YALE UNIVERSITY
LIBRARY

THE LIBRARY OF THE
DIVINITY SCHOOL

WORKS ON PROPHECY AND COGNATE SUBJECTS
PUBLISHED BY
T. A N D T. CLARK,
38, GEORGE STREET, EDINBURGH.

In demy 8vo, price 10s. 6d., Cloth,
PROPHECY VIEWED IN ITS DISTINCTIVE
NATURE, ITS SPECIAL FUNCTION, AND PROPER IN
TERPRETATION. By Patrick Eairbairn, D.D., Professor of Theo
logy in Eree Church College, Aberdeen.

Also, lately published, by the same Author, in demy 8vo, price 10s. 6d.,
Second Edition of
EZEKIEL, AND THE BOOK OF HIS PROPHECY. An
Exposition.
" A work which was greatly wanted, and which will give the author no mean
place among the biblical expositors of his country and language, for in it he has
cast considerable light upon one of the obscurest portions,of God's 'Word." —
Kitto's Journal of Sacred Literature.

In Two Volumes, demy 8vo, price 18s.,
<THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE. Viewed in Connec-
* tion with the Whole Series of the Divine Dispensations. Second
Edition, Greatly Enlarged and Improved.
"It is by far the soberest, most systematic, and most satisfactory work of the
kind that we have yet seen, and will, we trust, very speedily obtain extensive
reputation."— Church of England Quarterly Review.
"A learned, judicious, and truly evangelical work." — Dr Pye Smith.
" I now say, no Biblical Student should be without Mr Fairbairn's Typo
logy." — Dr Samuel Lee, in his " Events and Times of the Visions of Daniel.''

T

WORKS PUBLISHED BY T. AND T. CLARK.
In Two Volumes, demy 8vo, price 21s.,
HE REVELATION OF ST JOHN, Expounded for those

who Search the Scriptures. By E. W. Hengstenberg, D.D., Pro
fessor of Theology in Berlin. Translated from the Original by the Rev.
Patrick Fairbairn, author of "Typology of Scripture;" "Ezekiel, an
Exposition;" "Jonah," etc.
" His present work will not diminish his well-earned reputation ; it is charac
terized by original thinking, extensive and accurate erudition, and a cordial
reverence for the inspired Word. In this work will be found much Scriptural
truth, and many exquisite unfoldings of the mind of the Spirit in dark places."
— United Presbyterian Magazine.
" We hail with pleasure the completion of this able work, incomparably the
clearest, the most critical, and the best which has appeared on the subject." —
M'Phail's Journal.

' In Three Volumes, demy 8vo, price 27s.,
THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES, or the History of the
-*- Church in the Apostolic Age. By M. Baumgarten, D.D., Pro
fessor of Philosophy and Theology to the University of Rostock.
" We have felt devoutly thankful to the great Head of the Church wlio
has raised up a champion able to meet, by an exposition of the Acts at once
so profoundly scientific and so sublimely Christian as that before us, one of
the most pressing wants of our times. We have not the smallest hesitation
in expressing our modest conviction that in no previously uninspired portion
of her history, has the Church of Christ possessed such means as are here
afforded her, of gaining a true insight into the meaning of her own glorious
• archives."— Eclectic Review.

By the same author. In demy 8vo, price 12s., Cloth,
DISSERTATIONS on the GENUINENESS of DANIEL,
V and the INTEGRITY OF ZECHARIAH. Translated by the Rev.
B. R. Pratten. And a Dissertation on the History and Prophecies of
Balaam by the same Author. Translated by J. E. Ry/lakd.
" It stands foremost — a very learned work, and more full and rich than even
his ' Christology.' " — Tholuck.

Also, in demy 8vo, Vols. I and TI., price 21s.,
pHRISTOLOGY of the OLD TESTAMENT, and a Com-
\J mentary on the Messianic Predictions. Second Edition, greatly
improved. Translated by Rev. Theodore Meter.

THE 'PROPHECIES OF DANIEL
AND
THE REVELATIONS Of ST JOHN,
VIEWED IN THEIR MUTUAL RELATION.
WITH
AN EXPOSITION OF THE PRINCIPAL PASSAGES.
BY CARL AUGUST' AUBERLEN,
DB. PHIL., LICENTIATE AND PBOPESSOB EXTBAOBDINARIUS OF THEOLOGY
IN BASIL.
WITH AN APPENDIX, BY M. FR. ROOS.
TRANSLATED BT
TB(E REV. ADOLPH SAPHIR.

EDINBURGH:
T. & T. CLARK, 38, GEORGE STEEET.
LONDON : HAMILTON, ADAMS, & CO. DUBLIN : J. ROBERTSON, AND
HODGES & SMITH. PHILADELPHIA : SMITH & ENGLISH.

IDCCCLfl.

'When this cometh to pass — lo, it will come! —
Then shall they know that a prophet hath been among them."
Ezekiel xxxiii. 33.

MURKAT AND GIBB PBINTEES, ED1NBIIHGH.

PREFACE.

I venture to put these pages before the Christian and theolo
gical public, as a contribution towards the understanding of
biblical prophecy. The substance of this book was completed
in the year 1852, but it has been- revised and re- written since,
previous to its present publication.
The Old Testament enjoys the testimony of more immediate
Divine authority than the New, since our Lord Jesus and the
apostles mention and quote it continually, and with reverence,
as the word of the living God. But the manner in which the
Old Testament is treated among us, clearly shows that, in its
whole mode of conception and representation — in its whole view
of God and the world — it differs as widely from views current
among us, as a majestic primeval forest contrasts with the busy
thoroughfares of our metropolitan cities. Rationalistic criticism
directed its first attacks against the Old Testament, and seems
to maintain here its ground longest ; for, while we may regard
it as almost entirely conquered in the field of dogmatic and New
Testament exegesis, we see yet a considerable number of dis
tinguished theologians influenced in their views of the Old
Covenant, more or less, by the principles of that adverse criti
cism. Now, is there any book in the Old Testament, where
this is so much the case, as that of Daniel, which shares, in this
respect, the fate of the Revelations of St John, that book of the
New Covenant, which combines, in a peculiar manner, the
ch aracteristics of the Old and New Testaments. The ungenuine-

VI PREFACE.
ness of Daniel has become an axiom in modern theology, so
that it is thought quite superfluous to adduce any proof for that
assertion ; and the most recent commentator says, accordingly,
in a very short and explicit manner, "no sensible man" can
entertain any doubt on the subject. It is necessary, from the
nature of our investigation, that we should start from the state
ments of Daniel, and this, moreover, with special reference to
the question raised by modern criticism. And this for the two
fold reason, that this question is still occupying a prominent
place in our present theology, and that the importance and value
which are to be attributed to the apocalyptic prophecy of the
Old, and, consequently, to that of the New Testament, depend
on the answer given to that question.
However, the converse holds equally true, and is of even
greater importance. The answer we give to the question of
criticism depends on our general views of prophecy and escha-
tology. The real source, from which the present mode of
treating Daniel and the Apocalypse springs, is, that the critic is
not in possession of the key, which opens a deeper understanding
of prophecy, and* consequently, he divests the sacred books of
everything which, in divine sublimity, transcends his own
horizon, of the fulness of its superhuman contents, in order to
bring it within the narrow circle of traditional or self-invented
conceptions and presuppositions. As soon as dogmatic shall
attain a clearer insight into eschatology, criticism will view
the apocalyptic books of both Testaments in a different light.
At present, they are misunderstood and divested of their real
meaning and majesty, but then they will be exalted and seen
in the dignity which they possess, and in the unique place
which they occupy in the Holy Scriptures as revelations given
by God to be a guide and light to His faithful people. We
do not, however, blame in this instance Rationalism exclu
sively. At an early period the Church began to see only indi
stinctly the view which the Bible gives of the kingdom, and
she lost it in proportion as she conformed tp the world,

PREFACE. Vll
The Reformation brought indeed truths of Scripture to light,
which, if followed out consistently, furnish us with the key to
prophecy ; but the Reformation period did not proceed to this
logical deduction. Of a theology, moreover, which has its vital
roots in the world (1 John iv. 5), and is akin to it according to'
its distinctive peculiarity, we cannot expect it otherwise, but
that it will be perfectly incompetent to enter into the depth, and
height, and breadth, of the divine plan of the kingdom. Such a
theology finds it necessary to assume the ungenuineness of
Daniel ; but let it not be denied or ignored, this necessity is not
a historical, but a dogmatic one. Once adopt this supposition
of criticism, and you must of necessity adopt an exegesis, dilut
ing the text and divesting it of all strength and meaning ; the
arbitrary and untenable character of which we shall endeavour
to show in our remarks on the second, seventh, and ninth chap
ters of our prophet. The manner in which modern critics have
treated this book, furnishes us with a striking specimen and il
lustration of that unevangelical relation in which these theolo
gians stand to Holy Scripture, and which we may regard as the
very central seat of the disease of our Protestant theology
Next to this, and in connection with it, we place the funda
mental views of our dogmatic, which are formed from the cur
rent opinions of the day. Starting from such principles, the
books of Holy Scripture are subjected to criticism, and thus the
critic proceeds, and only at this stage, to the exegesis of the
text, and, of course, cannot and dare not, find in the word of
God anything beyond what the dogmatics of our schools and
criticism have left and apportioned to it.
Whereas the natural and evangelical order of procedure is
exactly the reverse. Schelling says, in his preface to Steffens'
posthumous works : " It is necessary to understand, first, the
contents of the biblical books and their true meaning, ere we
can form a sound and safe opinion regarding their origin."
Hence it is high time that we read the Scriptures simply exe-
getically, according to such fundamental principles as are laid

Vlll PREFACE.
down in Matt. xiii. 23 ; John viii. 31, 32 ; 1 Thess. ii. 13. Too
long has criticism schooled and often destroyed exegesis ; and
yet what can the former be but at best a Martha, who busies
herself with many things in the neighbourhood, and with refe
rence to our Lord, while they who, with exegetical faithfulness,
endeavour to investigate, and to appropriate, the contents of the
divine books, choose the good part of Mary, who sits at the feet
of the Divine Master to learn from Him. The apostles and
prophets have a claim and right, in virtue of the general im
pression of moral purity and truthfulness which they make on
us and the best of our race in all ages, to expect that we should
take their writings as they offer them to us, that we should trust
the testimony they themselves bear concerning their authenticity,
and that our suspicion should not rest on them, but rather on a
criticism which is only of yesterday. It is a thousand times
more likely — oh, lamentable necessity to utter such a truism ! —
that a critic should be mistaken, than that an author of
these sacred books should have made an untrue statement.
Speak of the Fraus pia in terms as lenient and exculpatory as you
can devise, it is, and always must remain a lie, if I consciously,
and with a definite purpose, pretend to be another than I really
am ; and, moreover, it is a lie of the blackest dye, if I speak of
divine revelations which were never really vouchsafed to me ;
indeed, according to the Old Testament, this is the very thing
which constitutes the false prophet, and of such an one, the fun
damental law of prophecy says : But the prophet which shall
presume to speak a word, in my name, which I have not com
manded him, even that prophet shall die (Deut. xviii. 20). It is
of such prophets that Jeremiah speaks, in his emphatic warnings :
The Lord said unto me, lies do the prophets prophesy in my
name ; I have not sent them, neither have I commanded them
neither spoke I unto them ; they prophesy unto you a false vision
and divination, and a thing of nought, and the deceit of their
heart (Jer. xiv. 14, xxvii. 15, xxix. 9). And how is it possible
that this distinction between divine revelation and human inven-

PREFACE. IX
tion, between truth and falsehood, should have disappeared in
later times, though, we do not deny it, the circumstances were
different ? We do not ignore the slight difference which it is
possible to draw between pretending to a divine revelation and
interpolating a prophetical book. But, let us ask the simple
question, Would not a true Israelite, without guile, — and that
the author of the book of Daniel was such an one, is acknow
ledged even by our opponents, as the internal evidence cannot
be gainsaid, — Would not a true Israelite shudder in his heart of
hearts at the thought of inventing divine revelations ? Must he
not have been aware that such inventions were denounced and
condemned by the law of God? What have analogies from
spheres, not biblical, to do here ? We know truth was weakened
and obscured there. Let . us not allow scientific terms, which
have an appearance of erudition, and, perhaps, of recondite
philosophy, to blunt our moral perceptions, and darken our reli
gious consciousness. Wherever the authors mention their name,
the question is not merely one of dry scientific investigation con
cerning authenticity and ungenuineness, but one affecting the
very conscience and character, the truth or falsehood of the
author. If we assume the so-called ungenuineness of the book,
we must change our whole view of that portion of revelation and
holy Scripture in general. If we had a true and lively sense of
divine thing's, such questions could not be treated with " objective
calmness," but would be investigated with a much holier earnest
ness. But, in most of our exegetical works, and in almost all the
critical works of our times, we find a deep-seated deadness of the
mind to the real essential character of the divine word, a blind
ness which is incapable of seeing the pneumatic and heavenly
character of Scripture, and it is only by remembering this sad
fact, that one can comprehend how it was possible for criticism to
subject the text to such cruel tortures, and that one can account
for the cool indifference with which this criticism is regarded and
approved of. And this spiritual darkness arises simply from
this, that the fundamental relations of the heart to God and

X PREFACE.
divine things is not the right one ; that there is wanting fear and
reverence before His holy majesty ; that light and darkness are
not strictly distinguished, and carefully kept separate (Isa. lxvi.
2). From olden times it has been thought a heinous crime to
remove boundaries and land-marks ; but it is the boast and glory
of our day to remove the holiest of all boundary-lines, that be
tween truth and lie, and to invent a something intermediate.
Our fathers knew well what they said when they maintained
that the testimony of the Holy Spirit was the first canon of Bible
criticism. He who emancipates himself from this fundamental
relation of the conscience to the Word of God, is not a biblical, but
an unbiblical critic. Let us not separate, in any point, science
and conscience, nor let us give way to any sophisms however
specious, but let us adhere in theological questions of all kinds, to
the moral fundamental point of view. This is especially an im
perative obligation in the case of those sacred authors to whom
we are indebted for all the morality we may possess, and of
whom we find throughout, that their sense of truth was strong
and delicate in a most eminent degree (1 Tim. ii. 7 ; John xix.
35 ; 2 Pet. i. 16). It is by no means unscientific and narrow-
minded, to proceed from such a starting point, but only according
to common sense ; it is inward liberty from the thraldom of
human authority ; it is natural, sound, unsophisticated sense,
which alone leads to a scientific understanding of the truth. We
have lost faith in the supernatural, not because we have gained,
but chiefly because we have lost knowledge of nature and what
is according to nature. Modern theological science stands chiefly
in need to be reminded of the word : God made man simple, but
he sought out many inventions. I know from the history of my
own development, in which I was not spared the passing through
the furnace of criticism, that it is the simple and fundamental
truths, to which our consciences bear witness, that form the
decisive and all-pervading element, and are able to refute the
dazzling deductions of a science which is not willing to place
itself in the light of God's holy and all-righteous countenance.

PREFACE. XI
In a time like ours, when not only the gospel of the cross, but
even the most elementary views of God, of right and light, are
foolishness to the Greeks, and often even to the noblest among
them, it is of paramount importance to be faithful in these simple
truths, which, however insignificant they may appear, are the
foundation of all the rest, and to give all the honour to truth,
with manly moral and logical energy, not heeding the con
temptuous shrugging of shoulders of either friend or foe.
In the present state of things it fills us with the greater joy to
see what good beginnings are made on the other side, in the
investigation of the biblical books, taking them simply as they
offer themselves, and proceeding thus to the exposition of details,
endeavouring thereby to seize the plan and connection of ideas
in the book, and, finally, searching after the position and signi
ficance which are to be attributed to the book in relation to the
whole organism of Holy Scripture. This is, moreover, the only
right method of refuting false criticism.
Our thirst for knowledge will not be satisfied by a refutation
of individual objections ; but if we are able to gain a deeper, a
more living, organic and historical insight, not merely into indi
vidual passages, but into whole books, and thus by degrees into
the whole of Holy Scripture, an insight unattainable by that
criticism which is incapable irvev/j.amcS>s avaitpivuv and nv^vfiariKoU
nveujj.aTi.Ka crvyicplveiv (1 Cor. ii. 13, 14), then it will become evi
dent to us, that the results of that criticism touch only the surface
and the externals of the subject, and then light will conquer
darkness. And, at the same time, the real gain which un-
biblical criticism has brought, by suggesting many questions, by
showing the great importance of the historical method, by many
a salutary exhortation to a more thorough going investigation of
the text, finally, also, by many acute observations and correct
hints, will only, in this manner accrue, "to the Church and theo
logical science.
Let me here acknowledge my obligations to Bengel's school of
theology. This school, more than any other, studied to view

Xll PREFACE.
the Bible as a whole, and naturally turned to the prophetic
parts of Scripture as to the most neglected portions of the Divine
Word. Though many individual parts in their apocalyptic
systems have not stood the test of time, and though, in many
points, we must differ from their views, yet we acknowledge
freely, that it was chiefly the gift and task allotted to the-Bengel
school, to open again to the Church the understanding of pro
phecy. To speak for myself, I have not met anywhere with
more profound and correct views. The reader will find, in the
following pages, quotations, not indeed from Oetinger, but from
Bengel himself, Boos, the two Hahn. Also the venerable Zurich
theologian, J. T. Hess, though he stood more under the influence
of the age he lived in than the men of God named above, wrote
a history of the kingdom of God, which is perhaps a little too
prosaic, but accurate and intelligent, and deserves our attention.
But I was filled with astonishment at the grandeur of thoughts
which I saw in Boos' book on Daniel, especially concerning the
history of revelation. Besides the quotations introduced in this
volume, passim, we have given a larger specimen of his work
in the Appendix. These men must be regarded as true models,
unequalled by modern theologians, not with regard to the ex
ternal scholastic form and scientific system (and yet they have
a deeper insight into the organism of divine truth, than is to be
found in many of the most elaborately perfected systems), but
in the simple, clear, docile position, which they occupy, to the
teaching of Holy Scripture, in the delicacy and persevering
diligence with which they search its mysteries ; in the holy dis
cipline of truly scientific thought, and the spiritual and devout
tone of their theology. Hence the depth and fulness of their
knowledge, the solidity and abundance of sound theological
fundamental ideas, their clear insight into God's ways, and the
plan of His kingdom. In reading the works of these men, we
feel as if we had entered a temple.
Among modern theologians, I look upon Dr J. T. Beck, in
Tubingen, as most closely allied to Bengel's school ; and to

PREFACE. Xlll
him, more than to any other modern divine, I feel indebted, as
regards the fundamental views of the present work.
It is well known, that the Reformers had only a partial
insight into the Apocalypse and prophecy in general ; the task
and gift allotted to them concerned another portion of Scripture
truth. However, I consulted, to my edification and advantage,
the commentaries of Luther and Calvin on Daniel. For, notwith
standing many difficult and obscure passages, the prophecies of
this book are clear and distinct as to their essential meaning, so
much so, that with all the defects of the older prophetical
theology, there is scarcely a book of Holy Scripture, concerning
the general import of which the Church of all ages has been so
unanimous as this, until the last century affected also this book
with its innovations.
The reader will find, that the more important works of modern
theology, bearing on our subject, have been used and examined
conscientiously. And though polemics could not be avoided, I
trust, that against whatever quarter our polemics are directed,
the reader will see and feel, that our sole object and aim is the
subject itself.
The subsequent pages are written in a style so as to enable
intelligent laymen to peruse them, with, perhaps, the omission of
certain portion?. And, for this purpose, the refutation of the
views of our opponents is given separately from the exegetical
historical development, and treated in separate sections, specially
chap. ii. of sec. -ii. ; and sec. iii., chap, i., paragraph 2.
In giving to the book this more popular character, I was in
fluenced not only by the conviction, that it would be for the
bene'fit of science, as well as the advantage of the Church, if
theologians would consider more the requirements of the con
gregation, in their exegetical labours ; not solely by a desire to
be of use to the numerous friends of divine truth, who seek to
obtain a knowledge of the whole divine doctrine revealed to us,
and to give an impulse to others to study and honour, reverence
and love, the word of prophecy ; but my chief motive was the

XIV PREFACE.

deep conviction, that the times in which we live, render it espe
cially necessary that the Church of God should take heed unto
the sure word of prophecy. In all periods, in which the world
and the Church were passing through struggles and conflicts,
the disciples of the Lord turned to prophecy, and were enabled
to enter more deeply into its meaning. It is true, in more senses
than one, that we have inherited the fruits of preceding centuries ;
especially in reference to the development of the God-opposed
power. Even De Wette says, in his preface to his Commentary
on the Apocalypse, written in the year 1848, that he could not
avoid recognising the Antichrist described by John, in the
character of our times, though the external shape may be some
what different, and the aspect even more appalling. And,
indeed, we know, that the spirit of lawlessness, which mani
fested itself in that eventful year, that power emanating from
the bottomless pit, has only been suppressed for a time, but not
really overcome. However, it would be ungrateful not to ac
knowledge, that the wheat is growing rapidly. But tares and
wheat grow together until the harvest (Matt. xiii. 30), and the
feeling is at present very general, that both armies are being
separated more distinctly, and preparing and strengthening
themselves for a final struggle. The apostasy of Christendom
from her heavenly king, is manifest in the sight of all observers,
and it has therefore become a common saying, that European
humanity is growing old and feeble. A false Churchism is
rising to power and assuming a threatening aspect in many a
quarter. Lamentable self-sufficiency, blindness, and confusion,
are spreading in high places and in low places, on the right side
and on the left, among the godly and among the godless.
Among the faithful people of God — and this is the most painful
of the signs of the times — love is waxing cold. Among those
who stand upon the same foundation, there is strife and confu
sion, so that they say, " Lo, here is Christ, or there." The salt
is losing its savour, in many ways. Truth and falsehood are
mixed up with ever-increasing subtlety and startling novelty, so

PREFACE. XV
as to deceive, if it were possible, even the elect. Therefore, let
us exhort one another to remember and to obey the long-for
gotten word of our Divine Master : Let your loins be girded
about, and your1 lights burning, and ye yourselves, like unto
men that wait for their Lord ! Blessed are those servants whom
the Lord, when He cometh, shall find watching.

ERRATA.

Page 17, 14 lines from the top,/or Jehoiakim read Jehoiachin.
" 76, last line of j>3.ge, for <rn><%7« read c-toixiTx.
" 78, note, first line, for Antioch read Antiochus.
' SI, 27 lines from the top,/or iu>«.*vin-n; read «.t&.\w>?>s.
" 106, 6 ^ » for ffisXvpa. read f&iXvypa..
" 114, 25 v * for furnish read furnishes.
* 124, first line of page, for into read with.
" 144, 21 lines from the top,/o7- 434 read 334.
" 197, 5 /* z' yb?1 oiTtves read olnns.
" 243, 27 ^ " /or «5«ai«>.u^S*j read owrs^oawpfoj.
^ 246, 17 *¦ ^ for p.oSas read zoSks.
" 249, 6 *• for from read o/;
*- 302, 7 /- for name read names.
" 330, 21 z' *. ybr ffm^a%a.iia^ va read rvv$6£u.&o-Sizt.
' 439, last line of page, for Pharoah read Pilate.

In the earlier part of the book, a few inaccuracies in the references have
slipped into the text, which the reader will easily rectify, by a reference to the
Index of Texts given at the end.

TABLE OF CONTENTS.

Introduction —
i. The Peculiar Character of Daniel,
H. The Testimony of Holy Scripture,
in. The Testimony of the Church,
iv. The Present Aspect of the Question,
v. The Present Task, .

1 46
<)
IS

FIRST SECTION.
CHARACTERISTICS OF THE BOOK OF DANIEL.
Chap. I. — The History of Revelation, or, the Starting Point, 1 5
i. The Significance of the Babylonian Captivity, . 15
I. The Position of Daniel —
i. The Position of the Prophet at the Babylonian
Court, ...... 20
ii. The Position of the Book in the Hebrew Canon, 24
Chap. II. — Contents of the Book —
i. Introduction and Division of the Book, . . 27
II. The Fiest Paet — The Kingdom of God and the
v Kingdom of the World in General, . . 31
i. The Second Chapter. The Four Monarchies
and the Messianic Kingdom, . . .31
b

XV111 TABLE OF CONTENTS.
ii. The Seventh Chapter, continuation,
m. Remarkable Events in Daniel's Life, . 49
III. The Second Part— The Kingdom of God and the
Kingdom of the World in their more Imme
diate Future, ... 52
i. The Eighth Chapter. Antiochus Epiphanes, 53
n. Chapters X.-XD"., continuation, . . .56
in. The Ninth Chapter. The immediate Future of
the Messiah, ... .66
Chap. III.— The Apocalyptic Form of Prophecy —
I. The Object of Apocalyptic Prophecy, . 70
i. In General, . . . .70
ii. The Apocalypses of the Old and New Testament
Contrasted, . . . . .76
II. The Nature of Apocalyptic Prophkcy, . . 80
i. The Subjective Form, the Dream, the Vision, . 80
ii. The Objective Form, Symbolism, . £3

SECOND SECTION.
THE SEVENTY WEEKS.— Dan. ix., . 91
Chap. I.— The Messianic View taken by the Church —
i. The Prophecy in its Context and Contents, . 93
II. The Chronological Boundaries, . . 109
i. The Terminus a quo of the Seventy Weeks— Ezra
and Nehemiah, . . . 109
n. Analysis of the Seventy Weeks, . . 131
Chap. II. — The Modern Interpretations, . . . .141
i. The Views of Ewald, Hofmann, Wieseler, and
Hitzig, . . . . . .143
II. Criticism of these Views, . . . 147
i. The Chronological Calculations, . . . 147

TABLE OF CONTENTS. XIX

PA«lfi

ii. Exposition of the Details, . .154
in. The Character of the Whole Chapter, . 157
a. The Fundamental and Distinctive Characteris
tics of the Prophecies referring to Antiochns, 1 57
b. The Resemblance to the Prophecies referring to
Antiochus, . . .160

THIRD SECTION.
THE BEASTS AND MAN.
Chap. I. — The Four Beasts and the Son of Man in Daniel, 168
a. The Present State of the Question, . 1 68
II. Criticism of the Modern View, . . 172
i. A General Comparison of the Visions of the First
and Second Parts, . . . . 172
ii. The Seventh and Eighth Chapters Compared, the
Second and Third Monarchies, . . 185
m. The Fourth Monarchy, the Ten Horns, . . 192
iv. Positive. The Biblical Prophetical View of History, 197
i. The Four Kingdoms of the World, . . 198
n. The Fourth Kingdom of the World, and its
Relation to the Messianic Kingdom, . 216
Chap. II. The Beasts and the Woman in the Revelation of
St John, . . . . 233
Exposition of Rev. XII., etc., 235
I. Starting Point, . . . 238
II. Development of Church and World in History, 240
i. The Church and the Power of the World, 240
a. The Woman and the Dragon, . 240
b. The Beast with Seven Heads and Ten Horns, 263
n. History of the Church and the World-Power, 272
a. The Great Harlot Babylon, . . 274
6. The Deadly Wound Healed, the Beast that is not,
and its return, ... 296
t. The other Beast, the False Prophet, . 305
in. Judgment of the Church and the World-Power, 313

XX TABLE OF CONTENTS. PAGH
III. The Millennium, . . • 324
i. Statements of the Revelations, and the New 'Testa
ment in General, . 32"
n. Statements of Daniel, and the Old Testament in
General, .... 337
in. Comprehensive Passages, . - • 350
iv. The Modern Interpretation of the Apocalypse, 359
I. The Church-Historical View, . 362
i. Bengel, ...... 365
ii. The English and French Commentators, 379
II. 'The Second View (Ewald, De Wette, Lucke), 387
III. The Third View, . , .392
I. J. Chr. K. Hofmann, . . 398
n. Hengstenberg, .... 407
iti. Ebrard, . . . 415
iv. Conclusion, ... . 425

Appendix, by M. Fr. Roos, ... 431
Index of Authors and Subjects, . . 453
Index of Passages in Daniel Explained, . . 459

INTRODUCTION.

I. THE PECULIAR CHARACTER OF DANIEL.
Among the prophets of the Old Covenant, Daniel presents an
appearance altogether peculiar, one, both in form and contents,
different from the rest.
The groundform of prophecy is generally lofty and impas
sioned discourse ; the prophecy of Daniel is couched in dreams
and visions. He sees symbolical shapes and scenes ; he hears
heavenly spirits discourse ; and what he thus perceives, he sub
sequently clothes in human speech. Thus he himself informs us
(vii. 1) that he " had a dream, and visions of his head upon his
'bed ; then he wrote the dream and told the sum of the matter
(llDK). In the Old Testament, however, this form of revelation
is not characteristic of Daniel alone. We meet it occasionally
in the earlier prophets. We remind the reader of that glorious
vision of Isaiah, in which he beholds Jehovah in the temple,
seated upon a throne and surrounded by seraphim ; of the
visions of Amos (vii.-ix.), of the two baskets of figs in the
vision of Jeremiah, and especially of Ezekiel's numerous visions
of cherubim, of the abominations in the temple, the angels
executing punishment, the valley of dry bones, the new temple,
etc. (i., ii.-xi., xxxvii., xl.). At the same time, the vision
occurs rarely in the early prophets, in comparison with " the

2 INTRODUCTION.
Word of Jehovah which came unto them," while in Daniel it is
the rule without a single exception. It is only in Zechariah,
who lived later, that the same form of revelation appears based on
the precedent of Daniel ; yet even here, the other form is not ex
cluded, but prevails from the seventh chapter to the end. The
Revelation of St John alone offers a perfect parallel to our
prophet, and for this reason the Book of Daniel may be aptly
styled the Old Testament Apocalypse.
With regard to the contents, there is a similar difference be
tween Daniel and the other prophets. All prophecy centres in
the opposition between the kingdom of God and the kingdom of
the world — Israel and the Gentiles. The prophet, standing within
Israel, sees the future of the kingdom of God from an Israelitish
point of view. The Church of God is ever in the foreground ;
the Powers of the World come within the horizon, only in so
far as they affect the immediate present or the near future of
the people of God. That worldly power which threatens it at
the time, Assyria for example, or Babylon, becomes to the pro
phet the representative of the kingdom of the world in general ;
or else, as in Isaiah xiii., et seq., Jeremiah xlvi., et seq., Ezek.
xxv., et seq., where the prophecies refer chiefly to the powers of
this world, these powers appear separately and one by one, and
the prophecies are simply announcements concerning the " Bur
dens" of Egypt, Syria, Tyre, Edom, Babel, etc., joined together
without rigorous connection. In Daniel it is exactly the reverse.
As he himself did not live in the Holy Land, nor among the
holy people, but at the Babylonian and Persian courts, in the
capacity of a high officer of state ; so it strikes us, at the first
glance, that the great subject of his prophecy is the development
of the kingdom of the world, while the kingdom of God appears
only in the background, though a background, truly, of deep
and abiding significance. While the other prophets looked out
from Zion to the south, to the north, and to the east, as one or
the other kingdom of the world came within the range of their
prophetic vision ; Daniel, from the very centre of the power of

INTRODUCTION. 3
the world, surveys its universal development ; and only after his
glance has comprehended all its shifting forms, does it rest
finally on Zion, beholding her affliction and visitation, but also
her triumph and glory. It is no longer of individual co-ordinate
powers of the world, of greater or less importance, that Daniel
prophesies ; but the period of the universal monarchies has
• begun, monarchies succeeding each other in the exercise of
universal sway, and in whose successive appearances, the worldly
principle, opposed to the kingdom of God, manifests itself with
ever-increasing power and enmity. Intimately connected with
this peculiarity of Daniel is this other, that his prophecies,
above all the rest, abound in historical and political detail.
While the other prophets, seeing both the near and distant in
the same perspective, are wont to view the whole future from the
eschatological point, and to represent it as the coming of God's
kingdom ; Daniel views chiefly the future history of the world
passing through that development which must precede the ad
vent of the kingdom. This accounts for that special character
of prophecy peculiar to him alone. If prophecy is anywhere a
history of the future, it is here.
These strongly marked peculiarities of Daniel1 have been
always recognised, even by the collectors of the Old Testament,
who have shown their clear perception of them, by placing the
book, not among the prophets, but among the Hagiographa.
For this reason, Daniel presents peculiar difficulties to the in
vestigator of its historical meaning, difficulties for which modern
critics have provided a very simple solution, by denying the
genuineness of the book. According to the prevalent view, it
was written under Antiochus Epiphanes, during the years
170-164 B.C. Its prophecies reach down only to this king, and
it is a record of events which were already past. We designate
this view as the prevailing one ; since, having appeared as one
of the most solid results, not only of an extreme, but of a more
1 Comp. with reference to these characteristics Lucke, Versuch einer voll-
standigen Einleitung in die offenbarung Johannis. Second edition, p. 49.

4 INTRODUCTION.
sober criticism, it exercises such a general influence, that even
many earnest friends of the Divine Word, can no longer rightly
enjoy this central book of prophecy. The more important the
word of prophecy becomes in our times, the more carefully we
are bound to examine an opinion so generally held. But, before
we enter on the consideration of this book, we naturally ask,
first, what the Bible and the Church declare concerning it, in
order to ascertain what historical right, divine and human, is on
the side of the popular view ? This is so much the more neces
sary, as the most recent commentator on Daniel insinuates, that
the belief in its genuineness is only an arbitrary assumption of
some modern critics, when he says : " The air of authority which
the book has usurped from being associated with Daniel, a con
temporary of Nebuchadnezzar and Cyrus, it has, been attempted
byv Hengstenberg to raise to historic reality ; a view which
Havernick and others have adopted from him."1

11. THE TESTIMONY OP HOLY SCRIPTURE.
We must consider, first, the testimony which the book bears to
itself. Daniel introduces himself repeatedly as the author (vii.
1, etc.; viii. 1, etc.; ix. 2, etc.; x. 1, etc.; xii. 4). It may
excite surprise that he does not put forth this claim in the first
six, the narrative chapters, but only in the last six, which con
tain his own visions. This circumstance is not only unimportant,
since the unity of the book is now acknowledged by all, even by
those who impugn its canonicity ; but it may also be very well
explained from the general character of the Sacred Writings. In
the historical books of Holy Scripture, the authors are, as a rule,
not expressly mentioned ; while they are, for the most part, in
the poetical and prophetical books of the Old Testament, and in
the Epistles and Apocalypse of the New. And for this satisfac-
1 Hitzig, Commentary on Daniel, 1850, p. 9.

INTRODUCTION. 0
tory reason. The latter class of biblical writings contain indivi
dual revelations and commissions from God, which are recorded
in Holy Scripture. The revelation consists in that which is
written ; it is a revelation of words to particular men. The
authors are of importance not only as the persons who write,
but as the persons who act ; for this reason they must mention
their names. Not so with the historical books, which contain
only accounts of the great revelation of God's deeds. The
emphasis lies here, not "on the words written, but on the events
narrated. The writer disappears behind his subject ; the authors,
therefore, are generally anonymous. So Daniel, while he does
not introduce his name as narrator, records it as prophet. What
importance attaches itself to this self-testimony, may be con
cluded from the impartial decision of Hagenbach, who says :
" In those cases in which the authors represent themselves as the
persons under whose names they write, the judgment passed on
the authenticity of the book decides also the canonicity." 1
But, we have not only the emphatic declarations of the book
of Daniel itself, but the testimony of the other Holy Scriptures.
We shall see afterwards that Zechariah, Ezra, and Nehemiah, but
especially the Apocalypse, refer to the book of Daniel. And this
is the more significant, as regards the three first-mentioned
writers, since they are acknowledged to have lived centuries
before AntiochusEpiphanes, and thus presuppose and establish
a higher antiquity for our prophet.
Apart from the Bevelation of John, we find distinct allusions
to Daniel in the New Testament (2 Thess. ii. 4 ; Heb. xi. 33,
34) ; the former passage giving apostolical confirmation to the
prophetical, the latter to the narrative portions. But the gos
pels are of chief importance. Not only is it conceded on all sides,
that Jesus referred to Daniel vii. 13, in that groundword (Grund-
' wort) by which he was wont to designate himself, viz. " the Son
> Hagmoach. Encyclopaedia und Method, der Theol. "Wissenschaften,
3d edit., p. 155 ; also Hengstenberg on the Genuineness of Daniel, p. 183.
T. and T. Clark.

b INTRODUCTION.
of Man ;" but He alludes to this passage also in that solemn
moment which decided his life (Matt. xxvi. 64), when the high
priest adjured him by the living God. His chief declaration,
however, is Matt. xxiv. 15, on which see Hengstenberg, in the
passage cited, pp. 258-270. Though critics may occasionally
have gone too far in the consequences they deduced from that
saying of Christ, yet, no doubt, so much is matter of fact, that
the Lord speaks there with reverence of Daniel, as of a divinely
inspired man, who prophesied events which were yet future to
him and his disciples, and, therefore, reach far beyond the time
of Antiochus. Finally, we have to mention the passage, Luke
i. 19-26. There, there is the appearance of the angel Gabriel,
who occurs nowhere else in Holy Scripture but in Dan. viii. 9 ;
and for this reason Strauss, Bruno Bauer, and Ebrard, take occa
sion of these passages, in their respective works on the gospel
narrative, to unfold their different views on our prophet. The
first chapter of Luke confirms the objective truth of Daniel's
angelology, against the supposition that it was a product of later
conceptions, borrowed from Parsism.
Thus, our book enjoys the express testimony of the New Tes
tament on those very three points which have been the greatest
stumbling-block to modern criticism : the predictions, narra
tives of miracles, and appearances of angels, contained in it.
Jesus and his apostles looked on Daniel as a true prophet of
God, and on his writings as recounting real and divine miracles
and prophecies, and that in a sense severely attacked by modern
criticism, and diametrically opposed to it.

III. THE TESTIMONY OF THE CHURCH.
Until the seventeenth century, or, more strictly speaking, late
in the eighteenth, Daniel enjoyed, for the above reasons, the
unanimous recognition of its genuineness by the Christian
Church, as well as by the Jewish synagogue. This led, in the

INTRODUCTION. 7
former, to a correct interpretation of the chapters affected by the
question of authenticity, ii., vii., and ix. The last mentioned
prophecy was referred to the coming of Christ in the flesh, while
in the other two visions the four world-monarchies were under
stood to extend not only to Antiochus, but the fourth kingdom
was interpreted to signify the Roman. On this account the
remark of Mich. Baumgarten has more truth, even in reference
to the historical state of the question, than the opinion of Hitzig,
already quoted : — " It would never have been doubted that the
fourth and last kingdom of the world means no other than the
Roman, had not a critical science, which is opposed to the spirit
of prophecy, usurped for a time the interpretation of prophecy."1
Thus, all preceding centuries stand opposed in this, as in so
many other points, to the solitary last century, which has only
one predecessor, and his alliance, moreover, is of a somewhat am
biguous character. We allude to the Neoplatonist, Porphyry,
whose attack on the genuineness of Daniel forms only a part of
his attack on revelation and Christianity in general. The
twelfth of his fifteen books against the Christian religion, is
directed against our prophet. And this work, or more properly,
extracts from it, which Jerome has preserved in his polemical
writings, has become the arsenal out of which modern criticism
has drawn its weapons. Porphyry gives accurate, and, espe
cially with regard to- the eleventh chapter, important historical
references, showing how universally the prophecies of Daniel, up
to Antiochus Epiphanes, had been fulfilled. From his point of
view, as a heathen, he could find no other explanation of the cir
cumstance, than by supposing the prediction to have taken place
after the fulfilment ; and for this reason, he was certain that the
book was written so late as the time of Epiphanes in Judea. Quid-
quid usque ad Antioch um dixerit, veram historiam continere, si
quid autem ultra opinatus sit, quia futura nescierit, mentitum esse,
thus Jerome represents the opinion of his opponent, in the preface
1 History of the Apostolic Church, vol. i. p. 264. (Clark's Foreign Theolo
gical Library.)

0 INTRODUCTION.
to his commentary. The Church Fathers mustered against Por
phyry in great force. Methodius, Apollinaris, Eusebius of Cesarea,
and others, wrote Apologies, and also for Daniel. The Church
had a vivid consciousness of the canonical worth and high value
of this prophet. This is evident, for instance, from the judgment
of Jerome : Nullum prophetarum tam aperte dixisse de Christo ;
and of Augustine : Neminem de regni coelorum praemio in
Vet. Testamento scripsisse tam diserte.1 Thus, the conflict
which faith in divine revelation has to carry on in our days
against criticism, is only a renewal of that other waged by the
Church Fathers with Porphyry. This is an instance of the
general phenomenon in the history of the Church, that the
struggles which the early Christian centuries — the times of the
Apologies — had to maintain against their opponents without
the pale of the Church, has been transferred in our days — the
time of Apologetics — within the centre of the Church itself.
We shall see afterwards, that this circumstance is connected with
the entire predicted development of the Church. In this manner
the history of our book verifies the word of prophecy.
Luther can yet say, " The first kingdom is the Assyrian or
Babylonian ; the second, the Median or Persian ; the third, that
of the Great Alexander and the Greeks ; the fourth, that of the
Romans. In this interpretation and meaning, all the world is unani
mous, and the book and the histories do mightily prove it." These
words are taken from Luther's preface to Daniel, which well
deserves to be read. It contains, in a few pages, an excellent
compendium of the interpretation then prevalent in the Church,
as he often refers to the consensus unanimity of "all former
teachers." Nearly all the other reformers, Melancthon and
Calvin, iEcolampadius and Bullinger, have published commen
taries of the same character, showing how deeply they were con
vinced of the importance and divinity of the book. The same
view, the same appreciation of Daniel, was universal in the
i Comp. Havernick, Einleitung in das Alte Testa. II. 445- On the history
of the objections brought against Daniel see Hengstenberg, 1. c. 1-10.

INTRODUCTION. 9
Church up to the eighteenth century. We single out only the
great interpreter of nature, Isaac Newton (1727), and the great
interpreter of Scripture, J. A. Bengel (1752). In our subse
quent investigations, we shall often have to quote the latter and
his followers. Newton, to whom the fundamental laws which
regulate the divine government of the world and the kingdom,
were of as much importance as those which rule nature, wrote
" Observations upon the Prophecies of Daniel and the Apocalypse
of St John." The apocalyptic numbers may perhaps have pecu
liarly attracted him ; and, speaking of the seventy weeks, he says,
intensifying the judgment of the Church Father already quoted,
"He who rejects1 the prophecies of Daniel, undermines the
Christian religion, which, as it were, is founded on the prophe
cies of Daniel regarding Christ."

IV. THE PRESENT ASPECT OF THE QUESTION.
After the impulse given to criticism by Spinoza and Hobbes, the
genuineness of Daniel was impugned by English "Deism and
German Rationalism. .Critics were not able to appreciate the
book, because they had lost sight of the relation it bears to the
history of the kingdom, and therefore it was rejected. This
appears very clearly from Semler's opinion, who " does not see
the great practical use proportional to the very peculiar means
God employs." J. D. Michaelis, Eichorn, and others, attacked
especially the narratives of miraculous events, Chap. iii. 6 ; after
wards, the well-known naturalist, Gorrodi, assailed the entire
book. It is only in our century that this view of the subject has
acquired a solid and important literature. This consists partly
of essays, partly of commentaries. Bertholdt (1806, 1808) Ccesar
¦eon Lengerke (1835), Hitzig (1850), have developed this view in
commentaries; with whom, compare Ewald(" Prophets of the Old
' Quoted from the German translation.

10 INTRODUCTION.
Testament," p. 558, etc.), whose exposition, however, is confined
to Dan. ix. 24, 27. The most remarkable of the treatises on the
subject is that by Bleed; (in the " Theologische Zeitschrift von
Schleiermacher, de Wette, and Lucke iii. p. 171, etc.) He is fol
lowed by De Wette (Einleitung in das Altes Testament), Krwbel
(Prophetismus der Hebraer), and Lucke (Einleitung in die Offen-
barung Johannis, 2d Edition, 1848, pp. 40-60).
The arguments of our opponents may be divided into three
classes, dogmatical, exegetical, and historical.
That the true argument of all others, even in modern criticism,
lies in the dogmatic doubt of the reality of miracles and predic
tions, is manifest from a passage of Knobel, cited casually by
De Wette : " Wherever we meet with numerous myths_ and
legends in Hebrew history, as, for example, in the history of the
Patriarchs, of Moses, Balaam, Samson, Elijah, Elisha, there we
have always narratives written down a considerable time after
the events ; but wherever the facts appear natural, as, for
example, in the books of Ezra, Nehemiah, 1 Maccabees, the
composition took place, if not contemporaneously with the events,
at least soon after. This is a historical canon of indubitable
application. Hence it follows that, not Daniel, but a much later
writer, is the author of the narrative before us, and, consequently,
of the entire book."1 So also, Hitzig does not deem it at all
necessary to disprove the genuineness, but settles the whole
question in a few lines, by quoting (p. ix.) the words of a.profane
historian, " the absurd view of Havernick, about the antiquity of
the book of Daniel, cannot be adopted by any reasonable man."
For us who believe with all our heart in the reality of miracles
and prophecies, these arguments are not only devoid of all weight,
but we can only feel indebted to the candour of criticism in thus
laying bare the secret motives of its procedure, as we are now
fully aware what we may expect from such a mode of treating
Holy Scripture. We trust, however, we shall not be expected to
1 Knobel, loc. cit. ii. 401. De Wette Introduct. Sixth edition, p. 383.

INTRODUCTION. 11
believe that criticism proceeds without presupposition, and after
a purely historical method.
The sum and substance of the exegetical argument is, that the
most natural, nay, even the only possible interpretation of the
whole book, is obtained by referring it to Antiochus Epiphanes.
We shall not anticipate the contents of the following pages, where
this central position will be examined at length.
Among the historical arguments, there is one of real historical
importance, namely, the occurrence of Greek names for musical
instruments (Dan. iii. 5, 7).' But we may look on this very point
as given up by our opponents. At least, De Wette says (p. 386),
" It is possible, we must grant, that such instruments and their
names were known at the time to the Babylonians," a possibility,
moreover, which Hitzig (p. 44)1 is unable to impugn. The other
arguments, which will be found collected by De Wette (p. 382,
etc.), have either no conclusive force, like the argumentum ex silentio,
that Sirach in his 49 th chapter, in which he praises men of God
and prophets, makes no mention of Daniel, or proceed palpably on
suppositions, the correctness of which remains to be demonstrated,
as, for instance, the argument from the occurrence of late chris-
tological and angelological views, from the non-existence of Darius,
the Median (Dan. vi. 1, 29 ; ix. 1), and the like. In this respect,
Rationalistic criticism has been sufficiently answered by that
which is grounded on faith in revelation. lf The spuriousness of
Daniel," justly remarks Ebrard, " has, for its sole support, only
the theological doubts of the possibility of prophecy in general,
and of a prophecy so minute in particular. The historical and
philological arguments against its genuineness, have been suffi
ciently refuted by Hengstenberg and Havernick."2
A reaction against this critical depreciation of the prophet was
as inevitable in the church of the present, as it was in the
ancient church. For what does the former view make of the

1 Comp. Schulz, Cyrus der Grosse. Stud, and Kritiken, 1853, iii. 677.
z Wissenschaftliche Critik der Evang. Geschichte p. 208.

12 INTRODUCTION.
book ? It becomes not only a book of continual monotonous
repetition, but a work interpolated for a specific purpose, though
with no evil intention; not a work of divine inspiration, but pro
ceeding from human art and calculation, consisting, moreover,
of fictitious legends of saints which lay claim to historic belief;
of narratives of events which appear in the deceptive mask of
prophecy, but are of no value to us who know them better from
other sources ; lastly, of enthusiastic expectations and false
national dreams, which history has proved to have been unreal.
It was Hengstenberg who here also opened the struggle against
Rationalism. The first volume of his contributions to the Intro
duction to the Old Testament (1831), which has been already
quoted, is dedicated to the demonstration of the authenticity of
Daniel, and the integrity of Zechariah. Soon after, in the
second volume of his Christology of the Old Testament (1832),
he attacked the modern views on exegetical grounds, by confirm
ing anew the church's interpretation of Dan. ix. 24-27. He
was joined by Havernick, in his Commentary on Daniel (1832),
in his New Critical Investigations, directed chiefly against Von
Lengerke, as well as in his Introduction to the Old Testament
(ii. 2, 1844, pp. 435-495). Since that time, the question has
been treated in two more comprehensive works, in which it is
viewed from the standpoint of faith in revelation ; exegetically
by J. Chr. K. Hofmann in his Weissagung und Erfullung (i.
1841, pp. 277-316), critically by Keil in his Introduction to the
Old Testament (1853, pp. 438-468).
We cannot, however, deny that these labours, notwithstand
ing their high merit, yet leave much to be wished for. Heng
stenberg and Havernick, moreover, have not been quite able to
oppose the pseudo-historical view of the Old Testament ; false,
because taken from the standpoint of profane history, since they
do not view it in relation to the history of revelation. They
hold fast to the reality of revelation with praiseworthy energy ;
but they do not give sufficient prominence to the historical
interpretation of its successive development. Thus, they have

INTRODUCTION. 13
refuted the separate objections with much acuteness and erudi
tion, and in this way have brought many questions to a final
solution ; but they do not afford a positive, central, organic, and
historical view of our prophet as a whole ; and the more lucid
glimpses in this direction (e.g. Beitrage i., pp. 191-195), appear
only as occasional and isolated remarks. And yet a subject like
this requires, above all, a demonstration that the prophecies are
an organic product of that particular form of revelation in which
they originated. In this respect, Hofmann has done important
service for Daniel, and has marked out some central points of
view.

V. THE PRESENT TASK.
The present task, accordingly, is to recognize the position and
significance of Daniel, in the entire organism of Revelation and
Scripture, and so to arrive at a deeper understanding of the
book, by the help of the book itself, and by apprehending its
connection with the whole history of redemption.
Our method will thus be a purely biblical one, and our task
twofold. We have to show, first, that during the period in
which our book, according to its own testimony, originated —
during the Babylonian exile, a revelation, in form and contents
like that of Daniel, was possible ; nay, that according to the
holy and free necessity of the love of God to his people, the
paths of which it is our desire to trace, we are entitled to say
not only possible, but necessary. And in the second place, we
shall have to view closely the two most important and most
frequently assailed prophecies of our book, that of the four
monarchies of the world (chaps, ii. and vii.), and that of the
seventy weeks (chap. ix.). There is scarce another instance in
which the intimate connection between exegesis and criticism is
so evident and palpable, and where spurious criticism can be so
easily overcome by correct exegesis. For the text itself furnishes

14 INTRODUCTION.
the proof that these prophecies reach beyond Antiochus, and so
removes the more plausible objection to the genuineness of the
book, the supposition, namely, that its prophecies extend only
to the supposed time of its composition, the period of the
Maccabees. Thus, while starting from the supposition of its genuineness,
we seek, on the one hand, to understand the book in its peculiar
and unique form, we shall, on the other hand, demonstrate the
genuineness from the character of the book, from the text,
and the interpretation furnished by itself. The parallels to the
Revelation of John will suggest themselves in their proper
place. By pursuing this method, we trust that we shall be able, not
only to treat the most important topics connected with the book,
but that the truth, and, consequently, the genuineness of the book
will become evident to the unprejudiced readers. To love and
honour the divine, nothing is necessary but to look on it with a
clear eye. Many, on whom the prejudices of our time exert too,
powerful an influence, should take to heart the words of Franz
von Baader: " Only cleanse thine eyes better, come to this higher
ground, this purer atmosphere, and thou shalt see the glory of
God." Then shall we perceive that the Holy Scriptures, as they
lie before us de facto, offer historical and moral problems which
become only the more complicated the longer the unassisted
reason attempts their solution ; then shall we feel that there is a
great Spirit to whom reverence is due ; then shall we learn to
think the wisdom of God great, and the wisdom of man small.
And thus truth will gently exert on us her attractive and
convincing influence, and taking all reason captive to the
obedience of Christ, will endow us with true inward liberty (2
Cor. x. 5 ; John viii. 32).

FIEST SECTION.

THE

CHARACTERISTICS OF THE BOOK OF DANIEL.

CHAPTER I.
' THE HISTORY OF REVELATION, OR, THE STARTING POINT.

I. THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE BABYLONIAN CAPTIVITY.
In order to gain a correct understanding of our book, we must
start from where the first two verses place us. We find there
the opposition between Israel and the heathen world-power, and
more particularly that power in the stage of its development
which commences with the Babylonian exile. The exile forms
the historical basis of Daniel's prophecies, as the prophet himself
most emphatically asserts in the introductory chapter, which
opens with a statement of the beginning of the captivity, and
concludes by recording its termination (i. 1, f., 21 ; comp. ix. 1, 2).
It will be useful to review briefly the previous development of
the theocracy, in order to gain a clear insight into the im
portant relation in which this epoch stands to the whole history
of revelation.

16 SKETCH OF OLD TESTAMENT HISTORY.
In calling Abraham from out of the vast sea of the nations,
God had separated to himself a family, like an island in the
midst of the ocean (Dan. vii. 2), and had chosen it to be his
own property, in order to make it the priestly mediator of his
revelations to humanity, and so to restore that connection
between heaven and earth on which the future of the human
race depends (Gen. xii. 1-3; Ex. xix. 4-6). In Egypt the
family of Abraham grew into a nation; through Moses, the
people received the law from God ; under David and Solomon,
they reached the culminating point of their development in the
Old Testament, in a well organised political life. The essential
character of the theocracy, as opposed to the heathen religion
and the heathen power, manifested itself during the reign of
these two kings so fully, that Israel was not only independent of
the heathens, but had subjugated the surrounding nations. The
period of David and Solomon'is, therefore, in a peculiar sense, a
type of the Messianic ; and the prophecies of that glorious epoch
in which there would appear in fulness and reality, what was
shadowed forth in the external types of the Old Testament, are
henceforth connected with David. But the decay began so
early as the time of Solomon. It began with the division of the
Jewish kingdom of God into two kingdoms, thereby losing the
inward strength and compact unity with which it had op
posed its foes. The northern kingdom of the ten tribes which
had apostatised from the san'ctuary of Jehovah in Jerusalem,
and from the dynasty of the promise, sought strength at first in
surrendering itself to heathenism. It joined Phoenicia and Syria
against Juda, and committed adultery with idolatry arid the
worldly power. But whenever God's people becomes unfaithful,
and seeks the alliance of the world-power, he makes use of that
very power to chastise it. " He that soweth to the flesh, shall
of the flesh reap corruption" (Gal. vi. 8). Ephraim had to
experience this truth when, in the year 722 B.C., the Assyrians
destroyed its political existence.
We find the same development in the kingdom of Juda, but

SKETCH OF OLD TESTAMENT HISTORY. 17
here more gradual, because in proportion as it had remained
more faithful to Jehovah, so the house of Judah produced from
time to time God-fearing kings. But Judah also was led astray,
and committed whoredoms, even as Ephraim. From about the
year 740 B.C., when Ahaz, not heeding the warning of Isaiah
against Ephraim and Syria, turned to Assyria (Is. vii.), this
better kingdom also was drawn into the circle of the world's
movements. It surrendered itself to the Assyrians, to the Egyp
tians, therefore God at last called Babylon to destroy the Theo
cracy altogether. Nebuchadnezzar made three incursions into
Judah. The first, under Jehoiakim (606 B.C.), reduced the
Theocracy to a tributary of the Babylonian world power.
Daniel was among the captives brought at that time to Babylon.
At the second inroad (598), King Jehoiakim and the prophet
Ezekiel were led into captivity. In the third (588), Nebuchad
nezzar destroyed at last the holy city, brought the last Jewish
king, Zedekiah, in fetters to Babylon, and thus the kingdom of
Judah came to its end. From this time the independence of the
people of Israel departed for thousands of years, for even their
return from the captivity did not restore it, and afterwards it was
regained but once, and that transitorily. On the whole, the
people remained in dependence on the monarchies of the world,
each of which handed down the Jewish people to its successor,
till, finally, after the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans, the
Jews were dispersed among all nations. From the beginning of
the Babylonian exile, therefore, there was no more a Theocracy
on earth. And since in Israel the political and religious ele
ments are most intimately related, so the revelations of God,
according to a necessary connection with the judgments which
had begun to fall on the people, became ever less frequent, till at
last there came a period of more than four hundred years un-
illumined by the light of divine communications.
Thus a new stage in the history of the development of the
Theocracy begins with the Babylonian captivity (which we may-
reckon from the first invasion of Nebuchadnezzar), for the inde-

18 SKETCH OF OLD TESTAMENT HISTORY.
pendent existence of the Theocracy then terminated, a stage
which may be designated as the rule of the powers of the world.
The coming of this heavy visitation was itself a fulfilment of the
word of prophecy. When the apostasy was spreading in both
kingdoms, God raised up prophets to exhort the nation to re
pentance, and, should the people grow only the more hardened,
to proclaim His impending judgment. This was the work of the
prophets from Joel and Amos down to Jeremiah and Ezekiel,
who lived to see the exile. But, notwithstanding this terrible
judgment, which only the most grievous sins had drawn down
from heaven, Israel was, and remained, the chosen people,
through whom God intended to execute His plans for mankind.
The gifts and callings of God are without repentance (Rom. xi.
9), and for this reason He commissioned His prophets to proclaim
that a period of salvation and blessing— the period of the Mes
sianic kingdom — would follow the period of chastisement and
judgment. Moreover, during the t'me of visitation itself, the
people were not left without light and comfort from above. They
received, by the mouth of Isaiah, words of the most refreshing,
evangelical comfort (chap, xlv.-lxvi.), to strengthen their faith
during the Babylonian captivity — words sent by that God whose
bowels yearned within Him for His chosen servants, even while
He afflicted them. Ezekiel, too, laboured among those who were
carried away to the river Chebar. Thus Israel was not left in
utter darkness at that time. But for the centuries that followed,
yet further disclosures were received. The people of God were
to pass through periods of still deeper affliction ; and when the
, glorious salvation they expected did not appear after the captivity —
when the voice of revelation ceased in the land, the fear might
easily take hold of them that the Lord had given up His work
and kingdom on the earth, and that the powers of the world were
to triumph. "It was a heavy trial," Calvin remarks, in the
Introduction to his Commentary on Daniel, " when the Jews
had to suffer an exile of seventy years ; but, after their return to
their own land, God delayed their final deliverance seventy pro-

SKETCH OF OLD TESTAMENT HISTORY. 19
phetic weeks, instead of seventy years. The delay was multiplied
sevenfold. Surely, then, their hearts might fail them a thousand
times, might even be nigh unto apostasy. For the promises of
salvation, given by the prophets, were so glorious, that the Jews
looked for the commencement of the state of perfect blessedness
and salvation as soon as they should be delivered from the Baby
lonian captivity. Far from this, however, numerous calamities
came upon them, and that, not only during a short time, but for
more than four hundred years, while the captivity itself lasted
but seventy, so that their redemption might well look like a
mockery. It can scarcely be doubted, therefore, that Satan
tempted many souls to apostasy, making them believe, as if God
had been mocking them, by bringing them out of Chaldea into
their own land. For these reasons, God showed His servant, in
a vision, the numerous and heavy afflictions which awaited the
chosen people " The servant of God, who was chosen to receive
these new revelations, was Daniel.
It seems to me that, among all commentators, Magnus Frederick
Boos, " the great investigator of Scripture, full of quiet depth,"
as Delitzsch calls him, has recognised more profoundly and
clearly than any others, the turning-point which the captivity
forms in the whole history of the divine kingdom, and its bear
ing on the principles that ought to guide the interpretation of the
prophecies of Daniel. When pastor in Lustnau, near Tubingen,
in 177]., he published an excellent work, Interpretation of the
Prophecies of Daniel, which reach to the times of the New
Testament ; to which is added, a Comparison with the Revela
tion of John, according to Bengel's Exposition. In the very first
paragraph of the Introduction, viewing " the kingdom of God,
in connection with domestic and political institutions," he divides
the history of the world into four great periods, 1. From Adam till
the Exodus out of Egypt ; 2. From the Exodus till the beginning
of the Babylonian captivity; 3. From the captivity till the
commencement of the millenium, or, as Roos erroneously assumes;
(and Bengel likewise), the " two thousand years" (Rev. xx. 1-6)

20 SKETCH OF OLD TESTAMENT HISTORY.
4. From these two thousand years till the end of the world. It
is to be observed that the third period, and its transitions to the
fourth, is exactly the time embraced by Daniel's prophecy. This
view of Boos may, at first sight, seem strange, but the proof and
detailed examination which he gives in connection with this
division, abound so much in suggestive views of Holy Scripture,
that we cannot refrain from adding the entire chapter as an
appendix. Compare, besides, on the importance of that period
of the kingdom of God, which commences with the exile, Mich.
Baumgarten, the Night Visions of Zechariah, i. p. 24, etc.

II. THE POSITION OE DANIEL.
I. THE POSITION OF THE PROPHET AT THE BABYLONIAN COURT.
The new revelation which the people of God required for the
period beginning with the Babylonian captivity, was to teach
them how to regard the powers of the world which they were to
obey ; to teach them their nature and purpose, and then to show
them the relation in which the work of salvation which was to
begin in Israel, stood to them. A new subject was thus given
to prophecy, which, in the nature of things, could not have been
given before the captivity, but which now forced itself, as it
were, by an internal necessity.
But if, according to God's intention, a revelation was, to be
given concerning the powers of the world and their development,
the prophet must needs take a different stand-point from his
predecessors; for the Divine Word has always a historical starting
point, and thus, its organ, is made fit to receive the divine
revelation. Revelation does not fall from heaven like a written
, book, which one has but to take into his hands and read ; but a
man must first receive it into his living spirit, and afterwards
write it down, so that it may be adapted to the necessities and
the horizon of men. And, to qualify him for this work, his

SKETCH OF OLD TESTAMENT HISTORY. 21
historical position must be such that the word from above is not
altogether strange to him, such that his whole situation may be,
so to say, the human question to which revelation proclaims the
divine answer. As the subject of revelation now was no longer
as it had been in the times of the earlier prophets, Israel in its
relation to the powers of the World, but the powers of the world
in their relation to Israel, so the man of God who was chosen
to prophesy of this, could not have lived among his own people,
but, necessarily, at the very centre of the heathen world-power.
For only there could he gain such a clear insight into its nature
and development, as would fit, him for receiving the revelation
from on high. Thus Daniel's prophetic watchtower was erected
beside the throne in Babylon ; and, standing here, in and yet
above the first world monarchy, he looked out into the farthest
future, and discerned with prophetic eye, which God had
opened, the changing shapes and events of coming kingdoms, in
their relation to the people of God.
From tender youth, to extreme age, for more than seventy
years, the prophet lived at the Babylonian and Medo-Persian
court (i. 1, 6, 21 ; x. 1). But more than this, he took part in
the government of the state, in which he occupied a high official
position (ii. 48'; v. 29 : vi. 29 ; viii. 27). He was thus enabled
to gain an insight and knowledge of the organization of political
affairs in the kingdoms of the world, and fitted to be the
recipient of what, perhaps, I may be permitted to call, his
political revelations. But he has likewise obtained the spiritual
point of view. The experiences which Daniel made through
the deep humiliation of Nebuchadnezzar, through Belshazzar's
downfall, the rapid efflorescence, decay, and vanishing of the
Babylonian monarchy, the miraculous deliverance of himself
and his friends (chaps, iii.-vi.), all these events made on him a
profound impression, — that the powers of the world are tran
sitory, and the glory of the kingdom of God eternal.
Nor can we leave unnoticed the instruction he received in the
wisdom of the Chaldean magi. For, it is evident, for example,

22 SKETCH OF OLD TESTAMENT HISTORY.
from the Egyptian magicians who opposed Moses, that the
knowledge and arts of the heathen were not altogether with
out value. Was it not Chaldean magi who, led by the
star, sought the newly born King of the Jews ? a clear proof
that they were not totally devoid of wisdom,1 and also suggesting
the question whether there was not a tradition among them
traceable to their chief governor Daniel, who had received such
wonderful revelations concerning the King of the Jews, even to
the very time of His coming (ix. 24, etc.). The circumstance
that he was instructed three years in the wisdom of the Chaldees,
tended, at all events, to develop the high prophetical gifts which
he possessed by nature, and to familiarise his mind with those
mysterious regions (i. 4, 5, 17). A similar school was thus
provided for Daniel to that which his Egyptian education was
to Moses, or which the study of philosophy is for the theologian
of our own day. Materially, it is true he had learnt nothing
from the Chaldeans, but soon excelled them ten times in all
matters of wisdom and understanding (i. 19, 20; 1 Cor. ii. 6,
etc.). And let us diligently remember how faithfully and con
scientiously this true Israelite, in whom was no guile, kept him
self, from his youth, unspotted from all heathen contamination,
and the sincerity and single-heartedness with which he served
God in circumstances of extreme difficulty, surrounded by most
alluring temptations, nay, in the face of death itself (i. 8, etc. ;
vi, 1, etc.). He who is to receive or interpret divine revelation,
must not feed on the dainties, nor drink from the intoxicating
cup of this world. Daniel, with his three friends, stand out like
an oasis in the desert, like a light in the darkness. This light
shone bright with comfort to the people of God while they
languished in exile ; and the prophet to whom they looked as
their inward and outward support in this time of calamity,
became as dear and venerable a name to his compatriots as
1 Comp. Lutterbeck, die neutestamentl. Lehrbegrirfe i., p. 357, etc.

SKETCH OF OLD TESTAMENT HISTORY. 23
Noah and Job, who likewise stood alone in their godliness among
a crooked and perverse generation, and in the midst of the
judgments of God (Ez. xiv. 14, comp. xxviii. 3). But more
than this ; the light condemned the darkness of the heathen.
Daniel spoke the truth to Nebuchadnezzar with all boldness and
earnestness ; and the powerful ruler humbled himself before the
almighty and only true God, and to Him gave all honour (Dan.
iv.). Yet, notwithstanding the high distinctions and honours he
enjoyed at the heathen court, he clung to his people with his
very heart of hearts ; and how entirely and inwardly he lived in
the sufferings and hopes of his people, what nothingness all the
world was to him in comparison to the kingdom of God ; of this
the ninth chapter and the prayer it contains, are a most affect
ing witness.
Such a man was suited above every other, to become a pure
organ for the divine revelation needed at the time. His political
position formed, so to say, the body ; the school of magicians in
which he had studied, the soul ; his mind strong in faith and
nourished by the writings of the earlier prophets (ix. 2), the
spirit of his prophecy, which only waited to be kindled by the
spirit of revelation from above. So divine providence prepares
its organs for divine revelation.
Daniel has been compared to Joseph, and justly. The one
stands at the commencement, the other at the end of the Jewish
history of revelation ; they were both representatives of the
true God and His people at heathen courts ; both were exemplary
in their pure walk before the Lord ; both were endowed with the
gift of bringing into clear light the dim presentiments of truth,'
which express themselves among the heathen in God-sent dreams ;
both were gifted with marvellous wisdom and insight, and, for
this reason, highly honoured by the powers of this world. They
represent the calling of Israel to be a holy people, a royal priest
hood among the nations. The final end of the Old Testament
Theocracy, to lead to one universal, is clearly shown forth by their
history. Thus, also, they are types of Christ, the true Israel,

\

24 SKETCH OF OLD TESTAMENT HISTORY.
and types of the destiny of their nation, by which it would be a
light to lighten the Gentiles, a destiny which we yet await in the
fulfilment of the Apostle's words. Rom. xi. 12, 15. Hegel, in
a well-known passage of his Philosopy of History, has pointed
out, with great beauty and spiritual meaning, the significance of
the two youths, Achilles and Alexander, the one standing at
the entrance, the other at the end of Grecian history, and re
marks, that the whole nature and life of the Hellenic people is
mirrored in these two characters. Joseph and Daniel present
a similar phenomena in the sacred history of Israel. The
latter, in every respect, more visibly blessed than the former,
an Alexander compared to an Achilles, is the most prominent
figure and the greatest character, in the last centuries of the
Old Covenant ; the most excellent example of a true Israelite.
Such a man was called to be the Apocalyptic Prophet of the
Old Testament. And since we know that the prophet of the
New Testament was the disciple whom Jesus loved, the circum
stance that God has chosen two of the best men under the Old
and New Covenant to receive and record his Apocalypses, must
fill us with a deep reverence for their apocalyptic revelations.

II. THE POSITION OF THE BOOK IN THE HEBEEW CANON.
We have seen that the prophecy of Daniel differs essentially
from those of the earlier prophets ; that, owing to his position,
it must differ. In Daniel an entirely new world opens to our
eye. " Even the student who has obtained an intimate acquaint
ance with the other prophets > of the Old Testament, who has
imbibed their spirit, who is familiar with their language, modes
of conception, and various poetical forms, will feel himself here
in a foreign land, and will find fruits which have ripened, not in
Palestine, but in a totally different soil and climate" 1 And
this accounts for the circumstance, that the collectors of the Old
1 Eichhorn, Einleit. in's Alte Testament iv., p. 472.

SKETCH OF OLD TESTAMENT HISTORY. 25
Testament Canon have not placed Daniel among the other
prophets. His peculiar position in the heathen court is reflected
in his peculiar position in the canon.
Daniel is as essentially different from the other prophets, as
the Apocalypse of John from the Apostolic Epistles. The pro
phetical books of the Old Testament have this in common with
the epistles of the New, that they originated in the immediate
wants of the people of God, and are therefore written primarily
for their contemporaries. Prophets and apostles stand in the
most intimate and real relation to Israel and the Church ; their
writings are the expression of this fact ; they bear the impress of
it. It is quite otherwise with Daniel and the apocalyptic writer
of the New Testament. Far from being in immediate contact
with the congregation, we find them isolated, the one at the
court of a heathen power, the other on a lonely island rock
(Rev. i. 9) ; they are alone with their God. They do not see
and write exclusively, not even chiefly, for the Church of the
time, but much more for future generations. This is manifest
from their writings. They have a different purpose to serve ;
they bear a different character from the other prophetic or apos
tolic books, as will be shown more at length. This difference,
hinted already by the Rabbies, and more fully pointed out by
Witsius, who attributed to Daniel the prophet's gift, but not his
office, naturally found its expression in the position of the two
apocalyptic books in the canon. In the New Testament we do
not find the writings of John arranged together like those of
Paul ; Daniel is separated from the prophets in the Old. As he
lived among the heathen, he was not n<23 (prophet) in the strict
sense of the word; and, at least in later Jewish theology, the nil
HNiaa of the cx^i was distinguished from the unprr mi which
was ascribed to the DVaina, i.e., the spirit of prophecy divinely
inspired in a wider sense, as it may be ascribed to the Psalms,
etc.1 1 Hengstenberg, Beitr. i. p. 28. Oehler, Prolegomena zur Theologie des
Alten Testaments, p. 93.

26 SKETCH OF OLD TESTAMENT HISTORY.
Thus Daniel could be placed only among the Hagiographa.
The remark of Havernick deserves consideration. " The book
appears in a collection which contains no other prophet. Hence
we conclude that this position was assigned to the prophet de
liberately. Were the book an interpolated one, it would, doubt
less, have been smuggled into the collection of the prophets.
Consequently, the position of the book in the canon, and the
general fact of its being still received, are proof of its genuine
ness."1 But, if we examine the canonical position of Daniel more
closely, we find that it separates the historical books of the time
after the captivity, that it is placed between Esther on the one
side, and Ezra and Nehemiah on the other. Leaving out of
consideration a more special reason which we shall afterwards
mention, and which, probably, accounts for it, we conclude from
this that the collectors regarded Daniel as the prophetic historian
of the period of the kingdom of God, commencing with the cap
tivity. This is exactly the view expressed in modern times by
Bengel, when he calls Daniel the politician, chronologer, and
historian, among the prophets, a view which commends itself to
us as the correct and necessary one, if we but consider the his
torical constellation that marked the appearance of Daniel. If
the words of the great Bacon of Verulam find application any
where, it is here : " Prophecy is a kind of Historiography, but
divine Historiography differs from human in this, that the narra
tive may either prevent or follow the events."
We have now to show how fitly the book corresponds, both in
form and contents, to this historical position, and the task it in
volved. ( Let us first look at the contents of the book.
1 Commentar, p. 39.

DIVISION OF THE BOOK. 27

CHAPTER II.
CONTENTS OE THE BOOK.
I. INTRODUCTION AND DIVISION OF THE BOOK.
The prophet prefixes to the first chapter a historical and bio
graphical introduction, narrating how he was carried away into
Babylon, his life at the Babylonian court, and the instruction
he enjoyed for three years, in the wisdom and literature of the
Chaldeans. The last circumstance is mentioned with immediate
reference to the truth, that the only true God whom he faithfully
served, vouchsafed to him an insight chiefly into dreams and
visions, which far excelled all the sciences of the heathen magi
cians (v. 17, 20). Daniel appears here as the representative of
his nation.1 The political servitude, the exile of Israel, is mir
rored forth in his position as an enemy led away into captivity ;
while the clear illumination given to him, and to him alone,
must be regarded as showing the infinite superiority which the
covenant people enjoyed in regard to religion and revelation,
over all heathen usurpers. For this reason, the prophet pur
posely mentions several events of this kind, in which he stands
opposed to the celebrated Chaldean sages (whom he regards here
as the representatives of the heathen religion and wisdom in
general), and in which they are utterly confounded before him
(chaps, ii., iv., v.). Moreover, the fact that, by the divine wis
dom imparted to him, he soon attained to the highest honours
1 This answers the objection brought forward against the genuineness of
our Book, from passages such as 1, 17-20, 9, 23, which contain praises of Daniel.
Compare also Hengstenberg 's valuable answer with reference to the prophet's
person. — Beit. 221.

28 DIVISION OF THE BOOK.
and dignities, even in a worldly political sense, is a type that, in
future, the kingdom, power, and might, will be given to the holy
people of the Most High (vii. 27). In this way, the personal
history of Daniel forms not merely the historical starting-point,
but the typical foundation of his prophecy. And for this reason,
the following chapters (especially from iii.-vi.) contain several
biographical notices of himself and his friends, inserted among
the prophecies. "The prophets had always to experience, in
themselves, and in their age, something of what they prophesied
about future times ; just as David felt much of the sufferings of
Christ in His own person. Comp. Hos. i.-iii. ; Joel i. ; Jonah i.,
etc. The prophets became also types. Their prophecies grew
intensely pathetic, not delivered and written on paper with cool
reflection ; and tribulation taught them to take heed of the word
which came to them concerning the future.1
The remaining eleven chapters form the two parts of which
the book consists. The first, embracing chapters ii.— vii., repre
sent the development of the powers of the world, viewed from a
world historical point. The second (chap, viii.-xii.) shows us
the development of the powers of the world, in their relation to
Israel, especially in that future near the prophet's own age, and
which preceded the coming of Christ in the flesh, foretold in the
ninth chapter. This division of the book is of great importance
to a right understanding of it. If we were to judge, from our
present point of view, from which we can see only a partial
fulfilment of the prophecies, we might be inclined to think that
a full disclosure of the future was required only for the period
preceding the advent of our Lord, since divine revelation was
then to burst forth in new brightness. But, in the first place, it
is a general characteristic of prophecy to look forward to the
last days of complete fulfilment, since it is impossible to under
stand the individual facts in the organic history of salvation,
except in their connection with the whole, — to understand them
1 Roos, p. 44,

DIVISION OF THE BOOK. 29
in their course, without regard to the final goal. Secondly, it
must be borne in mind, that Israel, according to the words of the
prophet, looked forward to the Messianic time, expecting not
only what was realized at the first coming of Christ, but also the
visible restoration of the kingdom, which even now we, too, are
still expecting. What they needed, therefore, was primarily
and chiefly a revelation concerning that time, and concerning so
much of the history of the world as would elapse before it. The
whole period into which Israel entered at the commencement of
the captivity, and which has not yet terminated in our days, the
period of the dominion of the powers of the world, from the
downfall till the final restoration of the Theocracy, was the
-period which was to be revealed by the light of prophecy. The
first coming of Christ introduced no material change into this
period of the world's dominion, for the kingdom of Christ had
not as yet fulfilled its destiny, and become the kingdom of the
world (John xviii. 36 ; Matt. iv. 8 ; and, on the other hand,
Rev. xi. 15). A general survey, therefore, of the nature, deve
lopment, and final destiny of the power of the world, had to
precede the disclosures concerning the immediate future. Thus
each of these two parts has its characteristic objects ; and it is
evident, even at this stage of the investigation, why the pro
phecy must needs be more special in the second part than in the
first. Daniel himself marked the two divisions very distinctly, by
writing the first in Chaldee, and the second, as well as the in
troduction (chap, i.), in Hebrew. In the first part he used
the language of the worldly power under which he' lived ; in
the second, he used that of the people of God. Thus he
signified that, in the one place, it was the history of the powers
of the world ; in the other, the history awaiting the people of
God, which formed the centre of his prophecy. This not only
accounts, simply and naturally, for the change of language, but
it also strongly corroborates our division, and, consequently, our
general view of the book.

30 DIVISION OF THE BOOK.
Those who impugn the genuineness of our book, are, in the
first place, unable to account for the circumstance of the two
dialects, in general ; and, secondly, for their occurrence in these
definite chapters. From the time of the exile, the Chaldee-
Aramaic dialect became more and more general among the
Jews, and, in the age of the Maccabees, was the prevalent
language.1 An interpolator would certainly have written the
whole book, in the holy language of the ancient prophets, in
Hebrew. But, if he wished to write any portion in Aramaic, in
order to be more easily understood by his contemporaries, he
would much more naturally have chosen the second rather than
the first part of the book for this purpose, as it had much more
immediate and distinct reference to his own time, and was much
more intended to influence the generation then living.
But the distinct line of demarcation, which the change from
one language to the other draws between the two parts, is of
still greater importance. The common division of Daniel, ac
cording to its contents, is different from our own ; the division,
namely, into two equal parts, each consisting of six chapters, on
the ground that the first part contains history, the second, visions.
For the dream of Nebuchadnezzar, in the second chapter, is re
corded in a perfectly historical shape, and has a parallel, in the
second dream, of the same thing narrated in the fourth chapter.
And if the seventh chapter, containing the first of Daniel's own
visions, were joined to the second part, it would give some con
firmation to the view, according to which this, as well as the
other visions of the prophet, refer to Antiochus Epiphanes, and
this would naturally affect also the interpretation of the second
chapter, so that the four monarchies would be regarded as ex
tending only to Antiochus. But, the author himself has removed
all grounds for such an hypothesis, by writing the seventh
chapter in Chaldee, and thus clearly indicating that it belongs to
the first part. He thus shows, in a manner not to be mistaken,
1 Comp. Hengstenberg Beitr. 299, etc.

THE SECOND CHAPTER. 31
the method of his book, how it consists of two parts, different
both in form and contents.

n. THE FIRST PART.
THE KINGDOM OF GOD AND THE KINGDOM OF THE WORLD
IN GENERAL.
I. THE SECOND CHAPTER. THE FOUR MONARCHIES AND THE
MESSIANIC KINGDOM.
The chief subject of the first part is, as we have already stated,
the four world-monarchies, which, having succeeded each other,
finally usher in the kingdom of God. This subject is presented
to us in two visions, one of which opens (chap, ii.), the other
closes (chap, vii.) the first part.
^t is important and characteristic, that the person who first
beholds, in a dream, the entire future development of the king
dom of the world, is not the prophet Daniel (though he after
wards interprets the dream), but the world's ruler, Nebuchad
nezzar. It was from the first of its representatives, who had
conquered the Theocracy, that the world-power was to learn its
own destiny, and that it would in its turn be subduedj and sub
dued for ever by the kingdom of God. It may at first sight
seem strange, that the world-ruler should be chosen as an organ
of revelation. But, though the power of the world, when viewed
from the stand-point of eternity, is a mere nothing, which at the
end of days shall disappear, without leaving a vestige behind,
yet, on the other hand, the position of a king of universal do
minion is so important for so much of the history as lies on this
side of the end, and for the world-historical realization of the
Divine plan, that God calls him by the same names as are
applied to the beginner and the finisher of the Theocratic king-

32 THE SECOND CHAPTER.
dom— David and the Messiah : " my servant," " my shepherd,"
" mine anointed," " who fulfils all my work," " whose right
hand I have holden" (Jer. xxv. 9 ; Ez. xxviii. 12-15 ; Isa.
xliv. 28 ; xiv. 1). This serves to explain why a revelation from
on high' was vouchsafed to a king, who, moreover, as such,
reflects the Divine Majesty (Ps. lxxxii. 1, 6; Rom. xiii. 1, etc.).
And for a ruler who stands without the kingdom of God, a
dream is the only fitting and possible form 'of revelation ; as we
find it employed in the case of Abimelech, of Pharaoh, and
others (Gen. xx. and xli.) ; and, besides, we must remember
that the heathen world looked much to the importance of dreams
in general. Yet, it is worthy of remark, that the heathen prince
only received the dream, but is unable to understand it, either
of himself, or by the assistance of his wise men. On the con
trary, the dream but perplexes and torments him, and he cannot
obtain tranquillity or clearness, until an enlightened Israelite
offers him the key of interpretation. Thus heathendom is merely
passive, while Israel remains active in divine things, so that here
also power redounds to the " God of heaven," and his peculiar
economy of revelation alone. Perhaps the powerful impression
made by this revelation and its accompanying circumstances on
the mind of Nebuchadnezzar, was intended to alleviate the
sufferings endured by the people of God in their captivity. But
the dream of the king, and its interpretation, opened up to Daniel
a glance into the future of the kingdoms of the world, disclosed
to him a whole circle of visions, and thus prepared him for the
reception of further and more special revelations ; so that the
event possessed for him the character of a preparatory edu
cation. But, to come to particulars. God caused the world-power,
viewed in its totality, to appear to Nebuchadnezzar, under the
figure of a colossal human form, whose head of gold represents
the Babyjonjan, whose breast and arms of silver the Medo-
Persian, whose body and loins of brass the Greco-Macedonjan,
whose legs of iron, and feet, partly iron and partly clay, the

THE SECOND CHAPTER. 33
i
Roman empire, with its Germano-Slavonic offshoots.1 In accord
ance with the general plan of the prophecy, those kingdoms only
are mentioned which stand in some relation to the kingdom of
God ; but of these none is left out. " The establishment of the
kingdom of God is the aim of His creation, the end. of His
government of the world. The kingdom of God is the invisible
root which sustains and supports the kingdoms of the world —
the invisible power by which the kingdoms of the world are
smitten and crushed down. The duration, importance, and dig
nity of the kingdoms of the world, is fixed by their nearer or
remoter connection with the kingdom of God. It would be
utterly valueless to know beforehand the fate and history of all
the kingdoms of 'the earth, which bear either a very distant or
no relation whatever to the kingdom of God. For whatever
history they may liave, it is insignificant, since it exerts but a
slight influence, or none at all, in delaying or advancing the last
and final development of things, the crushing of the kingdoms
of the world by the kingdom of God."2
The entire image which Nebuchadnezzar saw was broken in
pieces by a stone, which, springing out from a mountain cliff
without the aid of human hands, increased till it became a great
mountain, filling the whole earth, and typified the kingdom of
God. The simple description of the last scene is of such divine
grandeur and holy sublimity, that one feels it is no human
i Luther already in his time thought the clay suggestive of the transition of
the empire from the Romans to the Germans, and that those truly were
" Spain, France, England, and other portions," into which the kingdom
branches out, like the foot into toes. Whilst Calvin erroneously understands
the stone that smote the image to refer to the first coming of Christ, ' Luther
remarks, that the fourth kingdom must remain till the last day. Roos also
conceives the clay to signify the nations at the time of the universal emigra
tion, and correctly infers, that the fourth empire is still existing. Comp.
Preiswerk, Morgenlaud, 183*8, p. 33, etc.; Hofmann "W eissag. " u. L'rfull, i.,
p. 278, etc. ; Gaussen, Daniel le Prophete, 2d edition, 1850, i., p. 150, ete. The
more detailed proof will be given subsequently.
2 Menken, das Monarctaeenbildj.Rr.emen und Auricb, 1809, p. 82. C

34 THE SECOND CHAPTER.
thought, but a revelation from the sanctuary of heaven. " Then
was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold,
broken to pieces together, and became like the chaff of the
summer threshing-floors ; and the wind carried them away, that
no place was found for them : and the stone that smote the image
became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth" (v. 34).
Where, among all the poets and historians of antiquity and
modern times, is there a passage which, for simplicity and
majesty, can be compared with these words? Even prophecy,
in the days of her fairest bloom, and in her sublimest visions
{e.g. Is. ii. 11, etc.; xl. 15, 17), never spoke aught more ma
jestic. The return of the world-power is described in all its
splendour ; but the colossus of metal stands on weak feet of
clay. All the glory of men, which seemed so precious and
enduring, is in truth as worthless and ephemeral as chaff.
While the kingdom of God, — which, compared with the wondrous
colossus, was as insignificant and unheeded as a stone on the
ground, but which is yet compact in itself, and by its unity
differs from the world-power, in the manifold succession of whose
forms lies the symbol of decay, — the kingdom of God will, at last,
in a future which even to us is still a future, put a speedy end
to all violent commotions of the world, and establish itself upon
the earth, filling all things with its glory (comp. 2 Thess. ii. 8 ;
Matt. v. 5 ; Rev. xi. 15 ; xx. 4). The relation between stone
and mountain is the same as that between the kingdom of the
cross and the kingdom of glory ; at the same moment that the
kingdom of God breaks in pieces the kingdoms of the world, it
ceases to be regnum crucis, and becomes regnum gloriae. The oppo
sition in which the Divine view of the world stands to the
human, the contrast between the biblical and the profane aspect
of history (Matt. xvi. 23), is scarcely ever so strongly marked
as here. As Jesus assumed the designation of His person — Son
of Man — with reference to Dan. vii., so we can trace to our
passage his fundamental ideas on the relation of the kingdom of
heaven to the world, and see an express allusion to it in Matt.

THE SEVENTH CHAPTER. 35
xxi. 44, " On whomsoever this stone shall fall, it shall grind
him to powder."

II. THE SEVENTH CHAPTER. CONTINUATION.
In the seventh chapter, Daniel receives a revelation on the
same subject. The outward political history had been shown
in general features to the worldly ruler ; for by his position he
was peculiarly and almost exclusively fitted to receive a revela
tion of this kind. But the prophet obtains more minute dis
closures, especially on the. spiritual and religious character of
the powers of the world, and such as were best adapted to his
position and his receptivity.
This difference of character in the revelation easily explains
the difference of images. While in the second chapter they are
taken from the sphere of the inanimate, which has only an
external side, they are chosen, in the seventh chapter, from the
sphere of the animate. Farther, as Nebuchadnezzar saw things
only from without, the world-power appeared to him in its glory
as a splendid human figure, and the kingdom of God in its
humility as a stone ; at first he beheld the world-power more
glorious than the kingdom of God. Daniel, on the other hand,
to whom it was given to penetrate further into the inner essence
of things, saw that the kingdoms of the world, notwithstand
ing their defiant power, are of a nature animal and lower
than human, that their minds are estranged from and even
opposed to God, and that only in the kingdom of God is the
true dignity of humanity revealed ; and, accordingly, the king
dom of God appears to him from the outset, and in the very
selection of images, superior to the kingdom of this world. For
though the beasts excel man in physical brute force, and though
measured by this standard he appears but a frail mortal, yet he
has essential spiritual power. The colossal figure that Nebu
chadnezzar beheld, represents mankind in its own strength and

36 THE SEVENTH CHAPTER.
greatness; but, however splendid, it presents only the outward
appearance of a man. But Daniel, regarding mankind in its
spiritual condition, saw humanity through its alienation from
God, degraded to the level of reasonless animals enslaved
by the dark powers of nature. It is only in the kingdom of God
that man gains his humanity and destiny; it is only from on
high that the living perfect Son of Man can come.
Passages like the eighth Psalm, taken in connection with the
history of creation (Gen. i. 26-28), which forms their basis,
show how vividly the Israelites were possessed with the con
sciousness of the superior dignity of our nature, and especially
over the animal world, given to man by his covenant relation
to God. And, as a counterpart to this, men are viewed as be
coming like the irrational beasts whenever they do not come to
God and take heed to His ways (Ps. Ixxiii. 22 ; xxxii. 9 ; xlix.
21). Humanity is impossible without divinity; it sinks down
to bestiality: For this reason we find the obstinate heathen
nations represented as beasts, even before Daniel's time (Ps.
lxviii. 31) ; the Egyptian monarch is called the great dragon
that lieth in the midst of his rivers (Ezek. xxix. 3 ; xxxii. 2),
the lion among the heathen ; comp. also Isa. xxvii. 1 ; li. 9.
" An animal may be more powerful, stronger, and inspire more
terror than any man, it may show much sagacity in its be
haviour, but it looks always to the ground, hears no voice of
conscience, and knows no relation to God. What truly elevates
man is his humility, and his power of knowing the will of God
which raises him above earthly objects. But the moment he
says, like Nebuchadnezzar (Dan. iv. 30), 'Is not this the great
Babylon which I have built,' he loses morally his relation to
God ; he exalts himself, and all that is really lofty in him is
destroyed, he becomes a beast. He may be very strong and
very mighty outwardly ; but what rightly elevates him, what is
the noblest element in his character, is indisputably his capacity
to remain in communion with God. But God also must remain
unchangeably God, i.e., if man is to retain his true dignity, he

THE FOUR BEASTS. 37
must always feel himself subject to God. Whenever he ceases
from this subjection, he yields his affections to objects lower
than himself, and thus degrades himself."1 We can only throw
out the suggestion, that most profound philosophical thoughts on
the difference between the heathen and the revealed religion are
concealed under this figurative language. Herder, Miinther, etc.,
have pointed out the peculiarly Babylonian character which the
animal symbolism in Daniel bears, and the recent excavations
among the ruins of Babylon and Nineveh, contain so many con
firmations of the book being written after the captivity, as they
show shapes of animals by which we are involuntarily reminded
of those occurring here, and which suggest the thought that an
acquaintance with sculptures of this kind may have proved a
psychological preparation for the visions in the seventh and
eighth chapters. The discoveries at Nineveh have been recently
applied for the elucidation of Nahum ; 2 we hope and wish that
the same service may soon be rendered to our prophet.
The four world-monarchies appear in the seventh chapter
under the images of four beasts. The three first are the lion,
the bear, and the leopard ; the fourth is so terrible, that it can
not be compared with any single animal in nature. In those
beasts to whose" voracity Israel is delivered, there is a most
striking fulfilment of the word which the Lord had spoken to His
apostate people, by the mouth of Hosea: "Therefore I will be
unto them as a lion ; as a leopard .by the way will I observe
them. I will meet them as a bear that is bereaved of her
whelps, and will rend the caul of their heart, and there will I
devour them like a lion : the wild beast shall tear them " (Hos.
xiii. 7, 8; comp. Jer. v. 6 ; iv. 7 ; ii. 15). Many a time these
words of God may have . passed through Daniel's mind as he
gazed on the Babylonian sculptures, which were, so to say, the
' Lectures on the Prophet Daniel, in nine evenings. Translated from the
French. Diisseldorf, 1849, p. 32.
2 Nahumi de Nino Vatieinium explicavit ex Assyriis Monumentis Illustravit.
Otto Strauss. Berolini, 1853.— [Tb.]

