesh, but to the bread.

For bread is the necessary nourishment of all;

for the more well-to-do enjoy flesh, but bread, in addition to the well-to-do, the poorer also enjoy.

'And on the twenty-fourth day of the first month, in the third year, I was beside the great river, which is the Tigris.' One must take note both of the month and of the days of the fast, for a reproof of the lawlessness of the Jews.

But if the Jews should say that he ate no pleasant bread inasmuch as he was eating unleavened loaves,

in the first place, by these very words they convict their own folly;

for both the leavened and the unleavened are called bread.

And then, what follows directly stops up their shameless mouth.

'For flesh,' he says, 'and wine came not into my mouth.' But if he partook of no flesh, how did he keep the Passover? For the Passover is nothing other than a male lamb of a year old, without blemish, slain and roasted toward evening.

So then, he who partook of no flesh, how did he keep the Passover? Therefore he did not keep the Passover, obeying the Law, which expressly commands that the three feasts be kept in the place which the Lord God should choose.

Manifestly, therefore, the Jews transgress the Law in daring to keep these feasts in a foreign land.

But let us return to the subject before us.

'On the twenty-fourth,' he says, 'of the first month, in the third year, I was beside the great river, which is the Tigris.' Again from this too we are taught that the time is not in error;

for he said that he had seen the vision in the first year.

'And I lifted up my eyes, and looked, and behold a man clothed in baddim, and his loins were girded with gold of Uphaz.'

'And his body was like Tharshish.' Now 'baddim' in the Greek tongue signifies the fine linen garments.

He says, then, that he beheld the garment of the one who appeared to be of fine linen, and the girdle of gold of Uphaz—that is, of the most brilliant and purest gold;

and his body was like Tharshish—that is, it resembled the most approved gold brought from Tharshish;

for from there the choicest gold was brought to Solomon as well.

'And his face was as the appearance of lightning.' A light-like radiance, he says, was borne forth from his face.

'And his eyes were as lamps of fire, and his arms and his legs like the gleam of polished bronze, and the voice of his words like the voice of a multitude.' He had, he says, eyes darting fire, and arms resembling the fairest bronze;

and hearing him, you would have thought you were hearing a great crowd conversing.

And why then did they flee, though they did not behold the vision? But it is likely that this wrought in them all the greater dread;

for seeing no one, and hearing a mighty voice, they were reasonably terrified and ran away.

By 'ecstasy' here he calls not only the terror, but also the loss of sight;

for there too he himself saw a light flashing round about him;

but those who were with him beheld nothing, and heard only the voice.

And here too, in like manner, those who were with the divine prophet flee, having heard only the voice, but he alone remains.

'For I,' he says, 'was left alone, and I saw this great vision, and there remained no strength in me, and my glory was turned into corruption, and I retained no strength.' For so great a fear fell upon me from that sight, that the joints' harmony was dissolved, and the colour of my body's surface was changed, and I was left bereft of all strength.

'And I heard,' he says, 'the voice of his words, and when I heard, I was in a deep swoon upon my face, and my face toward the ground.' For immediately, he says, upon hearing that mighty voice, I fell prone;

and being unable to look upon the awful sight, I set my face to the earth.

'And behold, a hand touched me, and raised me up upon my knees, and upon the palms of my hands it set me.' Being in such a state, he says, I felt as it were a hand touching me, and lifting me up;

and I, using both my knees and my hands (for the fear had unstrung me), tried to rise up.

for I was sent to teach you these things;

since you showed yourself superior to the desires of the body, and became a lover of divine things, and being tenderly disposed toward the people, you longed to learn the things that would befall them.

for the one was a Chaldean name, the other a Hebrew;

and the one was given by the pious, the other was added by the impious.

so that he was even aptly named, and by the very facts proclaimed how, using a right and just judgment, God deemed him worthy of the prophetic grace, and made clear the things that would come to pass many generations later.

'And when he had spoken this word to me, I stood up trembling.' For the word sufficed to raise me up, yet I had not wholly laid aside my fear.

'...of thy God, thy words were heard, and I am come because of thy words.' From this we are taught how much our self-chosen affliction profits us.

For this the one who appeared to him also makes clear;

'For from the first day,' he says, 'in which thou didst set thy heart to understand, and to afflict thyself before the Lord thy God, thy words were heard; and thou hast, as a very great proof of this, my presence.'

'And the prince,' he says, 'of the kingdom of the Persians withstood me one and twenty days.' 'On that very first day,' he says, 'when thy prayer was received and thy supplication granted, I was sent to thee;

but throughout all these days the prince of the kingdom of the Persians hindered my coming to thee.'

'And behold, Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, and I left him there with the prince of the king of the Persians.' These things the blessed Moses teaches us more clearly.

For it says, When the Most High divided the nations, when he scattered abroad the sons of Adam, he set the bounds of the nations according to the number of the angels of God. And the Lord in the sacred Gospels says to the apostles:

See that you despise not one of these little ones, for their angels do always behold the face of my Father who is in the heavens. And there are many other such things in the divine Scripture.

But the archangels were entrusted with the oversight of the nations, as the blessed Moses taught.

For he himself also speaks of a ruler of the kingdom of the Persians;

and again, a little later, he calls one the ruler of the Greeks, and Michael the ruler of Israel.

Since, then, these things have become plain from the one side and the other, we must inquire why the ruler of the Persian kingdom seemed to oppose the one who was making advocacy on behalf of the people.

For that the nature of the angels is superior to the passions, and full of holiness, is surely plain to everyone.

And that they follow the divine bidding without hesitation, this too may be learned from every quarter.

How then did the ruler of the kingdom of the Persians seem to oppose the guardianship of the Israelites? Yet if anyone should be willing to consider carefully, he will find the sense of what has been said.

For the ruler of the Persians and the ruler of the Greeks — that is, those entrusted with the watch and care over these peoples — necessarily, being tenderly disposed toward those whose guardianship they held, and seeing the lawlessness of Israel, were distressed at seeing them enjoy a greater measure of providence.

For they did not know the mystery that was hidden in God who created all things.