38 THE FOURTH KINGDOM.
ensigns of the power of the world ; and now he saw their fulfil
ment. So there would be not only a natural, but also a spiritual
preparation for the vision. On the other hand, the kingdom of
God, after judgment has been pronounced on the powers of the
world, appears in the shape of the Son of Man, who comes from
above on the clouds of heaven, while the beasts rise out of the
depths of the sea (John viii. 23).
If we look now at the monarchies separately, we observe that the
second and third are briefly passed over, since they had to he
described at length in the second part of the book. Nor was it
necessary to say much about the first, for it was contemporary
with the prophet, and a bare mention of its existence, such as he
gives ii. 37, 38, was sufficient. The chief emphasis, therefore,
falls on the fourth. But there is another and still deeper cause
for this, which we must seek in the nature of prophecy itself.
For it is a general and characteristic feature of biblical prophecy,
that it puts into the clearest light those phases in which the
essence of things is revealed, in which their true and innermost
nature comes into fullest manifestation. Prophecy dwells chiefly
on the end of the powers and factors about which revelations
are given, because it is there that a long-preceding development
reaches its consummation, and for the first time unfolds its
true nature. This is especially applicable to our seventh chap
ter, which purports to reveal the innermost nature of the world-
power, and in which, therefore, most emphasis is laid upon the
fourth kingdom (ver. 7, 8, 11, 19-26). For it is in the fearful
shape of the last beast, that the world-power will fully manifest
that its whole nature is opposed to God, and we are prepared
for this climax by the order in which the metals are mentioned
in the second chapter, where they are successively of a baser
nature. But as the interest which attaches to the four
monarchies is led rapidly over the first three to centre in the
last, so, for the same reason, in considering the last we are led
to its final shape. In accordance with the whole character of
this revelation, the second chapter treated of the historical and

THE ANTICHRIST. 39
political development to take place within the fourth monarchy,
for we find two periods distinctly marked, — the iron, and that of
iron and clay. The last development of this kingdom had not
as yet become an object of special attention, but was merely
indicated by the ten toes. In the seventh chapter, however,
where the central point is the religious element and not the
political, we do not find that feature particularly mentioned
which was pictured in the second chapter, by the distinction
between iron and clay; but the description hastens on to the
representation of the ten horns (in which we recognise at the
first glance the ten toes of the second chapter), and it introduces
them merely to show how an eleventh has sprung up in their
midst, a king in whom the full haughty hatred and rebellion of
the world against God, His people, and His service, finds its
representative. In the seventh chapter the distinction between
iron and clay is omitted ; in the second chapter there is no men
tion of this last antichristian ruler of the world. In this descrip
tion of the last monarchy, the distinct and individual character
of the two visions is most clearly manifested in the peculiar
features to which each of them gives prominence.
The essential nature of the kingdom of the world appears con
centrated in the fourth kingdom ; the nature of the fourth king
dom, in like manner, in its last worldly ruler. Thus it is only
at the end that the peculiar character of the world-power, the
mystery of iniquity, is unveiled, and we repognise in the
eleventh horn no other than he whom Paul calls " the man of
sin," and " the son of perdition" (2 Thess. ii). Here, for the first
time in the development of revelation, the idea of Antichrist is
clearly unfolded, because, here for the first time the entire course
of the development of the godless and God-opposing world is
Clearly surveyed down even to its very end. It is worthy of
notice, moreover, how we are led in the descriptions of Daniel,
to see in this man the complete evolution of the evil principle
introduced by the fall. When his characteristic marks are men
tioned (ver. 8, 20), eyes like the eyes of a man — the symbol of

40 THE SON OF MAN.
wisdom — and a mouth speaking great things, a mouth which gives
most iniquitous utterance to the inward revolt against God, we
are reminded of Gen. iii. 5, where the serpent promises to man
that his eyes will be opened, and that he will be like unto God,
if he but rebel against the commandment. There we trace the
beginning, here the consummation : — intellectual culture ; but the
heart and being in the most daring opposition to the living God
— self-apotheosis.But now, in the person of the Son of Man, the kingdom of
God appears to take the place of the kingdom of the world. We
are met at once by the question, Who is the Son of Man 1 Is he
the people of Israel or the Messiah ? In favour of the former
view Hofmann and Hitzig can adduce the explanation contained
in the text itself (ver. 18, 22, 27), that the angel mentions only
the saints of the Most High, or the people of the saints of the
Most High. But we must bear in mind, that the expositions
annexed to the visions do not purport to give a complete expla
nation, but are merely intended to throw light upon those points
more immediately necessary for the understanding of the pro
phecy, and intended only to meet a present want. They are not
to take the place of a diligent search into the word of prophecy
(1 Pet. i. 11), but to guide us to the right path. This principle
is acknowledged in the case, for instance, of the explanation
given about iron and clay, in chap. ii. 41-43, an explanation
which certainly neither contains, nor was intended to contain all
that was symbolized by that image. Now, in the passage before
us, the immediate object was to alleviate the sorrow which
Daniel felt for the fate of his people ; and in the explanation,
therefore, stress is naturally laid on that point. And even if we
felt bound to adhere so strictly to the words of the angel as to
consider the people to be intended, yet as Hofmann points out
(p. 291), we could not conceive of them without their Messianic.
King. King and kingdom are quite as identical here as in the
world monarchies of which Daniel is commanded to say to
Nebuchadnezzar, " Thou art this head of gold" (ii. 38). But

THE SON OF MAN, THE MESSIAH. 41
this very parallel passage is much more in favour of the other
view. The king is the representative of the kingdom, to whom
the people are joined, and not he to the people. According to
the biblical view, the head always takes precedence of, and
includes the body, not the reverse. This applies particularly to
the Messiah, who applies the name, Son of Man, to Himself.
But our text contains two positions, which decide against the
view of the two commentators we have mentioned. In the first
place, the Son of Man came down from heaven ; for no one will
understand, with Hofmann, His coming with the clouds of heaven
to signify His being borne from earth to heaven (comp. Matt.
xxvi. 64) ; nor will any one adopt Hitzig's view, that the people
of Israel is to come down from heaven. In the second place we
find the saints themselves mentioned in the vision (ver. 21) ; if
they are introduced in person, they cannot also be represented
by the Son of Man. We must take the expression Son of Man,
therefore, to designate the Messiah, and to designate His people
only secondarily, and as represented by Him (comp. Gal. iii. 16,
28 ; 1 Cor. xii. 12). . In this particular, also, the idea Son of
Man corresponds to that other : Servant of Jehovah, of which we
shall presently have occasion to speak.
It is quite in keeping with the universal horizon of Daniel's
prophecy, that Messiah is not designated as the Son of David,
but, in general, as the Son of Man ; no more as King of Israel
only, but as King of the world. The prophetic horizon has re
turned to its original extent, as it was in the Protevangel in
Paradise. There, as now again here, all mankind — humanity —
was within the field of prophecy.1 As we have already seen in
1 This universal character of apocalyptic prophecy is imitated, in a very ex
ternal manner, in some apocryphal apocalypses, in which the revelations are
introduced as given to the progenitors of the human race before the election of
the peculiar people, as, for example, to Adam (in the Book of Adam, translated
recently by Dillmann) ; to Enoch ; to the Sibyl, said to be Noah's daughter-in-
law, etc. Lucke advances this ingenious hypothesis concerning Jewish Sibyl-
listic (p. 81-89) : He reminds us that among the Greeks the Sibyls represented
the general natural power of prophecy as distinguished from the positive

42 THE SON OF MAN AND THE SERPENT.
the image of Antichrist, the final development and consummation
of the principle of evil is shown, as in Gen. iii. ; and likewise, the
Son of Man here corresponds to the seed of the woman there,
and as it is promised of that seed that it shall bruise the serpent's
head, destroy the evil principle, so the Son of Man appears here
as the victor over that cosmical power which is opposed to God, and
embodied in the beast. In the former prophecy, the seed of the
serpent and the seed of the woman ; in the latter, the beast and
the Son of Man, are parallel antitheses. The connection of these
two passages is more explicitly pointed out in the Apocalypse.
For there the beast which, taken conjointly, corresponds to the
four beasts of Daniel, and which represents the power of the
world as a unity, is expressly drawn as a picture of the' great
dragon, the old serpent, the devil, and Satan, who seduces the
whole world ; and this is quite in accordance with that funda
mental view of John, that the devil is the prince of the world
(Rev. xiii. 1, 2 ; xii. 3, 9 ; John xii. 31 ; xiv. 30 ; comp. Luke
iv. 5, 6). Thus the beast which ascends from the sea, and
reaches its full development in Antichrist, represents the devil,
while the Son of Man, Christ, descending from heaven, repre
sents God. In assuming the likeness of a serpent, the devil as
sumed the form of a beast ; in the Son of Man, God appears in
the form of man. Man, by following the serpent, has given
place to the animal element, has become bestial. God, therefore,
must become man, so that man may cease to be beast-like. But
whoever rejects God's help, and follows the beast, will be judged
priestly oracle. When the Egyptian Jews began to blend their ancestral reli
gion with Hellenic elements for the sake of apologetic and missionary interests,
they adopted the Sibyl as a representative of prophecy of the Universal Ante
diluvian religion among the polytheistic nations. Then Hellenistic Universal-
ism penetrated also into the sphere of apocalyptic prophecy, and referred it to
the universal primeval era, in which Israel was not yet separated from the
Gentiles, and in which, consequently, the Sibyl of the heathens may as well he
quoted as the patriarchs mentioned in Genesis. This accounts, also, for the
predilection of those syncretistic times for apocalyptic writings. As high as
the canonical gospels stand above the apocryphal, so far do Daniel and St
John tower above the productions of their imitators.

SUFFERING AND VICTORY. 43
by the Son of Man, just because he is the Son of Man (John
v. 27).1
But it now remains for us to view the picture of the Messiah
presented by Daniel, in its relation to the prophecy which im
mediately precedes it. From the view we have already given
of the history of Israel, it will appear to the careful reader that,
in the development of the Old Testament Theocracy, the Baby
lonian captivity is the exact counterpart to the epoch of David.
This one epoch is the culminating point of the glorious exalta
tion of the people of the covenant, the other of their deepest
humiliation. Hence the types with which the kingdom of
David has furnished Messianic prophecy, disappeared at the time
of the exile, which substituted others in their place.2 These
types are twofold, as would be expected from the nature of the
case. On the one hand, the sufferings of the people are reflected
in the picture of the suffering Messiah; and this is the basis of
the prophecy of the servant of Jehovah, which Isaiah beheld in
his visions (xl.-lxvi.).? To this class, also, the ninth chapter of
our book belongs. On the other hand, in this very time of
suffering, the truth that in the kingdom of God the Cross is the
only way to glory, shines forth more brightly than ever before,
and there is a lively hope that after "the scattering of the power
of the holy people " is accomplished (Dan. xii. 7), the kingdom
of God will be set up among men with a power and extensive-
1 Comp. J. Richers, die Schopfungs-Paradieses-und Sjindflthgeschihte,
Leipzig, 1854, pp. 321, 333.
2 Comp. Stier, Jesaiah, nicht Pseudojesaiah, pp. xxxlv., xxxvii.
* Compare W. Hoffmann, die gottliche. Stufenordung des Alt. Test, (deutsche
Zeitsch. fur Christ. Wisseuschaft, February 1854, p. 62). " Even before the
exile there is a tone of suffering of the faithful servants of God, the prophets,
pervading the prophetic word. The law is broken, the curse therefore im
pending, the law exercises now its last and most lasting influence, conviction
of sin. Even the Servant of Jehovah, the highest Blossom of Theocracy, the
Anointed One, cannot enter into glory but by sufferings. He bears the sins
of His people, the old curse of the transgressed law, hut Ho removes it by His
vicarious obedience. The Messiah is the Lamb of God; a prophecy till then
almost unheard of in Israel."

44 SUFFERING AND VICTORY.
ness previously unknown. This is the prophetic vision of the
Son of Man (Dan. vii.). All these expressions are equally signi
ficant. Servant of God denotes zealous and patient obedience
to God ; Son of Man refers to the ground on which man is to
obtain again that original destiny and dignity as head of creation,
which was conferred upon him (Gen. i. 26-28). Both designa
tions of the Messiah have taken the place of the Davidic type.
The Messiah is no longer represented as the Theocratic King
coming to the covenant people, but He appears a centre of unity
both for the covenant people and the Gentile world. We see
here a similar progress to that which took place in the times of
the apostles from Judaism to Christianity. It will be easily
seen that this progress is intimately connected with the historical
position of the people during the captivity. Even in the picture
of the Messiah during the Davidic period, the two sides of
suffering and victory begin to appear prominently. The Mes
sianic psalms are divided into psalms of humiliation and of
triumph. And what we here see in its germ, we afterwards see
fully developed at the time of the captivity. On the one side
the atoning power of Messiah's sufferings is disclosed (Isa. liii.,
and Dan. ix.); on the other there is revealed that dominion
of the Messiah which, in the development of universal history, is
given to Him over the individual kingdoms of the world (Dan.
ii. 7). Prophecy has thus gained not only in depth, but in
breadth of view.
Turning now from the picture of Messiah contained in our
vision, we remark that, as regards the prophecy about the
powers of the world, Daniel has a remarkable predecessor in the
prophet Balaam. As Joseph is a type of Daniel in his political
and religious position, so Balaam is a type of him as a prophet.
As, at the commencement of the independent history of Israel,
we see this prophet who predicted blessings against his will, and
whose appearance issoexceedinglyinstructive for the psychological
student of prophecy, so we see Daniel, in a period which concludes,
for a time, the history of Israel as an independent Theocracy.

DAVID AND BALAAM. 45
Israel had but recently been delivered out of Egypt, and entrusted
with the divine law. It had thus but recently become a people,
and the people of God. As they pursue their journey to take
possession of their land, they come in contact for the first time
with heathen nations, with Edomites, Amorites, Moabites, etc.
Balak, king of the Moabites, calls on this marvellous man,
Balaam, to curse the people of the Most High. The prophet is
an Aramaean, dwelling on the banks of the Euphrates, and thus
placed, from the outset, in the land of Asiatic world movements.
But, like Melchisedek, he is endowed with the knowledge of the
true God, and he is at the same time gifted with extraordinary
prophetic power. All these features reappear in the person of
Daniel, and the same historical and personal situation forms a
substratum for similar prophetic phenomena ; with the natural
difference that in Balaam we find only the germ and rude out
lines of what is spread before our eyes by Daniel in grand and
finished pictures. Israel in conflict with the heathen world is
the point round which the prophecies of both centre. Standing,
beside Balak on the summit of Mount Peor, Balaam looks down
on the Israelitish camp (Num. xxiii. 28 ; xxiv. 2) ; he sees, by the
Spirit which came upon him, a kingdom rising from this blessed
nation which lies before him like a couching lion, a kingdom
which shall " eat up the nations " (xxiv. 7, 9), ' ' smite the
corners of Moab," conquer Edom, take Amalek for a possession,
waste the Kenites (ver. 17-22). Israel shall triumph over the
surrounding heathen. But Balaam has recognised the signifi
cance of Israel for the heathen world, and his spiritual vision
reaches into remoter epochs (xxiii. 8-10; xxiv. 8, 9). He sees
the mightier world-powers of the future, of the East (Asshur, ver.
22, 23), as well as of the West (Chittim, ver. 24). 'Nothing can
stand before them. Eber, and with Eber Israel, shall be
afflicted of them. "Thus the eye of Balaam was opened to
penetrate even into that depth of the future in which the people
of Jehovah would be subjected and given over to the powers of
the world." Nor does even this limit bound the horizon of his

4 6 DANIEL AND BALAAM.
vision. He sees also the end of these mighty world-powers.
Ships from Chittim must afflict Asshur ; the West must afflict
the East ; nor can the Western power itself escape its destined
ruin. The prophecy of the heathen seer tragically closes with
this glance at the wreck of all heathen power. He is not per
mitted even to predict clearly that Israel shall survive all the
revolutions of the powers of the world, though this is plainly
implied in the prophecy he had to utter before in ver. 8 and 9.
Have we not here the basis and outline of the prophecies of
Daniel ? The powers which Balaam designated by the ancient
names of Asshur and Chittim (Gen. x. 11 ; xxii. 4), Daniel,
the contemporary of Nebuchadnezzar and Cyrus, sees in the two
Eastern and the two Western kingdoms, Babylon and Medo-
Persia, Greece and Rome; and he sees also before and after
them, this Israel, " the people that dwell apart, and whom God
hath not cursed." If the opened eyes of Balaam pierced so far
into the future, how much farther the prophetic glance of a
Daniel.1 We are thus led to see, in Daniel, not only a further develop
ment of the Messianic prophecies as they existed in the centuries
immediately preceding him, but also a connection between him

1 Compare Baumgarten, Theolog. Comment, zum Pentateuch ii., 375-78.
Hofmann, Weiss, und Erfiill, i., 153. Havernick, Einleit. ins A. T. i., 2, p. 507-10.
It is natural that criticism, which does not know and recognise the spirit of
divine prophecy, should be sorely puzzled by the few concluding words of
Balaam. The mention of Assyria might be managed, by assuming the whole
passage to be written in the Assyrian time. But " the ships of Chittim, which
in Maccabees are referred to Alexander the Great, are enigmatic." De Wette
confessed formerly, that it seemed a real prophecy was contained here. Hitzig
and Ewald, assuming the Assyrian date of the prophecy, refer it partly to in
significant events, the former to an incursion of the Greeks into Cilicia during
the time of Sennacherib, the latter to a similar event during that of Salman-
assar; both events being mentioned incidentally by Eusebius and Josephus.
Much simpler are the expedients of Bertholdt, V. Lengerhe, and Bleek, who main
tain that the verse is an interpolation, probably of the Maccabean times. Thus
the resemblance with our prophet, the almost verbal coincidence with Dan. ii.
So, would be easily explained.

THE POWERS THAT BE— OF GOD. 47
and times much more remote. What Balaam saw of the powers
of the world, and their relation to Israel, in the commencement
of the holy national history, found its consummation in the dis
closures vouchsafed to Daniel ; and in the revelations of Daniel
concerning the Christ and the Antichrist is consummated the
prophecy which God himself had spoken at the commencement
of the history of the human race concerning the seed of the ser
pent and the seed of the woman. We regard this relation in
which Daniel stands to his predecessors as a strong internal evi
dence of the genuineness of the book ; an external evidence,
quite as strong, is afforded by his successor, Zechariah, who,
soon after the time of Daniel, clearly presupposes a knowledge
of the contents and details of Daniel's prophecies about the
powers of the world. For Hofmann has conclusively proven,
and Baumgarten has more fully elaborated his view, that the
four horns and carpenters, as well as the four chariots of
Zechariah's vision (Zech. i. 18-21; vi. 1-8), refer to the four
world monarchies of Daniel It is only in the light of this con
nection that the prophecy concerning Javan or Greece (Zech.
ix. 13, etc.), can be properly understood.
Before we proceed further, we must make a remark about the
kingdom of the world, although we must refer the reader to a
subsequent part of the book for a fuller statement. "These
kingdoms," Roos remarks (p. 65), " are of God (Dan. ii. 37 ;
Rom. xiii. 1), and therefore legitimate and worthy of respect."
But how can this be ? Is it not a contradiction, if holy Scrip
ture teaches with such emphasis, " that the powers that be
are ordained of God," and yet distinctly opposes the chief em
pires of the world, the most important of the " higher powers,"
to the kingdom of God, and characterises them as the concrete
manifestation of the God-opposed principle ? The Word of
God is free from error in general, and free, therefore, from
every illusion, every false and vain hope. It knows and pro
phesies clearly that all gifts of God, even the noblest, will be
polluted and corrupted in the hands of fallen man. The world

48 THE POWERS THAT BE — OF GOD.
itself is God's work, and exists continually in Him, for He
upholds it, and yet this same world lieth in wickedness, i.e., in
the devil (Coloss. i. 17; Acts xvii. 28 ; 1 John v. 18, 19).
And what is still more startling, the Church of the Old, and
even of the New Covenant, presents the same contradictory
aspect. She is the wife of Jehovah and of Christ, and yet be
comes a harlot ! So it is with states and kingdoms on the earth.
Their origin and nature are divinely appointed ; but they appear
in history, and in the final result to which their development
leads, in the service of sin, of destruction, of rebellion against
God. Herein consiststheinconceivable patience and long-suffering
of the Ruler of the world, that He leaves His gifts for thousands of
years in the hands of men, and yet beholds how they are con
taminated, defiled, caricatured by them, abused to purposes \the
most opposite to His intentions. He permits this for the sake
of His elect. In His patience He suffers State and Church to
endure, until, partly under the protection of these His economies,
partly under the pressure of their own evil administrations, the
congregation of His true children shall be gathered from among
all nations, for those times of refreshing when the Lord himself
shall rule and judge the nations, and the saints with Him.
Daniel was taught, by the events of his own life, by what
process the kingdoms of the world assume a character so hostile
to God ; and in order that we also may be instructed in this,
the wonderful and significant events of his life which we are
now about to consider, are interwoven with his prophecies.
The world-power which has the sway over all that is visible,
and which looks on the visible as the real, deifies itself, and re
bels haughtily against the living God and His saints. It is full
of overbearing courage, and offends, imputing this its power
unto its God (Hab. i. 11, 16),

events in Daniel's life. 4i)

III. REMARKABLE EVENTS IN DANIEL'S LIFE. — CHAP. III.-VI.
Between the visions of Nebuchadnezzar and Daniel, the first
part of our book contains four narratives out of the life of the
prophet. We read in the third chapter the wonderful deliver
ance from the fiery furnace, vouchsafed to his three friends, who
would not worship the golden image of Nebuchadnezzar. The
fourth chapter is an edict of Nebuchadnezzar, and contains a
second dream which he had, a dream relating to himself, and
fulfilled in himself. His haughtiness is punished by a visitation
of insanity, and he sinks to the level of the beasts ; but after he
has undergone his punishment, his human reason returns to him,
and he attains to even greater power than before, for which he
gives glory to the true God. The opposition between bestial and
human life, which we meet in this chapter, suggests important
thoughts preparatory to the exposition of the symbolism of the
seventh chapter, concerning the beasts and the Son of Man, and
essentially serves to corroborate our view of that passage ; it
throws light particularly on the remarks we made on chapter
vii. 4, about the first .beast. The fifth chapter narrates the
haughty pride of the Babylonian king, Belshazzar, at the ban
quet, the inscription which appeared on the wall, its interpretation
by Daniel, and the quick fulfilment of his prophetic words in the
judgment which burst upon the king on that very night. Finally,
the sixth chapter concludes the series of wonderful events in the
prophet's life, with the story of his miraculous rescue from the
lions' den, into which he had been thrown because he continued,
in spite of a royal prohibition, to pray to his God.
It is easy to see that as chapters ii. and vii. go together, so do
chapters iii. and vi., and iv. and v. And, indeed, these two
middle pairs of chapters (iii. and vi., iv. and v.), have a symboli
cal significance independent of their historical value. The first
pair shows us, by the example of Daniel and his three friends,
how wonderfully near God is to His saints, especially when,

50 EVENTS IN DANIEL S LIFE.
faithfully adhering to their Master, they seem to be crushed by
the world-power. The second pair present the two kings of the
first monarchy, as an example of how God can suddenly humble
the world-power in the very height of its insolence and rebelli
ous scorn, and of how little reason the faithful have to dread its
might. We notice here, also, a progression from the fourth
chapter to the fifth, for the world-power advances from mere
self-glorification in the former, to open and declared opposition to
the living God in the latter. Nebuchadnezzar demands homage
to be paid to his image (iii.) ; he boasts of his great power and
glory (iv.), but in neither case does he exhibit any direct hos
tility to God. Belshazzar, on the other hand, blasphemes the
Lord, by polluting the holy vessels from the temple of Jerusalem
(v.), and Darius the Mede, forbids prayer to be offered to Him.
There is a similar, and most instructive progression, in the con
duct of God's believing people. We are taught, by the example
of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, that we dare not yield
positive homage to the power of the world, by worshipping the
image of the world ; we are taught, by the example of Daniel,
that we dare not yield negative homage to it by neglecting to
worship God.
In all these events the glorious power of the Most High is
manifested against the world, and for His saints, and what is
here represented in the narrow frame of individual historical
sketches, the second and seventh chapters bring before our view
in grand world-wide tableaux. Both serve to strengthen the
faith of God's people, and to illumine the darkness of those times
when the powers of the world prevail. And the wonderful
charm which these narratives possess, and prove themselves to pos
sess, by the interest they excite in the mind of a child, is peculiarly
fitted to form a substratum te the profound impression of the two
visions, and to heighten their emphasis and effect. The true
Israelite, and the believer in general, are to receive, during the
entire period of worldly power, deep impressions of the nothing
ness of the world, and the glory of God and His saints, in their

KEIL ON THE MIRACLES. 51
very tenderest childhood (comp. Gen. xviii. 19). If the super
ficial eye can detect but little vital power, either moral or religious,
in the symbolic images of the visions contained in our book, it
can see much less in the striking characters of Daniel and his
friends, and the powerful instructive characters of Nebuchad
nezzar and Belshazzar.
Keil's remarks on the miracles which occur in these narratives
deserve attention : " The writers of Holy Scripture do not nar
rate every-day events. Their purpose is to testify of the revela
tion of divine grace and omnipotence. Accordingly, in the book
of Daniel, only those events are recorded in which the God of
Israel manifests His sovereign power to the proud heathen rulers
of the world, to whom it has been necessary His own peculiar
people should be delivered to be punished for their sins, events
by which He forces them to confess and honour Him as the God
of heaven and earth, to acknowledge that He (and not their idols),
rules the world, that He has power to uphold His servants, to
abase, and punish the pride, of the high and lofty ones of the
earth. The miracles are wrought for Daniel's and his com
panions' sake ; they tend to Daniel's glory. The reason of this
is to be sought in the position which Daniel was called to occupy,
viz., on the one hand, at a time when God could not manifest
His glory in His people as a body, to represent that people, in
his own person, before that King of Babylon who deemed him
self almighty ; and, on the other hand, to represent before the
heathen, and at the highest court of the heathen world-power,
the Theocracy which, outwardly, had fallen a prey to the power
of the Chaldeans, as well as to labour, by his presence, for the
preservation of God's people, and their return to their own land.
It was necessary that the miracles should assume a powerful and
imposing character, in order to impress the powerful representa
tives of heathenism ; and that they served this purpose, is shown
by the termination of the exile, and especially by the edict of
Cyrus (Ezra i. 1-4), which does not limit itself to a bare per
mission to the Jews of returning to their own country, but

52 THE MORE IMMEDIATE FUTURE.
expressly ascribes honour to the God of Israel, as the God of
heaven, and commands the building of His temple."1

III.— THE SECOND PART.
i
THE KINGDOM OF GOD AND THE KINGDOM OF THE WORLD IN THEIR
MORE IMMEDIATE FUTURE.
The first part of our book throws a prophetic light over the
whole future, as far even as that remote time when the people
of God shall be gathered again and form a visible kingdom on
the earth. But this lies in a far off distance ; the very first of
the four world-monarchies was yet in existence. Israel, there
fore, must now receive disclosures concerning the events which
more immediately await them, for these events will be a prelude of
the final evolutions of their history. Antichrist, as well as
Christ, has a more immediate future ; and it was particularly
necessary that special prophecies should be given to the people
of God for the times then approaching — the five centuries
between the exile and the advent — since it was a period during
which they would be given up for a prey to the Gentiles, and
in which salvation would not be fully manifested to comfort their
hearts. These disclosures are contained in the second part of Daniel.
We find here, also, two visions which correspond with one
another, one beginning, the other concluding this portion of the
book (chap. viii. and x.-xii.). These visions describe the de
velopment of the power of the world and the Antichrist which
would arise from it in the following centuries. Between them
is inserted the ninth chapter, which reveals the future of the
Messiah, and the people of the covenant at the end of the half-
millennium, in relation to those images of the world.
'. Einleitung in das Alte Testament, p. 459.

ANTIOCHUS EPIPHANES. 53

I. THE EIGHTH CHAPTER  ANTIOCHUS EPIPHANES.
The eighth chapter describes, by two new animal symbols —
a ram and a he-goat — the third and fourth world-monarchies
(the Medo-Persian, and Graeco-Macedonian), which were to rule
over Israel after the downfall of Babylon — an event that Daniel
outlived. Both are here mentioned by name (ver. 20, 21 ;
comp. x., 13, 20 ; xi., 24), as expressly as the Babylonian
kingdom previously (ii. 37-38). It is only the fourth monarchy,
the Roman, which is not mentioned by name. Is not this cir
cumstance an unsought-for proof of the higher antiquity of our
book? Daniel lived to see the Persian kingdom. It appears
from the Greek names of musical instruments, which occur in
our book, that even at that time Greece had become known to
the East ; and, indeed, it is also evident from the entanglements
between the Persians and Greeks, which happened soon after
Daniel's death, and led, in the course of a few decennia, to world-
famed wars and battles. But the chief reason why the attention
of Daniel and Israel had to be turned to Greece, was, that the
Old Testament Antichrist was to proceed from that power.
Thus, we can see why the angels in the passages quoted, men
tion the name Javan, while Rome, belonging to the West, which
is put in the background of the vision, remains unnamed.
For the same reason our vision gives more prominence to the
Greek empire, and to the last shape which that empire assumes
in the little horn, just as is the case with the Roman empire in the
seventh chapter. There is but a brief description of the ram
with his two horns, the Medes and Persians. The he-goat has
at first only one proud horn, Alexander the Great, who comes
to his end in a hasty triumphal march from West to East, to
the kingdom of Persia. In the place of this great horn four
smaller arise, the kingdoms of the successors of Alexander,
Macedonia, Asia, Egypt, Syria. Out of one of these, the last
named, there proceeded finally a little horn, a king, whose enmity

54 ANTIOCHUS EPIPHANES.
towards the Most High, His service, and His people (the host of
heaven), is described with features similar to those of Antichrist
in the seventh chapter.
This king is Antiochus Epiphanes. With a stubbornness ap
proaching monomania, he entertained the plan of introducing the
worship of Olympian Zeus over all his empire, to which Pales
tine also belonged ; and " as he identified himself with that god,
he wished ultimately to make his own worship universal"
(comp. 1 Mace. i. 41 etc.,; 2 Mace. vi. 7).1 He tried to.
extirpate every other worship with fanatical, often with infatuated
zeal ; and hence instead of Epiphanes, he was called Epimanes.
He abolished the worship of Jehovah in Jerusalem, and substi
tuted the worship of idols. His enterprise was all the more
dangerous in that he was met by a hellenising party in Israel
itself, who had heathenish tendencies (1 Mace. i. 12, etc. ; 2
Mace. iv. 9, etc. ; comp. Dan. xi. 30, 32). Thus Antiochus
Epiphanes, threatened the gravest peril to the holy people and
to revealed religion, and, by consequence, to the existence of a
Theocracy on earth. Nothing in the history of the sufferings of
Israel from the power of the world, can be compared with the
suffering inflicted by Antiochus. For none of the - previous
worldly rulers who had subjugated the people of the covenant,
interfered essentially with their religious worship ; but, on the
contrary, as appears from the books of Daniel, Ezra, and Nehe
miah, had protected and honoured them in many ways in the
performance of their national worship. As, for instance,
Nebuchadnezzar (Dan. iv. 31-34), Darius the Mede (Dan. vi.
27, 28), Cyrus (Ezra i. 2-4), Artaxerxes Longimanus (Ezra vii.
12; Nehem. ii. 18), and according to Josephus (Arch. xi. 8),
Alexander the Great also. It was therefore necessary that
special prophetic announcement should prepare the people for
Antiochus, so that they might be forewarned and forearmed
against his attacks and artful machinations. Nor did these pre-
1 Wieseler in Herzog's Realencyklopadie fur protest. Theol. u.
Kirche i., p. 384.

THE OLD TESTAMENT ANTICHRIST. 55
dictions remain without fruit ; for we may regard the glorious
struggle of the Maccabees, so far as it was a pure and righteous
one, as a fruit of our book (comp. 1 Mace. ii. 59).
Antiochus, in his " self-deifying fanatical haughtiness"
(Wieseler), and his enmity against God and divine worship, is
very properly the type of Antichrist — the Antichrist of the
third monarchy, and of the Old Testament time. " All former
teachers," says Luther, " have called and interpreted this Antio
chus a figure of the final Antichrist ; and they have hit the
right mark." A clear light is thus thrown on the relation of the
second part of our book to the first, and more especially of the
eighth chapter to the seventh. There is a similar typical relation
between Antiochus and Antichrist, as between the destruction of
Jerusalem and the coming of the Son of Man, in the eschatolo-
gical discourse of Christ (Matt. xxiv.). The Antichrist of the
Old Testament stands in the same relation to the Antichrist of
the New, as the judgment on the Church of the Old Testament
to that on the Church of the New. And this typical character
is indeed according to a general law of prophecy, which is clearly
illustrated in the two examples we have mentioned. In the same
way as Jesus illumines the two events He foretells, by viewing
one in the light of the other, so must the seventh and eighth
chapters of Daniel be viewed together. The two pictures, of
the enemy out of the third, and of the enemy out of the fourth
monarchy, touch at many points, and illustrate each other ;> so
that the eighth chapter serves for the elucidation of the seventh,
and the seventh again for the elucidation of the eighth. The
people of God receive the most complete instruction about
Epiphanes, in that single feature, to which prominence is given,
that he appears as a type of the last Antichrist. Thus they are
distinctly pointed to the magnitude of the threatening danger,
and furnished, on the one hand, with an earnest warning of the
deceitfulness of the seducer ; on the other, with the consolation
that he cannot escape the judgment destined to overtake him.
And in the same manner as Israel was enabled to understand

/

56 THE ANGELS.
the type of the Antichrist by the picture of the Antichrist him
self (chap, vii.), we are justified in pursuing the reverse method,
and in forming a clearer and more complete conception of the
last enemy, whose coming we expect, from the delineation of
Antiochus. We have here the example of the apostle for our
precedent, who, in 2 Thess. ii. 4, paints the Man of Sin with
colours which are taken from Dan. xi.

II. CHAPTERS X.-XII. CONTINUATION.
The vision of the eighth chapter is described more fully and
circumstantially in the second revelation, contained in chapters
x.-xii. These chapters bear the same relation to the eighth as
the seventh to the second. The prophecy itself is contained in
the eleventh chapter, the tenth forming the prologue, the twelfth
the epilogue.
The tenth chapter opens to us marvellous glimpses into the invi
sible spiritual world, which forms the background of the world's
history. Nor is this without analogy in Holy Scripture (Job i. 7,
ii. 1, etc. ; Zech. iii. 1, 2 ; Jude 9 ; Rev. xii. 7, etc.) ; but no
where else are the revelations so clear and comprehensive. The
general truth, that the angels are ministering organs of the
Divine providence and government, is frequently, and in detail,
asserted and proved by Holy Scripture, but above all, in the
two Apocalyptic books, in which the curtain that hides from us
the invisible world is drawn aside. The Scriptures recognise the
efficacy of angels in, the whole life of nature, even in ordinary and
regular natural phenomena (John v. 4 ; Heb. i. 7 ; Rev. vii.
1-3, xiv. 8, xvi. 5). ' And not only in nature, but in history
also, for which our chapter is the classical passage. We see
here individual angels standing at the head of individual king
doms of the world ; we see opposed to them, at the head of the
Israelitish Theocracy, Michael, one of the first princes. In
alliance with him, and opposed to the spirits of the world, there

THE ANGELS AND HISTORY. 57
is another angel, whom Hofmann1 designates as the good spirit of
the heathen world-power, whose object is to promote the realiza
tion of God's plan of salvation in the heathen world. It is
natural that this angel should be sent to reveal to Daniel the
fate which the powers of the world were preparing for the
people of God. He lets the prophet catch a glimpse of the
invisible struggles between the princes of the angels, in which
it is decided who is to exert the determining influence on the
worldly monarch, whether the god-opposed spirit of this world,
or the good spirit, whose aim it is to further the interests of
God's kingdom. We are wont to speak in a spiritualising way
of a struggle between the good and the evil spirit in man ; Holy
Scripture teaches us to regard such a struggle as real and
substantial (comp. 1 Sam. xvi. 13-15 ; 1 Kings xxii. 22). The
Satanic influences of which we have more particular knowledge,
through the language of Jesus and his apostles, are essentially
not different from this. The liberty of human actions is not
hereby taken away ; for the spirits exercise no compelling in
fluence on men's hearts, and their chief activity consists pro
bably in the arrangement of outward events. The question
about the relation of the Divine government to human liberty,
rather loses than gains in difficulty, when we take the element
of angelic ministry into consideration.
That glorious angel who appears to Daniel, tells him, that for
twenty-one days he struggled with the angel at the head of the
Persian monarchy, and that finally, by Michael's help, he sub
dued him, and obtained superiority over the Persian king. But
he informed him also, that he had to enter upon a further
struggle with that Persian angel, and that this would be suc
ceeded by one with the Grecian, which, as he lets him dimly
see, would not, for all the help of Michael, be equally victorious.
These events in the world of angels will be better understood,
when viewed in connection with the revelations concerning the
i Weiss, u. Erfull. i., p. 312. Schriftbeweis i., p.. 287, etc.

58 PROGRESSION IN PROPHECY.
future which follow in the eleventh chapter. While the Persian
kingdom endures, the spirit of the world-power, hostile to God
and His people, will be restrained and subdued, so that the
Persian kings will follow the good spirit, and be favourable to
Israel. But with the Greek kingdom there will come a change.
During its dominion the people of the covenant will have to
suffer much from the wars of the Ptolemies and Seleucidae ; and
it is out of this kingdom that the arch-enemy shall arise.
The prophecy of the eleventh chapter consists of three parts.
There is, first, a brief description of the Persian and Greek
monarchies, ver. 2-4) ; then follows a sketch of the most import
ant struggles of the Ptolemies and Seleucidae (ver. 5^20) ; while
a detailed and circumstantial picture of Antiochus Epiphanes
forms the conclusion (ver. 21-45). We see that all the visions
which refer to the power of the world correspond to the outlines
presented in Nebuchadnezzar's dream (chap, ii.), and are only a
further development of the ground-plan there, carried out with
ever increasing fulness and minuteness. The seventh chapter
contains, first, a further description of the fourth monarchy,
showing how the Antichrist proceeds from tho ten toes or horns.
While the preceding outlines are thus filled up, they prepare the
way for the subsequent prophecies ; for the description of An
tiochus in the eighth chapter is based on the model of the Anti
christ delineated in the seventh. There is yet another relation,
in reference to the third monarchy, in which the seventh chapter
is a development of the second, and the eighth the final con
summation. The fourfold division of the Greek kingdom, which
does not yet appear in the dream of Nebuchadnezzar, is sym
bolized in the four heads and four wings of the leopard (vii. 6),
while it is still more distinctly revealed in the eighth chapter, in
the four horns of the he-goat, which grow up in place of the
one great horn. There is thus a progress from the seventh to
the eighth chapter, parallel to that we already saw from the
second to the seventh, in the description of the Roman king
dom. For while in the seventh chapter the little horn of Anti-

SYRIA AND ROME NOT MENTIONED BY NAME. 59
christ appears between the ten horns of the fourth beast, which
are identical with the ten toes in the image of Nebuchadnezzar's
dream ; in the eighth the little horn of Antiochus rises out of
the four horns of the he-goat, which are identical with the four
horns of the leopard. Exactly in the same way the eleventh
chapter is an enlargement of the eighth. The disclosures which
the latter contains about Persia and Greece, and the fourfold
division of the great Greek kingdom, are only mentioned to be
used as a connecting link and starting-point for the prophecy,
which now unfolds the future of Egypt and Syria, the Ptolemies
and Seleucidae, the kings of the South and the kings of the North.
" Daniel," says Luther, " now leaves the two kingdoms of
Asia and Grecia, and takes up the two of Syria and Egypt.
For the Jewish country lieth between these two, and hath Syria
on the north [towards midnight], and Egypt on the south [to
wards mid-day], and these two had an everlasting contest with
each other. The Jews, therefore, placed thus between the door
and the hinge, were sorely tormented on both sides. Now they
fell a prey., to Egypt, and anon to Syria, as the one kingdom
or the other got the better ; and they had to pay dearly for
their neighbourhood, as is wont to be in time of war. Specially
when that impious man was king in Syria, whom histories style
Antiochus the noble ; he assaulted the Jews most fiercely, and
raged and slaughtered like a devil among them. It was on
account of this wretch and cruel villan that the vision was given,
to comfort the Jews, whom he was to plague with all kinds of
plagues." It is, moreover, worthy of remark, that we do not find Syria
and the individual kingdoms mentioned by name, any more
than Rome. As yet these kingdoms lay quite beyond the his
torical horizon of Daniel ; the angel, therefore, could not desig
nate them by their names. Rome was separated from Daniel
by space ; an independent Syrian kingdom, by time. Syria,
already conquered by the Assyrians (2 Kings xvi. 9 ; Is. viii. 4 ;
Amos i. 5), belonged afterwards as a province .to the kingdoms

60 INCIDENTAL PROOF OF THE ANTIQUITY OF DANIEL.
of Babylon, Persia, and Greece, successively,1 and was a very
unimportant country in the time of Daniel. The angel desig
nated the Syrian kings by the general appellation of kings of
the North, or Midnight, referring, probably, to the prophetical
usus loquendi, by which the midnight region is spoken of as the
land of darkness, of destruction, of the enemies of God and His
people (Joel ii. 20 ; Jer. i. 13-15 ; iv. 6 ; x. 22 ; xlvii. 2 ;
Zech. ii. 10). If our book had been written so late as the time
of the Maccabees, it would be difficult to assign a reason why
Syria is not mentioned by name as well as Greece; nay, it
might be expected that Syria should be mentioned, even though
Greece was not. This circumstance must be regarded as one
of those minute and fine features which, because of their very
insignificance and secondary position are, to the unprejudiced
student, the most eloquent witnesses for the antiquity and authen
ticity of a book. It cannot be maintained by our opponents
that the Maccabean authors omitted to name Syria for fear of
Antiochus, since country and king for that time are so minutely
sketched as to be unmistakable. We lay the more stress on
this circumstance, as Egypt, whose princes are called in opposition,
to the Syrian, the kings of the South or Mid-day, is mentioned
by name (ver. 8, 42). For this is not only the old monarchy well
known to the Israelites, but at the time Daniel received this
revelation it was still an independent and even flourishing king
dom ; nor was it till ten years later that it was conquered by
Cambyses and annexed to Persia.2 The designation, kings of
the North and kings of the South, is given from Palestine being
the stand-point. This is not only the stand-point of all pro
phecy, and of the whole Bible, but the return of the Israelites
to their own country in the third year of Cyrus, had already
commenced at the time of this prophecy. Thus, in its prophecies
concerning the enemies of Israel, our chapter not only bears the
specific character of Daniel's time, but evinces its genuine pro
1 Comp. Winer's Realworterbueh. ArW Damascus, Aram, Syrien.
2 Comp. Lepsius in Herzog's Realencyklopadie, i. p. 150.

SPECIAL CHARACTER OF PROPHECY. 61
phetic character in this, that it is mysterious notwithstanding its
minuteness. And this, indeed, is the general character of the entire won
derful revelation which is here given to us. Of all the predic
tions contained in the Holy Scripture, this is doubtless the most
special and minute, and in order not to be offended at this pro
phecy, it is necessary to believe in the omniscience and real re
velation of , God in the prophetic word. Nay, we may assert, of
this eleventh chapter, that it is essentially important as a datum
for the doctrine of divine prescience in a system of dogmatics.
The supposition of some theologians,1 that God has a prescience
of the. development of the world in its pure abstractness only, in
its final end, and in the most essential points of its evolutions,
cannot be reconciled with our passage. It is true, it stands" by
no means isolated. Significant and important analogies are fur
nished by the words of that man of God at Bethel (1 Kings xiii.
2), who mentioned the name of King Josiah more than three
hundred years before that king's time, in Isaiah's prophecy of
the sixty-five years during which the kingdom of Ephraim was
to continue (Is. vii. 8), in the prophecy about Babylon and even
about Cyrus (Is. xiii. 1 ; xiv. 23 ; xxi. 1-10 ; xliv. 28 ; xiv. 1),
in Jeremiah's prophecy of the seventy years of exile (Jer. xxv.
11 ; xxix. 10) ; in the very circumstantial disclosures of Ezekiel
concerning the destruction of Jerusalem (Ezek. xxiv. 2, 25-27);
and many others. But the most important examples are given
in the book of Daniel, and they assume the greater importance,
since they are, at the same time, organic preparations for our
present prophecy, in which they have their culminating point.
We must also bear in mind that, as Hofmann reminds2 us, " this
minute description was given to meet a want which had not
been felt befqre," that it was intended to be a light unto the
path of the people of the election, in the darkest centuries of
their abandonment by God. And thus we come, lastly, to con-
1 Z. B. Rothe, theol. Ethik sec. 42. Martensen, Dogmatik sec. 116.
' Weiss, u. Erfull. i. p. 313.

62 PROPHECY SPECIAL, YET MYSTERIOUS.
sider the character of the prophecy itself. As we have men
tioned before, its special minuteness is by no means of such a
kind as to uplift, in a manner far from salutary, the veil which,
in the wise counsels of the Almighty, has been drawn across the
future, nor of such a kind as to unfold the future to the gaze of
a profane curiosity. If we take the chapter and read it without
consulting the historical elucidations afforded by the times of the /
Ptolemies and Seleucidae, it will seem full of dark enigmas. And
naturally, this was still more the case when that history was yet
future. These enigmas invited the faithful Israelite's investiga
tion to a careful comparison of the prophecy with the events of
the day, and thus by degrees he obtained the key of interpreta
tion and received also the precious consolation that all the
violence of the world under which the elect were now sighing,
was predestined by God and prophesied to His people. He will
understand this, who, in the dark days of the world's commo
tions, has experienced somewhat of the light and comfort of the
word of prophecy. Comp. 2 Peter i. 19.
And here we are allowed to see the reason for which such a
special disclosure about the spiritual world, considered as the
background of history, is joined to such a special prophecy.
The tenth chapter is as peculiar a phenomenon in Holy Scripture
as the eleventh, and these two remarkable phenomena, unique
in their kind, are connected not only outwardly but also in
wardly. Their relation to each other is that of the future and
the invisible. It strengthened and elevated the people of God
to be permitted to view the future in a prophecy during their
heavy afflictions ; but it was equally strengthening and elevating
for them to have their eye directed to the mighty champions
and allies which they possessed in the world of spirits. As
Paul excites the Ephesians to an earnest struggle against sin,
by reminding them that they have toTi" wrestle not with flesh and
blood alone, but with principalities and powers," so Daniel was
commanded to inspire his people with courage and perseverance
in their struggle with the world, by showing them that not only

THE BEGINNING OF THE CHAPTER. 63
they who are flesh and blood, but with them principalities and
powers also are leagued against the world in its opposition to
God. It is in the same spirit that Roos remarks (p. 13) : —
" The name Lord of Sabaoth is nowhere mentioned so frequently
as in the prophets Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi, who doubt
less sought to counteract by this name the fear which the Jews,
as a poor and despised people, had of the power of the Gentiles ;
and to prove to them that the God in whom they believed had
hosts enough to protect them, though they should be devoid of
all worldly might wherewith to defend themselves against their
enemies." This general characteristic of the eleventh chapter may suffice,
as the more minute explanation of its contents is to be found (and
with essential agreement) in all, either learned or popular, com
mentaries of Daniel. We refer especially to Havernick and
Hitzig, as well as to Schmieder's continuation of Gerlach's Com
mentary. There remain but two points for discussion, the
beginning and the end of the chapter.
Commentators have found it difficult to account for the cir
cumstance that the second verse concludes the series of the kings
with Xerxes. For the three kings after Cyrus (in whose reign
Daniel received the entire revelation) are Cambyses, Pseudo-
smerdis, and Darius Hystaspes. The fourth king is Xerxes,
whose riches are proverbial, and who had an attendant always
crying to him, " Lord, remember the Athenians ! " In his reign,
the Persian kingdom reached its highest point and displayed its
greatest power against Greece. But it was subdued by Greece,
and from this period* dates its gradual decay. After the battle
of Salamis, the centre of the world-history was no more in the
second, but in the third, the Grecian kingdom. The second
kingdom, therefore, disappears from view according to a law of
prophecy- which we shall describe more fully afterwards. The
angel proceeds, in the third verse, to the Grecian kingdom, and
this also he views at once in its world-historical culminating
point, Alexander, in whose time it began to assume importance

64 THE END OF ANTIOCHUS.
for the people of God. Thus prophecy, passing over the valleys,
steps from height to height of human history, its light illumines
the mountain tops, the heads and the horns. It is only in the
fifth verse that it descends into the low ground, and that because
Israel was, after a respite, drawn into the vicissitudes of the Syro-
Egyptian struggles.
The second point is the conclusion of the prophecy about
Antiochus Epiphanes. In this passage we have, first, a descrip
tion of the. earliest wars of the king with Egypt (ver. 21-27), then
of his religious conduct, partly as it related to Israel (ver. 28-35),
partly viewed generally (ver. 36-39), and finally of his last enter
prises and his end (ver. 40-45). From this general outline the
reader will perceive that from the 36th verse the typical relation
of Antiochus to Antichrist receives great prominence. For this
reason the majority of commentators have referred verses 36-45
immediately to Antichrist. But Havernick has justly given
up this interpretation as arbitrary ; for not only are the features
of Antiochus' character drawn in verses 36-39 so accurately as
scarcely to be mistaken ; but we find again, in verses 40-45, the
opposition between north and south which runs through the
whole chapter. We must mention, however, one difficulty which
this last part offers, viz., that historians do not mention any
thing of an expedition undertaken by Antiochus against Egypt
shortly before his death. Some expositors, and Hitzig also,
suppose that the prophecy here goes back to earlier events, and
embraces them all in this one final conclusion. But when we ex
amine the text in its connection, this seems nothing but a mere
makeshift. It is probable that the statement of Porphyry re
peated by Jerome, deserves credit, according to which Antiochus
undertook an expedition against Egypt in the eleventh year of
his reign, consequently 166-165 b.c, and took Palestine on his
way. The rumours mentioned in verse 44, which doubtless
refer to the opposition and revolt of tributary nations, then led'
him towards the East. Porphyry remarks that Antiochus
started from Egypt, took Arad, in the tribe of Judah, and devas-

THE EPILOGUE OF THE BOOK. 65
tated the entire coast of Phoenicia ; and this agrees well with the
forty-fifth verse : " He shall plant the tabernacles of His palaces
between the seas in the glorious holy mountain :" and that then
he turned rapidly to check Artaxias, King of Armenia, who had
raised up commotions. On this expedition he died in the
Persian town Tabes, 164 B.C., as both Polybius and Porphyry
agree. We shall subsequently refer to the conclusion of the angel's
speech (xii. 1-3), and then offer an explanation. Here we may
remark that the twelfth chapter (ver. 4-13) bears the charac
ter of a conclusion, not merely to this individual vision, but, as
an epilogue, to the whole book. For not only do we find the
book expressly mentioned in the fourth verse, not only does the
angel finally take leave of Daniel in the thirteenth verse, but
distinct reference is made in the sixth and seventh verses to
chap. vii. 25, that is, to the time of Antichrist, while the subse
quent verses from the eighth to the twelfth, treat of the time of
Antiochus, as is evident, more particularly from the eleyenth
verse, containing as it does, a plain allusion to chap. xi. 31.
Thus, in the conclusion of the book, we see the two great periods
of distress, for which it was more especially given, put together
in a manner the most significant, and which throws light upon
the whole prophecy. The extension of the view to the time of
Antichrist, in a prophecy which refers chiefly to Antiochus, is
caused by the mention of the resurrection (ver. 2, 3), which
takes place immediately after the Antichristian period, and con
temporary with the coming of the Messiah in glory — the subject
of the seventh chapter. It is to this period that the question of
the angel has reference; when he asks (ver. 6) " How long to the
end of these wonders — nixbsnyp," in distinction from the
question of Daniel (ver. 8), " what the endof these things — rv*in»<
rthli.'' The angel's question refers to the wonderful dealings
of God in general ; the prophet, who does not at once understand
fully the disclosures about the last things (ver. 8), asks what will
be the concluding issue of those things then in progress, and im-
E

66 THE NINTH CHAPTER.
mediately impending. The angel, with heavenly eye, sees into
the far distant end of the world's history ; the prophet, with
human interest, regards the more immediate future of his nation.

III. THE NINTH CHAPTER. THE IMMEDIATE FUTURE OF THE
MESSIAH.
We have noticed above, that between the visions of the second
and seventh chapters, there were some narratives inserted not
immediately connected with them. In like manner, in the
second part of Daniel, we find a prophecy (chap, ix.), with a
character of peculiar individuality, inserted between the vision
at the commencement and that at the close. In this chapter a
most important event in the life of Daniel is narrated, but one
which does not relate to the connection between him and the
world-power, but between him and his God, and which closes
with one of the most remarkable and special revelations in Holy
Scripture. In this respect the ninth chapter forms an important
preparation for the two succeeding, which have already come
under our consideration.
From the outset we here find ourselves placed on ground
totally different from that on which we have hitherto stood.
Daniel seeks to be enlightened about the seventy years, which,
according to the prophecy of Jeremiah (chap. xxv. and xxix.),
were to be the duration of the Babylonian captivity (ver. 1-3) ;
and after he had offered up to God a fervent confession of his
sins, and an ardent supplication for his people, this enlighten
ment was vouchsafed to him through the angel Gabriel, in the
celebrated prophecy of the seventy weeks (ver. 20-27). The
powers of the world recede quite out of view. Israel, and the
promise of salvation given to it, are the exclusive subject of this
revelation ; for it was natural, if not necessary, that the fulfil
ment of these promises, according to the previous predictions of
the prophet, should be expected after the end of the captivity.

THE IMMEDIATE FUTURE OF THE MESSIAH. 67
And thus this prophecy, which we shall afterwards consider
minutely, refers to the redemption, and to the Person who brings
it, the Messiah. It announces that His coming will not be imme
diately after the captivity ; but that, dating from the restoration
and the rebuilding of Jerusalem, seven times seventy years must
yet elapse. Nor would He even then come in His glory, as
Daniel might have been led to expect, from the language of the
earlier prophets, or even from the revelation he had himself
received (chap. vii.). He would be put to death ; but thereby He
would work out the atonement for sin, and confirm the cove
nant with many. The people of Israel, however, would, as a
nation, reject Him, and then be itself rejected, and Jerusalem,
with its temple, would be destroyed, and remain a desolation, till
the consummation determined by God.
The first part of Daniel exhibited the final victory of the
Messianic kingdom over all the powers of the world ; the second
predicted the heavy calamities and temptations which the powers
of the world threatened to Israel in the more immediate future ; to
complete the picture, the prophet received disclosures when and
how salvation was to appear in that future. The first part treats
of the last days, in which the coming of the Messianic kingdom
coincides with the downfall of the hostile world-power ; both
these events are, consequently and necessarily, viewed together in
one vision, as well in the seventh chapter as in the second.
This cannot be the case in the prophecy of the more immediate
future. The first coming of Christ in the flesh is not imme
diately connected with the appearance of Antiochus Epiphanes :
the two events, therefore, are kept separate in the prophecy.
For we shall see, subsequently, that it is wrong to interpret the
announcement of the resurrection (xii. 2, 3), as implying that the
angel predicted that the dawn of the Messianic kingdom would
immediately succeed the death of Antiochus. The Messianic
prophecy of the ninth chapter, takes its independent place be
tween the two visions that refer to the Old Testament Antichrist,
as a word of comfort for " the wise." But there were no more

68 DANIEL AND THE PROPHECY OF CHAP. IX.
special disclosures required for the time between Antiochus andf
Christ. For, during that period, there occurred no trial like that
prepared through Epiphanes. On the contrary, the Maccabean
reaction against the tyrant kindled anew the zeal of the people
for the religion of their fathers ; and history teaches us, that
from that time the Jews adhered to the law with ever increasing
tenacity. Christ and Antichrist, as they are the theme of the
first, so they are also the theme of the second part of the book.
It is difficult for us to decide how far the prophet had a clear
and distinct consciousness of the relation the Messianic prophecy
of the ninth chapter bears to that of the second, both as to the
time and nature of their contents ; whether he saw clearly the
relation between the atoning death and sacrifice of the Messiah
and His glorious coming from heaven ; whether he discerned
the relation, bound up in this, between the destruction of Jeru
salem (by the Romans), and the future universal rule of the
people of God. But this does not affect the matter. For the
words of the apostle Peter, which were probably written with
direct allusion to Dan. xii. 8, etc. (1 Pet. i. 10-12), refer to our
prophet more than to any other.1 It is Daniel who prophesies
of the sufferings of the Messiah, as well as of the glories to
follow ; it is Daniel who prophesies, not for himself, but for the
generations that come after him. It is Daniel who, more than
any other prophet, had to search and inquire to what time, or
to what manner of time, the spirit of the Messiah within him
pointed. We may easily and safely conjecture, that the prophet
thought much about the mighty contrast which the two prophe
cies unveiled to him, both as to the future of the Messiah and
of his nation. We may regard as traces of such reflection^ pas
sages like x. 2, xii. 8. But what, in this respect, may not have
been fully granted to Daniel, we find revealed even in the Old
Testament and with comparative clearness by Zechariah. This
prophet, to whom it was given to gather together the rich
1 Comp. Hengstenberg, Beitr., p. 273.

DANIEL AND ZECHARIAH. 69
harvest of all previous prophecy, unfolds before our eyes the
picture of the Messiah in His different aspects, in such a way that
we see that " the contrast between the suffering and the glory,
the first and the second coming of Christ, was distinctly appre
hended by his mind."1 And in this we see additional and
corroboratory proof that Zechariah was acquainted with the
prophecies of Daniel, an acquaintance, of which in a previous
page, we traced such vestiges as can hardly be mistaken.
1 J. P. Lange. Positive Dogmatik, p. 688.

CHAPTER III.
THE APOCALYPTIC FORM OF PROPHECY.

I. THE OBJECT OF APOCALYPTIC PROPHECY.

1. IN GENERAL.
What has been already said may suffice, in the meantime, as to
the contents of the book of Daniel. We trust we have shown
that, in all their parts, they spring naturally and necessarily
from the position in which the captivity stands to the rest of
the history of revelation. The form of the prophecy is also inti
mately connected with the historical position.
The book of Daniel bears the same relation to the Old Testa
ment, and especially to the prophets, as the Revelation of John
to the New, and especially to the prophetic sayings of Christ and
His apostles. Daniel is the Apocalypse of the Old Testament.
Other books of the Old Testament as well speak of the great
Messianic future ; other books of the New Testament as well
speak of the second coming, or Parousia of Christ. But, while
the other prophets bring only the particular situation of the
people of God at the time into the light of prophecy, and while
the apostles give disclosures on special eschatological points, as
the wants and necessities of their readers demand them ; Daniel
and the Revelation of St John are not so much called forth by a
temporary want, and given for a special end, but they have the
more general aim of serving as prophetic lamps to the congrega
tion of God in those times, in which there is no revelation, and
in which the church is given into the hands of the Gentiles (raipoi
e'dvmv Luke xxi. 24). We have thus recognized Daniel as the

DANIEL AND ST JOHN. 71
light which was sent for the comfort of those who were " wise, "
to lighten the darkness of the half millennium, from the captivity
till Christ and the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans. And,
in like manner, the Apocalypse of John was given to the saints
of the new covenant, as a guiding star, to lead them on their pil
grim's journey through the world, from the first coming of Christ,
or rather from the destruction of Jerusalem till His second coming,
when He shall establish the kingdom of glory (comp. Tit. ii.
11-13; Rev. i. 7; xxii. 17, 20). The last days indeed form
also the subject of Daniel's visions (chap. ii. and vii.), and there
fore we must necessarily expect an intimate connection between
these chapters and the Apocalypse. But, while Daniel writes for
Jews, and from the Old Testament stand-point, John, standing
on New Testament ground, writes for Gentile Christians, a dif
ference, rich in consequences, as we shall afterwards have occa
sion to see.
Such being the object for which the Apocalyptic books were
given, it will easily be seen why there is, strictly speaking, only
one Apocalypse in each Testament, though there are many
prophets in the Old, and many prophetical disclosures in the
New. There are two great periods of revelation, that of the Old,
and that of the New Testament. And each of these is followed
by a period without revelation ; that which succeeded the exile,
and that which succeeded the apostles (the Church-historical
period). The Apocalyptic books are the two lights which shine
out of the former periods into the latter. And hence, each
Apocalypse is among the latest works of its respective canon ; it
is written at a time when revelation, about to lapse into silence,
gathers once more its whole strength into a final effort. We are
taught this by the very name Apocalyptic. It is an cmoKaXv^rn
(Rev. i. 1), a revelation in a peculiar emphatic sense, needed for
the times without revelation ; a guiding-star in the times of the*
Gentiles. There are two other features which must be viewed in this
connection. Whilst our books stand isolated in the canon, they

72 DANIEL AND ST JOHN .
have found the more apocryphal imitations ; e.g., the Jewish and
Christian Sybillines, th'e book Henoch, the fourth book of Ezra,
the Anabatikon of Isaiah, etc. It is not to be wondered at that
the times without revelation, but which bore, nevertheless, the
fresh impress of revelation, should, in their desire of imitation,
choose, with especial partiality, that portion of sacred literature
of which they themselves formed the subject, and this the more,
that they found here the most concentrated and wonderful form
of that supernatural revelation whose loss they so painfully felt.
The other phenomenon may be as easily explained. In a later
period which, separated from revelation by length of time, no
longer possesses a lively and inward understanding of it, criticism
chiefly attacks the Apocalyptic books just because they are the
most wonderful products of the spirit of revelation. For, as the
critical misunderstanding of revelation consists chiefly in this,
that the boundary-line between the canonical and the apocryphal
is destroyed, and revealed history degraded to the level of pro
fane history, so we will find this true of the special case of the
apocryphal books, and the want of a spiritual (pneumatic) under
standing of the canonical Apocalypses will manifest itself chiefly
in the loss of the power of discriminating them from the apocry
phal, and in the rude effacement of the sacred and well-defined
line of demarcation which separates divine inspiration from human
invention. And this is what happened in modern times. Nor
can we be astonished to meet such a method on apocalyptic
ground, more than elsewhere, a method which must, in all strict
ness, be designated as unhistorical and uncritical, because it is
incapable of viewing the historic forms in their individual and
well-defined character, and, therefore, confuses them without
reasonable discrimination.
It is not without significance that the Revelation of John closes
the. New Testament. Such books are written only for those who
have apprehended by faith, and spiritual understanding, the sum
of what is taught in the rest of the divine word. They are full
of stumbling-blocks to the common reader. The Apocalyptic

DANIEL AND ST JOHN. 73
books are not for us so long as we are satisfied and rich in the
world, so long as we do not yearn, with our inmost soul, after the
more perfect, yea, after the personal coming of the Lord Himself.
(Rev. xxii. 17, 20.) Only the Lamb that was slain could open
the book with the seven seals ; none can read its mysteries but
he to whom the world is crucified. (Rev. v. 1, etc.) Daniel
and John fell to the ground in holy trembling and hunible
adoration, when these most intimate revelations were vouchsafed
to them from the upper sanctuary ; nor is there any other way
by, which to enter into the understanding of the sacred pro
phecy. (Dan. viii. 17 ; x. 8, etc. ; Rev. xix. 10 ; xxii. 8.) This
is the plain declaration of both books. They are particular to
remark, that to penetrate their meaning requires not only a reli
gious frame of mind in general, but a special sanctification,
purification, and trial of our stedfastness, chiefly in the heat of
temptation and persecution. John, therefore, styles himself, in
the title of his book, not only brother, but companion in tribu
lation, and in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ (Dan.
xii. 10 ; Rev. i. 9). The times of the Gentiles are altogether
times of affliction, during which the servants wait for their
Master (Dan. ix. 25 ; Luke xii. 35, etc. ; 1 Thess. i. 10 ; PhiL
iii. 20) ; and this affliction will reach its highest point in the
last troublous time. It is for this period and its precursors, that
the Apocalyptic books were given ; it is then only that the seals
will be fully unloosed, and the veil fully removed. And though
the prophecy of John was not to be sealed like that of Daniel,
since it was given in the New Testament time, and, as may be
said, in the beginning of the last days, yet, notwithstanding, it
guards with the greater emphasis against every misconception,
and repeatedly asserts, that patience, and faith, and a mind that
hath wisdom, are needful in him who would understand it
(Dan. viii. 26; xii. 4, 9 ; Rev. xxii. 10, 18; xiii. 10, 18; xiv.
12 ; xvii. 9). We must, therefore, expect that but a very im
perfect appreciation of the book can be obtained in ordinary
times, and by the application of ordinary means, and that those

74 PECULIARITY OF APOCALYPTIC BOOKS.
who are careless about considering the fundamental laws, and
fulfilling the fundamental conditions which these books afford
for their own interpretation, must necessarily abuse the gift thus
vouchsafed to the Church.
From the position and office of the Apocalyptic writings, we will
be able to understand the peculiar characteristic differences be
tween their prophecies and those of the other prophets. It is not
necessary that, in the times of living revelation, when one prophet
is succeeded by another, and one apostle's doctrines complemented
by another, so much should be condensed into one book. But the
Apocalyptic books, in order to fulfil their proper object, and to throw
prophetic light on the relation between the world and the kingdom
of God for the benefit of the times that are destitute of immediate
revelation, must both give a general view of the whole and enter
into detailed description. And this can be effected only when
God, who rules the whole course of the world's history, grants
more special disclosures of the future than are usual in prophecy.
The first-mentioned peculiarity of the Apocalyptic books, viz.,
the universal character of their survey, appears in the fact that
they are resumes, divine compendia of the entire body of pro
phecy contained in their respective Testaments. In the Revela
tion of John, we find the scattered fragments of eschatological
disclosures which occur in the discourses of our Lord and the
writings of His apostles, gathered together into an organic unity ;
so much so, that it is from it we learn to give the other separate
passages their proper place in the development of the whole.
It is in John, for instance, that a clear distinction is made be
tween the coming of Christ to found His kingdom (of a thousand
years) on earth, and His coming to judge the world ; while the
gospels and epistles contain many passages in which it may be
doubtful to which advent they refer, or whether both are viewed
simultaneously. Here we must remark, however, that commen
tators have hitherto been guilty of much error and neglect on
this point, because, not recognising the pre-eminence and signi
ficance of the idea of God's kingdom on earth as preceding the

PECULIARITY OF APOCALYPTIC BOOKS. 75
final consummation, an importance which it has in the teaching
of Christ and His apostles, they have referred everything to the
last judgment. In like manner, Daniel sums up all the essen
tial data of Old Testament eschatology, i.e., Messianic prophecy.
And, as in the Revelation of John, the difference between the
second and third coming of the Lord appears with unambiguous
clearness, so our prophet is the first who draws a plain distinc
tion between the first coming of the Messiah in the flesh and
His second coming in glory. Nor is it merely the Messiah's
coming, but also the course of the world's history up to the time
of that coming, which is made the object of more minute revela
tion in the two Apocalyptic books ; while the prophets and
apostles view the world-power in its form at the time simul
taneously with its final development, and so proclaim the Mes
sianic time to be nigh at hand. What prophecy sees in one and
the same perspective, the Apocalypses separate into its indivi
dual phases and periods. Thus, the four universal monarchies
in Daniel are the apocalyptic development of the one world-power
which the prophets, according to their historical position, named
Assyria or Babylon, etc. ; and thus, also, the Messianic pro
phecy of the ninth chapter is but the separate unfolding of the
typical and antitypical salvation, of the temporary deliverance
from captivity and the final Messianic deliverance, events which
the prophets usually viewed together. In like manner, it must
be regarded as one of the objects of the Revelation of John,
among others, to proclaim to those Christians who, according to
the twenty-fourth chapter of Matthew, expected the coming of
Christ to take place contemporaneously with the destruction of
Jerusalem, that the end was not come yet, and to afford them an
insight into the times of the Gentiles which were to precede it.
And this object is easily^reconcileable with another, that the book
was intended to serve, and to which we shall afterwards have,
occasion to refer.
The other peculiarity of the Apocalyptic books in virtue of
which they were to serve their appointed purpose, and which is

¦76 OLD AND NEW TESTAMENT
intimately connected with the universality of their survey, is the
special character of their prophecies. The Apocalypses give
more historical and eschatological detail than prophecy. Con
sequently, we are not astonished that numbers appear more
frequently, and that stress is laid on the chronological relations
they express. We shall see a remarkable illustration of this
peculiarity when we come to consider the seventy prophetic
weeks. At present let us turn our attention to a characteristic
difference which prevails between the Old Testament and the
New Testament Apocalypse.

II. THE APOCALYPSES OF THE OLD AND NEW TESTAMENTS
CONTRASTED.
The people of God, under the Old Covenant, stood the more
in need of special prophecy for the period without revelation,
as they did not enjoy that consolation vouchsafed to us Chris
tians in the clear views we have of the inheritance that fadeth
not away, reserved for us in heaven ; for then the power of death
was not yet taken away, nor a personal entrance into the higher
world of life and light yet opened to mankind. The Christian
congregation, according to its central principle of life, is already
transplanted into heavenly places, being taken out of this world.
Its heart and treasure, conversation and citizenship, is in heaven
with its transfigured Lord, and at the same time the cross of
Christ has revealed the true divine light in which to view all the
afflictions and temptations of this present time (Eph. ii. 6 ; Phil.
iii. 20 ; Col. iii. 1-4 ; and especially 2 Cor. iv. 8-v. 8). In
short, to those who are born of God, and are even now partakers
of the eternal life, the relation of the present to the future, of
the visible world to the invisible, is the reverse of that in which
mankind before Christ, including even the Jews, viewed it.
For Israel, also, was not yet raised above the elements of the
world (oroix<a tov Koo-fiov); the sanctuary of the Old Cove-

APOCALYPSES CONTRASTED. 77
nant was yet an earthly sanctuary (cfyiov Koo-fwcbv. Gal. iv. 3, 9 ;
Heb. ix. 1). The eye of Israel could not (and it was ordered
that it should not) be directed to the heavenly, but only to the
earthly future ; for it was upon earth that He should appear in
whom all the preparations and the purposes of God for His
people should find their fulfilment. The sum and substance of
Old Testament prophecy, therefore, is the doctrine of the king
dom of God upon earth.1
But, if the heart of Israel was not yet in heaven, it stood the
more in need of being armed against the temptations and as
saults of the world ; if, according to the purposes of God, its
eye was to be directed to the earthly future, there was the more
need that this future, until the appearance of Messiah on the
earth, should be disclosed with particular minuteness. The
minuteness with which the earthly destiny was foretold had to
compensate for the absence of those views of the heavenly glory
which prevails in the Old Testament. Thus, we find in Daniel,
especially in the second part, which relates to the time imme
diately before and immediately after Christ, prophecies of such
unusual detail — much more minute than those of John, both as
regards the historical facts and the chronological dates. As re
gards the historical point, we consider the revelation of^ the
eleventh chapter concerning the Syro-J~"gyptian struggles, with
their battles, conquests, marriages, etc., to be the most special
prophecy in Holy Scripture. Nor are the chronological details
less wonderful both of the time of Antiochus and the time of
Messiah (viii. 14 ; xii. 11, 12 ; ix. 24-27). The latter indicates
the details for the entire period up till the fulfilment, even to the
year; the'former for the time of the fulfilment itself) even to the
day. And here we must notice a further characteristic difference
between the Apocalypse of the Old and of the New Testament.
Daniel is commanded to seal his visions (viii. 26 ; xii. 4). John
1 Comp. Oehler, VeterisTest. sententia de rebus post mortem futuris,-p. 54, etc.

78 OLD AND NEW TESTAMENT
is commanded not to seal them (Rev. xxii. 10) ; and for this
reason, that Daniel is told his prophecy refers to a distant time,
and is, therefore, obscure for the future immediately approach
ing ; while John, on the contrary, was informed that the visions
he was beholding, were to be speedily fulfilled, that the time was
at hand (Rev; i. 1, 3 ; xxii. 6). -We would have expected the
reverse, since the visions in the eighth chapter of Daniel, and
from the eleventh to the twelfth chapter, where those commands
are found, reach no further than to Antiochus Epiphanes.1 We
must, therefore, look for some deep and holy reason, especially
as Rev. xxii. 10 is manifestly a conscious and intentional con
trast to Daniel. The difference is grounded in the different pur
poses of the two Apocalypses, and we will endeavour, at least, to
throw out a few leading thoughts upon it.
In accordance with the special character of Old Testament
Apocalyptic prophecy, we find that wherever the fulfilment is
not stated with chronological accuracy, as in the ninth chapter,
some clue, at least, is given by which we may be led to form a
general conception of the period referred to. This was the more
necessary, as we know with what eagerness, during the times of
affliction, after the captivity at least, the people in Israel waited
for the fulfilment of prophecy (contrast with this e.g. Zeph. i.
12-14), with what anxious impatience they sought after signs of
the predicted period. Even the times of Christ and the subse
quent decennia show this. It was the object of prophecy to
restrain such premature zeal.
The New Testament, on the other hand, is the time of the
end and fulfilment (1 Cor. x. 11 ; 1 Peter i. 20; Heb. ix. 26);
and though the times of the Gentile Church may extend over a
long period, yet, as the apostle of the Gentiles himself suggests
(Rom. xi. 12, 15), they are viewed as rapidly-elapsing inter-
1 The time of Antioch is called "the time of the end," Dan. viii. 17-19; 11,
40. (Comp. 12, 4.) But this must not confuse us, for it is the prophetic ex
pression for the time, which as the time of fulfilment is always seen at the end
of the prophetic horizon; Comp. especially Gen. xlix.l. Numb. xxiv. 14.

APOCALYPSES CONTRASTED. 79
mediate times in the course of the development of the kingdom
which is the object of the prophetic vision, they are days of
small things in the divine estimate of events, and it is in refer
ence to them that Peter alludes to the words, a thousand years
are with the Lord as one day (2 Peter iii. 8, 9). The Gentile
Church, for which John wrote his Revelation, needs the more to
be impressed with the shortness of this period, as'it is inclined,
owing to its Gentile origin, to conform to the world and to forget
the coming of the Lord. As the Church of the New Covenant,
it is true, it excels that of the Old in that heaven is opened to it
in the spirit ; but in the flesh it is yet in the world, and doubly
exposed to its temptations, because no longer outwardly separ
ated from it. And, although, owing to its perfection in Christ,
it does not require such special predictions as the Old Testament
Church, yet, because of the imperfection still cleaving to it in the
flesh, it stands in need of being reminded of the transitory char
acter of this present world, and the near approach of the advent
of the Lord, an admonition whereby it is comforted in the time
of affliction, and roused to watchfulness in the time of slumber
and worldliness. The Revelation points, on the one hand, to
the coming of Christ as distant, for it shows the succession of
the seven seals, trumpets, and vials ; 1 on the other hand, it pro
claims, with upraised finger, " Behold, I come quickly." In this
it but follows the example of the Saviour Himself, who distinctly
said, that His second advent was a remote event, yet notwith
standing, and for that very reason, exhorted to watch and to
wait (Matt. xxv. 6, 13, 19 ; Mark xiii. 32-37).
1 Comp. Baur in his and Zeller's theologische Zahrbiicher, 1852, iv., 444.

80 THE NATURE OF APOCALYPTIC PROPHECY.
n. THE NATURE OF APOCALYPTIC PROPHECY.
I. THE SUBJECTIVE FORM J THE DREAM, THE VISION.
We may naturally expect that as the Apocalyptic books contain
peculiar revelations adapted to a peculiar purpose ; so the mode
in which they are communicated to the seers, will differ from the
mode usual in other prophecies. We have now to investigate
what that peculiar mode is.
The name Apocalyptic (in the use of which we are justified
by Rev. i. 1), already signifies that the divine communication
and revelation are more prominent in the prophet than the
human mediation and receptivity ; for dnoieaKv^is (revelation)
signifies a divine, — n-po^nTcm (prophecy, Weissagung), a human
activity. Comp. Dan. ii.22, 23, where it is said of God, that " He
revealeth (aires tmoKaXviTTti, lxx.) the deep and secret things ; He
knoweth what is in the darkness, and the light dwelleth with
Him ;" and Rev. i. 1, 2, where the supernatural fact is three
fold. God gave the revelation to Jesus Christ, and He, through His
angels, signified it to John for the purpose of further spreading it.
All biblical prophecy, of course, is based on divine revelation,
so that these two words designate, the one the subjective, the
other the objective side of the same thing (see 1 Cor. xiv.'
29, 30), and are sometimes used indiscriminately, as when John
calls his Apocalypse, which is styled " the revelation of Jesus
Christ" (Rev. i. 1), " the words of this prophecy" (Rev. i. 3).
For this reason, however, a distinction is likewise made between
the two expressions, and they are used as two distinct species of the
same genus, according as the objective revelation, or the subjec
tive prophetic inspiration, is more prominent. Thus St Paul
distinguishes them in 1 Cor. xiv. 6, " either by revelation or by
prophecy. The prophet stands in connection with the outer world. He

THE PROPHET AND THE APOCALYPTIC. 81
addresses words to the prince and the people, as in the Old
Testament, to the congregation, as in the New, s words with
which the Spirit of God, pervading the human spirit with His
mighty influence, supplies him. But whilst the prophet speaks
in the Spirit (comp. 1 Cor. xii. 3, iv nvevpLan Qeov \a\S>v), the
apocalyptic seer is in the Spirit, in his whole person (Rev. i. 10 ;
iv. 2). The united activity of soul and body which forms the
link between man. and the outer world, recedes altogether into
the background, so that St Paul, speaking of such a state from
his own experience, can say he does not know whether he was
in the body or out of the body (2 Cor. xii. 2, 3). It is the
spirit only, that which connects us with God and the invisible
world, which is active, or rather recipient, in the apocalyptic
state ; for all proper human activity towards God can consist only
in receiving. Here, where the object is.not so much to influence
the immediate contemporaries of the seer, as that the seer may re
ceive disclosures for the benefit of all succeeding generations, he is
alone with God, while He reveals Himself, and perceives only
what is disclosed to him from above, as the veil which hides the
invisible world is drawn from off his spirit (cmo — koKv-ittuv).
" The heavens were opened," says Ezekiel (i. 1), " and I saw
visions of God." This state is therefore called a trance [ecstasy]
(Acts x. 10 ; xi. 5 ; xxii. 17), a being taken out of the relations
of earthly life, a being snatched away out of the world and 'trans
ported into heaven (aprra-yrfvai els ovpavov irapaheiaov, 2 Cor. xii. 2,
4). And this explains the titles of the apocryphal Apocalypses,
such as Ascension, ava^ariKov, dvaKTjno-ts, and the like.
For the same reason, the subjective psychological form of the
Apocalypse is either the dream — since in dreaming we are taken
out of connection with the external world, and introduced into a
new world of images and representations — or, in a higher degree,
the vision, the sight (das Gesicht). St Paul characteristically
places together visions and (in them) revelations of the' Lord (2
Cor. xii. 1). " The apocalyptic state, in its lower degree, is of the
nature of a dream, and the revelations are imparted to men

82 PROGRESS IN DANIEL.
partly in dreams of the night, Std 8eia>v oveipdrmv ; in its higher
degree, the ecstasy comes on in a waking state, xaff vwap ; but
in both cases it is a state in which earthly consciousness, logical
thought and its gnosis, recede into the background, words and
conceptions vanish, and the human spirit, overpowered by the
divine, loses itself in the contemplation of divine things."1 In
the dream or vision a whole history unrolls itself before the
inner eye of man, and hence these psychological forms of revela
tion are specially fitted for the special disclosures which we
have seen were necessary for the purposes, the Apocalyptic books
have to serve.
A beautiful and remarkable progress may be traced in this
respect in the book of Daniel. We have already directed the
reader's attention to the circumstance, that the interpretation of
Nebuchadnezzar's dream was of importance to the prophet him
self as a preparatory education. But, in the subsequent revela
tions as well, each forms a preparation for the following, both
in form and contents, and thus we are able to trace clearly the
gradual steps by which God educated the prophet to be a fit
recipient of His disclosures as these became ever more special.
When Nebuchadnezzar first dreams, Daniel is simply the inter
preter (chap. ii. and iv.) ; afterwards Daniel himself has a
dream, but as yet it is only a vision in a dream of the night
(vii. 1, 2) ; this is followed by a vision in the waking state
(viii. 1-3) ; and finally we see that in the last two revelations
(ix. and x.-xii.) the ecstatic state is apparently no longer neces
sary to the prophet, who, now a feeble and trembling old man
(x. 8, etc.), is already almost transplanted out of the earthly
world. Now, in his usual state, he sees and hears angels speak
like men, whilst his companions do not see the appearances
from a higher world, and are only seized with terror like as
those who accompanied St. Paul to Damascus (ix. 20, etc. ; x.
4, etc. ; comp. Acts ix. 7). It is clear that the progression in the
1 Liicke loc. cit. p. 28 ; comp. also p. 17.

SYMBOLISM. 83
form of prophecy corresponds to a similar one in the contents. At
first we see only general outlines, sketches which are afterwards
filled up with minuteness and circumstantiality. The two last
prophecies, the ninth chapter with its chronological, and the
eleventh with its historical details, are by far the most special.
We do not notice, in the Apocalypse of John, the same progres
sion and variety in the form of revelation as there is in Daniel ;
but John received his revelation on one day and in one form
(i. 10 ; iv. 2), a form which resembles the highest attained by
Daniel, as we find it in the eighth chapter. Those unecstatic
visions, or, more properly, auditions, which we meet with in
Daniel ix.-xii., are without analogy in the Revelation of John ;
for the Apocalyptic prophet of the New Testament had not to
receive revelations at all so detailed. It is, however, only in
accordance with the spirit of the New Testament, that the re
velation is communicated, not in dreams and visions of the night,
as is the case so late as Zechariah, but in the highest form of
ecstasy, in waking visions, bright and clear as the day.

II. THE OBJECTIVE FORM : SYMBOLISM.
Our remarks, hitherto, have reference merely to the subjective
form of Apocalyptic prophecy ; we shall now briefly consider
the objective, the object of the dream and vision in which the
truths of revelation are sensibly embodied in a concrete way,
that they may be perceived by the mind's eye of the seer.
In prophecy, the Spirit of God, who inspires the human organ
of revelation, finds His immediate expression in words ; in the
Apocalypse, human language disappears, for the reason given by
the apostle (2 Cor. xii. 4) : he " heard unspeakable words, which
it is not lawful for a man tojitter." A new element appears here
which corresponds to the subjective element of seeing, the vision.
The prophet's eye, for the Apocalyptic writer is a prophet, in a

84 SYMBOLISM.
wide sense, is opened to look into the unseen world, he has in
tercourse with angels; and as he thus beholds the unseen,' he
beholds also the future, which appears to him embodied in plastic
symbolic shapes, as in a dream,1 only that these images are not
the children of his own fancy, but the product of divine revela
tion adapting itself essentially to our human horizon. Every
divine unveiling of truth is at the same time relative, a veiling
of truth from profane eyes : one need only be reminded of the
parables of Jesus and His own declaration concerning them
(Matt. xiii. 10-15). It is so also with the Apocalypses. " The
relation of man to history is not to be destroyed," even by these
circumstantial details of the future which it is their peculiar
office to communicate. Man is to know the future, and yet not to
know it, in order that the events prophesied may be objects both
of faith and hope to him, and that he may not see the future as
clearly as the past. " The Lord," remarks Preiswerk, " has always
represented the events He announced by the prophets in such a
manner that they were sufficiently clear for him, who approached
with reverence and careful thought, and yet sufficiently dark and
veiled as not to limit the freedom of human action. For, if the
unchangeable decrees of the Eternal were presented to our eyes
in unveiled features, what would become of the responsibility of
man, of the free movements of human life, what of courage, and
hope, and joy ? Standing opposed to an iron necessity we would
be discouraged and paralysed, as we sometimes observe in the
case of men who believe in the inevitable fulfilment of a sooth
sayer's predictions about them."2 It is for this reason that the
form peculiar to Apocalyptic prophecy is the symbolic, which
may be regarded as a parallel to the parabolic form of the dis
courses of our Lord. Symbols as well as parables are holy
enigmas to arouse our attention ; they disclose heavenly mysteries
to him who is willing to attend and receive instruction; but
' Comp. Schubert's Symbolik des Traums,
2 Comp. Lucke, p. 40'). Nitzsch, System der Christl. Lehre. 5th edit. Pp.
87, 92. Preiswerk, loc. cit. p.. 269.

SYMBOLISM. 8 5
they shut the hardened heart and close the slumbering eyes.
The powers which prevail in the course of history are not intro- ,
duced into Apocalyptic prophecy unveiled, but only under
certain images of stones, plants (Dan. iv.), beasts, men, and so
on, which, like the parables of our Lord, require themselves an
exposition. And when angels give us leading views to help us
to an understanding of these symbols (Dan. vii. 16, etc.; viii.
19, etc.; Rev. xvii. 1, etc., 7, etc.; xxi: 9, etc.), these do not
purport, as has been already remarked, to be complete interpre
tations, but only finger-posts and hints to aid our faith in its
investigation, and so they are of such a nature as to leave pro
phecy an object of faith and investigation, even in the time of -
its approaching fulfilment. For since they are intended to be
intelligible only to the wise, they would frustrate their object if
a clear interpretation were annexed. And how perfectly this
end has been achieved, the partial obscurity, namely, arising
from the symbolic form, is most evident from this, that in our
own times no questions in exegesis meet with such different
answers as those concerning the Apocalypses ; that, in reference
to Daniel, there are two views prevalent, diametrically opposed
to each other, while, after innumerable interpretations of the
Revelation of John, we are yet seeking for the correct one, and
only gradually and slowly finding our way to it by the light of
the progress of its fulfilment.
As the subjective form of Apocalyptic prophecy is the vision,
the corresponding objective form is the symbolic. There remains
yet much to be done for the elucidation of Apocalyptic sym
bolism, especially that of the Revelation, where, as is generally
known, it is not easy to decide between what is symbolical and
what purely literal. And here it is important to distinguish
between the invisible, but now already existing in heaven, and
the future, "what is and what shall be hereafter" (Rev. i. 19).
It is natural that the future should be represented in symbols,
though even here there remain some obscurities ; but where, as
in Rev. iv. and v., the real passes into the symbolical, a more

86 SYMBOLISM.
minute examination is necessary. In this investigation it is
necessary to consider the sum total of philological and exegetical
results which have been gathered from the study of Holy Scrip
ture, and of prophecy in particular. Nor ought analogies, which
lie beyond the sphere of Ahe Bible, to be neglected, though they
must be kept carefully separate and be clearly placed in a
secondary position. This alone is the true historical and critical
method of investigation. What is biblical is from above ; what
is extra-biblical is from below : however they may resemble
each other outwardly, this essential difference separates them.
We attempted to throw light on the symbolism of men and
beast3 which occur in Daniel, from this point of view ; and in
the same spirit we shall consider the symbolical figures of the
Revelation of John, as far as they offer parallels to those of
Daniel. It is only thus that the interpretation can be founded
on clear, firm principles, and that an end can be put to the
arbitrariness which has been heretofore so prevalent. The sym
bols of the Revelation of John may also be classified into symbols
in human and symbols in bestial shape.
We have, on the one side, the two beasts and the dragon, on
the other, the woman and the whore. We are already familiar
with the bestial nature from Daniel, but we shall have to notice
the peculiar modification with which this symbolism occurs in
the Revelation. On the other hand, the shapes of the woman
and the harlot, which correspond to the Son of Man in Daniel,
are new. Here also we must treat of the difference between the
male and the female, and therefore we shall have to investigate
what Holy Scripture, and especially prophecy, intends to desig
nate by woman and by whoredom. Any one at all acquainted
with biblical language will at once reply : The woman signifies
the Church, and whoredom, her unfaithfulness to her divine Lord
and husband. This, according to our opinion, is a simple and
decisive interpretation of these two symbols, and places the
passage about the two witnesses (Rev. xi.), which however, does
not fall within our province, in its true light.

SYMBOLS AND PARABLES. 87
In the symbol, as well as in the parable, the lower is used as
a picture and sign of the higher, the natural as a means of re
presenting the spiritual. All nature becomes living ; it is a
revelation of God and of the divine mysteries and laws of life in
a lower sphere, as much as the kingdom of heaven is in a higher.
There is a deep fundamental harmony and parallelism between
the two grand spheres of cosmic being, that of nature and that
of spirit ; or, as the latter is twofold, both psychical and spiritual,
between the three kingdoms of nature, history, and revelation.
It is on this correspondence that symbolism and parabolism are
grounded. The selection of symbols and parables in Scripture,
therefore, is not arbitrary, but is based on an insight into the
essence of things. The woman could never represent the king
dom of the world, nor the beast the church ; but, as we found
that the essential nature of the kingdoms of the world is bestiality,
so we shall find, in the nature of the woman, the reason why it is
used as the symbol of the Church. To obtain an insight into
the symbols and parables of Holy Scripture, nature, that second,
or rather .first, book of God, pnust be opened as well as the
Bible.1 Having thus considered the intimate relation between
' Comp. A. Bram Blicke in die Weltgeschichte und ihren Plan. Strass-
burg, 1835, p. 16 : " Though there are many regions and gradations of
created beings, yet the Divine will has established the same fundamental laws
in all of them. Thus, there is only oue Word of God, who worketh in the world
of Nature and Spirit ; for example, except a corn of wheat fall into the ground
and die, except the external parts are dissolved, it cannot bring forth fruit ;
and, in like manner, every new spiritual life and progress must he preceded
by a dying, a. denying of the subordinate, and much more of the inordinate
and sinful. (Comp. John 12, 24.) The knowledge of Nature is propaedentic to
that of the Bible, and discloses to our eye its deepest meaning. We do not
know and perceive in the beginning, the deep truth and inward harmony which
pervades the Divine Word, because we live too little in the atmosphere of this
essential truth and reality ; only, after we have learned to believe the true
God upon His simple word, we awake gradually to a sense and understanding
of this characteristic of the Bible. But when once we have gained an insight
into this truth, we feel how unspeakably true are the symbolic language and
parables oR the Bible ; we are struck by the frequency with which the Bible
speaks of certain beings and phenomena ; we begin to trace from the spiritual
interpretation which the word gives to phenomena in the world of Nature and

88 SYMBOLS AND PARABLES.
symbolism and parabolism, let us now inquire into their charac
teristic difference. Their starting-point and direction are mutu
ally opposed. Jesus, coming down from heaven, seeks, in His
parables, to clothe divine things in an earthly dress, and thus to
introduce them into the very heart of human life. The parables
are, so to say, a parable of Christ Himself. As in Him God
became flesh, so He clothed the mysteries of God's kingdom in
the events of human and natural life. For this reason, He starts
from the daily wonted life of man, and selects out of it events,'
actions, and stories, that He may make them the memorials of
things eternal. The Apocalyptic seer, on the other hand, looks
from below upwards. He does not speak to the people ; he
speaks for the wise and prudent. His object is not so much to
imprint the spiritual in the natural, as to fashion of the natural
a transparent garment for the spirtual. The earthly is viewed
not so much in its positive as in its negative relation to the
heavenly. Hence, individual shapes, and not connected acts,
become the expression of the spiritual idea ; symbolism is not so
much at home on earth as parabolism. The actions which are
introduced in symbolism, are limited to the most general out
lines : e.g., the ram overcomes the he-goat, the dragon perse
cutes the woman, the beast with its horns hates and devours the
whore. Nor do the shapes themselves retain their simple
natural attributes, but in their symbolical meaning are charac
terised by special additions and combinations ; the lion receives
the wings of an eagle, the leopard four heads, another beast ten
horns, the woman is clothed with the sun, etc. Thus there is
as intimate a connection between the symbolic form and the con
tents and spirit of Apocalyptic prophecy, as between the para
bolic form and the' person of Christ. The parables correspond
to the first appearance of Christ in the flesh for the salvation of
the world ; the Apocalypses refer chiefly to His second coming
to judgment, and they show how all that is natural must die, in
of man, an inward connection, hidden order and laws, thus disclosing to us, as
it were, a new spiritual world."

SYMBOLISM. 89
order that the glory of the true essential spiritual life may burst
forth. It is thus that, in the Apocalypses, the natural proves in
adequate to express the spiritual, and the symbols must modify
and enlarge the shapes offered in nature, while the parables give
prominence to the divine element, which is couched and expressed
in the natural phenomena as such.
If we apply these general remarks to Daniel, we perceive that
his last two revelations are a partial exception also in this respect.
They were received, not in an- ecstatic, but in an ordinary state ;
and thus the words have more prominence than the symbolic
shapes, yet not as ordinarily the words of the prophet, but words
out of the invisible world, words of an angel. " When Daniel
was younger, he saw the future in images which needed to be
explained ; but when he was old, the angels revealed in common
language, as one relates a narrative."1 It is now possible,
to bear the words which are otherwise " unutterable," and in this
narration of future things, coming from a heavenly world, they
are revealed in their reality, and without their symbolic dress ;
even the most minute disclosures are now possible. We find here
applied to an entire series of future events, the same mode of
revelation which we meet elsewhere only in connection with some
leading events in the kingdom of God (e.g., the prophecy of the
birth of Christ and of His forerunner). Yea, the same angel
Gabriel who announces to Mary the birth of the Messiah, predicts
His advent more than five hundred years before, and with the
nicest chronological accuracy. It is as if divine revelation wished
to show, on this the summit of Old Testament prophecy, how that
she from her holy height can mould that highest form of prophecy
which borders on prediction, yet does not overstep the boundary.
For even in these words, care has been taken to veil the prophecy
relatively, as we have shown above, in regard to the eleventh
chapter, and shall have occasion to show, more fully, in regard
to the ninth.
1 Roos, Daniel als ein rechtschaffener Hofmann. 2d edit. Stuttgart, 1779 ;
cited in his Fusstapfen des Glaubens Abrahams, Tubingen, 1838, p. 394.

90 THEOPHANY, PROPHECY, APOCALYPSE.
This mode of prophecy, the Apocalyptic, though altogether
new, did not appear without being prepared by the earlier pro
phets, as has been already shown, and only reached its full deve
lopment in Daniel, who exerted, in this formal respect also, an
influence on Zechariah, as is evident from the first six chapters
of that prophet. There are, as may be expected, many points of
transition andconnecting links between prophecy and Apocalypses,
which, however, we cannot consider at present. We have now
only to point out, that the progress of the development of reve
lation, both in the Old and New Testament, finds its consumma
tion in the Apocalyptic prophets. In the patriarchal, and even
in the Mosaic period, the invisible world, God and the angels,
came down outwardly and visibly to the earth. Among the
prophets, the inward character of revelation is more prominent.
But the consummation is, that now the prophet looks up from
earth into the unseen world, and that there the images of the
' future are shown to him by angels' hands, and explained to him
by angels' tongues. Theophany is the first form of Old Testa
ment revelation, Prophecy, the second, and the Apocalypse, the
third and final. In the New Testament there is a parallel pro
gression ; first, the coming of God in the flesh, then the spiritual
activity of the apostles, lastly, the Apocalypse ; a progression
which, while inward, yet expresses itself also outwardly in the
three parts of the New Testament canon, — the Gospels, the Acts of
the Apostles and Epistles, the Revelation of John. In both Tes
taments the first form and ground of revelation is objective, and is
mediated through God the Son, who reveals Himself visibly to
man ; the second is subjective, and is mediated through the Holy
Ghost, who inspires man inwardly ; the third is a vision of the
Son in His future Advent, procured through the Spirit. Thus,
while the Apocalypse is a kind of prophecy, it is yet so peculiar
a kind, that in its outward objectivity it has something in
common with Theophany or Christophany. It is the higher
unity of Theophany and Prophecy, of manifestation and in
spiration.

SECOND PART.

THE SEVENTY WEEKS.

DAN. IX.

We turn now to the separate consideration of those chapters of
Daniel, the exegesis of which decides, as has been shown at the
close of the introduction, the whole question which criticism has
raised concerning our book. If we are successful in showing
that the modern-views of these chapters are untenable, we have
gained so powerful a testimony to the genuineness of the book,
as to leave scarce any weight to the remaining arguments of our
opponents. We begin the series with the ninth chapter, because the sub
ject of this prophecy is a period which has long since elapsed,
while the second and seventh chapters refer to an epoch future
even to ourselves, and may therefore be more naturally viewed
in connection with the Apocalypse of John in the New Testa
ment. We shall first develop the contents of the angelic revela
tion which this chapter records, as it was understood by the
Church of Christ in all ages, which was unanimous in regard to
the main and essential points, though the opinions concerning
minor details offer some diversity. That this was the case

92 HAVERNICK ON DAN. IX.
appears from the following remark with which Havernick felt
himself justified in concluding a survey of the exegetical history
of our passage down to the second half of the last century
(Commentar, pp. 393-395) : — " It was generally conceded, not
withstanding all minor differences as to the details of this pro
phecy, that the central meaning of the seventy weeks was to be
sought in the life of Christ ; and the diversities in the interpreta
tion of details may all be reduced to those that flow from three
sources, a difference in the starting-point, a difference in the
chronology of the life of Jesus, a difference in the chronological
methods selected by the various commentators as a basis."
We shall first present our own view of the chapter, and then
proceed to criticise the modern expositions. A detailed philo
logical exposition does not lie within the sphere of our proposed
task, and we therefore refer the reader for information in this
respect to Hengstenberg' s Christology of the Old Testament (ii.
pp. 401-581), as well as to the Commentary of Havernick.

CHAPTER I.
THE MESSIANIC VIEW TAKEN BY THE CHURCH.

I. THE PROPHECT IN ITS CONTEXT AND CONTENTS.
Our chapter places us in the first year of Darius the Mede. If,
as is still more probable, we are to understand by this Darius,
Cyaxares IL, in whose name his nephew, son-in*law, and suc
cessor, Cyrus, as commander-in-chief of the entire Medo-Persian
army, conquered Babylon, 538 B.C., then the date of our chapter
would fall about the year 537 B.C., nearly a year before Cyrus
gave the Jews permission to return from their exile, and sixty-
nine years after Daniel had been carried away to Babylon at the
commencement of the captivity, 606 B.C.
We can easily understand why the pious Israelite, who so sin
cerely loved and clung to Jehovah and his nation, should feel him
self moved at this time to make the prophecy of Jeremiah concern
ing the seventy years, which were to witness the desolations of
Jerusalem, the object of his investigation and earnest reflection.
But he investigated the Scriptures with prayer. He poured out
his heart in ardent supplication before the God of the Covenant,
and cried to Him to vouchsafe His mercy to the people who
were called by His name, and to restore the sanctuary and the
city. This is one of those biblical prayers where we feel that
it is not by human exposition that we can enter into its meaning,
depth, and significance, but that the words must explain them
selves in our own hearts. Daniel, the just and faithful servant
of God, enters so deeply into the guilt and sin of his people, in

94 , DANIEL A TYPE.
the consciousness of his priesthood he identifies himself so entirely
with it, he repents so heartily in the name of all Israel, that we
feel here a presentiment, as it were, of what happened in the inner
sanctuary of the atoning substitution, and our view is borne aloft
from the chamber of Daniel to the prayerful sacrifice of Geth
semane and Golgotha. As we have seen above that, in general,
the prophet's own life forms the typical substratum for his pro
phecy, so also in this particular case his own experience forms
the typical starting-point of the prophecy concerning the perfect
atonement for sin. In this prayer of repentance, Daniel is a type
of that highest Priest who was to be cut off (ver. 26), and should
thereby cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease (ver. 27),
because He Himself has made reconciliation for iniquity and
brought in everlasting righteousness (ver. 24). Daniel was
especially prepared to receive this revelation of the New Testa
ment priesthood, at the very time when he himself had appeared
before God in his priestly office. And can this prayer, which
it is not possible to read without deep emotion in the very heart
of hearts, be a cunning deception ? It only shows how much
our criticism is devoid of a deep and earnest sense for religious
truth and truthfulness, when to such questions it attaches so
little importance.
Before we proceed to consider the revelation which was vouch
safed to the prophet in answer to his prayer (ver. 24-27), let us
remind the reader, first of all, that these four short verses
contain angelic language ; they are in the style of the upper
sanctuary. Hence it is so difficult for us impure men (Is.
vi. 5) to enter into their meaning; and hence there is no
interpretation which has completely overcome the difficulties and
thrown clear light on the obscurities in this angelic message.
The answer naturally refers to the question, the favour shown to
the petition offered ; though the divine answer extends far
beyond the human question, and the divine favour transcends
all that we can think and pray for. We must endeavour, there
fore, to enter vividly and fully into the thoughts and feelings

DANIEL'S PRAYER. 95
which form the basis of Daniel's prayer, in order to understand
as far as possible the words of the angel.
Daniel prays for the liberation of Israel, and for the rebuild
ing of the city and the sanctuary. He prays for this manifestly
in view of those great promises, whose fulfilment was connected
with this event. For in all the prophets, especially in Jeremiah,
who is more especially present to his mind (Jer. xxxi.), the
fulfilment of the Messianic hope was inseparably connected with
this restoration.1 The revelation which Daniel himself had
received in the second and seventh chapters, showed him doubt
less that the Messianic kingdom was not so immediately near, in
its glory at least, since but one of the four universal monarchies
had passed away. But this made it the more necessary that
some explanation should be granted him concerning the prophe
cies of the earlier prophets, in whom he saw an intimate connec
tion between the deliverance from captivity and the Messianic
salvation. The revelation now vouchsafed to him has for its
purpose to analyse into its successive parts that which the pro
phets, according to the law of prophetical perspective, have
hitherto seen together in one, viz. the redemption from captivity,
and the full Messianic redemption. It had indeed occurred
more than once in the Old Testament, that there were relative
fulfilments of earlier prophecies, and that it became necessary to
warn the people not to trace in them the highest and absolute
fulfilment. The pious servants of God under the Old Covenant,
who longed for the consolation of Israel, and who, like Noah's
father (Gen. v. 29), hoped many a time that now the Comforter
of their afflictions was nigh at hand, have to wait from age to
age, and to view the preceding fulfilments only as pledges and
earnests of the coming of Him whom they desired so earnestly to
1 Comp. J. Chr. K. Hofmann die 70 Jahre des Jeremiah u. die 70 Jahr-
wochen des Daniel. Niirnberg, 1836, p. 60, comp. Heim and W. Hoffmann,
grossen Propheten, erbaulich aus gelegt aus den Schriften der Reformatoren,
p. 864. Hess Geschichte der Regenten Juda nach dem Exil. Tubingen, 1792,
p. 194.

96 THE ANGEL'S ANSWER. i
see (Matt. xiii. 17); just like those Christians who believe the
coming of their Lord to be near, but are ever expected to con
tinue waiting. Thus David comes as a relative fulfilment of the
older promises, but Nathan the prophet was sent to announce
to him that he was not to build a house to God, for that God
would build a house to him, and that his seed was destined to
be the mediator of Jehovah's true dwelling among His people
(2 Sam. vii.). In like manner in our prophecy — and we know
that this is in accordance with the essential characteristic of the
Apocalyptic — Daniel receives the intimation of a long period of
seventy prophetic weeks instead of seventy years, at the end of
which the expected salvation would come ; and thus the time
is indicated which would elapse between the nearer and relative
fulfilment, and the further and absolute, from the issuing forth
of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem, till
the time of the Messiah. As the Lord answered Peter's ques
tion, " Is it enough that I forgive my brother seven times ? "
with, " Not seven times, but seventy times seven" (Matt, xviii.
21, etc.) ; so the angel here answers Daniel, not seventy years,
but " seven times seventy years are determined upon thy people,
and upon thy holy city." His words run thus : —
Ver. 24. Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people, and upon
thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins,
and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting
righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint
the Most Holy.
Ver. 25. Know therefore, and understand, that from the going
forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem, unto the
Messiah the Prince, shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two
weeks : the street shall be built again, and the wall (and these only),
even in troublous times.
Ver. 26. And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be
cut of, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall
come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end (of the

THE MESSIAH A SIN OFFERING. 97
sanctuary) thereof shall be with a flood (of war), and unto the end
there is war, desolations are determined (by God). \
Ver. 27. And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one
week : and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and
the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations, he
shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that deter
mined (the curse) shall be poured upon the desolate.
The twenty-fourth verse belongs to the most profound and
glorious passages in the Old Testament ; and if anywhere these
have a Messianic signification, it is here. The angel wishes at
first to give the prophet the general impression that his hopes.
and prayers for the Messiah will be fulfilled in a much later
period than he expected. The seventy years of exile were in
deed, as he had confessed in his prayer, a punishment for the
sins of the people, yet not a perfect satisfaction for them before
God. God would certainly visit Israel with His redeeming
mercy, but the full atonement and forgiveness of sin, the eternal
and everlasting restoration of the normal state between God and
sinners (p"lX, SiKawo-vvj), righteousness), would come only after
seventy prophetic weeks. The sacrifice by which this atone
ment for sin would be made is pointed out in the twenty-sixth
verse by the expression, n"0' (" Messiah shall be cut off"),
which reminds us of the sacrifices of animals at the striking of
covenants (rvia mi) ; with this also is connected the expression
in the twenty-seventh verse, " He shall confirm the covenant
with many," n'la "paarri, and the prophecy, that the sacrifices
of the Old Testament, both with and without blood (" sacrifice
and oblation"), shall cease. Thus the angel presents to the
prophet in these expressions a connected chain, each link of
which be'ars, upholds, and explains the other, and which, taken
aggregately, represents the Messiah as the perfect sin-offering
of the covenant, a revelation which Daniel, an earnest investi
gator of Scripture, could find more fully explained in the fifty-
third of Isaiah.
Tn this time of salvation, Gabriel continues, not only the
G

98 TWENTY-FIFTH VERSE.
prophecies of Jeremiah, but likewise all visions and prophecies
in general will be fulfilled (Luke xvi. 16; 2 Cor. i. 20); and
not only will a new sanctuary be dedicated as Daniel prayed,
but a most holy place where God would dwell with His people
in a peculiar manner (John ii. 19-22). It is not necessary
to consider the D^UHp Wlp to be masculine, as Luther does:
the Most Holy One, although the word, especially when con
nected with mu», refers so distinctly to the Messiah, that this
reference has been acknowledged even by Jewish commentators,
as Aburbanal, and others. The most prominent thought is this :
Even as, and because at that time the perfect sacrifice will
be offered as an atonement for sin, the holy presence of God
will likewise be perfectly manifested (Ex. xl. 9, 34). For only
when sin is altogether taken away can God be really and
perfectly present. And, for this reason, the cover of the ark
of the covenant, on which, over the cherubim, Jehovah sat
throned in the holy of holies, was, at the same time, the outward
symbol of atonement, nar i£oxqv (Ikao-rripiov Rom. iii. 25).
What is here represented typically would be fulfilled in the
Messianic times.
Thus the fundamental idea of our verse is, that the seventy
years of exile are only a type of the farther seventy prophetic
weeks, and that the redemption from captivity at the end of the
seventy years is, in like manner, but a feeble type of the full
Messianic redemption at the end of these seventy prophetic
weeks. The three following verses purport to give a minute
description of these seventy weeks, selecting those of their lead
ing events which are of importance in this connection.
The general prophecy of the twenty-fifth verse receives the
more particular explanation, that the advent of the Messiah
would not be immediately after the exile, as Daniel had hoped,
and thus coincide with the restoration of the people and the
rebuilding of the city ; but that 7 and 62 = 69 prophetic weeks
were previously to elapse. Within this time Jerusalem is to be
restored and rebuilt, not indeed in that Messianic and divine

TWENTY-FIFTH VERSE. 99
splendour as was prophesied, for example, by Isaiah (liv. 11 ;
lx.-lxii.), but only in an earthly, external, and humble manner,
with streets and trenches. It will be a troublesome time, better
than the exile, but yet by far less rich in grace and salvation
than the Messianic time.1
Thus the prophet's eye was turned away from the end of the
exile and fixed on the end of the sixty-ninth week as the time of
the Messiah's coming. He is not to regard the time preceding
that advent ; he is not to set his heart and hope upon it. For
the fate of the people and city, which fills him with solicitude,
is entirely dependent on the position they will take in reference
to the Messiah. And, therefore, in the two following verses,
there is such emphatic prominence given to the life and fate of
the Messiah, while the fate of the city and sanctuary is mentioned
only in the second half of the verses, and in dependent connec
tion with the former. There is here, however, a twofold pro
phecy to be revealed. The Messianic future has a negative as
well as a positive side. The Messiah is set for the fall and rising
again of many in Israel, and for a sign which shall be spoken
against (Luke ii. 34). It is in this twofold aspect, as announcing
both salvation and judgment, that the Messianic prophecies are
revealed throughout the Old Testament from Joel (iii. 1-5) to
Malachi (iii. 1-6; 19-21), even to the aged Simeon and John
the Baptist (Luke ii. 29-35 ; iii. 7-18). We meet this twofold
aspect of the facts of salvation in our prophecy also, and with an
individual definiteness such as was naturally added by the fixed
and distinct reference to the first advent of the Messiah in the
flesh, and to the fate of the people and the city dependent on
their reception of Him, and fulfilled in the destruction of Jeru-
' Hofmann Schriftbeweis, I. 44, expresses the meaning of our passage, when
he says : It was necessary that Jesus should appear among the people of Israel,
that among them the perfect communion between man and God should be
restored. Hence it was necessary, that the dissolved Jewish polity should be
restored again, but only in a manner that would both be sufficient for this par
ticular object, and serve as a type of the perfect restoration of the nation.

100 TWENTY-SIXTH VERSE.
salem by the Romans. The negative aspect is represented in
ver. 26, the positive in ver. 27.
Ver. 26. The negative aspect is the rejection of the Messiah
on the part of Israel. He was killed, and His people esteemed
Him not. As a punishment for this crime the city and sanctuary
are destroyed by a foreign prince. Jesus Himself, when He was
led to the cross, had " felt in His heart," to use an expression of
Roos, the causal connection of the two events of His death and
the destruction of Jerusalem, and had repeatedly expressed it
during the passion-week (Luke xxiii. 28-31 ; Matt. xxi. 37-41 ;
xxiii. 37, 38). The last part of the verse gives a more detailed
description of the destruction, and of the afflictions that were to
precede it. The city and sanctuary are at last overwhelmed by
a stormy, frightful deluge of war ; for there is to be war even
to the end (comp. Matt. xxiv. 6 : wars and rumours of wars),
desolations determined by God upon the land. How this was
fulfilled in the Jewish war is well known.
These two events, the putting to death of the Messiah, and, in
consequence of that, the destruction of the city and the sanctuary,
are the points of decision for the people in general in that Mes
sianic time which began with the close of the sixty-ninth week.
For this reason they are put in the foreground, and are men
tioned without any more special chronological particulars, than
that they were to take place after the sixty-ninth week (the
text has it, " after threescore and two weeks ;" for the seven
weeks, as they naturally precede the sixty-two, do not need to
be mentioned again)j The leading idea of the twenty-sixth
verse is, therefore, the paramount importance of these two events,
and their causal connection. Daniel, and the Israelitish readers
of prophecy, would naturally expect that, immediately after the
expiration of the sixty- two weeks (ver. 25), the Messiah should
establish His kingdom of glory, to which the hearts of all Israel
were specially directed, and which the prophet had himself beheld
in the visions of the second and seventh chapters. In order, from
the very outset, to counteract this expectation, which was not to be

TWENTY-SIXTH VERSE. 101
fulfilled, Gabriel drops for a moment the chronological connection
(to resume it in ver. 27), and inserts here, with the general intima
tion, " after threescore and two weeks," those leading events which
were best calculated to rectify that erroneous hope, — the death of
the Messiah and the destruction of Jerusalem. It is not hence
to be inferred that these two events should coincide exactly with
the close of the sixty-second week. We are told, on the con
trary (ver. 25), that the coming of the Messiah was to be at the
end of the sixty-second week, which, therefore, could not be
marked also by His death. Nay, His death, as we shall see in
(ver. 27), is half a week after, and the destruction is much later
still. This last event is still indicated in the Messianic time as
its negative judicial side, just as Christ Himself represents the
destruction of Jerusalem as His Messianic coming (Matt. xvi.
28). The meaning of the angel therefore is : You must give up
not only the hope that the Messiah will come immediately after
the captivity, but also that other expectation, that immediately
after His coming He will establish His kingdom of glory. It
•»will be quite otherwise. Messiah will be put to death by the
unbelieving people, and, therefore, they will not attain to glory
and power, but, with the city and the sanctuary, will be delivered
into the hands of the Gentiles. This is the view vouchsafed to
Israel as a people, into the more immediate Messianic future.
These remarks will account for the change in the name chosen
for the Messiah. He is introduced in ver. 25 as Maschiach
Nagid (" the Anointed, the Prince") ; in ver. 26, this complex
idea is analysed, and the Messiah' is called simply Maschiach,
while the appellation Nagid is applied to Titus, the Roman
prince who should destroy Jerusalem. All this is characteristic
and full of meaning. The best explanation of Maschiach Nagid
is that of Hofmann,1 that the Maschiach refers to the Messiah as
King of Israel, as the Spiritual Prince anointed by the Spirit,
while the Nagid refers to Him as King of the Gentiles, ruler of
1 Die siebenzig Jahre, etc., p. 67.

1 02 MESSIAH AND NAGID.
the world. The passage of Scripture in proof of the first is, Ps.
ii. 2 ; of the second, Is. Iv. 4. Daniel, who had (chap, vii.)
seen the Son of Man ruling the whole world at the head of His
holy people, required to receive this twofold characteristic of the
Messiah. But at the death of the Messiah (ver. 26), it is evident
that He is not yet the real actual ruler of the world, the world
was then still under the fourth monarchy ; the name Nagid is
given, therefore, to its representative. It was the confession of
Christ that He was Maschiach (Matt. xxvi. 63, etc. ; comp.
John xviii. 33-37), that brought Him to death, and, for this
reason, it was written over His cross in literal fulfilment of our
prophecy : Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews (Matt, xxvii.
37, 42).1 In some respects Ebrard's view of the passage is even
more plausible than Hofmann's. He likewise refers the Nagid
to Christ, in favour of which it may be adduced, that Christ
Himself, as we have already mentioned, designates the destruc
tion of Jerusalem as His Messianic coming. " The Redeemer
is called the Anointed where His sufferings and rejection by his
people are spoken of; He is called the Prince when the judgment.
which He sends is spoken of ; Maschiach denotes His calling and
dignity ; Nagid, His power and strength. A people sent by this
Prince will destroy the city and temple ; this forms the grandest
contrast to lb ^n. He will be cut off and be no more at all, and
yet He is the Prince who is to come, and whom all nations of
the earth are to obey."2
But these two sad events, the violent death of the Messiah,
and the destruction of the city and temple, are neither the only
nor the last things which the angel has to communicate to the
prophet. He can add something positive and joyful. The
Messiah brings a week of revelation and salvation, and this is
the subject of ver. 27. This time of mercy is not indeed im
proved by the people as a whole — to the people apply the words
tb ^Nl (ver. 26) — but yet by many to whom the Messiah
1 Luther had the words rrsa nisi engraved on one of his table things.
2 Die Off. Joh., p. 70.

TWENTY-SEVENTH VERSE. 103
strengthens and confirms the covenant, while judgment and de
struction are gathering above the rest. By establishing a new
economy, in which the old sacrifices no longer prevail, He
brings the faithful into a nearer and firmer covenant relation to
God, a thought which was contained already positively in the
promises of ver. 24, and negatively in the announcement of the
destruction of the sanctuary, ver. 26 ; and we have already re
marked that it was possible for Daniel to have a presentiment
of the sacrifice of the New Covenant, through which the Old
Testament sacrifices were to cease, when he heard the prophecy
of the death of the Messiah (ver. 26). But in the desolated city
and the destroyed temple there should remain, the angel con
tinues, a curse, on account of the abominations committed by the
unholy people against the Holy One, until the time of consum
mation determined by God. In these last words lay a gleam
of hope for the city, and the people m general, especially if
Daniel connected them with the earlier revelations he had re
ceived. And thus the prophecy in the ninth chapter concludes,
carrying us back, by a slight allusion, to the seventh chapter,
where it was revealed to the prophet that, in the time of con
summation, every world-power would be judged, and dominion
would be given to the people of the saints of the Most High.1
We annex here some explanatory remarks on this difficult
verse. The confirmation of the covenant is also mentioned else
where by the prophets, as a Messianic office. Thus, the Messiah
is called (Is. xiii. 6) the Covenant of the people (i.e., He in
whom the covenant between Israel and God finds its personal
expression;2 comp. Luke xxii. 20: The New Testament in
My blood, i.e., in My person offered up as a sacrifice), the Angel
oHhe Covenant (Mal. iii. 1), while in Jer. xxxi. 31, etc., the
New Covenant of the Messianic time is described at length.
The expression D'Slb (to many) recalls Is. liii. 11, and the
• Comp. Ewald, die Propheten des Alten Bundes ii., p. 571.
1 Comp. Schmieder on this passage (Das Alte Test. von. O. von Gerlach iv.
L, p. 148.)

104 TWENTY-SEVENTH VERSE.
same word also refers (Dan. xi. 33) to the faithful adherents
to the covenant, the conception is equivalent to that of "the
remnant," and " the seed," whereof Isaiah and other prophets
have spoken, the Xd/i/xa tear iicXoyrjv xdpiros (Rom. ix. 27, etc. ;
xi. 5, etc.). In the Old Testament these elect are many, but
in the New Testament they are few.
The first clause of our verse, " He shall confirm the Covenant
with many for one week," is intimately connected with the follow
ing, " And in the midst of the week He shall cause the sacrifice and
the oblation to cease." There cannot be a covenant without sacri
fice, as is evident from the very term employed to designate the
making of a covenant (rvii ma). It was thus the covenant of
God with Noah, with Abraham, with the people of Israel, was
ratified by the offering of sacrifice (Gen. viii. 20-ix. 17 ; xv. 9,
etc. ; Ex. xxiv. 3-8, comp. Heb. ix. 15, etc.; and again Luke
xxii. 20 : the New Testament in My blood). But here there
is a time promised for the confirmation of the covenant, in the
midst of which, notwithstanding, all sacrifices should cease !
This could not but appear strange to the prophet, and it was so
intended. What did the angel intend to signify by this startling
juxtaposition? Evidently this, that the New Covenant would
be of a different nature from the Old, and from all previous
covenants of God with man. The first clause of the verse re
presents the New Covenant as a continuation of the Old, the
second clause points out its contrast to the Old. In his
prayer, Daniel's heart turned with holy longing towards the holy
mountain (ver. 16), and the temple, with its sacrifices and divine
services, which, in Babylon, he so painfully missed. Now Ga
briel, indeed, promises to him the restoration of th« city and the
sanctuary ; but we know that he is anxious, at the same time, to
lead the mind of the prophet away from these preparatory in
stitutions to the time of the perfect salvation. Daniel, and every
true Israelite with him, must now rest contented with the out
ward shadows of the sacrifices, which would be restored after
the exile, but must wait in faith (npoo-Sexop-evos, Luke ii., 25, 38)

THE SACRIFICES. 105
for the time of the promise, when sin should be perfectly atoned,
the covenant of God surer than ever, and when, nevertheless,
the old sacrifices should have ceased to exist. It is well known
that the Psalms and prophets contain clear indications, at an
early date, regarding the insufficient character of the sacrifices
of the Old Testament. We are more immediately reminded of
the profound Messianic passage — Ps. xl. 6—11, which begins,
"Sacrifice and offering" (rrnani mt) Thou didst not desire,"
and thence proceeds to proclaim evangelical righteousness
(pTX), thus declaring, in inverted order, the same message as
our prophecy, which (ver. 24) promises the restoration of eter
nal righteousness, and then traces it in our verse to the cessa
tion of the sacrifices and oblations. When, therefore, the Levi-
tical institutions were approaching their end, and actually ceased,
in the exile, the time had come for Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and
Daniel, to oppose, and with ever-increasing clearness, the
eternal spiritual (pneumatic) nature of the New Covenant, to the
cosmical sanctuary of the Old. This is done in the prophecy
before us in its positive aspect, ver. 24, and in its negative by
the announcement of the cessation of sacrifice. Ezek. xi.
19-21; xxxiv. 23, etc. ; xxxvi. 25, etc.; Jer. xxxi. 31, etc.;
iii. 16, are all passages where, in analogy with that under con
sideration, it is said, that in the times of the Messiah the ark of
the Old Covenant should be remembered no more. Gabriel
gives prominence to the sacrifices, because that, like the ark,
they are intimately connected with the idea of the Covenant.
But there is a special reference intended, which will be pointed
out more properly when we speak of the significance of our
passage for the time of Antiochus.
Our translation of the second part of ver. 27 is as follows : —
" And on accqunt of the desolating summit of abominations, and till the
consummation which is determined, il will pour on the desolated." The
Dmwn D^XIpll? f]iS bj?1, Hengstenberg, and many others, trans
late : " The destroyer cometh over the summit of abominations."
But the following arguments are in favour of connecting DttlWO

106 THE ABOMINATIONS.
with tpa, as an adjective, as is done by Ewald and others : —
1. The analogy of DDTO yipwrr (xi. 31 ; comp. xii. 11), im
peratively requires such a connection. 2. It is only thus we
avoid the supposition of superfluous repetitions of what is con
tained in ver. 26. 3. It affords the only justification of the
translation f}8e\vpa rrjs ipy/iao-eas which is given, not only by tne
Septuagint, but likewise by our Lord Himself (Matt. xxiv.
15). It is the acme (summit) of the abominations committed by
Israel, " which draws down the'desolation, nay, which is the deso
lation itself;"1 and this is entirely in accordance with the principle
which Christ applies to this case : " Wheresoever the carcase is,
there will the eagles be gathered together" (Matt. xxiv. 28), and still
more with the exact analogy of passages like Ezek. vii. 22 (comp.
ix. 7), where it is said, with reference to the destruction of Jerusa
lem by Nebuchadnezzar : " My face will I turn also from them (the
Israelites), and they shall pollute My secret place ; for the Gentile
robbers shall enter into it, and defile it." The worship of the people
who, according to ver. 26, have, in their unbelief, murdered the
Anointed of the Lord, who are only growing more obdurate in
their self- righteousness and hardness of heart, who have betaken
themselves to serve idols — a people which has so sinned against
the Most Holy, is full of D'SlpW* These are the same abomina
tions of whoredom which we meet again in apostate Christendom
("Rev. xvii. 4, 5). Even Isaiah has already to cry out to godless
Israel : "Bring nomorevain oblations ; incense is an abomination unto
Me" (Is. 1. 12 ; comp. Jer. vi. 15-21 ; Amos v. 21, etc. ; Micah
vi. 6 ; Ps. Ii. 18, etc.) ; and Ezekiel had to speak of the D'SlpW
of the people, who had broken the covenant, and thus brought
upon themselves the judgment of the first destruction of Jeru-
1 Stier, on Matthew xxiv. 15 (Sayings of the Lord Jesus ii., £49), comp.
Hengstenberg, Christ, ii., 495. Wieseler die 70 Wochen und die 63 Jahrwochen
des Propheten Daniel 4, Gottingen 1839. " The sacrifices of the Jews at that
time, Wieseler says in reference to Matt. xxiv. 15 (page 129), are called abomi
nations, not because they were performed according to the heathenish rite, but
though the form was strictly Mosaic, yet the spirit of the worshippers was, not
devotional, but heathenish.

THE ZEALOTS. 107
salem (Ez. v. 5-11 ; xviii. 21). And, in the time when our
prophecy was fulfilled, we find parallels, to mention only a few
instances, in the rebukes and proclamations of judgment uttered
by Jesus over unbelieving Israel (Matt. xxiv. 15), which have
distinct reference to this prophecy, and in the sayings of St
Stephen and St Paul (Acts vii. 51-53 ; Rom. ii. 22-25 ; 1 Thess.
ii. 15, 16). After the crucifixion of the Messiah, abomination was
heaped upon abomination, till, shortly before the destruction of
Jerusalem, they reached their height — in the devastation of the
temple by the Zealots, who were specially meant by the pro
phecy of Jesus, as Eisner already saw, and of whom Josephus
says, with evident reference to our passage (bell. Jud. iv. 6, 3) :
"They thought that the prophecy against their country was
approaching its fulfilment ; for it was an old prediction, that the
city would be destroyed, and the sanctuary, according to the
usages of war, be burned down, when a revolt would break out,
and native hands desecrate the temple of God. The Zealots
believed this, and offered themselves as the instruments of its
fulfilment." The im. t6 iepov in the common text of the lxx.,
which Christ explains more fully by iv rima dyia is contained, as
may be seen from the instructive parallel passage in Mark (xiii.
14) : mov oi 8eZ, not in the word spa (which cannot be founded
on the accidental analogy of nrepiyiov (Matt. iv. 5)), but in
D^SlpB?, which refers, not only to abominations in general, but
to religious abominations, things which polluted the sanctuary ;
and for this reason the lxx. (e.g. Ezek. v. 11), consider that rd
ayid fiov ifiiavas is a sufficient translation. As regards the trans
lation of the words, therefore, which have met such different in
terpretations, and especially as regards the difficult expression
*|33, we agree in the main with Ewald, who renders them : On
account of the frightful height [summit] of abominations. We do
not connect them, however, as he does, with the preceding
words, whereby he himself feels the difficulty of the 1 (loc. cit.
p. 571), but with those that follow. The bpi forms a paral
lelism with the iyi, which is, for the most part, overlooked :

108 TWENTY-SEVENTH VERSE.
the one designates the beginning, the laying of a foundation, the
other, the consummation, the end of the Divine judgment on
Israel. The following words, nsnrm nba-iyi Phil. Matt. Hahn
explains thus : " And till the consummation, that is, till what
is destined (till the appointed end of the destruction comes,
and the promised kingdom of God dawns), it will pour on
the desolated (land, city, and temple)."1 These words are
interpreted in our book 'itself by the expression, yB3 nib33
linp'DyV, " when he shall have accomplished to scatter the power
of the holy people" (xii. 7). Whether the nhs is taken in the
sense of mbs, consummation, which is most probable (comp.
Wieseler, p. 43), or in the sense of \>S3 niba, complete destruc
tion, as most commentators do ; in either case a boundary line
of the descending curse is marked, and moreover, is represented
as one destined and fixed by God Himself (lxx. : Has rrjs o-wreX-
etas Kaipov). It is necessary, that to fulfil its whole aim, and to
correspond to its whole context, the prophecy should conclude
with a gleam of hope for Israel, and not with a picture of
terrors (comp. Wieseler, p. 48). The impersonal "inn must be
taken in connection with ver. 11, where Daniel had prayed :
" therefore the curse is poured upon us, and the oath that is written
in the law of Moses ;" and thus, in these last words, we can see a
connection between the revelation of the angel and the supplica
tion of the prophet.
This view alone enables us to do away with the supposition,
that the second half of ver. 27 is a mere repetition, and to per
ceive in it, on the contrary, a progress from the second half of
ver. 26. In the one the destruction of the city and sanctuary is
prophesied, in the other the continuance of its desolation to the
time determined by God. Thus we perceive a clear and simple
relation between the twenty-3ixth and twenty-seventh verses.
The first clause in each speaks of the Messiah, the second of the
1 Vermischte Theologische Schriften of an Anonymous Student of Scripture.
Winterthur, 1779, vol. ii., 329. See Roos, 52.

SURVEY OF THE WHOLE PROPHECY. 1 09
city and the sanctuary. The twenty-sixth verse pictures the
dark side of the Messiah's history, His murder by the unbeliev
ing people, and the night that, on account of this crime, falls over
them, through the destruction of Jerusalem. The twenty-
seventh verse describes the bright side in the Messiah's his
tory, the salvation which He works out, the new covenant
which He founds. In harmony with this, a corresponding light
cannot be immediately brought in on the city and sanctuary, but
the curse which is still hanging over them must be emphatically
mentioned (" it will pour on the desolated"). And in order to
bring the reasons for this clearly before us, the sins of the
people (" on account of the desolating summit of abominations") are
once more placed in juxtaposition with the blessed work of the
Messiah, which is appropriated by many individuals. But even
here the angel is permitted to point out that this night of judg
ment will come to an end (" till the consummation which is deter
mined"), and that after it is past a new morning will dawn on
the people of God.
Finally, to take a brief survey of the entire prophecy, the
prophet has indeed received strength and consolation only for
the near future, which was the special object of his intercessory
prayer. It is true that Jerusalem will be rebuilt, and that the
people will be permitted to return from the captivity; but this
restoration is merely temporary, and is succeeded by many cen
turies of affliction. For the more distant future, Daniel receives,
on the one hand, a consolatory disclosure concerning the appear
ance of the Messiah, who brings unto many the full salvation of
the new covenant ; but, on the other hand, disclosures concerning
the destruction of the city and the sanctuary, because Israel
rejects its Messiah, and which must affect him deeply and pain
fully. The restoration of Jerusalem will not, therefore, be of
long continuance, but on the contrary, a new exile is to be
expected. Yet, for the far distant time, the angel does not leave
the prophet without a ray of hope for Israel and Jerusalem.
Thus he received in some measure the consolation he had sought

J 10 THE TERMINUS A QUO.
in his prayer regarding the future of his people. Gabriel begins
the twenty-fourth verse with exceedingly precious promises, and
from behind the dark clouds of night which cover the horizon,
a glimmering ray of light shines through in blessed presenti
ment.

H. THE CHRONOLOGICAL BOUNDARIES.
1. THE TERMINUS A QUO OF THE SEVENTY WT3EK.S. EZRA AND
NEHEMIAH.
We have thus traced the connection of the thoughts in our
prophecy. In its chief points it is as grand as it is simple.
The words of the angel .stand in such beautiful and natural
connection with the prayer of Daniel and with each other, that
we would have been inclined to take the view we have adopted,
even if the calculation of the seventy prophetic weeks, or 490
years, presented greater difficulties in the exposition of the details,
than is really the case. For this is the peculiarity of our pro
phecy, that it has also a chronological aspect, which, now that
we have considered the general import of the angel's message,
demands our investigation and calculation. The first point
to be considered is naturally the terminus a quo, from which
to calculate the 490 years. We might expect that ver. 25
would mention, as such, the termination of the seventy years
of Jeremiah, or the return of the people from the captivity, or
perhaps the rebuilding of the sanctuary, but, as the whole
chapter took its starting-point from the " desolations of Jeru
salem" (ver. 2), as it was for the restoration of the city that
Daniel lifted up his heart in earnest supplication (ver. 16, 18, 19),
so the time from which we have to calculate the prophecy, is
" the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jeru
salem." Let us first examine what is to be understood by " the
going forth of the commandment," and afterwards, what is
meant by " the restoration and building of Jerusalem."

THE GOING FORTH OF THE COMMAND. Ill
When the angel says 1ST Sf2tn, we must understand by it,
in common with almost all modern interpreters, the going forth
of a divine decree in analogy, with the -on NS* of ver. 23, but
not, however, a prophet's word, as most suppose. This very
parallel in the twenty-third verse is against such an interpreta
tion. For this verse speaks not of a revelation vouchsafed to a
prophet, but a decree made known by God at present only to
the angels. The angels must afterwards accomplish what is
necessary ; and Gabriel, for instance, has to reveal the divine
decree to Daniel. In like manner, the twenty-fifth verse refers
primarily to a future decree of God. But this must naturally
find its historical and tangible realization ; for only a historical
fact can form a clear terminus a quo. The angel, thus we may
simply express it, from his heavenly stand-pointj denotes histori
cal events as divine decrees ; for from thence he looks into the
divine mechanism of history, and to the divine government of the
world, to the organs of which he himself belongs. Comp. iv. 17 :
" This matter is by the decree of the watchers, and the demand by
the word of the Holy One : to the intent that the living may know
that the Most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to
whomsoever He will."
The tenth chapter gives us some very remarkable glimpses
into the manner in which divine decrees are executed in his
tory, by the ministration of angels. These disclosures, which
we have already considered, afford us also the necessary light
for our present case. For if we seek a historical fact through
which the divine decree of the restoration and rebuilding of
Jerusalem was effected, we are necessarily led to the court of
Persia; for Israel remained under the supremacy of this, the second
universal monarchy, through two centuries. It is from it that
permission was granted, through Cyrus, for the Jews to return
from captivity, and to" build the temple — an event which Daniel
lived to witness ; it is from it that permission was granted
to restore and rebuild Jerusalem. That angel, of whom we are
told before that he had a victorious struggle with the angel of

112 EZRA AND NEHEMIAH.
Persia (Dan. x. 12, 13), a struggle commanded by God, and
who was the representative of Israel to the Persian kings, must
have been the same who in consequence of a fresh command
from God, which is meant by the expression "i&l (ix. 25),
obtained the permission of the King of Persia to restore and
rebuild Jerusalem. The older commentators, who referred " the
going forth of the commandment" to a Persian royal edict, were
materially, though not philologically, right. And even in a
philological respect, we must notice the ambiguity of the expres
sion, which may be understood as well of "the issue of a royal
edict as of a divine decree. In Esther (i. 19), the very same
words are employed to designate a Persian royal edict : 1ST KS*
Diabn. The command which went out from God is fulfilled in
a command going out from the king ; comp. Ezra vi. 14 : " They
fmilded, and finished it, according to the commandment of the God of
Israel, and according to the commandment of Cyrus, and Darius,
and Artaxerxes, King of Persia."
Thus much about " the going forth of the commandment."
But now the second question presents itself, where and when did
this commandment take place? by what King of Persia was the
edict for " the restoration and rebuilding of Jerusalem" given ? We
must turn for information to the books of Ezra and Nehemiah,
for they contain the history of the covenant-people after the cap
tivity. We must, therefore, for our object, examine them some
what more closely.
As Ezra and Nehemiah worked together personally at Jerusa
lem, their books also form a complete whole according to the
nature of their contents, and " were regarded by the Palestinian
and Greek Jews as one, or as two parts of the same book."1 If
we come to this book from our present chapter of Daniel, we find
ourselves at once on familiar ground in the first verse, which
starts from the same prophecy of Jeremiah as Dan. ix. For
we read thus in Ezra i. 1 : " Now in the first year of Cyrus, King
' De Wette, Einl. in's A. T. 5 195.

EZRA AND NEHEMIAH. 113
of Persia, that the word of the Lord, by the mouth of Jeremiah, might
be fulfilled, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus, King of Persia,''
etc. Both books, that of Ezra as well as that of Nehemiah, may
be divided, according to their contents, into two parts. The first
part of Ezra describes (chap, i.-vi.) the return from the captivity
under Joshua and Zerubbabel, and the building of the temple ;
the obstructions made to it by hostile neighbours ; its advance,
through the influence of the prophets Haggai and Zechariah (v.
1, 2 ; vi. 14), and its completion in the sixth year of Darius
Hystaspes, 516 B.C. (vi. 15). A long period is here passed
over, and with the general formula, " now, after these things,"
the second part of the book {chap, vii.-x.) makes a transition to
the narrative of the immigration of Ezra from Persia to Jerusa
lem, in the seventh year of Artaxerxes Longimanus, 458-457 B.C.
(vii. 1, 7). A more detailed account of this event is given in the
seventh and eighth chapters, and the activity of Ezra is described
in the ninth and tenth, his purification and restoration of the holy
nationality, by removing the foreign wives, whilst his numerous
company brought fresh strength to the weak colony (chap. viii.).
The book ends without a conclusion, and with a register of those
who had married foreign wives. The book of Nehemiah begins
with a separate title. The first part of it (chap, i.-vii.) narrates
the immigration of Nehemiah in the twentieth year of Artaxerxes,
445_444 b.c, and his operations in his fatherland — the re
building of the city, especially the gates and walls, and the
formation of various useful institutions connected therewith.
The second part of the book (chap, viii.-xiii.) describes
' the combined activity of both of these servants of God, Ezra
and Nehemiah (viii. 1, 9, 13 ; xii. 26), and here the restora
tion of the law, by Ezra, is brought prominently forward
(chap, viii.-x.).
This sketch shows that the first part of the book of Ezra forms
a whole by itself with regard to its historical contents, while the
second part is closely connected with the book of Nehemiah, and,
together with it, presents a complete historical picture. Two

114 EZRA AND NEHEMIAH.
periods of the history after the captivity are here brought before
our view ; what lies between them, what follows after them, has
no Theocratic significance, and is therefore no object of sacred
historiography. The book of Esther, and it alone, still found a
place in the canon, for it describes the state of the exiled nation
in Persia, and thus forms a pendant, a complement to the nar
ratives written by Ezra and Nehemiah, of what took place in the
Holy Land, and characterises, besides, that other side of the
history of the people of God after the captivity, the scene of
which lies in the kingdom of the world. The two periods to
which we have referred are distinguished and placed in juxta
position with each other, even in the book of Nehemiah (xii. 47 ;
comp. ver. 26). The first is the time of Prince Zerubbabel and
the high-priest Joshua, who were aided by the prophets Haggai
and Zechariah. The second is the time of the priest Ezra, and
the governor Nehemiah, assisted by the prophet Malachi.' In
both periods we see royal, priestly, and prophetic men at the
head of God's people. We might designate the first as the period
of the building of the temple ; the second as the period of the
restoration of the people and of the rebuilding of the city. The
former is the time of religious, the latter of political, restoration.
The former embraces a period of twenty years (536-516 B.C.).
We cannot say with certainty how long the second lasted, as
neither the book of Malachi, nor the conclusion of Nehemiah,
furnish us with chronological data. The general opinion is, how
ever, that it embraced nearly half a century. It commenced,
therefore, with the immigration of Ezra, 457 B.C., and we can
trace distinctly the first twenty-five years, for Nehemiah came
into the Holy Land' thirteen years after Ezra, and remained there
as governor for twelve years (Neh. v. 14 ; xiii. 6). Then he
travelled back to the court of Persia (432 B.C.), but returned
after the lapse of an unknown time (a*»' ypb, interpreted by
some, but without sufficient reason, " at the end of a year") to
1 Comp. Hiivernick, Einl. in's A. T. ii. 2, p. 431-434.

v EZRA AND NEHEMIAH. 115
his native land. Prideaux and Winer (bibl. RealwOrterbuch,
3d edit. ii. p. 147) render it probable that this return of Nehe
miah did not take place before the eleventh year of Darius
Nothus (414-413 B.C.). How long Nehemiah lived and laboured
in Palestine after this, we are not told ; but even if, as Josephus
reports, he reached an advanced age, it could not have been many
years after the last period referred to. We may thus safely as
sume that the revelation of the Old Testament terminated with
the death of Nehemiah and Malachi in the last decennium of the
fifth century before Christ. Already Josephus gives utterance
to the consciousness that the second period of restoration
by the favour of Artaxerxes, was the last evening-red of the
Old Testament day. In a well-known passage (contr. Apion i. 8)
he says, " Many things have been written from Artaxerxes' time
to our own, but the same religious authority is not yielded to
them as to the former (nio-reas oix 6p.oims ^ftWtu), because the
sure succession of the prophets exists no longer (the chain of
revelation is broken off). It is characteristic of the people of
God, that the first period of the restoration after the captivity,
was exclusively devoted to the rebuilding of the temple ; first,
the things that are God's had to be rendered unto God, then the
things of the people to the people. For this reason, that first
period, under Joshua and Zerubbabel, was far from being the
perfect restoration. Only a small colony, of about fifty thousand
Jews, settled with these two men in Palestine (Ezra ii. 64, etc.),
and even these became intermingled again with the heathen who
dwelt around them, and led a sad existence, sinking, as it seems,
ever deeper "in great affliction and reproach" (Neh. i. 3 ; Ezra
ix. 6-15), especially during the sixty years which Ezra passes
over in silence. For this reason, a second and more thorough
restoration became necessary, — a restoration which should mould
the national life into a genuine Jewish form, and this was the
calling given by God to Ezra and Nehemiah. Not merely the
restoration of the temple, but also of the holy nationality of the
law and of the holy city, was requisite, if Israel was to become a

116 EZRA AND NEHEMIAH.
people of God in the full sense of the word. So long as one of
these elements was yet wanting, the people had no assured and
no vigorous existence. The inner work of restoration was en
trusted to Ezra the priest ; the purification of the nation from
heathenish elements and re-introductions of the law, while Nehe
miah, the royal cup-bearer and governor, assumed the control of
the external work, the rebuilding of the city and the political
institutions. Thus it is only with Ezra that the full revival of
Israel, after the captivity, can properly be said to commence, and
the consciousness of this has taken very deep root in the nation.
For, as is well known, Ezra, the restorer of the nation and law,
is held among the Jews for a second Moses. At the first, Moses,
the second time, Ezra, founded the existence of the holy people.
The question now arises — and to which the answer is clear
from our preceding remarks — in which of the two periods of
the sacred history after the captivity, we have to seek for the
terminus a quo of the seventy weeks of Daniel f As it is said in
ver. 24, " Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon
thy holy city," and as the terminus a quo is more particularly
defined in ver. 25, "from the going forth of the commandment to
restore and to build Jerusalem," there cannot possibly be a more
distinct reference to the second period. And though Calvin,
CEcolampadius, Kleinert, and others, take as the commencement
of the seventy weeks the edict of Cyrus, 536 B.C. (Ezra i. 1-4),
though Luther, in whose exposition there is much confusion
about the Persian kings ; Bengel, who in accordance with his
Apocalyptic chronology, understands by a prophetic week 7ff
years, and others, take the edict of the second year of Darius
Hystaspes 520 B.C. (Ezra vi. 1-12); we may regard these
interpretations as sufficiently refuted by our previous analysis.
The edict of Darius, moreover, is of no extraordinary importance,
nor can the edict of Cyrus have been meant, as we may under
stand from the book of Daniel itself. For we find the prophet,
in the third year of that king, in deep affliction for his people (x.
1-3), and we see from this how little the restoration of Israel,

TERMINUS A QUO. 117
consequent on the edict of the first year, corresponded even to
those hopes which the revelation in the ninth chapter had yet
left for the period after the exile. Both edicts, that of Cyrus
and that of Darius, refer solely to the building of the temple ;
and though Jerusalem is mentioned (Ezra i. 2, etc.; vi. 3, 5, 9,
12), and though, in the nature of things, houses must have been
there at the time in order to the building of the temple (comp.
Haggai i. 4), yet we cannot trace the slightest vestige of a royal
permission to restore the people and rebuild the city. On the
contrary, this is expressly prohibited by the same Artaxerxes
Longimanus, who afterwards granted it, and he withheld it,
owing to the slanderous reports of the Samaritans (Ezra iv.
7-22); for it is not Smerdis but Artaxerxes who is meant in
this passage, and everywhere else in the books of Ezra and
Nehemiah, when the name Arthasastha (sntiOTHinK) is in
troduced.1 If we consider how strong Jerusalem was by natural
position if its restoration were once earnestly begun, and what
efforts the seige of it cost Nebuchadnezzar, and, at a later period,
Titus, we can easily understand the policy which we meet in the
edict of Artaxerxes, already quoted. It is evident that the
Persian kings hesitated to give up such a point of advantage to
the Jews, who were suspected of revolts and tumults. We find,
therefore, the city still unbuilt in the days of Ezra and Ne
hemiah (Ezra ix. 8 ; x. 13 ; Neh. i. 3 ; ii. 3, 5 ; iii. 34 ; iv. 1 ;
vii. 4). Though a religious toleration might be willingly
granted to the Jews, it was difficult for them to obtain a political
one.2 It was as late as the seventh year of Artaxerxes Longimanus
(Ezra vii. 1, 7), that the affairs of Israel took a more favourable
turn, and made a more important progress. It is then that the
commandment to restore and rebuild Jerusalem must have gone
' Comp. Schultz in the Studien u. Kritiken, 1853, iii., pp. 686-698.
2 What Vaihinger says about a building of the walls of Jerusalem by Mor-
decai, etc., and a destruction of the same by Megabyzus (Stud. u. Kritik. 1854,
i., 128), is only hypothesis.

118 TERMINUS A QUO.
forth from God ; it is then, that in consequence of it, that angel
achieved a new victory over the representative angel of the
Persian monarchy, and gained the precedence over the ruler
of the world. From this time Artaxerxes shows himself pe
culiarly favourable to the covenant people, and makes them
far more important concessions than even Cyrus and Darius.
In the seventh year of his reign he allows Ezra, furnished
with royal letters of high importance (Ezra vii. 11-26, espe
cially ver. 18 and 25), to go to Jerusalem ; in the twentieth
year of his reign, he accords Nehemiah the same favour, and
furnishes him with the express permission to rebuild the city
(Neh. ii.). And thus the question is reduced to this, which of
these two years, the arrival of Ezra or that of Nehemiah at
Jerusalem, is to be viewed as the terminus a, quo of the seventy
weeks. In modern times, Hengstenberg and Havernick, follow
ing the example of some Church fathers, have decided in favour
of the twentieth year of Artaxerxes, and their view has been
generally adopted by believers in revelation, and has also passed
into several popular Bible commentaries (comp. Sack. Apolo-
getik, 2d edit., p. 335 ; Heim and Wilhelm Hoffmann, die grossen
Propheten, p. 864, etc.; Handbuch der Bibelerklarung, published
by the Calw Society, vol. i., p. 891 ; Das A. T. von 0. von
Gerlach, continued by Schneider, iv. 2, p. 66). Calovius, Newton,
Geier, Buddeus, Prideaux, Sostmann, Deyling, Preiswerk (Morgenl.
1838, p. 257, etc.), Gaussen (iii., p. 340), and others, opposed to
this view, take the seventh year of Artaxerxes as the starting-
point for the calculation of the seventy weeks. In accordance
with our preceding analysis, we can adhere only to this second
view. We have arrived at the conclusion that the time of Ezra and
Nehemiah formed one continuous period of blessing for Israel,
and it would be, therefore, contrary to our natural expectations,
if it were not the fundamental beginning of this period which is
meant, but a second terminus from which nothing essentially
new is dated, but only a further development of the work begun

TERMINUS A QUO. 119
by Ezra. This secondary importance of the edict relating to
Nehemiah, is indicated in the holy narrative itself by the simple
circumstance, that it does not mention the edict at all (Neh. ii.
7, 8), while the royal letters to Ezra are communicated at once
(Ezra vii.). Again, if we regard the world-power from which
the execution of the divine commandment takes its earthly and
historical beginning, it is the same king Artaxerxes who sends
away Ezra and Nehemiah. His heart, therefore, was favourably
inclined to Israel in the seventh year of his reign ; the angel,
and, consequently, the good divine influences, had even then
gained the ascendancy over him. The consciousness of this is
distinctly expressed by Ezra himself, who, after recording the
royal edict, continues, " Blessed be the Lord God of our fathers,
which hath put such a thing as this in the king's heart, to beautify the
house of the Lord which is in Jerusalem ; and hath extended mercy
unto me before the king and his counsellors, and before all the king's
mighty princes'' (Ezra vii. 27, 28). We see here plainly a con
sciousness that the world-power was influenced by God in favour
of Israel. Ezra and Nehemiah likewise act in the consciousness
that as those who are executing a divine decree, they stand
under the peculiar guidance and protection of God, and hence
those beautiful words which recur so often in their diaries ;
" according to the good hand of the Lord my God upon me " (Ezra
vii. 6, 9, 28; viii. 18, 22 ; Neh. ii. 8, 18).
But all these arguments would lose their cogency, if the words
of the angel (Dan. ix. 24, 25), compelled us to take the express
permission to rebuild the city, given to Nehemiah, as the start
ing point for our calculation. This, however, is not the case.
Neither the words themselves necessitate us to think merely of
the external building of the city, nor was Nehemiah the first to
receive this permission. The commission of Ezra, to begin with
the second point, is so extensive as essentially to include the
rebuilding of the city. He himself says so clearly and distinctly
when he says, in his prayer of repentance (Ezra ix. 9), " Our
God hath extended mercy unto us in the sight of the kings of Persia,

120 TERMINUS A QUO.
to give us a reviving, to set up the house of our God, and to repair
the desolations thereof (of our God), and to give us a wall in Judah
and in Jerusalem" ("na an encircling wall, not merely the
building, but also the fortification of the city). Thus Ezra ex
pressly includes in his commission what was afterwards executed
by Nehemiah, according to a new permission of the king. The
entire narrative of the grant of this later permission (Neh. ii. 1,
etc.), is of such a kind that we see it was no longer so novel and
important a concession as it had been in Ezra's time ; it is not
now so much the thing, but chiefly the person that is considered.
Nehemiah is the ting's cup-bearer, and requires, therefore, to be
discharged from his office, a favour which the king and queen
graciously bestow on him. There is no mention made here, as
there was in the ease of Ezra, of a turning of " the king, and his
counsellors and all the king's mighty princes ; " it is not an official
act of royalty, but a personal favour of Artaxerxes. So
secondary is the importance of the mission of Nehemiah com
pared to that of Ezra.
But the words of the angel do not refer merely to the external
building of the city. It is surely improbable that the event
which is to form the terminus a quo of the seventy weeks can be
merely external, and, therefore, more or less accidental. It must
be invested with deeper significance. The words of the angel
(ver. 24) are not simply : "Seventy weeks are determined upon
thy holy city," but " upon thy people and thy holy city." The
building of the city is thus viewed in profounder connection with
the restoration of the people, and we have already seen that the
former was the mission of Nehemiah, the latter, of Ezra. And
when the terminus a quo is described more fully (ver. 25) as " the
commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem, the latter ex
pression suggests not only gates and walls, towers and houses,
but the entire no\ts and civitas ; and Jerusalem means, as it was
expressed in the preceding verse, both people and city. The
two verbs, besides, which are employed, " restore" and " build"
may be similarly explained as " city" and " people ;" before the

TERMINUS A QUO. 121
restoration, the inward renovation of Jerusalem was the work
of Ezra ; the " building of streets and walls," the outward restora
tion, was the calling of Nehemiah. We may adduce in favour
of this view that Jerusalem is here taken in a deeper and fuller
sense, the general usus loquendi of the prophets, from which it
will appear that this explanation is not only possible but abso
lutely necessary. It is the same also in a worldly sense, that the
whole character of a people is represented in the metropolis of
their country. We need only instance Nineveh, Babylon, Rome,
and in modern times, Paris. If the metropolis is taken or
destroyed, the people is subjugated. But this may be said of
Jerusalem in a far higher sense, for it was not only the political
centre, but owing to its temple, "the city of the great King"
(Matt. v. 35), the dwelling-place of Jehovah, the centre of all
which made Israel the only and chosen people of God. Hence
in our passage (ver. 26-27) the angel, and in after times the
Lord Jesus (Matt, xxiv.), comprehends the entire prophecy about
Israel in a prophecy about Jerusalem. The judgment on the
city is the judgment on the people ; death consists in the dying
of the body. But the city is the body of the congregation, as
the congregation is the soul of the city ; and thus Jerusalem
stands as the representative of both congregation and city.
Throughout Holy Scripture we see the connection between men
and their dwelling-place, or tracing it up farther, between nature
and spirit, comp. Gen. vi. 11-13 ; Levit. xviii. 24, etc. ; Deut.
xxviii. 15 etc. In the first of these passages, which refers to the
whole human race, it is likewise the whole earth, in the other
two passages where Israel alone is placed in the light of revela
tion, it is only the holy land, to which God's word, threatenings
and promises, are directed. From the time of David, Zion and
Jerusalem became the two most prominent places in the Holy
Land ; the house of David the most prominent family among the
people (Ps. lxxviii. 68, etc.), and this prominence runs through
all the prophetical books. In this sense we find the city of God
spoken of as the appearing, or the representation of the congrega-

122 THE REBUILDING OF JERUSALEM.
tions, ns early as in the Psalms (xlvi. 5, xlviii.2,etc, lxxxvii. 2-3,
comp. ver. 5). Parsing on to the prophets and limiting ourselves
to Isaiah, we find the same view in the very first chapter : " How
is the faithful city become anharlot !" (ver. 21) ; and the sixtieth and
sixty-second chapters describe the New Jerusalem, with its gates
and walls (lx. 11, 18, lxii. 6, 10), in such a manner that it is
evident the city is at the same time a living thing, the spiritual
building of God, the restored people. This extends into the
Revelation of John, in which the adulterous church appears
identical with the city of Babylon, the transfigured church
identical with the New Jerusalem (comp. Delitzsch das Hohelied
p. 231). Just as the Apocalypse treats of the end of the New
Testament history (chap. xxi. 22), so in our passage the restora
tion and rebuilding of Jerusalem stands for the last concluding
epoch of the Old Testament history. Jerusalem, in the Revela
tion of John, is the transfigured congregation of the New
Covenant, transfigured in its natural organism ; here the
congregation of the Old Covenant with its organism, Israel,
appears as Theopolis, as civitas Dei with its temple, its external
legal institution, and its holy city. The history of salvation in
the New Testament finds its consummation in the appearance
of the heavenly Jerusalem ; the same history in the Old Testa
ment, in the restoration of the earthly Jerusalem which is to
wait, though in sorrow, for its bridegroom, the Messiah, as a
bride adorned for her husband.
After these remarks we cannot but think it too outward a view
of the words of the angel regarding the restoration and rebuilding
of Jerusalem, as a misunderstanding both of their essential con
tents and of the essential character of the history after the
captivity, when Hengstenberg and others commence their calcula
tions of the seventy weeks with the return of Nehemiah ; and we
may now state as the result gained by our investigation, and con
firmed by all collateral considerations, that the return of Ezra to
Jerusalem, 457 B.C., is to be viewed as the terminus a quo of the
seventy weeks. In this event the renewed and increased favour.of

THE RETURN OF EZRA, 457 B.C. 123
the Persian world-power towards Israel is represented, and with
it begins the new prosperity of Jerusalem. The external rebuild
ing of the city stands in the same relation to the commencement
of the seventy prophetic weeks of Daniel, as the external
destruction of the city, bears to the commencement of the seventy
years of Jeremiah. These begin as early as the year 606 B.C.,
and therefore eighteen years before the destruction of Jerusalem,
for at that date the kingdom of Judah came under the Babylonian
sway, and ceased to exist as an independent Theocracy. In like
manner the seventy weeks begin thirteen years before the rebuild
ing of the town, because then the re-establishment of theTheocracy
began. Only by our view, therefore, can a perfect parallelism
be obtained between the type and the antitype. We can observe
a repetition of those phenomena at the end of the seventy weeks.
They extend until the year 33 a.d. From this date Israel was at
an end, though the destruction of Jerusalem by theRomans did not
take place till the year 70 a.d. Thus, we see here a universal .law
of the divine government of the world, and of the kingdom of
God, a law whose operation we may observe even in Paradise.
Adam and Eve became subject to death on the very day they
sinned ; yet it was centuries after that they actually died (Gen.
ii. 17, v. 5). It is said by Hosea(IIos. xiii. 1, 2) speaking of the
kingdomsof the ten tribes; uWhenEphraimqffendedinBaal,hedied;
but now they sin more and more, and have madethem molten images,"
etc.1 In like manner, we have seen that the kingdom of the
Persians is (Dan. xi. 2) viewed as dead from the time of Xerxes,
in whose reign it was conquered by Greece, and that from this
date it is no more considered, though it continued to vegetate
long after. And similarly Isaiah, in the second part of his pro
phecy, lives, as it were, altogether in the captivity, though he
preceded it by more than a hundred years : for the abominations
of Israel were themselves the desolation, sin is itself death (Matt.
viii. 22). This is that divine glance which penetrates from with-
' Comp. Schmieder on this passage.

124 CALVIN AND NEWTON ON CHAP. IX.
out with the very essence and reality of things, which sees into
the heart, and of which it is said : " It seeth not as man seeth ; for
man looketh on the outward ajypearance, but the Lord looketh on the
heart" (1 Sam. xvi. 7).
If, in order to gain certainty both of the fulfilment of the pro
phecy and of the correctness of our interpretation, we look from
this point of view to the end of the seventy weeks, we shall find
the most accurate coincidence in the calculation. The 490 years
extend to the year 33 a.d., a final date which we shall after
wards consider. The fixed chronological point from which
to calculate, we find in the death of the Messiah, which,
as we have already shown, falls in the middle of the last week,
— that is, three and a half years before the end of the whole
period, consequently the year 30 a.d. But it is in this very
year that, according to the soundest chronological investigations,
and the most generally adopted reckoning, in which Bengel and
Wieseler, for example, coincide, that the Lord Jesus was cru
cified (comp. Wieseler's Chronoldgische Synopse. p. 485).
Calvin is therefore right when he remarks : " How clear and
sure a testimony we have in Daniel's prophecy, when he counts
the years till the advent of Christ, so that we may, with boldness,
oppose Satan and all the scorn of the ungodly, if it be but true
that the book of Daniel was in men's hands before Christ came !
Those who do set themselves against the truth of God must at
last yield to the conviction that Christ is the true Redeemer,
whom God hath promised before the foundation of the world,
seeing that He hath not revealed Him without such trustworthy
evidence, as no mathematician can bring forward the like." We
are reminded here of the saying of Newton, quoted in the intro
duction. Modern times have scarcely produced men of more
acute mind than the Reformer of Geneva and the Mathematician
of Cambridge, and we see how they regarded this ninth chapter.
Hengstenberg, placing the commencement of the seventy weeks
so late as the twentieth year of Artaxerxes, has, consequently, to
oppose the current chronology, and endeavours (Christ, ii. pp.

hengstenberg's view. 125
541, etc.) to show, with great acuteness and erudition, on the
evidence of Usher, Vitringa, and Kriiger, that this king com
menced to reign about nine years sooner than is generally sup
posed, and so obtains the year 455 B.C. as his terminus a quo.
Hofmann (die 70 Jahre, etc., pp. 91, etc.) and Kleinert (Dor-
pater Beitrage, ii., pp. 1-232) have attacked and successfully
refuted Hengstenberg's criticism, and its result. Wieseler (die
70 Wochen, p. 79) and Hitzig (p. 172) agree with the treatise of
the last-mentioned learned writer. As far as I can see, Heng
stenberg has done more harm than good to the cause of the
general result of his interpretation by his chronological supposi
tions. Those who are either willingly or unwillingly ignorant of
the history of exegesis, and the remarkable unanimity of former
commentators on the chief points of this prophecy, may be led
to imagine that the orthodox interpretation stands in need of every
kind of artificial support, and as if the Messianic exposition of
the ninth chapter were disproved if Hengstenberg's chronology
were refuted.1 For my own part, I must confess, that having
been formerly an adherent of Hofmann's view (which will be
considered below), though not blind to many difficulties it pre-
1 Ebrard (Offen. 6; Joh. 74, etc.) is even bolder than Hengstenberg, and as
sumes (1) the text to be corrupted, and wishes to place, instead of the seven weeks
(ver. 25), seventy-seven. This violent stroke (2) leads to him to the still worse
assumption, that the seventy weeks in verse 24, are not an accurate chronologi
cal intimation, and are therefore rendered more speoial(and more correct, con
sequently) by verse 25. For, according to Ebrard, there were to elapse seventy-
seven prophetic weeks between the edict of Cyrus (538 B.C.) and the birth of
Christ (according to Ebrard 6 B.C.), and sixty-two weeks between the real build
ing of the city, under Nehemiah (446 B.C.), and the birth of Christ. Hence, he
declares (3) the usual and natural analysis of the seventy weeks into 7 + 62 + 1 .
to be a "delusion ;"and (4) he has to suppose two series of years, mostly run
ning parallel to each other, a supposition unnecessary and improbable ; (5), he
has to insert arbitrarily a new terminus a quo after the Athnach, verse 25 ; (6),
after all this, his calculation does not turn out exact ; (7), he gives an arbitrary
exposition of the last week, by making the first half to embrace 30-^40 years
from Christ's death to the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans, and the
second half, the many centuries from the destruction of Jerusalem to the con
version of Israel, a future event even to us.

126 PREISWERK AND SACK QUOTED.
sented, Hengstenberg's exposition impressed me so strongly at
first sight as essentially true, that I felt that this ancient exposi
tion required only to be apprehended more correctly, and proved
more thoroughly. Meanwhile, the judicious words of Preiswerk,
upon this question, claim our earnest attention (loc. citat., p. 286) :
" We ought not, considering the uncertainty of ancient chrono
logy, to lay much stress on calculating the exact year. For,
though the calculation be very successful, yet so soon as another
interpreter follows another chronological system, what has been
so laboriously reared up, is apparently thrown down. But if we
grant, from the outset, that ancient chronology is uncertain, and
be content to point out a mere general coincidence of the pro
phetical with the historical time ; if we show that possibly even
a minute coincidence took place, and, at least, that no one can
prove the contrary, we shall have done enough to prove the truth
of the ancient prophecy, and our work cannot be overthrown by
others." Let us consider likewise the remarks of Sack (Apolo-
getik, p. 336), "It could not have been within the power of the
ordinary reader of Scripture to be an accurate student of chron
ology ; hence those who could know the terminus a quo only in a
general way, as falling within the time of the commaudments and
permissions given by the Persian kings, could, consequently,
know the time of the Messiah's appearance only in the same
general but sufficiently accurate way ; it was sufficient ¦ to
strengthen their faith, and to keep their expectation alive. And,
in like manner, it may be said of Bible readers now-a-days, that
though the means and results of learned chronological investiga
tions are inaccessible to them, yet, from the simplest knowledge
of history, they may arrive at a conviction that prophecy is ful
filled in Christ. It is but right, however, that the Christian
Church should endeavour to approach, by scientific investigation,
to a perfect chronological understanding of prophecy."
Though, after our investigation, we can no longer be doubtful
of the terminus a quo from which to calculate the seventy weeks,
it may yet seem, for a moment, startling that that point lies in a

OBSCURITY OF THE PROPHECY. 127
period distant by a century from the year in which Daniel re
ceived this revelation, and a point, too, which is not so clearly
described by the angel as to preclude the uncertainties which
have at all times prevailed regarding it. To throw some light
on this difficulty, we subjoin the following remarks : —
With regard to Daniel himself, the object was not accurately
to fix to him individually the year of the Messiah's coming. As
he lived several centuries before the event, this would have had
no interest for him. We have seen, previously, that he is raised
up and endowed with the prophetic gift, not for himself, but for
future generations. He was therefore not to be enabled to cal
culate the time exactly ; the object of the revelation was rather
to show him, in general, that the Messianic salvation was not so
near as he thought, but separated from him by about half a
millennium. Even for the people of Israel, to whom the message of Gabriel
was sent, the calculation of the seventy weeks could not be clearly
and plainly laid down. We know that it is an essential feature
of prophecy to reveal and at the same time to veil the future :
It does not purport to be a history, much less a chronology, of
coming events ; it does not put them as clearly before our eyes as
the past ; this would destroy man's ethical relation to the future.
And, for this reason, the present prophecy needed to be veiled in
some obscurity, however clearly it might contain the intimation that
490 years would elapse from the permission to restore Jerusalem
after the captivity to the time of the Messiah. It is its very
clearness in the main, which renders necessary this obscurity.
The fulfilment of the eternal decree of God must not be a mere
arithmetical problem, which the profane understanding also may
calculate by simple arithmetic, but a holy enigma, which shall
stimulate to a faithful observation of the ways of God, to a dili
gent study of the history of His people. " None of the wicked
shall understand; but the wise shall understand" (Dan. xii. 10).
In an instance like this, where the chronological intimations are
clear and unmistakeable, such a relative veiling of the truth

128 OBSCURITY OF THE PROPHECY.
could be accomplished only by concealing the starting-point, and,
as we shall see, the terminal-point of the seventy weeks, in a
certain obscurity, and by connecting it with facts which can be
recognised in their full significance by the faithful student of
Scripture alone.
Thus, pious Israelites of the time after the captivity, who
meditated on the prophecy of Daniel and longed for its fulfil
ment, might seriously ask themselves at each of the edicts of the
Persian kings, whether this was the commencement of the
seventy weeks foretold by the angel. The " wise" who lived at
the time of the edict were to consider the signs of the times, and
they who lived later were to search in the Scriptures when the
period spoken of by the angel began. The faithful of the Old
Covenant had the same task, with regard to Daniel, in the cen
turies unillumined by revelation, as we have now with regard to
the Apocalypse (comp. Matt. xvi. 2, 3 ; xxiv. 33). And that
they were earnest in this search we may learn from the well-
known story of Josephus (Arch. xi. 8, 5), according to which,
Alexander the Great, on his arrival at Jerusalem, was shown the
prophecies of Daniel that referred to him.1 The plurality of the
edicts afforded some room for uncertainty, as is proved by dif
ferent Christian expositors choosing different edicts as starting-
points ; and hence Hess (i., p. 196) remarks, "It seems to me
that we are not forced to understand the angel's words as refer
ring only to one of these edicts, but that they refer to the whole
period during which such edicts were given, revoked, and re
newed. Here we remind the reader also of the remark of Sack,
already quoted, that to strengthen faith and keep alive expecta
tion, it was sufficient to have only a general conception of the
time. And history makes it manifest that prophecy entirely
fulfilled this object. For it is a well known fact, that at the
time of Christ, the expectation of the Messiah had spread exten-

1 Comp. on the credibility of this account, corroborating the genuineness of
Daniel, Hengstenberg Beitr. 277. J. J. Hess. loc. cit. ii. 28.

JOSEPHUS, TACITUS, SUETONIUS. 129
sively, not only among pious Israelites (Luke ii. 25, 26, 38 ; xxiii.
51), but also generally among Jews and Gentiles, as we learn
from Josephus and the well-known passages of Suetonius and
Tacitus. Our prophecy especially must have contributed much
to this. It is evident from Matt. xxiv. 15, and several passages
of Josephus (comp. as above, p. 106), that at that time Daniel was
much studied by the Jews, and that the destruction of Jerusalem
by the Romans was distinctly understood as contained in it.
Hengstenberg (Beitr.,.p. 265; Christol., p. 576), Havernick (p.
389, etc.), and Wieseler (die 70 Wochen, p. 148, etc.), give
further particulars. The difference in the Messianic expectations
is moreover characteristic. The believers hoped, in accordance
with our passage, for the consolation of Israel, namely, redemption
in Jerusalem, and salvation by the remission of sins (Luke ii.
25, 30, 38 ; i. 77) ; they recognised in the Messiah the Lamb
of God which beareth the sin of the world (John i. 29). The
others, carnally minded, were blinded, so that they did not see
the inward essential conditions of salvation, and applying hastily
Messianic passages, such as Dan. ii. and vii., dreamed only of
the political world-wide supremacy of the Jews. Josephus
(bell. Jud. vi. 5, 4): " What gave them courage to fight was a
saying found in the Holy Scriptures, that about that time (icard
tow mipbv eKelvov) one of their nation was to obtain the govern
ment of the world." Tacitus (hist.v. 13) : "Many had the con
viction that it stood written jn their ancient priestly books, that
just about that very time (eo ipso tempore) the East would rise up in
great power, and men from Judea obtain the government of the
world." Suetonius ( Vesp. 4) : "The old and common opinion
was spread through all the East, that it was destined by fate,
men of Judea should obtain at this time the government of the
world." We have seen that the revelation of the angel could accom
plish its essential purpose, notwithstanding a certain latitude of
interpretation ; at the same time, it was also possible for the
Israelites, as it is for us at present, to find the true starting-point,

130 EZRA AND NEHEMIAH IN RELATION TO DANIEL.
and hence to form an exact and accurate calculation. The books
of Ezra and Nehemiah lay also before them ; they had even
better means of understanding them than we. Perhaps they saw
clearly what we see only as probable, that these books were
written with express reference to the ninth chapter of Daniel.
We have already pointed out, that in all probability Ezra and
Nehemiah were acquainted with our prophet and studied him.
We have likewise shown that the book of Ezra starts from the
same point of view as our chapter, the prophecy of Jeremiah con
cerning the seventy years of the captivity. The book of Nehe
miah, in like manner, begins with distressing accounts of the
affliction, which still continued, and of the desolation of the holy
people and holy city, which lead us back to the fundamental views
of Dan. ix. We have pointed out also that Ezra and Nehemiah,
though they received no direct revelation from on high, yet wrote
in the consciousness of a special divine commission, of a divine
decree concerning them, which shaped their whole life. We refer
here especially to the prayers of these two servants of God (Ezra
ix. 6, etc. ; Neh. i. 5, etc.), which breathe so much the spirit of
Daniel's prayer of repentance, that Hitzig also (p. 144) remarks,
that the ninth chapter of Daniel bears so much affinity to the first
and ninth chapters of Nehemiah, that the one author must have
written in dependence on the other. There is nothing more
natural than that men like Ezra and Nehemiah, who belong to
the late births of the Old Covenant, and are not so much produc
tive as reproductive and restorative, should study and should edu
cate themselves by the prophets, and that prophet above all
others, whose important revelations refer to the times after the
captivity, which was also their own. Thus the books of Ezra and
Nehemiah are an evidence for the genuineness of Daniel, similar
to that adduced by Hofmann in favour of our book from
Zechariah, and are at the same time an evidence in favour of
the correctness of the general view we advocate concerning the
prophecy of the seventy weeks.
Ought we not also to find here the reason why the collectors

ANALYSIS OF THE SEVENTY WEEKS. 131
of the Old Testament canon placed the book of Daniel imme
diately before Ezra and Nehemiah? We merely propose the
question ; we make no assertion. And if Ezra himself made the
collection, the circumstance would be still more striking.1 Perhaps
he placed the book of Daniel immediately before his. own, be
cause he felt that he himself brought about and described the
commencement of the fulfilment of those prophecies which the
angel had announced (Dan. ix).

II. ANALYSIS OF THE SEVENTY WEEKS.
The seventy weeks are mentioned by Gabriel, not only as a
continuous whole (ver. 24), but they are separated into three very
unequal parts (ver. 25-27) : 7 + 62 + 1. This reminds us at
once of a similar analysis which we find vii. 25 ; xii. 7 ; a
time, times, and a half. We see that Apocalyptic writings de
light in such chronological divisions. But this general remark
only leads us to inquire why this analysis is made here.
The text itself leads us to consider the last week first, for it is
not only the most minutely characterised, but the most distinctly
separated from the rest. While the seven and the sixty-two
weeks are mentioned together in ver. 25, and in ver. 26 we are
merely told what is to take place after them ; the seventieth week
is prominently brought forward in ver. 27. We have already seen
that it is a time of confirming the Covenant, more particularly a
time of the revelation of the New Covenant at Jerusalem, where
the Messianic salvation is to be offered to the people of Israel.
As the Sabbath dedicated to God succeeds the working days
and concludes the week, so the seventieth week is the consum
mation of the preceding days of small things. To the period of
the sixty-nine weeks is allotted the task of restoring and building
Jerusalem, and thus preparing a place for the Messiah where He
can accomplish His work (ver. 25, 26). This is a working day's
' Keil, Einl. in's A. T., p. 549.

132 THE FIRST SEVEN WEEKS.
labour when compared with the Sabbatic work of confirming the,
Covenant. The Messianic time is the holy festival and Sabbath-
day of Israel's history, in which God yet once more offers to the
people all His mercies, but in which also the history of Israel
comes to its temporary conclusion. This parallelism between
the seventy weeks and the seven days of a week, is suggested
and indicated by the text, in which the whole is viewed from the
idea of weeks (craw).
It is more difficult to discover the reason for the separation of
the first seven weeks. The text assigns them no peculiar char
acter, but mentions them together with the sixty-two weeks, as
a time of restoration and of the rebuilding of Jerusalem. Heng
stenberg takes the Dbwil" milbl aMynb (ver. 25) to be parallel
to the "Mi nMl?n""ry and as terminus uUermedius in this way, that,
the angel meant seven weeks until the rebuilding of the city
would be finished, aod from that time till the Messiah, sixty-two
weeks. He endeavours to prove from Herodotus and other
profane writers, that Jerusalem was restored to be a large city
after above forty-nine years, or, according to his chronology, in
the year 406 B.C. But apart from the precarious and unsatis
factory character of this mode of argument, such a solution of
the question is impossible, on purely exegetical grounds, as has
been clearly pointed out, for example, by Wieseler. For not
only would the use of b be unintelligible in this connection, but
"1ST also would be meaningless, unless the i>lttnb etc., were to
bu taken twice, as seems indeed to be Heijgstenberg's inclina
tion, but which is most unnatural. All the arguments which,
with his usual tone of confidence, he advances in defence of his
explanation (Christol., p. 454), have so little cogency, that we
can only expect to see here again the right view of the prophecy
made assailable to the enemy by unneeded violent proofs (Hit
zig, p. 172). On the contrary, we must admit that the text
contains no material reason for the first portion of seven weeks.
They are, to speak generally, brought forward as the^fundamen-
tal part of the period of restoration. If we wish to understand

THE NUMBER SEVEN. 133
more about them, we must turn to the consideration of the in
ward significance of the number seven, which at the time of his
Christology, Hengstenberg neglected, while in his more recent
works, he exaggerates the symbolism of numbers. The last week
may give us a hint for understanding the reason of the especial
prominence given to the first seven. As the seventieth,week is
separated from the rest as a period of revelation, so it may like
wise be with the seven weeks. And this conjecture will derive
confirmation, if we bear in mind the inward dignity of the
number seven to which we have already directed attention in
our remarks on the week of salvation.
The analysis of the seventy weeks is based on the principle of
the number seven. They end with seven years ; they begin
with seven times seven. The number seven, it is well known,
has a mystical and symbolical significance throughout Scripture,
and especially throughout prophecy, which, however, in no way
lessens its chronological value. It is the sum of the number of
God, three ; and the number of the world, four, and is thus the
number of the divine in its relation to the world, of the inward
perfection of God, as manifested and viewed in His manifold
works and judgments. Where this number prevails, there God
is revealed, and vice versa. The inward objective foundation of
this law lies in the seven spirits of God, who are the mediators
of all his revelations in the world (Rev. i. 4, iii. 1, iv. 5, v. 6).
The outward manifestation of the dignity of this number begins
as early as the first book and first chapter of the Old Testament,
where the work of creation is divided by it,1 whilst it prevails
throughout the whole of the Apocalypse, the last book of the
New Testament. Ten, again, is the number of what is human,
worldly ; it represents the fulness of the world's manifold activity
and development. We may illustrate this by examples taken
from our book, where the world-power issues in ten heads and
1 Cicero styles the number seven rerum omnium fere nodus (Somn. Scip. 5).
Comp. with the above remark on the symbolical numbers, e.g. Hofmann,
Weiss, u. Erfiill. i., p. 85. Delitzsch. Genesis, p. 412.

134 THE LAST WEEK.
ten horns (ii. 41, 42, vii. 7, 24). The number seventy is ten
multiplied by seven ; the human is here moulded and fixed by
the divine. For this reason the seventy years of exile are a
symbolical sign of the time during which the power of the world
would, according to God's will, triumph over Israel, during
which it would execute the divine judgments on God's people.
And in the seven times seventy years, or seventy weeks, the world-
number ten is likewise contained ; the people of God is as yet
under the power of the world ; it is as yet, for the most part, a
time of affliction and distress (tJ'nyn plX, ver. 25); but the
number of the divine is multiplied by itself, and so receives an
essential increase of strength ; God's people and kingdom in the
world, experience in this time a revival. And yet more than
this. God reveals Himself still more immediately and fully in
the seventy weeks; for, in the beginning, a period of seven
times seven years is specially mentioned, in the end a period of
seven. As we find the revelation of the New Testament plainly
promised in the latter, so that of the Old Testament, then still
in progress, is signified in the former.
We have pointed out above, that the revelation of the Old
Testament concludes with the restoration of the Israelitish
Theopolis, which had now but to wait for the coming of the
bridegroom, the Messiah. We have further pointed out,
that the restoration was effected by Ezra, Nehemiah, and
Malachi, whose lives and labours extend over a period of about
'half a century, that is, seven weeks (comp. Preiswerk, p. 278).
The three men just mentioned were the last whose writings
were received into the canon of the Old Testament ; with them,
sacred history, the history of revelation under the Old Covenant,
ceases — a fact which was well known to the Jewish people, as
we saw from the passage of Josephus, already quoted (c. Ap.
i. 8). Lest it should seem, on account of these relations of
numbers, that because the seven weeks contain the number
seven multiplied by itself, whilst in the last week this number
occurs only in its first power, therefore the final period of

THE LAST WEEK. 135
revelation under the Old Covenant is invested with a higher
dignity than that of the New ; the angel at once dispels such an
illusion, first, by hastily passing over the seven weeks, while he
enters into a minute description of the last week ; and, secondly,
by taking the seven weeks into conjunction with the sixty-two,
as belonging to the time of distress, thus making the seventieth
week, both by its prominent position and the minute picture of
its events, stand out clear, in sublime and unrivalled dignity.
On the other hand, we see the seven weeks plainly separated
from the sixty-two weeks, in' order to show the peculiar funda
mental character of the time of Ezra, Nehemiah, and Malachi, as
distinguished from the centuries that followed ; to point out the
difference between the last remnants of the revelation of the Old
Testament and that period which enjoyed no revelations at all.
The Athnach may have had that place, where we are astonished to
find it, in order ^ to point out the marked distinction more
strongly, to heighten the emphasis which lies on the seven
weeks, and to arrest the reader's thought and attention. This
accent is often found, not at the chief division of the verse
(e.g. ver. 2), where it separates between the verb and the object,
but (namely, Dan. xi. 5 ; Ezek. xxxiv. 19 ; Ps. xxxvi. 8,
Ixxxiv. 3 ; Prov. vi. 26) where it separates between the verb
and the subject, in order that stress may be laid on the latter,
and a kind of antithesis gained (comp. Hengstenberg, S. 464).
However, we advance this opinion on the Athnach in our
passage only as a supposition ; we are, moreover, not bound by
the accents, and especially in a chapter concerning the Messiah,
where a false accentuation may have sprung from erroneous
views of the passage, and from Jewish prejudices of the Maso-
rites. But, however this may be, so much is expressed by the
passage, that the revelation of the Old Testament, in its last
two shoots, would, on the one hand, be far below the glory of
that of the New, and on the other hand, essentially above that
of the period without revelation. We find here, at the same
time, an indication jof the typical relation between the first

136 THE LAST WEEK.
seven prophetic weeks and the last — between the preparatory
salvation after the captivity and the full Messianic salvation — ¦
an indication which, it is well known, has been further deve
loped by the prophets after the exile. But, as we remarked
before, the sixty-two weeks intervene as a time without revela
tion, and full of trouble ; for sixty-two is a number altogether
without relation to the significant fundamental numbers, and
thus designates, and at the same time in contrast to the two divine
numbers by which it is enclosed — a period insignificant, and
without divine revelation. The relation of the seven weeks,, the
sixty-two, and the one to each other, is like that of the evening
red, the night, and the clear day — a day, it is true, to be suc
ceeded for Israel by a yet darker night. Yet even into the first
night there falls a time of great affliction, the time of Antioehus
Epiphanes. What a marvellous and keenly penetrating glance do these
words of the angel throw into the succeeding centuries ! How
wonderfully do they unveil the most decisive crisis of the
development of. the kingdom of God, even by the mere sym
bolism of numbers ! The history of salvation is mysteriously
governed by these holy numbers. They are, so to say, the
skeleton, the scaffolding, of the organie edifice. It belongs to
our task, to the task of prophetic theology, to enter into their
deep significance. The offence taken at the chronological inti
mations of our chapter, and of Daniel and the Apocalypse in
general, will vanish when they are seen from this point of view.
They are not merely outward indications of time, but indica
tions of nature and essence. Not only nature, but history, is ,
based in numbers. Scripture and antiquity put numbers as the
fundamental forms of things, where we put ideas. Mathematics
is also philosophy and metaphysics.1 Doubtless, we will be
1 Roos, Introduction (Einl. in die bib. Geschichten, p. 85) : " All things visible
are arranged by God wisely, according to times and numbers. He has applied
most wisely arithmetic and geometry in the inanimate world. If so, what must
His government of rational creatures be ? Surely pure righteousness, perfect

THE LAST WEEK. 137
astonished, some future day, to discover how simple, after our
complex and far-fetched systems, are the fundament^ lines on
which are based the relations and development of the world.
The ancients, with simpler minds, saw deeper into the essences
of things. But, in truth, we must believe in revelation, in the
full, objective, superhuman sense of the word, before we can
understand a prophecy like that under our consideration.
Numbers occur, most frequently in that form of revelation,
where the supernatural, the immediately divine, is in the fore
ground, viz. in the Apocalypse. The most supernatural reve
lation leads us the furthest into the natural, and furnishes us
with the clearest hints concerning the mysteries of nature and
history ; for the God of revelation is no other than the God of
creation, the preserver and ruler of the world.
A clear light is thus thrown on the analysis of the last week
into two parts. That last time of salvation for many in Israel,
during which the old sacrifices and the Old Testament economy
in general, is to cease, was brought about, as we know, through
Jesus Christ and His apostles. By the division of the week
into two halves, Daniel is reminded of the period of three and
a half years already known to him (vii. 25). He knows from
this source, that this is the time in which the power that op-
poseth itself to God arrives at its culmination, during which " the
saints of the Most High are given into the hands of the enemy."
But this number does not, like ten, designate the power of the
world in its fulness, but a power opposed indeed to the divine
(which unfolds itself in the number seven), yet broken in itself,
powerless, and whose highest triumph is at the same time its
defeat. For, immediately after the three and a half times,
judgment falls on the victorious powers of the world (vii. 25,
26). This is the wonderful character, of the last week, that,
though God reveals Himself in the fulness of His covenant
order. Everything is necessarily measured out and proportioned according to
its essential value and dignity, and the moral character of beings. Behold the
divine Ma thesis!"

138 THE RENDING OF THE VEIL IN THE TEMPLE.
mercy, yet the world is in power. The Holy One of God is m
the world, not in glory, but as one given into the hands of the
world-power; He is there as Maschiach, but not yet as Nagid. As
long as He is on earth, He is tormented by the sin and enmity
of the world, and, in the end, He is delivered into the hands of
sinners, who put Him to death. But while the world thinks it
has triumphed, judgment has passed on it, its power is broken
(John xii. 31). The death of Jesus falls in the middle of the
last week ; His prophetic life, including the time of His precur
sor John, who ushered in the Messianic period, lasted about
three years and a half. If, as is just, the work of the Baptist
be taken into account,1 we shall not make the fulfilment of
prophecy depend, as Hengstenberg makes it, on uncertain chro
nological data. That the Old Testament sacrifices and economy
were abolished by the offering up of the New Testament sacri
fice on the altar of the cross, was tangibly shown by the rending
asunder of the veil of the temple, for it stood in most intimate
connection with the sacrifices ; as the door leading into the Holy
of holies — the dwelling of Jehovah — the blood of the sacrifices
of atonement was sprinkled against it, and on the great day of
atonement, had to be carried through it (Lev. iv. 6, 17 ; xvi. 2,
15).2 We regard this event as a fulfilment of our prophecy, just
as earlier we claimed in that sense the superscription over the
cross. Sacrifices and oblations ceased in fact and essence from
that day; though they were outwardly brought for a few decen-
nia after the death of Christ. The heavenly eye which we see
1 Thus Bengel, in the first edition of his " Harmonie der Evangelisten," in
which he advocates a view, quite coinciding with ours; he calculates the
seventy weeks (each 7 years) from the seventh year of Artaxerxes, and the
last week from the beginning of John the Baptist's public life. Afterwards,
influenced by his erroneous Apocalyptic Chronology, he made the prophetic
week equal to 7|| years. In this case, calculation would have been impossible
just in the very period for which the prophecy was particularly given.
2 Bahr, Symbolik des Mos. Cultus, II., § 39; Martensen, Christliche Dogmat.,
2d edit., 356 : " When the Redeemer cried on the cross, ' It is finished,' the
curtain in the temple was rent in twain ; because now the whole former ser
vice of sacrifices was abrogated."

TERMINUS AD QUEM. 139
throughout that the angels possess, and which sees into the
heart of things and men, regarded the service of the hardened,
stiff-necked, and self-righteous people, as becoming more and
more an idolatrous abomination. Here we find that law of a
supernatural estimate, an estimate of events according to their
essence which we have met already, and shall presently meet
again. That this law does not interfere with the accuracy of our
earthly chronology, has already been proved.1
We must seek the second half of the last week, and thus the
final point of the seventy weeks, in the apostolic age, between three
and four years after the death of Christ. This point appears at
first sight still more vague and obscure than the terminus a quo.
And here we observe again, the necessarily enigmatical character
of prophecy, which we have already shown the dignity of reve
lation demands, and without which prophecy would be degraded
to the level of prediction and soothsaying. As we found the
beginning of the seventy weeks connected with an important
event which the word of God itself points out to the careful
investigator, so, in like manner, shall we find the end. A period
of about from three to four years — we have no chronological
data of greater accuracy — must have elapsed after the death of
Christ, during which the gospel was preached exclusively to
Jews, and during which the congregation of Christians stood in
favour with all the people (Acts ii. 47 ; v. 13, 14). But then
persecutions broke out on the side of Israel against the apostolic
church; Stephen fell as the first martyr (Acts vii.). The respite
given to the people after the three years' active ministry of
Christ, was now at an end (Luke xiii. 6-9), and the Jews made
the measure of their sins, which they had already filled by the
murder of the Messiah, flowing and running over (Matt, xxiii.
32-38). The last and highest revelations of mercy were to be
vouchsafed to Israel before judgment could overwhelm them ; not
merely the Son of God, but the Holy. Spirit was to visit them
' Against Wieseler, p. 84.

140 RESULT.
(comp. Matt. xxi. 33-41, with xxiii. 34). But when the people
rejected Him also,-it was inwardly dead ; from that day, as it was
with our first parents from the day of the fall, it was already an
accursed fig tree, a branch cast away and waiting only for the fire
of judgment, a carcase round which the eagles must of necessity
soon gather (Mark xi. 12, etc. ; John xv. 6 > Matt. xxiv. 28).
Thus the Acts of the Apostles, and it is worthy of all notice,
turns away from the Jews after the chapter which records the
death of Stephen (viii.), and describes how the gospel passed
over gradually to the Gentiles. This remarkable book is thus,
by its entire historic view, which Michael Baumgarten has so
beautifully developed in its holy and deep symmetry, an eloquent
witness for the fulfilment of our prophecy, and serves the same
purpose in regard to the terminus ad quern, as Ezra and
Nehemiah serve for the terminus a quo. The angel mentions
also the execution of the decree of the divine judgment in Israel
by the Roman world-power under Titus, but this does not
strictly belong to the seventy weeks, and is also not narrated in
the New Testament. The absence of this narrative in both
places is to be explained by the same reason. Israel, after
having rejected salvation, ceased to be the subject of sacred
history, and became that of profane history alone.
The ninth chapter — such is our result — reaches, with its pro
phecy of both salvation and judgment, till the close of the first
Messianic period, till the rejection of Christ by Israel and the
consequent rejection of Israel by Christ, " till the temporary
interruption of the history which began in Abraham, by that
judgment on the people of the covenant which Titus was called
to execute."1 From this time the kingdom of God is taken from
Israel and given to the Gentiles (Matt. xxi. 43), until the second
coming of the Messiah, when the covenant people will be con
verted, and take its place at the head of humanity (Matt, xxiii.
39; Acts i. 6, 7; vii. 3, 19-21; Rom. xi. 25-31, 15). This
1 Kurtz. Gesch. des Alten Bundes, i., 2 Aufi., S. 95.

MODERN INTERPRETATIONS. 141
second coming of the Messiah in glory, and the restoration of
the kingdom of Israel- connected with it, Daniel beheld in the
seventh chapter. The intervening period between the two
Messianic epochs, or between the destruction of Jerusalem and
the conversion of all Israel, which forms for the people of the
covenant a great parenthesis, filled up by the fourth monarchy,
is veiled from Daniel in considerable obscurity, on account of
his Old Testament and Israelitish standpoint. And it is this
very parenthesis which we shall see filled up by the Apocalypse
of St John.

SECOND CHAPTER.
THE MODERN INTERPRETATIONS.
If our investigation has thus established the correct view of the
seventy weeks, which is no other than that ancient one which has
prevailed in the Church, modern criticism has received a death
blow on the purely exegetical field. The chief support which that
criticism derives for its hypothesis concerning our book, the hy
pothesis, namely, that it extends no further than to Antiochus
Epiphanes, is undermined. Whether this accurate chronologi
cal prophecy was given two hundred or six hundred years before
its fulfilment, whether under Antiochus or under Darius, its mi
raculous character is not affected. Of course, however, no one
who arrived at the true interpretation of the book, doubted its
genuineness ; for such an one is altogether free from the ration
alistic terror of special prophecies.
In this respect the ninth chapter, rightly interpreted, is of
great importance in relation to the eleventh, which abounds in
disclosures distinguished by minute historical detail, and which
on that account, has frequently presented difficulties even to
orthodox theologians. We have already seen, from different
points of our investigation, how closely these two revelations are

142 J. CH. K. HOFMANN.
related in their form. Both, it seems, were received by Daniel
in a waking state, and after long prayer and fasting. Both
were given to him by the mouth of an angel, simply and without
symbols ; and in this way the most special disclosures are not
only possible, but, when we consider the hints throughout the book,
concerning the important influence exercised by angels on the
affairs of the world, and of which we have already spoken,1 it
seems natural that they should be given through this agency.
Both revelations are the last of the entire book, and we know
that there is a progress in individual prophecies towards increas
ing minuteness. If in this respect we compare the eleventh chapter
with the ninth, the question at once occurs : Is the chronological
detail in the latter more easily comprehended, and less wonder
ful, than the historical' detail in the former? The quantity,
larger or smaller, of the communications, cannot, of course,
decide the question. The right view of the ninth chapter will
enable the consistent thinker to free himself from all the diffi
culties which the eleventh chapter may have caused him.
This, however, renders it only the more imperative on us to
examine carefully the arguments of our opponents, and to see
whether they can defend their calculations from our text (which
is certainly full of difficulties), or whether they give more satis
factory solutions of the problems than our own. And this task
becomes the more important, when we consider that in the rank
of our opponents there is a scholar who strenuously defends the
genuineness of Daniel, and with whose general views of the
prophet we cordially sympathize : — J. Chr. K. Hofmann in Erl-
angen. After the publication of Hengstenberg's Christology in
the year 1832, in which he treated at length the prophecy of
' How much Daniel viewed events as connected with the world of angels,
appears also from the circumstance that he often puts the third person plural,
to which you must supply, as subject, "the angels," as is done by Abenesra; in
our German translation we render it impersonally (" man "), comp. 2, 30, 4, 13,
28, and Hitzig on the last passage. In like manner, the Lord Jesus says, ?m
^o-xf,' cw izxiTeVm. i.m cov, translated by Luther, " thy soul will be required of
thee." Comp. also Job vi. 19; vii. 3; and Rev. xii. 6.

WIESELER, HITZIG. 143
the seventy weeks, and confirmed anew the Church's interpreta
tion of them, there appeared, besides other less important essays
(comp. Hitzig, p. 153), two monographs on the same subject in
1836 and 1839, both of which we have had repeated occasion
to quote, the first by Hofmann,1 and the second by Wieseler.2
These two theologians oppose Hengstenberg, and agree in many
essential points with each other. Both have taken up the subject
again. Hofmann confirming his former views in his " Weissagung
and Erfullung," Wieseler modifying his former views in his
critique of the well-known work of the Duke of Manchester,
"Times of Daniel" (Gott. gel. Anz. 1846, S. 113, ff). It is,
therefore, only this last exposition of Wieseler's views that we
shall have to consider. To these must be joined Hitzig in his
" Commentary." Ewald in the second volume of his " Propheten
des Alten Bundes," as well as Hengstenberg in his Christology,
have expounded in detail only the present passage out of the whole
book of Daniel (pp. 569-572). We see that the brief paragraph of
four verses which is the subject of our investigation, has attracted
an unusual share of attention ; for the whole question on Daniel
is intimately connected with it. We may pass over the
earlier opponents of our interpretation, as they have been already
- considered by Hengstenberg, and after him by Havernick. — comp.
Hitzig, p. 173 ; Wieseler, die 70 Wochen, etc. p. 69, etc.

I. THE VIEWS OF EWALD, HOFMANN, WIESELER, AND HITZIG.
\
These four commentators agree in this, that like Bertholdt,
Eichhom, von Lengerke, and others, they take the last week to
mean the time of distress, which Israel experienced in the days
1 Die 70 Jahre des Jer. und die 70 Jahrwochen des Dan. zwei exeget-histor.
Untersuchungen, Niirnb., 1836.
2 Die 70 Wochen und die 63 Jahrwochen des Propheten Daniel, etc. Got
tingen, 1839. It is remarkable that Wieseler has made no remark on the work
of Hofmann, published three years before his own.

144 ewald's view.
of Antiochus Epiphanes. But their views of the seven, and of
the sixty-two weeks, are very different. Ewald stands here quite
isolated from the rest, in that he acknowledges what should never
have been denied, that the seventy weeks form a continuous
whole, and that their component parts must succeed each other
in the same order as is mentioned in the text, first the seven,
then the sixty-two, and lastly the one week. The terminus a
quo described in ver. 25, is, according to Ewald, the fourth year of
Jehoiakim, or the year 607 B.C.; an opinion which he founds
on Jeremiah xxv. 1, for this prophecy he conceives to be the
" going forth of the command." From 607 he calculates the
first seven weeks down to Cyrus (536), who, according to him,
is the Maschiach Nagid ; the sixty-two weeks he reckons from
Cyrus down to the year 176, which is marked by the violent
death of the predecessor of Antiochus Epiphanes, Seleucus iv.
Philopator, who, according to Ewald is the Maschiach ; finally,
the last revolt is the time of Antiochus Epiphanes, who is conse
quently the Nagid from 176-166. Ewald himself confesses, that
this exposition makes neither the seventy weeks as a whole, nor
the individual parts, agree with history. For, instead of 490
years, he obtains 441 ; instead of 49, 71 ; instead of 334, 360, and
instead of 7, 10. This of itself is a complete answer to the ex
position, and it is scarcely necessary to point out that the year
in which Jeremiah xxv, was spoken, cannot possibly be taken as
the terminus a quo, for the subject of that divine message is not
the restoration, but on the contrary, the destruction of Jerusalem ;
thus forming the foundation and substratum of our passage, as is
admitted by Hitzig (158, 174). We therefore agree with Ewald
only in so far as he justly opposes the other interpreters, assert
ing what the text clearly demands, that the seven weeks are to
be taken as immediately preceding the sixty-two.
For Hofmann, Wieseler, and Hitzig, all agree in separating the
first seven weeks from the rest, and in dating, though for different
reasons, the commencement of the sixty- two weeks, or 434 years
from about the same period, namely 606 or 605 B.C., which is

HOFMANN, WIESELER, HITZIG. 145
Ewald's terminus a quo for the whole calculation, thus bringing the
end of the sixty-two years to 171 or 170, when the sufferings of
Israel, through Antiochus the Nagid, which form the contents of
the last week, begin. By the Anointed, who is killed after the
sixty-two weeks, they understand the high priest Onias in., in
whose assassination Wieseler and Hitzig, and in whose deposition
Hofmann see the fulfilment of the mav The last week extends
to the death of Antiochus Epiphanes in the year 1 64 ; in the
middle of that week the service of God (" sacrifice and oblation")
was abrogated by this king, and the service of idols was in
troduced. Thus these three commentators apply the sixty-two
weeks and the one week to a period which, according to Ewald,
embraces' the whole seventy. By this the former avoid the
chronological difficulties, which render Ewald's view inadmis
sible, and obtain an exact chronological coincidence of fulfil
ment. These commentators are essentially agreed in their exposition
of the sixty-three weeks, but in that of the seven weeks they
differ very widely. Hitzig, agreeing chiefly with Eichhorn,
understands by the going forth of the command (ver. 25) the
oracle Jer. xxx. and xxxi., which, he argues from xxxi. 15,
was given in the year of the destruction of Jerusalem ; and he
understands the Maschiach Nagid to refer to Cyrus. He thus
commences the seven weeks with 588, and brings them to 539,
when, he says, Cyrus first came within the horizon of Jewish
history. Thus the seven weeks, according to him, fall within
the sixty-two, and form part of them. Wieseler and Hofmann
admit, that the Maschiach Nagid refers to the Messiah. Wieseler
wishes to annex the seven weeks to the end of the sixty-three,
and begins from the year 164 B.C., which leads to this conclu
sion, that the Messiah " ought to have come 115 years before
Christ. But the words were scarcely meant to be so rigorously
applied. The meaning is rather general ; in a time not very
distant — in about seven times seven years — in a spiritual year of
jubilee — the Messiah will appear." Hofmann finally refers the

146 HOFMANN, WIESELER, HITZIG.
whole, not to the first advent of Christ, which is past, but to
His future, His second advent ; — the going forth of the Word,
the terminus a quo for the calculation of the seven weeks is,
according to him, a divine call of God to Israel — a call, as yet,
in the dark future, to rebuild Jerusalem, and the end of the
seven weeks is the completion of the New Jerusalem, under its
princely King.
We admit, that the exposition which these three commenta
tors give of the sixty-two weeks and the one week, is, at first
sight, pleasing and plausible. This is the reason also why com
mentators, who on other points differ so widely as the three
mentioned, yet agree in this. But although the striking coinci
dence and agreement of years inclines us for a moment to look
favourably on this view, we have only to consider the calculation
of the seven weeks, to see at once that we have here one of
those cases of frequent occurrence in apocalyptic exegesis, in
which men of undoubted acuteness are blinded and led astray
by striking, yet purely accidental coincidences. For, it would
be hard to say which is the most unfavourable aspect of these
interpretations ; — if compared with each other, the immense
difference in the calculations of the seven weeks produces an
effect almost comical ; while, viewing them singly, their arbi
trariness in explaining this period prefixed by the angel is
palpably manifest, as well as the forced and unnatural manner
in which they look for some plan and means to interpret the-
inconvenient seven weeks.
These views of the forty-nine years were thus proved to be
mere makeshifts of necessity ; and this is decisive from the
outset against such a mode of interpreting our prophecy. For,
not to take into account the special contents of the angelic
message, so much is clear, that in all these expositions there is
only room for sixty- three weeks, and consequently the nerve
and emphasis of the number seventy is lost. These commenta
tors, therefore, looked for every possible method to account for
the seven weeks. Whilst, in the text, the seven belong simply to

CRITICISM OF THE MODERN VIEW. 147
the sixty-three, and precede them, they either put them within,
or at the end of the sixty-three, or separate them entirely, and
make them take place centuries after. The only variety which
is left, would be for some ingenious man to discover, that they
are to be found some thousand years before the sixty-three.
From the stand-point of our opponents, Ewald's view is evidently
the only textual one ; and no one would ever think of separating
the seven weeks at the beginning, were it not that Ewald's view
is too palpably refuted by every number without exception men
tioned in the text. But we proceed to an examination of the
details.

II. CRITICISM OF THESE VIEWS.
I. THE CHRONOLOGICAL CALCULATION.
We begin with the point to which our attention has been last
directed, the calculation of the seventy, or rather the sixty-
two, relatively sixty-three prophetic weeks. We have a two
fold objection against this calculation, plausible as it is, and
shall add a third, to the general view taken by our opponents of
the seventy weeks.
I. With regard to the terminus a quo of the calculation, the
commentators, though from very different motives," agree in the
year 606 — 605 B.C. This diversity in the mode of proof, is of
itself not calculated to promote our confidence in the result, but
rather to give rise to the suspicion, that the year was fixed
upon because it suited the calculation, and that the reasons
were looked for afterwards, one commentator lighting upon one
reason, another upon a different one. But none of the reasons
can bear criticism.
Hofmann thinks (Weiss, u. Erf. i., S. 296), that the whole
prophecy presupposes in the reader certainty concerning the

148 THE TERMINUS A QUO, HOFMANN.
terminus a quo ; and that this point, according to ix. 2, cannot
be found in any other year than that in which Jerusalem was
made a " desolation." Thus the destruction of Jerusalem would
be the commencement of the sixty-two weeks ; but that event
according to Hofmann's peculiar mode of calculation, falls in
the year 605 b. c We will not urge here, that Hofmann makes
the whole matter depend on the uncertain result of his peculiar
chronology, in which he has followed the precedent set by
Hengstenberg, but will only remind the reader, that Hofmann's
view, that the destruction of Jerusalem took place as early as
606 B.C., and not, as is usually supposed, 588, has, as far as
we know, found even fewer adherents than Hengstenberg's con
jecture about the date of the accession of Artaxerxes. And
even if Hofmann's chronology were correct, his view regarding
the commencement of the sixty-two weeks would not be tenable.
Hofmann thus explains ver. 25 : From the issuing of the Divine
command to build Jerusalem (which is, even for us Christians,
a future event), till (the second coming of) the Messiah, are
seven weeks ; and (from the destruction of Jerusalem by Nebu
chadnezzar) the city will be rebuilt in sixty-two weeks. But
after Daniel has prayed for the restoration of the city, who
would be inclined to think that the answer vouchsafed to his
supplication should refer, by the words, " the going forth of the
command to restore and to build Jerusalem," to anything else
than a Divine command concerning the rebuilding of the city,
in the immediate future ? It was impossible for Daniel to
understand by it a second, much later command of God ; and
further, in the words, " from the going forth of the command
to build Jerusalem," we have a terminus a quo most distinctly
given, and who could therefore imagine, that, he ought to supply
a new point of commencement, totally opposed to one so
clearly indicated, and a commencement of which no trace can
be found, either in the words themselves or in the context 1
And who can imagine, that the first mentioned terminus a quo is
to be supposed later than the second, which is not mentioned in

THE TERMINUS A QUO, WIESELER. 149
the text, but in Hofmann's exposition ? And who can imagine
that the words, " to restore and to build," which occur twice,
without any difference, in the same verse, describe two different
buildings, separated in time by at least two thousand five hun
dred years ? Hofmann's exegesis is certainly nowhere more
violent and bold, than in this passage.
Wieseler (p. 124-126) arrives at the same result, 606 B.C., by
an exposition totally different. He acknowledges that " the
going forth of the command to build Jerusalem," is the point at
which the calculation commences; but, like Ewald, he under
stands by this command the oracle Jer. xxv., which, according
to ver. 1, falls within that year. We have seen why this sup
position of Ewald is untenable, and as such it has been recoge
nised also by Hitzig. But the further treatment of the text
of the twenty-fifth verse by Wieseler, in order to remove the
seven weeks from the commencement, and to put them to the
end of the sixty-three, is not less erroneous and impossible. He
tries to show that the words D'-jim-ii — XS12"^?3 are closely con
nected with the preceding words baitfm in ni, and would make
a longer pause after obwiv. The prophet's object is " to em
phasize the terminus a quo of the seventy weeks, by the addition of
*?3T2;ni jn ni, which is absolutely necessary for the correct under
standing of the passage." But even if we grant this, where does
Wieseler obtain the right to throw the following words out of
the text, and add them as a conclusion to ver. 27, iy n^n
1^3 D^'iiy rryaw ; at the same time, quietly taking the
lai NSa-jn from the lai tti'U'n and inserting it before the
D^un D'OT D^yaiM. Hitzig justly remarks against this bold
operation : " The right of transposing the seven weeks from the
beginning tb the end, has not been demonstrated (Hitzig, p.
174)." Now, with regard to Hitzig himself, he does not even
take the trouble to show why the sixty-two weeks are to be
calculated from the year 606. He makes^ the " pseudo prophet"
count backwards, and calculate in arbitrary confusion, just as a
modern commentator does when he is hard pressed (see espe- '

1 50 HITZIG.
eially p. 169). We must protest in general, in the name of
evangelical theology, against the undignified manner in which
Hitzig treats the Old Testament, especially this book of Daniel.1
We, can only turn with righteous indignation from a criticism
so devoid of all reverential feeling for the holy text, that, for
example, it can apply the expression, " the Trparov i^eOSot of the
calculation" (applicable enough to itself), to the words of the
prophet, or rather of the angel. This exposition has laid bare
its own falsehood, by speaking of the existence of a tyeiSos, and
that too in these very seven weeks. Hitzig's words, p. 170: "The
Trpoirov \jrevSos in the calculation, is the seven weeks for which
the author had to find some place," only confirms the remarks
we made above in relation to this.
II. We have co'nsidered the difficulties which attach to these
interpretations separately ; we shall turn now to one, which they
have in common. In ver. 25, the text says, according to Hitzig's
own translation, that " Jerusalem will be restored and rebuilt
during sixty -two weeks," or, according to Ewald, " for sixty-two
weeks." Supposing now the sixty-two weeks commence with the year
606, then the whole time of the exile, during which, it is to be ob
served, Jerusalem lay desolate, as our chapter most emphatically
points out, would be included, without distinction, in the time of
the building of the city, which is absurd. Hofmann feels the force
of this objection, but his attempted refutation (die 70, Jahre, S.
p. 106 ; Weiss, u. Erfiill, S. 302), will scarcely convince any
one, especially when he remembers the fundamental views from
which our chapter starts.

1 Specimens, p. 168 : " Die Ausleger sind hier selbst mit allerlei D-^'.pa in
die Wochen gekommeu," p. 17 speaking of Daniel (chap, ii), " The combina
tion of four metals shows little taste, and, besides, the treatment of the whole
contains many things offensive, and altogether cannot be called successful,"
etc. What the critic says about the book Daniel would, in most cases, be true
of the book Hitzig.

GENERAL VIEW OF THE SEVENTY WEEKS. 151
III. We have hitherto confined ourselves to the consideration of
the terminus a quo, and the view of the sixty-two weeks derived
from it. We must now glance at the general view of the seventy
prophetic weeks taken by these commentators. For, after all, this
is the touch-stone of the whole. The chief objection to Hof
mann's view is, that according to him there is an indefinite gulf
between the sixty-three and the seven weeks, which takes the
main stay from the whole calculation and the whole prophecy, and
renders the words prefixed as fundamental to the whole predic
tion of the seventy weeks, utterly illusory. The exposition is
just as if one should say; the old Roman empire, which existed
from 752 B.C. till 476 a,d., lasted between 700 and 800 years;
240 years from the beginning till the expulsion of the kings ;
and then again, about 500 years from the commencement of
the empire to its end ; the intervening period of the republic
is not to be taken into consideration. This is somewhat like
Hofmann's distribution of the sixty-three and the seven weeks,
with this difference, that his violent separation is still more
forced. The period between 164 B.C. and a future, which is
even for us distant and indefinite, is simply cut by him out of
the calculation. In vain we ask by what right ? An interven
ing period might perhaps be passed over, if the point where the
first period ends, or is broken off, were one of decisive import
ance for the development of Israel, as, for example, the destruc
tion of Jerusalem by Titus. There, it might be said, commence
the x«(go' ISnSii ; a grand parenthesis as regards the history of
Israel, which will be concluded in the future by the restoration
and conversion of Israel. (This view is taken to some extent in
the lectures on Daniel already quoted (p. 106), the Calwer Bi-
belerklarung, and other works, which refer the last week to the
times of antichrist). But it is impossible to see a reason
« why the prophecy concerning " the people and the holy city "
should be interrupted by the death of Antiochus Epiphanes,
especially, as, owing to - the prophecies contained in Daniel
(chaps, viii. and xi.), the danger which then threatened Israel

152 GENERAL VIEW OF THE SEVENTY WEEKS.
passed over without inflicting essential injury, and the nation
maintained its existence as it had previously done, for more than
200 years. If Antiochus Epiphanes had, for instance, destroyed
Jerusalem, we might be able to conceive how the prophecy
might have passed on from this event, to a new command of
God to rebuild Jerusalem. But, as it stands, it is clear why the
prophecies of the eighth and eleventh chapters conclude with
the death of Antiochus ; it is not comprehensible that a revela
tion, which, according to Hofmann's own admission, concerns
also the more remote history of Israel, should break off at this
very point. The prophecy would, in that case, pass over in
utter silence events of far greater moment, such as the first
coming of the Messiah, and the destruction of Jerusalem by
Titus ; and this is yet more improbable than the sufficiently
great improbability, that the sixty-two weeks devoted to the
rebuilding of Jerusalem, should include likewise the period of its
desolations. What views of history the angel must have had, if
Hofman's interpretation be true !
Compared with this exposition, Wieseler's view has the
advantage, that he regards the seventy weeks as a continuous
whole. But we have already pointed out that the transposition
of the seven weeks from the beginning to the conclusion, cannot
be reconciled with the words of the text. And we may add, at
this point, that Wieseler himself, in his first treatise, rejects the
vieW he afterwards adopted (and which had been previously
advanced by Corrodi in his Critical History of Chiliasm, i. p.
247), in the following short and striking words : " The arbitra
riness and untextual method of such a transposition is palpably
manifest." This is quite true, and, moreover, this view of
Wieseler-Corrodi, is refuted by the extraordinary want of con-
gruity between the prophecy thus understood, and its historic
fulfilment. What is the meaning of the assertion that Christ
ought to have come 115 years B.C.? Does Wieseler, who is a
master of biblical chronology, _seriously believe that the Bible is
so deficient and inaccurate in chronology? And must he not

GENERAL VIEW OF THE SEVENTY WEEKS. 153
since have given up a view, according to which prophecy re
sembles a ball, to which a feeble hand gives an impetus so weak,
that, unable to overcome some accidental obstruction, it is
stopped before it reaches its destined goal !
Turning lastly to Hitzig, the forced and far-fetched way in
which he tries to show historically when " the going forth of
the commandment " took place, strikes every reader. He felt
correctly, that Jer. xxv. was not intended by Daniel, and, there
fore, he looked for some passage in that part of Jeremiah, in
which the rebuilding of Jerusalem is spoken of. The thirtieth and
thirty-first chapters occurred to his mind. But, unfortunately,
this revelation is without a chronological date, and, therefore, does
not seem very well suited to be a chronological terminus a quo.
But, in this distress, some expedient will offer. In the fifteenth
verse of the thirty-first chapter, which speaks of Rachel lament
ing over her fallen sons, Hitzig finds a hint that these chapters
were written in the year of the destruction of Jerusalem. Now,
it is difficult to say which part of this procedure is more arbi
trary, the fixing on this particular prophecy for a purpose which
ten others, with the like contents, might serve as well — the
deduction of the chronological date from chap. xxxi. 15, or the
supposition that the historical hint, which is, at all events, but
obscurely implied in the verse, was intended for the terminus a
quo of the seventy weeks. And, as regards the exegesis as a
whole, it is so palpably irreconcileable with the text, to insert
the seven weeks among the sixty-two, that a further refutation
is unnecessary. If this exposition be right, what reason or
excuse is there for speaking of seventy weeks ? It is a blunder
against the first rules of addition, and is just as if a man were to
say, the word Daniel consists of eight letters, D a n i e make
up five, I makes six, but then you must count a and n a second
time, which makes in all eight, Q.E.D. It is manifest that this
view altogether destroys the meaning of ver. 24, one of the
deepest and sublimest Messianic passages of the Old Testament.
According to Hitzig, the promises of this verse may be reduced

154 MASCHIACH — ONIAS.
to the " great event, contemporary with the author, the consecra-
of a new altar for burnt sacrifices " (1 Maccabees iv. 54, 56, 59).
(Hitzig, p. 157.) After this survey, we think we may confi
dently remind the reader of our exposition as given above, and
simply leave it to his judgment to say on which side there is
greater simplicity and ease of calculation, closer adherence to
the text, and less chronological difficulty. The views of our
opponents are certainly incapable of interpreting the cardinal
point of the whole prophecy, the centre round which everything
else revolves, the seventy prophetic weeks themselves, which
must form as continuous a whole as those of Jeremiah. Their
calculation is, therefore, radically false.

II. EXPOSITION OF THE DETAILS.
We have considered the outer chronological frame ; we turn
now to the picture itself, which the prophecy unfolds before us,
as our opponents represent it, and which differs widely from
that which we ourselves have seen. We must first, however,
consider some details, and leave the impression of the whole to
form the subject of the following paragraph. We can state our
views with brevity, as we had occasion to speak of chronological
calculation in connection with ver. 24 and 25, and single out
only the most important points in ver. 26 and 27.
I. The expression Maschiach, is decisive. Formerly Hitzig
and others, and Ewald even now, referred it to one of the Seleu
cidae, the precursor of Antiochus Epiphanes, but they had to
relinquish this view, because, as we have seen above, his death
took place several years too soon to suit the calculation. Here
again, the change of opinion betrays the unsatisfactory character
of the view. At present Hitzig, Hofmann, and Wieseler, are
unanimous in referring the Maschiach to the high priest Onias,
and yet, even here, they do not agree in reality. One could

SECOND CLAUSE OF VER. 26. 155
possibly refer the word to Onias, if one could understand the
m^ to mean, as Hofmann interprets it, a degradation or deposi
tion of the high priest ; from which event it is true, according to
2 Mace. iv. 7, etc., the pernicious influence of Antiochus upon
Jewish affairs, dated its commencement (Weiss, u. Erfi'll. i. S.
295). But nobody will agree with Hofmann, that niD^ can be
applied to anything except violent death; at least the formula
ni3' nb which he adduces, proves nothing in our case. And for
this reason Wieseler and Hitzig retain justly the translation
generally adopted : " an Anointed one shall be killed." But the
murder of Onias, years after his deposition, is in itself a fact
devoid of importance, and the less suited to be prominently
mentioned in this prophecy, as Antiochus showed himself*on
this occasion in a more favourable light than usual (2 Mace. iv.
33-38). The expression tb ^Nl, also, loses its real meaning if
this view is adopted, nor can we see what connection subsists
between the great distress spoken of in the second clause of the
verse, and the murder of a high priest who has been deposed
from his office. If we bear in mind the deep and mighty
meaning which these verses possess, according to the Messianic
interpretation, and the connection of ideas so pregnant and sug
gestive, which binds together the individual parts of the prophecy,
the modern exposition will then appear to place the central
point in such an artificial and uncertain light, and, at the same
time, degrade it to such trivial, puny dimensions, that it is not-
difficult to decide in the choice between the two expositions.
II. The 6econd clause of ver. 26, contains several things
utterly irreconcileable with the view, that the acts of Antiochus
Epiphanes alone are here set forth. Thus, for instance, it would
be difficult to show that nimurr, where it has for its object
city and sanctuary — it is different in viii. 24 — does not mean
destruction, but merely confusion, as Hofmann translates it.
The word occurs e.g., Gen. xix. 14, descriptive of the fate of
Sodom. But, in our passage, its meaning is unambiguous, owing

156 THE COVENANT CONFIRMED.
to its opposition to the rebuilding. We shall consider the
expressions V25 and lap below.
in. In ver. 27, the words n*ia TO^n offer insurmountable
difficulties to the modern interpretation. The explanation given
by Hofmann, Ewald, and Wieseler, that Antiochus was to make
a firm covenant with many Jews, has been refuted in a masterly
manner by Hitzig, p. 164, and he admits that nm can only
refer to a covenant of God with the people. But he substitutes
an exposition equally untenable, by inventing, to meet his pre
conceived opinion, the indefensible meaning of " making heavy"
for -^aan : " the covenant of God weighed heavily upon him,
frofn the time that he and the people were attacked because of
it." It would have been easier to make loan mean violare.
Here we can leave the views of our opponents to judge and
correct each other. As Hitzig is right in refuting the three
others concerning JVia, they justly refute his view of "vain.
It is impossible to translate - the words, except as follows :
"one week confirms the covenant with many;" ascribing,
as is often done, to the time, the event which happens in it ;
and this is done in our passage with a special purpose. We
have seen above, that jnaiK, as a time, containing the number
seven, is a time of Divine revelation. The subject has thus in
it an indication of what is more fully described in its effects by
the verb and its object. The time of God, and the confirmation
of the covenant, are necessarily connected.
IV. And this leads us to another point, in which all the views
of our opponents prove themselves defective ; that they are not
able to explain in any way the symbolical importance attached to
the numbers — an importance so clearly and expressly pointed out
by the angel. And this defect appears in the strongest light in
the last week, when, according to the exposition given by them
in common, the signification of the sacred number is turned into
its very opposite. For the number seven, which is well known

CHAP. IX. AND CHAPS. VIII. X.-XII. CONTRASTED. 157
to be symbolic of the Divine, becomes, according to their view,
the symbol of what is opposed to God. We are astonished that
Hofmann especially, who in other places has a deep insight into
the meaning of biblical numbers, could have so completely over
looked and passed over this point.
We are thus confirmed by our consideration of ver. 26 and
27, in the remarks we made at ver. 25. Modern exposition
agrees as little with the words and individual features of the
text, as it corresponds to the chronological frame of the whole.
In the sequel we shall have occasion to consider, in this respect,
ver. 27 also. But the words in ver. 26, rrtUtt nii\ are ever
of central importance. Here also the stone of offence is the
cross of Christ.

III. THE CHARACTER OF THE WHOLE CHAPTER.
a. The fundamental and distinctive characteristics of the prophe
cies referring to Antiochus Epiphanes.
We turn now to the consideration of the -relation in which
the four verses of prophecy stand to the whole chapter in which
they occur, and then to the relation in which the ninth chapter
stands to the book of Daniel ; and shall likewise see here what
insurmountable difficulties the modern exposition has to encoun
ter. It can neither be reconciled with the context of our pas
sage, nor with the general mode in which Daniel speaks of
Antiochus. The whole circle of ideas in which the ninth chapter places
us, is entirely different from that which relates to Antiochus —
the starting-point, the leading ideas in our chapter, cannot be
brought into harmony with a prediction concerning Antiochus.
Daniel's prayer refers to the return from exile, the rebuilding
of the city, and in connection with this, the salvation of the
people, and the fulfilment of the Messianic prophecies. What

158 CHAP. IX. AND CHAPS. VIII. X.-XII. CONTRASTED.
has all this to do with Antiochus Epiphanes, who exercised no
important decisive influence, especially concerning the city of
Jerusalem, whose future, next to the number seventy, forms the
very centre and burden of the prophecy (comp. particularly "Pim
ver. 26). The sixty-two weeks, i.e., the years 605-171 B.C., are
said to stand for the time of the rebuilding of Jerusalem ; but
as little as this event can begin in the year 605, i.e., before the
destruction of Jerusalem, so little can one imagine a reason why
it should end with 171, or why the time of destruction should
commence here. Thus the modern interpretation is incapable
of explaining the very central points, round which, according to
ver. 2, the whole prophecy turns, the number seventy, and the
rebuilding and second destruction of Jerusalem. But let the
reader, free from prejudice, read the first nineteen verses of the
chapter, and endeavour to realise the situation there described,
and he will find, that a mention of Antiochus would be entirely
out of place, nay, would disturb and offend our feelings and
our train of thought ; whereas the course of ideas traced by us
is not only natural and easy, but stands in necessary connection
with the whole.
We can easily conceive how those commentators, who are
forced by their preconceived opinions to refer everything in our
book to Antiochus Epiphanes, feel this necessity also in our
chapter. But we cannot comprehend the reasons which force
Hofmann to adopt this view. This is one of the cases (which
indeed are not very rare) where his praiseworthy striving for a
historical view keeps him in fetters to a lower stand-point,
resembling the rationalistic mode of conception, which in other
places he has overcome and refuted in a manner so profound,
masterly, and happy. His correct view of the relation subsist
ing between the first and second parts of our book, should of
itself have led him to the conviction, that as the first prophecy
concerns the development of the kingdom of God, as well as
of the God-opposed power of the world, even into times the
most remote, so the second part would contain not merely the

CHAP. IX. AND CHAPS. VIII. X.-XII. CONTRASTED. 159
development of the world-power, but also that of the kingdom
of God, would reveal the more immediate future of salvation.
And this view is hinted by Hofmann himself (die 70 Jahr.,
p. 108), when he expresses the opinion, that the a priori expecta
tion of finding somewhere in this universal book, mention made
of the first appearance of the Messiah on earth, was justified
and legitimate.
But it is not only out of harmony with the starting-point and
purpose of our chapter, to refer it to Antiochus. It must be
-further observed, that the character of the passages which
undoubtedly treat of Antiochus (chap. viii. and xi.), are alto
gether different from the way and manner in which our chapter
(according to our opponents) speaks of him. In the other pas
sages he appears throughout in connection with the development
of the world-power, as the head of the third monarchy. Here,
however, we stand upon theocratic, Israelitish ground ; and
Antiochus would form an isolated phenomenon, introduced
merely ab extra. What difference is there between the indefi
nite designation of Nagid, which suggests at once the expression,
)*Sp, xi. 18, designating also the chief commander of a state
or a general of the Romans, and the minute and terrible descrip
tion (chap. viii. and xi.) of Antiochus, as type of Antichrist.
When Gabriel appears unto Daniel, the prophet shows distinctly
(ix. 21), that the angel was known to him from the previous
vision (viii. 16). And should Antiochus, who formed the chief
subject of the previous vision, be introduced as a person alto
gether unknown, not even an article intimating, that he has
occurred previously ? And how can one escape seeing, that the
chapter stands out isolated and unique, while the chapters
ii. vii. viii. x.-xii. are of a homogeneous character, through
which they are related to each other by an unmistakable con
nection ? Whereas the latter visions are beheld from the stand
point of the worldly power, our prophecy proceeds altogether
from that of the covenant people. The thought is naturally and
involuntarily suggested to our mind, that accordingly the subject

1 60 CHAP. IX. AND CHAPS. VIII. X.-XII. CONTRASTED.
of our prophecy will be peculiar and different from that of the
other chapters. This single point of itself raises a very strong
presumption against those commentators who refer everything
in Daniel, without distinction, and by any tortuous method, to
Antiochus Epiphanes.
Bearing this in mind, we will see that an objection brought
forward, and with great emphasis, against our view of Dan. ix.,
by Wieseler (70 Wochen, p. 83), loses its force, and is rather a
confirmation of our exposition. He says, that " a Messianic in
terpretation of our passage is rendered impossible by the general
consideration, that, according to it, Daniel, when he spoke of
the sixty-two weeks, would have passed over in silence the op
pression of the Jews by Epiphanes, which it was a chief object
of our book to predict." This is rather the chief excellence of
the Messianic exposition, that it is not forced to refer this
unique chapter by violent interpretations to Antiochus. ,But it
will seem natural, that in this prophecy Antiochus is not spoken
of in conjunction with the Messiah, that his time, though falling
within the sixty-two weeks, is passed over in silence, if we bear
in mind the occasion, and the purport of the whole revelation,
as we have developed it in the first chapter. The very object
and significance of the ninth chapter is to present Christ as op
posed to the antichrist of the more immediate future, who was
sufficiently characterised in chapters viii. and x.-xii. — The other
objections brought forward by Wieseler, Hofmann, and Hitzig,
against the Messianic view, have found their refutation, we trust,
though they are not mentioned expressly in the first chapter of
this part. There remains only one other point to which, how
ever, our opponents attach most importance, and which we shall
consider in the following paragraph : —
b. The resemblance to the prophecies that refer to Antiochus.
Our opponents think that the relation in which the ninth
chapter stands to the eighth and eleventh is the strongest proof

APPARENT PARALLELISMS. 161
that the, former refers to Antiochus. Our opponents present to
us full and long enumerations of expressions, turns of thought,
and data, which are, or are affirmed to be, common to these
visions. Thus, for example, Hofmann, die 70 Jahre, etc., p. 97.
We do not at all intend to deny this coincidence, we even regard
it as intentional, and as standing in intimate connection with the
whole aim of our book. Only let us carefully distinguish between
real and mere apparent agreement, or a coincidence resulting
from erroneous exegesis. To this latter category we refer, for
instance, such a resemblance as is found between r|!au>l lSpi
ver. 26 and "1:112^ -p DSNS viii. 25, both containing, as is
said, a description of the death of Antiochus ; at all events the
similarity of the thought is but very general; the prefix in isp
could be referred grammatically to "pro, but logically the con
nection scarcely permits such a reference ; for when it is said :
the people of the prince that shall come, shall destroy the city
and the sanctuary, and then ixpl immediately follows ; every
one will think of the end of the thing destroyed, and not of the
destroyer, and so much the more, as in the sequel a continua
tion of the description of desolations is given. As little is it
legitimate to compare the Kin "pas t>x* n'tip' unpm "firm
ver. 26 with the rpunp-Din craixy rurnvm viii. 24; for a
closer investigation of the passage renders it perfectly clear,
that not only the objects, but also the signification of the verbs
are different ; religious corruption and seduction of the people is
something else than the' destruction of the city and sanctuary.
But least of all, should a parallel be instituted in the chronolo
gical intimations. There are three data given in our book in
reference to the period of Antiochus, the 2300 days, viii. 1 4 ;
secondly, the 1290 days ; and thirdly, the 1335, xii. 11, 12 ; for
the three times and a half, vii. 25, refer to the time of antichrist,
as also those mentioned in xii. 7, which point back purposely to
the former ; and this is evident from the exposition which vii.
25 gives of the words unp-rjjri* y23 mbi3 saying: "the
saints shall be given into the hands of antichrist, and he shall

162 CHAP. IX. 27, AND VIII. 13.
wear out the saints of the Most High." The more manifest it is
that the chronological intimations given concerning Antiochus,
are accurate even to a day, the less are we entitled to bulk things,
and to say, that the 1290, or also the 1335 days, correspond
generally (and roughly) to the half week (ix. 27), and the 2300
days to the whole. The angel's calculation shows that the one
statement is as erroneous as the other ; the last number espe
cially is wrong, by hundreds of days. And should this be a
matter of indifference to a prophet, who lays such prominent
stress on the difference of forty-five days ? But if the 2300 days
are reduced to 1150, as Hitzig and others do, as Bengel has
done (in his ordo temporum, 372, etc.), then there is not only an
analogy for the " one week," in the chronological statements
concerning Antiochus, but also instead of half a week, we have
a third, and still less coincident number of days.
We cannot thus see any parallelism between the ninth chapter
and the eighth, tenth, eleventh, and twelfth, but we do not
deny that such an analogy exists in other respects. . The most
striking instance is the expressions in ver. 27, DWpU? *)J3
oniiun which, on the one hand, refers us back to viii. 13, and
on the other and more distinctly, to xi. 31, where the expression
DnTtftt yipu>n is an allusion to it, and to xii. 11, and its essen
tially identical expression of D72T1" yipiz?. But this, as we shall
soon see, is not the only point in which these three visions meet.
How are we to account for this startling fact, considering the
unique character of the ninth chapter ? By a simple considera
tion of the object of our book, and especially of the second part.
In the seventh chapter, the coming of the Messianic kingdom is
foretold to comfort the church of God, in the prospect of, and
during the times of distress that shall precede that advent ; and,
in like manner, the Messianic salvation in the more immediate
future, and connected with it the judgment on those who
violated the covenant, is to be revealed to the faithful, to be a
comfort and light to them in the approaching dark days of
temptation. The ninth chapter has likewise a purpose in refer-

ANTIOCHUS AND MESSIAH. 163
ence to the times of Antiochus. We know from our previous
remarks, that this king stands in the same relation to the first
advent of Christ as antichrist to His second coming, and we
have, therefore, called him the Old Testament antichrist. We
have likewise shown, how and why, in the first part of Daniel, the
fury of the antichrist and the appearance of Christ in glory, are
viewed and united in the vision ; and that this simultaneous
viewing of both was impossible in the second part, where the
impiety of Antiochus is placed in opposition to the coming of
Christ in the flesh. But, if the relation and opposition of Antio
chus to the Messiah was to be clearly pointed out, it could only
be effected by unmistakeable allusions and references occurring
in the prophecies concerning the one, to those which, predict the
coming of the other, just in the same manner as we point out the
relation in which the two kings stand by the terms Christ and
antichrist, furnished by the New Testament. By the striking
parallelism in expression and thought which subsists between the
two prophecies, the consoling expectations of the time of
Messiah, were intended to be suggested to the believer, who
looked forward in faith to the time of antichrist (Antiochus),
and since the ninth chapter could not be united in one vision
with the eighth or eleventh, the suggestion of looking from one
revelation to the other, was to be afforded. The parallels are
thus accounted for by this antithetical relation between the two
prophecies. They centre in the twenty-seventh verse, which
treats of the Messianic week ; direct reference to this verse is
made in the description of the hostile attacks of Antiochus on
the Theocracy mentioned xi. 30-35 (comp. also viii. 10-15), and
it is to this relation that all the similarity between the visions of
the second part may be reduced.
We can observe the antithetic relations between the name of
Christ and antichrist, in the very first words of ix. 27 compared
with xi. 30, 32. The import of the Messianic weeks, is the
confirmation of the covenant to many, a<aib rp-in "Plan.
Here, as in the times of Antiochus, the rpii 'aty and ij^unn

164 END OF SACRIFICES.
nm prevail; they stand in favour with the king, and are the
leading persons in Israel, while the faithful and prudent,1 the
true Israelites, who are also called here D'ain (ver. 33, comp.
xii. 10), have to suffer severely, partly from the persecution
of enemies, partly from the unfaithfulness of false friends
(ver. 33-35). But it is for these very " faithful and prudent"
that the book is written, in order that the time of suffering
may be blessed to them as a time of sanctification and purifi
cation (xii. 10; xi. 35). In the very midst of the abomina
tions committed against the covenant of God, the comforting
prophecy of the Messianic times, in which the covenant shall be
confirmed to many, was to strengthen their faith ; now the
covenant of God is grievously and ignominiously trampled upon,
then it will be confirmed and raised to greater stability and
glory than ever.
The expression, " and in the midst of the week he shall cause
the sacrifice and the oblation to cease," which occurs in the
second clause of ver. 27, and which forms the remarkable
description of the Messiah's sacrificial death, and of the end of
the Old Economy, can only be properly understood when we
recognise the allusion it contains to the time of Antiochus, an
allusion which decidedly influences the choice of expressions.
Here it is easily seen that the expressions used concerning
Antiochus, "pnnn DiTH viii. 11, and concerning his hosts and
followers, -pnnrr i-PDn xi. 31 (while it is said of the Messianic
week nmm nnt rPiUP), do not designate, as is maintained by
our opponents, the same thing. For the temporary abolition of
the holy sacrifice is something quite different from the total
abolition of sacrifices and oblations, and, consequently of sacri
fices in general. "PDrr is not the same as rplizm, nor is
"Pnnn the same as rrrrittl rrit. But a certain resemblance
between the times of Christ and antichrist was to be pointed
1 Roos (266) : " To be wise means to believe ; what is to be wise but to have
the mind of Christ, to have the same mind dwelling in us which was also in
Christ Jesus ? What is opposed to this — is unwisdom." Comp. Hebr. 11, 26.

THE APOSTATE ISRAELITES. 165
out here, that so a gleam of comfort might illuminate the dark
afflictions of the children of God. They were to be taught to
look forward to the time when the covenant of God, and with it
sacrifice and worship, were trodden down, to that time when
salvation would come, and the covenant be confirmed, and yet the
sacrifices of the old dispensation be abolished. It was to calm
and support them in that period of heavy trials that the temple
service, which was then taken away from them, was not absolutely
necessary, that they could be the true congregation of God, even
though they did not offer sacrifices to Him, since in the time of
the Messiah, which was approaching, sacrifices were to cease alto
gether. This is quite the same consolation, which, as we have
shown above, Jeremiah and Ezekiel gave, under similar circum
stances, to God's faithful people. For, when the destruction of
Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar was impending, and in connec
tion with it the interruption of the service of God, these prophets
were sent to prophesy of the New Covenant, which should be
another covenant than that of their fathers, in which the ark
would be remembered no more, and God's laws be written on
their hearts (Jer. iii. 16 ; xxxi. 31 ; Ezek. xi. 19).
The most distinct allusion to 0»U»2 D'Slpltf spa ix. 27, is,
in the words D72T27I2 yipltfn xi. 31, xii. 11. In the former of
these last mentioned passages it is wrong to take the apostate
Israelites as the subject of the sentence, as Hengstenberg (Chris
tology, p. 498) does in a forced manner, by referring the iann
to rp-ii, in order to be able to translate : mighty ones arise out
of the people of the covenant: but the words iini?i lann D^int
are to be taken, as almost all commentators so take them, as re
ferring to the hosts of Antiochus. On the other hand, we cannot
affirm that the apostate Israelites, are not part of the subject to
be supplied to the following words lanai ibbm I'PDm, for the
verse immediately preceding (ver. 30), concludes with a mention
of the confederation which the king would form with those who
had left the holy covenant (1 Mace. i. 12, etc.), and it naturally
follows that the latter joined the king's followers in desecrating

166 THE THREEFOLD COMFORT.
the temple, in abolishing the service, and in introducing the
abominations of idolatry. And thus, as partakers of these
abominations, they are called in ver. 32, no longer »aty but
rp-ia 'iPtmn as it is emphatically said of them, that they are
now turned complete heathens (tparp).1 And this is the great
est pain for the faithful and stedfast adherents to the covenant,
that members of their own nation take part in the abomination
of desolations perpetrated by the heathens, and are, moreover,
in consequence, invested with honour and dignity. The first
problem of the Old Covenant, the success of the godless and the
affliction of the godly, appears here in its climax. While we
must succumb, shall the abominations of the impious and apostate
remain unpunished? This was the question which the portion
of the people that remained faithful had to address to their God.
And, besides, to this question the words in chap. ix. 27, are an
answer. The abominations (a^aipiy) must first reach their
highest climax (*p3), the measure of iniquity must first be full,
then about the same time that confirmation of the covenant, and
strengthening will be brought to the faithful by the Messiah,
judgment also will descend on the ungodly for their iniquity.
This judgment on transgressors is also elsewhere predicted, as
connected with the Messianic times (e.g. Mal. iii. 14-21; Matt.
iii. 12), and especially in the prophet Malachi the connection of
ideas is the same as has been here developed.
A threefold comfort was needed by God's people in the
time of Antiochus : 1st, Concerning the covenant of God.
Is it destroyed for ever ? 2d, Concerning themselves. Are we
the true church of God, though we cannot serve Him in His
temple, and offer sacrifices unto Him ? 3d, Concerning the
apostates. Are they permitted to commit the abominations with
impunity ? This threefold comfort for the time of antichrist is
given (ix. 27), by directing the people to the time of Messiah,
and the wise took heed to it (xii. 10). And we may now ask
' Roos (225) : "If you compare ver. 32 with ver. 30, you will see how both
Antiochus and the apostate Jews advanced in wickedness."

RESULT. 167
the reader, is it not taking a merely superficial view, if, from the
resemblances existing between our chapter and the eleventh and
eighth, the inference be drawn, that our prophecy refers to
Antiochus Epiphanes ?
Here we conclude our criticism of the opponents' views, and
also our investigation of the ninth chapter of Daniel. We trust
that the latter paragraphs have been successful in dissipating
any remaining doubts or difficulties of the reader, in connection
with the orthodox view held by the church in all ages, and
adopted by us. For to the unprejudiced eye, thus much must be
clear from our remarks, that all the other expositions given of
the angelic message referring it to Antiochus Epiphanes, are
wholly untenable, and that the modern view of Dan. ix. is with
out foundation, and must be given up. And thus our chapter
proves a shield for the defence of our book and its genuineness.
We hope we shall be able to prove the same of the second and
seventh chapters.

THIRD PAET.

THE BEASTS AND MAN.

CHAPTER I.
THE FOUR BEASTS AND THE SON OF MAN IN DANIEL.
a. The Present state of the Question
The exegetical question which divides critics concerning the
universal monarchies of the second and seventh chapters, is
essentially the same as that concerning the seventy prophetic
weeks. Following the precedent of some older commentators,
especially of Ephraem Syrus and Grotius, modern critics assert
that these prophecies extend only to Antiochus Epiphanes,
whilst we have already confessed our adherence to the view of
the Church, according to which the fourth monarchy is the
Roman empire, and of which Luther could say, that all the
world was unanimous in this opinion and interpretation.1 We
have spoken at length in our First Part of the second, and espe
cially of the seventh chapter, and need not, therefore, enter here
into a minute development of their contents. We refer the
reader to that chapter for a general view of the subject, and for
the exposition of the details to Havernick 's Commentary, and
1 Comp. Wieseler, die 70 Wochen, 146, who considers also the oldest history of
the exegesis of our subject. Josephus also refers the fourth kingdom to the
Roman.

BERTHOLDT, VON LENGERKE, HITZIG. 169
especially to Hofmann's Exposition,1 with the essential points of
which we most cordially sympathize. H. L. Beichel, in his short
essay " On the Four World-Kingdoms of the Prophet Daniel,"2
gives correct general views, specially for the criticism of modern
interpretations. We shall here consider, first, the views of our
opponents, and after having refuted them, shall give such
positive hints for the clearer understanding of the prophecy, as
shall prepare our way for the consideration of the Beasts of the
Revelations, the first of which is a combination of the four seen
by the prophet. Even on this point our opponents are not
united, but may be classified under three heads, represented by
the Commentaries of Bertholdt, von Lengerke, and Hitzig, the
most important commentaries of those that adopt the modern
view. If we exclude the Roman monarchy, there remain,
strictly speaking, only three, the Babylonian, Medo-Persian,
and Greek ; and the object of our opponents is to convert these
three into four, to do which they have recourse to various
means. Bertholdt refers the first monarchy to Babylon, the
second to Medo-Persia, the third to the kingdom of Alexander,
the fourth to that of his successors. His expedient is thus to ana
lyse the third into two separate kingdoms. Lengerke leaves the
third as it is, and divides the second. He understands by the
first kingdom the Babylonian, by the second the Median, by the
third the Persian, and by the fourth the kingdom of Alexander
and his successors. As if to exhaust all possibilities, Hitzig
takes the only mode which is thus left, and understands the first
kingdom to be that of Nebuchadnezzar ; the second that of his
successor, Baltasar (Belshazzar) ; the third the Medo-Persian ;
and the fourth that of Alexander and his successors. However,
he maintains this only of the second chapter, and gives a diffe
rent interpretation of the seventh. Because Daniel received
this vision after the death of Nebuchadnezzar, and under the
government of Belshazzar, Hitzig concludes, that the first king-
1 Weiss, u. Erf., p. 278-291.
2 Studien und Kritiken, 1848, iv., p. 943-962.

170 HITZIG.
dom stands for that of Belshazzar, the second for the Median,
the third for the Persian, the fourth for that of Alexander and
his successors. John preceded Hitzig in giving different exposi
tions to the two chapters, but found no follower. Such a sepa
ration of the two revelations is so violent, and so opposed to the
impression of every unprejudiced reader, that we do not think
it necessary to detain our readers with a refutation of Hitzig's
view. He developed his view of chap. ii. as early as 1832, in
the Heidelberger Jahrbuch, and it was adopted by Redepenning ;"
but it is sufficiently answered by the simple observation of
Lengerke, which Hitzig has not refuted (p. 33), that in the
second, seventh, and eighth chapters of Daniel, king and king
dom are represented as one, in such a manner, that nowhere do
we find more than one king of the same kingdom mentioned ;
but wherever prominence is given to a king (as in ii. 37, 38,
to Nebuchadnezzar, and in viii. 5, to Alexander), he appears,
without exception, as the representative, the personification of
the whole world-kingdom. In the second chapter Hitzig regards
as one the Medo-Persian monarchy ; in the seventh he sepa
rates the Median from the Persian, thus evincing his exegetical
arbitrariness — an arbitrariness based on his disbelief that the
sacred book has a reasonable and consistent plan (comp. p. 98),
and which thinks no inconsistency and improbability of inter
pretation too great if it but serve the result, so firmly precon
ceived, that the prophecy extends only to Antiochus Epiphanes.
With this exception, the variations of the exegesis oi Hitzig and
von Lengerke have too little foundation and importance to be
treated of separately ; they agree against Bertholdt in the chief
point, that Alexander and his successors are to be taken toge
ther as forming the fourth monarchy. And for this reason, the
view of the last mentioned scholar may be regarded as anti
quated, since it is unanimously given up by the more recent
representatives of the modern general view, among whom we
1 Stud. u. Krit., 1833, S. 863.

THE DOMINANT VIEW. 171
reckon also Ewald.1 It is universally felt, that it is untextual
and out of proportion to refer the fourth monarchy, the most
terrible of all, which shall devour the whole earth, and shall
tread it down and break it in pieces (vii. 23), to the kingdom
of the Diadochoi, comparatively so weak and insignificant.
Hengstenberg has given a full refutation of Berthold's view in
his Beitrage, p. 203, etc. Thus the dominant view of our
opponents is the Lengerke, Ewald, and Hitzig view, which is
adopted also by De Wette (p. 381), Lucke (p. 45), and others,
and according to which the first kingdom is that of Babylon,
the second the Median, the third the Persian, and the fourth
that of Alexander and his successors. It is this view which we
shall consider in the subsequent pages.
Our refutation of this view is difficult, from the circumstance,
that owing to reasons explained above, the text of both chapters
passes rapidly over the second and third monarchies, which are
of chief importance here (ii. 32, 39 ; vii. 5, 6, 17) ; while, on
the other hand, we enjoy a great advantage, in the fulness with
which the second part of Daniel treats of these very monarchies
(chap. viii. x. xi. xii). This furnishes us with a ground above
all doubt on which the subject must be discussed. We begin,
therefore, with a general comparison of the visions referring to
the world-power, as contained in the first and second parts of
Daniel. 1 With a few unimportant modifications, loc. cit. 558. EwalcFs hypothesis
furnishes again, unintentionally, an argument in favour of truth. He supposes
the author of Daniel to understand by the four kingdoms, those of Chaldea,
Media, Persia, and Greece; but the Median and Persian form one, as the
author himself indicates, by combining them in chap, viii., under the symbol of
a he-goat with two horns ; hence Ewald infers, that the author made use of a
book in which the four kingdoms stood for Assyria, Chaldea, Medo-Persia,
and Greece. In this there lies virtually the admission, that the text contains
a fourth monarchy, in addition to the three last mentioned. But in order not to
let the prophecy extend beyond Antiochus, any expedient, however arbitrary,
is adopted, and (against 2, 37, 38) the fourth monarchy is prefixed, instead of
being added to the third.

172 THE CONCLUSIONS OF THE VISIONS.

II. CRITICISM OF THE MODERN VIEW.
1. A General Comparison of the Visions of the First and Second
Parts.
The modern view of Daniel does not recognise the difference
which we have pointed out between the first and second part of
the book — between prophecies which refer to the whole, or such
as concern the more immediate future. According to this
criticism, the second and seventh chapters, as well as the
eighth and eleventh, refer only to Antiochus Epiphanes ; they
are all Vaticinia post eventum, and repetitions of the same events
under different forms. We have shown, in the beginning, that
insipid monotony is thus found in the book. And let it not be
objected, that we cannot deny that the seventh chapter is a
repetition of the second, and the eleventh of the eighth ; for
there is not only a great difference between saying the same'
thing twice, and four or five times, but, as we have seen, the
seventh chapter is not merely a repetition of the second, and
the eleventh of the eighth, but these chapters contain other
aspects and further developments of the same subjects, which is
not the case, for instance, in the eighth chapter, viewed in its
relation to the seventh. We now turn our attention to the
essential difference between the first and second part, and will
thence show the incompatibility of the view of our opponents
with the text of the first part.
I. To begin with the clearest and most evident point, the
conclusion of the visions. Both in the second and seventh
chapters, the Messianic kingdom appears after the four universal
monarchies, and as a judgment upon them ; in the one under
the figure of a stone, which breaks in pieces the metal image ;
in the other under the figure of the Son of Man, to whom is
given the government of the world. We do not meet with this

THE CONCLUSIONS OF THE VISIONS. 173
in the eighth, eleventh, and twelfth chapters. The former con
cludes simply with the death of Antiochus (viii. 25) ; and this
difference between this vision and the two former must surely
have struck the prophet as remarkable. Again, after the judg
ment passed on the enemy of God's kingdom, described in
chap, vii., the Messiah appears to take for ever the government
of the world into his hands ; after the death of the enemy,
described in chap, viii., and in whom we all recognize Antio
chus, the Messiah does not appear. How then is it possible
that the two enemies can be identical ?
But our opponents appeal to xii. 2, 3 ; there, they say, it is
distinctly prophesied, that the resurrection, and consequently the
beginning of the Messianic kingdom will commence after the
death of Antiochus, and after the time of distress, which is
brought upon Israel by this king (xi. 45 ; xii. 1). But this
very feature is characteristic. This chapter speaks only of the
resurrection ; that is, of the event which has reference to the
single individual, while the second and seventh chapters speak
of the overthrow of the kingdoms of the world by the kingdom
of the Messiah. In those chapters, something referring to indi
viduals, is mentioned with great emphasis ; an individual import
ance, which is marked by the expression D^l concerning the
resurrection, xii. 2. But here, an event of universal character is
prophesied, and in both chapters, ii. and vii., in a similar manner,
whije the resurrection is spoken of in chapter xii. but not in
chapter viii. If, as we certainly know, but only from the New
Testament, both events, the revelation of the Messianic kingdom
and the resurrection, are contemporary, it is very clear and
manifest why the -first event is mentioned in the second and
seventh chapters, with a quite different degree of importance
from that attached to the second event in the twelfth chapter.
But this will become still more evident, if we take a closer
view of the relation in which the announcement of the resurrec
tion stands to the prophecy of the eleventh chapter, which refers
to the whole, and precedes the former ; and if we compare it

174 WHY THE RESURRECTION IS MENTIONED.
witli the relation which, in the second and seventh chapters, is
shown to subsist between the dawn of the Messianic kingdom
and the development preparing and preceding it. The tpVawn
xii. 3 allude to the a^Vaun xi. 33, 35; the D^Pin 'pnxn
to the tP3lb 13^ xi. 33. This explains to us why the resur
rection is mentioned at all, namely, for the purpose of distinguish
ing between the resurrection unto eternal life, and unto eternal
confusion and shame. It is not for the purpose of intimating a
progress in the development of history, but to point out the
eternal retribution which was awaiting the Israelites, according
to their conduct during the great time of temptation under
Antiochus ; those who break the covenant are eternally lost ;
those who remain faithful, and especially those who strengthen
their brethren, and show unto them the path of life, are saved
and raised to eternal glory. We have here a parallel to the
epistles to the seven churches, in the revelations of John, which
contain promises for those who overcome, threats for those who
fall away. To show the causal connection between the behaviour
of the individuals during the time of probation and their eternal
state — this is the sole purpose for which the resurrection is intro
duced ; as to the chronological relation between the time of dis
tress and the resurrection, not the slightest intimation is given.1
It is worthy of remark, in relation to this point, that the phrase,
" at that time," occurs twice in xii. 1, while no time is fixed in
ver. 2 and 3. The angel has hitherto prophesied the develop
ment of history, without adding any remark or exhortation ; he
thus concludes his predictions, by adding the strongest imagin
able incitement to faithful perseverance. And this incitement
must necessarily have the stronger effect, as the resurrection,
though traces of a knowledge of this fact may be found in earlier

1 Hence, properly speaking, there is no necessity to refer here{ as Hengsten
berg (Beit. 1. 497), and Hofmann (Weiss, u. Erfiill, 1, 314), do to prophetic per
spective ; or to refer the time mentioned, xii. 1, to the whole period up to the
Parousia, as is done by Havernick and Ebrard (Revel, p. 85). — comp. the an-_
alogy of Matt, xxvii. 21-29.

RESULT. 175
prophets (Isaiah xxvi. 19, 21 ; Ezek. xxxvii.), had never been
brought forward so distinctly and powerfully as here, and espe
cially had never been shown in its connection with retribution.
We may see what fruits this revelation produced in the case of
the Maccabean mother and her sons, who suffered themselves to
be killed, while they confessed their faith in the resurrection, in
words similar to those of our verses (2 Mace. vii. 9, 14, 23).
Let us turn now to the second and seventh chapters ; the object
here is to prophesy the course of history' objectively. After the
fourth kingdom, the fifth or Messianic kingdom is mentioned, as
succeeding and putting an end to the fourth, and the fourth suc
ceeded and put an end to the third, etc. One has simply to put
the question : Does the resurrection in xii. 2, 3, put an end to
Antiochus Epiphanes in the same way, as the appearing of the
Stone or Son of Man, puts an end to the kingdom of the world ?
And one will see clearly the immense difference between the re
velations of the first and second parts. Hence, it is clear, that
the mention of the resurrection, xii. 2, 3, is something quite
different from the coming of the Messianic kingdom in the second
and seventh chapters, and its prophecy serves a different pur
pose ; the two prophecies cannot, and must not, be placed in any
sense whatever, in the same category. The prophecy of the
eleventh and twelfth chapters is therefore of the same nature as
that of the eighth.
And we are thus led to the important result : the prophecies
of the second part (those under consideration), conclude with the
death of Antiochus ; those of the first part with the overthrow
of the power of the world by the kingdom of the Messiah.
Thus an important difference subsists between the two, at least
as regards the final point. The second part does not extend so
far into the future as the first. For, since the enemy described
in the seventh chapter is the last, after whose overthrow the
Messianic kingdom is established, it follows, necessarily, that
the enemy spoken of in chapters viii. and xi. preceded him.
The Greek monarchy, the culminating point of which is Antio-

176 THE STARTING-POINTS.
chus, must therefore precede the fourth and last, which was
revealed to Daniel in the vision of the seventh chapter.
n. But we must notice that not only regarding the conclud
ing part of the visions, but also as regards the starting point
and the powers of the world spoken of, there is a considerable
difference between the first and second part of our book. It is
certain that the second and seventh chapters both speak of four
kingdoms of the world, the eighth and eleventh only of two,
namely, the Medo-Persian and Greek (viii. 20, 21 ; xi. 2). It
is conceded, on all sides, that the first part still includes likewise
the Babylonian empire, according to ii. 37, 38.
Now, holding the views of our opponents, it cannot be under
stood why the author, whom they suppose to have lived in the
time of the Maccabees, took so much trouble with the king
doms of the world, which had perished long before. For if he
intended to encourage and strengthen his suffering and struggling
compatriots,1 he certainly displayed in his book a very useless
amount of historical erudition. This has especial force when we
consider the eleventh chapter, which, on the supposition of its
being a vaticinium post eventum, is in truth still more inexplica
ble, than when we view it as it stands, and in the character it
professes. The uninspired author could scarcely have chosen a
form less adapted to his purpose, which was to kindle the
enthusiasm of his nation for the decisive moment, than by
developing in such a lengthy and historical manner, events for
the understanding of which those who lived after them, required
to gather varied information by laborious and tedious research.
If such was his purpose, would he not rather have chosen the
impassioned language of earlier prophets, which, as is evident
from the prayer of the ninth chapter, was equally at his com
mand? How was it possible that, in such a period, he could
expect his countrymen to believe in a new and unprecedented
1 De Wette, Einl. in's A. T., p. 390.

THE MODERN VIEW IMPOSSIBLE. 177
species of prophecy? At such a time, the object was to strike
time-hallowed patriotic chords ! What hope could he entertain
of inspiriting the people of God by such human inventions of a
laboriously framed poem ? Truly, if the Israelites had to learn
and to study this book for the first time in the prospect of per
secution, if it had not been that long before they had appro
priated its words as their spiritual nourishment, the book would
have profited them nothing.
This whole view, like the corresponding hypotheses of modern
New Testament criticism, bears distinctly the stamp of the
region whence it originated. It is perfectly devoid of all natural
vigour, healthiness, and soundness of historical vision. The
critic, sitting in his study, imagines the author, who lived 'in a
time of mighty earnest conflicts, during which it was treason not
to take part in a struggle so holy, to have been a man sitting in
a study like himself. Imagine a Jewish patriot, as our oppo
nents generally style the author, sitting at his desk to write
antique prophecies, instead of taking up his sword or inspiriting
his people by the power of his words ; imagine him seeking help
in his own artistic productions instead of the living God.
When shall we cease transferring the languor and sickness of our
age, the age of the Epigonoi, to the early grand times of hero
ism ? Such views are only possible as long as they are viewed
in their negative polemical aspect, but, try to realise them, and
they dissolve into nothing. It cannot even be imagined at what
period, according to this theory, the author wrote the book. If
he wrote before the death of Antiochus, how is it that he was so
intimately acquainted with all the circumstances preceding that
event, that he predicted it to the very day ? If he wrote after
his death, how could he possibly connect with this event
his Messianic dreams ?
But in either case, the book, with its Messianic prophecies,
would have been rejected soon after its appearance, on account of
the evident falseness of its predictions. How, then, can it be
accounted for, that it attained canonical dignity !

178 THE MODERN VIEW IMPOSSIBLE.
And eVen granted, for argument's, sake, that the author was
a mere writer and composer — how clumsy was his contrivance !
If it was his object to comfort his copatriots in their heavy
affliction, by showing them, that the worldly powers which op
pressed God's people, were always punished and finally over
thrown, he would naturally lay stress and emphasis on their fall,
to render thereby the destruction of Antiochus probable. But
he by no means does this. On the contrary, critics wonder
(comp. Hitzig, p. 16) that, according to the representations given
in the second and seventh chapters, it seems that the earlier
kingdoms are not destroyed till the last is overthrown (ii. 34,
35; vii. 11, 12). Thus the author would pass over the very
central point, which it was of chief importance to mention.
Instead of inferring the overthrow of Antiochus from that of
the former kingdoms, it is the reverse. From Antiochus' over
throw, the inference is to be drawn concerning the preceding
powers ; and if so, why, according to our opponent's view, were
the former kingdoms mentioned at all ; what purpose do they
serve ?
They say, moreover, that everything refers to Antiochus
Epiphanes. But why has the author not given the least indi
cation of this in the first six chapters ? why has he not given
the least hint of Antiochus, especially in the second chapter,
which, as is admitted by all commentators, contains the outlines
of all the visions occurring in the book ? The image of the
monarchies ends in ten toes ; but we can discover no vestige of
a last king, who would correspond here to the little horn arising
from between the ten horns in chapter vii. How signally the
author would have defeated his object, by placing at the head of
the entire series of visions, just that one in which was altogether
wanting — the chief point for which the book was composed.
Such a procedure would certainly have led the reader astray,
and diverted his attention from the main object. Surely the
zealous patriot has given himself superfluous trouble, by occu
pying himself, in a time full of extreme danger to his fatherland,

THE MODERN VIEW IMPOSSIBLE. , 179
with so many foreign kingdoms, that had perished long before ;
and it is quite unpardonable in him to put in the most promi
nent place, which is meant to serve as the introduction and
foundation of the whole, such superfluous, unnecessary, and
adventitious matter alone, and completely to forget the object of
his writing. According to the views of our opponents, it seems
that even in ancient times the scholar supplanted the Patriot
and Man ; and erudition took the place, not only of the heart,
but even of common sense !
We see that the view of our opponents is incompatible, in the
most essential points, with the text itself; it is not capable of
entering into the manifold riches and depth, especially of the
first part of the sacred prophecy. The fulness of Scripture
cannot be bounded and circumscribed by so narrow and meagre
a scheme. And this will appear yet more evident, when we
consider the individual features of the monarchies. If the
modern view of our book and its object is not capable of
accounting for the full and lengthy mention made of the world-
kingdoms in general, it is still less able to account for the
manner in which the individual kingdoms are treated.
In the first, pla/if.frOJrry^nTTfirits cannot explain, why the first
and second parts are at all diftererit^^Ti'^^W^tEPpsed writer,
from his Maccabean stand-point, looks back to different epo^r^
in the second and seventh chapters to the Babylonian kingdom,
in the eighth only as far as the Medo-Persian, in the seventh no
further than the Persian. They cannot explain why, in the first
mentioned two chapters, there are four, in both the others but
two monarchies enumerated ; and in connection with this, as we
shall show more at length subsequently, they cannot give a
satisfactory reason why the eighth chapter speaks of the Medo-
Persian kingdoms as one ; while, in the second and seventh
chapters, according to their view, it is analysed into two.
Taking the book as genuine, and as what it asserts itself to be,
we have a simple and natural answer to all these questions, in
the different times in which the revelations were vouchsafed, and

ISO WHY ASSYRIA AND EGYPT ARE NOT MENTIONED.'
in the different objects of the first and second parts. The reve
lation of the eighth chapter took place in the third year of
Belshazzar, a time in which the Babylonian empire was decay
ing so rapidly, that it neither required nor deserved a more
minute consideration. The revelations of the tenth, eleventh,
and twelfth chapters, were given to Daniel in the third year of
Cyrus, and thus neither the Babylonians, nor even the Medians,
needed to be mentioned ; consequently, the kingdoms here spoken
of, are Persia and Greece, x. 13, 20, xi. 2. We have already
dwelt largely on the different purpose, which the two parts of
the book were to serve, and the consequent difference in the
extent of field surveyed by the prophetic eye.
But even if we admit that the author might go back to ancient
kingdoms, in order to attain to a certain fulness and complete
ness in his enumeration of previous world-kingdoms, we must
find it strange, as is hinted by Ewald, that he did not mention
also the Assyrian, perhaps even the Egyptian, kingdom. A man
living in the days of the Maccabees, looking back on the previous
sufferings which Israel had to bear from the world-power, had
i:o particular reason for chosing to begin with the Babylonian
kingdom first, as little reason as to lep*ii'-ttPiBlLin t^f1 jotnrw.i^pt^^.
But who car ^ ^~^T in' tlTvery circumstance, that the
Babylonian kingdom is mentioned as the first— a new and im
portant proof that the date of our book is that of the Baby
lonian exile, and that on the supposition of the genuineness of
Daniel, a multitude of phenomena actually lying before us, and
'which must remain unaccounted for and unintelligible to modern
criticism, are seen to have a rational basis. In the Apocalypse
of St John, which contains indeed a retrospect from a later
stand-point, we will find Egypt and Assyria also sketched, though
dimly, in the back ground. We have seen in our first chapter,
that the reason why Daniel begins with the Babylonian king
dom, was not merely his external, personal, and historical
position, but an inner reason, related to the whole development
of the history of revelation. For it was from the beginning of

THE BOOK PROPHETIC AND CANONICAL. 181
the Babylonian exile that the existence of an independent
Theocracy on earth ceased, and is not restored even to this
hour ; the empire of the world-powers still endures.
Our opponents admit, that the author was aiming at a certain
completeness in the enumeration of the monarchies of the world
contained in the second and seventh chapters ; but it is impos
sible for them to seize the real meaning, the deep significance,
and the grand circle of the survey of the text. And, at this
juncture, the whole material importance which attaches to our
difference from the view adopted by modern criticism, comes to
light. According to the latter, the book of Daniel furnishes us
merely with a fragment of political history from Nebuchadnezzar
to Antiochus Epiphanes ; according to our view, that is, accord
ing to what the. book says of itself, it intends to represent some
thing infinitely deeper and more sublime, namely, the relation of
the two fundamental powers of universal history, the kingdom of
God and the kingdom of the world, from the time when the
kingdom of God ceases to exist as a separate state, till the time
when it shall be re-established as such in glory. And thus our
book becomes truly a prophetic, and hence a canonical book,
since it places all detail and individual history in the light of the
-whole development of TnT divinT*piSh*fl#*§alvation, and the
government of the world, and reaches even unto the ermo<Ti4hiie.1
1 Historiae philosophiam vere divinam extremis lineamentis liber Danielis
depingit, is one of the Theses advanced by Bruno Bauer, in his Dissertation,
Berlin, 1804. Comp. Lucke, p. 39. The antithesis we speak of is strikingly
described by Richard Amner (Essays on the Prophecies of Daniel, translated
from the English, Halle, 1779, p. 5) : — " According to the great Isaac Newton
and others, the prophecies of Daniel are a sacred calendar, and the great
almanac of prophecy ; or, in other words, a prophetic chronology, beginning
with the succession of the four great monarchies, from the commencement of
the Jewish captivity till the mystery of God shall be fulfilled ; while, on the
other hand, Grotius and his followers are not able to discover in them anything
else except bygone persecutions of the Jews." Amner himself, however, agrees
with the latter. He explains, page 66,-the passage xii. 2, 3, to refer to the
Jews coming out from the subterranean caves and hiding-places, where they
had been concealed during persecutions ; and by the fifth kingdom, which now

182 DIFFERENCE BEWTEEN FIRST AND SECOND PART.
If it extend only to Antiochus, it would be without the stamp
of that divine illumination, which gives universality to the
horizon of view, and an insight into the fundamental essence of
things. It would, consequently, be destitute of canonical dignity
and authority.
Nor can it be said, that the Messianic passages of the second
and seventh chapters are not affected by the modern view. This
makes things only worse ; for, on this supposition, these Mes
sianic prophecies were not fulfilled, and thus showed themselves
to be vain dreams. Neither can it avail our opponents to appeal
to the former prophets, who likewise expected the Messianic
kingdom, for instance, after the fall of Babylon, or, as our
author, after the fall of Antiochus ; for the prophetic perspective
view of a seer, inspired by God himself, is entirely different
from the historical, chronological assertion of a " Jewish Patriot,"
of a philosophising author.
We can here see the importance of the completeness of the
enumeration of the universal monarchies, and the grounds of
difference between the first and second parts, viz. that in the one
there are always four, in the other always two kingdoms men
tioned. Daniel had received disclosures in the first part of his
prophecy concernjjig-^^gyTse 0f ]*nV"powers of the world in
genejajT; m the second part he is to receive revelations concern
ing the development of this power from his time to that of
Antiochus, and therefore the number of the kingdoms is of no
importance, and is therefore not mentioned anywhere with
emphasis, as, in general, the number two has no peculiar sig
nification in Holy Scripture. The view here is a purely histo
rical one, and moreover, refers to a special period of history.
The first part has for its object the whole period of the supre
macy of the powers of the world. It is necessary, therefore, to
every one refers to the times of the Messiah, he understands, as Grotius does,
the Roman, which having become Christian, was to last for ever, page 93. The
Son of Man, in contrast to the beasts, is, according to him, meant to symbolize
the Roman Republic, contrasted with the monarchies !

THE NUMBERS THREE AND FOUR, SEVEN AND TEN. 183
give not only a comparatively, but even an absolutely, complete
enumeration of these kingdoms, extending even to the end, to
the overthrow of the world-power. Hence the number is of
importance ; the number four which is brought forward promi
nently in both chapters (ji. 39, 40; vii. 7, 17, 19, 23).
We took occasion, previously, to speak of the significance of
the numbers seven and ten, and we saw that the former symbo
lizes the revelation of the divine, the latter the development of
the worldly. A similar relation subsists between the numbers
three and four. Four and ten are numbers of the world. Three
and seven numbers of God. As numbers' of the world, four
stands in the same relation to ten, that three stands in to seven
as numbers of God. " Three is the number of God, and sym
bolizes God in the unity and perfection of His Being ; four is
the number of the world, and symbolizes the world in the unity
and consummation of its development."1 Therefore the power
of the world is exhausted in the four kingdoms of the world.
The ground and reason of this signification of four lies, as may
be seen, from Daniel vii. 2, 3 (comp. viii. 8), in the four winds
and regions of the world, which represent the world exhaustively,
so to say, in all its directions and parts. That four and ten are
.¦rt^j^oniated^nunibers of the world, may be also seen from this,
that the third monarchy is afvid^airivlto four, the fourth into ten
kingdoms ; as soon as the occidental kl^gT6ms-c6me-l4Tr£.e.divid-
ed, the division is made by these two numbers. Moreover,~the^-
whole system and essence of the world is represented in the
fourth kingdom, which again resolves itself into ten kingdoms.
The four beasts mentioned in Daniel are likewise counterparts
and caricatures of the four that, occur in Ezekiel. The ynN
nvn of Ezek. i. 5, assume, with Dan. vii. 3, the Chaldean
heathenish form of ]vn »a-,M. Ezekiel's vision took place in
the fifth year of the captivity of King Jehoiacin (Ezek. i. 2),
consequently 593 B.C. Daniel saw his vision in the first year
1 Hofmann, quoted by Delitzsch, p. 412.

184 EZEKIEL AND DANIEL.
of Belshazzar (Dan. vii. 1) ; hence, at all events, after the death
of Nebuchadnezzar, which took place 563 B.C., and conse
quently more than thirty years after Ezekiel. It is quite possible
that Daniel had read and digested the vision of Ezekiel, as we
had previously occasion to remark, that Ezekiel knew of Daniel.
This gives us a beautiful glimpse into the communion of the
captive people and its prophets. The four beasts or cherubs of
Ezekiel represent the life of the world in its highest phase,
directed towards God, and thus becoming an organ of divine
revelation ; the four beasts of Daniel are the opposite of this,
its caricature. They represent the life of the world, alienated
from God, falling ever deeper and deeper, and becoming finally
the organ of the devil. The living creatures of Ezekiel are
composed of man, lion, bull, and eagle ; those of Daniel are the
lion with eagle's wings, the bear, the leopard, and a fourth beast
not named. The first of Daniel's beasts, the noblest of all, evi
dently alludes to those of Ezekiel ; the others are, in the nature
of the thing, of a less noble character than those of Ezekiel.
Thus, as we saw the substratum of the seventy prophetic
weeks of Daniel in Jeremiah, so we find, though not expressly,
yet scarcely less distinctly, a relation to Ezekiel, and in
both cases these relationships are indicated through siim^fi"""t
numbers. „-.„ *u^, Delieve it Uoes not the ,
To retoij-- i<6iniM the reader at once of the leopard of the
seventh chapter ?
Turning now in the eighth chapter from the he-goat to the
ram preceding it, we find it interpreted in .the twentieth verse,
to mean the Medo-Persian kingdom. What corresponds to it
in the seventh chapter ? According to our opponent's view, the
bear stands for the Median, and the leopard for the Persian,
kingdom. Accordingly, in chap, viii., the ram represents in one
shape, what is analyzed in chap. vii. into bear and leopard.
This does not seem probable from the context ; and, a priori, we
should ~be inclined to prefer an explanation which avoids such
a startling difference between two adjoining chapters, and does

CHAPS. VII. AND VIII. COMPARED. , 185
son of the seventh and eighth chapters will place this yet in a
still more striking light : —

II. THE SEVENTH AND EIGHTH CHAPTERS COMPARED ; THE
SECOND AND THIRD MONARCHIES.
Our opponents are fond of appealing to the resemblance
between the seventh and eighth chapters ; in both, they say,
the whole development of the heathenish world-power ends in
the hostile king, who is represented as a little horn growing,
from among the other horns ; it is evident, they infer, that the
little horn must signify the same thing in the one case as in
the other ; consequently, also, in the seventh chapter, reference
must be made to Antiochus Epiphanes. At first sight this
/ representation looks very plausible, but only then. But a closer
// examination shows, that the strongest proofs against the modern
/ view, and in fayour of ours, are furnished by a comparison of
these two chapters. In the following remarks, we shall endea
vour to show, first negatively, the inferences deducible from such
a comparison against the modern interpretation of the four
beasts, and then positively, those in favour of the explanation
given at all times by the Church.
Persian's, as of one whole (viii. 20, v. *0,
kingdom, and not a Median, which succeeds the £SaE®sent the
(v. 28). The first king of this kingdom is Darius the Median
(vi. 1, ix. 1, xi. 1); the second is Kores, or Cyrus the Persian
(vi. 28). But because from Cyrus onwards, the rulers on the
Medo-Persian throne were Persians only, it is naturally spoken
of subsequently as the Persian kingdom (x. 1, 13, 20, xi. 2).
Daniel not only speaks nowhere of a separate Median king
dom, but even under the reign of Darius, the kingdom is desig
nated as that of the Medes and Persians (vi. 8, 12, 15). This
is the state of things as shown by exegesis ; and it is clear to
1 Comp. Hengstenberg, Beitrage, p. 199-201.

186 CHAPS. VII. AND VIII. COMPARED.
chap. viii. it is not succeeded by anything. But we turn now, to
look at what precedes the little horn, and first the other horns,
and then the beasts, out of which the little horn springs up.
In the seventh chapter, we find ten horns, from between
which the little horn arises ; and in the eighth verse four, and
the little horn arises from one of them. Thus, not only the
number of the preceding horns is different, but also the relation
in which the little horn stands to them ; in the seventh chapter
an independent eleventh horn, in the eighth not an independent
fifth, but only a new horn, which, with its branches, arises out
of one of the four existing, and thus belongs and is annexed to
it. We merely point out this striking circumstance here, leav
ing the interpretation of the horn to a subsequent paragraph, in
which we shall treat of the subject at length.
If possible, still more striking and startling is the contrast
between the beasts of the seventh and eighth chapters, which,
according to the modern view, must be proved identical. Can
the light fleet he-goat, who flies over the whole face of the
earth, without touching the ground, be identical with the terrible
fourth form, which devours and breaks in pieces the whole earth,
and for whose terrible and exceeding dreadful appearance, the
prophet cannot find a corresponding beast (vii. 7, 19, 23)? Let.
him who is determined and.js-.jThk, Fjeli'eve it. Jtoes not toe ,
he-goat ratbe^^Tf^f the reader at once of the leopard of the
seventh chapter ?
Turning now in the eighth chapter from the he-goat to the
ram preceding it, we find it interpreted in Jhe twentieth verse,
to mean the Medo-Persian kingdom. What corresponds to it
in the seventh chapter ? According to our opponent's view, the
bear stands for the Median, and the leopard for the Persian,
kingdom. Accordingly, in chap, viii., the ram represents in one
shape, what is analyzed in chap. vii. into bear and leopard.
This does not seem probable from the context ; and, a prion, we
should T)e inclined to prefer an explanation which avoids such
a startling difference between two adjoining chapters, and does

A MEDIAN UNIVERSAL MONARCHY — AN INVENTION. 187
not require us to separate in the one what is joined in the other.
We naturally expect and presuppose, that the same harmony
shall subsist between chapters vii. and viii., as we found to exist
between chapters ii. and vii. But even if this were not the case,
it would be more natural to expect the reverse of&what modern
criticism finds, viz., that the eighth chapter, being more circum
stantial, than the general and extensive seventh, should contain
in minuter analysis, what the other represents in compendious
unity. Leaving this, however, out of consideration, it can be shown,
that it is quite arbitrary to separate the Median kingdom from
the Persian, and that our book knows as little about a special
Median universal monarchy, as the rest of history.1 History is
totally ignorant of such a kingdom, and thus the prophet is
made to commit a great historical error in speaking of a Median
kingdom, as having possessed the same universal historical
importance, as the Babylonian, the Persian, and Grecian. But
this universal monarchy is not the invention of Daniel, but
solely of the commentators, to rescue them out from their diffi
culty, and enable them to enumerate four world-kingdoms,
besides the Roman. The prophet speaks, both in the historical
and prophetical portions, of the kingdoms of the Medes and
Persians, as of one whole (viii. 20, v. 28, vi. 8, 12, 15) ; it is this
kingdom, and not a Median, which succeeds the Babylonian
(v. 28). The first king of this kingdom is Darius the Median
(vi. 1, ix. 1, xi. 1); the second is Kores, or Cyrus the Persian
(vi. 28). But because from Cyrus onwards, the rulers on the
Medo-Persian throne were Persians only, it is naturally spoken
of subsequently as the Persian kingdom (x. 1, 13, 20, xi. 2).
Daniel not only speaks nowhere of a separate Median king
dom, but even under the reign of Darius, the kingdom is desig
nated as that of the Medes and Persians (vi. 8, 12, 15). This
is the state of things as shown by exegesis ; and it is clear to
1 Comp. Hengstenberg, Beitrage, p. 199-201.

188 XENOPHON.
the very weakest intelligence, that in the whole of our prophet,
from first to last, there is no vestige of a Median universal
monarchy. The fiction was repeated by one modern critic after
another, none being able to propose a better expedient, and after
passing through so many books, this theory shared the fate of
other modern learned myths, and attained to historical au
thority.1 The historical facts, as far as it is possible for us to know
them from Xenophon's statements, and those of other historians,
are probably the following : — Babylon was conquered in the
year 538 B.C., in the name of the Median Darius, by Cyrus, who
was at that period still a dependent king of Persia, and com
mander of the Medo-Persian army. In the expression bip
Nirobtt (vi. 1, comp. vii. 18), and in the use of the Hophal
"l^nit, Dan. ix. 1, we see hints, that Darius did not gain the
kingdom by his own energy, but that he received it through the
military enterprise of another, and was " made a king." Darius
gave his daughter in marriage to Cyrus ; and as he himself had
no male successor, he appointed him to be heir to the throne.
Darius, however, died, after reigning two years over the whole
kingdom — a reign which he commenced so late as his sixty-
second year (v. 31), and as he was a weak king, to judge from
chap, vi., it appears that during these two years the reins of
government were almost entirely in the hands of Cyrus, who
acceded to the throne in 536 B.C. We shall find also in the
visions of the seventh and eighth chapters of Daniel, this rela
tion of the Persian element to the Median, in the universal
monarchy, which survived the Babylonian, and shall see, that
1 For example, the influence which it is asserted Persian religious views had
upon the later books of the Old Testament, consequently also on Daniel.
Even Lucke (p. 55-60) speaks of this at length, without adducing any historical
proof whatever. These things belong to the traditional fictions of exegesis, to
the " various products of the negative hypothesis, wiyich the hyper-liberty of
criticism has brought forth, and which are apt, from their vague and uncertain
shape, to pass over into stereotype scholastic traditions."— J. P. Lange Apos-
tolisches Zeitalter, i. 187.

HERODOTUS AND CTESIAS. 189
the former element preponderated very considerably. The reign
of the Median, Darius, was so short and insignificant, that it is
easily explained why Herodotus and Ctesias do not mention it
at all, and transfer the king's history, in its chief feature', to his
Father, Astyages,1 while they agree with Daniel in the main
point, namely in this, that they connect the Persian power and
the Median, and represent the former as the continuation of the
latter. If it were possible, we would say, that they knew even
less than our prophet of a special Median universal monarchy.
On the other hand, Xenophon knows Darius the Mede only
under the name of Cyaxares ii. ; and what he tells us of him, in
his Cyropsedia, corresponds even to the description of character
with the statements of Daniel concerning the Median Darius.2
II. Thus we see, that the separate enumeration of a Median
universal monarchy and a Persian, which is the basis of the
whole modern interpretation of the second and seventh chapters,
is in every respect untenable. It is incompatible with the whole
book of Daniel, and with history, moreover the analogy of the
eighth chapter is against it. This overthrows the view taken
by modern criticism, of the four world-kingdoms as a whole'; for
this separate enumeration of Persia and Media being impossible,
simple arithmetical reasons compel us to look for a fourth
monarchy besides the Babylonian, Medo-Persian, and Grecian.
If we compare the seventh and eighth chapters accurately
1 Comp. Hitzig. p. 76. As usual he turns the state of things upside down.
Other commentators identify the Mede with Astyages, comp. Winer Realworter-
buch, article Darius. Ebrard (Offenbarung Joh., p. 44), has given up his
somewhat fantastic hypothesis, formed after the Duke of Manchester's prece
dent, and adopted another as strange and impossible. For if, as we have
shown, Daniel always views the kingdoms of Medes and Persians conjointly,
Darius the Mede cannot possibly be identical with the last Babylonian king,
Naboned. We acknowledge that this subject is beset with many difficulties.
Perhaps inscriptions shall be discovered to throw light on it. But the chief-
point, that a Median universal monarchy never existed, is beyond doubt.
2 Comp. Havernick, Commentar, p. 201-211. Schultz, as above, p. 682-685,
658-660. v

190 RAM AND HE-GOAT.
we shall advance from this merely negative result. Such a com
parison points out unmistakeably, that the ram is identical with
the bear, the he-goat with the leopard. And since the ram is
expressly explained to be the Medo-Persian, and the he-goat
the Greek empire, viii. 20, 21, it is clear how we must interpret
the bear and the leopard.
Hofmann makes the correct general remark, that the ram and
he-goat represent a parallel antithesis of clumsy firmness, and
flexible agility, like bear and leopard. But there are other indivi
dual features, in which the resemblance of the two pairs of beasts
appears in a striking light. The ram, viii. 3, has two horns, the
one higher than the other, the higher taking its rise later than
the lower. It is generally admitted that the lower horn signi
fies the Median, the higher one the Persian element of the
kingdom. Of the bear, again, it is said, viii., " it raised up
itself on one side." Most of the modern commentators, Haver
nick, Hitzig, and others, explain this only in different senses,
" he stood on one side." But this is arbitrary, since the Hiphil
~T'~. is clearly distinguished from the Hophal ^T"~i v. 4 ; the
b in itowb is the Chaldaic nota accusativi (Winer, Chald.
Grammar, sec. 56, 2). However, this difference of interpreta
tion is not of great importance to the argument. It is evident
that we have the same contrast in the two sides of the bears, as
in the two horns of the ram. The Medians are the lower side,
the element of inert passiveness ; the Persians are the upper,
the predominant active element, and ruling and waging war.
It may easily be seen how accurately this coincides with the
historical characters thus given above. If it were allowable to
translate " he stood on one side," then this would be a similar
designation of the Persian, as the props and pillars of the
kingdom. The parallelism between leopard and he-goat is still more
striking. The former flies over the earth without touching the
ground ; to the latter there are expressly ascribed four wings,
vii. fi, which represents rapid motion, striving upwards and

THE FOURTH MONARCHY— THE ROMAN. 191
laterally. Their number, four, refers to the four quarters of the
world, the whole of which, Alexander, in the triumphant flight
of his ambition, was to subjugate to himself. The same relation
which subsists between the four winds (vii. 2), and the four
beasts (vii. 3), subsists on a smaller scale between the four
wings of the leopard and its four heads. This kingdom, moving
in four directions, is divided into four different kingdoms, which
are represented by the four heads. It is manifestly an inten
tional allusion to this feature, that in the eighth chapter the
he-goat gains four notable horns, viii. 8, after the great horn
representing Alexander, is destroyed ; and these four grow
toward the four winds of heaven, and represent the four king
doms into which the kingdom of Alexander was divided among
his successors (viii. 21, 22 ; xi. 4). Macedonia and Asia repre
sent the antithesis of west and east, Syria and Egypt (chap, xi.),
of north and south. We have spoken above of the identity of the
four horns of the he-goat, and the four heads of the leopard, and
discovered in it only a specimen of the general law which pre
vails throughout the book, that the later prophecy resumes and
enlarges the former.
This, then, is the result of our investigation. Daniel himself
furnishes us with more minute particulars concerning the second
and third monarchy in the eight chapter, and refutes by them
all those interpretations, which do not understand the former to
be the Medo-Persian kingdom, the latter that of Alexander
and his successors, including, according to chap. viii. 20,
Antiochus. To interpret the second and third kingdoms in the seventh
chapters, and, consequently, also in the second in any other way,
one must ignore intentionally the statements of the eighth
chapter. But this shows clearly that the fourth monarchy is
subsequent to Antiochus, and points out the Roman empire
— a result at which we arrived before, from a different point
of view, and we shall reach the same goal by yet a third
path.

192 THE FOURTH MONARCHY — THE TEN HORNS.

III. THE FOURTH MONARCHY, THE TEN HORNS.
The necessity of taking the Greek monarchy as the third, has
thus been proved ; but we can show further, that the fourth
cannot be the Greek. The contrast, which we dwelt upon before,
and which, in the prophetic description, lies between the fourth
beast and the he-goat, which last is expressly declared to de
signate the Greek kingdom, would, of itself, decide the question.
The fourth beast, besides its terrible aspect, is characterised
explicitly by its ten horns, three of which are plucked out by the
roots before the eleventh little horn, and upon these three we
must now fix our attention. Modern criticism points out, with
great satisfaction, that it is easy to trace the ten kings in Assyrian
history, and imagines that in this it finds a firm support for its
assertions. But a closer investigation will show that the reverse
is the case.
C. von Lengerke enumerates, p. 320, following Bertholdt, the
Syrian kings, which are, according to him, represented by the
ten horns, in the following order: — 1. Seleucus I., Nicator,
founder of the kingdom of Syria. 2. Antiochus Soter ; 3. An
tiochus Theos ; 4. Seleucus ii,, Kaleinikos ; 5. Seleucus in.,
Keraunus ; 6. Antiochus the Great ; 7. Seleucus iv., Philopator.
The three following are the three horns rooted out. After Phi
lopator was assassinated by Heliodorus, the latter usurped the
throne (thus 8. Heliodorus). But, at the same time, a party
declared in favour of 9. Ptolemy iv., Philometor of Egypt,
whom his mother, Cleopatra, wished to help to the Syrian throne.
And finally, 10. Demetrius i, Soter, the son of Seleucus Philo
pator, was to have succeeded to the throne ; but as he happened
to be then at Rome as an hostage, and did not insist on his
claims, Antiochus Epiphanes, second son of Antiochus the Great,
and brother of Seleucus Philopator, succeeded without dispute.
Hitzig (p. 121) is candid enough to admit that the Egyptian

THE TEN HORNS. 193
king, Ptolemy, cannot be enumerated among the Syrian kings,
because it is even doubtful whether his mother was desirous to
promote him to the throne ; but then he can enumerate only
nine kings, and falls on the expedient of prefixing to the nine
Alexander the Great.
By the three horns rooted out, he understands Heliodorus,
Demetrius, and Seleucus Philopator, although he admits that
Antiochus Epiphanes was not concerned in the assassination of
the first ; but he thinks appearances were against Antiochus, and
that the deed is ascribed to him who profits by it, while public
opinion in Israel certainly thought Antiochus capable of the
worst. Such a method of treating history will surely be found
exceedingly convenient. Hitzig adds, also, that we have no further
details, and that this part of Syrian history is, in general, very
obscure and unauthentic, and that it is possible the author was
influenced in his statements by his love of the number three.
Thus the critic smooths down his difficulty by laying to the
charge of the author the mistake he himself commits. Such a
principle would destroy all exegesis. In our case, it amounts
simply to this, that our opponent's explanation confesses it is in
capable of treating the text as it stands, and has to form and
shape it in order to coincide with it. And the same critic, Hitzig,
brings forward against our view, as represented by Hengsten
berg, that it gives up the attempt to explain the number ten,
the three horns and the eleventh, since it looks forward to a still
future and final fulfilment of the prophecy.
It is easy to show that this whole mode of conception, in either
shape, is incompatible with the text, not only with the words, but
also the meaning of the seventh chapter, as we have it explained
to us, by comparing the seventh and eighth chapters with the
Revelation of St John.
I. In the text of the seventh chapter, the ten kings are dis
tinctly co-ordinate, both in dignity and time. The modern view
supposes, with regard to dignity, only seven, or, as. Hitzig owns,

194 THE TEN HORNS.
eight kings were co-ordinate in dignity, besides two or three others
who were not kings at all, but only pretenders to the crown, as
Heliodorus, or who were destined to accede to the throne by
maternal wishes and plans, as Ptolemy, or who might have, by
possibility, succeeded, as Demetrius. And this is said to be indi
cated by three of ten co-ordinate horns being plucked up from
the root. Daniel ought, then, to have written that seven horns
grew up in succession, that two or three struggled to arise, but
instead of them, another horn came. It is arbitrary to make the
text, which speaks of ten kings, speak of seven or eight kings
and a pair of pretenders to the crown, and while the text speaks
of the rooting out- — the humiliation of the kings — to interpret this
to mean the want of success of the pretenders. With regard to
time, it is necessary, as Hitzig mentions emphatically, that the
three kings, humbled by the eleventh, be cotemporaries of his
and of each other. But if so, it follows that the seven also
existed cotemporaneously with him, and with the others, for
they are mentioned together, forming the number ten, without
any distinctions being made of time. Wherever chronological
succession is meant, it is always distinctly mentioned in the
case of the horns ; for example, in the case of the eleventh horn,
viii. 3, 8, 9. It is therefore altogether arbitrary to assume, that
of the ten the first seven are successive, and the last three co-
temporaneous. II. If we compare the second chapter, we shall see how
utterly destitute of foundation the reference of the ten horns to
Syrian kings and pretenders is. We find there only the ten toes
mentioned, which evidently correspond to the ten horns, hence ten
kings. There is not a word about an eleventh king, or a differ
ence between the first seven and the last three. How can this
be explained? Is the dream of Nebuchadnezzar to conclude with
Heliodorus or with Demetrius ? What a series we would then
have ! But the modern interpretation is beset with even greater
difficulties. Hitzig understands " by the iron Syria, by the clay

THE TEN HORNS. 195
Egypt," " of the toes, some are of iron, and refer to Syria ; some
consist entirely of clay, and refer to Egypt" (p. 35). What a vio
lent contradiction, that the same number ten, which refers, in the
seventh chapter, to Syrian kings, is explained in the second to
mean Egyptian and Syrian. What Syrian and Egyptian kings ?
The enumeration is not given for wise reasons. Neither Von
Lengerke (p. 95) nor Hitzig (p. 35) attempt to give a fuller inter
pretation of the toes, and mask their difficulty under a few
general vague remarks concerning Ptolemies and Seleucidas, etc.
But we need not point out that the incapability of giving a minute
interpretation is an essential defect in a view, which refers, the
prophecy to an event belonging to the past and the annals of
history. While, on the other hand, it is in the nature of the
case, that special and minute explanations cannot be given if
prophecy is viewed as yet unfulfilled.
III. We are told distinctly in the eighth chapter, and in con
nection with the very monarchy which is of most importance
here, the Greek, that we are to understand by the horns, not
individual kings, but kingdoms, and, unless the text states the
contrary, kingdoms existing cotemporaneously. A comparison
of vii. 17, with verse 23, will show of itself that kings are represen
tatives of their kingdoms, and as the fourth beast is called in the
one passage a king, in the other a kingdom, so the ]^biz in vii.
24, are explained simply by nvsbn viii. 22. The symbolism of
beasts in the seventh and eighth chapters never designates indi
vidual kings as such, as we have observed before, with the
exception of the founders of monarchy, Nebuchadnezzar and
Alexander, as well as Antiochus and Antichrist, in all of whom
we see representatives of characteristic "tendencies. Hence, it is
impossible to understand by the four horns of the eighth chapter,
four kingdoms succeeding that of Alexander, and by the ten
horns in the seventh chapter, ten individual kings who came
after him ; to understand in the one passage four kingdoms,
existing cotemporaneously, and the other, ten kings succeeding

196 CONCLUSION.
each other. Such an interpretation violates the exegetical law
of analogical treatment of the text.
But it is altogether impossible to understand by the fourth
beast, as well as the he-goat, the whole kingdom of Alexander
and of his successors, as it is from the moment the horns are
introduced, to limit it to but one part of his kingdom, the Syrian.
The most violent method of all, viz., suddenly narrowing in the
Greek kingdom, is that pursued by Hitzig, who enumerates
Alexander as the firstSyrian king, as the first of the ten horns. But
this certainly surpasses all the arbitrariness ever perpetrated by
criticism, especially if we bear in mind chapter viii. The same
Alexander, who is opposed here as the great horn to the other
four, consequently to all the kingdoms of his successors, of which
Syria is only a fourth part, is, according to Hitzig, enumerated
in the seventh chapter, on a level with Heliodorus and Demetrius,
without any distinction or difference. Thus, there is infinitely
less importance attached to him in the one chapter than in the
other. I confess I sometimes wonder how our modern critics
have the courage to print their expositions for readers who are
capable of thinking. The only explanation is in the Rationalistic
prejudice, which starts with the a priori certainty, that prophecy
does not extend beyond Antiochus, a theory which must be
maintained at any cost, and that they reckon on the patience of
readers who do not look for an impartial consideration of the
text in a Commentary on Daniel, but merely wish to see their
preconceived ideas and opinions put into the book.
The prophet's idea here is simply this : The four horns of the
lie-goat are the four parts into which the Greek kingdom is
divided. The ten horns of the fourth beast, therefore, can only
refer to the ten parts into which the fourth part is divided.
But from this it is evident, that the fourth kingdom cannot be the
Greek, as it cannot be divided both into four and into ten parts.
Finally, the ten horns in the Apocalypse (chap. xiii. 1 ; xvii.
3, 12) likewise represent kings, still future. Now it were, in
deed, possible, that the ten Syrian kings, if such ever existed,

POSITIVE PART. 197
would stand as types of kings of the last time, as Antiochus is a
type of antichrist. But the Apocalypse makes a special addi
tion, as if on purpose to render all reference to the past im
possible. The ten horns are ten kings, ofrivss fSao-Ckeiav oiSmn
eXafiov, which have received no kingdom as yet, chap. xvii. 12.
We see, that John Considered that the ten kings had not yet
appeared, up to his time. - He who attaches authority to the
self-interpretation of divine prophecy, will find in this an addi
tional reason of the impossibility of referring the ten horns of
the fourth beast to the Syrian kings.
This overthrows the whole modern view of the fourth beast,
and of the four beasts in general ; it overthrows, hereby,
secondly, the theory, that the prophecies of Daniel are limited
to the time of Antiochus Epiphanes, and it overthrows, conse
quently, thirdly, the chief argument brought forward against the
genuineness of our book.
IV. POSITIVE. THE BIBLICAL PROPHETICAL VIEW OP HISTORY.
We have now solved one part of our problem-, by proving
from the sacred text itself, the impossibility of the modern
Rationalistic critical view of the book of Daniel. Questions of
criticism, however, though important, are only preliminary ;
the chief thing is the inward living spiritual understanding of
the divine word. We hope that our polemical remarks have
contributed towards this chief object, although it can only have
been incidentally. Before we bring our remarks on Daniel to a
close, we will offer, resting from the warfare of polemics, some
positive observations, on the wonderful visions of the second and
seventh chapters, in connection with points not prominently
dwelt upon by commentators, and with a view to introduce and
prepare for the consideration of corresponding passages in the
Revelation of St John.
We shall speak first of the four kingdoms of the world and
their succession as a whole ; and afterwards more especially of

198 THE FOUR KINGDOMS.
the fourth, since it presents the greatest difficulties, and also the
deepest interest, for it reaches even into our present and our own
future, while the three first belong to the distant past. In our
consideration of these points, we will attain to some general
views, which will prove important for the interpretation of pro
phecy, as also the biblical prophetic mode of conceiving history
and time. I. THE FOUR KINGDOMS OF THE WORLD.
In the general characteristic of the dream-vision, described in
the second chapter of Daniel, which we gave in our first section,
it was necessary for us to point out, that the antithesis between
the divine and the human mode of conceiving history is deve
loped here throughout, in all its details.
This appears from the value attached to the world-power. To
outward appearance, it is splendid, and strong as gold, silver,
iron, etc., but in truth it is like chaff. This appears, moreover,
in the way in which the single kingdoms, in their succession, are
characterised, by the metals and by the parts of the body chosen.
For there is evidently a progressive decrease in the value of the
metals, gold, silver, brass, iron, clay ; and in like manner in the
body of the image there is a gradation from a more important
position and value of the parts to a less : head ; breast and arms ;
belly and thighs ; legs and feet. It cannot be denied, that those
two features, when combined, are intended to indicate the pro
gressive deterioration of the world-power, and in ver. 39 it is
expressly stated, of the second monarchy, as an index for the
rest, that it was less than the first. This cannot be referred to
the decrease of outward power, as is manifest from the circum
stance, that the fourth kingdom is represented, both in the
second and seventh chapter, as the most powerful one (ii. 40 ;
vii. 7, 19, and 23) ; and commentators, not seeing this, and
starting with the supposition, that the Persian kingdom was,
properly speaking, greater and mightier than the Babylonian,
have found difficulties here, which they have endeavoured to

BIBLE VIEWS OF HISTORY. 199
overcome, partly by artificial expedients.1 The decrease is not
so much in external power, as in internal worth and solidity.
Holy Scripture, surveying from its eminence the course of the
development of the world, speaks of a progress, not in advance,
but towards decay, even as whole nations have, like individuals,
their times of increase and decrease.
Nor is this view confined to Daniel, but it lies at the founda
tion of the whole divine word of the Old and New Testaments,'
especially of all that Scripture says of the beginning and end of
the human race. The commencement of man's development,
according to Holy Scripture, is formed by a paradisaical, a
golden age, such as has never been attained since. Sin is a
poison, which spreads gradually, during the course of centuries,
and penetrates ever deeper into the organism of natural
humanity, decomposing and destroying it. Not that gross
darkness and clear light appear at once fully and perfectly
developed ; but here, likewise, the Bible reveals to us an organic
process, a gradual development from the one point to the other,
as has been noticed previously, from the fall of Adam to the
coming of antichrist. We have but few hints as to the state of
the world before the flood, but most Bible students are agreed in
this, that we must conceive there was then a mightier, more
vigorous, and higher life, than in the postdiluvian time, the
term of human life is of itself an indication of it. After the
flood, the building of the tower of Babel forms an epoch from
which men fell ever deeper into disunion, corruption, and
heathenism. In this Babel, Nimrod, the hunter (the revolter),
founds the first kingdom of the world (Gen. x. 8-13). From
this epoch Holy Scripture leaves the human race in general to
its own paths, and confines itself to the covenant people. We
see the result of this separate development in Daniel, who brings
us back to the same Babylon; his Babylonian world-power
takes up, as it were, the thread interrupted at the building of the
tower and the kingdom of Nimrod. In the former event, all
' Hengstenberg on Daniel, p. 164. T. and T. Clark.

200 PARADISE— JUDGMENT.
humanity then living united in opposition to God. With the
Babylonian kingdom begins the time of the universal monarchies,
and these likewise strive after a God-opposed union of the whole
human race. Babylon thus became, and appears also thus in
the Revelations of St John, the constant type of the God-
opposed world. Our prophecy shows us the gradual develop
ment of the power of the world into evil, beginning with the
Babylonian kingdom, till it reaches its full manifestation in the
God-opposed antichrist. Thus we notice a progressive descent
from paradise to judgment. The manner in which the Bible
describes the result of human development is .in essential agree
ment with this, as also the final state, which is to conclude
the history of the world. Scripture describes it as a state of
apostasy, impenitence, false security, godlessness, which must
necessarily draw down judgment from on high (Matt. xxiv.
37-39 ; Luke xviii. 8 ; 1 Thess. v. 3 ; 2 Tim. iii. 1 ; 2 Peter
iii. 3 ; Rev. ix. 20, xvi. 9-11), The very fact, that the history of
the world ends with judgment on the world, points out the fun
damental view which the Bible takes of the history of humanity.
At first sight, this view does not seem to be a point of a
strictly religious character, and even honest Christians think
they may here adopt the current views of the day. But a closer
and more thoughtful examination shows, that if we wish to
think according to Scripture, to be cast altogether in the mould
of God's thoughts, we must look this question earnestly in the
face, especially in our days, when the answer given to it will
powerfully influence, not only our whole view of history, but
our life and practice. It is not a matter of indifference, whether
the thinking Christian view nature as dead or as living, and
capable of miracles, and in the same way his philosophy of his
tory is important. For Nature, History, and Revelation, are
the three great kingdoms of the divine Development of Life, and
the last and highest necessarily presupposes the other two. The
Bible has its own philosophy of nature and of history ; to un
derstand the latter is of utmost importance for the study of the

BAUMGARTEN ON HISTORY. 201
book of Daniel, which contains the outlines of that philosophy
of history.
In former times, this was acknowledged, at least externally,
but in modern times it is denied, both inwardly and outwardly.
" T)a.me[,"Baumgarten says in his Apostolic History, vol. ii., p.
172 (Eng. Trans.), " has made known to us the epochs and eras of
nations as they are arranged and fore-ordained by God, both col
lectively and individually, and has thereby fixed the whole view
of decisive turning points in the history of the development of the
human race (Acts xvii. 26), as connected with the history of
revelation. The Christian view of the world originally adopted
that conception of universal history which was therein hinted
at. The apprehension and delineation of the history of the
world, on the scheme of the four universal empires prevailed in
Germany down to Gatterer. Since, however, this theory, by
slavish and merely mechanical adherence to the scheme derived
from the book of Daniel, did not allow free' scope and full justice
to the manifoldness and realities of the relations of the world and
of nations, the time arrived for an emancipation from such a pupil
age under sacred authority. Historical investigation entered upon
the discovery, and a representation of particular branches in
such wise as totally to forget the unity and progression of uni
versal history. Certain it is, that this tendency to investigate
detail rendered material service, and is still doing so, and that
thereby a foundation, previously wanting, is being laid for a
complete conception of history. Nevertheless, to find satisfac
tion in these separate treatises of history, is only possible so long
as the feeling of novelty is still fresh. That historical investi
gation and conception of history, which originally started from
the impulse of the Christian view of the world, must invariably
come back to the search after a totality, such as St Paul pre
sented to the minds of the Athenians. And this return from the
tendency to isolated studies to the investigation of the whole, has
already taken place, but much remains yet to be done. . . .
Johannes von Muller, guided by his biblical studies and theo-

202 MODERN VIEW OF HISTORY.
logical reminiscences, has cast many a profound glance into the
inner meaning of historical events, and, occasionally, he rises to
thoughts of a character truly befitting universal history ; but in
the main, in his view of the total development of history, he re
mained a disciple of Gatterer and Schlozer. That a profound
truth is involved in that view of history, which makes the
people of God the centre of all movement and development,
Barthold Niebuhr divined, but from a respect to such a view to
the adoption of it, and the introduction of it into practical
application, there is naturally a great step to be taken. Lastly,
it was the immediate object of Heinrich Leo to make a real be
ginning on that path of development, which has here been
marked out. . . . And yet he was unable to see anything
more than " a good tact" in that division of universal history
into the four periods of the great empire. ... At present
universal history has not got beyond the position taken up by
Herodotus, for although it does overlook a more extensive field,
and recognises higher aims, still the sphere of vision remains all
the while limited by -national and individual considerations. It
is, therefore, quite consistent, that Herodotus should be desig
nated the father of history, whereas, in truth, it was not Hero
dotus, but Moses, who was the first to sketch the true ground
lines of universal history." But what has not been accomplished
by historians, philosophy attempted to do, and has thereby exer
cised a considerable influence, but in a spirit not only inde
pendent of the disclosures of Daniel and the prophetic word, but
directly opposed to the divine Scriptures. The current philo
sophy of history, as it is developed systematically, for instance,
by Hegel, and forms the foundation of modern thought and his
toriography, views the development of man as having taken
place from a lower to a higher state ; presupposing, as the be
ginning, a half-animal njde state of nature, and placing, as the
goal or termination, general civilisation, liberty, humanism.
How must such men regard Daniel, who represents the Oriental
kingdoms as the representatives of classic civilisation ? They

CIVILISATION. 203
must deem it a hard saying, when he places our age with its
culture and science far below them, under the fourth kingdom,
and towards the end of it, when the mystery of iniquity (2
Thess. ii. 7), of the God-opposed beast-nature, is beginning to
unfold itself with ever-increasing vigour.
But what shall we say ? Do not the Greeks and Romans
stand higher than the Oriental nations? And the Christian
nations higher than either? With regard to the Christian na
tions, we shall have to consider them more minutely, when
speaking of the fourth monarchy and the Revelation of St John.
The question cannot be answered, without further explanation,
in the negative. Nay, in a certain sense, we cannot but give
unhesitatingly an affirmative answer. But it all depends on the
point of view from which we consider the subject. The modern
view starts from the antithesis of nature and spirit, and since
spirit, according to that view, means essentially only the spirit
of man, this antithesis is identical with that of nature and civilis
ation. Also Holy Scripture, we may say, reduces the whole
development of the world to the antithesis of nature and spirit,
but in a different sense. And this is, truly, one of the chief
evils of our time, that words representing fundamental ideas, as
" spirit," " light," etc., are now-a-days used in quite a different
sense from what they bear in the word of God. False prophets
come to us in sheep's clothing, and are thus in appearance like
the Lamb (Matt. vii. 15; Rev. xiii. 11); hence arises that
energetic, effective power with which error is possessed, making
people believe a lie (2 Thess. ii. 11). Holy Scripture — mark
the characteristic difference ! — says not nature and spirit, but
spirit and flesh. The antithesis to nature is not civilisation, but
divine grace. The whole movement of history, from a state of
nature to a state of civilisation, falls, according to the biblical
view, within the sphere of the flesh, the life of unrenewed,
natural humanity (Col. iii. 11). Spirit, in the Bible, is not the
mere human spirit, but the Spirit of God from on high, the gift
of grace descending from a supernatural world. - This Spirit

204 CIVILISATION.
effects something greater than a mere life of civilisation and
humanism, which is only refined, formed, but not transformed, and
hence life of the flesh. He works essential Spirit-life, a pneu
matic life, from'and in God, which belongs not to this world, and
which, in its highest form, is life of transfiguration, life of resur
rection in the glory of a spiritual body. Transformation, which
the Bible speaks of (Rom. viii. 17-24) is essentially different
from culture. And because the Bible, from its lofty watch-
tower, keeps continually in view these final culminating points
of the eternal plan of God (1 Cor. iv. 7-10; Ephes. i. 9, 10),
its estimation of our development of civilisation differs from that
which the children of men form, who cleave to the dust, and of
whom it is said, " He that is of the earth is earthly, and speaketh
of the earth" (John iii. 31). Herein consists the gigantic lie
and little narrow-mindedness of our generation, that civilisation
is thought to be the highest thing, and is looked upon as a sub
stitute for grace, for regeneration by the Spirit of the living
God. Civilisation is the idol of the modern world. Concern
ing it the voice of Scripture says :" Behold, is it not of the
Lord of Hosts, what the peoples have laboured must be burned
with fire, and for what the nations have wearied themselves
must perish ! For the earth shall be filled with the knowledge
of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea (Habakkuk
ii. 13, 14 ; comp. Matt. xiii. 44-46). What Daniel represents in
his four world-kingdoms, is in reality nothing else but the deve
lopment from a state of nature to a state of refined civilisation,
from a natural, vigorous, solid mode of existence to a life of re
finement and intellectualism ; which latter he represents more
especially by the symbol of the wise eye of antichrist (Dan. vii. 8).
To use an expression of J. P. Lange (Apostol. Zeitalter i. 206),
the prophet describes to us the kingdoms of the world and the
civilisations of the world. The first metals — gold and silver —
are nobler, more valuable ; but the latter — brass and iron — are
infinitely more important to the cause of civilisation and culture,
yea, they are the proper representatives and bearers of it ; with

SCRIPTURE'S ESTIMATE OF CIVILISATION. 205
the artificers in brass an4 iron commenced the first development
of human civilisation (Gen. iv. 22). And, finally, clay, which
is the most flexible and plastic material, represents the Germanic
element. Thus, Scripture acknowledges the correctness of the
modern principle of viewing history, and likewise regards the
development of^ humanity as a progression from nature to cul
ture. How could it be otherwise in those cases where Scripture
speaks of the history of kingdoms and states of the world, that
is, of the history of the world in general ? The life of the
world, as it manifests itself in states and kingdoms, the life of
the world-history is civilisation. The state, civilisation, history,
are ideas intimately connected with each other. Only such
nations as are organized in kingdoms of some constitution and
order, are historical nations ; and, moreover, for this very rea
son, that having left the rude state of nature, they have begun
a life of civilisation. Hence the development of the world-
kingdoms is the development of civilisation, and the prophet,
therefore, describes the latter.
But observe, the prophet, in harmony with the whole word of
God, judges and estimates this development in a manner diametri
cally opposed to the prevalent one. Scripture nowhere denies that
the Greeks stand higher than' the Persians or Babylonians, and the
modern nations higher than those of antiquity, that is as regards
culture ; but Scripture does deny, that this position is in reality
a higher one, that it is a progress in that which really and pro
perly is the essence and destination of man, genuine, eternal
humanity ; that humanity, which manifests itself in the Son of Man,
contrasted with the four beasts. What constitutes man is his
being in the image of God, and his living in communion with
God ; the true Son of Man can only come from heaven (Dan.
vii. 13). But it is an undeniable fact of history, that as civili
sation progresses, it leads man further away from communion
with God. It enlarges the world-consciousness and self-conscious
ness of man; and since these, from the time of sin entering the
world, are opposed to the consciousness of God, as lust of the

206 e CIVILISATION AND GODLESSNESS.
world and love of self, — this, likewise, is only an historical fact —
this enlargement of the world — and self-consciousness is mostly
accompanied by a weakening and decrease of the consciousness of
God. As we said before, people now-a-days put civilisation in
the place of divine grace ; culture drives away the " life in God ;"
thinking that it can render it superfluous ; and as it is now in the
end of days, so it was in the beginning. It is a significant fact,
that the beginnings of civilisation were among the children of
Cain (Gen. iv. 17-24), even then the children of this world were
wiser in their generation than the children of light (Luke xvi.
8). Thus, alienation from God drives man to worldly culture,
as our previous remarks showed the reverse to be the case, they
exert on each other reciprocal influence;1 not that civilisation,
per se, is a thing evil or sinful ; it is necessary, and permitted
and willed by God for our actual sinful state, even, in like man
ner, as the bearer of civilisation — the state — it also may be
sanctified in the service of God's kingdom. But while the
children of light live in God, and have their life in the world
without setting their affections on the things below, because
they know that the fashion of this world passeth away, and that
God alone has eternal life (1 Cor. vii. 31) ; the blessings of
civilisation belonging to those " other things" which are added
to them, since godliness has both the promise of this life and
that which is to come, and because all things are theirs (Matt.
vi. 33 ; 1 Cor. iii. 21 ; 1 Tim. iv. 8) ; the children of the world,
on the other hand, live altogether in the world of sense, endea
vouring to take the greatest amount of pleasure and advantage
1 Delitszch, in his remarks on Gen. iv. 17 : " The observation suggested by
this most ancient historical beginning, that civilisation increases in extensive-
ness and refinement, in proportion as man progresses in his estrangement
from God, is corroborated by universal history." Compare with this Nitszch
(System of Christian Doctrine (English Trans.), sec. 115), who emphasizes
the converse truth : " The view, according to which a still greater deteriora
tion is to be expected, rather than an improvement, from every species of civi
lisation, which is based merely on the excitement and co-operation of the
'natural powers possessed by the Adamitic race, is true and correct."

HELLENISM. 207
from the outward, visible, temporal objects. Thus, they strive
to attain to a truly human God-like existence working from
below upwards, while the children of God attain the same ob
ject, beginning, ion the contrary, from above. The world,
whether consciously or unconsciously, strives to become like
God, not by a spiritual renewal from on high, and sanctification
by God's Spirit, but by a cultivation and development of the
natural gifts and endowments of man, which is essentially only
a repetition of the fundamental principle announced by the ser
pent in paradise : Man is to attain of himself, without God's
assistance, and in opposition to God, to the highest knowledge
(intellectual civilisation), and thereby to being like God (Gen.
iii. 5). This principle found its colossal manifestation in the
Tower of Babel, which, viewed from this point, appears in a
new aspect, a work of human art, which was to reach from
earth to heaven, and which forms the commencement of heathen
ism. The same principle began from that time to develop
itself in the nations and states, that were now left to themselves,
in the world-kingdoms, concerning which Daniel prophesies,
and which are generally designated the nations of civilisation
(Culturvblker), in contradistinction to the peopletof Israel, the
nation of religion. This development of natural humanity and
its gifts, has found its artistic " transfiguration" of the flesh (the
progression of humanity from below upwards), chiefly and pre
eminently in Greece. For this reason, the Greeks appear in
the New Testament as representatives of heathen civilisation
(Rom. i. 14-16 ; 1 Cor. i. 22-24), and more generally as repre
sentatives of heathenism as opposed to Judaism. Herein, also,
seek the reason why our modern culture is so much attracted by
Hellenism, which is often idealized, and that erroneously, while,
on the other side, Israelis looked upon with antipathy, the law and
the prophets treated with neglect. And, moreover, this accounts
also for the fact, that the first great enemy of the kingdom of God,
described in the eighth and eleventh chapters of Daniel, proceeded
from theGreek kingdom. AntiochusEpiphanes, that fanatical ad-

208 ANTICHRIST, A CHRIST WITHOUT CROSS.
mirer of Hellenic civilisation,1 wished to place Zeus Olympios in
place of Jehovah ; and thus arose the first conflict between the
two grand universal historical principles, between heathen
civilisation, which is from below, and revealed religion, which
is from above. And as Hellenic civilisation produced the first,
so modern heathen civilisation will produce the second, more
general, more God-opposed antichrist. Very significant is his
name, Antichristus, for, to use again Baumgarten's expressions,
Apos. Hist. i. 305, 2 " To this horn are assigned eyes, as the eyes
of a man, and a speaking mouth, therefore a mouth also resem
bling that of a man. These points of resemblance to a man in a
symbol, which is throughout brutish (ver. 7), and which, even
by this brutal-like character, is designed to represent the inter
nal character of this empire of the world, are so much the more
important, as the empire which is opposed to it is described as
the empire of man (Daii. vii. 13, 18, 22). Accordingly, this
horn, with the eyes and the mouth of a man, intimates, that this
fourth empire will assume such a form as that, without losing
its peculiar character, it will work itself under the guise of a
kingdom of God." Antichrist promises the very same things
which Christ brings His people, only in a way quite the oppo
site, without cross ; this is the delusion and charm by which,
as we are told in the Apocalypse of John-, he seduces nations
and kings. He promises transfiguration of the flesh without
crucifixion of the flesh ; transfiguration of the world, without
judgment of the world. He is a Christ without cross, and,
therefore, in everything a caricature of Christ, the anti-messiah,
the pseudo-son of man ; even as the apotheosis of man is nothing
but a caricature of man's being created in the image of God.
He promises man, a truly human, God-like existence, "heaven"

1 He possessed an extraordinary love of art, which expressed itself in grand
architectural undertakings, especially temples ; and his devotion to heathen
worship was fanatical. Wieseler, in Herzog's Realencyclopadie, i. 384.
2 I. 340, English Translation. T. and T. Clark.

DETERIORATION OF THE KINGDOMS. 209
upon earth, the millennium.1 But flesh and world have to
be judged, because the curse is resting on them, and if the judg
ment of God is not accepted, and man does not surrender him
self into Christ's death, then God sends eternal judgment, with
its terrors. It is the same crucified Saviour who appears then
as Lord of lords and King of kings ; and behold the splendour
of this world is as chaff which the wind scattereth away from the
face of the earth ; then shall the millennial kingdom really com
mence (Matt. xvi. 27).
From this point of view, it is clear that, and in what manner,
our prophecy places the ancient kingdoms of the world over the
modern, those of the East over those of the West. In outward
civilisation, refinement, and embellishment of life ; in political
institutions, arts, sciences, inventions, there is doubtless an im
mense progression. But there is indeed something much higher
than these goods of life, something which, according to Holy
Scripture, though not according to the views of modern times,
is the chief thing, and of which experience as well as his
tory proclaims distinctly enough, that it is in 'truth the
invisible, vital root of nations and kingdoms, as it is also of
individuals. This is the original, tender, mysterious connection
between man and God in the conscience " Pietas," the natural,
almost instinctive reverence for the divine fundamental institu
tions of life. " Righteousness exalteth a nation" (Prov. xiv.
34, 37 ; comp. xvi. 12 ; Isaiah xxxii. 15-17 ; Jer. xxii. 3-5).
This righteousness shows itself principally in man's reverence
for things sacred, in obedience of subjects to rulers, in re
spect of children towards parents. These are the fundamental
1 Can it be denied, that the political, socialistic, and communistic tendencies
of modern times — these monstrous births of the coming anti-ehristianity — are
impregnated with the grossest Chiliasm?" Martensen, Dogmatic 553. Comp.
The Door of Hope for Britain and Christendom ; London, 1854 : " The world
is at present full of false Christs, though people little imagine it. But the
worst of all false Christs are they who promise man deliverance from curse,
without confession and hatred of sin, which is the mother and cause of the
curse resting on humanity." 0

210 DETERIORATION OF THE KINGDOMS.
pillars of man's life ; upon these religion, the family, the state,
are built. They are the essential powers which render a social
state possible. They are, so to say, the merciful gifts of creation,
given to man by God, irrespective of revelation, or any particular
religion, given by God, or rather left by him to man, in order to
render an organised existence and development possible. Let
these essential fundamentals of natural religion and morality be
shaken or destroyed, and all arts and sciences will be found un
availing ; the most refined civilisation will prove ineffective to
save such a nation, as is clearly proved by the times of decline
of Greece and Rome, and the history of our own day. Nay, the
highest blossom of civilisation is itself the beginning of the inter
nal decay, because the essential fundamental relationships of
life are criticised, analysed, and attacked by the enlightened
generation. This is the tragic fate of humanity, living under the
bondage and curse of sin. The further we go back into history,
the more vigorous and healthy we find those original, natural
fundamentals of life ; they must have been much stronger in the
East than they are now in our western world. For example, it
cannot well be denied that the Babylonian and Persian religions
presuppose more real truthfulness, more sacred reverence of
things divine, in the nations among whom they took rise, than
theHellenic, which ismuch richer andmorebeautifully developed;1
as little as it can be denied, that the more ancient Greeks and
Romans were a much more vigorous, manly, pious generation
than the highly civilized Greeks and Romans of the later cen
turies before the Christian era, during which the government of
the world came into the hands of these nations. Man only sees
what is outward, and forms his judgment from that; but God,
1 Compare, for example, Thiersch, die Kirche im Apostolischen Zeitalter, p. 12.
" The ascetic earnestness of the East had a deep insight into the moral antithesis
in man, and the discord, which has entered into his whole life, an insight which
was altogether wanting to the Greek world." Ndgelsbach, der Gottmensch i.,
128. In civilisation, there is a progress from a lower to a higher degree ; not
so as regards natural gifts. As art increases, nature decreases ; this is the law
Df the development of human civilisation.

NEBUCHADNEZZAR. 211
who weighs men and nations in the balance of eternity, beholds
that hidden essential kernel of things, the heart (1 Sam. xvi. 7) ;
hence, divine views and judgments are so different from those
formed by us.
The prophecies of the seventh and eighth chapters offer some
very characteristic views on this subject. With regard to the
first monarchy, it is said, chap. vii. 4, that Nebuchadnezzar received
a human heart, because he gave honour to the living God. For,
without doubt, Boos, Preiswerk, Hofmann, and others, are right
in referring the changes which are told of the lion to the nar
rative of the fourth chapter, about Nebuchadnezzar. The eagle
wings of haughtiness, with which he soared so high, were taken
from him ; he humbled himself before God, and thus was freed
from the nature of the beast, and again elevated to the dignity of
man. While yet in his proud state, it was announced to him, chap.
iv. 16, that his heart will be changed from man's, and a beast's
heart be given him ; but when he repented, it is said of him, a
man's heart is given him. Our whole chapter is based on the
contrast between the nature of beast and man ; the God-opposed
world power is bestial ; he who stands in communion with God
is human. The " heart of man," of Nebuchadnezzar, forms a
remarkable contrast (comp. 1 Sam. xvi. 7, Boos, p. 146) to the
human eyes of antichrist, the pseudo Son of Man, which, as we
have seen above, are symbols of intellectual culture and of
wisdom, while heart and mouth blaspheme God. How much
higher, then, in a religious view, does the first monarch of the
world stand than the last ! Though, of the second monarchy, the
book does not mention so much good as of the first, yet it
does not specify anything evil. Whereas the third monarchy
produces an antichrist, and the fourth an antichrist even more
violent. A similar deterioration may be noticed in the external political
development of the individual kingdoms. The first is as-yet a
whole, an organic unity ; the second begins to be divided into

212 CHARACTER OF THE LAST KINGDOM.
the Median and Persian element (viii. 3) ; the third branches off
into four, and the fourth into ten kingdoms.
Nor must we leave unnoticed the faithful and accurate man
ner with which prophecy has marked the grand world-historical
difference of east and west, by connecting the two Oriental and
the two Occidental kingdoms, characterising the former by nobler,
the latter by baser metals. The system of division and indivi-
dualisation is peculiar to the latter, and it is they who produce
the two great enemies of the kingdom of God. All these pheno
mena are intimately connected with, and find their explanation
in, the general principles we have developed above.
Finally, we would direct the reader's attention to a point which
appears as a result from a comparison of individual prophecies
among themselves, and with their fulfilment. We have seen that
the events of history are measured differently by God and his
word, than by our common mode of viewing history. What
appears great, according to our view, is insignificant according
to the other ; what is overlooked in profane history, what
seems to be merely natural in the course of events, is regarded,
on the other hand, as of decisive importance. This remark is
suggested chiefly by Antiochus Epiphanes. He was one of the
Syrian kings, and does not commence a period in history. In
the same way, in Jewish history, the troublous time of sixty-two
weeks was not characterized by any outward remarkable event ;
the persecution, by Antiochus, followed naturally after the mani
fold sufferings and oppressions which the Jews had to endure,
owing to the perpetual struggles between the Ptolemies and
Seleucidae. And yet it was during this short period that the ex
istence of God's kingdom was in more imminent peril than ever
before ; and yet it is this period which, for the reason stated, is
most emphatically and circumstantially foretold by prophecy.
Thus we see that events of great importance in the kingdom of
God may be prepared, and may take place in the ordinary,
regular, historical course of things, without any remarkable or
miraculous incidents. In this respect, likewise, Antiochus is a type

CHARACTER OF THE LAST KINGDOM. 213
of antichrist. He, as the former, is originally a little horn,
growing gradually till it is greater than all the rest (vii. 8, 20 ;
viii. 19). Quite in correspondence with these intimations does
the New Testament describe the time preceding Christ's advent.
They eat, they drink ; they marry and give in marriage ; they buy
and sell ; they build and plant ; the world goes its accustomed
regular way. Wealth, trade, arts, culture in the highest bloom,
nay, people expect even more prosperous times, and say, " Peace
and safety" (Luke xvii. 26, 30 ; 1 Thess. v. 3), and although the
most striking judgments are sent from on high, yet their eyes
are blinded that they do not see them as judgments, and precur
sors of judgments to come, and do not repent (Rev. xvi. 9-11).
Then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a
woman with child, and they shall not escape. The day of the
Lord is described in the New Testament under the ever recurring
image of a thief in the night ; thus the Lord Jesus himself de
scribes it ; in the same manner, Paul, Peter, John (Matt. xxiv.
43 ; 1 Thess. v. 2-4 ; 2 Pet. iii. 10 ; Rev. iii. 3, xvi. 15.) We
saw above, Israel was a carcase, and dead, and judged, in the sight
of God, decennia before the actual destruction of Jerusalem. The
people itself, it is true, had a different estimate of their own state.
It was during this period that false Messiah after false Messiah
arose, that the poor deceived nation dreamed of a new political
and religious revival ; of a regeneration of the people ; of the
morning-red of a bright day ; a hope to which the zealots clung
so tenaciously, that even seeing the flames of the temple, they did
not relinquish it. Who knows but divine sentence is already
passed upon our generation ?
Boos remarks (p. 32), " Bear in mind, that many things have
a different shape, beginning, end, value, when viewed in the
invisible world, and by God, from what they have among, and
in the eyes of mortal men. Most distinctly can this be seen
in the coming of Christ from the Father, and in His going again
to the Father. Only faith perceives the transcendent import
ance of every work and act of suffering in the life of the Saviour ;

214 THE JEWS AT THE TIME OF ANTIOCHUS.
the natural eye of man was not capable of seeing it. But there
are other works of God, which occur in such a manner, that
their dignity, beginning, and end, can only be discerned by the
Spirit, who knows all things. For example, who would have
thought that the wanderings of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob,
were of greater importance than the wars and lives of a Sesos-
tris or a Semiramis? And yet Holy Scripture describes the
former, and not the latter. The subjection of Jehoiakim to
Nebuchadnezzar (Dan. i. 1) seemed something unimportant, and
would have been so, if it had been only of short duration. But
now we see it as the commencement of the captivity of God's
people. Often the divine deliverance has a small beginning,
nay, it is often imperceptible to the eye of man, but well known
to God. A scaffolding of the devil falls to the ground ; the first
beginnings of its decline were unobserved, but even then the
fall commenced. If special Satanic powers assist human wicked
ness, it is observed by very few men, and yet this circumstance
is grand and essential. Therefore let us not expect too much
from our knowledge of the history of the world. We can see
from it the fulfilment of prophecy, but at the same time not so
clearly and accurately as the day that will reveal all things
shall show it. It is prophecy which throws light on history ;
human accounts of history, compared with God's history, are
very imperfect, shallow, and vain."
And further, the same author says, p. 213, " As there is a
typical resemblance between the Greek and the Roman anti
christ, let us mark attentively, for our own warning, and that of
our children, what were the sins and transgressions in Israel,
which gave rise to the Greek antichrist, and his tyranny and
fury. And it was this : that some Jews began to adopt the
manners and customs of the heathens (1 Mace. i. 12-14). They
erected in Jerusalem heathenish theatres — houses in which
voluptuous and entertaining plays and gymnastics were per
formed, which attracted much people. And there were priests,
who neglected the sacrifice and the temple, but went into the

THE JEWS AT THE TIME OF ANTIOCHUS. 215
theatres to see the spectacles and exercises there exhibited
(2 Mace. iv. 19). Moreover, there were Jews who apostatised
from the covenant, gave up circumcision, lived as heathens, and
fell into all kinds of gross and shameful vices. Nor must it be
imagined, that all such people divested themselves of the out
ward forms of religion ; for some of them belonged to the priest
hood, or were otherwise connected with the temple service.
Menelaus and Jason were high priests ; Simon an officer of the
temple ; others were common priests. These people had learned
from Greek philosophy, that all religions were good enough to
keep the mass in check, and that the Supreme Being did not
require of us circumcision, or acts and ceremonies of that kind.
They sacrificed at Jerusalem, because such was custom, and
respectable ; but they sent also money to bring sacrifices to
Hercules, in order to gain the king's favour (2 Mace. iv-. 19).
I dare say, they believed neither in Jehovah nor in Hercules ;
a king who would give them earthly prosperity was their God.
Probably they believed neither in angels, a spiritual world,
resurrection, or judgment after death. The theories .of Greek
philosophy accorded well with their profligate life, and were
afterwards propagated by the Sadducees. These strong spirits
were opposed to the pious Jews, who were looked upon as a
separate sect, and called the Pious (2 Mace. xiv. 6). They were
also unfaithful to each other, as, for instance, Menelaus, who
forced himself into the place of the high priest, Jason (iv. 24).
They both purchased the dignity of high priest with money ;
and the treasures of the temple were sent by Menelaus to the
king. The commonplace class of the Jews, who had not
sufficient cleverness to become altogether forts esprits, joined the
party of Menelaus, or Jason, or the king himself and his heroes,
and boasted that they were adherents of these wise men and
great heroes, and had learned from them, that the temple in
Jerusalem was not more sacred than any other place, and that
one religion was as good as another.
Behold, this was the state of Israel, when Antiochus, the

216 THE MESSIANIC KINGDOM.
Greek antichrist, came and raged. Let this serve as a mirror
to the world of to-day."

II. THE FOURTH KINGDOM OF THE WORLD, AND ITS RELATION TO
THE MESSIANIC KINGDOM..
We must first examine the views of those commentators who
agree with us in the general interpretation, that the fourth king
dom is that of the Romans. As this view is commonly repre
sented in modern times, especially by Hengstenberg and Haver
nick, we can only consider it as correct and exhaustive as far as
the beginning of the kingdom is concerned, but not as regards
the terminating conclusion. The chief point, which it is neces
sary to recognise distinctly and to express simply, is, that the
commencement of the kingdom, spoken of in the second and
seventh chapters of Daniel, is nothing else but the second
coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, which we are still awaiting,
to found His so-called millennial kingdom on earth. This is
evident from the following considerations : — >
1. The commencement of the kingdom is to be preceded by
judgment on antichrist (chap, vii.) But antichrist is yet to
come. 2. The kingdom is described in both chapters as a kingdom
of glory and dominion ; whereas hitherto the kingdom of God
on earth, as we all know, has been a regnum crucis.
3. By the " people of the saints of the Most High," to whom
dominion is then to be given (Dan. vii. 18-27), Daniel evidently
could only understand the people of Israel, as distinguished from
the heathen nations and kingdoms, which were to rule up till
then (ii. 44) ; nor have we, according to strict exegesis, a right
to apply the expression to any other nations ; hence we cannot
apply it immediately to the church. In this point Boos (280),
Preiswerk, Hofmann, agree with Hitzig, Bertholdt, and others.
The prophet's words refer to the re-establishment of the king-

LUTHER AND CALVIN. 217
dom of Israel, concerning which the disciples asked our Saviour
immediately before his ascension ; and our Lord, though refusing
to reveal to them the date or chronology, did in no way nega
tive the subject matter of the question, and thereby confirmed it
(Acts i. 6, 7). We shall resume this point in our subsequent
discussion. This promisey then, has not yet been fulfilled to
Israel, and awaits its fulfilment in the millennium. If the pro
phecy of the ninth chapter, in which Christ is described as the
suffering Messiah, is compared with the second and seventh
chapters, it will be seen, that the latter chapters do not refer to
the first coming of Christ, which they suppose to be long past,
but that they describe the Messiah as King of kings and Lord of
lords, who overcomes the beast with its ten kings (Rev. xvii.
12-1 4, xix. 16), so that then it can be said with full truth, " The
kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord
and of His Christ, arid He shall reign for ever and ever" (Rev.
xi. 15).
Luther's interpretation, according to which our chapters refer
to Christ's last appearance to judgment (which may seem sug
gested by vii. 9, 10), is as decidedly wrong as Calvin's view,
which refers them to Christ's first advent. In this we agree
with Boos, who says, pp. 176, 178, " The judgment from
heaven, described vii. 9, is connected with the end of the four
universal monarchies, and the destruction of antichrist. This
alone suffices to show, that the judgment here spoken of is not
the last judgment; for at the last judgment there will be
neither beast, nor kingdom, nor antichrist upon earth, but
heaven and earth will then have passed away."
The parallel passage in Revelation decides the question.
Kurtz (Lehrbuch der heil. Geschichte, 4 Auf., p. 271, 279),
following older commentators,1 places antichrist after the mil
lennium ; but this is erroneous. Gog and Magog are not to be
confused with antichrist and the beast. It cannot be objected,
1 Comp. Bengel erklarte Offenb. neue Ausgabe. Stuttgart, 1834. Pp. 663,
etc.

218 THE KINGDOM YET TO COME.
that since the kingdom is called, in ii. 44, vii. 27, an eternal
kingdom, which cannot be destroyed, it cannot be referred to
the kingdom of a thousand years. Daniel saw the whole time
of perfection collectively as one period ; while by the clearer
light of New Testament prophecy we are able to distinguish in
that period the kingdom of the millennium and the time of the
new heaven and the new earth. As Boos strikingly * remarks
(184), " The dominion of the Lord Christ is eternal, and His
kingdom as such cannot be destroyed. No power of this world
can destroy it. Not even the last judgment shall put an end to
it, but only give it a new and more glorious appearance ; for
after the last judgment, the New Jerusalem shall come down
from heaven, and the throne of God and the Lamb will be in the
midst of it."
Now, if the kingdom of the Messiah, spoken of in the second
and seventh chapters of Daniel, is that of the millennium, and
consequently still in the future, then it follows necessarily, that
the fourth kingdom, as we have already seen, is existing at pre
sent, and includes all developments of Christian world-history,
comprehending, therefore, not merely the old Roman empire, but
also the history of those nations who were brought into connec
tion with it by the migration of nations. Boos saw all this with
perfect clearness ; not so Hengstenberg and his followers. Though
they have to acknowledge, on the one hand, that the " ten kings"
and antichrist are yet future (Beitrage, 211, Havernick Com
mentary, 241 ; Reichel, loc. cit., 959), yet they always speak
of the kingdom of the Messiah as having come already. Heng
stenberg (p. 212) understands by it, " The spiritual kingdom of
God, viewed however in conjunction with its future visible
manifestation at the end of time ;" but he distinctly cautions the
reader not to " confuse this visible manifestation with the
millennium." According to Havernick (561), the object of the
second and seventh chapters of Daniel is simply " to give some
general views of the life and character of the ancient world
(p. 560), as contradistinguished from the newly beginning

THE PAPACY. 219
economy, the Church." Beichel says (p. 961), " The kingdom of
Christ overcomes the Roman empire with its spiritual weapons ;"
and therefore he represents the image of the monarchies " gra
dually" destroyed by the stone, which is directly opposed to the
express words of the text, since it says, ii. 35, then was the
iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold, broken to
pieces together, thus excluding the idea of a contemporaneous
existence of the kingdom of the world and the kingdom of God.
These specimens may suffice to show, that the text is treated in
an unsatisfactory manner ; and one need only read the last
page of Havernick 's Commentary (p. 569), to see how uncertain,
obscure, and confused the views are, which commentators of
this stand-point have on this eschatological question. What is
wanting to Hengstenberg and his school is, as we shall have
frequent opportunity of showing, a scriptural Chiliasm, without
which, it becomes clearer every day, prophetic theology is only
a mutilated torso.1
We now come to consider those commentators with whom
we agree in the main view concerning the character and time of
the Messianic kingdom. Here we have to point out a miscon
ception. Some find in the fourth monarchy also a prophecy of
the Papacy. This view was naturally suggested by the fact,
that the Papacy is likewise Roman. It arises, however, like
the view refuted above, from an unwillingness to admit that
Christianity and the church are not at all mentioned prior to the
1 Compare Delitzsch, die biblisch prophetische Theologie, p. 131-139. The
author characterises it as an essential progress in prophetic theology, made
during the last century, by Bengel and his school (Crusius, Roos, Otinger, and
others), and in the present by Hofmann, Baumgarten, etc., that the following
three ideas are recognised in their intimate connection : — 1. Israel in pro
phecy is not merely a type of the church ; 2. That Israel has yet a future ;
and 3. That before the last judgment there shall be a time of a glorious king
dom of God.
Roos says (Fuss-Stapfen, ii. 397), " The prophets speak frequently, and the
apostles still more frequently, of the kingdom of Jesus Christ. He that has no
knowledge of this kingdom, understands neither the Old nor the New Tes
tament."

220 THE ROMAN EMPIRE.
millennium, and from a desire to find some intimations con
cerning the church before the millennium, in the prophecies pf
Daniel. This may be designated as the English and French
view. Gaussen (i. 174, etc.) refers the clay in the second
chapter to Popery ; as P'ra'sioer/c-^Morgenland, 1838, p. 46)
the little horn, in the seventh. Many objections may be brought
against these opinions ; but we limit ourselves to directing the
reader's attention to the most important point, viz., that the
Papacy, with all its worldliness, can never be represented as a
product of the political world-powers, as such, but must surely
be viewed as a church become worldly. But Daniel, the states
man of Israel, did not prophecy concerning the church ; it was
to John that revelations concerning her were vouchsafed. This
question will therefore be resumed again in our remarks on the
Revelations, especially on the Babylonian harlot, which will,
we trust, contain the simplest refutation of the above views of
Daniel. After these preliminaries, we now proceed to a more minute,
positive consideration of the fourth kingdom. Its national and
political component parts are delineated in chap, ii., in a manner
which has become normative for all subsequent views of history :
first, the old Roman universal monarchy, in its solid iron char
acter (ver. 40), then the plastic material of the Germanic and
Sclavonic tribes, through the migration of nations mixed with
the Roman iron, and finally the division of this Roman-Ger
manic empire into smaller kingdoms, which in the final period
will terminate irr ten kingdoms — these are the grand outlines
of history, as the table of contents in any modern manual of
history shows us. Notice also the wonderful truth of this reve
lation, in regarding this development of two thousand years,
embracing elements so different, as a whole, and forming an unity.
It is a fact that the Roman empire is essentially still existing in
history — a fact which is very instructive, when viewed by the
light of our prophet. The old Roman empire never thought of
representing itself as a continuation of Alexander's universal

THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 221
monarchy ; but the Germanic empire knew no greater honour
than to be a holy Roman empire of a German nationality. And
even before it was dissolved, Napoleon had taken up the idea of
the Roman empire ; his universal monarchy was essentially and
avowedly Roman; his son was called King of Rome; his nephew,
in order to found his power, distributed among the French army
" Roman eagles." The Roman empire is the ideal, which exerts
fascinating power on the rulers of the world, which they are ever
striving to realize, and will doubtless succeed in realizing. Of
all phenomena of history, none bears more essential resemblance
to antichrist than this demonic Napoleonism, which from the
outset identified itself with the idea of the Roman empire. In
like manner, is it the aim of the Czar's policy to surround his
throne with the splendour of Constantinople and the eastern
empire. But the Roman character is existing and manifesting
itself in a more spiritual and internal manner. The Romans,
conquered by the Germans, are the teachers of their victors ;
Roman civilisation, Roman church, Roman language, Roman
law became the chief elements of Germanic civilisation. The
Romanic nations are monuments, showing how deeply this in
fluence has penetrated into the life-blood of modern humanity ;
" they shall mingle themselves with the seed of men," ver. 43.
But they shall not cleave one to another; the Roman element again
and again strives against the Germanic. The contest between
Romanic and Germanic elements is the moving principles of
modern history ; we remind the reader only of the conflict be
tween empire and papacy in the midd'e ages ; of the Reforma
tion, with its consequences, extending down to our own time.
Thus the fourth monarchy has, on the one side, a tenacity truly
Roman — a vigour and firmness surpassing the other kingdoms,
" There shall be in it of the strength of the iron," ver. 41 ; " partly
strong," ver. 42 ; but on the other side, since the introduction of
the Germanic element, in the mixing of iron with clay, it is
divided (ver. 41), and its component parts very changeable and
fragile (partly broken or brittle, ver. 42). The Romanic element,

222 THE ROMAN EMPIRE.
as Gervinus, among others, has pointed out in his " Introduction
to the History of the Nineteenth Century," strives toward uni
versal empire, while the Germanic represents the principle of
individualisation, division. Hence we see ever renewed attempts
to establish world monarchies, either in a spiritual shape, as the
papacy (which may be viewed in this aspect), or in a worldly, as
Charlemagne, Charles V., Napoleon. " But they shall not
cleave one to another;" the different nationalities assert, again
and again, their rights ; Romanic, Germanic, Sclavonic ele
ments oppose each other in political and religious questions ;
nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom
(Matt. xxiv. 7), till antichrist succeed in producing a demonic
union (Dan. vii. 20, 24; Rev. xvii. 12, 13, 17). Thus it is
possible, even now, to trace with considerable accuracy the fulfil
ment of the prophecy concerning the fourth monarchy. It may
be thought startling, that while the first three monarchies taken
together, embrace scarcely some centuries, the fourth alone ex
tends over millennia. There must be something peculiar about
this fourth monarchy. And so there is, as Daniel himself shows
us. The emphasis and circumstantiality (compared with the
three preceding kingdoms), with which it is introduced in the
second, and specially the seventh chapter, is significant. Even
though we should attach no importance to the circumstance,
that the whole lower half of the image is referred to the fourth
monarchy, it is of importance to notice, that while the other
kingdoms consist only of one material, this consists of two ;
upon which fact the prophet lays great stress (ver. 41-43). Com
pare with this the intimations of the seventh chapter. The first
three monarchies appear in the shapes of certain beasts — lion,
bear, leopard ; the fourth, however, is not so represented. This
is of decisive importance. The last empire is too terrible, its
power too great and extensive, as that it can be represented
by any beast known to us. What is thus expressed concretely,
is afterwards explained in words, and confirmed by the thrice
repeated expression (ver. 7, 19, 23), "it was diverse from all the

THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 223
beasts that went before it." Moreover, the peculiar importance
of the fourth beast is shown by the prophet's opening the de
scription of it with the full formula : " After this I saw in the
night-visions, and behold," a formula, which has its analogies
only in ver. 2, and in ver. 13, thus dividing the whole vision
into three parts, the first of which embraces the three first king
doms, the second the fourth and its overthrow, the third the
Messianic kingdom.
The difference between the fourth monarchy and its three pre
decessors is indicated in the 23d verse, and consists primarily in
its more unlimited universality. During the first three king
doms, there was some world-history independent of them ;
Greece stood beside the East — Rome beside Greece ; they were
not universal monarchies in the full sense of the word, there
were always other nations possessed of vigour and of a world-
historical future, unsubdued, and soon in their turn subduing
other powers. Hence these monarchies had only a short dura
tion, and hence it was not possible, that the God-opposed
principle should find its full development in them. Whereas the
fourth monarchy includes the whole otKovp-evrj, everything of
world-historical importance is concentrated in it. Even ancient
authors were conscious of this. Thus Herodian says, ii. 11,7:
" There is no part of the earth under heaven where the Romans
have not extended their empire." Dionysius of Halicarnasse, in
a passage strikingly suggestive of our prophecy, compares the
Roman empire with the preceding world-powers, the Assyrian,
Babylonian, the Persian, and the Greek. He says — " These
are the most celebrated kingdoms up to our time, and such are
their duration and power, but the empire of the Romans is
established in all parts of the earth which are accessible and
inhabited by man ; its rule extends likewise over the whole
ocean, and it is the first and only empire which has made the
east and west its boundaries. Moreover, its power has lasted
not a short period, but longer than that of any other kingdom."
This universal character is peculiar to the fourth monarchy

224 THE ROMAN EMPIRE.
up to our time. All history moves within the circle of Romanic,
Germanic, Sclavonic nations ; and we know from the prophecy
of Daniel, that before the second advent of Christ, no other
nations shall be called to be centres in the history of the world.
The fourth monarchy represents universalism externally ;
Christianity represents universalism internally — the one striving
from below to be what the other is, coming from above. Therefore,
it is possible, it is necessary, that anti-Christianity be born here
— a type which we have in the Roman emperors. It is possible
that here, as in the building of the Tower of Babel, the whole
race should rise against God : Rome becomes Babylon fully
developed. The fourth monarchy is the world-power corre
sponding to Christianity, and therefore contemporary with it.
The existence of the Roman universal empire is justly enume
rated among the events constituting the " fulness of times," in
which God sent his Son (Gal. iv. 4; Mark i. 15); there was
thus given to universal religion, freeing itself from the limitations
of the Jewish nationality, a possibility to take the world as its
field (Matt. xiii. 38).1
The planting and spread of Christianity has brought new
vital elements also to the world-power, which is the real reason
why the fourth kingdom has a so much longer duration than the
preceding ones. We may add this now from our stand-point,
witnessing the fulfilment, though Daniel himself saw neither the
long duration nor the cause of it. Whilst truth manifests its
highest revelations, its antagonist, the Lie, which the kingdoms of
the world are serving, likewise unfolds itself fully : the fall of
the last kingdom is deeper than that of all the others, both the
sin and apostasy, and the decay and judgment. The result of
the development of this period is the antichrist, in whom all
world-power and world-civilisation is united, in whom all enmity
1 The Evangelist Luke has carefully pointed out, that the coming of the
heavenly King into this world, coincides with the first act of supremacy over
Judea on the part of him, in whom the Roman world-power was first represented
in a person. Luke ii. 1 ; Baumgarten, Apostolic History, vol. i., p. 303.

ANTICHRIST. 225
against God, His people, and His service, is concentrated (ver.
8, 11, 20-24, etc). There are chiefly three attributes mentioned
in connection with antichrist — 1, The highest degree of wisdom,
cultivation of the intellect, worldly civilisation ; 2, The uniting
of the whole civilised world under His dominion ; 3, Atheism,
antitheism, and autotheism, developed to the highest power,
comp. 1 John ii. 22. The God-opposed character and power of
the world reaches thus both internally and externally its culmi
nating point, and therefore not only is power taken from the
fourth beast, as was done in the case of the first three, ver. 12,
but God sends terrible judgment on it, and the world-power in
general, judgment as awful as it is final (ver. 11 and 26). This
judgment is described with great solemnity, as issuing imme
diately from God (ver. 9 and 11), thus showing that political
revolutions and events are now at an end ; but that the history
of all nations, and the whole world, is now summed up by the
living God himself, and the result of its total development
pronounced by the Divine Judge. And His judgment is,
that the beast must be slain and given to the burning flames
(ver. 11).
Also at this point, prophecy comes into collision with the views
current among many Christians and theologians concerning the
history and the destiny of Christianity in the present period of
the world's history. In our former paragraph we contrasted
the prophetic and the current views of the history of the world.
We must now contrast the two views on church history, which
falls altogether within the time of the fourth monarchy. What
strikes us as peculiar and startling in Daniel's representation of
the four monarchies is, that the first coming of Christ, — His
Church and her influence on the development of the world, are
left altogether unnoticed and unmentioned. The fourth mo
narchy, though Christianized for a millennium and a half, is
not distinguished either from the preceding heathen monarchies
as such, or from its own heathen portion ; on the contrary, it is re
presented as the most terrible and as the most God-opposed of

226 THE ROMAN EMPIRE ONLY OUTWARDLY CHRISTIAN.
all kingdoms. God thus speaks of the world-power in its
Christian period, without mentioning at all its Christianity, only
its final adherence to antichrist is spoken of. Why is this?
Because Christ's kingdom, as it was established at his first ad
vent, is not of this world (John xviii. 36), and Daniel was to
prophesy the course of the world-powers ; hence the kingdom of
God enters his horizon at that point where it begins to be a
real and external power of the world; that is, at the second
advent of Christ. But we may learn from this a very important
lesson, viz., that even during the Christian period of the world's
history, the old character of the world is essentially existing ;
that the outward Christianity, which the kingdoms of the world
have adopted for fifteen centuries, is very far from real
Christianity ; but that the kingdom of God is a hidden and
suffering one, till the Lord Jesus comes again (Col. iii. 3 ; Rom.
viii. 17; 2 Tim. ii. 11, 12). Boos remarks, p. 70 : "The Ro
man empire was worldly as long as it was lieathen ; it has
remained worldly, though it has become Christian.
Daniel does not stand isolated in this view, but the whole New
Testament bears witness to the same truth. From this point of
view, we can understand why the apostles looked forward with
such ardent desire to the coming of Christ; why they constantly
look to that event, and put it into so much closer relation to all
their actions and feelings, than we are wont to do. They also,
although living after the first advent of Christ, view quite in the
same manner as Daniel the present aeon, as contrasted with the
future aeon, beginning with the parousia of Christ, as an evil
and essentially heathenish age of the world, whose god is the
devil, and which we cannot love, and to which we cannot con
form without denying and forsaking the cause of Christ (Gal. i.
4; Eph. ii. 2 ; 2 Cor. iv. 4; 2 Tim. iv. 10 ; Rom. xii. 2, comp.
1 Cor. i. 20 ; ii. 6, 8 ; iii. 18) ; they also know with Daniel,
that the fashion and essence of the world passeth away, and the
object of Christianity is, according to them, not so much to
Christianize even now the present world, but rather to save

THE PRESENT AEON. 227
souls from the present evil world-course, lest they be con
demned with the world. It is thus that the very apostle, who
proclaimed most distinctly and powerfully the unlimited universal
character of this gospel, describes the object of Christ's coming
and of Christianity (1 Cor. vii. 31, comp. 1 John ii. 15, 17 ;
Gal. i. 4 ; 1 Cor. xi. 32). It is as yet not the time for Chris
tians and Christianity to rule and to possess the kingdom ; this
forms truly the object of our hopes and desires (1 Cor. iv. 8 ; 2
Tim. ii. 12). In the present aeon, our Lord is looking not so
much to the whole as to the individual, not so much to the ex
ternal as the internal, not so much to what is great and exten
sive, as to what is low and humble ; the gathering together of a
congregation, which will be called to rule with Him in the
millennium (Matt. xix. 28 ; v. 5 ; Luke xii. 32 ; xxii. 28-30 ;
Rom. v. 17 ; 1 Cor. vi. 2 ; Rev. i. 6 ; ii. 26-28; iii. 21 ; xx. 4).
-All external Christian institutions of Church and State are only
means subservient to that end, means for the gift and preserva
tion of which we ought to feel gratitude, and which to keep
vital and spiritual, ought to be our active aim ; but, with regard
to which, we must never forget that they are not essential, but
a passing form, which shall give way to a more perfect one,
promised by the Lord.1 The congregation of the faithful, the
invisible church, is even at present the salt of the earth and the
light of the world ; scattered throughout all lands, she spreads
1 Roos, speaking of the relation between State and Church during the fourth
monarchy, says, among other things, p. 123, — "After the Reformation, the
Protestant rulers took again to themselves ecclesiastical rights, with the con
sent of the congregations, and have since then exercised them, through their
consistories, and with such government every member of the Church may rest
satisfied at this present time. But such church government is not yet what ought
and is to be. It is a vain attempt to found the rights which worldly rulers exercise
in Church matters during the fourth monarchy, on declarations of Scripture.
They have no other foundation, but the present defective and distressed state
of the Church. The best church government is described, Isaiah xlix. 7,
23 ; lx. 3, 10-12. — Behold then the Church of God's saints will be free, and
exercise her royal rights upon earth as the Bride of the Lamb." Such is also
the hope of Spener.

228 THE PRESENT AEON.
everywhere the blessings of Christianity, so that the birds of the
air may come and lodge under the branches of this divine Tree
of Life (Matt. v. 13-16 ; xiii. 32). For even they who are
merely nominal Christians, and only members of the outward
visible church, partake in some of those blessings which Chris
tianity has brought into the present age of the world — general
morality, purer humanity, blessings of secondary importance,
— while the true Christians are seeking the invisible and future,
their better part, their spiritual life being rooted in the future
heavenly world (Ep. ii. 6 ; 2 Cor. iv. 18 ; Col. iii. 1, 2 ; Heb.
xiii. 14 ; Phil. iii. 20,). In a general and secondary sense, one
may speak of a Christian state, Christian art, Christian culture
and civilisation. Only let us guard against the idea, that it is
either possible, or that it is destined that Christianity is to
Christianize in the real spiritual sense, or as the expression is
often erroneously used in > this connection, to transfigure the
world during the present period of the world's history. Chris
tianity exerts an ennobling influence on all spheres of life ;
but a transfiguration in the correct sense of the word must needs
be preceded by a regeneration, a palingenesis ; first, there must
be death and resurrection, even as our Lord had to pass through
this path to His transfiguration. The kingdoms of this world —
this is the simple and clear meaning of our prophecy — must first
be destroyed, then only is it possible that rising in a new form,
they will become kingdoms of God and his Christ. State, art,
civilisation, will be truly Christian in the kingdom of the mil
lennium. Nor is even this the last and proper transfiguration,
because even then the natural corruption is not perfectly exter
minated. After the millennium, another apostasy and judgment
must take place (Rev. xx. 7—15), in which judgment the world of
nature is destroyed and renewed, as the world of history was
before the kingdom of the millennium (2 Pet. iii. 10-13), and it
is only then, that full, real perfection comes, with a new earth
and a new heaven (Rev. xxi. 1). Thus the progression in God's
ways is slow and gradual (comp. 2 Pet. iii. 8, 9) ; the most im

THE PRESENT AEON. 229
portant things God has not given to our charge, but reserved
for His power ; and the apostles and prophets were wise in
looking constantly to the parousia of Christ, and in representing
the Christian always as one waiting (1 Tb.es. i. 9, 10 ; 2 Pet.
iii. 11, 12, 14; Luke xii. 35, 36^ 40-46; Matt. xxv. 1-23;
Mark xiii. 33-37) ; even our divine Lord is waiting for His
great future, " from henceforth expecting till His enemies be
made His footstool." — Heb. x. 13. And, therefore, it is, that
Daniel does not speak of any change in the world-power prior
to the millennium, and does not speak differently of the world-
power during the church historical time, than of the preceding
kingdoms. Politics are based on spiritual laws, and the voice of
history proclaims distinctly, that even in our Christian era,
politics are as much ruled by the worldly spirit of egoistical and
material interest, as was the case in the old heathen empires ;
nay, that this antichristian spirit is gaining every day more
the ascendancy. This view of the world and our times is
founded on the word of God, and is alone able to give true
comfort, rest, and light, amid the outward and inward confusions
of the present.
The following passages, from the writings of contemporary
theologians, will show how necessary it is to bring forward these
truths of Scripture with all possible distinctness and force. The
supposition on which these quotations rest is, that not He who
sitteth on the throne, but man, will renew all things by his ad
vancing political wisdom, civilisation, and piety.1
" God grant," says Lucke (Loc. cit. xvii), " that all princes and
statesmen would listen in these our times, to the apocalyptic
voices, trumpets, and vials of wrath, and divine judgments, take
them to heart, and thus rule the nations, that State and Church
may evermore build themselves up to become like that city of
God from heaven, spoken of Rev. xxi."
And, in like manner, Schenkel in a sermon on Rom. viii. 19-23
1 Forgetting Dan. ii. 34, (Luther's version) " Without hand of man !"

230 THE PRESENT AEON.
(das Trostwort der Hoffnung zwolf Predigten, Schaffhausen,
1851, p. 108). " All creation will become free. The inert
shapes, which are now dead, will be gradually penetrated and
illumined by the Spirit. The solitary places and deserts, which
are now desolate and barren, will gradually be changed into
fertile fields of God. The dark powers, which at present are
either ruling unrestrained or slumbering undeveloped, will be
taken ever more and more into the service of divine wis
dom, and thus be redeemed. Nature will become spirit, and
the life of the creation be transfigured into life spiritual. There
will be a new heaven and a new earth, all old things will then
have passed away. But, and if some ask, where are the traces
of such a transfiguration of the world, of such progressive sancti-
fication and perfection of the life of creation and the human race
upon earth? Doth not nature pursue, without intermission, her
wonted course? And as to man, is he not rather always be
coming worse instead of better? The kingdom of darkness, doth it
not ever extend its dominion? Are not all things pressingforwards
to a battle of decision, in which we can scarcely hope the cause
of the righteous will be victorious ? O ye of little faith, we
may exclaim, with our Lord, have you not eyes to see ? How
is it that you do not understand the ways of the Lord, and
cannot interpret aright his leadings? Be not like the Pharisees
of old, who saw not the signs of the times. Doth not rude
matter see itself compelled to carry with lightning speed human
thought from one end of the earth to the other? Must not
inert metal carry man as on wings of storm from place to place,
and thus increase immeasurably man's living personal inter
course with one another ? Is not all nature stepping down to
man to free him from his heaviest burden, and to labour, though
unconsciously, in the service of spirit? Natural science, in our
day is not merely science, but prophecy. And is it true, what
those affirm, who are of little faith and weak, that man is be
coming worse ? It cannot be true, were it only for this, that
then the prince of darkness, and not the God of Light, would

BAUMGARTEN AND HOFMANN. 231
achieve the victory. But deeper thought and consideration will
lead us t& a different result. Do we not see how the messengers
of the gospel penetrate into the furthest corners of the earth ?
Is not the cross, in spite of all ignominy and persecution it has
to bear upon earth, the highest object of human veneration,
achieving ever new and glorious victories ? Doth not Christian
soberness and righteousness stand out like a rock in the midst of
the raging sea, in the flood of pernicious immorality ; and must
not even they, who hate it, bow before it in reverence ? Did
not a new life of faith awake among the nations, so that the un
believers are beginning to be ashamed of their infidelity, and
will soon be looked upon as the " one-sided, and narrow-minded,
and antiquated," while the faithful are gaining in public respect
as well as in heavenly strength. The history of the world is
not only the judgment, but also the transfiguration of the
world." Contrast with this the words of biblical soberness and truth
uttered by Baumgarten (Acts ii. 2). — " The Church may
succeed to make the worldly caricature of the kingdom more
resembling and approaching the divine model which we possess
in the history of Israel and in the promises of prophecy, aye,
even to renew some features altogether ; only let us never allow
ourselves to imagine, that the Church, by thus forming herself
according to her model, in the midst of this world, interrupts the
secret and increasing continuousness of the world-kingdom.
Holy Scripture teaches us, that this will be effected in a totally
different manner."
In like manner, Hofmann expresses himself (Weissa. u.
Erfiill. ii. 295). — " The expectation of the man of sin does indeed
not accord with the hope of the increasing Christianization of
our political and social life ; but who is it that causes us to enter
tain such a hope of a world, in which the mystery of iniquity
is unceasingly active ? The more observing eye cannot fail to
observe, that this external Christianity of social and natural life
of which we boast so much, is only to be regarded as something

232 DANIEL AND ST JOHN.
intermediate, which will disappear, and be succeeded by heathen
ism, after having fulfilled its temporary use."
To these negative statements we add the positive one of
Kurtz (Loc. cit. 278). — " In the millennium it is, that Chris
tianity will obtain a complete outward victory, unconditional
recognition from all potentates and governments, the most
glorious development in all relations and situations of life, art,
and science ; when all relations of life, the highest as well as
the lowest, will be based on divine love and consecrated to
God." A.fter these remarks, the reader will not fail to see the reasons,
why the first coming of Christ, and the events connected there
with are passed over in the second and seventh chapters of
Daniel ; and it will appear even less strange, if we bear in mind
that Daniel's primary object was to prophesy to his own nation,
and he viewed, therefore, necessarily, the whole period from the
destruction to the re-establishment of the kingdom of Israel, as one
period ; and the last remnant of astonishment must disappear,
when we remember, that in the ninth chapter, most minute pre
dictions are given concerning the first coming of Christ, and its
importance for, and effects on, the ancient people of the covenant.
But it is manifest, that the New Testament Church, which
was transplanted from Israel into the Gentile world, stood in
need of further and more minute disclosures concerning the time
of the fourth monarchy, the times of the Gentiles (Luke xxi. 24).
The starting-point in such a revelation will needs be the first
advent of Christ and the first Christian church (a starting-point
not necessary in Daniel's prophecy concerning the kingdoms of
the world), and its chief subject, therefore, will be the relation of
this chiefly Gentile Christian church to the heathen world-power.
Thus it is the period between Christ's death and Jerusalem's
destruction, and the second coming of Christ — a period which
Daniel saw only dimly in its great general outlines — which falls
now chiefly within the light of apocalyptic prophecy. We know
that the apocalypse of John is in the New Testament and to the

DIFFICULTY OF THE TASK. 233
Christian Church, what Daniel was in the Old and to the
ancient covenant people.

SECOND CHAPTER.
THE BEASTS AND THE WOMAN IN THE REVELATION OF ST JOHN.
In attempting to offer our remarks on the Apocalypse of the
New Testament, we do not conceal from ourselves the difficulties
of the task to explain this book, which calls itself, in a peculiar
sense, the Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto Him
(i. 1), and which abounds so much in mysteries, that centuries, and
the most enlightened men of God, have laboured in vain to ex
plain it satisfactorily. The following remarks lay no higher
claim than to be an attempt, offered for examination to those who,
like Daniel (ix. 2), search the Scriptures.
All students of the Apocalypse, who view it in a spiritual way,
experience, at every new interpretation, what the Queen of
Arabia experienced, with regard to what she had heard
about Solomon : " Behold, the half was not told me ; thy
wisdom and prosperity exceedeth the fame which I heard.
Happy are thy men, happy are these thy servants, which stand
continually before thee, and that hear thy wisdom (1 Kings x. 7,
8). This will also be the case with our exposition. It lies in
the nature of the case, that the great task cannot be solved by
one man, or even one generation, for the book has been given to
the whole church of believers, throughout all centuries, till the
second coming of Christ ; and since fulfilment only brings the.
full exposition of prophecy, it is natural, and necessary, that we
are only advancing in our approximation to the true interpreta
tion.. But it is just on account of the difficult nature of the task,
that attempts may, and ought to be, made again and again to
solve the holy problems, and that, in these new attempts, we
should avail ourselves of the results gained by our predecessors,

234 • ANALOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
while we separate carefully the impure and erroneous elements
they contain. The views prevalent at present on the Apocalypse
contain so much of what deserves to be cast aside, that many
have thereby lost altogether their faith in the authority and im
portant position of this book, and, for this reason, we venture to
make a new attempt. We are encouraged, in our undertaking,
especially by the circumstance that we know our view of the
Revelations to be in harmony with the other prophecies of Holy
Scripture, not only with Daniel and the other Old Testament
prophets, but also with the prophecies contained in the New
Testament, with the view of the world and of history, which
Christ and his apostles are represented to hold. The analogy of
Scripture, this fundamental principle of exegesis, is of double im
portance in the case of a book, which, as is generally admitted,
forms the concluding consummation of all biblical prophecy. As
we kept this constantly in view during our investigations of
Daniel, we shall adhere even more strictly to this method in our
remarks on St John, hoping that our work will gain thereby, in
convincing force as well as in interest.
Here, where we are speaking of parallel passages correspond
ing to Daniel, we have not to view the whole book of Revela
tions, but the most important part of it, which decides the
understanding of the whole, namely, the section beginning with
the twelfth chapter. For, it is beyond doubt, that the explanation
given to the symbols, occurring in this portion of the book, the
woman, the harlot, and the two beasts, forms the key to the ex
position of the whole book. As the correct view concerning the
formal arrangement of the book has now been generally adopted,
it is the more easily possible to select and separate such an indi
vidual portion. We saw, in the case of Daniel, that the same
subject is spoken of in the second and seventh chapters, and in
the eighth and eleventh, though light is thrown on it in different
ways. Something similar do we meet in the Apocalypse. The
introductory and concluding parts, chap, i.-iii. and xx.-xxii., show
us first the stand-point and time of the prophet, and secondly,

STARTING-POINT. 235
the final completion of the whole counsel of God ; the time
between these two termination-points, or, as we may say, speak
ing in a general way, the time between the first and second
coming of our Lord, is the period spoken of in these groups of
prophecy, in which it is viewed in its different aspects ; the seven
seals (iv.— viii.), the seven trumpets (viii.— xi.), and the seven vials
(xii.-xix.). Each of these groups has an addition peculiar to
itself, which is placed in the two first groups, between the sixth
and seventh seal, and between the sixth and seventh trumpet
(chap, vii.-x., 1-11, 14), whereas, in the case of the third group,
it does not interrupt the succession of the seven vials, but partly
precedes them (xii.-xiv.), partly follows after them (xvii.-xix.).
Our special task demands the consideration of the last group, and
chiefly of chapters xii.-xiii., xvii.-xix., and this will lead us to
consider the twentieth chapter, which forms a parallel to the
Messianic kingdom of Daniel. We shall pursue our former method
(in Section II.), and give first our own exposition, and then a
representation and criticism of the most important views of the
Apocalypse, which differ from ours, and bear on our question.

EXPOSITION OF REVELATION XII., ETC.
I. STARTING-POINT; JOHN'S POSITION IN THE HISTORY
OP REVELATION.
This is not the place to discuss, at length, the difficult question
about the time in which the Apocalypse was written. Without
wishing to speak on this point in too decided a tone, we may
shortly premise that, notwithstanding the weight of the testi
mony of Irenaeus, in favour of the time being under the reign
of Domitian, the evidence contained in the book itself is more in
favour of the view held unanimously by Guericke, Ihiersch, Lut-
terbeck,1 Liicke, Baur, and others, that it was written shortly
' Die neutestamentlichen Lehrbegriffe II., 256.

236 ST JOHN AND DANIEL.
before the destruction of Jerusalem. The remarks of Thiersch,
on the historical constellation from which the book of Revelation
proceeded, are very successful, though they are not perfectly
clear in detail.1 However, the following remarks will apply, in
all essential respects, equally, though the other view should be
adopted, which has been recently represented by J. Chr. K. Hof
mann, Hengstenberg, and Ebrard. The situation of the king
dom , of God on earth, in which, and out of which, the
Revelation of St John originated, bears the strongest resem
blance to that out of which the prophecies of Daniel took their rise.
In the one case, it was the Old Testament church scattered among
the heathens ; here it is the church of the New Testament ; there
we see Jerusalem destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar, here by Titus ;
there the great question is, What has Israel to expect from the
hands of the powers of the world ? here the same question is of
paramount importance as regards the congregation of Jesus Christ,
which is likewise placed within the sphere of those kingdoms.
Both Apocalyptics look into "the times of the Gentiles;" but
Daniel sees in the first centuries of these times, a restoration of
Israel and Jerusalem, which, however, is in troublous times, and
ends with a terrible destruction of the holy city (Dan. ix. 24-27).
This destruction is immediately before St John, and he, therefore,
sees the kingdom of God without any external stay — without a
home on earth — it was transplanted already, by the instrumen
tality of St Paul, into the Gentile world ; the Jews even oppose
it with decided hostility (Rev. ii. 9 ; iii. 9) ; the seven congrega
tions of Asia Minor, to whom the Apocalypse is directed (chaps.
ii. and iii.), are chiefly Gentile Christians, and yet representatives
of the whole Church. Thus, every external distinction between
the kingdom of God and the kingdoms of this world, has been
removed, and this accounts for a characteristic difference, which'
distinguishes the stand-point of St John from that of Daniel.
Both agree in representing the Son of Man descending at the end of
1 Die Kirche im apostolischen Zeitalter, p. 230-253.

ST JOHN AND DANIEL. 237
the times of the world to judge the antichristian power, and to
establish his own glorious kingdom ; but Daniel sees only beasts
prior to the end; John, on the other hand, beasts, and also the
woman, who, according to the almost unanimous interpretation
of commentators, represeats the Church of God. It was not
necessary that the Church should be symbolically represented in
the visions of Daniel, because, Israel was sufficiently distinguished
from the heathen world by external national boundary-lines ;
whereas now, when the congregation of believers is moving like
the powers of the world in the sea of nations, when outward dis
tinctions have been removed, it is necessary that the internal
essential antithesis between church and world, should be marked
and emphasized, and, for this reason, the woman is opposed to
the beasts. And, for this reason, as we shall notice subsequently,
we are told at once concerning the woman, that she passes from
Israel to the heathen world.
Such being the case, the twofold question arises, first, How
are we to understand the promises of glory given of the king
dom of God ? and, secondly, What relation will now subsist
between the kingdom of God and the kingdom of the world,
seeing that the former has passed over into the latter ? To this
twofold question our present age has furnished the answer — the
same answer which is intimated throughout the book. The times
are even now, we remark in the first place, during which the
powers of this world rule upon the earth, and oppress and keep
under the kingdom of God (comp. ii. 10, xiv. 3, 10). True, Christ
has taken His throne in heaven, in the glory of King and Judge, as
Head and Protector of His congregations (xii. 20) ; but it is
necessary to be in the spirit, in order to see Him (ver. 19), for as
yet His life is hid in God ; the hour is not come yet, when He
shall take to Himself great power, and shall reign and give
reward to His saints, and destroy them which destroy the earth
(Rev. xi. 17, 18) ; still have the martyrs to cry out, " How long,
O Lord, holy and true, dost Thou not judge and avenge our
blood on them that dwell on the earth" (vi. 9, 10). The Church

238 THE CORRUPTION IN THE CHURCH.
is still a Church militant and suffering ; she has experienced
this in the persecution of Nero, in which the world-power con
centrated all its bestial fury on her. On this dark back-ground does
the book of Revelations rise, and thus it becomes a book of com
fort for the congregations of Christ's believers, in all the struggles
which may yet have to be fought with the powers of the world.
But even as Daniel's view Was not confined to Nebuchadnezzar,
or even to Antiochus Epiphanes, even so is John's view not
limited to Nero and the Roman imperators : this would be too
limited a horizon for " the revelation of Jesus Christ." The
beasts of Daniel are of universal signification ; still more may
this be affirmed of the beast in the Apocalypse.
But the Church has experienced, in another manner, that she
is still in the ungodly world. The kingdom of this world has
not only oppressed her from without, but the essence of the
former has penetrated into her own sphere. Of this the seven
epistles to the churches contain but too ample indications. We
see that coldness crept into the spiritual life of the congregations
themselves, so that the Lord has to address to many of them the
solemn word, " I have against thee ! " and to blame in particular
several of them — Ephesus, that it has left its first love ; Sardis,
that it has only a name — that it liveth, and is dead ; Laodicea,
that it is neither cold nor hot — that it sayeth, I am rich, and
increased with goods, instead of knowing its misery, poverty,
and blindness (ii. 4, 5 ; iii. 1-3, 15-19). But this is not all ; but
error and seduction have passed over from heathenism, and its
false gnosis has insinuated itself into the Church, through the
Nicolaitanes, the followers of the doctrine of Balaam, and the
false prophetess, Jezebel, who seduced the faithful to heathenish
conformity to the world, and licentiousness, to fornication (ii. 6,
14, 15, 20-27).1
1 The indications of Judaising heresies, which may be traced in the Apoca
lypse, are not quite unambiguous. Perhaps only the apostles, which were found
to be liars (ii. 2), belong to that heresy. Those who had the name of Jews
but were the synagogue of Satan (ii. 9 ; iii. 9), were real Jews, hostile to the

STARTING-POINTS OF THE APOCALYPSE. 239
We must consider the internal state of the Church at the time
of John, as well as the external persecutions, in investigating
the historical background and starting-point of the Apocalypse.
As Paul and Peter (1 Tim. iv. 1 ; 2 Tim. iii. 1 ; 2 Pet. ii. 1 ;
iii. 3), so John foresees the further development of the corrup
tion within the Church ; hence his prophecies concerning the
harlot and the false prophet, with which prophecies are con
nected several passages in his epistles (1 John ii. 18, 22 ; iv. 3 ;
2 John 7). In this respect we may regard the Apocalypse as a
book of warning to the Church, against conformity to the world,
and against false doctrine. We find an analogy to this in
Daniel, in the apostasy of so many Israelites from the covenant
of God, which he foresees to happen in the time of Antiochus
xi. 30-32 ; xii. 10), and in the even greater apostasy of the
whole nation at the first coming of the Messiah (ix. 26, 27).
Moreover, this view, as is natural, is not so prominent in his
prophecy ; as he does not represent the woman, he does not
mention the harlot. We shall find a preparatory analogy to the
false prophet in the cunning eyes of antichrist.
The three points in the age of John, from which the revela
tions given by the spirit of prophecy, or rather the Lord Jesus
Christ, the Saviour exalted at the right hand of God, start — are,
1, The Church has passed over into the world of Gentiles, and
is making continual progress in that sphere. But in doing so,
she is, 2, persecuted ; and, 3, seduced, as heathenism passes
over into her sphere. These fundamental views prepare, in the
meantime, a general understanding of the principal symbolic
figures of our book, the woman, the beast, the harlot, the false
prophet. We have now to show the future development of
world and Church, as described by prophecy, starting from the
points we indicated.
Christian Church. Comp. de Wette's and Hengstenberg's remarks on those
passages.

240 THE WOMAN AND THE DRAGON.
II. DEVELOPMENT OF CHURCH AND WORLD IN HISTORY.
I. THE CHURCH AND THE POWER OF THE WORLD.
The twelfth and thirteenth chapters contain characteristics
of the conflicting powers ; they describe the woman on the one
side ; the dragon, the beast, and the false prophet, on the other.
All these powers are described in the universal spirit of the New
Testament, according to all their relations to the history of the
world and the kingdom. The vision refers not merely to the
future, but, for the sake of giving the characteristics distinctly,
also the present time of the writer, and the past, as is required
by the circumstances of the case (comp. Rev. xvii., i'rreo-av. i'o-Tiv
ovwa rjXBev). John first speaks of the woman ; let us consider
now his prophecies concerning her.
a. The Woman and the Dragon.
1. Woman and beast form manifestly the same contrast, as in
Daniel the Son of man and the beasts. This is indicated, even by
the locality where the two seers behold these visions. As the
Son of Man is seen by Daniel to come from heaven (Dan. xii. 1),
so the apostle sees the woman in heaven (xii. 1) ; and as the
beasts in Daniel rise out of the sea, in like manner the beast in
the Apocalypse (xiii. 1). In both cases it is the human which
is opposed to the bestial, only with Daniel in male, with John
in female shape. We know, that herein the contrast between
the kingdom of God and that of the world is symbolized.
Daniel beholds the Man, the Bridegroom, the Messiah ; because
he looks into the time when Christ shall reappear visibly and
establish His kingdom upon earth. John, on the other hand,
within whose horizon lies, to speak at present only in a general
way, the time before the second advent, beholds the woman, the
bride, the congregation of God in the world. He beholds her

THE WOMAN. 241
in the figure of a woman, and this symbolism is not confined to
the Apocalypses, but is a consummation of the whole usus
hquendi of the Old and New Testaments. It begins in the
Pentateuch, in which the apostasy of the people of Israel from
God to idols is represented as fornication, while the holy earnest
ness of God is spoken of as jealousy — expressions which have
for their foundation the view of a marriage relation between
God and Israel, in which the Lord is the Husband, the people
the wife (for example, Exod. xxxiv. 15 ; Lev. xvii. 7, xx. 5, 6 ;
Numb. xiv. 33, xv. 39 ; Deut. xxxi. 16, xxxii. 16, 21). We
find a further development of this view in the writings of the
prophets, who apply the image in a great variety of ways — time
of espousal, marriage state, adultery, divorce, widowhood, etc.
(Isa. i. 21, 1. 1, liv. 1 ; Jer. ii. 2, 20, 23-25, iii. 1 ; Ezek. xvi.
and xxiii. ; Hos. i., etc.) In the New Testament the same
expression is used by John the Baptist, who designates the Lord
Jesus, the Messiah, as the Bridegroom, whose is the bride (John
iii. 29). Thus from the very outset Christ is introduced in the
place of Jehovah ; in the time of fulfilment Jehovah became
Jesus Christ, as His name manifests 6 Kipios, the Lord. He
Himself calls Himself the Bridegroom (Matt. ix. 15), and has
developed this comparison in His parable of the ten virgins, the
royal marriage, and similar sayings. We meet the same view
in the apostolic epistles. Paul, in his epistle to the Ephesians
(v. 23-32), has developed this image, and shown its deep foun
dation, in pointing out how the original institution of marriage
in Paradise (Gen ii.),1 was a type of Christ and His Church.
All this the Apocalypse sums up in the one word, woman (xii. 1).
The characteristic of woman, in contradistinction to that of man,
is her being subject (Eph. v. 22-24), the surrendering of herself,
her being receptive. And this is in like manner the characteris
tic of man in his relation to God ; if he is to correspond to his
nature, he can only live in subjection to God, and receiving
1 Comp. Delitzsch, Hohelied, p. 186.

242 THE WOMAN.
from Him. All autonomy of the human spirit is an essential
reversion of his relation to God. It is this receptive, woman-like
position of man towards God and divine things, which the Bible
calls faith, and on which, according to her teaching, all reception
of divine life and strength depends. Faith is also a child-like
relationship to God ; by it we become God's children (Gal. iii.
26). In connection with this, take the sayings of our Lord about
becoming again like children, and the teachings of the New
Testament about adoption. The individual soul is a child of
God ; the children collectively are viewed as the woman (Isa.
liv. 1-3 ; Ezek. xvi. 20). Thus the term woman does not
merely sum up all previous expressions used in connection with
this comparison, but in general every thing that has been taught
in Scripture concerning the fundamental relation of man to God.
Humanity, in so far as it belongs to God, is the woman ; therefore
it is said emphatically of Christ, the "Son of the woman (Rev.
xii. 5), that He is a Man-child, a Son. True, He is born of a
woman, and under the law (Gal. iv. 4) ; He is the true result
and product of the Old Testament Church, and hence subject to
her law and order of life ; but at the same time, He is the Son
of God, and as such His relation to the Church is that of hus
band to wife. The husband, says the apostle Paul (1 Cor. xi. 7),
is God's image and glory ; but woman is the glory of her hus
band. Hence it is a further characteristic of the Son, that He
rules with an iron sceptre ; He is Ruler and Shepherd of the
flock, as He is Husband of the woman. This is the simple
meaning of the addition male to son, apparently pleonastic.1
As Son of the woman, He is, as He calls Himself, Son of man •
as vl6s Sppjjv, He is the Son of the living God, who becomes, in
the name of God, Bridegroom and Husband of the Church
because He has received of the Father to have life in Himself
(John v. 26). Beside Him no man dare call himself male  no
man dare deny his receptive, woman-like position ; for they who
1 The English translation is man-child, the original oil* «;{.,«, Miinnlicher
Shon.— Tr.

THE WOMAN. 243
imagine to have life in themselves, who separate themselves from
God, rise against Him, and, trusting to stand in their own
strength, sink to the level of irrational beasts. The proud
nature-strength of man is not of a manly, but of a beastly kind ;
it is nothing but the brute force of the beast. We refer to our
remarks on the beasts in Daniel. We see thus in the contrast
of beast and woman, not only expressions of individual and
accidental features, but they represent the two fundamental ten
dencies of mankind, the children of light and the children of
this world. There is nothing intermediate ; we must belong
either to the woman or the beast. This is only a symbolical
expression of the antithesis, which we meet everywhere in the
Gospel and the Epistles of John — God and world, light and
darkness, truth and falsehood, life and death. The one is, as
we shall see afterwards, clothed with the sun of God, the other
is an image of the devil ; this renders the parallel more distinct.
Nor is the choice of symbols accidental or arbitrary, but based
on the essential characteristics of woman and of the beast.
If this be true, we will naturally expect, that woman and
beast designate the kingdom of God and the kingdom of the
world, not only in this or that period of their development in
time ; but also in general universality. And this is, moreover,
quite in keeping with the stand-point of New Testament Apo
calypse, to which the whole mystery of the divine counsel of
God is opened through Christ, the full universality of the retro
spect and prospect, as Paul says, that the mystery of Christ is
now more fully revealed direKaXicpSri unto His holy apostles and
prophets by the Spirit (Eph. iii. 5). We shall therefore have to
go back to the time when the antithesis of the kingdom of God
and the "world commences to manifest itself in history, that is,
when Israel is separated from among the nations. The text
shows clearly, that " woman" must be understood in this general
sense. If we do not put any violent meaningon the expression,
" birth of a male son," it can only apply to the historical fact of
the birth of Jesus Christ of the Virgin Mary, only He, as we

244 THE WOMAN.
have seen, can claim the predicate Sppnv. This is confirmed by
the unambiguous prominence given to the, two circumstances
which commence and conclud'e the life of Christ, the birth and
the devilish councils of murder, plotted by Herod against the
new-born child (ver. 4) ; and secondly, by the ascension to
heaven, and His sitting on the throne (ver. 5 ; comp. iii. 21).
There lies a grand contrast in this : the child, instead of being
devoured by the devil, is caught up unto God and His throne.
We see, that hereon is based the victory over Satan, of which
ver. 7 speaks more at length. But the woman of whom Jesus
is born, represents the congregation of God in its Old Testament
shape. And what more appropriate symbol of the Old Testament
Church, than a woman travailing'in birth, and pained to be deli
vered (ver. 2) ? The most ardent wish and longing of the ancient
patriarchs, the germ of a higher, man-like divine life, which lay
hid in the old covenant, developing itself and becoming ever
clearer to the consciousness of the Church, to which all things
in the Old Testament dispensation were subservient and pre
paratory, was nothing else but what Isaiah expressed in the
words : " To us a child is born, unto us a Son is given, and the
government shall be upon His shoulders, and His name shall be
Wonderful, Counsellor, the Mighty Lord, the Everlasting Father,
the Prince of Peace." And thus even Micah saw in spirit the
daughter of Zion as a woman in travail, whom pangs have
taken (Micah iv. 9, 10 ; v. 3). Finally, we are led to think of
the Old Testament Church by the emblems which are mentioned
in ver. 1, in connection with the woman: She is clothed with
the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a
crown of twelve stars, for these three details remind us of the
dream of Joseph (Gen. xxxvii. 9, 10.) Jacob himself interprets
the dream to refer to himself, his wife, and sons, consequently,
to the' Old Testament Church in the fundamental form,, in which
it then existed, and which afterwards appeared again in the
twelve tribes. But this only shows us the historical point, from
which the choice of emblems starts, it does not sufficiently ac-

SUN, MOON, STARS. 245
count for them. We have to investigate what is meant by the
woman being clothed with the sun, why the moon is said to be
under her feet, and a crown of twelve stars upon her head. It
is evident, that sun, moon, and star have a symbolical meaning.
The sun is the heavenly light which disperses the darkness of
the lower world. Thus, God himself is called the Sun; and of
Christ's countenance it is said, that it shineth like the sun (Rev.
i. 16 ; Psalm lxxxiv. 11). And, in like manner, those who love
the Lord are described (as early as Judges v. 31) to be as the
sun when he goeth forth in his might ; and Jesus promises to
the righteous, that they will shine as the sun in their Father's
kingdom (Matt. xiii. 43). Thus, the clothing with the sun
symbolises the congregation of God as the bearer of super
natural divine light in this world ; the same symbol, according
to which the churches are represented as lights, candlesticks ;
the seven churches being the" church universal — the woman.
It is said of God, " He covereth Himself with light as with a
garment" (Psalm civ. 2) ; so, in a secondary sense, the same is
predicated of the woman, who, with Christ, is called the light of
the world (Matt. v. 14 ; John viii. 12). On the other side, the
moon is an earthly light, and not capable of overcoming the
darkness, though shining in it. The cosmological relationship
between earth and moon is recognised in antiquity, especially in
the mythologies, where we find generally a female principle,
goddess of moon and earth, opposed to the male principle of
heaven, the god of the sun.1 In the Apocalypse, we find the
worldly element represented by the three terms, sea, earth,
moon — in opposition to the kingdom of God, — heaven, the sun.
Sea and earth stand opposed to heaven (Rev. xii. 12 ; John iii.
12, 31) ; the moon in same manner to the sun. The sea is the
mighty, troubled ocean of nations (peoples and multitudes, and
nations, and tongues) (Rev. xvii. 15 ; comp. Psalm lxv. 7 ;
lxxxix. 10,11; Isaiah viii. 7-9); out of it the beast arises
(Rev. xiii. 1 ; Dan. vii. 3). The earth means the consolidated,
' Comp. Koster, Nach'weis der Spuren der Trinitatslehre vor Christus, p. 7 .

246 SUN, MOON, STARS.
ordered world of nations, with their civilisation and learning,
they produce the false prophet (Rev. xiii. 11), whose wisdom is
earthly, opposed to that which is from above (o-oqbta inlyeios,
James iii. 15). The moon stands above sea and earth, she is a
light in the heavens; but yet she belongs altogether to earth,
and earthly relations : she is not capable of dispersing the dark
ness and changing it into day. She thus represents the rela
tions of the world in its essential spirit to the supernatural
world ; she represents heathenism, the cosmic religion. We see,
therefore, the world, with its physical power, wisdom, and reli
gion, represented by the three symbols, sea, earth, moon. Now,
the woman is clothed with the sun, and the moon is under her
feet ; hereby the church is represented as the bearer of true
heavenly light, of the divine revealed religion, which has, under
it, as vanquished and conquered, the false, worldly religion,
heathenism, even as all Christ's enemies are to be put under His
feet (viroirdSiov to>v jto8wv or biro tovs ixoSas, Psalm ex. 1 ; Matt.
xxii. 44 ; 1 Cor. xv. 25 — bnoKdra tuv wocW, Rev. xii. 1 ; comp.
Rom. xvi. 20 : God wll bruise Satan under your feet). Finally,
the stars, as we know from the Apocalypse and Daniel, stand
for the bearers of divine light ; hence their position contrasts
with that of the moon ; they are about the head of the woman ;
for this reason the devil's efforts are directed chiefly against them
(Rev. xii. 4). The angels of the churches are called stars (Rev.
i.20); in Dan. xii. 3, eternal brightness of stars is promised to
the teachers ; while Israel, who has the Lord of Hosts for its
God, is called in the same prophet (Dan. viii. 10) the starry
hosts of heaven- The twelve tribes of this Israel are the twelve
stars, which are as a crown round the head of the woman.
And this holy number, " twelve," meets us again in the twelve
apostles, who form the foundation of the New Testament Church,
and who are placed in connection with the twelve tribes of the
covenant people, not only in Matt. xix. 28, but in the book of
Revelations itself. The Lord speaks of them in the former
passage as the future rulers over the twelve tribes 'of Israel ; in

WILDERNESS. 247
the latter passage, they correspond to the names of the twelve
tribes, which are written on the gates of the New Jerusalem,
the twelve apostles of the Lamb, who stand at the foundation of
the city of God. This last passage forms a simple exposition of
our text. For, since the New Jerusalem is also called the wo
man (Rev. xxi. 2, 9, 10); the woman with the twelve stars signifies
the same as the city with the twelve gates and foundations ; the
one is the exalted and transfigured church, the other the church
militant. In referring the twelve stars also to the twelve apostles, we
have expressed implicitly, that the woman represents the Church
of God, not only in the Old Testament, but likewise in the New
Testament form. From our remarks, it will be evident, that it is
equally impossible to understand by the woman only the Old
Testament Church, or Israel, as it is to refer the expression
merely to the New Testament Church. For we know, that
Israel ceased soon after the ascension of Christ to be the con
gregation of God (Dan. ix.). And yet in Rev. xii. 6, 13, the
woman is spoken of subsequently to that event. Thus the text
referring both to the past and future, our former view is con
firmed, that the expression woman, relates to the congregation
of God in this world, generally and universally; and cannot be
limited to any particular period or epoch. The first thing we
read of the woman after the ascension of Christ, is ver. 6, that
she flees into the wilderness. Wilderness? Evidently a sym
bolical expression ; let us see what is meant by it. Let us con
sult the context and the parallels of Scripture. It is by flight that
the woman comes into the wilderness. If we remark whence she
flies, we shall find also whither. It is before the persecutions
of the devil, through Herod, and in general through the Jews.
But whither does she fly ? Where did she take her refuge after
Christ's ascension ? Undoubtedly from the Jews to the heathens.
Therefore it is, that in this passage, the attribute given to Christ
elsewhere, that He will rule the heathen with an iron sceptre
(ii. 27 ; xix. 5 ; Ps. ii. 9), is expressly mentioned. Fronj

248 WILDERNESS.
the time of His ascension, the heathens are given to Him as His
field; thither His Church, persecuted by the Jews, takes her refuge
(from Acts viii. onwards). There God has prepared a place for
her to be sheltered and nourished (Rev. xii. 6, 14). Thus the wilder
ness and the land of the heathens mean the same.1 This significa
tion appears as yet only as a supposition, based on the context ;
let us seewhether itis corroborated by the prophetic usus loquendi.
We know that Canaan, as the seat of all temporal and spiritual
blessings of God, is called the land of. glory, of pleasantness, etc.
(Jer. iii. 19 ; Ezek. xx. 6, 15 ; Dan. xi. 16, 41 ; viii. 9). The
land of the heathen, on the contrary, is a wilderness, because for
saken by the fulness of divine life and strength. As God dwells
and reveals himself in the land of glory, the demons dwell in
the wilderness (Matt. xii. 43 ; Mark i. 13 ; Lev. xvi. 21, 22 ;
Isa. xxxiv. 14); they are the rulers and princes of the heathen
world (1 Cor. x. 20 ; Rev. ix. 20). Hence, when Israel is exiled
to Babylon, it is said to be in the wilderness (Isa. xl. 3 ; xli.
17-19; xiii. 10-12; xliii. 19, 20, etc). This usus loquendi
in the second part of Isaiah is based on a passage in the first,
which is of utmost significance for our purpose. The burden
over Babylon, which we read, Isaiah xxi. 1-10, is entitled: The
burden of the desert of the sea.2 Thus the Babylonian king
dom of the world is called here a desert of the sea ; or, in
accordance with the signification given above to the symbolic
expression sea, desert of the nations. The heathen world, not
withstanding all its glory and splendour, is yet in its essential
nature a wilderness and desolate place ; because, without God,
and against God ; because it is only natural and deserved when
it is laid waste, and the prophets often dwell on this with great
emphasis (Isa. xiii. 19-22 ; xiv. 22, 23 ; xxxiv. 1-15 ; Ezek.
xxix. 3-12 ; xxxv. 3-5 ; Mal. i. 3, 4, etc.). The passage Isaiah
1 In German the same expression denotes wilderness, and heathen country,
heiden land.
2 Comp. Drechsler, Isaiah ii. p. 108, and Schmieder (Propheten i. 87) on
Isaiah xxi. 1.

WILDERNESS. 249
xxi. is of the greater importance, as the Apocalypse refers to it
in other places, as it has taken from it the expression fallen,
fallen is Babylon (Rev. xiv. 8 ; xviii. 2), and we shall see, that
in the wilderness, in the world of heathens, the woman herself
becomes Babylon, a harlot. Thus the flight of the woman into
the wilderness is nothing else but the passing away from the
kingdom of God, from the Jews, and its introduction among the
Gentiles (Matts viii. 11, 12; xxii. 43; Acts xiii. 46, 47 ; xxviii.
25-28). There subsists a similar difference between the country
of glory and the wilderness ; as the Lord describes in the
parables of the great supper and the royal marriage, when the
invitation is first directed to the respectable people living in
their rich possessions, the Jews ; and, when they were unwilling
to come, to the poor, and blind, and halt, and lame on the streets,
yea, even to the people on the roads and hedges»without, that is,
the Gentiles in their wilderness (Luke xiv. 16-24; Matt. xxii.
2-16). Finally, our view is confirmed by the manner in which
the woman's flight into Egypt is mentioned a second time in
Rev. xii. 14. Instead of saying, she fled into the wilderness, it
is said here : " To the woman were given two wings of a great eagle,
that she might fly into the wilderness." This reminds us at once
of Exod. xix. 1-4, where Jehovah says to the people of Israel
brought out of Egypt into the wilderness : " You have seen what
I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bare you on eagles' wings,
and brought you unto myself." Thus the eagle flight is from
Egypt into the wilderness, to the place prepared by God. What
is to be understood in the Apocalypse by Egypt, is evident from
the passage, xi. 8, the only one in our book where it occurs.
The place where Christ was crucified, that is, Jerusalem, is there
spiritually called Sodom and Egypt, in the same manner as the
unfaithful church is afterwards called Babylon. Thus it is
Jerusalem and Israel itself, which has become Egypt by its re
jection of Christ ; out of her the true Church of God has to be
brought, even as of old the Old Testament congregation out of
the real Egypt ; and as in future God's people shall hear the

250 WILDERNESS.
call, to come out of Babylon (Rev. xviii. 4). The flight of the
Church into the wilderness is therefore her delivery from apos
tate Israel. For it is clear, from the words of the text, that the(
flying into the wilderness, xii. 4, and her flying with two wings,
xii. 14, are not two separate facts, but only different designa
tions, or perhaps gradations, of the same fact, in the history of
the kingdom. Time and place are in both passages the same ;
in both, the passing of the woman into the wilderness is spoken
of, where she is nourished in the same place prepared for her by
God for the space of 1260 days, or three and a half times (years).
The attention of John was diverted from the woman by the
victory over the dragon, which he beholds and describes, ver.
7-13 ; but he returns once more to the wilderness, as the transi
tion of the kingdom of God from Israel to the Gentiles is an ex
traordinary and important event. Instead of saying she fled, he
uses the expression, two wings of a great eagle were given her
to fly, and by this change of expression he intends to mark the
more emphatically' that this deeply important turning-point in
the history of the world and kingdom, is not to be viewed as
arising out of human arbitrariness, or much less, out of human
fear and despondency, but out of God's decree and His direct
providence (Acts ix-xi.). The first expression refers, as to a
type, to the flight of Mary with the child Jesus into Egypt (Matt.
ii. 13), the other to the delivery of Israel out of Egypt. But
when the expression does not merely say, in general, that the
woman was taken into Egypt, but that she has a place prepared for
her by God in the wilderness, this' indicates that only a certain
portion of the heathen world is destined to be received into the
Church of God. We can only form a supposition from Daniel's
statements, as to what place is meant, but we are told more dis
tinctly in the course of the Revelations, it is the fourth king
dom of the world, which has its seat in the Babylon of that
time, in Rome. The Acts of the Apostles gives us, a grand
comment upon this in the description it contains of the church's
migration from Jerusalem to 'Rome. This was the object of the

WILDERNESS. 251
whole activity of the Apostle Paul ; as it is most forcibly ex
pressed in the Epistle to the Romans, and in the Protection,
which Roman government and institutions gave to him person
ally.1 Moreover, let ns attend to the expressions in our passage.
The heathen world is not to nourish the Church. What nourish
ment could the wilderness offer ? But the wilderness offers
merely an outward shelter ; with regard to nourishment, how
ever, we have in ver. 14, only indefinitively the passive on-ou
rpefarai ; ver. 6, Iva elect TpeCpacriv ai-rqv. We have met the use
of the third person plural in Daniel, and know that it refers to
heavenly powers. The Church's life is nourished by the kind
ministrations from on high ; she lives in the wilderness, even as
Israel, on manna from heaven ; and like her Lord, from the, word
proceeding out of the mouth of God (Matt. iv. 4, comp. Rev.
xii. 11, Sid rdv \6yov ttjs p-aprvplai airmv), so that the devil's at
tempts are as unavailing in her case as in that of the Saviour (a7r6
npoo-imov tov ocpecos, ver. 14, comp. ver. 11, ivlx-no-av airbv). But,
though she finds no nourishment, yet she finds a refuge and an
asylum in the Gentile world, even up to this day, " that we may
lead a quiet and peaceable life, in all godliness and honesty."
1 Tim. ii. 2.
Let the Church, however, never forget that she is still in the
world — in the ungodly world — which may, at any time, manifest
her hostile spirit. This is expressed primarily by the time which
is mentioned, that the stay in the wilderness should last (ver. 6
and 14). The three times, and half-a-time, or 1260 days, have,
doubtless, an accurate chronological meaning, but it is impossible,
at present, to arrive at it ; the fulfilment alone will interpret the
apocalyptic chronology, even as we saw in the case of the chrono
logical statements of Daniel. At present we have solely to look to
the symbolical meaning of the numbers in the Revelation of St
John. We know the meaning of three and a half from Daniel,
vii. 25 ; xii. 6, 7 ; ix. 27. It is the time of the world power, in
' Baumgarten. Apostolic History, vol. iii. p. 16 (Foreign Theological
Library).

252 PROTECTION AND OPPRESSION.
which the earthly kingdoms rule over the heavenly. The same
number is again used in the Apocalypse to characterise the times
of the Gentiles, during which Jerusalem is trodden down, and
hence the kingdom of God has lost completely its external visible
existence on earth — that is, the time from the Roman destruction
of Jerusalem to the second coming of Christ. Compare Luke
xxi. 24, and Rev. xi. 2, in both which passages, the treading of
the holy city under foot of the Gentiles is spoken of, which is to
last till, according to the first passage, the times of the Gentiles ;
according to the second, forty and two months (3 J year3 = 1260
days) are fulfilled. To these negative dates is added, in Rev.
xiii. 5, the positive definition, according to which, the forty-two
months designate the period of the power of the beast — that is,
the world-power. The only remaining passage of our book, in
which the 1260 days occur, is probably to be understood in the
same light, but this will be shown in a subsequent part of our
investigation. We have thus seen that although the church finds a shelter in
the heathen world, yet she is given into the hands of the power
of the world ; she stands under the protection, and also under the
oppression of the worldly power ; she is a suffering and militant
church to this very day. This mixture of protection and op
pression is the specific characteristic of the relation- of the
church to the power of the world during the church-historical
period. In one part of this period the one element preponder
ates, in another the other ; but in the end, the enmity and op
position of the world shall break forth, with great violence,
against the church, Rev. xiii. 6, 7.
2. The further course of the vision, ver. 7, shows that the
woman will not be spared conflicts in her new place of refuge.
As the tempter came to Christ in the wilderness, even so he ap
proaches also the woman. Hitherto we have only considered the
first six verses of Rev. xii., and only glanced at verse 14, on ac
count of its relation to verse 6. The contents of this first part of
the chapter, we found to be the mighty change which passed

THREE STAGES IN THE CONFLICT, ETC. 253
since Christ's coming in the Church of God on earth, in the
transition from Israel to the Gentiles. But not only in the
kingdom of God on earth, but also in heaven itself, has a great
change been effected by the ascension of Christ (verses 5 and 10),
which is of great importance for the church on earth, and is, for
this reason, mentioned here, viz., the casting out of the devil. In
the second part of the chapter (ver. 7-12), which we shall now
examine, we cannot possibly find anything else but a description
of the fact, known to us from other parts of Scripture, and es
pecially the writings of St John, that the prince of this world is
judged by the completion of Christ's work of reconciliation.
According to 1 John iii. 8, for this purpose the Son of God, the
vlds dppijv was born, to destroy the works of the devil.
There are, then, three stages in the conflict of Christ and Satan.
The first is the temptation in the wilderness. Being conquered there
by the Lord, and utterly defeated, Satan departed from the
person of Jesus for a time, or till a certain time (axPL «upov,
Luke iv. 13), and assaulted those who were near Christ, in order
thus to oppose the Saviour's work. Hence the many possessed
of devils at that time, and the driving out of devils by Christ and
His disciples. This is the second stage of the conflict. Here,
also, the Son remained always conqueror, and proved himself the
stronger, • who could bind the strong man (Luke xi. 20, 22).
On one of those occasions, Christ uttered a saying to which our
passage in Revelations bears resemblance (Luke x. 18), when
the seventy disciples tell Him, with joy, that even the devils were
subject to them through His name ; He said unto them, " I beheld
Satan fall from heaven like lightning." Those victories over the
enemy showed Him in Spirit the full victory over Satan — in the
same manner as the prophets behold the fulfilment in the germ, the
end of history in the historical development. The third stage in
which the victory is consummated, is the sufferings and death,
the resurrection and ascension of Jesus. This is your hour, and
the power of darkness, Christ says to his enemies (Luke xxii. 53).
But Satan tries to sift, also, Christ's friends like wheat (Luke

254 THREE STAGES IN THE CONFLICT, ETC.
xxii. 31) ; and we know how he succeeded in the case of Peter,
and especially in the case of Judas (Luke xxii. 3 ; John xiii. 2,
27). Only in Jesus himself, whom he now tempts by the terrors
of the world, as he had before by the lust of the world, he had,
and found nothing (John xiv. 30). On the contrary, he is judged,
and cast out (f/c(3Xn&i'o-erat e£a>) by Christ's obedience unto death,
as the Lord says, using again an expression resembling that in
the Revelations (John xvi. 11 ; xii. 31 ; comp. Heb. ii. 14) ;
and His resurrection and ascension is a public solemn triumph
over the principalities and powers of death (Col. ii. 15).
The last quoted passage is a key to our verse. What Paul
expresses here, with holy joy, in a didactic form, John saw in a
prophetic vision. The devil is now cast out of heaven, after the
Son is raised to the throne of God, ver. 5. The archangel,
Michael, is appointed the executor of the judgment. For, ac
cording to Dan. x. 13, 21, xii. 1, he, among the high angelic
princes, is the angel to whom is intrusted the defence of God's
Church against the opposing powers in the invisible world of
spirits. He had fought before then with the devil about the
body of the mediator of the old covenant (Jude 9). But now,
when the Mediator of the new covenant had, of His own free
will, offered His own body as His sacrifice, it is possible for the
angel to resume the old combat, and with altogether different
success. We have dwelt at large on these conflicts in the spirit-
world, in our discussion of Daniel x. Michael and his angels
overcome the resisting devil and his angels, and cast the dark
powers and principalities of heaven to the earth (ver. 7-9).
In the next verse it is said, " neither was their place found
any more (en) in heaven," and this presupposes that hitherto,
up to the ascension of Christ, the demons were in heaven like the
other angels, and that, like them, they influenced earth from
their abodes in heaven, in which there are many mansions. As
heaven was not yet opened to man before Christ, so it was not
yet shut against the devils. This is confirmed by the other
Holy Scriptures, specially the Old Testament. In Job i. 6, ii. 1,

SATAN BEFORE THE COMING OF CHRIST. 255
we see Satan appear among the other sons of God before
Jehovah — (compare also 1 Kings xxii. 19-22), in the same way
he stands beside the angel of Jehovah (Zech. iii. 1, 2). In both
cases he is represented as the accuser of his brethren (Rev. xii.
10). In the latter passage he wishes to accuse the high priest,
Joshua, and Jerusalem, and Israel, that their guilt was not yet
atoned, and that they were therefore unworthy of the mercy which
the Lord had shown them in leading them out of the captivity
(Zech. iii. 3-6, 9). In the former passage he accuses the pious
Job, that even he was not a just man, and receives permission
from God to tempt him to the uttermost. As long as the blood
t of reconciliation was not actually shed, that atonement, which
is opposed (Zech. iii. 8, 9) to the accusations of Satan, but only
in the shape of a promise, Satan possessed still a right over men,
and could plead this, his right, before God day and night (Rev.
xii 10, KaTrjyopwv, imperfect). Hence it follows, that he was in
heaven till the ban of sin and death, resting on humanity, was
broken. We find this view corroborated in the New Testament.
The saying of the Lord Jesus, quoted above, that He saw Satan
fall from heaven like lightning, rests on the same supposition.
Connect with this a passage, which has caused great perplexity to
commentators, but which may be easily explained from this
point of view, viz., Col. i. 20. The apostle endeavours here, to
prove the superior dignity of Christ as compared to the angels,
because the Colossian false teachers derogated from this dignity
by their doctrines concerning the world of spirits and Aeons ;
(ii. 10, 18) ; Paul has shown, ver. 15-17, that all creatures, the
heavenly powers as well as the ereatures of earth, owe their
existence to the creative agency of Christ. In ver. 18-20, he
treats of the second chief activity of Christ, the atonement, and
shows that, also, in this respect, the whole universe, in its two
great divisions, the world of earth and of heaven, owe to Christ
alone the restoration of harmony after the conflict which had
been introduced, owe to Him the harmonious subjugation of all
things under One Head. The juxtaposition of airos and ™ ndvra

256 col. i. 20.
which characterises the sixteenth and seventeenth verses, meets
us therefore again in the twentieth, Si airoii diroKaToNkd^ai ra
ndvra ; and after the intermediate clause, he continues, 81 airoi
eiVe ra eVi rrjs yrjs eire rd iv rois ovpavois. Sin introduced discord
and conflict, not only on earth, but also in heaven, by the fall of
demons.1 And as little as it was possible for man to restore
peace on earth, so little was this possible for the angels in
heaven. The good angels were not able of themselves to over
come the peace-disturbers, to cast out the devils, and also for
them it is only Slvai, through Christ, that it was effected. It
is the blood of the cross which restored peace, even in heaven
(elprjvoTroirjo-as Sia toO dlparos tov crTavpov) ; it IS Only now, after
Christ has obtained the victory fully and legally, that Michael
and his angels are able to cast Satan and his servants out of
heaven. Only this view, which is corroborated by the other
passage of the Epistle to the Colossians (ii. 15), enables us to
see the striking force of the Pauline argumentation, in showing
us the entire dependence of the angels on Christ. Only thus
can we explain satisfactorily the context and the repetition of
the expression SI airov.
Thus, the event described in the verses under consideration, is
an essential turning-point in the history of the prince and the
kingdom of darkness. For of such a history Holy Scripture,
and specially the Apocalypse, gives us an outline. That history
consists of an ever deeper downfal, in four gradations or periods.
The first extends to the first coming of Christ. In this period
the devil not only rules on earth, but is also still in heaven ; his
power is not yet broken ; the Old Testament Theocracy is not
furnished with the weapons for overcoming the enemy.
1 Compare Kurtz Bibel und Astronomie, 3 Aufl., p. 223 :— " The fall of the
angels and the fall of man brought curse and destruction into the region of
the terrestrial world, and also into the celestial spheres ; into the abodes of the
holy angels this twofold catastrophe introduced, though not positive disturb
ance, yet privative loss, a retardation of their highest and most perfect deve
lopment, harmonious gradation, and perfect consummation.

HISTORY OF SATAN. 257
The second period is from Christ to the commencement of the
millennium ; then Satan is cast out of heaven to earth, where
he exercises yet free power. Of this we shall speak presently.
The third period embraces the millennium. The enemy is
bound ; and as he was cast out of heaven to earth, he is now
cast into the bottomless pit, and rendered harmless (Rev.
xx. 1-3).
After having been let loose for a little while, he is (fourthly)
judged and cast for ever and ever into the lake of fire (Rev. xx.
7-10 ; Matt. xxv. 41 ; 1 Cor. vi. 3). Thus the whole history
which the Apocalypse gives us of Satan, is a continual succes
sion of his being cast out, hurled down (pkn6r)vai, xii. 9, xx.
3, 10.)
The event spoken of in our passage commences the second
period in the history of the devil. Its essential character is
described by the heavenly voice (Rev. xii. 10-12). Satan had
been hitherto in undisputed possession of his power ; but now it
is taken from him. Victory, salvation (o-arnpla, comp. vii. 10,
xix. 1, as the Hebrew rryiiun, which the Septuagint translate
o-arifpia ; for example, 2 Sam. xxiii. 10, 12, and the German
Heil, meaning in general, fortune, well-being, victory), and
strength, and the kingdom of our God is now come, the power is
become now of His Christ. Christ can say now, To me is given
all power in heaven and on earth (Matt, xxviii. 18), (i^ova-ia) ;
and the Christian can say, God hath delivered us from the
power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of
His dear Son (Col. i. 13, the same expression, i^ovo-la and
tSaa-CKeia). The devil has lost his power and place in heaven,
and chiefly for this reason, because (Sri) he can no longer accuse
men before God, because men are Christ's brothers, and in Him
brothers of the heavenly angels. For now Christ our advocate
is in heaven, who overcomes our accuser, even by the blood of
reconciliation, which speaketh better things than the blood of
Abel, this primeval witness, crying to heaven against man's sin
(1 John ii. 1, 2 ; Heb. vii. 25, viii. 1, xii. 24). Satan has been

258 SATAN CAST OUT OF HEAVEN.
overcome, inasmuch as all legal demands are satisfied, and so
completely, that Paul leads us into the heavenly court of justice,
in which no accusations are any more received against the elect
of God, but absolution is pronounced continually, by God, the
Supreme Judge, over all who have a share in the intercession of
Christ (Rom. viii. 33, 34). This is more fully expressed in the
passage before us. The Christians have overcome the enemy
on the ground of (Sid cum accus.) the blood of the Lamb, by
which the curse of Satan, resting on humanity, is broken, and
free access opened to God ; and on the ground of the word of
their witness, by which they confess themselves before all the
world as worshippers of the Lamb slain for sin. We find this
expression of victory, evi.Kno-av, used in the same way in the First
Epistle of John ; our faith is the victory, which has over
come the world (viKT)o-ao-a), you have overcome the evil one,
ii. 13, 14 (comp. iv. 4), doubtless in allusion to the word with
which Christ concludes his parting address to the disciples,
which must needs have impressed itself indelibly on the soul of
the beloved disciple, " I have overcome the world" (John xvi.
33). This vmav is in general a peculiarly Johannean expression,
which occurs six times in the first epistle, sixteen times in the
Apocalypse, while it occurs only three times in the rest of the
New Testament (Luke xi. 22 ; Rom. iii. 4 and xii. 21). This
is characteristic of John's whole mode of viewing the gospel,
the fundamental idea of which is the conflict of the antitheses,
and the victory of light over darkness ; for it is the same
struggle and victory which the gospel of John describes in the
life of Jesus, and the Apocalypse in the life of His Church.1
But in order to overcome the world and its prince, in the strength
of the blood of Christ, it is necessary that we also should, like
the Saviour, be willing to give up what of this world still
belongs to us and our earthly life (John xii. 24 ; Matt. x. 38,
xvi. 24). They have not loved their life, even unto death.
1 Comp. Luthardt, das Johannische Evangelium, i. 68.

HIS POWER ON EARTH. 259
Thus, in 1 John ii. 14, 15, immediately after saying, You have
overcome the world, the command is added, Love not the
world, neither the things that are in the world.
The heavens, and the inhabitants thereof, are now called upon
to rejoice (ver. 12), that the evil one is cast out and overcome.
Among the inhabitants of heaven, we may include also the
members of Christ, since they are brothers of the heavenly spirits,
since their home and citizenship are in heaven, yea, they are
themselves called heavenly (Phil. iii. 20 ; 1 Cor. xv. 48). They
rejoice truly with the angels of heaven over the judgment of the
devil ; for they are saved from the world, and the power of the
prince of the world, and to them applies the word with which
John explains our whole passage : He that is begotten of God
keepeth himself, and the wicked one toucheth him not (1 John
v. 18). But woe to them who still belong to tlie world, and trust to
her power or her culture (sea, earth) ! They are now more
than ever a prey to the temptations of the devil ; for he is judged
only as accuser, not yet as tempter. Furious at his overthrow,
and knowing that he must yet sink deeper, he concentrates all
his strength to ruin as many souls as possible.* The more light
becomes victorious, the greater are the exertions and efforts of
darkness ; and the devil, now cast down to earth, shall succeed
at some future time to enrage and strengthen the powers of the
earth, and then they shall manifest fully the spirit of antichrist.
Satan reigns now in the earthly air region (Eph. ii. 2), and goes
about on earth like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour
(1 Pet. v. 8) ; he is still, as he was before, god, of this world
(2 Cor. iv. 4) ; and only they who are in Christ, and in pro
portion as they are rooted in Christ, are secure from his assaults.
But the two different spheres are not separated by any external
boundary mark ; to belong to Christ is something invisible,
inward, pneumatic, and does not correspond with the belonging
to any outward human society. Christendom is yet on earth,
and therefore subject to the attacks of the devil. He sows tares
among the wheat (Matt. xiii. 25, 38). He who is not a sincere

260 PERSECUTION.
, member of the Church, and gives room to the spirit of the
world, is brought to fall by Satan. Hence the struggle, which
even believers have continually to fight with the devil (Eph. vi.
11). They have overcome him; but on the ground of this
fundamental victory obtained over him, it is their duty ever
again to fight against and overcome him, even as they who once
die with Christ have continually to mortify their members which
are upon earth (Col. iii. 3, 5 ; comp. Romans vi. 2-14). Herein
lies the overwhelming earnestness of the period into which our
life falls.
3. We find thus, in the two- first parts of our chapter, a
description of the New Testament state of things, the state of
John's time, both as regards the kingdom of God or the Church
(ver. 1-6), and as regards the kingdom of darkness (7-12).
The third part (ver, 13-17) shows the relation of the two king
doms from that time onwards, describes the efforts of the dragon
against the woman. Tie. persecutes her (ver. 13), and under these
persecutions we must understand all the hostilities against the
young Church, of which Jews and Gentiles were guilty. Not
withstanding their enmity, the Church gains by degrees a secure
and firm place (ver. 14) ; the Roman political and juridical con
stitution always gave protection, as to the Apostle Paul, so also
to the Church, notwithstanding all persecutions, till emperor
and empire became finally Christian. The expression, great
eagle, may perhaps be referred to the power of the world ; the
Roman eagle, as Bengel understands by it, " the mightiest
power, whose protection and help the Church has enjoyed,"
especially on account of -the addition " great," according to
Ezek. xvii. 3, 7, where the kings of Babylon and Egypt are de
signated in the same way, the first of whom appears in Dan. vii.
4, with wings of an eagle. It is the very power which was before
hostile, which becomes in God's hand a protecting power ; for
Christ rules in the midst of His enemies (Ps. ex. 2). Notwith
standing this, the whole Gentile-Christian, or Church-historical
period, is, according to the view of biblical prophecy, only an

ROME AND THE GERMANIC TRIBES. 261
intermediate time, like tb.e forty years in the wilderness, a wan
dering of the Church through the wilderness to the Holy Land,
where in the kingdom of the millennium, the full life and the
true glory corresponding to the Christian's spiritual state, will
manifest and develop itself. We are redeemed, but Canaan is
yet in the hands of the enemy ; the "heritage is not yet taken
possession of ; the time of the wilderness, of our pilgrimage and
sojourning (1 Pet. i. 17, ii. 11 ; Heb. iv. 9, xiii. 14 ; 2 Cor. v.
6, 7 ; 1 John iii. 2), is given in order to produce a new regene
rate generation for the time of glory.
Hence, the enmity of the devil does not decrease. The
Church spreads and takes root in the place prepared for her by
God, in the Roman empire ; but the serpent casts out of his
mouth water as a flood after the woman, that he might cause her
to be carried away of the flood (ver. 15). This flood of water,
according to the interpretation given to xvii. 15, refers un
doubtedly to the streams of the migrations of nations. The
Germanic tribes were to destroy the Roman empire, and there
by, according to Satan's plans, also Christianity. But the earth
helped the woman, by swallowing up the flood of nations (ver. 16).
We know that the earth signifies, in contradistinction to water,
the world as already consolidated, civilized. The cultured
Roman world received the wild Germanic masses, subdued and
mollified their hostility, and reconciled them to Christianity,
which is regarded here, as we see, not so much in its heavenly
aspect as in its earthly, as a power of civilisation. When the
German nations permitted the influence of the Roman civilisa
tion and church, the continued existence of the true congrega
tion of God was thereby rendered secure.1
Thus, also, this plan of the devil against the woman is de-

1 In accordance with this view, Lange : " The devil cast out water as a flood
after the Church, the stream of the nations baptized, compulsorily, and the masses
of the migrating nations. Bnt the earth, that is, consolidated ecclesiastical
and political order, devoured the stream, amalgamated with itself the wild
tribes." Geezer's protest. Monatsbe. Aug. 1853. p. 84.

262 SATAN A TEMPTER.
feated, and she has gained a doubly secured position in the
world of civilized nations. Satan sees that he must pursue a
different course, that the gates of hell cannot prevail against the
Church as a whole, and, therefore, he goes to make war with the
remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and
have the testimony of Jesus Christ (ver. 17). Thus, after he had
to give up his hope of destroying Christianity, the true Christians
are continually the object of his persecution and enmity, even to
this day (John xv. 18). The expression Xonroi contains an indi
cation, that the more the Church conforms to the world, the
more it will be true of her, as it was once of Israel, that only a
remnant, an elect, still remains of whom it can be said, that they
are the seed of the woman, that they keep the commandments
of God, and that they have the testimony of Jesus. Only such
are the objects of Satan's enmity and persecution ; the others he
leaves unmolested.
At this point the vision breaks off. John was not to write
Church history, but only to characterise the position of the
church in the midst of heathens, by sketching the leading events
of the future. This position consists, on the one hand, in the
external protection of the Roman and Germanic civilisation and
political organization ; on the other, the serpent succeeds in
bruising the heel of the seed of the woman, and although the
attacks made en masse (among which we may reckon also Mo
hammedanism) are of no avail, yet the individual Christians are
the more exposed to the assaults of Satan, the more they truly
belong to the seed of the woman. The Church of Christ is in
no way to look forward to a time of external rest and quiet.
On the contrary, this is the chief danger threatening her, that
the state of well-being in the world to which she has attained,
according to verse 16, might weaken the chaste spiritual-mind-
edness which becomes her as a stranger and pilgrim on earth,
and seduce her to conform to the world. The devil is still op
posing her as the tempter. His violence was unsuccessful, but
it remains yet for him to try his cunning ; to tempt not with

THE BEAST WITH SEVEN HEADS AND TEN HORNS. 263
the terrors but the allurements of the world, even as he tempted
our Lord in the wilderness. He attacks the Church with this
temptation, and the woman does not resist and overcome it.
We find her again in the seventeenth chapter as a harlot.

b. The Beast with Seven Heads and Ten Horns.
We must now consider the beast described immediately after
the woman (xii. 18-xiii. 10). It is by this symbolic image that
the Apocalypse is mainly connected with Daniel, and it is our
first object to trace this connection. St John himself points it
out in a threefold manner in the two first verses of the thirteenth
chapter. His beast rises up out of the sea as the four beasts of
Daniel, it has ten horns like Daniel's fourth beast ; finally, it is
cdmposed of lion, bear, and leopard, that is, of the Danielic
beasts. The fourth beast, it is true, is not mentioned/because
it cannot be compared with any other, but it is indicated by the
ten horns. This simple consideration shows us, what we are to
understand by the beast of the Apocalypse, it is a comprehen
sive representation, in one figure, of the world-power, which in
Daniel is symbolised by four beasts. As the woman means the
kingdom of God absolutely, so the beast stands for the world-
power absolutely, through all times, not merely in any parti
cular period of its development in history, but from the time
when the opposition between the kingdom of God and the world
commenced to exist on earth. Even as John does not under
stand by the woman, merely the New Testament Church, so the
beast does not refer exclusively to the world-kingdom of
that period, the Roman, much less to a previous or subse
quent phase of the Roman empire. Against such a view,
and in favour of ours, the following three arguments may be
adduced : —
1. The description of the beast. It includes expressly the
former world-monarchies — lion, bear, leopard ; nor can it be

264 THE DANIELIC BEAST.
asserted, that John conceived of the fourth beast in Daniel, as
consisting of a combination of the preceding three. Daniel him
self describes the appearance of the fourth, and if this fourth
beast was to be revealed to John to the exclusion of {he other
three, nothing could have been less appropriate than to include
in tbe description the three preceding ones. Neither can it be
maintained, that the first three kingdoms are to be represented
as incorporated into the Roman ; if so, it remains to be ex
plained why, in the chapter of Daniel, the lion is not represented
as incorporated into the bear ; and the first two beasts into the
third, the leopard, and especially the first three into the fourth.
Thus the only natural explanation of Rev. xiii. 2 is, that the
beast represents the world-power in general, according to its
various successive world-monarchies, which we find, of course,
in the seven heads.
2. This is corroborated by the analogy of the woman. As
the woman refers back to the election of Israel, so also the beast.
For the mystery of the woman and the mystery of the beast are
connected with each other (Rev. xvii. 7). Now, in the case of
the woman, prophecy manifestly refers back to the past, as xii.
1-5 plainly enough shows ; this is still more the case here,
where it is said (xvii. 10) that five of the seven heads of the
beast are fallen.
Add to this, 3, that the beast is represented as the image of
the devil. Satan is described in xii. 3, where he is mentioned
the first time, as a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten
horns, and seven crowns upon his heads. We did not speak
of this symbol in -our remarks on chapter xii., reserving it
for this place, since it evidently 'stands in connection with the
beast, which has likewise seven heads and ten horns. This
is a symbolic indication of what John has thus expressed in
words: And the dragon gave him (that is the beast) his
power, and his seat, and great authority (xiii. 2). The devil
is, so to say, the original type of the beast nature, for which
reason, he appears here in the shape of the beast, the dragon, or

DANIEL AND ST JOHN. 265
serpent (xii. 9). The fundamental idea of St John, that Satan
is the prince of the world, in whom the whole world exists and
continues, who has, moreover, to dispense authority over the
worldly kingdoms, is thus symbolically expressed here (John xii.
31 ; xiv. 30 ; xvi. 11 ; 1 John v. 19 ; comp. Luke iv. 6). This
prominence given to Satan is a peculiar characteristic of all the
writings of John ; they contain not only the deepest revelations
concerning the Divine Being, but also disclose to us the most
distant background of the world and its history. But if the
beast is the exact picture of the dragon, it follows that it repre
sents the world-power, not in this or that individual manifesta
tion, but in its abstract totality. For example, if the seven
heads of the beast should mean seven Roman emperors, one
cannot understand why they, and they alone, should be men
tioned in the original image of the devil, whereas, it is per
fectly intelligible, if we suppose them to represent the power of
the devil on earth, viewed collectively. The whole world
lieth in the .wicked one, says John, L John v. 19 (iv ra novnpa
masc. as ver. 18th, opposite, ix. tov $eov) ; ours is a parallel
passage. Comparing this representation of the world-power to that of
Daniel, we notice progression in many points, corresponding to
the relation of the New Testament to the Old. 1. John repre
sents in one beast what in Daniel is divided into four. The
great image mentioned in the second chapter of Daniel, does
indeed represent the world-power as a whole, but even
here the individual parts are dwelt on with more emphasis
than the unity of the image. What in the Old Testament
stands isolated and in a more external form, is condensed in the
New Testament into unity of essence and principle. Thus, the
different world-monarchies appear to John only as evolutions of
the self-same God-opposed principle, which entered the world
by the fall, and afterwards by the building of the tower of
Babel ; heads of the same beast, which is opposed with brutal
violence to the woman, even as to lie in the wicked one is op-

266 DANIEL AND ST JOHN.
posed to being of God. John is more anxious to characterise
the whole in its essence, than to describe the individual world-
powers ; he is satisfied with the general designation of heads,
after the precedent of the four heads of the leopard, in Dan. vii.
6. Most of them belong to the past, and had been described by
Daniel and other prophets of the Old Covenant ; the only power
which lies in the future of John, the Germanic, is, as we shall
point out, subsequently characterised very profoundly, by being
described as a head wounded to death, and his deadly wound
was healed.
2. Daniel enumerates only four kingdoms ; John sees seven.
This also has a deep reason. Four is the number of the world,
Seven the number of God's revelation in the world. The four
Danielic beasts are, as we have seen, caricatures of the four
cherubs of Ezekiel, whereas the seven apocalyptic heads of
the beast correspond to the seven spirits of God (Rev. i. 4 ;
iv. 5 ; v. 6). The sevenfoldness of the spirits on the part of
God corresponds to the cherubim on the part of the created (Hof
mann Schriftbeweis i. 335). John has thus a deeper insight
into the God-opposed essential character of the world, and he
beholds it in its extreme development. The world-power attri
butes to itself even the Spirit of God ; self-deification in all its
intensity is its characteristic. The four beasts retain yet the
feeling of some Power, ruling and governing above them, but
here God is altogether identified with the world, and the world
caricaturing reality, sets itself up as God. This is likewise
evinced in this, that there was given to the beast a mouth speak
ing great things, and blasphemy, and to make war with the
saints (Rev. xiii. 5-7), a feature which in Daniel is attributed
only to the antichristian horn.
3. Finally, we must mention, that now also the devil is in
troduced as the type and author of the world-power, whereas in
the Old Testament, the glimpses given into the invisible world
are more indistinct.
True, in our remarks on Daniel, we allowed the light given us

THE NUMBER 666. 267
by the New Testament teaching to fall upon and illumine his
disclosures. The two things are closely connected, that the
beast is an image of the devil, and that its development is a
caricaturing of the seven spirits of God. For the devil is
himself the imitator of God ; his seven heads are the carica
tures of the spirits before God, while, again, the ten horns re
present the world-element. It is symbolical of the self-contra
dictions of the devil and his kingdom, that they bear both the
number seven and ten.
That the world has no right to usurp the number seven, and
thus to designate its development as a revelation of God, the
Apocalypse points out in a twofold way, first, by the addition of
an eighth to the seven heads or kings (xvii. 11); secondly, by
this, that the proper number of the beast is only 666 (xiii. 18).
Thus, the number of the beast is not seven, but six and eight ;
it hovers round the divine, touches it, but never reaches it.
With regard to the number 666 in particular, which is spoken of
in the only passage in which it occurs as the number of the beast,
(ear' igoxrjv, it certainly has, as all apocalyptic numbers, its special
and exact chronological signification ; but only the final fulfil
ment can throw distinct light on this. Now, at present our ob
ject is only to investigate its symbolic meaning (comp. Lange in
Herzog's Realencyclopedia, i. p. 375), and we would lay before
the reader the following remarks on this point, though we are
conscious of their imperfection. Two points must be explained,
first, the meaning of the number six in itself, and, secondly, the
reason of its occurring in the place of units, tens, and hundreds.
In the Apocalypse we find a pause between the sixth and
seventh seals, as well as between the sixth and seventh trum
pets ; thus teaching us to view the number six in its character
as close neighbour to the number seven. The judgments on the
world are complete in the number six, whereas, by the fulfilment
of the number seven, " the kingdoms of this world are become
the kingdoms of our Lord" (Rev. xi. 15). Six is the number
of the world given over to judgment. We are led to the same

268 SEVEN HEADS.
result by remembering that six is the half of twelve, as three
and a half is the half of seven. For twelve is the number of
the Church of God, as we know from the twelve stars round the
woman's head, the twelve gates and foundations of the New Jeru
salem ; in the same way, as three and a half correspond to seven,
so does six compared to twelve symbolise the communion or king
dom of the world, as broken, incomplete, wanting a solid foun
dation. The threefold appearance of six in higher v powers
(6 + 60 + 600) indicates, that the beast, notwithstanding its pro
gression to higher powers, can only rise to greater ripeness for
judgment. This development of the number six corresponds to
the development of the number twelve, which we find in the
144,000 sealed ones, the judged world-power opposed to the
transfigured Church taken out of the judgment. There may also
be a relation to the thousand years (Rev. xx.), as 666 is two-thirds
of a thousand. The number thousand symbolises, that the
world is perfectly leavened and pervaded by the divine ; since
thousand is ten, the number of the world raised to the power
of three, the number of God. The antichrist likewise promises,
as we saw above, this blessedness of a millennial kingdom ; but
he cannot attain to it, he has to stop half-way. The apocalyp
tic spiritual eye always sees the world as already judged.
Let us now turn our attention to the seven heads and ten hoi'ns.
There is a slight difference here between the original and the
copy. Dragon and beast bear crowns (SiaSfjiua-a), but the former
on the heads, the latter on the horns (xii. 3 ; xiii. 1). Hereby
we learn that both heads and horns refer to kingdoms, as it is
said of both, in the explanatory passage, xvii. 7, that they are
kings (ix. and xii.), — the kings representing, as with Daniel, the
kingdoms, whose personal heads they are. But the original
image has the crowns upon the heads-; whence, it is clear that
the chief emphasis lies on the crowns, that it is they that repre
sent the chief kingdoms, which lies in the very nature of things,
since the horns are upon the heads as parts of the same. This
unequal importance of heads and horns is, moreover, indicated by

SEVEN HILLS. 269
the explanatory passage, which says of the latter only, that they
are ten kings, but of the former, they are seven hills and seven
kings. The seven hills may contain an allusion to the seven hills
of Rome, in which the world-power was concentrated in the days
of John ; yet this is at most a passing allusion, which ought not
to be looked upon as the proper meaning of the passage. Such
a trivial geographical notice could scarcely follow the introduc
tory remark of the angel, viz. : And here is the mind which hath
wisdom (xvii. 9), which words, as we shall show subsequently,
demand expressly the mystical exposition, Besides, it would be
against all analogy to understand by the heads of the beast
mountains, in the concrete sense ; and finally, if so, two different
explanations are given, in one and the same passage, to the same
symbol ; they are, in the first place, seven kings, and in the
second, seven mountains. What relation is there between
mountains and kings? There evidently must be an inward
connection between hills and kings, and we can easily arrive at
this connection if we view the significance of mountains in pro
phetic language. The connection of head and mountain is
apparent; as the head occupies a prominent, commanding position
in the body, so does the mountain in the land, so that mountains
are often called heads.1 We must take the designation mountain
in connection with the symbolical expressions already known to
us, sea and earth (Ps. Ixv. 7-9 ; Hab. iii. 10, 12) ; thus, moun
tain refers to prominent authority and power in the world.
Mountains are seats of power ; this is the simple connection be
tween them and kings. The seven kings are distinguished from
the ten, represented by the horns, which are simply called fiao-i-
\e1s, as peculiarly powerful kings — the great powers of the world.
Thus, in Dan. vii., the stone becomes a mountain — that is, a
universal kingdom taking the place of the preceding world-king
doms. " Mountains," Schmieder remarks, in connection with
Isaiah ii. 2, " signify, in symbolical language in general, the seats
of gods and kings, especially of false gods and godless potentates,
1 Katzenkopf, Scimee-Koppe, Kuppe, Cape, etc.

270 TEN HORNS.
who require to be humbled." In itself, the expression is a vox
media — a designation of power, both divine (Zion), and also
worldly. Often we find the mountains of the world put in oppo
sition to the mountain of God ; for example, in the passage just
mentiohed, Isa. ii. 2; Ps. lxviii. 16, 17; Ezek. xxxv. 1,
xxxvi. 15. Thus we find in Jeremiah li. 24, 25, that Babylon,
the seat of the world-power, is contrasted with Mount Zion, a
destroying mountain, which destroyeth all the earth ! And in
Isaiah xli. 15, etc., the overthrow of the world-kingdoms by the
kingdom of God, is described in expressions which remind us of
Dan. ii. 35, as a threshing the mountains, and beating them
small by Israel, which is made a threshing-instrument. In Hab.
iii. 6, the everlasting mountains are compared to the heathen
nations. And, accordingly, in Rev. xvii. 9, the symbolic expres
sion of heads is explained, first, by that of mountains, which is
more familiar to the/eader of prophecy, and, afterwards, both are
openly explained by ^ao-ikels. The mountains stand in the same
relation to the kings, as in verse 15 the waters where the whore
sitteth do to the peoples ; as little as the waters are to be taken
literally, so little are the mountains.
To enter now into further detail, the ten horns we saw in
Daniel mean the last phase of the worldly power ; they belong
to the last kingdom, which is divided into ten parts : they are
likewise connected with the seventh head, which the angel inti
mates, xvii. 1 2, by saying of the ten horns, that they have re
ceived no kingdom as yet, just as he said of the seventh king,
who is of such importance that he is not yet come. It is impos
sible to give a more minute designation of the ten kingdoms,
since, at least in their tenfold appearance, they are as yet in the
future. But we can name the seven heads ; they are the seven
universal monarchies, under the last of which we live. The
names of blasphemy on the head denote the God-opposed charac
ter of these kingdoms. It is true that the horns stand for cotem-
porary kingdoms, and, according to the analogy of the four-headed
leopard in Daniel vii. 6, we would naturally expect the same in

" FIVE ARE FALLEN." 271
the case of the heads here. But such a supposition the Apoca
lypse has rendered impossible, by stating that, of the seven
monarchies five belong to the past, one to the present, and one
to the future, from the stand-point of the Apocalyptic, xvii. 10,
thus plainly showing that the kingdoms follow one another. It
is not difficult to find out, with the assistance of Daniel and the
other prophets, what kingdoms are meant. We have first the
four Danielic kingdoms ; but here they become five, because the
then present kingdom is distinguished from the future one, the
Germanic. A distinction indicated by Daniel himself, in whose
image of monarchies the fourth consists of two perfectly different
materials, iron and clay, and the whole, consequently of five
materials. But we have already seen that the Apocalypse not
only extends the horizon further into the future than the prophe
cies of Daniel, and looks even into the new heaven and the new
earth, but that it likewise looks further back into the past, and
surveying the world-historical conflict between the kingdom of
God and the kingdoms of the world, commences, not with the
time of Daniel, but with the time when the two conflicting
powers first manifested themselves on earth. The first world-
power which came into conflict with the Jewish theocracy, even
during the time of Abraham, and especially when the theocracy
commenced to exist as a proper kingdom and nation in the time
of Moses, is Egypt. After the Egyptian monarchy, follows the
Assyrian, as predecessor of the Babylonian (Jer. 1. 17). Israel
was implicated in the struggles of Egypt and Assyria, as it was
afterwards in those of the Ptolemies and Seleucidae. It is remark
able how often, for this reason, Assyria and Egypt are mentioned
together, by the prophets, as the world-powers with whom the
people of God committed fornication, and by the older prophets,
as representatives of the world-power in general (1 Kings xvii.
4 ; Hos. vii. 11 ; Micah vii. 12 ; Isa. Iii. 4 ; xix. 23-25 ; Jer. ii.
18, 36 ; Zech x. 10). To these two powers is added, in the two
chapters of Ezekiel, which are of the utmost importance for the
understanding of the name harlot (Ezek. xvi. 26-29 ; xxiii. 3, 5,

272 REV. XIII. 3-10.
and 14), the third world-power, with which Israel committed
fornication, Chaldea or Babylon, which connects the two older
kingdoms with the series given by Daniel. Thus the heads
which were fallen are the following five : 1 . Egypt ; 2. Assyria ;
3. Babylon ; 4. Medo-Persia ; 5. Greece ; the Roman is the sixth,
and the Germanic-Sclavonic kingdom the seventh.
We need not offer any remarks on xiii. 3-10, since it finds its
elucidation in what we have already said concerning the sym
bolism of beasts in the book of Daniel. In ver. 1-3, we have a
description of the appearance of the beast ; in ver. 3 and 4, we are
told the impression, which the appearance makes upon earth —
all the world wonders after the beast, worships its power, and
consequently the devil ; ver. 5-7, the beast develops its essen
tial character in words and deeds — enmity against God and His
saints. In ver. 8, the tense changes into the future. The
homage described in ver. 4, will be paid also in future by all
who are earthly-minded (ol KaroiKovvres «V1 rrjs yrjs opposed to ol
iv ra oipavm o-Knvovvres, v. 6 ; xii. 12), who do not belong to
the elect, and who are not willing to receive life from the Lamb
slain. Ver. 9 and 10 contain exhortations and warnings corres
ponding to the prophecy ; ver. 9 contains a general one ; ver.
10,, first a warning addressed to the persecuting children of the
world ; secondly, a word for the children of light during their
sufferings. Here is the patience and the faith of the saints.
This is to be the motto and watchword of the elect, during this
whole period of the world-kingdom.

II. HISTORY OF THE CHURCH AND THE WORLD-POWER.
In chap. xiii. 11-18, there follows a description of the second
beast, the false prophet, of whom we shall speak subsequently.
The fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth chapters describe the
preparations prior to the Messianic judgment ; and we take
this opportunity of surveying them briefly, as they afford no

HISTORY OF THE CHURCH AND WORLD-POWER. 273
points of comparison with Daniel. They consist of two divisions,
chap, xiv., and chap. xv. and xvi. Both begin with John's
vision of the perfected saints in heaven — the hundred and forty-
four thousand of Israel (xiv. 1-5, comp. vii. 4-8), and those who
have overcome from among the Gentiles (xv. 1-5, comp. vii.
9-17). They who are the divine kernel of humanity, the
positive fruits of the history of the world and the Church,
rescued from destruction, and partakers of life, are placed in op
position to, and before the judgments, which descend from
heaven on the apostate church and world — even as light is op
posed to darkness, and heaven to earth ; the view of their
blessedness is to console at the sight of such awful judgment ;
they sing hymns of praise, and ascribe honour to the God of
judgment. In the fourteenth chapter then follow announce
ments of judgments (ver. 6-12), and descriptions of judgment
(13-20). The announcements are threefold ; first a general one
by the angel, bringing the glad tidings of the coming of the
eternal kingdom, Dan. vii. 14, or having the everlasting gospel
(ver. 6-7) ; then a special judgment is announced upon the
Babylonian harlot, here mentioned for the first time, ver. 8, and
upon the beast and its worshippers, ver. 9-12. To this is added
the vision of the harvest, representing Christ, at His appearing
to judge, taking the faithful to their home and abode, ver. 14-16 ;
for which reason the glorious word concerning believers who
have fallen asleep previous to this event (ver. 13), is prefixed
to this description, while the autumn represents the judgment of
wrath upon the apostate. The fifteenth and sixteenth chapters
contain the seven vials of wrath, which are the immediate pre
cursors, the birth pangs of the final judgment upon the beast
(xvi. 2, 10), and the Babylonian harlot (xvi. 19).
The section, chap, xvii.-xix., demands a more minute investi
gation. The seventeenth chapter describes the harlot and the
beast, ripe for judgment; the eighteenth chapter contains the
judgment which falls on the harlot; the nineteenth, that which
falls on the beast, and its spiritual ally, the false prophet. The
s

274 BABYLON.
symbols occurring in these chapters thus show us the final state
at which the symbols of the twelfth and thirteenth chapters, with
which they are identical, have arrived, in the course of history,
through its ages, to the end ; they represent the result of the
world-historical, and church-historical development. This re
sult is the fruit which has matured, by degrees, during these
centuries, which are therefore included in these final figures.
Thus we have here a sketch of the outlines, as well as a descrip
tion of the chief powers of the history of the world and the
Church ; and the congregation of Christ's believers in this world
possesses in these chapters all she requires to know during the
times of the Gentiles, which are unillumined by the light of
revelation.

a. The Great Harlot Babylon.
The harlot, as described in the seventeenth chapter, and in
troduced by this appellation in xiv. 8, xvi. 19, has occurred
before in the Revelation. She is identical with the woman,
who, we saw in chap, xii., is a symbolical representation of the
Church of God in the world. This woman has become a harlot.
The harlot is, consequently, not the city of Rome — such a view
seems to be favoured by some passages, when taken literally ;
but it is totally at variance with the spirit of this thoroughly
symbolical book. The Apocalypse has prepared the right in
terpretation, by one single expression, and this expression is
TrvevpaTiicas (ch. xi. 8). Jerusalem, the representative of the
Old Testament Church, is called, spiritually, not literally and
outwardly, not judged with the judgment of man and flesh, but
7vvevp.aTiKa>s dvaicpivopivn, viewed with spiritual eyes, measured by
God's standard, Sodom and Egypt, that is, she has become like
the godless and doomed world-city and world-power, because
she rejected the Lord and crucified Him. In like manner is

MYSTERY. 275
the New Testament Church, is Christendom called (after the
world-city) Babylon, Rome, because she has forsaken Christ,
and given her love to this present world. To the expression,
nvevp.ariKS>s, corresponds, in this respect, another word, which is
written upon the harlot's forehead, the word Muotij/mov, Mystery.
This word occurs only once in the New Testament, in the mouth
of our Saviour (Mark iv. 11); but it is used by Paul, and in
the Apocalypse. It always, and without exception, designates
a subject, which is hidden to the unassisted reason and eye of
man, and can only be seen by a special divine revelation (comp.
Rom. xvi. 25 ; 1 Cor. ii. 7-10 ; Eph. iii. 3-5 ; Rom. xi. 25 ;
1 Cor. xv. 51). Thus it designates, in the Revelation of St
John, in contradistinction to the objects of outward perception
(i. 20), or the objects perceived by unassisted reason (x. 7),
something deeper, which was in the spirit's mind, and is there
fore understood only by the spirit of man, when illumined from
above, by the mind which has received the wisdom from on
high. Hence we meet here, and in connection with the word
mystery, a third expression, by which the Apocalypse itself
points out a spiritual mystical interpretation of her image.
" Here is wisdom" (xiii. 18, xvii. 9). We find these three ideas
connected in like manner by Paul, when he says (1 Cor. ii. 7,
10), Xdkovpev $>eov o-o<piav iv pva-rnpia r\v d-rreKaXv^rev 6 Seos rjpiv
Sid tov nvebparos avrov, afterwards using the expression, Trvevpa-
tikSss. The inscription, then, which the harlot bears on her
forehead, Mystery, Babylon the Great, the Mother of Harlots
and Abominations of the Earth, warns us, by its very first
words, not to adopt a literal interpretation of the words which
follow, but to look for a spiritual one. Such an one is not
obtained, however, by putting the city of Rome instead of the
city of Babylon ; but we may be led to it by the words of Paul ;
for what he says of the woman (Eph. v. 31, 32), " This is a
great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the Church,"
refers also to the harlot. The harlot Babylon, is the church
conforming to the world.

276 WOMAN, HARLOT, BRIDE.
This view is borne out by the following three statements of
the text.
Firstly, John, it is said (xvii. 3), was again carried away in the
Spirit into the wilderness, where he last saw the woman, in
chap. xii. The expression, wilderness (epn^os), which has
caused, in this passage, much unnecessary trouble and display of
erudition to commentators, occurs in the book of Revelation,
only in the following passages, xii. 6, 14, and xvii. 3. This
circumstance of itself throws striking and clear ligl^t on the
whole. John left the woman in the wilderness ; he is brought
again into the wilderness, and finds again the woman ; hence
could the identity of the woman in chap. xii. and in xvii. be
more clearly indicated ?
For, secondly, the same expressions are used in chap. xvii. for
wilderness and woman, as in chap. xii. The expression woman,
ywi), has its fixed meaning throughout this apocalyptic book.
In xii. 17, and again in the nineteenth and twenty-first chapters,
it is always used as a symbolical representation of the Church.
Besides the passages mentioned, it occurs only in ii. 20, and in
the plural ix. 8, xiv. 4, passages which, it will be seen from
the most cursory glance, have no bearing on our subject. In
the twelfth chapter, we know the woman is the congregation of
God in its purity, the bearer of divine light, the Church of
believers in the Old and New Covenants, In the seventeenth
chapter, where yvvfj occurs (ver. 3, 4, 6, 7, 9, 18), it is the
apostate church which has become the harlot, and unfaithful to her
spouse and Lord, Jehovah-Christ. Finally, in xix. 7, and xxi.
9, the woman is the transfigured, perfect Church, the bride of
the Lamb, ready for the marriage feast. Woman, harlot, bride,
these are the three aspects of the Church, which the evangelical
mode of viewing Scripture has never failed clearly to distinguish.
The woman is the invisible Church ; the harlot the visible
Church. Both are the Church militant ; whereas the bride is
the Church triumphant.
We find thus, that the results of an evangelical study of

WOMAN AND HARLOT. 277
Church history in our own times, were seen before, and laid
down centuries ago by divine prophecy.
Thirdly, It is admitted by all commentators, that the beast in
the seventeenth chapter is identical with that of the thirteenth.
But'beast and woman are placed in both chapters in immediate
connection. If the identity of the beast is conceded, how is it
possible to doubt that of the woman ? It must strike the reader,
at a first glance, that all three expressions,' wilderness, woman,
beast (xvii. 3), are without article, which would be naturally ex
pected here as referring to expressions known from their previous
occurrence. But the omission of the article has its good reason.
The three expressions are identical, and yet, in a sense, not identi
cal with the former; the heathen world, the Church, and the
world-power, have undergone, as we shall see subsequently, great
changes, so much so, that John can scarcely recognise them,
and sees " a beast, a woman, a wilderness."
This is shown, fourthly, by the expression used by the seer
(ver. 6), with regard to the woman — " when I saw her I won
dered." We nowhere meet in the Apocalypse such an expres
sion of John's amazement ; and hence the angel's question
(ver. 7), Wherefore didst thou marvel ? In other passages the
inhabitants of earth are astonished at the beast (ver. 8, and
xiii. 3). It is clear, that the object of John's astonishment
cannot be the outward magnitude of the city of Rome, or the
multitude of sins and crimes which are natural, and to be
expected, in a great world-city. Nor can the astonishment of
the apostle be explained, from his not being able to understand
the image ; for why do we not find this astonishment mentioned
in the case of other visions, which he likewise could not at first
have understood ? No ; the wonder of John finds its only
explanation in the extraordinary change which had passed over
the woman ; the impression made on John may be expressed by
the words of Isaiah i. 21 : How is the faithful city become an
harlot ! This moves his very heart of hearts ; thi3 causes him
such utter amazement (e$abpa<ra $avp,a piya) that the Church of

278 WOMAN AND HARLOT.
Christ should fall so low. In like manner, the prophets of the
Old Covenant are astonished and indignant at the fornication of
Israel, which they designate as unheard of. " Ask now among
the heathen, who hath heard such things, the virgin of Israel
hath done a very horrible thing" (Jer. xviii. 13 ; ii. 10, 11).
The expression, "virgin" reminds us of "harlot;" the word is
chosen with purposed irony. The "very horrible thing" is
parallel to the " abominations," Rev. xvii. 4, 5, as the expression
nnijH) is used, for example Hos. vi. 10, of abominations of
whoredom. The emphatic expression, that it is unheard
of, that it cannot be accounted for, that Israel has fallen
so deep, even below the heathens, forms an exact parallel
to the astonishment of John. In like manner does the
book of Isaiah open. Heaven and earth are called to
witness this marvel, that the children whom the Lord brought
up and nourished, have become more forgetful than ox and ass
(Is. i. 1-3).
Fifthly, In the preceding arguments, we have already touched
on the most important and decisive reason in favour of our view,
which lies in the expressions, harlot (Rev. xvii. 1, 5, 15, 16 ;
xix. 2), to commit fornication (xvii. 2 ; xviii. 3, 9), fornication
(xiv. 8 ; xvii. 2, 4 ; xviii. 3 ; xix. 2). As Babylon is altogether
described in its worldly features, the first impression might
naturally be to refer it to political Rome ; and the absence of
more definite spiritual attributes might be brought forward as
an argument against our view. But the two designations,
woman and harlot, are sufficient for him who understands the
usus loquendi of our book and prophecy in general. " Woman,"
means the Church, the congregation of God ; and when it is
said, the Church is become altogether worldly, the predicate
does not alter the meaning of the subject. " Harlot" means, in
the whole Old and New Testament, the apostate Church of
God. She forms the subject of the seventeenth and eighteenth
chapters, which, doubtless, paint worldliness in exceedingly strong
colours ; but only in order to point out emphatically and earnestly

WOMAN AND HARLOT. 279
the contrast between the actual state of the Church and its
ideal. It is quite impossible to refer the expression harlot, to
the heathen world-city. It is true, that this expression is used
with reference to world-cities, but only in two passages of the
Old Testament, Is. xxiii. 15-18, where Tyre, and Nah. iii. 4,
where Nineveh, is spoken of. But these two passages have no
force, if compared with the great number of others with which
they are parallel, and in which harlotry symbolizes uniformly,
the apostasy of God's Church, her conformity to the world. It
is natural that the Apocalypse should refer also to these two
passages (xvii. 1, 2 ; xviii. 3), and for this simple reason, that the
Apocalypse applies the image of -the world-city to the Church.
But it is not only absurd to fix the usus loquendi of our book,
which is universally admitted to be the consummation of all
prophecy, by two isolated passages ; but this is, moreover, ren
dered impossible by the connection, which, as was pointed out,
subsists between woman and harlot — a connection which is but
an echo to the voice of all Old Testament prophets, the object
of whose lamentations is always the Church of God, that has
become unfaithful, and a harlot. We saw, in our first remarks
on the expression woman, that the expression,- " to commit
fornication," was the original fundamental one used in the
Pentateuch, and that from this expression the view gradually
developed itself, that Jehovah's relation to Israel is a marriage
relation, and the idea of the " woman" was thus formed. And
how were it possible, that in the Revelations the woman and
harlot should stand in no relation to each other ? Only remem
ber fundamental passages, like Jer. ii. and iii., Ezek. xvi. and
xxiii., Hos. i.-iii., the echo of which resounds throughout pro
phecy, and the biblical idea of fornication and adultery will
stand out clearly. It is the same idea which our Lord Jesus
expresses, when he calls God-estranged Israel an evil and adul
terous generation (Matt. xii. 39 ; xvi. 4 ; Mark viii. 38).
But of course the usus loquendi of the Apocalypse itself has
most decisive weight. Fornication, in the literal sense, is men-

280 WOMAN AND HARLOT.
tioned, ii. 14, 20, in connection with idolatrous sacrifices ; in
ver. 21, there is a transition to the spiritual use of the word, as
is evident from ver. 22, where de Wette and Hengstenberg, who
do not agree with our interpretation, refer poixebeiv, adultery,
to the violating of the covenant of God in Christ, and to the
spread of heresies.
Besides, in xiv. 4, before the first mention of the harlot (ver.
8), as if to prepare the reader for the understanding of the term,
the hundred and forty-four thousand are described " as they,
which were not defiled with women, for they are virgins." This
expression, which has given much trouble to commentators, is
easily understood, when contrasted with the whoredom of
Babylon, spoken of, ver. 8 ; the pure transfigured church is
here opposed to the impure church, which is ready for judgment,
even as a chaste virgin to a harlot : in like manner, Paul says
to the Corinthians, that he hoped to present them to Christ as
a pure virgin, wapSevov dyvfjv (2 Cor. xi. 2, comp. Ephes. v.
25-27 ; in like manner, as we saw above, Jeremiah contrasts
the virgin youth of Israel with its abonjinations of whoredom.
The expression : who are not defiled with women, is founded on
the fundamental passage, Num. xxv. 1, which is also alluded to in
Rev. ii. 14, where the connection betweeu outward and spiritual
fornication is represented in the case of the Moabite women.
With the exception of ix. 21, there is no other passagein our
book in which fornication is spoken of, and hence the meaning
of the term in the Apocalypse is beyond doubt.
Connected with this is, sixthly, the objective parallelismbetween
Babylon and New Jerusalem. Both are cities, only the one is
a harlot, the other a bride (xvii. 1, 3, 5 ; xxi. 9). But now, as
New Jerusalem is acknowledged at all hands to mean the
transfigured congregation of God, it follows, that Babylon means
the Church in its worldliness.
Evenmore distinct, if possible, is, seventhly, the eontrastwhich is
in xix. 1, 9, between the harlot and the wife of the Lamb. The
same great voice of much people in heaven, which praises God

CORRUPTION OF THE CHURCH. 281
(v. 1-5) on account of the judgment on the heathen, rejoices in
ver. 6 and 7, that now the marriage of the Lamb is come, and
His wife hath made herself ready. After the false church,
which was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and dressed
with gold and precious stones and pearls (xvii. 4), is judged,
the true Church of God is clothed with the white garment,
which, by its splendour (Xapvpov) symbolises the triumph of
him that overcometh, by its purity (raS-apov) innocence, and
righteousness. The xplpa of the harlot is the StKaltapa of the
woman (Comp. the same contrast Rom. v. 16-18) ; the saints
who condemned the harlot, and prayed for judgment on her
(xviii. 20), who would not partake of her sins, and remained
faithful even unto death (xviii. 24 ; xix. 2), are now justified,
are now in possession of their right, which was hitherto unac
knowledged and violated, but which is now manifest before all the
world, of the righteousness with which God invested them, that
crown of righteousness, as Paul (2 Tim. iv. 8) expresses the
same thing, under a different figure (Comp. Delitzsch, Hohelied,
p. 227, etc.). As long as the false church existed, the true
Church could not be manifest ; now the harlot has fallen, the
woman triumphs. Nothing could be expressed in a clearer
manner than the meaning of the harlot is.
Add to this, eighthly, our remark on the meaning of the
word mystery, which the harlot has inscribed on her forehead. -
Let us now turn to the consideration of the prophecy itself,
viz., the prophecy concerning the corruption of the Church, and
her conforming to the world. The numerous analogies in the
Old and New Testament will render our understanding of the
prophecy easy. Our Lord Himself, to begin with the New
Testament, has given ho obscure intimations in the parables
which refer to the history of the church (Matt, xiii.), that when
once the gospel, according to its destination, shall have the
whole world for its field, when the kingdom of God shall be
like a net cast into the sea of all nations and peoples, the Church
would not be pure, but mixed, consisting of good and evil.

282 OLD TESTAMENT ANALOGIES.
The twenty-fourth chapter of Matthew, Christ's eschatological
words, in which He views simultaneously the destruction of
Jerusalem and His Parousia; and hence judgment upon Israel
and Christendom is based upon the fundamental view that
the New Testament Church will become as much a wicked
and adulterous generation as the Old Testament congregation,
and the Lord dwells upon some symptoms and characteristics of
this adultery, as distrust and suspicion ; hatred, treachery (ver.
10-12), divisions into parties (23-26), false doctrine (vii. 24).
In the light of this chapter the apostles looked into the future
of the Church. Paul, Peter, and John declare with ever-in
creasing distinctness, especially in their more advanced age,
when they witnessed the lieathenish, gnostic element insinuating
itself into the church, that, in the future, and especially the last
days (iv bo-ripots Ktupoir, 1 Tim. iv. 1 ; 2 Peter ii. 1-3, iv io-xd-
rais rjpepais, 2 Tim. iii. 1 ; iv. 3 ; 2 Peter iii. 3 ; comp. 1 John
ii. 18), there would come heavy times of apostasy and sedi
tion. Paul compares those that resist truth, to the Egyptian
sorcerers, Jannes and Jambres (2 Tim. iii. 8) ; Peter with Sodom
and the heathen prophet Balaam (2 Peter ii. 6, 15) ; comparisons
which we find again in the Apocalypse (xi. 8 ; ii. 14), and which
form the substratum for the representation of the apostate church
as world city. In speaking of the historical starting-point of the
book of Revelation, we alluded to this analogy of the apostolic
prophecy, and pointed out, that the Apocalypse itself contains a
description of the corruption which was creeping into the church ;
in the seven epistles, which designate the corruption as forni
cation and adultery ; and it is only this view more fully de
veloped which meets us in the " Babylonian harlot."
We have also occasionally referred to Old Testament ante
cedents and analogies, which the apostle Peter points out (2
Peter ii. 1). The reason' and occasion of prophecy itself is the
fact, that Israel, the spouse of Jehovah, has become a harlot.
The prophets are sent to oppose the corruption of the nation.
Repentance, judgment, redemption — these are the great topics

OLD TESTAMENT ANALOGIES. 283
of prophecy. Hence the three great prophets and the first of
the twelve minor prophets, begin with describing the whoredom
of Israel (Is. i. ; Jer. i.— iii. ; Ezek. ii. ; Hos. i.-iii.). But
Israel's unfaithfulness is of a much older date than the time of
prophecy. It is as old as the nation -itself; even in the wilderness,
Israel went after strange gods ; and, as has been remarked, the
expression, " to commit fornication," precedes historically the ex
pression, " woman." The heinousness of sin is expressed in this
comparison, its awful magnitude, which is only surpassed by
the mercy of God (Rom. v. 20), who condescends to sinners so
vile, and does not even spare His own Son to redeem them.
The harlot is as old as the woman, even as the invisible and
visible Church were never altogether identical. Israel had a
time of first bridal love, of which Jeremiah speaks (ii. 2, 3) :
The time of their going out of Egypt, and their first days in the
wilderness. In like manner, there was a time of first love in
the Christian Church (Rev. ii. 4), the apostolic, especially
during the first decennia, which are the Egyptian times, and
the times of the wilderness, according to Rev. xi. 8 ; xii. 6, 14.
But soon, very soon, commenced the Church's whoredom.
Israel, as a nation, fell from God, and became a harlot; and the
little flock of genuine, faithful Israelites, the woman, was always
concealed and hidden, like a kernel in the shell. The Apoca
lypse itself leads us to this view, for, in xvii. 9, the harlot is re
presented as sitting on all the seven world-kingdoms, and this
refers, as does the woman, to Old Testament times as well. In
the passage quoted above, the prophets (especially Ezek. xvi.
and xxiii), give us a description of the shameful whoredoms
committed by Israel with the most ancient kingdoms of the
world — Egypt, Assyria, Babylon. We see the same thing in
the New Covenant. In the twelfth chapter of Revelation, the
first period of the Christian Church is described, when apostate
Israel was the harlot, and the young congregation of Christ the
woman, that time of first love among the Christians, in which
almost the whole church was faithful to the Lord. But soon

284 STATE AND CHURCH.
fornication crept into the Church itself, so that, as a whole, she
appears in the seventeenth chapter no longer as the woman, but
the harlot, the great Babylon, which contains, however, con
cealed, the true people of God, the woman (xviii. 4).
We see here a fundamental idea of God's plan, of which we
spbke in. general on a previous occasion, and which is of great
importance for the understanding of all prophecy and history.
God has given to humanity, as a race, two essential forms of
social life for its development and growth : State and Church.
The latter in a twofold shape. In the Old Testament form,
where Church and State are connected, and in the New Testa
ment, spiritually free (geistesfreien). State and Church are pre
cious gifts of God. The one, a gift of nature and creation ; the
other, of revelation and spiritual grace. But the original pur
pose of both institutions is realised only in a small number of
men ; as a whole, both are desecrated and disfigured by sin ;
thus, states become to be of the nature of the beast, the church
becomes a harlot. Yet, notwithstanding this, they exist, and
are preserved by the Divine patience until their object is ful
filled, which is, that under the protection of the State, under the
nurture of the Church, and also under the oppression of the evil
administrators in both, the congregation of the elect is gathered,
the faithful, chaste wife of Christ. The woman is the kernel,
beast and harlot serve as shell, as scaffolding for the temple of
the Lord. But whenever the kernel is mature, whenever the
edifice is complete, the shell is thrown off, the scaffolding de
stroyed, and what does not belong to the temple must perish
amid the falling ruins. Thus, when judgment will come upon
Babylon, a voice from heaven will say, " Come out of her, my
people" (Rev. xvii. 4). Thus it was, that out of the ruins of
Israel and Jerusalem, came forth the first congregation of
Christians, when the Old Testament people of God were judged
(Matt. xxiv. 18). And even in more remote times can we trace
analogies. For in the antediluvian world, the antithesis of
world-kingdom and God's kingdom, existed, though in a diffe-

THE REMNANT. 285
rent form. There was then neither church, as in the New, or
Theocracy, as in the Old Covenant, opposed to the world, but
family against family. The Cainites were the beast, the Sethites
the woman. But even the families of Sethites became the harlot ;
only Noah, with his house, was a just man, and perfect in his
generation, and walked with God. Therefore judgment came
on both Sethites and Cainites, and only Noah and his family
were saved. The remnant thus saved is always the seed of a
new time and world ; thus Noah, for the history of the world,
the Jewish Christians, headed by the apostles, for the history of
the Church ; the congregation of the Bride, which shall come
out from Babylon for the kingdom of the millennium (Rev. xx.
4). But there is a gradation and progress in humanity thus
saved from judgment; in the first case it is natural, in the
second, spiritual, in the third, transfigured humanity. This is
the fundamental idea of the history of the kingdom which Peter
develops, 2 Pet. ii. 5. Peter adds Lot to Noah ; in his going
out of Sodom the same grand law manifested itself on a small
scale, and therefore our Lord also (Luke xvii. 26) connects
Noah and Lot. The same fundamental idea is expressed in
prophecy by Shear-jashub (Isaiah vii. 3 ; x. 20-23 ; vi. 10-13 ;
i. 9 ; Zephan. iii. 12, 13), and the same idea is resumed by Paul in
Rom. ix. 27-20 ; xi. 1-10), when he speaks of the seed and the
remnant, according to the election of grace, which alone is to be
saved, even though Israel were as numerous as the sand of the
sea ; it is the same fundamental idea, with which the Old
Testament concludes, and the New Testament begins (Mal. iii.
16-21 ; Matt. iii. 12); the chaff, which is round the wheat, is
burned with fire, but the wheat, that has life and strength, is
gathered into God's garner.
These considerations will facilitate our understanding of the
descriptions of the apostate Church, contained in the seventeenth
and eighteenth chapters of the Apocalypse. Only let us con
stantly bear in mind, that from the outset, the chief object is
the judgment of the living and holy God on the Church ; and

286 WORLDLINESS OF THE CHURCH.
this judgment is not according to human, but according to the
divine standard, which is so much higher than man's, as the
heavens are higher than the earth (Isaiah lv. 8, 9 ; Rom. xi.
33). It is a spiritual judgment, irvevaariKas (1 Cor. ii. 13-15);
what belongs spiritually to Sodom, Egypt, or Babylon, is con
demned. God, who has shown to the Church the fulness of His
grace, and purchased her with the blood of his Son, can and must
require of her pure, perfect surrender, and a total renunciation
of the world (comp. Heb. xi. 7, Sid -rf/s Trlo-reuts N£e Karexpye Toy
Koo-pov). Hence, in proportion as His love was great, His wrath
is great ; as liberal and generous as His mercies are, even so severe
and awful are His judgments. We, especially in these times,
are not accustomed to the idea of an absolute separation of light
and darkness, kingdom of God and world, woman and beast,
which exists in the mind of God. Hence we find it difficult to
understand the Apocalypse. The key to the book is the cross, as
we see from ver. 9, the cross by which I am crucified to the world,
and the world to me, Gal. vi. 14. But the fundamental error of
our Christian theory and practice is, that we confuse kingdom of
God and world — the very thing the Bible designates as whore
dom. Hence it is we do not understand God's zeal against it.
Our eyes are dim to perceive the sins of the Church, and of
Christendom, and our own sins ; and therefore it is, that we
think the awful words of the seventeenth and eighteenth chap
ters cannot refer to the Church, but must apply to the world
city. Oh that our eyes were opened, that we might see as the
prophets, the apostles, the Lord Jesus himself, the Friend of
Sinners, saw the Church of their times. We know that the
Pharisees were not such bad men, and had a kind of zeal for
divine things, and yet with what awful earnestness does the
Lord reprove them. The prophets appeared mostly in the
reigns of excellent kings, as Hezekiah and Josiah — and yet what
powerful sermons of repentance and judgment were uttered by
them. The teachers of false doctrines and seducers, with whom
the apostles had to do, were not of such a dangerous kind, per-

THE CHURCH — THE HARLOT. 287
verting the very foundations of truth, as the teachers of error
in our own times ; and yet how strongly do Paul and John,
Peter and Jude, testify against them ! Sin appears more sinful
in the eyes of God, than in ours ; but the most heinous of all
sins is the sin of those to whom God has shown His saving
grace, who have God's word and know it, who are called to
serve Him (Luke xii. 47-48). The worldliness of the Church is
the most worldlyand profane of all worldliness. Hence it is, that in
the description of Babylon, the Apocalypse unites not only the
chief features of Israel's sins, but also of the sins of the heathens,
as we find them delineated in the prophets. And, for the same
reason, the seer dwells longer on the description of the abomi
nations and judgments of the harlot, than on those of the beast;
and for this reason, likewise, the whole section, beginning with
chap, xvii., comes within the range of judgment on the harlot ;
and, finally, for this reason it is, that there is most special joy
in heaven at her downfal, more than over the downfal of the
two beasts (comp. xviii. 20-xix. 5).
The word harlot describes the essential character of the false
church (xvii. 1). She retains her human shape, remains a
woman, does not become beast; she has the form of godliness,
but denies the power thereof (2 Tim. iii. 8). Her rightful lord
and husband, Jehovah-Christ, and the joys and goods of his house,
are no longer her all in all, but she runs after the visible and
vain things of the world, in its manifold manifestations. This
whoredom appears in its proper form, where the church wishes
to be itself a worldly power, uses politics and diplomacy, makes
flesh her arm, uses unholy means for holy ends, spreads her
dominion by sword or money, fascinates the hearts of men by
sensual ritualism, allows herself to become " Mistress of Cere
monies" to the dignitaries of this world, flatters prince or people,
the living or the dead, — in short, where the church, like Israel
of old, seeks the help of one worldly power against the danger
threatening from another. But, indeed, though whoredom be
not committed in this gross shape, the word of the Lord applies

288 THE HARLOT JUDGED.
here also : Whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her, hath
committed adultery with her already in his heart (Matt. v. 28).
Whenever the Church forgets that she is in the world, even as
Christ was in the world, as a bearer of the cross, and pilgrim,
that the world is crucified to her, and judged ; whenever the
Church regards in her heart the world as a reality, and acknow
ledges her as a power, whose anger she endeavours to avoid, with
whom she tries to make some compromise, whose pleasures and
enjoyments seem to her desirable, with whose wisdom, education,
science, spirit, though opposed to God's truth, she coquets ;
whenever such is the case, adultery is committed in essential
reality. Herein consists the essence of whoredom, in leaning,
and listening, and conforming to, and relying on the world.
Hence, there could not be a better description of it than that
given, xvii. 3, 7, 9 ; the woman sits on the beast. The church,
the woman clothed with the sun, ought to let her light, the
nature of which is to spread light, shine into darkness ; it ought,
as a leaven, to penetrate and pervade the whole mass of human
ity, " not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith the
Lord of Hosts" (Zech. iv. 6) ; this is her motto and watchword.
But the harlot is the very reverse of this. Instead of cleaving to
Christ, and Him alone, as to her royal head, she trusts to the
heads of the beast (ver. 9) ; instead of the heavenly splendour of
the sun, she is arrayed with the earthly adornments of purple
and scarlet, gold and precious stones, and pearls, ver. 4 ; in
stead of drinking of the cup of suffering of her Lord, she has a
golden cup in her hand, full of abominations and filthiness of her
fornication (ver. 4). And they who rejoice over such a church,
and lament her downfal, are not the true living Christians, the
saints of God, but the great and the rich of this world, the kings
who committed fornication with her, the merchants of the earth,
and the shipmasters who were made rich by her abominations,
Rev. xvii. 2 ; xviii. 3, 9-19. How mightily does this contrast
with Paul's observation ? For ye see your calling, brethren, how
that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not

BLOOD-GUILTINESS OF THE HARLOT. 289
many noble, are called. God hath chosen the weak things of
this earth (1 Cor. i. 26 ; James ii. 5). What a contrast between
the world's lamentations at the downfal of the harlot, and the
world's rejoicing over the death of the two witnesses, as it is
written, Rev. xi. 10, " and they that dwell upon the earth shall
rejoice over her, and make merry, and shall send gifts one to
another, because these two prophets tormented them that dwelt
on the earth." The harlot church did not molest the kings and
mighty ones of this earth ; she did not reprove their sins, but
made their way to heaven smooth and easy ; she was of service
to them as a bridle, to keep in subjection the nations ; she offered
herself as a means of restoring their authority, and re-establish
ing order and safety ; and her help was accepted, and found use
ful. Hence, no wonder that the kings mourn over her fall, xviii.
9-10. Also the merchants, shipmasters, found the church useful
as preserving order and peace, and under her protection com
merce prospered, and their gains increased (xviii. 11, 13). And
not only this, but she did not lift up her voice to witness against
worldly-mindedness, against luxury and effeminate refinement, —
the sources of the merchants' gains, — but rather conformed her
self to the world, and partook of her joys and pleasures ; instead
of caring for the sheep, she cared for the wool ; instead of being
clothed with the spirit and power from on high, pointing ever to
the heavenly prize, and the future city which we are seeking, she
cherished the flesh, and pleased herself in her harlot ornaments ;
instead of opposing and lessening, she promoted and increased
the sinful life and decay of the world by her own earthliness,
allowing the salt to lose its savour (xviii. 14-19 ; xix. 2, eqbSeipe
TTjV yfjv)'.
But the saints, the true witnesses of Jesus, the apostles and pro
phets, and all heaven, rejoice at the fall of Babylon; theyhavelong
prayed to God to send this judgment, for of their blood the harlot
was drunken (xvii. 6 ; xviii. 20; xix. 2). The harlot of the New
Covenant has the same blood-guiltiness as that of the old ; for
even Old Jerusalem killed the prophets, and stoned them that
T

290 UNIVERSAL CHARACTER OF THE HARLOT.
were sent to her ; and the Jews put the Lord Jesus and His dis
ciples out of their synagogues, and put tKem to death, thinking
of doing thereby God service (Matt, xxiii. 29-37 ; xxi. 35-39 ;
John xvi. 1-4). Nor must we confine our thoughts here to
cases like those of Huss, the Waldenses, the Huguenots, the
British Martyrs, etc., or the martyrs which are yet future ; but
bear in mind the words, Whoso hateth his brother is a murderer,
1 John iii. 15. Wherever true faithful Christians are neglected
and oppressed by the rulers of the Church, from avowed or secret
antipathy to God's truth, where a false theology and science
robs youth of its faith ; where a pastor neglects, and keeps at a
distance, the true living Christians in his flock, on account of the
signum crucis which they bear ; wherever we refuse, or are
ashamed to bear the reproach of Jesus Christ, our heavenly
Master, even as He bore it, there we commit murder against the
saints of God.
Such is the character of the harlot ; and it is not only a
church here and a church there ; it is not only the Church
in its individual manifestations, that is meant here, but Chris
tendom as a whole, even as Israel, as a whole, had become a
harlot. The true believers are hidden and dispersed; the in
visible church is within the visible. It cannot be said, here
or there is the harlot, and here or there she is not ; as little as
it can be said, Lo, here is Christ, or there (Matt. xxiv. 23). The
boundary-lines which separate harlot and woman are not local,
are not confessional (denominational) ; they cannot be drawn
at all externally, iv ypdppan, it must be spiritually discerned and
judged. To separate externally wheat and tares is God's, who
shall do it in judgment. This universal character of the harlot
is indicated in the Apocalypse by the expression, " the harlot
sitteth upon many waters," waters signifying nations, and
peoples, and heathens, and tongues, or by the expression, " all
nations were made drunk by the wine of her fornication," and
she corrupted the earth with her fornication (xvii. 1, 15 ;
xiv. 8 ; xviii. 3 ; xix. 2). This external extensiveness over

BABYLON AND JERUSALEM. 291
the whole world, and her internal conformity to the world ; this
worldliness, both in extent and contents, is symbolized by the
name of the world-city Babylon. It is the Lord's will, that the
seed of the gospel should be sown throughout the world ; that
all nations should be made disciples by baptism and preaching
(Matt. xiii. 38 ; xxviii. 19) ; as the sun shines on all the earth,
thus the woman clothed with the sun is to let her light and life
penetrate to the uttermost ends of the earth. What we have
spoken of previously, and shall consider more fully subsequently,
is revealed to John very clearly, viz., the outward Christianizing of
kings and nations. But this Christianization is merely external ;
the woman, in influencing the whole world, permits herself, at
the same time, to be influenced by it, thus committing adultery ;
and, for this reason, her universality and catholicity is not like
that of Jerusalem, which we hope for, according to God's
promise (for example, Isa. ii. 2-4) ; but it is the universality of
Babylon. Jerusalem and Babylon (compare on the latter, specially
the fiftieth and fifty-first chapters of Jeremiah) are the two grand
world-historical conflicting powers, which find their concrete
manifestation in these cities. We saw, in our remarks on Dan.
ix. 25, the significance of Jerusalem. Also in the Revelation of
St John, Babylon is opposed to Jerusalem, not merely to the
earthly, but also to the new, heavenly, transfigured Jerusalem.
In the times of the New Covenant, the woman has no city on
earth, because it seeks the future one (Heb. xiii. 14), it has only a
place in the wilderness (Rev. xii. 6-14). Whereas the harlot has
a comfortable and secure residence on earth, even as Cain, who
built the first city (Gen. iv. 18), and not this or that city, but it
is the very world-city of which she has taken possession. The
deeper the Church penetrated into heathenism, the very heart of
it, the more she herself became heathenish ; she then no longer
overcame the world (1 John v. 4), but suffered the world to
overcome her ; instead of elevating the world to her divine
height, she sunk down to the level of the worldly, fleshly, earthly
life ; as the heathen masses came into the Church unconverted,

292 TYRE AND SIDON.
so, in like manner, the heathenish worldly spirit passed over
into the Church, without passing through the death of the cross.
Thus it was, that the heathen Jezebel and Balaam, instead of
turning to the God of Israel, seduced God's people to idolatry.
The application of these cases to the Church of Christ in the
Epistle contained in the second chapter of Revelation (ii. 14-20),
prepares us for the expressions " harlot," as well as that of
"Babylon." As another preparation for this designation, we
adduce the passage considered before, in which Jerusalem is
called spiritual Sodom and Egypt. In connection with this, take
St Paul's comparison of the seducers and false teachers to
Jannes and Jambres, that of Peter to Sodom and Balaam, in
all which expressions we find the sinking of the Christian to the
low level of the heathenish. In the same spirit are the words
of our Lord Himself, and of the prophets of the Old Covenant,
when they repeatedly tell Israel that it had become worse than
the heathens, than the world cities Tyre and Sidon, Nineveh,
Sodom and Gomorrah (Matt. xi. 20-24 ; xii. 41 ; Isaiah i. 10 ;
Jer. ii. 10 ; xviii. 13 ; Ezek. v. 5-7 ; xvi. 45-52).
This entirely robs the argument, which might be brought
against our view, from the circumstance that Tyre and Sidon
are also (in an exceptional case) designated by the name harlot,
of its weight. In the last quoted chapter of Ezekiel, which, as
we saw before, is of great importance for the understanding of
the term harlot, we find a strong and striking analogy to the de
signation of Babylon in ver. 3, where it is said of Jerusalem :
" Thy birth and thy nativity is of the land of Canaan ; thy
father was an Amorite, and thy mother an Hittite." These
remarks will render it perfectly clear, why the Apostate Church
bears the name of the world-city.
If we now turn to consider the question, how has this pro
phecy been fulfilled in the history of the Church ; we can neither
find the Babylonian harlot exclusively in the Roman Catholic
church, as has been thought, from a one-sided Protestant point
of view, or exclusively in the Established State Churches of

THE HARLOT IS CORRUPT CHRISTENDOM. 293
Christendom, as has been imagined by separatists and sec
tarians.1 We Protestants have indeed cause enough to be humble, and
remember our own sins ; but, notwithstanding, we do not leave
our Church, applying in a hasty and unwarranted manner, the
command given, Rev. xviii. 4, " Come out of her my people ;
even as our Lord Jesus did not leave the Jewish Church of His
day ; for not even the smallest sect can keep herself free for any
length of time from the sin of the harlot. Christendom, as a
whole, in all its manifold manifestations of churches and sects,
is the harlot ; and here again, let us strive to enter into the spirit
of the watchword of the Apocalypse, " Here is patience and
faith of the saints." As John Michael Hahn says (Briefe u.
Lieder iiber die Offenbarung, in his works, vol. v., sec. 6, Tii-
ingen, 1820). — " The harlot is not the city of Rome alone, neither
is it only the Roman Catholic Church, to the exclusion of an
other, but all churches and every church, ours included, viz. all
Christendom that is without the spirit and life of our Lord
Jesus, which calls itself Christian, and has neither Christ's mind
nor spirit. It is called Babylon, that is confusion, for false
Christendom, divided into very many churches and sects, is truly
and strictly a confuser. However, in all churches, parties and sects
of Christendom, the true Jesus-congregation, the woman clothed
with the sun, lives, and is hidden. Corrupt lifeless Christendom
is the harlot, whose great aim and rule of life is the pleasure of
the flesh, the welfare of the beast-like sensual humanity, who is
open to the influence of all false spirits and teachers, and is
governed by the spirit of nature and the world."
Notwithstanding this universal character of the harlot, it re
mains true, that the Roman and Greek Churches are, in a more
peculiar sense, the harlot, than the evangelical Protestant.
Babylon, in the times of St John, became Borne; and it is clear,
from Rev. xviii. 7, that we are intended to bear this in mind.
1 The original is literally churches of the State and of the masses.— Tr.

294 ROME AND THE REFORMATION.
Not merely the outward, historical, and geographical Rome is
referred to, but as is indicated by the mystic name Babylon,
Rome in a prophetic sense, as centre of the world-power, and re
presentative of the world-city. But it is this very spirit of the
Roman world-kingdom, which penetrated into the Church, and
changed her in the west into a Church State, striving after an
external, unreal, world-power, having its centre in Rome ; and
in the east, into a State Church, fettered by the world-power,
having its centre in Byzantium ; in both places into a world-
church, fallen from the invisible spiritual essence of the gospel,
and sunk into the elements of the world, Gal. iv. 9 ; Col. ii. 20.
The Boman Catholic Church is not only accidentally and de facto,
but in virtue of its very principle, a harlot ; she has the lamentable
distinction of being the harlot kot i^oxqv, the metropolis of
whoredom, the mother of harlots (Rev. xvii. 5) ; it is she, who,
more than others, boasts of herself: I sit a queen, and am no
widow, and shall see no sorrow, xviii. 7, whereas the evangelical
(Protestant) church is, according to her principle and funda
mental creed, a chaste woman ; the Reformation was a protest
of the woman against the harlot.1
1 It is very natural that Evangelical Protestants, who rejoice in the divine
truth of their confessions of faith, should look for an intimation of the great
event of the Reformation in the prophecies of the Apocalypse. But such an
intimation cannot be found, at least not a direct one ; for the object of John
was not to write church history, but rather to sketch the features and principal
tendencies of that history. However, as we are continually reminded of the
parallelism subsisting between the Old and the New Testament development
of the kingdom of God, it is possible to form an estimate of the position and
importance which attaches to the Reformation, with reference to the whole
history of the Church. The analogy in the Old Testament is, we conceive, to be
found in the post-exilian Reformation of Israel, under Zerubbabel and Joshua,
Ezra and Nehemiah ; before the exile Israel had fallen into fornication, and
was therefore given into captivity. In like manner, the Church, during the
middle ages, and hence the expression, " the Babylonian captivity of the popes,"
and the title of Luther's work on the Babylonian Captivity of the Church.
After the exile Ezra restored the Bible, it was not a new original revelation
which was now given, but a revival of the original word of God given by
Moses. In like manner, the Reformation went back to the New Testament

FALSE CATHOLICISM. 295
As yet the mystery of Babylon is not fully developed, and we
do not know what evolutions of the false Church are in the
future, till it reaches that culminating point, when it is ripe for
judgment. But Bengel, who, notwithstanding all the mistakes
in the details of his exposition, was endowed with a wonderful
intuition, which was increased by his study of the prophetic
word, was probably correct in his expectation, that Rome will
once more rise to power. It is probable, that the Greco-Russian
Catholicism will likewise become of importance. The adulter
ous, worldly elements, in all churches and sects, lean towards
that false Catholicism, and pave the way for its progress. And
thus it may attain again to power. But not only here, but
everywhere, let us take heed to the signs of the times, to the
confusion of truth and error, worldliness and Christianity, in
and apostolus Christianity. The Israelitish Reformation was retarded and
attacked by the former inhabitants of the land, the Samaritans, of mixed
Jewish and heathen blood. Who is not struck by this resemblance to the
Roman church opposing the Reformation ? Yet the Old Testament Reforma
tion succeeded under the protection of the world-power. The Jews were
now in possession of the entire and pure word of God ; they were the witnesses
for Divine truth at that time, and among them were always faithful souls, who
kept the law of God, and waited earnestly for the consolation of Israel. But,
on the whole, the centuries before the coming of the Lord were poor and
troublous times ; the spiritual leaders of the people were divided into parties
of would-be orthodox Pharisees and Rationalistic Sadducees, and the great
mass of the nation was without spiritual life. Is this not a picture of the
Protestant Church ? The Samaritans, who mixed Jewish and heathenish ele
ments, human and divine, and were backward, both in intellectual and spiritual
life (comp. John iv. 22), stood in the same relation to the Jews, as formerly the
kino-doni of Israel to the kingdom of Judah, as at present the Roman Catholics
to the Protestants. But both had been guilty of fornication, and judgment
was sent equally on both. For it is clear, that not every thing depends on
'purity of doctrine and soundness of creed, for our Lord testifies of the Phari
sees that their doctrine was correct, insomuch as He tells the people, whatso
ever they bid you that you observe, observe and do (Matt, xxiii. 3), and yet He
adds the most earnest denunciation against them.
A similar turning-point is represented in the antediluvian time by Enoch,
the seventh from Adam, who, though not receiver of a new revelation, walked
as au example of faith, and was an earliest preacher of truth, Gen. v. 21-24 ;
Jude ver. 14, 15.

296 THE DEADLY WOUND.
manifold shapes and forms, and let us not partake of it. This
we know for certain, that in the moment of their triumph, the
powers of the world and their allies shall crumble together,
while the people of God shall be exalted to safety and victory.
Christ's cross and Christ's resurrection are our pledge and
warrant.

b. The Deadly Wound Healed — the Beast that is not, and its
Beturn.
In like manner as the woman, the beast also appears in the
seventeenth chapter in a different shape than before, and we
must therefore consider it again, and in this connection : the
beast also has passed, during the ages of the Christian Church,
through different phases of development, and is now ripe for
judgment. Let us see whether prophecy gives us any disclosures
concerning this development. For this purpose we must turn
again to the thirteenth chapter ; in the same way as the seven
teenth chapter threw light on the thirteenth, with regard to the
heads of the beast. And here it is, that the question left un
solved in our chapters on Daniel, finds its answer, the question
namely, whether prophecy takes any notice of the Christianiza-
tion of the world-power, as we find it de facto in the Roman
empire. We have passed hitherto unnoticed a feature in the picture of
the world-power, which is repeatedly and emphatically men
tioned in the thirteenth chapter. St John beholds " one of the
beast's heads, as it were, wounded to death, and his deadly
wound was healed" (xiii. 3, 12, 14). This deadly wound of one
of the world-kingdoms reminds us of what Daniel saw (Dan.
vii. 4), with regard to the king of Babylon, " I beheld till the
wings thereof (of the lion) were plucked, and the king received
the upright posture and the heart of a man." We know that
hereby the humiliation of Nebuchadnezzar's high soaring hau^hti-

EXTERNAL CHRISTIANISATION. 297
ness is indicated, and his subsequent conversion to the living.
Ijod. A similar change passes over one of the apocalyptic
heads of the beast. It is not changed into a human head, but
it receives a wound to death, and is thus rendered innocuous.
The kingdom of the world, for which this head stands, does not
truly turn to the living God, so that its beast nature is changed
into a human one, as was the case with Nebuchadnezzar ; but
it does not develop its beast-like, brutal, God-opposed character,
so fully as the six others; for a time it divests itself of its anti-
christian character. It appears i>s io-cpaypevov, as if slain ; and
the remark has been justly made, that this expression is chosen
purposely, in order to point out an outward resemblance between
the beast and the Lamb, which John beholds (ver. 6), likewise
cbs ia-cpaypevov. The second beast was like the Lamb, because it
had two horns like a lamb (xiii. 1 1) ; the first is like the Lamb,
in having a deadly wound. Hence we must not expect, even of
the beast, of the world-power itself, that its development to the
end will be in an exclusively heathenish form ; it is to be Chris
tianized externally ; nay, ,for a time, it will appear to be altoge
ther dead, and to have passed out of existence ; and yet it will
be in existence, and not have ceased to be beast.
It is not difficult to determine which of the world-kingdoms
is here intended.
We have alluded to the same fundamental fact of Christian
history, viewing it when speaking of the beast ; whereas St
John is led to this view after his vision of the woman (xii. 1 5,
16). The tribes, which were active in the migration of nations,
were a new world-power which the devil brought against the
Church of Christ ; but, in a short time, the undisciplined hordes
became accustomed to Christian order, government, civilization,
and culture, and thus lost their antichristian character. The
earth helped the woman, by swallowing up the flood ; and the
seventh head of the beast was wounded to death. The first six
world-kingdoms had been heathenish ; and although Rome had
accepted Christianity in the eve of its existence, this could not

298 THE SEVENTH KINGDOM.
delay the night which was fast coming in ; what happened from
the time of Constantine was only destined to render the Chris-
tianization of the Germanic world possible, and to prepare it to
open the mouth of the earth, in order that it might swallow up
the flood. Hence it is only the seventh kingdom which became
a Christian world-kingdom, and this is meant by the deadly
wound. At this stage of its development the beast is divested
of its beast-like power, and thus ceases to be. For it is clear
that the expressions, " It was slain," and " It is not," which
are used by the angel (xvii. 8, 11), are identical. For every
head designates the entire existence of the beast at a particular
time. From this it is evident, that the wounded head cannot be
referred to any other but the seventh. For after it is said of
the beast, that " it is not," nothing else is mentioned about it,
except its ascent out of the bottomless pit, which corresponds to
the healing of the wound, and then immediately afterwards its
going into perdition, the judgment is spoken of (xvii. 8) ; hence it
is impossible that the head which was wounded and healed again
should be succeeded by other heads, and it must consequently
be the last, or the seventh. This is corroborated by the remark
made with regard to the seventh head, "And when he cometh,
he must continue a short space." This might be explained to
refer to the nearness of Christ's second coming, and the whole
duration of the seventh kingdom ; and parallel passages such as
xii. 12, " he hath but a short time," and xxii. 7, 20, " I come
quickly," might be adduced ; but it is simpler to combine the
expressions, " he must continue a short space," and " a deadly
wound," which reminds us that the Germanic nations were to
remain only for a short space heathenish, beast-like, antichris-
tian ; that the seventh head was soon to receive its wound. The
head of the beast wounded to death represents the Christian
state, and its Christian civilization.
This simple feature shews the essential character of the
world's development during the Christian era in its innermost
essence, even as that of the Church was depicted in the simple

THE SEVENTH KINGDOM. 299
change of the expression woman into harlot. Both develop
ments correspond to each other.1 The world-power gives up its
hostility, and accepts Christianity externally ; in like manner as
the beast gives up its God-opposed character, the woman gives
up her divine one. Both parties meet each other half way ;
world and Church make mutual concessions ; the beast carries
the, harlot (xvii. 3, 7). Christianity has become worldly, the
world has become Christianized ; this is the fundamental type
of the Christian era. The gainer in this process is, after all,
the world ; for the Church, whose life comes from the Father
and the Son, can only be the loser by thus mixing with the
world. Hence, though the state of the Christian world may
appear satisfactory in the eyes of man, yet, in the sight of God,
the present Christianity of the world is by no means genuine.
The Lord Himself must first create something altogether new,
before the kingdoms of this world become really and truly king
doms of our Lord and His Christ. Scripture attaches only
negative, not positive importance to Christian politics and civi
lization ; it characterises them as a deadly wound of the beast ;
their object is to keep down and subdue for a season .the anti-
christian element, but not really to overcome and spiritually to
transfigure the world. The history of the world is by itself
neither transfiguration nor judgment of the world. Notwith
standing, this parenthetical non-existence of the beast is a state
for which we must be grateful, and which we must anxiously
endeavour to prolong; only let us not imagine that we can
prevent the return of the beast. The essence of the world is
doubtless the same as ever, and the heavenly powers of the Holy-
Spirit have by no means yet really penetrated the world ; and
although the antichristian character has been laid aside for a
1 Compare the remarks on State, Congregation, and the State Church, pro
duct of the Christianization of the world and world-conformity of the Church,
as the three factors of Christian history, which the historian must keep in view,
according to the prophetic word, in de Liefde, General History for the People,
(ueue reformirte Kirchenzeitung, March 1854, pp. 72-74.

300 APOSTASY.
time, and externally, it shall manifest itself with its wonted,
yea, even increased violence. For this reason it is that Daniel
did not perceive any change in the world-power effected by
Christianity. John sees such a change ; but it is only tempo
rary, unessential. Thus there is a perfect harmony between the
Old and New Testament apocalyptics. The one only supple
ments the other ; and, as lies in the nature of his New Testament
position, gives further details of prophecy. The deadly wound
is always mentioned in connection with its being healed up ; the
non-existence of the beast in connection with its reappearance.
The deadly wound is thus healed ; the beast, which received it,
recovers life and returns, but now not only from the sea, but out
of the abyss, the bottomless pit, whence it drew new antichristian
strength of hell (xiii. 3, 12, 14 ; xvii. 8 ; xi 7). The Lord Jesus
has expressed the same progression (Matt. xii. 43-45). The
Christian Germanic world apostatises from Christianity ; the old,
God-opposed and anti-christian beast-nature asserts itself with
new power, and gains the ascendancy ; a new heathenism breaks
in upon the Christian world. A heathenism which is worse, more
demonic, more of the nature of the bottomless pit, than the
ancient one, for it, as represented by the first heads of the beast,
was only an apostasy from the general revelation of God in
nature and conscience (Rom. i. and ii. 14), whereas this
heathenism is an apostasy from the full revelation of divine
love in the Son (Comp. Matt. xii. 41, 42) ; it is refined, inten
sified heathenism, to which the words shall be addressed : " Re
member from whence thou art fallen ! " (Rev. ii. 5.) This
prophecy is not confined to the Revelations ; it is tbe same
apostasy (dnoo-rao-ia) of which St Paul speaks in his second
epistle to the Thessalonians, ii. 3, and which he sees culminate
in antichrist, the man of sin, the son of perdition. And in de
scribing the evil times of the last days (2 Tim. iii. 1), the apostle
delineates the character of the men which shall live then, in a
manner which reminds us of his characteristics of the heathens
(Rom. i. 29) ; thus, he foresaw a new heathenism within Chris-

THE THIRD PART. 301
tendom. For it is evident, that he speaks of Christendom ;
his expressions : apostasy, 2 Thess. ii. 3 : Some shall depart
from the faith (1 Tim. iv. 1 ; comp. 2 Tim. iii. 5, and iv. 3, etc.),
plainly show it. What is peculiar to the Apocalypse is the
clear juxtaposition of the harlot and the returning beast. The
Lord Jesus (Matt. xxiv. 4, 5, 11, 23-26) and the apostles speak
of false doctrine, seduction, apostasy, more in general terms,
whereas the Apocalypse distinguishes between two kinds of
apostasies, Jewish and heathenish, of the Church and of the
world ; the pseudo-Christianity of the harlot, and the Anti-
christianity of the returning beast. The latter is the world, di
vested of all Christianity ; the former, the world, adopting Chris
tianity, or Christianity adapting itself to the world. Both are
thoroughly opposed to the true essence of Christianity, the
chastity of the woman ; and these adulterous aberrations are the
more dangerous, as they have the semblance of a divine Chris
tian character. In our present time, some people see all danger,
as coming from Rome, others as coming from infidelity and
Radicalism. The one is as erroneous as the other ; on both
sides we are surrounded by enemies, who are victorious at pre
sent, but over whom we shall triumph gloriously in the end.
The kingdom belongs neither to the one on the right extreme,
nor to those on the left extreme, but to the little flock of Christ.
" And it shall come to pass, that in all the land, saith the Lord,
two parts therein shall be cut off and die, but the third shall be
left therein. And I will bring the third part through the fire
and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as
gold is tried ; they shall call on my name, and I will hear them.
I will say, It is my people, and they shall say, The Lord is my
God." (Zech. xiii. 8, 9.)
Let us now examine more closely the beast returning into
existence. It is said, that when the beast ascends again out of
the bottomless pit, all the children of the world will render unto
it admiration and homage (xvii. 8, Savpdo-ovrai, comp. xiii. 3, 4. *
They wonder and worship). They rejoice, that at last the

302 THE BEAST CHANGED.
fetters of Christianity are thrown off, and that the power of this
world, of which it could scarcely be hoped that it would triumph,
which seemed to be totally defeated, shall triumph now in great
glory (ort tjv Ka\ aiK eo-Tiv nai irdpeo-rai).
The beast itself is changed in several respects ; it is now
scarlet-coloured ; a symbol of its blood-guiltiness, delight in
murder and persecution, the name of blasphemy formerly writ
ten only on its horns (xiii. 1), cover now its whole body, as a
sign, that its opposition to God is now to manifest itself per
fectly. The crowns, which were formerly on the ten horns,
have now disappeared (xvii. 3) ; is this circumstance intended
as an indication, that the ten kingdoms into which the Ger
manic Sclavonic world is to be divided, will lose their monarch
ical form in the end ? The expression (ver. 12), " receive
power as kings," speaking of the power which they are to receive
along with the beast in the last time (piav apav), seems to be in
favour of such a supposition. In the beginning of the birth-
pangs preceding the Messianic kingdom, the 'QSives, which
prepare the waXiyyeveo-ia (Matt. xix. 28), there are wars, earth
quakes, famines, also anaTao-Taa-ia and rapaxai disturbances, re
volts, revolutions (Luke xxi. 9 ; Mark xiii. 8). It is in this
manner that the Antichristian kingdom comes into existence.
But because we have here not merely the healing of the
wounded head, not merely a restoration of the world-power to
the state and condition of the preceding kingdoms, but a new
kingdom, in which all the beast's opposition to God is con
centrated, and raised to a power, such as it had never before ;
therefore, we read of an eighth, which proceeds from the seven, and
is the full manifestation of the beast-nature (to SnpiWm airos
SySoos — scil. BacriXevs — io-Ti Kal i< r£>v emd io-nv (xvii. 11.) We
saw, in the prophecy of Daniel, that the fourth beast, had a
special horn, which represents Antichrist and his kingdom ;
and in like manner, in the Revelation of St John, the seventh
' This reading has been generally adopted since Bengel, instead of x*hts
is-Tty. Comp. Hengstenberg and De Wette on this passage.

ANTICHRIST A PERSON. 303
kingdom passes over into an eighth, which is not merely one
of the seven, but is brought forth by them, and proceeds
from them, as a consummation of them all, as the beast that
has reached the culmination of its development. This is the
antichristian kingdom in the strict sense of the word, and the
individual small kingdoms, the ten horns, give unto it their
power and strength (ver. 12, 13, 17). That three of them are
humiliated in doing so, is mentioned in Daniel, and is not re
peated, but presupposed, by John.
In the fourteenth verse, we have a simple description of the
Antichristian character of the kingdom of the ten horns, as it
will make war with the Lamb, and this war ends in its total
defeat. But before the end, the Antichristian kings are called to.
execute judgment on the harlot (ver. 15, etc.), which is fully
described in the eighteenth chapter, and of which we shall speak
subsequently. It cannot be proved with absolute certainty, that
a. personal Antichrist will stand at the head of the Antichristian
kingdom, for it is possible that the eighth, like the preceding
seven heads, designates a kingdom, a power, and not a person,
and the same may be said concerning the Antichristian horn
described by Daniel, when compared with the ten horns. But
the type of Antiochus Epiphanes is of decisive importance, for
this personal enemy of God's kingdom is described in the eighth
chapter of Daniel, as a little, gradually increasing horn, just as
Antichrist is spoken of in the seventh. And this is corroborated
by the apostle Paul (2 Thess. ii.), who describes antichrist (ver.
4) with colours evidently furnished by Daniel's sketch of Anti
ochus, and who calls him, moreover, the man of sin, the son of per
dition, which, if explained naturally, must refer to an individual
(compare John xvii. 12, where the same expression 6 vlbs rijs
dmoXeias, is used of Judas). In favour of the same view may
be adduced, likewise, analogies in the history of the world ; the
previous world-kingdom shad extraordinary persons as their heads,
as Nebuchadnezzar, Cyrus, Alexander the Great. The spiritual
and universal character does not exclude individual personal re-

304 HEALING OF THE WOUND.
preseiitatives. Every spiritual tendency has its distinguished
representatives, and when it has reached its perfection, produces
its representative <ar il-oxriv. Hence Antichristian tendencies
produce different antichrists, and it is a sober historical view,
when Christianity maintains that these separate antichrists shall,
some future day, find their consummation in an individual, far
excelling them in the intensity of his evil character (Lange. 1. c.
374). In conclusion, we must not omit to mention, that Paul and
John agree in speaking emphatically of the destruction of Anti
christ (aVciAeta), comp. also the words of the apostle Peter (2 Pet.
ii. 1, 3). His triumph is but of short duration, judgment speedily
overtakes him. The man of sin is of necessity a child of death,
the son of perdition. John immediately adds, after mentioning
the ascent of the beast, that it goes into perdition (xvii. 8, 11).
If we now ask, how was this prophecy fulfilled, we have
intimated before, that the non-existence of the beast embraces
the whole Germanic Christian period. But who can doubt,
that the healing of the wound has commenced already ? The
return of the beast is represented, or at least prepared, in that
principle which, since 1789, has manifested itself in beast
like outbreaks, and has since then been developed both ex
tensively and intensively. This principle has appeared in
various forms, in the Revolution, in Napoleon, despotism sanc
tioning revolution, proving, at the same time, that the beast,
even in this shape, can carry the harlot, in Socialism and
Communism. But we may yet expect other manifestations.
At present, it is the endeavour of churches and governments to
keep down this monster, but it has shown its teeth more than
once, and given unmistakeable signs 'that it is regaining life and
strength. How long its development shall last, whether it is to
grow up rapidly, through whatdifferent phases it has yet to pass, at
what period the seventh kingdom shall pass over into the eighth,
is not known to man, God alone knows it. It is not for us to
know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in
His own power (Acts i. 7), but it is for us, to take to heart the

THE FALSE PROPHET. 305
word of our Lord : Can ye not discern the signs of the times ?
(Matt. xvi. 3.) c. The other Beast, the False Prophet.
The beast has a spiritual ally in another beast, which is de
scribed in ver. 13—18 of the thirteenth chapter, immediately
after the description of the first beast, and which is likewise
mentioned in chap. xvi. 13, in connection with the first and the
dragon, and which ultimately (xix. 20 ; xx. 10) shares its awful
aoom. In the three last-mentioned passages, the second beast
occurs only under the name of the false prophet, a name which
we do not find in the thirteenth chapter ; however, from a com
parison of xix. 20 and xiii. 13, there can be no doubt that the
second beast and the false prophet are identical. The reason
why we speak of the false prophet at this stage is, because his
influence is expressly spoken of as coinciding, in point of time,
with the healing of the deadly wound of the beast, and its com
ing again to life (xiii. 12-14). It is true, that there were false
prophets and teachers in the very earliest times of the Church
(Many false prophets are gone out into the world (1 John iv. 1).
That woman, Jezebel, which calleth herself a prophetess, to
teach and to seduce my servants (Rev. ii. 20). Comp. 2 Pet.
ii. 1); but in -like manner as the apostles, John, Paul, and Peter
(as we saw above), recognised, in the gnostic false teachers of
their days, prototypes and precursors of that most dangerous
development of error and seduction which is to come in the last
days, so the Apocalypse predicts the false prophet to exert
powerful influence in the iarxdrais rjpipais, the days of the return
of the beasts, in perfect accordance with the teaching of our
Saviour, who speaks of the same phenomenon in the times of
the last troubles, denoting the manifold character of the false
prophecy, by using the plural 7roAXoi \jfevSovpo(j)rJTai iyepSrjo-ovrai
(Matt. xxiv. 11, 24). We saw that the Danielic four beasts are
presented to our view in the first apocalyptic beast. There is
u

306 PARALLEL IN DANIEL.
no beast mentioned in the prophecies of Daniel corresponding
to the false prophet. But the antichristian horn he describes
possesses not only a mouth of blasphemy, a feature which we
found again in the first beast of the Revelations, but it has like
wise " human eyes ;" and there is nothing in the first apoca
lyptic beast corresponding to this. What is symbolized by the
human eyes, is cunning, knowledge, intellectual culture ; and
this attribute we find expressed in the New Testament Apoca
lypse by the false prophet. The reader will now understand
better why we laid such great stress on this feature in, our
remarks on Daniel ; it is of such importance, that in the Revela
tions of St John it is symbolized by a separate second beast.
The first beast is a physical, political ; the second beast is a
spiritual power, the power of doctrine and knowledge, of intel
lectual cultivation, of ideas. The name itself shows it (comp.
2 Pet. ii., yjfevSo77pocprJTai = yr-ev8o8i8do-KaXoi) ; and besides, it is evi
dent from this circumstance, that the first beast ascends out of the
waves of the sea ; the second arises from the earth, which we know
represents the civilized, consolidated, orderly world. But both
are from below, both are beasts, therefore they are faithful allies ;
the worldly antichristian wisdom stands in the service of worldly
antichristian power. As the Lord Jesus is the Truth and the
Life, so Satan is the murderer and the liar (John viii. 44). The
dragon is both lion and serpent ; " great might and subtle cun
ning are his armoury."1
The second beast has two horns like the lamb — that is, two
horns, which, in their shape, resemble the seven horns of the
lamb (ver. 6), and are consequently different from the ten horns
of the first beast ; but it speaks as the dragon. This feature re
minds us most strikingly of the description given by the Lord in
his sermon on the Mount, when he says of the false prophets,
They come in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening
wolves (Matt. vii. 15). This general contrast of sheep and wolf
is more circumstantially described in the Apocalypse ; the lamb
1 Luther.— Tr.

THE FALSE PROPHET AND THE HARLOT . 307
opposed to the dragon is Christ opposed to Satan. • Herein con
sists the peculiar danger of antichristian wisdom, that it comes
in a Christian garb, and under a Christian name ; that it pretends
to be a support to Christianity, such as the advancement of the
age renders necessary ; that it pretends to be the rational,
spiritual mode of viewing Christianity, and, in short, to be
Christianity purified and perfect. Hence arises a confusion
(n-Xara ver. 14) ; stand-points innumerable, opinions, tendencies,
opposing and crossing each other, so that many do not know
where to look to, and what to believe.1 Thus the false prophet
and the harlot have this in common : as the former is from below,
and yet, notwithstanding his perfectly worldly nature, pretends
to be of divine nature (Lamb), so the harlot, though her nature is
originally that of the woman hence of God, sinks to the level
of the world. In both cases, the worldly and divine elements
are mixed, though in totally different manners. The woman
starts with what is from above and Christian, and is zealous for
it, but because she looks also to the things of this world, eternal
and sacred things become merely means to an end, empty forms,
outward decoration ; while possessing Christian forms, Christian
doctrine, a Christian name, she denies the inward power and dis
cipline, spirit and essence of the truth. On the other side, the
false prophet is, and remains a beast ; the character and starting-
point of all his thought, are essentially and thoroughly earthly,
psychical, God-opposed, devilish (James iii. 15). For this reason,
the false prophet asserts that the forms and doctrines of Christi
anity are of no importance ; that everything depends on the
fundamental ideas. Under which specious pretext, however, he
1 Chr. H. Zeller in the Monatsblatt von Beuggen 1846, p. 9 : The apostasy
will commence in a way which will be imperceptible to most people ; it will
have an appearance of Christianity and its outward form, as there are weeds
which look like wheat ; yea, in some cases, the apostasy will pretend to be pure,
and the only genuine Christianity. But, by degrees, the more it spreads the
more powerful it becomes in numbers and worldly influence ; it will unfold, with
increasing distinctness, its antichristian character, and finally betray, sell,
oppose, and persecute the truth, fall away from it openly, and reject it.

308 THE FALSE PROPHET OF THE EPISTLES.
gets ridof every thing in Christianity which is from above and against
this world, the supernatural facts of redemption, the divine radi
cal beginnings of life, and heavenly aims of life, in short, Christ
the divine essence of Christianity. While the harlot invests the
worldly element with what is apparently from above, but has
become a mere semblance and a lie, he converts what is
divine into what is earthly and worldly. These two forms of
apostasy may, under peculiar circumstances, meet and unite,
though, in their essence, they are different poles, as, to give a
rough example, priestcraft and Voltaire, who makes this very
priestcraft the subject of his mockery. Here again let us care
fully observe that the Apocalypse analyses minutely, where the
other prophecy of the New Testament gives a more compendious
and general view. It was very natural that these two elements
should be viewed simultaneously by the apostles, because the
Judaising gnostics, such as the apostle Paul speaks of in his later
epistles, combined really the two elements in their own persons.
Their Judaism, wilh its external forms and outward observances,
was a prototype of the harlot ; hence, some commentators have
thought that the forbidding to marry, and to eat certain things,
which the apostle predicts as a sign of the false teachers, contains
a prophecy of Romanism, 1 Tim. iv. 1—3; Col. ii. 16; xvii. 20-23;
whereas their Gnosticism, with its spiritualistic and idealistic
evaporising of the solid essence of Christianity, which derogates
from the dignity of the Saviour, as God-man, either in the ebionitic
or docetic way, which represents the resurrection as having
happened already, and such like, is distinctly and clearly a pre-
cursor'of the false prophet in his modern shape (Col. ii. 8-10,
18, 19 ; 1 Tim. vi. 20, 21 ; 2 Tim. ii. 16, 18 ; 1 John iv. 1-3).1
It is of great importance that we are thus permitted to see the
root common to all the different manifestations of apostasy ; yet
1 Baur, in his " Christliche Gnosis," has shown this by the parallel he draws
between the old gnostic sjstem and the modern speculative ones. Thiersch,
in his " Versuch zur Herstellung des historischen Stand-punkts," has only en
larged and applied this idea.

THE WORK OF THE SECOND BEAST. 309
it pleased the Lord to give His Church disclosures of a more
minute character, that she may know the dangers which threaten
her from different, nay, even opposite sides, and these more
special revelations are contained in the Apocalypse of St John.
Let us now turn to consider the work of the second beast.
We find it always following the first beast, and constantly aiming,
by its spiritual influence, to bring men to worship and deify it. The
dragon has given his external power to the first beast (xiii. 3) ; to
the second he gives his spirit, so that having this spirit it speaks
as the dragon (ver. 11). Thus, it is the dragon's seed which is
sown here, and in all children of unbelief, who pay homage to
this false wisdom ; it is the devil who has his work in them
(comp. xii. 12 ; Eph. ii. 2). Hence, the false prophet asserts his
influence more powerfully at the time that the world-power gains
its hjghest, most demonic intensity, when the beast comes again
into existence in the last times. Then it is that he seduces all
that are earthly minded, robs KaroiKovvras ini rfjs yfjs , as it is expressed
in verses 12 and 14, in a term repeatedly occurring, which de
notes very characteristically that they have taken their abode,
planted themselves, taken root, and become at home upon earth ;
a thought which John denotes elsewhere by " being of the earth,
from below, of this world" (John iii. 31 ; viii. 23 ; 1 John iv. 5),
in contradistinction to " Being born from above, and dwelling in
heaven" (John iii. 7 ; Rev. xii. 12 ; xiii. 6). The false prophet
seduces 'the inhabitants of the earth to worship the beast, and
he is successful with the great majority (ver. 12, 14). The
image which the false prophet causes the inhabitants of the earth
to make to the beast (ver. 14), and the historical substratum of
which is, doubtless, to be found in the statues of the Roman
emperors, to whom divine worship was paid, designates the deifi
cation of the world and the world-power. It is then that the
civilisation of genius shall reach its culminating point. And
when we are told that the false prophet breathes spirit into the
image, so that it speaks (ver. 15), this is a striking description of
the fact that the false doctrine is capable of giving a spiritual,

310 THE LAST PERSECUTIONS.
rational, philosophical appearance to the foolish idolatry and apo-
theosisof the creaturely; the spirit of the world with his revelations
is that idol, dead and yet life-breathing, which all the world
worships, and which shall be personified by antichrist. This is
the new heathenism sunk back into deification of nature and
humanity, and of which it cannot be predicted what forms of
folly and beast-nature it shall yet assume. We are told, more
over, that it is to be endowed with miraculous power ; both the
Lord Jesus and the apostle Paul intimate this (Matt. xxiv. 24 ;
2 Thes. ii. 9). These passages refer not merely to the wonders
of power over nature which the spirit of man has attained, and
which he abuses to the deification of the creaturely, because he
takes to himself the honour and glory ; but we are led to expect
all kinds of demonic miracles, extraordinary mysterious effects
of the powers of darkness, such as we see in the instance of the
Egyptian sorcerers. Thus, the future seduction will be one of great
danger ; but there shall be added, moreover, the external violence
which was prefigured in the persecutions of the primitive Chris
tians, and which shall consist in this, that all public intercourse
will be on condition of receiving the mark of the beast, and that
all who do not pay homage to the antichristian power will be
killed (ver. 15-17). Here we have a plain prophecy of a perse
cution of all true believers in the last times, and more particu
larly, that they will be given over into the hands of antichrist,
as has been intimated by the prophet Daniel (vii. 21, 25), and
the Lord Jesus himself (Matt. xxiv. 9). Whenever the kingdoms
of this world reach a certain point in the process of divesting
themselves of Christian elements, the Church of Christ will be
in the same position in which she was during the first three
centuries, when the world-kingdom was yet heathenish. She
will then be a free Church ; but, at the same time,v ex
posed to all the enmity and cruelty of the world. Only the
enmity of the last days will be of a more subtle and refined
character than it was during the apostolic ages ; the pseudo-
prophet is described as bearing, unmistakeably, the characteris-

THE FULFILMENT BEGUN. 311
tics of fanaticism (ver. 12, etc.). The representatives of anti
christian ideas will rejoice that at last they can have their
revenge on the Christians who, for so long a time, opposed and
tormented them (xi. 10). Whereas the Church of Christ is thus
in her final probation ; it behoves her to be perfected through
suffering, like her divine Lord and Master ; she must descend into
the deepest humiliation ; give up even her life and blood ; but
after that dark passion-week, will come an exceedingly bright
easter-morn. It will not be denied by any one who views the events of the
two last centuries with enlightened eyes, that also this prediction
of the false prophecy has begun to be fulfilled, Unconverted
Paganism passed over by degrees into the Church during the
first centuries, and this mixing of Christian and Pagan elements
produced Roman Catholicism. Then came the Reformation,
dissolving this illegitimate union, and restoring pure Christianity;
and hence, it was natural, that in the succeeding centuries,
Heathenism should likewise appear more naked, undisguised,
and decided, and should attack Christianity again, but at first
only with spiritual weapons. The antichristian element, which
before was under a Christian guise, now came forward with in
creasing openness, and manifested itself as the false prophecy, as
false doctrine, a"s the spiritual power of seducing ideas, which are
based on a view of the world, radically false and opposed to
God, but which spread and eat as a canker, under the name of
philosophy, enlightenment, and civilisation (2 Tim. ii. 17). It is
a fact, that the beast's coming to life again, and its new power,
whereof we spoke above, is called forth, accompanied and
strengthened by the influence of the false prophet, exactly as it
is described in Rev. xiii. 12, etc. It is evident and palpable,
that the philosophic principle of the autonomy of the human
spirit, and the corresponding theological principle of Rationalism,
that Idealism and Materialism, Deism, Pantheism, and Atheism,
are all the products of the same spirit, the essence of which is
apostasy from the fundamental principles of Christianity, aliena-

312 OUR TIMES.
tion from the living and holy God, deification of the creaturely,
is exactly what is meant in the Apocalypse by worshipping the
beast. Indeed, even in a literal sense, in the present day,
" bestiality is the ideal of thinkers." But even where this ex
treme point has not yet been reached, the false prophet is power
ful enough. What is bringing thousands from Christianity, and
preventing others from coming to a belief in a full and true
Christianity, is nothing else but respect for these intellectual
powers which rule in these days, for modern science and culture.
But the worst thing is, that scarcely any one sees the depth of
the evil. For even in the Old Covenant the chief and most
active aim of the false prophets was, to make the people believe
that their state was not so bad, and that the judgments of God
were not near. Therefore, the fundamental and often-repeated
charge against them was : they heal the hurt of my people
slightly, and say, it is peace, it is peace, when there is no peace ;
and hence, Jeremiah especially, who lived to see judgment com
ing upon Jerusalem, had to oppose the false prophets (iv. 9 ; vi.
13-15; viii. 10; xiv. 13; xxiii. 9-40; compare, likewise,
Ezek. xiii.)
It is not good that our modern theology scarcely ever views
the present time in the light of Biblical prophecy. In all histori
cal works, or philosophical remarks on the times, much is said
about modern antichristianity ; and there is no instruction given
to the laity, how to view this phenomenon in connection with
divine prophecy. The apostles have left us a different example.
But nowadays it is decried as " unwissenschaftlich," unscientific,
to call things by their true name ; it is thought scientific, how
ever, to form an alliance with the ideas of the false prophet.
Many things against which prophets and apostles did not know
how to raise their testimony sufficiently strong and loud, are
acknowledged by many, with astonishing coolness and calmness,
to have at least a theoretical right to exist. Indeed, who of us
feels it as deeply as he ought, what spiritual poverty and folly
Pantheism presupposes, how deeply an age must have fallen and

OUR TIMES. 313
degenerated, which looks upon Pantheism as the highest wisdom,
the result and sum total of the world's entire development. And
even among those *hat are more right-minded, how much of the
spirit of the false prophet has insinuated and lodged itself in their
views. Many ideas of this false prophecy have become almost
axioms in the most various spheres of life and thought, so that
it is often difficult and almost impossible to get at the root of
error, to distinguish between truth and falsehood. Especially
there is wanting the beginning of wisdom, the fear of God and
reverence for His word (Isa. lxvi. 2). Intimately and natu
rally connected with this, we see that the most tender and funda
mental functions of conscience are disturbed and destroyed.
People's conscience becomes blunt against the offences com
mitted against the majesty of the Most High, which He has
threatened to punish severely ; moral judgment loses its power
and acuteness. Even Christians mistake often secondary things
for the essential, and imagine, that they have thoroughly plucked
up the weeds, while they have only cut off what appears above
ground. The atmosphere in which we live, is pregnant with
poisonous elements. Blindness may happen to a whole genera
tion. The prophets speak of a spirit of sleep and heaviness
which is to be poured over the whole nation of Israel, even upon
the prophets, and rulers, and seers, and that as a punishment in
flicted by the Lord (Isa. xxix. 10). The Lord Jesus and the
apostle Paul prophesy of strong delusions which God shall
send to them that receive not the love of (to) the truth ; and by
which, if it were possible, even the elect will be deceived (Matt.
xxiv. 24 ; 2 Thess. ii. 10-12). Hence, as the first beast is to
be met by patience and faith (Rev. xiii. 10), the second beast
must be opposed by true wisdom (Rev. xiii. 18).
III. JUDGMENT OF THE CHURCH AND THE WORLD-POWER.
The revelation which the Lord Jesus Christ Himself vouchsafed
from His heavenly throne to His disciple John, shows us the sad

314 FUNDAMENTAL FORMS OF APOSTASY.
and dark result of the history of the Church and of the world, viz. :
that the Church becomes the harlot, the political power of the world,
the antichristian beast, the wisdom and civilisation of the world,
the false prophet. This is a hard saying, and every one of us
feels it such ; but it is a fact, and our less gloomy, views of the
world and its history are of no avail. This little book of the
Apocalypse is intended to and must produce in us the same effect
as it did in the apostle : " as soon as I had eaten it my belly was
bitter" (Rev. x. 9, 10). The antichristian element manifests
itself in a threefold shape — in the perversion of the three offices
which Christ bears ; for it is not difficult to see, that the first
beast is the false kingship, the harlot the false priesthood, the
second beast the false prophet. We may also say, that the
beast is the bodily, the false prophet the psychical, or so-called
intellectual, the harlot the spiritual power of antichristianity.
There is nothing of an accidental character in the prophecy ;
but it contains the essential and necessary fundamental forms of
apostasy. This is the internal evidence of the divine truth of
our book.
The Revelations offer likewise new points of view and dis
closures, as regards the philosophy of history. The antichris
tian powers succeed each other, and give, a character to the
different periods of Church history. The old Church stood still
under the power of the beast, the heathen world-power ; the Church
in the middle ages, under that of the harlot ; in modern times the
prophet predominates. But in the last days, all these God-
opposed powers, which have succeeded each other, shall co-ope
rate, and raise each other to .the highest, most terrible, and
intense power of their nature ; the false prophet causes men to
worship the beast, and the beast carries the harlot.
Thus the antichristian element manifests itself in a threefold
manner ; on the other side there is a gleam of comfort in the
thought which this revelation of the essence of the world-histo
rical powers suggests, that the three fundamental forms of apos
tasy are reducible to two. For the false prophet is also a beast ;

THE FINAL AFOSTASY. 315
and the two beasts, as different manifestations of the same prin
ciple, the beast-like, stand opposed to the harlot. Thus we
have the same contrast as we saw in Daniel, beast and man,
kingdom of the world and kingdom of God. Even the king
dom of God, the Church, has become worldly ; the woman
has become a' harlot. = But the beasts, according to their nature,
look to the earth ; their god is the world. Of this thoroughly
worldly principle the first beast represents the outward physical,
the second beast the inward spiritual aspect., Both are as
essentially connected as body and soul, and for this reason they
are always mentioned together, and finally judged at the same
time ; whereas separate judgment falls upon the harlot. Thus
the apostasy may be reduced to two principles — the apostate
Church and the apostate world, pseudo-Christianity and anti
christianity, the harlot and the beast.
The old discussion, whether apostasy in its last stage will be
more of a pseudo-Christian or antichristian character,1 is de
cided very simply by these views. It will consist in the union
of the pseudo-Christian and antichristian elements, which the
Apocalypse expresses by the harlot sitting on the beast. Chris
tian history ends in a state of deep untruth and falsehood. The
nations have invariably fallen away from Christianity, but the
Church has nevertheless been able to gain outward recognition,
and leaning on the worldly power — which in its turn makes use
of the Church to achieve her own objects — she rules over the
nations. Such is the picture of Christendom, ripe for judg
ment — such are the features distinctly sketched in Rev. xvii. 3.
This is apparently impossible ; but the Napoleonic France of
our own day is well calculated to teach us that it is possible. But
it is not necessary to conceive this lie as manifesting itself so pal
pably in this ecclesiastico-political shape, but in less open, more
subtle, spiritual forms, pseudo-Christian and antichristian ele
ments, superstition and infidelity being mixed in all the different
1 Compare Lucke Commentar. iiber die Briefe Johannis, pp. 190, etc.

316 HARLOT AND BEAST.
spheres of life, and Satan representing himself as an angel of
light (2 Cor. xi. 13, 14).
Nor is this alliance of harlot and beast a perfectly new phe
nomenon ; it takes place at the end of the New Testament
period ; but we know, that it likewise appeared in the conclud
ing period of the Old Testament. Apostate Israel, which was
at that time the harlot, disguising its unbelief under the sem
blance of a holy zeal, formed an alliance with the heathen
world-power against the Lord Jesus and His apostles. " And
the same day Pilate and Herod were made friends together ; for
before they were at enmity between themselves (Luke xxiii. 12).
Paul saw, that the congregation of believers was betrayed by
Jews into the hands of the Gentiles (Acts xvii. 5-9) ; and it is
not improbable that this fact, in which we have a manifest
exemplification of the sitting of the harlot on the beast, forms
the basis of the celebrated passage in the Second Epistle to the
Thessalonians (ii. 7), in which Paul speaks of the mystery of
ungodliness as " already working," thus showing an entire
agreement with the views given in the Apocalypse.1 The
abominations committed by the Jews, drew down the destruc
tion of Jerusalem by the Romans, that is, the judgment of the
harlot by the beast (Dan. ix. 26, 27) — an exact parallel to the
future judgment of the harlot by the beast.
1 Comp. Baumgarten, Apostolic History, vol. ii. p. 385. A comparison of the
statements of the Epistles to the Thessalonians, and of the pastoral Epistles
of Paul (to Timothy and Titus), which bear on this subject, is very striking and
instructive. These epistles are of great importance in the investigation of the
topics of eschatology now under consideration. They agree perfectly in the
descriptions given of the apostasy which is to take place within the Church of
Christ (a^roff-rots-icc, 2 Thess. ii. 3, onotrryirovTui, 1 Tim. iv. 1). But in the Epistles
of the Thessalonians, which are of an earlier date than the pastoral, when cor
ruption had not insinuated into the Church itself, the historical background on
which the prophecy of the apostasy rises, is the unbelief and apostasy of the
Old Testament congregation which the apostle perceived (1 Thess. ii. 14-16).
Whereas in the pastoral epistles, this prophecy is introduced in connection
with the Gnostic seduction, which had at that time gained entrance into the
New Testament Church.

THE HARLOT JUDGED FIRST. 317
For if we glance at the description of judgment contained in
the Revelations (chap, xvii.-xix.), we are struck by this. remark
able difference, that the harlot is judged first by the beast and
its kings, and that afterwards the beasts and their allies are
judged by the Parousia of the Lord Jesus himself.
It is our special task, to view attentively the fundamental
ideas contained in the chapters mentioned ; we may pass over
the details there more rapidly, as the preceding remarks contribute
towards an understanding of them, and as a minute explanation
is impossible before their fulfilment.
1. The Harlot is judged first. — This is not only in accordance
with the general principle, that judgment must begin at the
house of God (Ezek. ix. 6 ; 1 Pet. iv. 17), but the object here
is a restoration of actual truth. For the only reality, or sup
posed reality, at that time, will be the world ; even the Churcli,
which goes a whoring after it, seeking its favour, looks on it as
the only reality. Therefore the Church has no right to exist
any longer ; an end must needs be put to her lie and hypocrisy.
Against such a Church the world is in the right, and must attain
its right ; therefore it is the beast and its kings, and not the
Lord Himself, by whom the harlot is judged (Rev. xvii. 13, 16, 17).
This is quite in accordance with the fundamental law of God's
kingdom, which we meet so often in the Old Testament, that the
congregation of God is given over into the hands of that very
world-power with which it committed adultery. Egypt is a broken
reed to Israel, whereon when they lean, it goes into their hand
and pierces it ; when they take hold of it, it rends all their
shoulder ; when they lean dn it, it makes all their loins to be at
a stand (Ezek. xxix. 5, 6 ; Isa. xxxvi. 6). Thus Israel's whore
doms with Assyria and Babylon were punished by the Assyrian
and Babylonian captivity ; its whoredom with Rome by the
destruction of Jerusalem by Titus, and the dispersion of the
nation among the heathens. And in like manner the Church,
who, instead of witnessing against the apostate world-power,
committed fornication with her, shall be judged by that very

318 THE HARLOT JUDGED FIRST.
world-power. The time will come, when worldly rulers will no
longer think it necessary to use the Church as a means to their
end, when they will shake off the yoke, which in their hypocrisy
they bore, give free vent to their pent-up hatred, and they shall
make the har'ot desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh and
burn her with fire (ras oapxas airqs, plur.), to designate the
fulness of carnality into which the Church is sunk (xvii. 16).
This judgment on the harlot is described more minutely in its
various aspects (xviii. 1 ; xix. 5), first by an angel " having
great power," then by another voice from heaven (ver. 4-20) ;
after this, thirdly, by a mighty angel (ver. 21-24) ; and this is
succeeded by " great voices of much people in heaven" (xix.
1-5), who praise God for the judgment executed. It is impos
sible to say anything definite on the details of the judgment,
which lie in the mysterious future.
The verses 6-10 of the nineteenth chapter, which we con
sidered before, and which describe how the judgment of the
harlot prepares the Justification and marriage feast of the woman,
form the transition to the subsequent prophecies. For with the
judgment of antichrist (ver. 11-21), and the dawn of the mil
lennial kingdom (xx.l, etc.), begins the marriage-feast in which the
Lord betrothes Himself fully with His congregation, that blessed
event of which He himself spoke so often in the days of His humi
liation (for example, Matt. xxii. 2 ; xxv. 10 ; Luke xiv. 16 ; xxii.
18, 30). On hearing this glorious promise given to the believers
of Jesus, the apostle is transported with thankful adoring, joy on
account of such delightful prospects, and he fell at the feet of the
angel, who spoke to Him (xix. 10). The same occurs again under
circumstances very similar, after the New Jerusalem and the
eternal glory of the Church are revealed to him (xxii. 8). In
both cases, the apostle's falling at the feet of the messenger is
preceded by a glorious promise given to the Church, which is
confirmed in both cases, by the assurance, " These are the true
sayings of God," and by the angel's pronouncing them blessed
who keep these sayings (xix. 9 ; xxii. 6, 7). This expression of

THE ANTICHRISTIAN POWER JUDGED. 319
deep emotion of gratitude and joy forms a characteristic contrast
to the feeling of wonder and astonishment mentioned, chap.-
xvii. 6, of which we spoke above. It is impossible for the
Apocalyptic prophet to repress his sympathetic feelings, when the
history of the Church of God is unveiled to him ; he wonders
and is amazed when he sees her deep fall ; he adores, when he
beholds her future glory and brightness.
2. A second law in the government of God, which we find
throughout the Old Testament prophets, is that the world-power,
after having served as God's instrument of punishment, is itself
judged. Thus Zephaniah, in whose short book a survey of the
whole plan of the divine kingdom is given, speaks in his first
chapter of the day of wrath against Judah and Jerusalem ; in
the second, of the punishment of the heathens, the enemies of
the people of God. In like manner does Jeremiah conclude his
book, the chief contents of which is the judgment on Jerusalem,
through Babylon, with the majestic announcements of the fall of
Babylon itself, which are to be found in the fiftieth and fifty-
first chapters. And in accordance with this law, the Apocalypse
shows us, the judgment of the harlot succeeded by that of the
antichristian world-power.
However, the advent of Christ to judge antichrist, and to
glorify His Church, does probably not take place, in point of
time, immediately after judgment on the harlot is executed ; but
this judgment is succeeded by a short intervening period, the
period of the triumph of the antichristian kingdom, in the strict\
sense, that time in which earthly pleasure, worldly-mindedness,
and security shall reach their highest point, and which is so fre
quently described by the Lord Jesus and His apostles, as imme
diately preceding the coming of the Lord. Here Daniel again
coincides with the prophecies of the Revelations, for the judg
ment of the harlot, and the healing of the deadly wound of the
beast, which manifests itself in that judgment, conclude that
middle portion of Apocalyptic prophecy, which is peculiar to the
New Testament, and is wanting in the Old Testament Apoca-

320 PURIFICATION OF THE CHURCH.
lypse. The last intensified manifestation of the antichristian
power in the last days is also foreseen by Daniel ; he describes them
as the time and times, and the dividing of time (vii. 24, 25), which
we are inclined to think identical with the " three days and a half,"
during which the two witnesses are to be given over to death.
For this period is at the same time characterised by the most
violent persecutions of Christians (Rev. xiii. 15-17). The true
people of God, the woman, did not perish in the death of the
harlot ; but before the judgment took place, she was commanded
to come out of Babylon, lest in the last culminating period of
sinful abomination, she be polluted by Babylon, and thus fall
into her destruction (xviii. 4). In like manner, our Saviour com
manded His disciples to fly, when they shall see the abomina
tion of desolation in Jerusalem and the temple (Matt. xxiv. 15,
16). Herein consists the first justification of the woman, she is
distinguished from the harlot, and not judged with her. But
this is only a negative justification, the positive, real glorification
has yet to be gained by a severe struggle ; here also it behoves
her to enter, through much tribulation, into the kingdom of God.
This last and greatest affliction, through which the bridal Church
has to pass, is not a judgment, such as fell on the harlot, but a
time of purification, during which she is cleansed perfectly of all
the dross of earthliness, which is still cleaving to her. It is
now, when all visible might is against her, that she is taught to
place her confidence in the invisible Lord alone, she becomes a
voice of prayer, longing for His coming ; and in the furnace of
affliction, she is inwardly prepared and made meet for the ap
proaching glory. The martyrdom of the last days is the way
to transfiguration, nay, it is transfiguration itself in its com
mencement (Rev. xx. 4). What the Lord Jesus, in the gospel
of John, testifies about His own glorification, and His going to the
Father, the Apocalypse testifies of the Church and for the Church.
In the times of her last suffering, she also may lift up her
eyes, as the Lord Jesus did, and lift up her head, because her
-edemption draweth nigh (Luke xxi. 28).

THE JEWS PERSECUTED. 321
But not merely the Christians will be persecuted in those
days, but also the Jews. For, as we saw before, they are meant
by the expression the saints of the Most High, against which
antichrist makes war, and changes their times and laws (Dan.
vii. 21, 25). It is natural, that a true Israelite, who is faithful
to the truth delivered to the fathers, cannot join in the idolatry
of worshipping the beast, and hence the true Israelites shall be
the object of Antichristian fury as well as the true Christians.
The Old Testament and the New Testament people of God are
here standing together, as opposed to the new heathenism ; the
distress, common to them both, will bring them into closer contact,
and open the heart of Israel. The Christians will rejoice over
this, not only because they love the people, of whom is salva
tion, but also because they see in the new life, which commences
to arise among Israel, a pledge of the near approach of the ful
filment of prophecy. For these events, though they do not im
mediately effect, yet prepare the conversion of the nation of
Israel, which the apostle of the Gentiles himself has so clearly
led us to expect (Rom. xi.). This is that lowest humiliation of
Israel — that complete scattering and breaking of the natural
power of the holy people, xii. 7, which, according to the testi
mony of all prophets, is to precede its exaltation, and which
itself, as we saw, in the case of the Christian Church, is the first
step of her exaltation. For, in the depth of this distress, they
seek their God and their King, the Messiah, and when they sec
Him coming with the clouds of heaven, they salute Him as also
their Saviour, and say : " Blessed is He who cometh in the
name of the Lord" (Matt, xxiii. 39). But of this we shall speak
at length subsequently.
3. When the security of the world-power, and the distress of
the people of God, have reached the highest point, then, as a
thief in the night, the Lord Jesus Christ shall appear from heaven,
put an end to the whole course of the world, and establish His
kingdom of glory upon earth. This coming of Christ must be
carefully distinguished from His coming to the final judgment.

322 THE PAROUSIA VISIBLE.
It is this coming, which both the Apocalyptics Daniel and John,
describe (Rev. xix. 11-21 ; Dan. ii. 34-44 ; vii. 9-14, 26, 27);
it is this coming, by which all shall be fulfilled, which the pro
phets of the Old Testament have prophesied concerning the
Messianic time of peace and prosperity ; it is this coming, which
the Lord Jesus refers to in His discourse, Matt. xxiv. 29, etc.,
as distinguished from that spoken of in Matt. xxv. 31 ; to this
advent the apostles always looked forward with longing hope.
The expression, Parousia of Christ,1 denotes, in the New Testa
ment, this advent, and it alonev, and this second coming of
Christ, viewed in connection with the kingdom established by it
upon earth (the millennial), occupies a much more prominent
position in the biblical mode of conception, than in that of the
modern Church. Passages like Matt. xxiv. 27-31 ; Acts i. 11 ;
Rev. i. 7, leave scarcely a doubt that this appearance of the
Lord will be visible. Moreover the great, and of this there can
be no doubt, visible changes, which are thereby produced in the
¦whole form of the world, render it probable ; while the funda
mental importance of this coming of the Lord, consists, according
to the declaration of St Paul (Col. iii. 3, 4), in this, that Christ
and His Church shall become manifest and visible, even as be
fore they are hid in God. The advent of Christ has a twofold
object — to judge the world-power — and to bring to the Church
redemption, transfiguration, and power over the world. Leaving
the consideration of the positive aspect to the following part,
treating of the millennium, we offer, in conclusion, the following
remarks on the judgment : —
Christ appears as the Judge and King, who fulfils faithfully
1 The expression tr«jouir/« does not occur in the Apocalypse ; in the gospels,
only Matt, xxiv., in the question of the disciples, ver. 3, and the reply of our
Lord (ver. 27, 37, 39), who always adds the genitive, ™5 vloZ r»S &«&g4»».
On the other hand, the word occurs in the general epistles (except Jude) ;
in the Pauline epistles, with the exception of 1 Cor. i. 8; xv. 23, where
the tr^eutrU is distinguished from the «*«, commencing with the judgment,
only in Thessalonians (1 Thess. ii. 19; iii. 13; iv. 15; v. 23; 2 Thess. ii. 1, 8);
the other passages are James v. 7, 8 ; 2 Pet. iii. 4, 12 ; 1 John ii. 28.

CHRIST AS JUDGE. 323
and perfectly the word of prophecy at the head of His heavenly
host. This appearance, which shall be accompanied by corre
sponding powerful natural phenomena,1 is described Rev. xix.
11-16; and then follows in verses 17-21 the destruction of ' the
antichristian power of the beast and of the false prophet. The highest,
most intense point, which both parties reached in the last days,
has made the Church ripe for her glorification, and the anti
christian world for destruction. While the former passes
through death of the flesh to glory of the Spirit, the latter passes
through the glory of the flesh to death — the beast goes into per
dition (Rev. xvii. 8, 11 ; Gal. vi. 8). The world, in its opposition
to God, when it has reached the highest development of its
material and spiritual power, is, after all, only a decorated car
case, decaying, round which the eagles gather, and to, devour
which, all the fowls that fly in the midst of heaven are called
together (Rev. xix. 17, etc. ; Matt. xxiv. 28). It is very char
acteristic, that Antichrist and his kings, in their blindness, imagine
that they can wage war against the King of Heaven with
earthly power and hosts, ver. 19 ; herein is manifested the ex
treme folly of Babylonian confusion, which thinks the world
and the flesh possess real strength. Thus they proceed in their
insolence. Christ appears with His people ; but of an actual
encounter between the two armies, there is no mention what
ever ; on the contrary, the mere appearance of the Lord of
Glory is sufficient to show to Antichrist His perfect nothingness ;
the Lord shall destroy him by the (simple) appearance of His
coming (2 Thess. ii. 8). Thus it was, that as John tells us in
his gospel, the enemies of Jesus went backward and fell to
the ground, when He said to them, "I am He" (John xviii. 6).
Paralysed by deadly terror, the beast and the false prophet (or,
as ptinger expresses it, Antichrist and his philosophers), at the
head of their armies, shall be seized, and, without resistance, be
cast into the lake of fire into hell, ver. 20.
1 Rev. vi. 12, etc.; xi. 19 ; Matt. xxiv. 29, etc. ; Isa. xiii. 6 ; Joel iii. 3, etc. ;
Hagg. ii. 7 ; Zech. xiv. 5, etc.

324 THE MILLENNIUM.
Whereas their adherents, the kings, and captains, and mighty
men, and those under them, are only killed by the sharp sword
which goeth out of Christ's mouth — that is, by his breath, his
sentence of judgment (ver. 21 and 15 ; 2 Thess. ii. 8 ; Heb. iv.
12). Thus, it seems that a difference is made between seducers
and the seduced, and although the punishment of the latter is
awful (comp. xiv. 9-11), yet the punishment which falls on the
former is still more awful, and is destined to serve peculiarly as
an example. Of such gradations of a perfectly just and accu
rately measured retribution, of such different gradations of con
demnation, we find scattered hints elsewhere (Matt. xi. 22, 24 ;
Luke xii. 47, 48 ; John xix. 11).
The description which St Paul gives of the judgment of Anti
christ in the passage, which offered many parallel views to the
Apocalypse, 2 Thess. ii. 8, though not so minute, yet coincides
completely with our chapter. This judgment puts an end, for
• all times, to the beast; it is destroyed from off the earth; the
world-kingdoms, in the form they had previously, now cease for
ever ; the history of the world assumes now a character totally
different from its character hitherto. In place of the kingdom
of the beast comes the kingdom of the Son of Man, and His
saints. III. THE MILLENNIUM.
Daniel and St John both describe the millennial kingdom,
but from different points of view. The prophet of the Old Testa
ment, quite in harmony with the stand-point of the Old
Covenant, describes chiefly the earthly ; the New Testament
Apocalypse, chiefly the spiritual aspect of the coming of the
kingdom of God. And, as we have noticed before, that both
apocalyptic books are consummations of the entire prophecy
of their respective Testaments, so it is here, Dan. ii. 35, 44 ;
vii. 13, 27, contain a short summary of all Old Testament ; Rev.
xx. 1-6, a summary of all New Testament prophecy, concerning

THE KINGD.OM. 325
the kingdom of glory upon earth. A great number of prophetic
passages, and many beautiful and deep passages in gospels and
epistles, serve to fill up these grand general outlines. Nor are
there passages wanting in the New Testament, which form con
necting links between the earthly and spiritual mode of viewing
the kingdom.
It will be useful to consider all these points carefully, since the
doctrine of the millennial kingdom is sadly misrepresented and
neglected. And very unjustly. For this doctrine does not rest,
as is often thought, upon an isolated passage in the Apocalypse,
but the whole prophecy of the Old Covenant cannot be rightly
understood without it. And, with regard to the New Testament,
the fundamental idea of the doctrine of Christ, in which is con
centrated the sum and substance of Messianic prophecy, the idea
of the kingdom of God indicates, by its very name, its close re
lation to the doctrine now under consideration. The general
view on this subject is, that the Lord Jesus preached an exclu
sively internal, moral, spiritual kingdom of God, in opposition to
the external and carnal Messianic expectations of the Jewish
people. But, as the Jews, at the time of our Saviour, had fallen
into a materialistic extreme, so the current view of our days runs
into the opposite spiritualistic extreme. It is true that it was
necessary for our Lord to oppose the carnal expectati6ns of the
nation, and to insist, with double emphasis, on the spiritual in
ternal conditions of partaking in the kingdom, namely, repentance
and faith. But He, by no means, dissolves the kingdom into mere
inwardness ; but it is to Him, as Schmidt expresses it,1 the divine
order of things, which is realized by Him, the Messiah, and which
develops itself from within outwardly. Thus, the kingdom of
God has different periods ; it is come in Christ (Matt. xii. 28);
it spreads in the world by internal, spiritual, hidden processes
(Matt. xiii. 33) ; but as a kingdom, in the strict sense of the word,
in royal glory, it shall only come with the Parousia of Christ
> Chr. Fr. Schmidt, bibl. Theol. des N. T. i., p. 3:'5.

32 6 CHILIASM.
(Luke xix. 11, 12, 15), even as we are, according to Christ's
command, to pray even now, day after day, Thy kingdom come
(Matt. vi. 10). And hereby is not meant the eternal blessedness
after final judgment, which is, indeed, the last and perfect con
summation of the kingdom (Matt. xxv. 34) ; but, anterior to
that event, it shall come as an earthly, Jewish, although not
carnal, kingdom of glory. Thus the prophets described it, and
Jesus does in no way contradict them, but, on the contrary', pre
supposing their prophecies, his own prophecies start from them
(Matt. xix. 28 ; Acts i. 6-8). Jesus was, consequently, as all
prophets and apostles were, a Chiliast.
Lechler, whose sobriety of judgment is well known, makes the
following remark on St Paul :l " A number of expressions in the
Epistles of St Paul, point to an earthly kingdom of glory, as is
clear to every unprejudiced reader ; and of all eschatological
points, this is the one on which his epistles are most unanimous."
Two extremes must be carefully avoided. The details of the
future kingdom must not be described, or painted more distinctly
and circumstantially than the statements of the divine word
warrant; but, on the other hand, we are as little justified in
spiritualising and etherialising the numerous sayings of the Lord
and His prophets and apostles, or in explaining them away by
a tortuous interpretation. And the latter is the predominant
mistake, even with orthodox commentators. Not only Ra
tionalism, but even before the appearance of Rationalism,
the Church had lost the understanding of the grand divine
development of the kingdom. That very thing happened to us
Gentile-Christians, against which the Apostle Paul gave us such
emphatic warning (Rom. xi. 17) ; we have forgotten that we are
wild branches grafted into the noble olive tree of Israel ; we
have become fixed in the unbiblical idea, that Christianity is
only for ourselves and for world-relations like the present ; we do
not think much about the people of the election and the future
1 Das Apost. und nachapost. Zeitalter, p. 82.

CHILIASM AND THE PAPACY. 327
of Israel, and hence also little about Chiliasm ; our eschatologi
cal ideas are confined to the blessedness in heaven, and it is only
in a very external and unconnected way, that we think of the
final judgment as a consummation in the distant background.
And yet only Roman Catholicism ought consistently to oppose
such a view of the relationship subsisting between world and
kingdom of God, as we have derived in the preceding pages
from the statements of Scripture. For the papacy is, in its
inmost essence, a false anticipation of the millennial kingdom
during the Church historical period — a confusion of Church and
kingdom ; the rights, Roos remarks (p. 121, 125), which- Rome
as a harlot usurped, shall then be exercised in holiness by the
bride of the Lamb. The Reformation, which was sent to direct
us again to rest on faith alone, ought to have cured us of similar
strong errors current among Protestants now-a-days, according
to which, instead of believing, people wish to see and to do works.
The evangelical principle of faith cannot be thoroughly and per
fectly comprehended, except by the biblical fundamental view of
the divine kingdom and its development. And to enter into
this view, by a deep study of the prophetic word, is the task of
modern theology. The reason why the Lord offers this under
standing to His Church at this present time, in ways so manifold
and different, is because she requires it for the struggles that
await her. > Otinger already says — " Of the conversion of the
Jews, theologians speak only exegetically, nay even problemati
cally, and this is much more the case with reference to the
millennial kingdom. Why ? Because the measure of know
ledge vouchsafed to former times could not contain these doc
trines. But, in our days, a clearer knowledge is developing.
And even now, we can see more clearly the connection of the
Articles of Faith and Eschatology."1
\ Compare my work, " Die Theosophie Otinger's," etc., p. 294.— Some spiritual
glances of this deep thinker into the " golden time," as he calls the millennium,
will be found: Ibid. p. 592.

328 THE NUMBER THOUSAND.

I. STATEMENTS OF THE REVELATIONS OF ST JOHN AND THE
NEW TESTAMENT IN GENERAL.
The number of a thousand years, as the duration of the king
dom, is peculiar to the Apocalypse. We have pointed out, in a
previous part, that this number is to be viewed chiefly in its
symbolical significance. Ten, the number which symbolises
the world in its completeness and fulness, appears here raised to
the power three, the number of God ; that is, the world is now
penetrated perfectly and thoroughly by the divine element.
Whether this number is meant to denote, with chronological
accuracy, the duration of the kingdom, remains uncertain.
Bengel and his followers suppose two millennia, which, as shall
be shown subsequently, arises from an exegetical misunderstand
ing. The first thing the Apocalypse tells us concerning the
millennial kingdom, is the binding of Satan, and that he is cast
into the bottomless pit, and shut up (xx. 1-3). The reason why
this is mentioned first is, because it is organically connected
with the preceding chapter (xix. 20). Even as the casting of
Satan out of heaven (xii. 7) was not an act of arbitrary violence,
but the legitimate execution of judgment, which passed on him
through the death, resurrection, and ascension of Christ, so it is
likewise at this stage of his history. Time had been given him
to exercise his might and cunning on earth, and he succeeded in
making the beast and the harlot powerful ; and, finally, he con
centrated all his power in Antichrist. But here also, when he
thought he had gained his object, he was defeated. After the
antichristian kingdom is destroyed, and utterly broken by the
mere appearance of Christ, the Lord of Glory, the power of the
devil on earth is at an end, as it was at an end in heaven after
Christ's ascension. Satan imagined that he had overcome Christ
on Golgotha, and that now his power was secure for ever ; but,
in his death, the Lord was not vanquished, but achieved the

SATAN BOUND. 329
victory, ascended to His Father's throne, and cast the devil out
of heaven. And, in like manner, Satan thinks to destroy the
people of God on earth by the persecutions of the antichristian
power, and thus to attain to unlimited and unrivalled dominion
on earth ; but this very persecution is the maturing of the
church for glory. She is not destroyed from the earth, but
raised to rule over it ; and Satan is cast into the bottomless pit,
and shut up. The Lord, who appears to destroy Antichrist,
does not personally judge and punish Satan ; this is always done
by ministering angels. In the twelfth chapter, we saw it was
the Archangel Michael ; in the twentieth chapter, an angel only
is mentioned ; in the tenth verse of that chapter, no agency is
spoken of.' Compare our remarks on the history of the devil, in
connection with xii. 7.
Even now Satan cannot accuse, in heaven, those who are
justified by the blood of Jesus ; but, on earth, he can cause them
the severest struggles ; but, during the millennium, he shall not
be able to do even this. Then he ceases, not only to be an
accuser, but also to be a seducer ; and thus an awful curse is
taken from the world of nature and humanity. As long as the
devil rules in the darkness of the world, we live in an atmos
phere poisonous and impregnated with deadly elements (Eph.
ii. 2 ; vi. 12). A mighty purification of the air will be effected
by Christ's coming ; and, if we consider of what importance air
is for our life, we can scarcely form an idea of the vast conse
quences of this event. Humanity will be freed, as it were, from
a nightmare, which weighed on it. ' Everything good will de
velop freely ; and, though sin will not be absolutely abolished —
for men will be still living in the flesh upon earth— sin will no
longer be a universal power. It may manifest itself in indivi
duals separately, but even in them it will necessarily lose much
of its power, since the flesh is not any longer seduced and assisted
by the powers of Satan. Whereas, at present, Satan is still god
and prince — the ruling power of the world — and spiritual, re
generate men are isolated phenomena : in the millennium, the

330 REIGN OF CHRIST AND HIS SAINTS.
case is the reverse : humanity, as a whole, is ruled spiritually ;
the world no more lieth in the wicked one ; and the flesh
becomes ever more isolated, and is overcome. This is the
difference between the ala>v ovtos and the ala>v peXXav : in this
aeon the devil is still ruling on earth (2 Cor. iv. 4); in the
future Christ shall reign with his saints.
And this leads us to the second point. The Apocalypse states, as
a characteristic feature of the millennium, that the earth (ver. 10 ;
Matt. v. 5) is governed by Christ and His transfigured Church.
The binding of Satan is, like the thousand years, peculiar to our
book ; though, strictly speaking, Isaiah prophesies the same
thing, when he says : " And it shall come to pass in that day,
that the Lord shall punish the host of the high ones that are on
high, and the kings of the earth upon the earth. And they
shall be gathered together, as prisoners are gathered in the pit,
and shall be shut up in the prison, and after many days shall
they be visited " (Isaiah xxiv. 21 ; compare also passages in
which the abolition of all sin and impurity is spoken of, Isaiah
iv. 3 ; xi. 9 ; xxxv. 8). But, of the saints' participation in the
glory and reign of Christ, the New Testament throughout speaks
often and fully : o-vv8o£d£eo-e$ai (Rom. viii. 17) ; avpfiao-iXeveiv (2
Tim. ii. 12 ; 1 Cor. iv. 8 ; Rom. v. 17 ; Luke xii. 32 ; xxii. 29).
To this refer also sayings concerning the inheritance of the chil
dren of God, the inheriting of the kingdom, especially R6m.
viii. 17. (Comp. Matt. v. ,5; Acts xx. 32; 1 Cor. vi. 9, 10;
xv. 50 ; Gal. v. 21 ; Ephes. i. 14, 18 ; v. 5 ; Col. iii. 24 ; James
ii. 5).
Among the saints who are called to reign with Christ, the
martyrs of ancient and modern times are mentioned first ; they
became most like to the Lord Jesus in their suffering and death,
and are, therefore, nearest Him in His life and reign. For as
in punishment, so also in reward, there are various gradations.
In His conversation with the mother of the sons of Zebedee,- the
Lord does not only not deny, but He indirectly affirms, that
there are places of honour in His kingdom, on His right hand

THE FIRST RESURRECTION. 331
and on His left, but which only they can attain who drink of
His cup, and are baptized with His baptism (Matt. xx. 22) ;
and the Saviour teaches expressly, that, at His second coming,
as King of the kingdom, He shall place one of the servants over
ten cities, the other over five, according to the measure of faith
fulness they showed during His absence (Luke xix. 11).
Next to the martyrs, are mentioned all who (otrives) had not
worshipped the beast, be it in more remote times or (ovre, etc.)
in the last days, which are referred to by the image and the
mark upon their foreheads, as will appear from a comparison
with Rev. xiii. 14-17. Worshippers of the beast are all they
who take the powers of this world as a reality, and serve it,
instead of looking to things invisible and future (2 Cor. iv. 17,
18). We saw, in our previous remarks, that every one' must
choose, and either join the beast dr belong to the woman.
Hence our passage refers to the whole congregation of believers,
who are born of God ; to God's children (Rom. viii. 17), gathered
out of Israel and the Gentiles, uniting the hundred and forty-
four thousand, from the twelve tribes of Israel, and the innumer
able multitude of all nations, which John saw in the vision of
the seventh chapter.
These have been with Christ in heaven, but appear now with
Him, and are then no longer invisible (2 Thess. i. 7-10 ; Rev.
xvii. 14). But in order that they may become visible, they are
clothed in the moment of their appearance, with their bodies,
which are pervaded by heavenly spirit and life-power, and are
spiritual bodies, and thus they pass completely into the perfect
life of transfiguration. This is the first resurrection (Rev. xx.
4-6) as distinguished from the second, general one, which is
mentioned in the twelfth verse. Of this first resurrection our
Saviour likewise speaks (Luke xiy. 14), and designates it as the
resurrection of the just ; and Paul also (1 Cor. xv. 23), where he
evidently distinguishes three gradations of resurrection : Christ,
the first fruits, rose first ; then they who belong to Him at His
appearance ; then — elra, corresponding to erreira, that preceded,

332 THE FIRST RESURRECTION.
and again introducing a considerable interval — the end, that is,
the general resurrection, judgment of the world, separation of the
wicked ; the end, when Christ delivers the kingdom to the
Father, and God will be all and all.
The passage, 1 Thess. iv. 16, must also be viewed in this con
nection. Quite in accordance with the former passage, Paul
speaks here of the resurrection of those who had fallen asleep in
Christ. Some have even maintained, that Paul did not know
of the resurrection of unbelievers ; against this Acts xxiv. 15,
to mention only one passage, is sufficient; likewise compare
Phil. iii. 20, 21, where the transfiguration of the bodies of
believers, whose conversation is even now in heaven, is taught
to be connected with the coming of Christ ; and in the same
chapter, ver. 11, where the expression i^avdo-rao-is t£>v veKpmv is
remarkable, which Theophylact and GScumenius perceived, the
resurrection from among the dead from the general resurrection.
The same apostle supplements the doctrine of the first resur
rection by viewing it from a different aspect. The Apocalypse,
which sees the second coming more distinctly as a future event,
speaks only of the resurrection, whereas Paul, who thought it
possible that he himself would live to see the Parousia, gives us
also disclosures concerning those who should be on earth at that
time, the saints who are consequently not destroyed in the last
persecution; they are changed, in such a manner, that the old
natural body passes over without death into a new transfigured
body ; it is not unclothed but clothed upon, in that mortality is
swallowed up of life (1 Cor. xv. 51-53 ; 2 Cor. v. 4). From
the latter passage it is evident, that we are not to conceive of
the transfiguration of the body as taking place at the end and in
the general resurrection, for the apostle wishes it for his own
person instead of death. Immediately connected with the resur
rection of the dead is the transfiguration of those who will be
then living on the earth, and the living thus changed, freed from
the weight of the earthly and corruptible, and transplanted into
the essential liberty of spirit, can now, even as the transfigured

TRANSFIGURATION OF THE CHURGH. 333
Saviour ascended up on high, be caught up in the clouds to
meet the returning Lord in the air (1 Thess. iv. 17 ; comp. Rev.
xi. 11, etc., where it is said of the two witnesses, they ascended
up to heaven in a cloud).
In the resurrection and transfiguration it becomes manifest,
that the world has no true power over the Church, but that
the Church has real power over the world. Freed, even ex
ternally, from the world and its essence, and transplanted into a
heavenly existence and divine glory, the Church is now justified
in a positive manner before the world, comp. Rev. xi. 12, " and
their enemies beheld them !" The fierce powerful beast, with its
false prophet, is cast into the lake of fire, and thus has become
a prey to the second death, Rev. xx. 3-14. The poor, weak, per
secuted woman is exalted to the majesty, not merely of an earthly,
but of a heavenly throne (iii. 21 ; ii. 26-28), and enjoys now eter-'
nal glory in her union with Christ, her divine bridegroom (xix. 7).
Therefore it is, that the Apostle Paul represents the Parousia as a
special object of Christian joy and hope : And so shall we ever
be with the Lord (1 Thess. iv. 17) ; and connects the coming of
our Lord and our gathering together unto Him, 2 Thess. ii. 1.
The Lord Jesus speaks of the same event, using the same ex
pression (iirio-vvayayfi imo-uvdf-ovo-i) ; the elect, hitherto scattered
throughout all the world, isolated, oppressed, are now gathered
together by the angels, and shine forth as the sun in the king
dom of the Father (Matt. xxiv. 31 ; xiii. 43). They, who were
heavenly minded and bore Christ's cross in this world, and
esteemed the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures
of Egypt, are now openly manifested as the first fruits of the
creatures of God (Matt. xvi. 24 ; Heb. xi. 26 ; James i. 18).
They are, secondly, united among themselves in an everlasting
and deep union, as all separations and fetters of the flesh have
fallen away. And, thirdly, they enter into a union of trans
figured life with Christ and God, a union as perfect as can be
attained by any creature in eternity.
But this does not yet exhaust their blessedness. They are

334 REIGN OF THE SAINTS.
ordained to be a blessing to their brethren who are stilj in the
flesh. They do not only live in the highest sense of the word,
but they likewise reign with Christ a thousand years. (Rev. xx.
4 ; Rom. v. 17.) After having gathered His Church, and after
having taken His bride to Himself, Christ returns with her to
heaven. Earth is not as yet transfigured, and can, consequently,
not be the locality meet for the transfigured Church. But from
heaven the saints now rule the earth, whence we may conclude,
that one of the glories of the millennium shall consist in the much
freer and more vivid communion of the heavenly and earthly
churches in particular, and the lower and higher world in
general ; a type of which state may be seen in the forty days of
the risen Saviour, during whichv He appeared to His disciples.
And is it not natural, that after the prince of darkness, whose
rule was in the air, and who blinded the children of men (Eph.
ii. 2 ; 2 Cor. iv. 4) is banished, the brightness of heaven should
shine more clearly upon the earth, and the eye of the inhabitants
of earth see more clearly into heaven ? In this respect we must
view the millennial kingdom as a time of new divine revelations,
which reappear after the long pause during the church-historical
time. As Hofmann remarks (Schriftbeweis, i. p. 54 ; comp.
Weissag. u Erfiill. ii. 285-88) : " There now commences a mani
festation of God through the perfected Church ; a manifestation
of God to humanity then on earth, through the instrumentality
of the perfect Church. By which manifestation the social life of
humanity is influenced unto obedience to the divine power, which
is shown and realized in the perfect Church by which the God-
opposed element is prevented from exerting its power in the way
of forming communions or combinations." Thus not only does
the evil spiritual influence, which the prince of the world exerted
on humanity in the preceding ages, cease, but in place of it the
transfigured children of God obtain a most blessed dominion over
the world, and they know no higher joy than to lead their
brethren to the same salvation and glory in which they them
selves partake.

KINGS AND PRIESTS. 335
They are kings, because they are priests (ver. 6 ; comp. i. 6 ;
v. 10); the priesthood is the continuous ground and legitimi-
sation of their kingship. They have the rights of kings in their
relation to man ; because they exercise the duties of priests in
their relation to God and Christ, they serve Him day and night
in His temple (vii. 15). And thus the reign of the saints will
be essentially a reign of priests. Let it not be imagined, as if, in
the millennial kingdom, salvation is to be mediated in an external
manner, instead of an internal pneumatic one ; as if, then, instead
of grace, power was to be effective. Even as we may now see
the union of mercy and righteousness in the work of divine
redemption, we will then behold mercy, righteousness, and
power, harmoniously united. The way of the Lord is, and ever
will be, a way of holiness. His kingdom is a kingdom of
spiritual glory, and not of carnal glory, as Jews and Anabaptists
dreamed. In the place of the government of the world by Satan,
there is put, not a government of the world by men, who are
living in the flesh, and who might possibly seek a satisfaction of
their own desires ; nor a government by good angels, whose
influence would be merely an influence of power, but by trans
figured men, who are what they are, only in the strength of
God's Redemption. They manifest and show what Christ can
effect in man by His mercy. The charms which the power and
pleasures and possessions of this world exert on our minds,
will then be exercised by the glory of the transfigured Church ;
then men will delight to be subject to the priests and kings of
their Head Christ. In the day of the Lord's power, the people
will be all willingness, and the earth be filled with the know
ledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea
(Psalm ex. 3 ; Hab. ii. 14). Thus, the millennial kingdom is a
mighty progress, but not a violent one ; it is a new phase of life
in the course of the subjugation of the world under the principles
of Christianity. The Lord suffered, in the commencement, the
world to continue its existence ; He was satisfied to send only
witnesses for His salvation, prophets, teachers, and wise men,

336 KINGS AND PRIESTS.
without external power and glory, in poverty, and with the sig
nature of the cross (Luke xxiv. 48 ; Matt, xxiii. 34 ; x. 9).
The world had full liberty to oppose not only false prophecy to
the testimony of Christ, but also a false kingship and priesthood.
But now they have been judged, and have passed into perdition,
and therefore the Church of God is not only the witness and
prophet(Siio pdprvpes = Sbo Trporp^rai, xi. 3, 10) ; but the priesthood
and kingship are hers, even according to formal legal right.
Hence, it is not only the simple word which is effective, but " a
new method of divine education can now be introduced." Now
there exists de facto : a Sabbath kept by transfigured men,
continuously offering up a service in the purity and blessedness of
a perfect spiritual life ; and it is evident to all, that they, who are
thus near God, serving Him, have power over the whole world.
The priest-kings rule, therefore, simply in virtue of what they
are. This is not a power working in an external mechanical
manner ; it is a power, certainly, but a power of attraction, of
conviction, a power which influences and overcomes the heart.
And if we remember that this power is not counteracted by
either devil or beast, oh, who can imagine the glory of that
future development of the kingdom of God, when, all obstacles
and enemies being removed, Christ and His saints will, by their
spiritual rule, direct all external relations and circumstances !
It is, then, that Christianity will pervade the world and all
relations of life in spirit and in truth ; the union of the royal
and priestly office, in the ruling saints will be mirrored in their
kingdom upon earth, in the union of Church and State, that is,
in the kingdom of God, as distinguished from the mere church,
which is at present still the form under which Christianity
exists.1 The kingdom is based on the royal, the kingdom of
God and heaven on the priestly office of the congregation. It
shall then be manifest that, as Bolhe expresses it, Christ is not
1 Compare the development of the ideas \x-y.k-/lo-i» and (Zu.trt\ti«, and their re
lation to each other in Baumgarten. Apostolic History, English Translation
vol. ii., p; 345.

CHRISTOCRACY. 337
merely a clericus, or pastor, but a high-priestly King. Spiritual-
mindedness will manifest itself everywhere in corresponding,
unfettered, external forms. " Secular" -and " spiritual" are dis
tinctions which shall then be overthrown. There will be no
beast in opposition to the 'woman ; then man will rejoice in God,
and rejoice in the world, all poetry, all art, all science, all social
life, will be Christian and worldly ; for the world, the kingdoms
of the world, are now kingdoms of, our Lord and His Christ.
Theocracy is now restored as Christocracy, not in the letter, but
in essence and spirit (Rev. xi. 15). It is upon this present
earth, that it must be shown and proved, that the devil, who
pretended to be its rightful lord, was only a usurper ; man, who
was created " to have dominion over earth," is to rejoice over
his world with full, unmixed, holy, joy. Every legitimate and
true ideal will, then become a reality.
But hereby the dealings of divine mercy and patience are at an
end. Not only men, then living on earth, but also the dead not
yet risen (Rev. xx. 5, 1 2), have an opportunity thus given them
of seeing in the transfigured Church of Christ on earth, what glory
the Lord Jesus Christ can give to humanity. He, who resists
even such a manifestation, and remains in his opposition to
Christ, falls into eternal judgment ; but whoso taketh hold of sal
vation, will, on the last day, and at the general resurrection, be
yet added to the number of the living.

II. STATEMENTS OF DANIEL AND THE OLD TESTAMENT IN GENERAL.
Whereas the Apocalypse of John, in accordance with the
characteristic essence of the New Testament, unveils to us, in
connection with the millennial kingdom, the supernatural back
ground of the spiritual world, it is the object of Daniel, and the .
Old Testament prophecies in general, to give disclosures chiefly
concerning the earthly aspect^ of the same kingdom. The former
tells us, that, instead of the devil, the transfigured Church of

338 THE APOCALYPSE AND THE OLD TESTAMENT.
Christ ; the latter informs us, that in place of the heathen beast,
the holy people Israel shall rule the world. Both agree in what
is of central importance, that, it is Christ the Son of Man, who
now rules humanity, by His transfigured Church in heaven, and
by His people Israel on earth. If the question be put, why the
future of Israel is not mentioned again in the prophecies of St John,
the answer is simply this : The Apocalypse was given for the
Gentile- Christian times ; its object is to tell the New Testament
Church, chiefly gathered from the Gentiles, what it is necessary
for her to know during her pilgrimage through the wilderness.
The Apocalypse is the Travelling Manual of the Church, it de
scribes her history.1 Israel, as a nation, does, therefore, not
come within its range. Israel has its own apocalypse in Daniel ;
it has, moreover, the other prophets, and the unfulfilled pro
phecies they contain are true, and will surely be fulfilled, since
they are words of the living God. The Revelation of John
does not repeat them all ; it was not necessary that it should,
but it sheds upon them New Testament light out of the heavens,
opened to the beloved disciple. But, moreover, the New Tes
tament Apocalypse contains an express confirmation of the en
tire Old Testament prophecy (Rev. x. 7). In the days of the
voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, the
mystery of God shall be finished, as He hath declared to His
servants the prophets. And that this refers specially to the
kingdom of the millennium is evident, from xi. 15, where the
seventh angel sounds, and it was proclaimed : The kingdoms of
this world are the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ.
The Parousia of Christ had the twofold object, to judge and
destroy apostate Christendom, and to save the faithful congrega
tion, which is then caught up with Christ into heaven. But the

1 In modern times the Apocalypse has been styled a " Judaizing produc
tion." With what justice, the reader of our remarks may decide. The book
is Jewish, even as the whole Bible is. Paul's epistles are, if possible, still more
Jewish than the Revelation. The prophetic form is by no means peculiar to
the Judaizers.

JEWS AND HEATHENS AT THE SECOND ADVENT. 339
majority of humanity then living belonged neither to the one class
nor the other, and remains after the Parousia on earth ; they con
sist of Jews and heathens. The harlot, as we saw, corresponded
to pharisaical Judaism ; the two beasts were sunk into a new
heathenism. Thus the false elements which existed at the first
advent of Christ had insinuated themselves into Christendom,
and as such they are both judged. But besides the harlot and
the beast, there exist on earth Judaism and heathenism in their
old shape, without reference to Christianity ; and in this form
they are comparatively innocent, because they have not yet
come into close contact with the gospel of mercy, and are there
fore not guilty of rejecting it and trampling it under foot. Sin
is perfect and ripe for judgment, when it rejects, in unbelief, the
word of Christ ; we know this from Mark xvi. 16 ; John iii. 18,
36. Hence Judaism and heathenism in the strict sense, that
is, Israel and the heathen, living at the time of the Parousia,
are the comparatively healthy elements which form the new
soil of a new development. And this is part of the humi
liation of the modern civilized nations, that nations which
they despise most, Jews and uncivilized barbarians (perhaps
chiefly the Negroes of Africa, the Hamites, who, on account
of the curse of Noah, have been so backward and neglected,
Kush, Seba, etc., Psalms Ixviii. 31 ; lxxii. 10) shall succeed
them and surpass them as centres of the world's history. Here
we can see the old law of the kingdom : " They have moved
me to jealousy with that which is not good; they have pro
voked me to anger with their vanities, therefore I also will
move them to jealousy with those which are not a people.
I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation" (Deut.
xxxii. 21 ; Rom. x. 19). As it happened to the Jews con
cerning the Gentiles, thus it is now with the Gentile-Christians
in reference to the Jews, as Paul has described it (Rom. xi. 20,
etc.) for our warning.
At the beginning of the millennial kingdom, humanity will be
in a condition similar to that in which it was at the commence-

340 JEWS AND HEATHENS AT THE SECOND ADVENT.
ment of the church-historical time, after the ascension of the
Saviour. Again Israel and the heathens shall be the represen
tatives of history, and opposed to them we see the Christian
congregation, wishing to christianize them. But everything is
now on a higher degree of development. Not only has the
preaching of the gospel of the kingdom among Jews and heathens,
before the second advent of the Lord, prepared the dawn
of light (Matt. xxiv. 14), so that the nations can "understand
something of the wonderful events attending the appearance of
our Lord,1 but the events themselves, the coming of Christ in
glory, the destruction of the Antichristian power, the transfigura
tion of the church of believers, the binding of Satan, and the
ceasing of satanic influences, must necessarily produce an un
speakably deep impression on the nations. Now the veil of
Moses is taken from Israel, and the face of covering, %vhich was
cast over all people, is broken (2 Cor. iii. 14-16 ; Isaiah xxv.
7). Whereas, as at the beginning of the church-historical period,
Israel had become hardened and ripe for judgment, and the
heathen world, though it contained many souls anxiously wait
ing for salvation, concealed in its obscure depths many temp
tations. Thus all things are changed and new in that portion
of the human race which is to be receptive. Much greater are
the changes which have taken place in that other part of hu
manity which the Lord hath chosen to be the organ of His work
on earth, viz., the congregation of believers. She no longer
consists of a poor, little, flook of witnesses, bearing the divine
treasure in earthen vessels (2 Cor. iv. 7), but she is now a
band of transfigured priest-kings, who rule over the earth. In
short, the Church began after Christ's ascension, but now the
kingdom has come.
Israel is again to be at the head of all humanity. We, from
' Hence .Stier (Reden Jesu ii. 545) remarks, speaking of Matt. xxiv. 14 :
" When the two signs which are connected, apostasy of Christendom and ex
tension of missions, in their wonderful contrast and coincidence shall have
reached their highest development — then the end is at hand."

ISRAEL. 341
our one-sided Gentile-Christian point of view, have at first
difficulty to take in and reconcile ourselves to this idea.1 But
although the Church lost this view, it is yet of such importance
and significance in Holy Scripture, that, in strict truth, it must
be designated as an important key to the understanding of the
prophetic word. If this truth is viewed in its Biblical connec
tion, it will lose the appearance of an arbitrary and accidental
character, which may at first seem to attach to it. Holy
Scripture looks on the human race, not as an aggregate of indivi
duals and nationalities, but her view of world and humanity is
a thoroughly organic one, and laid down, once for all, in the
very first pages of Revelation. Nature is a great organism,
which, in its various and successively created gradations, is
striving upwards to its Head : Man ; all irrational creation, is
connected with him as its ruler and lord (Gen. i.). The crea
tion of man commences a life, higher than the life of nature —
a life based upon free personality in the image of God — the life
of history. The spiritual nobility of humanity is primarily
1 The consequence and punishment of our traditional theology not acknow
ledging the. importance of Israel, may be seen in the modern depreciation of
the Old Testament, and in the still more recent decomposition of the New, by
our most modern criticism. The latter proceeds from the correct observation,
that in the New Testament there are a number of passages and views, which
appear, to our abstract Gentile-Christian stand-point, irrational and inconceiv
able, and that original Christianity was of a more Jewish type than that of the
Churches. Hence a school, which was estranged from the spirit of Revelation
in general, and incapable of understanding the Old Testament in particular,
could easily succeed in representing primitive Christianity as contradicting the
Christianity of later times, and in representing the former as Ebionitic and
Weak beginnings.
Let this aberration serve to direct theology and the Church to an important
and hitherto much overlooked truth. Scholastic and orthodox spiritualising
abstractions and Hnhistorical interpretations, have prepared and paved the
way for rationalism in this as well as in other respects. We cannot understand
Holy Scripture, except by relinquishing the dry abstractions of the West, and
entering into the concrete fulness of the East ; and the spiritual aspect of this
hermeneutical principle is, to exchange Gentile ratiocination for Jewish in
tuition, that is, that intuition which, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit,
was peculiar to ail the authors of the Old and New Testament writings.

342 ISRAEL.
expressed in its unity. Natural differences are of subordinate
importance' ; all have sprung from one blood, and have the same
endowment and destiny. Notwithstanding, the life of history is
not monotony and sameness, and therefore the human race has
likewise its organic structure and gradations. Hamites, Japhet-
ites, and Shemites, are, according to Gen. ix. and x., the three
grand groups of nations forming humanity, in which an ancient
comparison saw a parallelism to the three fundamental elements
in the individual man — body, soul, and spirit. Moreover, at the
head of individual nations, and groups of nations, as well as at
the head of the whole race, there stand personal Fathers and
Representatives, who impress their spiritual bodily character on
their descendants. Such is one of the living, concrete, funda
mental views of Scripture, which have hitherto not been suffi
ciently recognised and appreciated. Through the words of
blessing which Noah pronounced (Gen. ix. 26), Sbem is chosen
as the chief representative of pneumatic life, as the mediator of
the fundamental relations of humanity to God. But the blos
som and flower of Shem is Israel (Gen. xi.) ;• even as the flower
of Israel is He in whom the whole race is to be summed up, as
in its second Adam, the spiritual Head (comp. Gen. xii. 1—3).
Thus the people of Israel receives for all times the destiny, to
be recipient and mediator of divine revelations. When Israel
appears for the first time as a people in Egypt, God sends His
word to Pharaoh ; Israel is my first-born son (Exod. iv. 22).
And immediately before the giving of the law on Sinai, the
Lord says (Exod. xix. 5, 6), " Now therefore if ye will obey
my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a
peculiar treasure unto me above all people ; for all the earth is
mine, and ye shall be to me a kingdom of priests, and an holy
nation." Thus Israel stands in the same relation to humanity
as a priest stands to the nation ; it mediates in the relations of
humanity to God (nds yap dpxiepevs bnep dvSpimcov KaSio-Tarai rd
woor too %e6v, Heb. v. 1). Hereby the relation of Israel to the
nations is fixed, not merely for the times of the Old Covenant

ISRAEL. 343
during which Israel did not even exercise her priestly office as
regards the heathens, but for all times, and for ever. Because
" the gifts and calling of God are without repentance" (Rom.
xi. 29). It is remarkable, that the same apostle, who preaches
so frequently and so emphatically, that in Christ the distinction
of Jew and Gentile is abrogated — that in him circumcision and
uncircumcision are of no avail (Rom. iii. 29 ; Gal. iii. 28, vi. 15 ;
Eph. ii. 13-18 Col. iii. 11), attributes to Israel a peculiar ad
vantage and pre-eminence, in saying, that the noble olive-tree
of the kingdom of God is, properly and strictly speaking, their
own (I8ia), and in designating even the unbelieving and rejected
Jews as the natural branches (<ard cpba-iv icXdSoi, Rom. xi. 21-24),
whereas he represents the believing Gentiles as only grafted in,
contrary to nature (napd (pbo-tv, ver. 24). How is this contradic
tion to be solved ? Simply by considering the different points
of view from which Scripture stands in the different passages
and representations quoted above. From the religious point of
view, in their relation to God and Christ, as needing mercy
and salvation, Gentiles and Jews stand on a perfect equality ;
the same righteousness is imputed to them, the same glory is
given them, they have the same part in Christ, and by Him
both have access to the Father in One Spirit. We see this also
in the transfigured Church, which consists of both Jews and
Gentiles. But from the stand-point of the history of revelation,
as regards the way in which God uses men as instruments to
bring about the objects of His kingdom, the case is altogether
different ; from this point of view Israel is, and ever shall be,
the chosen people through which God executes His plans con
cerning humanity. The relation of Jews and Gentiles is quite
similar to that of man and woman. The last difference does
likewise not exist in Christ ; and the apostle (Gal. iii. 28) joins
the two expressly : there is neither Jew nor Greek, there is
neither male nor female. But although man and woman are
equal in Christ, and before God, and have the same privileges
and rights of mercy, yet woman is subordinate to man not only

344 ISRAEL.
in the house, but also, essentially, in the Church (1 Cor. xiv. 34 ;
1 Tim. ii. 11, etc.). The woman is not to teach, but to ask her
husband for instruction. Thus the Jews are our teachers in
divine things. They are our teachers even in the New Testa
ment times. Since their rejection, the voice of divine revela
tion has been silent. But if we wish to hear God's word in
these times without revelation, we must turn to the writings of
Jews, since the whole Bible, even the New Testament, is writ
ten by Jews. Jesus and His apostles were Jews. Therefore if
revelation is to recommence in the millennial kingdom, it is
necessary that converted Israel stand at the head of humanity.
The Israelitish priest-kings are upon earth what the transfigured
priest-kings are in heaven. Then there shall be a blessed
glorious chain of giving and receiving — God, Christ, the
transfigured bride the Church, Israel, the world of nations —
similar to the word in 1 Cor. xi. 3 : The head of the woman is
man, the head of every man is Christ, and the Head of Christ
is God.
To enter circumstantially into the whole prophetic doctrine of
Israel's future, does not come within the bounds of our present
task. It is only necessary for us to mention the most import
ant points of view. The whole Old Testament is full of pro
phecies on this subject. They begin with the Pentateuch, and
conclude with Malachi. The predictions contained in Lev.
xxvi. 31-45 ; Deut. xxviii. 62-68, xxix. 22, xxx. 14, xxxii.
15-43, concerning Israel's apostasy and dispersion among the
heathens, and then concerning its conversion and glorious re-
establishment in the Holy Land, were not exhaustively fulfilled
in the short decennia of the Assyrian and Babylonian exile,
and in the troublous centuries of the restoration which followed
those captivities. On the contrary, the curse lies even this day
on the Jewish nation, and the promised restoration awaits yet
its fulfilment and realization. For him who believes in the
fulfilment of prophecy, it is only necessary to read the words of
Scripture, in order to be persuaded of this. The great commen-

ISRAEL. 345
tary on the history of revelation is given us in the miraculous pre
servation of the Jewish nation through all centuries to our time,
while other ancient nationalities are either destroyed, or have
mixed to such extent with other nations, that they are disfigured,
even to such a degree, that they can scarcely be recognised —
a preservation which is doubly miraculous, since Israel is dis
persed in all countries .of the earth, whereas other nations have
their fixed stationary residences. For, as the prophecy of Lev.
xxvi. 44, 45, concludes, " And yet for all that, when they be
in the land of their enemies, I will not cast them away, neither
will I abhor them to destroy them utterly, and to break my
covenant with them, for I am the Lord their God ; and I will
for their sakes remember the covenant of their ancestors, whom
I brought out of the land of Egypt, in the sight of the heathen,
that I might be their God ; I am the Lord." In such passages
of the Pentateuch are contained the outlines of all prophecy.
The Messianic Psalms, productions of the Theocratic blossom-
and-flower-time under David and Solomon, dwell, in accord
ance with the character of the period, not so much on the nega
tive aspect, apostasy, humiliation, and restoration of the people,
but rather on the positive, the future glory, which consists on the
one side in judgment executed on the hostile kings and nations
(Ps. ii. and ex.), on the other in the power of attraction,- which
Israel's God, and King, and divine service, exercise on the
heathens (Ps. lxxii., Ixviii. 29, xxii. 28, and others). While
the prophecies of the Pentateuch refer only to the people, the
Psalms add the image, distinctly delineated, of the King, the
Messiah, the Priest-King (ex. 4). With this double inheritance
of Moses and David, prophecy commences her course. It
retarded and obstructed considerably the understanding of pro
phecy, that the older orthodox exegesis beheld exclusively the
person of Christ in the Psalms, and did not know to find out
the reference to the people and kingdom of God, whereas the
Messiah Himself leads us to the correct interpretation, by the
fundamental word of His preaching, " the kingdom of God."

346 ISRAEL.
Whatever is said in the Psalms and prophets of the kingdom of
Israel, is found, by a tortuous, and falsely called spiritual
spiritualising interpretation, to refer to the Church, an interpre
tation which can only be effected by the most violent process of
inanition, and modification, of the sacred words. Such exegesis
always leaves the impression on the reader, that the prophets
ought, after all, to have used quite different expressions, if they
really intended to prophesy about Jesus and His Church. They
speak always of a victorious King and a kingdom of glory,
instead of Christ's suffering and death, atonement, and reconci
liation of the world through His blood. Hence it was that the
fifty-third chapter of Isaiah, taken from its connection with the
rest of the book, became the favourite passage of Old Testament
exegesis, to which were added, perhaps, some parts of Zecha
riah and the ninth of Daniel ; as also the Christmas texts
(Isa. vii. 14, and ix. 6), without a deep insight, however, into
the difficult context. Thus a living organic understanding of
prophecy was wanting, and even in our days is still wanting, to
a great extent. This deficiency avenged itself in an awful
manner. Rationalistic exegesis lays great stress on the letter of
prophecy, and with apparent right, against that false spiritual
interpretation. It shows that the prophets prophesied concern
ing an Israelitish kingdom, and draws from this the inference,
that the prophets were mistaken, because, of course, they and
the orthodox are perfectly at one, that such a kingdom can no
longer be expected. The doctrine of the future glorious resto
ration of Israel, is such an essential and fundamental idea of all
prophecy, that the difficulty is not so much to find passages in
which it is taught, as to select from the great number. We
point out as specimens, Isa. ii. 2-4, iv. 2-6, ix. 1-6 ; chapters
xi. and xii. ; specially xi. 11, xxiv. 6, lx. 4; Jer. xxx.-xxxiii. ;
Ezek. xxxiv. 23-31, chaps, xxxvi. and xxxvii. ; Hos. ii. 16-25,
iii. 4, 5, xi. 8-11, xiv. 2 ; Joel iii. 1-3, iv. 16-21 ; Amos ix.
11-15 ; Ob. 17-21 ; Micah ii. 12, 13, chaps, iv., v., vii. 11-20 ;
Zeph. iii. 14-20 ; Zech. ii. 4, viii. 7, ix. 9, x. 8-12, xii. 2-

ISRAEL. 347
xiii. 6, xiv. 8, etc. Zechariah also, who lived after the exile,
knows of a gathering and glorification of his nation, which shall
greatly differ from and excel the restoration, which he witnessed.
We made the observation in a previous part of our investigation,
that this prophet, who consummates and condenses all preceding
prophecy, distinguishes more distinctly than any other Old Tes
tament prophet, the first and the second advent of Christ, His
rejection, and His future reception by ,the Jewish nation. For
this reason He represents the conversion of the people, which is
the condition of its re-establishment, distinctly as repentance
on account of the rejection and putting to death of the Messiah.
" And I will pour upon the house of David and upon the inha
bitants of Jerusalem the Spirit of grace and of supplication,
and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they
shall mourn for Him as one mourneth for his only son, and shall
be in bitterness for Him as one that is in bitterness for his first
born. And the land shall mourn, every family apart, the house
of David, Nathan, Levi, Shimei, etc. In that day there shall
be a fountain opened to the house of David and to the inhabi
tants of Jerusalem for sin and for uncleanness ; and it shall
come to pass, saith the Lord of hosts, that I will cut off the
names of idols out of the land, and they shall no more be
remembered ; and also I will cause the prophets and the
unclean spirit to pass out of the land" (Zech. xii. 1 0— xiii. 2).
We have seen, in our previous remarks, that the afflictions of
the last times shall prepare such a thorough change of heart in
the people of Israel. We have here a prophetic description of
this change ; and herewith is connected the prophecy given by
our Lord Jesus himself, that the citizens of Jerusalem will say,
when they see Him again, " Blessed is He that cometh in the
name of the Lord (Matt, xxiii. 39).
The more minutedescriptionswhichthe prophets givein the pas
sages quoted before, of the prosperity and glory of the " Messianic
time," correspond and harmonise beautifully with the results
to which our investigations of the New Testament statements led

348 THE MILLENNIUM.
us. Israel brought back to its own land, will now be the people
of God in a much higher and more internal sense than it was
before, for now the power of sin is checked, the knowledge of
God fills the whole land, and the Lord dwells again among His
people at Jerusalem. Thus, a new time of divine revelation
will begin, the Spirit of God will be poured out abundantly, and
a fulness of the gifts of grace (charismata) be bestowed, — even as
the apostolic church possessed it typically. This rich full
spirit-life creates, likewise, its external manifestation in a
priestly and in a kingly manner. The priestly character of
Israel was beheld especially by the son of a priest — Ezekiel,
in the mysterious vision, the subject of chaps, xl.-xlviii. ; the
kingly character was revealed to the statesman Daniel ; both
united, were seen, for example, by Jeremiah xxxiii. 17-22.
What appeared during the Old Testament Theocracy only in an
external form in the letter, what had altogether disappeared in
the New Testament period, the time of internal hidden spirit-
life, is now represented also externally, and united to an out
ward form, but in a pneumatic manner. In the Old Testament,
the whole Jewish national life, in its various manifestations,
home, government, labour, art, literature, civilisation was reli
gious, but only in an external legal manner ; the Church, again,
has to insist chiefly on a renewal of heart, and must leave the
outward manifestations of life free, pressing it upon the con
science of the individual to glorify Christ in all relations ; but,
in the millennial kingdom, all spheres of life will be truly
Christianised from within outwardly. From this point of view,
it will not be offensive to say, that the Mosaic ceremonial law
corresponds to the priestly office of Israel, the civil law to its
kingly office. The Gentile Church could only adopt the moral
law. In like manner, her sole influence is by the word, working
inwardly, by exercising the prophetic office. But when the
royal and the priestly office shall be revived, then — the principles
of the epistle to the Hebrews, remaining as true and immove
able as ever — also the ceremonial and civil law of Moses, will de-

THE MILLENNIUM. 349
velop its spiritual depths in the divine worship, and in the consti
tution of the millennial kingdom. Only from this point of view
can we appreciate aright the saying of Christ (Matt. v. 17-19),
which otherwise always contain a something not sufficiently
accounted for.1 At present is the time of preaching, but then
the time of the Liturgy shall have come, which presupposes a
congregation of converted souls ; our church governments and
institutions are at present fragmentary and defective, and must
always be so ; but then the true forms will arise in great strength
and beauty. And, with this sacred and glorious character of
divine service, shall be combined a corresponding government of
the world, a fulness of blessings and undisturbed vital joy.
When Israel glorifies God, and is again glorified by its God, a
deep and powerful impression cannot fail to be made upon the
Gentiles. Now, it is no longer necessary to go after and, seek
the Gentiles laboriously ; on the contrary, they come willingly,
of themselves, attracted by the rich gifts of God's mercy, and
the fulness of divine manifestation which they behold. It is
their delight now to serve this God, and to offer to Him their
noblest and best offerings.
Thus, while during the Old Testament times the Jews ex
clusively, and during the Church-historical period, the Gentiles
exclusively enjoyed the blessings of the salvation of revelation,
while in both cases humanity was divided and separated ; now,
in the millennium, Jews and Gentiles are united, and all
humanity, the whole organism united under the first-born
brother, walks in the light of God, and thus the true and full
life of humanity is at last realised (comp. Rom. xi. 30-32).
Then all abominations which have defiled, openly or secretly,
the life of nations, up to the second advent of Christ, naturally
cease ; war, especially, that scourge with which men chastise
i "Heaven and earth are not to pass till all types and promises of the king
dom of God be fulfilled. This precious word of promise of our Lord is a
pledge, that the expectations of all these great things shall surely be realised
to the joy of all the righteous."— C. H. Zeller, loc, cit., March 1854, p. 21.

350 THE MILLENNIUM.
each other so severely in their folly, shall then be no more (but
it must remain till then), universal peace shall then spread its
blessings over all peoples of the earth. And this blessed state
of general salvation will extend even to the kingdom of nature ;
the soil be gifted with inexhaustible and ennobled fertility ; the
animal world be freed from murder and fury, — even heaven and
earth be united in corresponding harmony. Does not all this flow,
as a necessary result, from the fact, that the world, and hence
also, the world of nature, is freed from the bondage of Satan ?
We feel ourselves carried back to ancient times, to the more
vigorous world of the antediluvian period of which the Apostle
Peter speaks (2 Pet. iii. 4, etc.), intimating that the future
changes in this world correspond to the ancient state of a former
period. In agreement with this, is moreover a circumstance,
which may be inferred from an expression used by the prophet
Isaiah (lxv. 20-22) : people of a hundred years are called children,
the days of men are to be as the days of trees ; and (what a
glorious beautiful feature), men will not have to leave their
life-work unfinished and unenjoyed. For where sin has lost in
power, the power of death likewise decreases ; as it was with
the first inhabitants of earth, it will likewise be with the last,
till in a period still more remote, death shall be perfectly over
come, as the last enemy.
III. COMPREHENSIVE PASSAGES.
These prophetic fundamental ideas concerning the kingdom of
God, are corroborated by express and repeated statements of the
New Testament, and that not only by the apostles of the Jews,
James and Peter, nor in their Israelitish aspect exclusively in
the Apocalypse of John, but chiefly by the apostle of the
Gentiles, Paul, and the sayings of our Lord himself, as re
ported by the Evangelist Matthew, and the Pauline Evangelist
Luke. The eleventh chapter of the Epistle to the Romans, is in this

ROMANS XI. 351
respect the New Testament key to the understanding of the pro
phets. In the first part of this epistle, the apostle goes back to
the patriarchal period, and shows, by the example of Abraham,
that both Jews and Gentiles are justified by faith, and that there
is thus no difference between them. He proceeds, then, in the
second part, to develop the importance of the law ; and, in
like manner, the third part (chaps, ix.-xi.), is interwoven
throughout with reference to the third stage of Old Testament
revelation, viz., prophecy, in which Paul sees represented the
entire development of the kingdom of God upon earth, as it
passes from Israel to Gentiles, and from Gentiles to Israel. The
apostle places thus his own sayings concerning the rejection and
readoption of Israel upon the foundation of the prophetic word,
and his own words serve us as a clear light, illumining brightly
the page of the Old Testament, and facilitating to us Gentile-
Christians the explanation of the obscure sayings of the prophets.
We now know for certain, through the words of Paul, that the
Old Testament prophecies concerning Israel's conversion and re
storation, did not find their exhaustive fulfilment either in the
return from the exile, or in the planting of the Christian
Church, but that they are yet unfulfilled. When the fulness of
the Gentiles is come in, when thus the " times of the Gentiles"
(Luke xxi. 24), the times of the Gentile's- Christian Church have
elagsed, then Israel, as a nation, liar 'Io-pa7jA, ver. 25, 26, shall
be rescued and saved. And this event takes place not only for
the sake of Israel itself, but it serves likewise for the conversion
of the then existing, and as yet unconverted warld of heathens !
For if the fall of them be the riches of the world, and the
diminishing of them the riches of the Gentiles, how much more
their fulness ? ver. 12. And if the casting away of them be the
reconciling of the world, what shall the receiving of them be but
life from the dead? ver. 15.
The apostle, whose love to his nation derives strength from
his deeply entering into the plans of God's kingdom, passes
rapidly over the times of the Gentiles — whether their duration

352 ROMANS XI.
be long or short — to speak of the time when Israel will again be in
full possession of salvation. He himself is the apostle of the Gen
tiles, and has devoted his whole life to their evangelisation ; and
yet, the time during which they are the predominating element in
the kingdom of God and during which Israel is excluded, appears
to him as an intermediate parenthetical portion of the develop
ment of God's kingdom ; he knows it, and expresses it here in
the spirit of perfect self-denial, that even for the Gentiles, the
full blessing can only come, when Israel stands again at the head
of the kingdom of God. The expression, " life from the dead,"
suggested to de Wette and others, the resurrection ; but the con
text does not render such an interpretation probable, and the
word itself contains nothing to render it necessary. To under
stand the expression fully, and to apprehend its distinct meaning,
as compared with the expression, " reconciliation," it is necessary
to bear in mind, that the conversion of Israel stands in a causal
and not merely temporal connection with the coming of Christ,
and that it is succeeded by a new state of the world, in which a
new life in a greater, more richly characteristic fulness of spirit
will spread from the people of God to all the nations of the
earth, and in comparison with which the life of nations during
the preceding ages might be called death. The apostle designates
this new state of the world by the same expression, which he
used, ver. 13 (comp. Eph. ii. 5 ; Col. ii. 13), when speaking
of the regeneration of the individual life from the dead ; as there '
is at present a regeneration of individuals, so in the future, the
life of nations as such shall be renewed, there shall be a world-
regeneration. Quite in accordance with this is the expression
used by our Lord, when He denotes the new aeon Palingenesia
(Matt. xix. 28), and when Peter designates it as " the times of
refreshing from the presence of the Lord, and the fulfilment of
all things which God hath spoken by the mouth of all His holy
prophets since the world began," and when he represents the
beginning of this aeon as contemporary with the Parousia of.
Christ, and as depending on the repentance and conversion of

THE APOSTLE'S LAST QUESTION. 353
the Jewish nation (Acts iii. 19-21). All these statements are
clear after our preceding remarks.
While Paul dwells chiefly on the spiritual aspect of the re
storation of Israel, as the whole context of the epistle renders
it natural, the Apostle Peter had chiefly in view the external
glory of Israel in the kingdom, when he spoke of the restitution
of all things which God hath spoken of by His holy prophets.
For this external glory, we have a remarkable testimony given
in the solemn hour of departure in which Christ left the world.
When their Lord was leaving them, the apostles knew no
question of more urgent, heartfelt importance, than this : Lord
wilt Thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel 1
(Acts i. 6, dnoKaSio-Taveis ttjv fiao-lXeiav t<3 'io-pa^A ; the same ex
pression as airoKaTaa-Taa-is, chap. ii. 31). Now, are we to sup
pose that the disciples were still fettered by Jewish external
ising views ? Both the preceding and the succeeding parts of
the chapter speak against such an hypothesis. During the forty
days after Christ's resurrection, the Lord spoke to them about
the things concerning the kingdom of God, according to the
divine word of prophecy (ver. 3 ; Luke xxiv. 44, 45), and is it
possible that they should not have understood Him even in
those last days ? No ; the inference to be drawn from the ques
tion of the disciples is rather this, that in the instruction given
them by our Lord himself, the two ideas, "kingdom of God,"
and " kingdom of Israel," were closely united, that our Lord
had spoken to them concerning the coming of the kingdom of
Israel, though He said nothing concerning the chronology, and
date of its appearance ; for the whole emphasis in the question
lies on " at this time;" the thing itself is presupposed as known
and acknowledged. This is also evident from the answer the
Saviour gives (ver. 7), in which we see a distinct and unambigu
ous confirmation of the expectation, that Israel shall again
recover the kingdom, since He declines only the fixing of the
exact point of time when this kingdom is to appear. In the
following verse, the Lord turns the attention of the disciples
z

354 " THIS GENERATION."
from the kingdom to the Church, the times of which are now to
commence ; for the Holy Spirit and His internal effects are op
posed to the outward glory, as the prophetic office of witnessing
to the kingship ({iao-iXeia), concerning which the disciples ask
Him. Therefore, the answer of Christ amounts to this : First
comes the Church ; after that the kingdom. But that the latter
shall surely come, has to be expressly confirmed by the mouth
of the angels who testify after the Lord's ascension : " This
same Jesus, which is taken up from you. into heaven, shall so
come in like manner (ovras 'ov rpoirov), as ye have seen Him go
into heaven" (ver. 11).
Moreover, the Lord Jesus himself prophesied (Matt. xxiv.
34), that Israel was to be preserved during the entire Church-
historical period, during which the gospel of Christ is spread,
even unto the uttermost ends of the earth (Acts i. 8), conse
quently also among the heathens. The Lord says : " this gene
ration shall not pass till all these things be fulfilled." The
expression, "this generation," which has caused so touch discus
sion, means here not this present generation, but this unbelieving
Jewish people. For it has not only been proved with much
erudition by Dorner, in his " Dissertatio de oratione Christi
eschatologica," that the expression yevea may be also used of a
people; but, even taking the word literally, let us remember
that Christ often uses this expression " generation," with some
what of an under-current of reproach (for example, Matt. xii. 45 ;
Luke xvii. 25). It is impossible to think that the expression
refers to the term of human life, for the saying occurs likewise
in Luke, xxi. 32, where are mentioned shortly before the times
of the Gentiles (ver. 24) ; and it is evident, were it only for the
plural used, that these extend over more than one generation.
The meaning of our passage is the following : The context
shows us, that the Saviour was led to think of the Jewish nation
by the fig tree, which He had often used as an illustration of the
Jewish people, and wishing to adduce a proof of the eternal
validity of His words (ver. 35), He prophesies the continued

THE TWELVE APOSTLES. 355
existence of this unbelieving generation ; its preservation, not
withstanding its dispersion among the heathens, even throughout
the whole times of the Gentiles (Luke xxi. 24). As little as
Israel can pass away (napcXSelv in both cases), so little can His
words : Israel's continued existence is a living proof of the
truth of prophecy — a tangible pledge of its future fulfilment.
In conclusion, we have to consider a promise which the Lord
repeatedly gave to His disciples, viz. : that in the regeneration,
when the Son of Man shall sit on the throne of His glory, they
shall rule the twelve tribes of Israel as a reward of their having fol
lowed Him with self-sacrificing faithfulness (Matt. xix. 28 ; Luke
xxii. 28-30). The reason why we consider this passage next, is
because it seemed to us most adapted to represent, in a consummat
ing and compendious manner, the connection subsisting between
Old and New Testament statements concerning the millennium.
The twelve apostles belong, of course, to the transfigured
church, whereas the twelve tribes are still upon earth ; and thus
we have a clear indication that the kingdom on earth is con
nected with, and dependent on, the kingdom above earth. Twelve,
the product of the divine number three, and the world number
four, is the symbolic number of the Church, and as such oc
curs in the Old Covenant in the twelve tribes ; in the New, in
the twelve apostles. There is thus a correspondence between
tribes and apostles, and this, their signification, extends even into
the New Jerusalem, of which we read, that the names of the
twelve apostles are written on her foundations, and the names
of the twelve tribes on her gates. In connection with this are
to be understood the twice twelve elders before the throne of
the Lamb, and the twelve times twelve thousand sealed ones of
Israel. They form the nucleus of transfigured humanity to
which the Gentiles are joined. Thus, during the millennium, an
innumerable multitude of all nations are added to the hundred
and forty-four thousand sealed ones from the twelve tribes of
Israel, in heaven ; and upon earth, the world of nations is added
to the kingdom of Israel. Whereas the twelve apostles stand at

356 THE CHURCH, THE KINGDOM, THE NEW WORLD,
the head of the whole. The upper and the lower congregation,
although separate during the millennium, are yet connected with
each other ; and it is to this that the Lord refers in the promise
which He gives to His disciples. After the millennial kingdom
— after the universal judgment, when heaven and earth are
renewed, and the New Jerusalem descends from heaven, then
all limitations shall disappear and cease.
To this time the Apocalypse looks, in the twenty-first and
twenty-second chapters. The eye of the Old Testament prophet
does not reach into such distant times ; at least, the prophets do
not distinguish, as St John, the millennial kingdom from the times
of consummation, after the final judgment. It is true, that
Isaiah likewise speaks of a new heaven and a new earth (lxv.
17 ; Ixvi. 22), but the context plainly shows that he understood
by it the state of the millennium, into which only a few rays of
light fall from the still more remote times of perfection. The
same applies to the eternal kingdom of the Son of Man, and of
the saints of the Most High, which Daniel beheld. For this
reason, it does not come strictly within our task to view more
minutely these visions of the New Testament Apocalyptic, and to
investigate John's statements concerning the final perfect renewal
of the world, which is likewise preceded by apostasy and judg
ment (Rev. xx. 7-15). We shall only offer some general points
of view, which may form a fit conclusion of, and throw additional
light on, our previous remarks.
Not even the millennial kingdom is the final end of the develop
ment of God's kingdom. For even during the millennium, there
is a separation between heaven and earth — between humanity
transfigured and humanity still living in the flesh. Hence it is
possible that an apostasy should take place at the end of the
millennium. The kingdom is more glorious than the church,
but it is not yet the new world. It is a time of refreshing after
the time of warfare, but not yet the time of perfection, in the
strict sense of the word. A more general and extended view
mav render this more distinct.

NATURE, HISTORY, AND HEVELAT10N. 357
Nature, history, and revelation, are the three great kingdoms
of divine manifestation. The highest includes the two lower.
For revelation, condescending to man like to a- child, makes use
of the visible world which surrounds him ; but here again we
must distinguish three gradations. God used nature as a vehicle
of revelation, during the most ancient times : and, first, the
nature of paradise ; secondly, nature laden with the curse of
sin ; and, thirdly, nature suffering destruction by the deluge.
Man's moral probation is connected with the fruit of a tree ; his
redemption appears as the. bruising of the serpent ; the punish
ment of sin is joined to the two processes, which are the condi
tions of man's physical existence — the bringing forth of children
on the part of the woman, and the earning of bread on the part
of man : as the symbol of divine mercy the rainbow is given.
But man, instead of being led by visible nature to the invisible
God, deified nature, and thus fell into heathenism ; and, there
fore, God commenced with Abraham a new and hjgher series
of revelations, and, as their vehicle, He chose history. The
primal revelation was given to all men, as nature is common to
all ; but, in history, humanity separates into different nations ;
every nation has its own history. God chose one nation — the
Jewish — and takes into His hand their whole origin and de
velopment ; and thus the history of Israel forms the second
period of revelation. The fundamental elements of historical
life are, therefore, essentially religious : the state is a Theodracy ;
art consists in religious service ; literature in holy Scripture.
There is thus an external sanctification and discipline of life, but
not yet a real inward pneumatic regeneration from on high.
Such a renewal can only be effected by the third stage, which
we may designate as the revelation of revelation, in which God
frees His revelation from the vehicles of nature and history —
from everything external — and Himself enters, without other
mediation, into the life of humanity, in the person of the God-
man Jesus Christ. He transplants, in an essential, real manner,
the life of God into the world, and He, therefore, is the consuin-

358 CHURCH, MILLENNIUM, THE END.
mation of revelation. The great object now is, the communica
tion of divine life from Christ, and, through Him, to the whole
world, until God be all in all. This object is likewise attained
successively in three periods, corresponding — in inverted order,
however — to the periods of revelation just mentioned. The life
of the God-man himself bears outwardly a quiet and humble
character, widely differing in this respect from the thunder of
the Israelitish history, or, still more, from the gigantic natural
events of the primeval period ; and as the life of the God-man,
so likewise the first period of the extension of divine life is one
of inward, spiritual, hidden humility, during the church-his
torical time, in which nature and history pursue essentially their
wonted, unspiritual course. After this period, the life of Christ
becomes manifest and visible (Col. iii. 3, 4) ; it penetrates power
fully the whole world of history in all its fundamental elements,
state, art, civilisation, etc. This is the millennial kingdom ; and,
finally, this life becomes also the power which transfigures
nature — which transfigures the world universally — in the time
of the new heaven and the new earth. Thus we see here
again, that the millennial kingdom corresponds to the period of
the Israelitish revelation, and that, in the future kingdom, there
shall be realized, in an organic, universal, free way, what was
realized in the Old Covenant outwardly, and according to the
letter. Hence it is clear, why Israel is chosen to be at the head
of humanity during that period, and why the prophets of the
Old Covenant saw principally the future of the nation, and, for
the most part, passed over the church-historical period. They
are prophets of Israel ; and the church-historical time appears,
from the Jewish point of view, only as the time of its dispersion
among the Gentiles.
All our previous remarks serve, we trust, to throw light on
the second and seventh chapters of Daniel, and to explain them
in their different bearings.

MODERN INTERPRETATIONS. 359

IV. THE MODERN INTERPRETATIONS OP THE APOCALYPSE.
We have thus solved our task, in its positive aspect, as the
exposition and exegesis of Rev. xii.-xx., showed more clearly
and completely the relation in which the Old and New Testa
ment Apocalypses stand to each Other. But, as the view of the
second and most important part of the Revelations of St John,
given in the preceding pages, is partly new, it remains for us to
justify it, by a comparison with, and criticism of, the other views,
which are of importance, and refer more immediately to our
subject. We think that, in so doing, we render to the reader a
not unwelcome service ; for there is scarcely a book of Scripture,
of which the different interpretations intersect each other in so
labyrinthine a manner, and where it is so difficult to gain even
a historical survey of the various expositions. Modern science
has not simplified things ; for the increased study which has
been devoted to the Apocalypse, has rather multiplied than
diminished the contradiction and confusion of opinions, so that
a clear historical survey is the more necessary, and a classifica
tion of the different views, of course, the first desideratum.
The interpretation of the Apocalypse may be reduced to three
grand groups. First, the church-historical view regards the
Revelations as a prophetic compendium of church history, arid
supposes that the exalted Saviour has revealed therein the chief
events of all centuries of the Christian era, in detail, and with
chronological accuracy. Bengel is still the most important re
presentative of this view in Germany. His apocalyptic system,
though the event has already proved it erroneous in some points
of primary importance, has yet, as far as its essence is concerned,
many adherents among believers of our time. Besides, the
British and French divines have a great predilection for this mode
of interpretation. We shall endeavour to give a characteristic of
their mode of treating the Apocalypse, in our remarks on two
of their most distinguished works in modern times, the " Horas

360 EWALD, ETC.
Apocalyptic®" of the English divine Elliot, which were pub
lished in 1851 in London, fourth edition, four large volumes ;3
and, secondly, the work of the Genevan divine, Gaussen, which
we have quoted frequently, " Daniel le Prophete," of which
hitherto three volumes have been published (2d edition, 1850).
Gaussen gives a full exposition of the parallel passages in Daniel.
The English and French theologians have latterly devoted much
attention to the theological, and especially the Apocalyptic
literature of Germany : we enter, therefore, willingly into an
examination of theirs.
The second view is peculiar to those circles of modern Ger
man theology who deny the genuineness of Daniel. They start
with a conception of prophecy, which excludes a real beholding
of the future, revealed by God. Hence, they limit the view of
John, as well as that of Daniel, to his contemporary history ;
what Antiochus Epiphanes is, according to their interpretation,
in the book of Daniel, Nero is in the New Testament Apoca
lypse. This exegetical view is generally accompanied by the
critical view, that the gospel of John and the Apocalypse cannot
be of the same author. Some, Ewald, De Wette, Lucke, and
others, attribute the gospel, others again, Baur and his school,
the Apocalypse, to the apostle.
A second species of this view (that of contemporary history)
has been recently attempted, after the precedent of Herder and
others, by Zullig. He excludes all reference to Rome and
heathenism, and tries to refer everything to Jerusalem and
Judaism. This view has found so few adherents, that we need
not devote to it a minute consideration.
The chief representatives of this second class of interpreters
are Ewald, who first developed it in his Commentarius Apocal.
Criticus et Exegeticus, 1828 ; De Wette, in his short exposition
of the Revelations, 1848 ; and Lucke, in his " Versuch einer
1 Horse Apocalyptic^, or a Commentary on the Apocalypse, Critical and
Historical, including also an Examination of the Chief Prophecies of Daniel.

J. T. BECK. 361
vollstandigen Einleitung in die Offenbarung Johannis. 2d
edit. 1852." Baur's school has not produced a monograph
on the Apocalypse, but only detached essays and occasional
remarks. The third view is the one to which we adhere. The funda
mental principles of this interpretation is the same as that of the
first class (the church-historical view), and opposed to the
second. It stai'ts from a belief in real predictions. It does not
even deny the possibility of prophecies so minute and special, as
the interpreters belonging to the first class find in the Apoca
lypse ; for that the second part of Daniel contains such circum
stantial predictions, and hence, that such predictions are pos
sible, the fulfilment has proved. But we deny, that the New
Testament Apocalypse, as it lies before us, de facto, is or was
intended to be a detailed history of the future. If this had been
intended, the Revelations would have been given in the same
manner as the eleventh chapter of Daniel, where there is
indeed a minute histor}' of the future. But we know that the
seventh chapter of Daniel, and its symbolism of beasts and
man, forms the substratum of the Apocalypse, and even the
numbers occurring in the New Testament Revelations chiefly
refer to the fundamental number of three and a half, given
in Daniel vii. 25. The book does not intend to be a detailed
description of church-history, but its object is to represent
the great epochs and leading principal powers in the develop
ment of the kingdom of God viewed in its relation to the world-
kingdoms. As J. T. Beck says : " The Apocalypse describes
essential peculiar principles, and we must endeavour to appre
hend these independently of the question, ' To what external
historical phenomenon (Church, State, event, individual) does
this apply ? ' " We have pointed out above, why the Old Tes
tament congregation stood in need of more special prophecies
than the New Testament Church.
This view of the Apocalypse (according to which the book
refers to the history of the kingdom of God) is the original view

362 I. THE CHURCH-HISTORICAL VIEW.
held in the Church. It was first reintroduced in a scientific
shape by Hofmann, who referred the interpretation of the Apo
calypse to the fundamental passage in Daniel, and thus opened
a new path for the exposition of the beast. We refer to the
second part of his " Weisagung u. Erfullung," 1844, p. 300. It
was Hofmann also, who asserted again the importance of the
doctrine of the millennial kingdom, for which Bengel had lifted
so powerful a testimony. The two most recent commentaries on
the Revelations, that of Hengstenberg (2 vols., 1849-1851), and
Ebrard (1853), pursue the principle laid down by Hofmann.
The former falls partly into pre-Bengelian views, the latter
adopts French and English ideas.

I. THE CHURCH-HISTORICAL VIEW.
Luther has strikingly expressed the characteristic peculiarity
of the church-historical view in the following words : —
" Since the book is to be a revelation of future events, and
specially of great tribulations and distress of Christendom, we
think that the simplest and surest way of finding the interpre
tation would be to put together, from the annals of history, the
past history and troubles of Christendom, and to put them be
side the symbols of the Revelations, and compare them with the
words. Then, wherever it would nicely fit and coincide, there
we might depend on obtaining a sure and inconvertible inter
pretation." This principle of interpretation appears at first sight very cor
rect and natural, and yet it is erroneous. It goes against' a
fundamental principle, on which the Protestant Church justly
lays great stress, viz., that Scripture interprets itself. This
general principle is applicable also to our book. Though, as
a prophetic book, it points to the future, yet it directs us first
to its past, in order to obtain the key to its interpretation.
Herein lies the great importance and significance of its

EXEGESIS AND FULFILMENT. 363
thoroughly Old Testament language and mode of representation.
By this circumstance itself the reader is directed to the ancient
Scriptures, and called upon to seek, in the more ancient prophets
of God, the interpretation of the obscure and enigmatic images
of the Apocalypse. If we do this, everything gains in a simple
manner light, order, system, connection ; you are altogether re
lieved from arbitrary guessing, because everywhere you perceive
that a plan and a law are followed out. Thus whole series' of
interpretations can be put aside, by looking to the principle and
idea of the book. For example, it is clear from Daniel, that
the beast cannqt possibly represent a spiritual power, as it is
evident on the other hand, that the Babylonian harlot cannot
mean simply a city, but symbolizes a spiritual power. If we
neglect to look out for the biblical definition of fundamental
ideas and fundamental symbols, it throws the gates open to arbi
trariness of every kind. And hence, there are innumerable
systems of church-historical interpretations ; and as ecclesiastical
and worldly events progress, many more may be and will be ad
vanced. The fundamental error committed by this school is,
that interpretation and fulfilment are confused, and that the
former is made to depend on the latter. But this renders
the word of God dependent upon human history, while it is
perfect in itself, and while its object is to be itself a lamp in the
darkness of the world-times to them who seek enlightenment
from on high, that they may behold the light which Scripture
bears. The Revelation is to teach us to understand the times,
not the times to interpret to us the Apocalypse — although it is
in the nature of the case, that there is a reflex influence exerted
here, and understood by those that are prudent. In this manner
the book is much more earnest and profitable for doctrine, for
reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, than it
would be, if it contained predictions of individual events.
This mode of interpreting the Apocalypse had become the pre
valent one before the reformation ; and this in proportion as the
Church departed from the original exposition which the primitive

364 VIEWS BEFORE THE REFORMATION.
church had given to the book, and as commentators lost the
original apostolic Chiliasm. In the course of the church-histori
cal era, the temptation became always greater to look on the
Apocalypse as a prophecy of church -history, and to use especially
the apocalyptic numbers for chronological calculation ; and when
a thousand years of the Christian era had nearly elapsed, then it
was imagined that the millennium was being fulfilled in the
church-historical period. Christendom and the Church was then
so great a power in the Avorld, and a clear spiritual insight
into biblical prophecy had become so rare, that we need not be
astonished to find' that even Augustine imagined the millennium
had commenced in his day. The thousand years were reckoned
by some, as beginning with the birth of Christ, and, for this
reason, all Christendom expected the coming of the last day in
the eleventh century ; whereas, others commenced its calculation
with the time of Constantine, afterwards,, also, of Charlemagne,
as is done in modern times by Hengstenberg. They confused
times and periods in the most extraordinary way, as Luther's own
view shows (comp. Bengel, erklarte Offenb. Joh. (Stuttgart 1834),
p. 669). Luther thought the thousand years began with the
birth of Christ and reached down to Gregory VII ; the seven-
headed beast he referred to the papacy founded by Hildebrand,
and interpreted the number 666 to indicate its duration. This
view gained a twofold importance in the Protestant church.
For, in the first place, it was thought orthodox not to expect a
millennial kingdom in the future, but to believe that it belonged
to the past, chiefly on account of the celebrated seventeenth
article of the Augsburg Confession, where, as Bengel says, p. 672,
a right and good protest is lifted up against the Anabaptist, pre
mature, raving, Chiliasm. In the second place (to use Liicke's
words, loc. cit., p. 1015), " it belonged to the churchly character
of Protestant exegesis to view the Apocalypse as a prophetic
compendium of church-history, and the reference of antichristian -
ity, prophesied by John, to papal Rome, was looked upon as an
axiom."

BENGEL. 365

I. BENGEL.
Bengel followed, in the last respect, the general Protestant
interpretation ; but, as regards the first point, he became a suc
cessful champion for the primitive Christian Chiliasm. It is only
in this respect that his interpretation is original and important ;
as far as history and chronology are concerned, he is only a con
sistent representative of the view current before and in his time.
A great number of church-historical interpretations, and apoca
lyptic chronologies, which were always connected in some way,
existed before his time. There was a tendency in his age, as
appears, for example, from the writings of the English commen
tator, Whiston, who died likewise in 1752, to draw up chrono
logical calculations. Whiston calculated that the second coming
of Christ would take place in the year 1715 ; afterwards, he fixed
upon the year 1766 (Lucke, p. 1036). We may trace a connec
tion between this chronological tendency and the general taste for
history which awoke at that time, and which is mirrored forth in
the attention devoted to the Apocalypse. Bengel himself was
struck by this characteristic of his time, and says, on one occa
sion, " Old people like Personalia ; thus the world is growing
old, and likes to hear of its history ; for this reason history is so
much studied" (Burk, Bengel's Leben und Werken, p. 297). The
only new feature in Bengel's Commentary was his definite chro
nological system, as he himself says, " I have nothing new except
the definite durations of prophetic times," p. 676.
, But he attaches uncommonly strong weight to this chronologi
cal sytem, and it is intimately connected with his whole mode of
conception, and became to him the real clue to his understanding
of the Apocalypse. We must, for this reason, enter into a more
minute examination of it. We find it developed in his Ordo
Temporum, 1741, in his introduction to his Commentary on the
Apocalypse ; and Burk (loc. cit.) gives good extracts from both
works, and also from his later polemical writings.

366- THE TEAR 1836.
Bengel supposes the entire duration of the world from the
creation to the final judgment, according to a frequently-recur
ring analogy of Scripture, to consist of the number seven, viz.,
7777 years (or, more accurately, 7777f years). The millennium
begins, consequently, with the year 1836, at which date he
arrives first by calculating backwards from the end. For he
puts the commencement of our Dionysian era in the year 3943
after the creation of the world, supposing the birth of Christ to
have taken place three years before this date. Now, if this
number, or rather, as we have not 3943 years fully, the number
3942 is subtracted from 7777, or, more accurately, 7778, we
have, as the sum total of the New Testament time, 3836 years.
Subtract the two last millennia, and you get, as the date of the
commencement of the millennial kingdom, 1836. Bengel sup
poses that the thousand years during which Satan is bound,
Rev. xx. 1-3, precede the thousand years during which the
saints reign, ver. 4-6, so that, according to him, the millennial
kingdom embraces two thousand years, and the short time that
Satan is loosed again (ver. 3, 7-10) falls into the beginning of
the second millennium. His chief argument for this assertion is,
that in some important manuscripts the article is wanting before
XiXia ern, from which he draws the inference, that the millennium
mentioned in the second and third verses, is not here referred to.
Let us pause here, and examine this portion of his' system.
We miss the necessary biblical foundation for these fundamental
positions of Bengel. He himself says, " Should the year 1836
pass without bringing remarkable changes, then there must be
some great error in my system," Burk, p. 300. The result has
proved the existence of the error ; but we must trace its exist
ence in the principle of his interpretation. We can understand
why the disciples of Bengel thought his system inspired, for there
is so little sure foundation for it in the Apocalypse, and in Scrip
ture, in general, that believing the system to be correct, it is
almost necessary to attribute it to a new revelation. To begin
at the beginning, the supposition upon which the whole is based,

THE YEAR 1836. 367
that the world is to stand 7777 years, is only a beautiful and
thoughtful imagination. The extension of the millennial king
dom to a period of two thousand years, is obviously opposed to
the simple and natural meaning of the text. The absence of the
article' in ver. 4 is not quite certain, and we cannot rely on it ;
but, besides, it is also wanting in ver. 6. And it is very forced
and impossible to refer the thousand years of ver. 7 (excluding
the thousand years mentioned in ver. 4-6) to those of ver. 3.
The whole context shows, on the contrary, and especially the
clear reference in ver. 1 to ver. 3, since the ^iXta ern occur
likewise, ver. 4-6, that all the six times the same thousand
years are spoken of. One can hardly help thinking that Bengel
was chiefly induced to adopt this supposition of two thousand
years in order to preserve the harmony of his system ; for if the
beginning of the millennium falls into the year 2836, it would
disturb all his other views.
But he arrives at the date 1836 by a second calculation. He
starts from the number of the beast 666, which he interprets to
mean common years, and to denote the duration of the power of
the beast, i.e. the Hildebrandian papacy. He rejoices that he
can agree here with Luther. The duration of the power of the
beast is, according to xiii. 5, forty-two months, and Bengel makes
use of the identity of the two chronological intimations for the
calculation of a prophetic month, which is, consequently, equal
to 15-f- (common) years. Hence a prophetic day is about half a
year, and it is easy to calculate from this the duration of pro
phetic hours and years. A second series of chronological inti
mations, viz., the three intimations, <aip6s, XP°V0*> a'lav,. time,
period, and eternity (which he likewise views chronologically),
is obtained by Bengel from a comparison of the number 666 with
the number 1000, occurring in Rev. xx. These two numbers
are related to each other (roughly) as 2 to 3 ; it is easy to obtain
the more accurate equation :
3:2 = 999*f* : 666fff
according to this, a millennium may be divided instead of ten

36S TIME, PERIOD, AEON.
into nine centuries, each of which is equal to 111-g- common
years. This, Bengel says, is half a time ; the whole Kaipos
is therefore 222f years, a period (xpovos) 111 1-^ years, an
aimv aevum 2222* years. Annexed to Kaipos is a short time
oAi'-yos Kaipos, xii. 12, which- is to last 888f years; annexed to
the period is the no-period, non-chronus, ver. 6, which is to be
less than 1111-J-, viz , 1036 years.
It is clear, that these chronological dates are likewise only
suppositions, and do not rest on sufficient arguments derived from
the text. We shall only mention a few cardinal points. The
whole proceeds from the supposition, that the number of the
beast, 666, is a chronological number, and signifies common
years ; but this supposition-is not justified and proved by exe
gesis, nor can this be done. This of itself overthrows the two
series' of chronological intimations, the one of which is obtained
by a combination with the forty-two months, and the other
by a combination with the thousand years. The latter series,
moreover, contains three arbitrary assumptions. Bengel adds
two-thirds to 666 ; secondly, he takes the general ideas, time,
period, and aeon, in a chronological sense ; and, thirdly, he
fixes that chronology in an arbitrary manner. In Rev. vi. 11,
it is said unto the martyrs, who cry for vengeance, that they
should rest yet for a little season (xpovov) — but why is this to
mean, that they are here referred to a period of 1111-J years,
that, is, from 98-1209 a.d. ; in which period their number was
increased by the persecutions of the Waldenses ? In Rev. x. 6,
the angel swears that there should be no time, that is, no further
delay of the completion of the mysteries of God ; but in what
relation does this stand to a non-chronus of 1036 years (800-
1836, a.d.)? And when (Rev. xii. 12) it. is said of the devil,
"he knoweth that he hath but a short time, ' AXiyov Kaipbv,'"
who would think here of a time of 888-f years (947-1836 B.C.);
especially as the short time would be four times as long as the
time itself (Kaipos) ? And, lastly, who would interpret the ex
pression (xiv. 6) the everlasting gospel (alavav), to mean an aeon

bengel's CALCULATIONS. 369
of 2222f years, which are to last from Arndt,1 whom Bengel
supposes to be meant by the angel flying in the midst of heaven
to the last day (1614-3836) ?
With such an exegesis, it is no wonder that one can arrive at
the year 1836 or 3836 by a great variety of ways.
It is very remarkable, that the fundamental number of Reve
lations is explained by Bengel in so many different ways. The
intimations, three times and a half time, forty- two months ; twelve
hundred and sixty days, which occur five times in chapters xi.-
xiii., are evidently and unmistakeably indentical. Bengel explains
the forty-two months in chap. xi. 2, and the 1260 days (ver. 3)
to be chronological dates in the ordinary sense of the word, and
refers them to the last Antichristian period, the years between
1830 and 1836. Whereas, the intimations given concerning the
woman and the beast (xii. 6-14 ; xiii. 5), are interpreted by
him according to his prophetic chronology. The forty-two
months of the beast signify, consequently, six hundred and six
years, during which it is said the papacy of Hildebrand lasted,
viz. from 1073-1740, or rather from Ccelestius IL, the first pope
who was appointed without the consent of the people, 1163-
1809. ' And, moreover, the 1260 days of the flight of the woman
into the wilderness are not quite identical with this, but last
677 years, from the completion of the preparations for the intro
duction of Christianity into Bohemia, to the persecution of be
lievers in that country, 940-1617. From this flight of the
woman he distinguishes again the flight with eagle wings (Rev.
xii. 14) ; and its duration,,the three times and a half, are calcu- '
lated according to a different principle, viz. by a comparison of
666 with 1000. Accordingly, the three times and a half are
equal to 777-J years, during which the church nourishes herself
in the northern countries of Europe, 1050-1836. We are
struck, at a first glance, by the strange circumstance, that the
Reformation is, in this calculation, obscured by less important
events. 1 Joh. Arndt, author of "das wahre Christenthum." — Tr. 2 A

370 bengel's view of the woman.
We have touched on some important points of Bengel's his
torical views in our remarks on his chronological suppositions ;
we can, therefore, be more brief in our criticism of the former.
Bengel had not yet attained to a correct insight into the struc
ture of the Apocalypse, for, instead of seeing in that book a series
of parallel groups, he regards it as a historical picture, in which
events are represented in their chronological succession. He sup
poses the sequence to be interrupted by the eleventh chapter,
which he takes out of its place and puts it at the end of the
book. In the twelfth chapter, according to this view, the his
tory has progressed to the ninth century. This portion of his
exposition bears more directly on our task.
The woman, according to Bengel, is the congregation of God
and of Christ. Her being with child is an indication, that under
Charlemagne, it began to be probable that all nations should
become her heritage. The male son is a symbol of Christ,
viewed in his royal capacity, ruling over the nations ; but this
rule is as yet invisible, and hence it is said He is caught up to
God's throne. The flight into the wilderness refers to the
.passing of Christianity from Asia into Europe, especially the
northern part of it, there Ansgarius, Cyrillus, Methodius, pre
pared its spread during the ninth and tenth centuries, so that, in
940, Boleslaus of Bohemia, in consequence of the order of Otto
the Great, caused his princes to be educated in the Christian
religion. Soon after this, 947, the devil is cast out of heaven,
where, up to that time, he had accused the Christians, because
they had enjoyed rest after the persecutions of the heathen em
perors and Arian kings, but especially after the second Saracenic
plague, which ended 847. Satan begins now (ver. 13) his per
secutions in Prussia, Hungary, etc. The floods of water, which
he casts out of his mouth after the woman, is the Turkish power,
which is, however, curbed in Asia ("the earth") by the
crusades. The beast represents the papacy on the summit of its worldly
power, which it attained under Gregory VII. Its seven heads

HIS VIEW OF THE BEAST. 371
are a long successive series of popes. The deadly wound is the
struggle between empire and papacy ; the healing of the wound
refers to the revival of the papacy, which manifests itself in
councils, crusades, etc. The false prophet, or the second beast,
came at the end of the 666 years. It may be either Jesuitism
or Freemasonry, as in the last days the Papacy and Socinianism
are to go hand in hand. The seventh head of the first beast is
Antichrist, who, as such, is at the same time, the eighth head ;
Antichrist is an individual, or person, and by him the papacy
adds to its former blasphemous and Antichristian power new
malice drawn from the abyss, the bottomless pit, and thus attains
again importance after its temporary decay. The harlot is meant
to represent the city of Rome, which, headed by its patricians,
endeavours to curb the power of the papacy, but it is for this
reason destroyed by Antichrist and the ten worldly kings who
are subject to him (the ten horns). After these events Anti
christ and his false prophet are judged (the false prophet like
wise shall be in the last day an individual person) and then com
mences the millennial kingdom.
The chief points from which we may form an estimate of
this interpretation, are easily selected. The exposition of the
twelfth chapter is the most startling part of the whole. How is
it possible to refer the birth of Christ and the casting out of the
devil, to such unimportant events ? With regard to the beast,
we saw previously, that according to the symbolic language of
the prophetic, and more especially of the apocalyptic books, it
cannot be referred to any thing else except the political worldly
power. But supposing it represents the papacy, would it not
be strange, that the existence of the papacy before the time of
Gregory VII., when many ungodly and Antichristian elements
had already penetrated the Church, should be altogether passed *
over in silence? But besides this, this interpretation falls with
the chronology connected with it. Bengel is, moreover, inca
pable of giving a satisfactory exposition of the seven heads, and
the statements connected therewith. If the Babylonian harlot

372 REMARKS ON BENGEL.
means the city of Rome, it is difficult to understand why such
extraordinary importance is attached to her destruction in the
eighteenth and nineteenth chapters of Revelation, not to men
tion other difficulties. Boos has slightly improved, in this
respect, the system of Bengel, by referring the harlot to the
Roman Church.1
From all these remarks, it is clear, that Bengel's interpreta
tion, with its chronological historical details, is untenable.
Notwithstanding this, we may learn, from the history of this
holy and devout student of Scripture, that even individual errors
and mistakes are not allowed to do essential harm, when pro
ceeding from a man, whose fundamental views are sound, and
in accordance with God's word ; whereas when this founda
tion is wanting, even many a truth, understood and advanced, is
of no avail, but rather serves to render error more powerful and
seductive. Even Bengel's mistakes were overruled by God to
serve them who loved Him. The " Chronology" contributed,
in an extraordinary manner, to turn the attention of believers to
the long-neglected word of prophecy, and directed them to view
contemporary events in the light of the prophetic word. And
besides, how many truths were clearly distinguished by this
great man. It is well known, that he cast many prophetic
glances into the future ; and Burk has collected (p. 295) a
wonderful series of his " apocalyptic presentiments and infe
rences." The period in which he expected great decisive phe
nomena, is indeed important, on account of its many spiritual
and external developments ; and it is a sacred duty of the
Church of Christ, living in this period, to take heed to " the
signs of the times."
The chief importance, however, of Bengel's system, consists
' We rejoice that our fundamental view of the two beasts and the harlot are
in essential agreement with that of an aged servant of Christ in our days.
Zeller in Beuggen. Comp. Monatsblatt, 1839, N. 12, " The Mystery of Baby
lon," and 1845, N. 5, " Antichristianity in the Last Times." The Monatsblatt
contains many excellent eschatological treatises.

DELITZSCH ON BENGEL. 373
in this, that he brought to light again a truth of Scripture,
which had been misapprehended for nearly fifteen centuries,
viz., the doctrine of the millennial kingdom. Bengel himself,
in his " History of Interpretations," which he has added to
his Commentary of the Revelations, represents as the chief
excellence of his apocalyptic system, that, availing himself of
the labours of Vitringa, he had " restored again the old, true
order, Antichrist, millennium, end of the world " (p. 661-675).
On another occasion he expresses his opinion, that the time
will come, when a pure Chiliasm will be thought an integral
part of orthodoxy ; and Otinger considers it the chief task,
which was allotted to Bengel, " to make Chiliasm ortho
dox," as he expresses it ; for it is only by this doctrine, he
says, that religion attains its perfection, fulness, and beauty.
In this way Bengel laid the foundation for a dogmatic develop
ment of eschatology, which was such a great desideratum ; but
he has done more than this ; he has opened up a new way for
the historical view of the plan of the divine kingdom, as a whole,
and hence for the interpretation of all prophetical books. This
is the great spiritual blessing, which has accrued from his
grandly conceived world- chronology ; the shell may be faulty,
but the kernel is sound and good. The world-chronology of
Bengel is the mother of a fundamental idea of modern theology,
the idea of an organic historical development of the kingdom of
God. To work out this idea, especially in regard to the Old
Testament, will require our diligence and energy for, a long
time yet. " If we see more clearly into the connection of the
Old Testament," Delitzsch remarks, in his " Biblisch-Pro-
phetische Theologie," p. 6, " it is in consequence of the light
which Bengel's views on the Apocalypse have shed upon the
Old Testament. To whom else do we owe it, that the orthodox
Church of the present time does not brand the Chiliastic view of
the last times as a heterodoxy, as is done in almost all old
manuals of dogmatics ; but, on the contrary, has allowed it to
enter into her innermost life, so that there is scarcely a believing

374 BENGEL'AND SPENER
Christian now, who does not take this view 1 To whom else do
we . owe it, that the Church of "Jar days believes in a glorious
future of the people of Israel, and recognises, consequently, in
the Old Testament history of that nation, a prognostic of its
final history — in the Old Testament prophecy, a foreseeing not
only of the glory of the Gentile Church, but of Israel in the
literal sense ? To whom else do we owe it, that the Church
recognises the truth, that spiritual salvation shall finally em
body itself in outward visible reality, and that the Church is
able to appreciate aright the reality of the visible character of.
Old Testament history, and to view the spiritual and the visible
in its organic relation and mutual limitation ? To none else but
to Bengel. It was he who had to pour away the sediment of a
theology, which, under the semblance of orthodoxy, opposed
Chiliasm, even as to brand it a heresy, who 'had to overcome
the last supporters of such a theology ; and it was he who led
the Briidergemeinde (Moravian Brethren), who imagined that
they themselves realised the glorious future of the Church, the
so-called Philadelphian period, to more correct and Scriptural
views. He it was who burst through the fetters of an exegetical
tradition, which up to his time was thought to be almost infal
lible, who vindicated the rights of exegesis in relation to dog
matics, as the rights of a mother, and who 'pointed the Church
to the Castalian fount, where she can renew her youth. The
Church bas not yet exhausted the writings of this theologian."
This last remark applies especially to one point. Bengel, in
his Chiliasm, is a follower of Spener, whose hints he carried out
in a satisfactory way ; in general, we may view the school of
Bengel as the theological point and complement of the spiritual
movement, in which Spener had been instrumental. Bengel
himself looks upon his predecessor as the second of the three
angels mentioned (Rev. xiv. 6, etc.), and speaks of him in his
history of interpretations in the following words : — " A wide
door was opened by the beloved Spener, who brought again to
light what he and others called " The Hope of Better Times,"

THE PAPACY AND CHILIASM. 375
who avoided all details in the most prudent manner, as was fit
in such a new beginning, but who defended the chief, important
point, with great earnestness, stedfastness, and assurance, even
to his death. From this time the truth on this subject forces its
way with ever-increasing strength, and, notwithstanding many
aberrations." In the case of Spener, the Chiliastic hope was
intimately connected with his entire view of Church and Chris
tianity, and this connection not merely theoretical, but also
practical, of the locus de ecclesia and the locus de novissimis, is
extremely important and instructive. We can see, in his
example, that the understanding of prophecy gives a truly
spiritual insight into the eternal essence of the Church, and into
the temporal, unessential, and corrupt elements of the Church.
In this respect Spener only developed consistently the principle
of the Reformation.
Chiliasm disappeared in the Church in proportion as Roman
Papal Catholicism advanced. For, as we remarked above, the
papacy, with its fundamental tendency to seek power and
external glory, is, in its inmost essence, a false anticipation of
the millennial kingdom. Bengel says, p. 664, " When Chris
tianity became a worldly power by Constantine, the hope of the
future was weakened by the joy over the present success."1
Romanism is nothing else but an ecclesiastical system of this
tendency ; the papacy took to itself, as a robbery, that glory,
which is an object of hope, and can only be reached by obe
dience and humility of the cross. When the Church became a
harlot, she ceased to be a bride who goes to meet her bride
groom ; and thus Chiliasm necessarily disappeared. This is the
deep truth, which lies at the bottom of the Protestant, anti-
papistic interpretation of the Apocalypse;
The Reformation protested successfully against the harlot, by
opposing to it the original Christian principle of faith, which i3
1 Compare Baumgarten, Nachtgesichte Sacharjas, i. 100, etc. We cannot
agree with Baumgarten in his theory of the separation of Church and State,
in his over-estimate of Schleiermacher, and other subjects.

376 THE REFORMATION.
opposed not only to the works of the law, but to living by sight,
and to a false extern alizati on of the Church. The Reformers
expressed this by their Scriptural and important distinction, so
rich in practical consequences, of visible and invisible Church.
What is visible is temporal, what is invisible is eternal, is des
tined to an eternal and exceedingly abundant glory. We can
not, however, take this glory to ourselves ; but the Lord will
give it to us at His coming. At present our life is invisible, it
is hid with Christ in God ; but when Christ, who is our life,
shall appear, then shall we also appear with Him in glory
(2 Cor. iv. 17, 18 ; Col. iii. 3, 4). This is the necessary connec
tion between faith and hope (comp. Heb. xi. 1 ; Rom. iv. 18).
The fundamental principle of apostolic Christianity, viz., faith,
is inseparable from apostolic Chiliasm. This connection of faith
and the future glory is repeatedly pointed out in the Epistle to
the Romans, the grand charter of the Reformation (Rom. v. 2,
17, viii. 17-25, 30, chap, xi.) ; and we find this connection
throughout the whole New Testament ; and in the two first
centuries, the Church had a living understanding of it.
The Reformers did not carry out their principle far enough
to attain a biblical Chiliasm. Their work lay in a different di
rection. We know what retarded such a development of the
fundamental principle, and how much of the old abuses in
sinuated themselves into the Church. Scholasticism, priestly
tyranny, Cesareopapism, which' Bengel called the Apap, besides
the Papa, brought Antichiliasm. The orthodox State-church
thought itself infallible, even as the papal Church-state did ; and,
again, the harlot did not desire or want a millennial kingdom.
The conscience of the Reformation protested against this new
corruption of the Church, in the person of Spener. He carried
out the principle of the Reformation in a twofold manner. In
the first place, he showed the practical bearings of the distinc
tion between visible and invisible church. This faithful witness
of Christ knew how to combine filial reverence for the existing
Church, as the bearer of the pure word and sacraments, with

THE REFORMATION. 377
a holy zeal for the house of God, which impelled him to lay
open the abuses and sins of which she was guilty. He avoided,
with great wisdom and prudence, the false expedient of seces
sion j1 and yet he was able to satisfy the deeper wants of
believing people, by cherishing the Church within the communion of
saints, as a communion of the word, and he founded in this free
and brotherly manner, little churches within the Church. He
was humble and wise enough to see, that it is impossible to
have a perfectly pure Church during the present dispensation,
during the present world-power; but he had, on the other side,
strong faith, and did not relinquish the hope of the times of a
perfect Church. And herein consists the connection of his
active labours with his second development of the principle of
the Reformation, viz. : "the hope of better times,'" which times
we cannot bring about by our activity, but which the Lord will
send, after the destruction of the Antichristian power and the
conversion of Israel. In this manner, the Protestant principle
began to appropriate to itself Chiliasm, and to become more like
Primitive Christianity ; and these beginnings of Spener were
farther developed by Bengel. He followed also Spener in the
first of the two points, just now mentioned, and belongs to the
fathers of Wurtemberg Pietism.
From these remarks, it will appear, that notwithstanding all
their defects, the apocalyptic and chronological systems of Bengel
were of very great importance for the development of the Pro
testant,, and consequently in .general of the Christian Church.
Let us form our estimates, not according to the opinion of the
market-place of church history, but according to real value,
manifest from the fruits of eternal life, produced in them who
are true members of the Church.
1 Comp. his treatise, "Rechter Gebrauch und Misshrauch von Klagen,
iiber den Verfall der Kirche," recently edited again by Superintendent
Thym, under the title : " Is the Evangelical (Protestant) Church Babylon, and
is it a necessary duty to secede from her?" — Greifswalde, 1853. Comp. the
excellent pamphlet of Fabri, on Church Discipline.— Stuttgardt, 1854.

378 PROTESTANTISM.
In concluding our remarks on Bengel, we may fitly deduce,
from the foregoing, some general ideas on the world historical
mission character of Protestantism. Bengel himself uttered the
memorable saying : " The present Protestant Church is only an
intermistic church, between the Church, hidden during • the
papacy, and the glorious Church of the millennial kingdom." —
Burk, p. 296. This remark harmonises with the comparison,
which we instituted in a previous part, between the Protestant
times in the New, and the post-exilian period in the Old Cove
nant. It is not the task of Protestantism to oppose to the
papal church another of corresponding external perfection ; the
outward form is only of secondary importance, and, compara
tively speaking, a matter of indifference; the object of Protes
tantism is, under whatever form it be, to preach the gospel, to
gain souls — and as for the rest, to wait for the coming of the
Lord. Only such a view gives true light" for our times, and
affords us divine comfort, to support us in the victories which
the harlot and the beast are achieving, and which we cannot
hinder, while it will give us true soberness of spirit to resist
every false kind of Protestant churchianity and church con
structing, and give us, at the same time, strength and vigour to
concentrate ourselves on what is essential, instead of wasting our
energies on non-essentials. It seems as if the Reformation had
not had the destiny of being the morning dawn of a new world-
historical day, but that its importance can be understood only in
connection with eschatology. Soon after the sun of the gospel
had risen, dark thick clouds gathered, and veiled it, more or less,
for a long dreary millennium ; in the evening, however, the
light was once more to break victoriously through the veil of
clouds. For the Lord cannot come to judge Christendom till
He has given again an opportunity of hearing His gospel pro
claimed faithfully and purely. It was, in like manner, that the
prophets came before the Babylonian destruction of Jerusalem,
and that our Lord and the apostles preached to Israel before the
Roman destruction of the holy city. The three Protestant

ELLIOTT. 379
centuries have brought us nearer the end ; the wound of the
beast is being healed — the times are becoming daily more
similar to the primitive apostolic period. Apocalyptic prophecy
is approaching its fulfilment. For this reason, the Lord adds to
the light of faith also the light of hope. He leads us ever
deeper into the understanding of the Apocalypse, and will give
us apostolic knowledge for apostolic times and struggles. It is
the indisputable merit of Bengel, that he prepared the way for
such a knowledge.

II. THE ENGLISH AND FRENCH COMMENTATORS ELLIOTT AND
GAUSSEN.
Elliott, whose work mentioned above, is, as we are informed,
one of the most important (if not the most important) British
productions on the Apocalypse of modern times, gives (iii. p.
5 ; iv. p. 18, etc.) an exposition of chap, xii., etc., which is
essentially as follows.
The woman is the true Church, primarily, during the time
when Christianity was about to be made the state religion of
the Roman empire. Sun and moon are the rulers of the state ;
the stars, according to Rev. i. 20, the spiritual rulers and
teachers. The woman's being with child for 280 days, is the
period of 280 years from the time of Christ's ascension to the
year 3J.3. The dragon is old Roman paganism, which concen
trates its power for the last time in Maximinius, who persecuted
and put down the third part of the stars ; the Christian teachers
in the third part of the Roman empire, viz. — the Asiatic, which
was subject to him. The male son is the first Christian empe
ror and his successors, who rule the heathen with an iron rod.
By his being caught up to God, is symbolised the complete
victory of Christianity over paganism. At the same time, it
may be applied to the elevation of Christ to the throne of God,
that is, the victory of the doctrine of Christ's divinity, as main-

380 Elliott's views.
tained in the Nicean Council, against the heresies of Arius. By
the wilderness, into which the woman flies, is meant the wilder
ness in which the true Church, the little flock, is living at
present. The casting out of the dragon represents the complete
downfal of paganism, which had made a new effort in the
person of Julian the apostate. The flying into the wilderness,
with eagles wings, is the conclusion of the first flight. The 1260
days are identical with the three and a half times and forty-two
months, they denote years, and extend from about the sixth to
the nineteenth century — the time of papal power. The flood
of waters is the migration of nations, against which the Chris
tian state offers protection to the Church.
The beast, arising out of the sea, is identical with the beast
out of the bottomless pit ; in like manner, the last (eighth) horn
of the beast,. identical with the little horn of the fourth beast in
Daniel, and also with the man of sin (2 Thess. ii.) and Anti
christ (1 John ii.). The beast signifies the Roman empire, and
the seven heads its forms of government, kings, consuls, dic
tators, decemviri, tribunes of war, emperors. The seventh head
is the new form of government, which has more of an oriental
character, and which the empire assumed under Diocletian.
This seventh head received the wound to death, by which we
are to understand the formal abolition of heathenism by Theo-
dosius. It is healed, by the rise of the papal power, which is
the eighth, Antichrist. The number of the beast, 666, signifies,
according to the calculation of the numerical value of letters,
Xarelvos (the Latin). The ten horns are tribes in the period of
migration : Anglo-Saxons, Franks, Alemanni, Burgundians,
Visigoths, Suevi, Vandals, Heruli, Avari, Ostrogoths. The
forty-two months of the beast are consequently 1260 years, and
begin with the spread of the Justinian code on the one side, and
the edict of Phocas (606 a.d.) on the other, which acknowledged
the pre-eminence of the Roman church. The false prophet is
the papal clergy, who rendered and caused the people to
render divine honour to the vicar of Christ.

GAUSSEN. 381
The harlot Babylon is Rome, ancient and modern. The fall
of Rome refers not merely to the city; but includes, at least, the
papal state, and a third of Christendom. The catastrophe is
brought about by a sudden awful earthquake and volcanic erup
tion, for which the soil of Italy is preparing (Rev. xvi. 18, etc.).
The devastation and burning of Babylon by the ten kings (xvii.
16, etc.), is not identical with this fall. Elliott referred it formerly
to the fall of the papal power in the French Revolution ; at pre
sent he is inclined to understand by it the former ruin of pagan
Rome by the nations of the migration (iii. p. 366 ; iv. p. 28).
Shortly before the downfal of Babylon, which is still in the
future, great religious light will be given, xviii. 4 ; so that who
ever, both in the Church and in the world, is willing to see, will
receive warning either during or after the catastrophe, the Jews
and a great multitude of Gentiles will be converted. In two
decennia the six millennia of the world are fulfilled, and the mil
lennial kingdom commences.
Gaussen follows, in his interpretation, chiefly the labours of
British theologians. He enumerates " the most successful com
mentators" as follows : — Irenaeus, Hippolytus, and Jerome ;
afterwards the Waldenses and Wicliffites ; afterwards Mede,
Vitringa, Newton, Cressener ; and, in modern times, Faber,
Cunninghame, Irving, Bickersteth, Birks, and the excellent
Elliott." He agrees in many points with the last, but he has
also original and important ideas. The following is the sum
and substance of his remarks on the Apocalypse, in the third
volume of his work.
The woman is the Church of the elect. She is clothed
with the sun, for the glory of God and Christ gives her light.
The apostles of the Lamb are her diadem ; under her feet
is the moon, that is the Old Testament light. Her state
upon earth is almost continually one of pangs and pains of
travail. During the time, which is spoken of here, she was to
bring forth a male son, that is, a people possessing political unity
and power, and triumphant over its enemies. The 280 years

382 GAUSSEN.
of her being with child, begin with the death of Christ, in the
year 33 a.d.) ; the pangs of birth on Sunday the 19th April 303,
when, throughout the Roman empire, the enemies began to de
stroy churches, to burn Bibles, and to put to death believers.
The birth took place in the year 313, when Licinius and Con-
stantine issued their edict of toleration ; the dragon is likewise
conceived, as personified in Maximus. It is cast out of the poli
tical heaven to earth, when Maximinius destroys paganism.
But after this the dragon makes another effort to destroy the
woman by the Arians, who became masters of the world, and
persecuted her for forty years. " Then she fled into the wilder
ness. But strengthened by the wonderful government of the
great Theodosius, and nourished by holy teachers, especially the
incomparable works of St Augustine, she received from God
wings of eagles, which enabled her to fly in the wilderness" (p.
257). The dragon now makes a third attempt against her, by
sending the flood of waters, that is, the nations of the migration
against the Church, but the earth helps the woman ; the bar
barous nations' are civilised and Christianised. Thus we have
here the spouse of Christ, the true Church of God, hidden and
a stranger in this evil world ; flying on eagle wings before
Pharoah into the wilderness, where God nourishes her with
hidden manna; while her children, scattered among the heathens,
are exposed to the most violent persecutions (ver. 17). The
men of this world do not see her till the marriage feast of the
Lamb (p. 262, etc.).
The reader will see that Elliott and Gaussen agree essentially
in their views of the twelfth chapter ; also, in regard to chro
nology, the latter follows the former. Both, we see, do not
refer the dragon to mean immediately the devil, but the heathen
Roman world-power inspired by him. On this view is based
Gaussen's further conception of the beasts, which is partly
different from that of Elliott. The dragon, the beast out of the
sea, the beast out of the bottomless pit are, according to Gaus
sen, the Roman empire in the three great epochs of its history,

GAUSSEN. ' 383
autocrate, polycrate (decern royale), democrate. During the
end of the first, the Roman empire is Christianised ; the second
begins with the migration of nations, the third in the year 1789.
The dragon has crowns on its head ; a sign that Borne, the city
of seven hills, is still a crowned city ; the beast out of the sea
has crowns on its horns ; they represent the ten absolute kings of
the tribes of the migration ; the beast out of the bottomless pit has
no crowns at all ; this is democracy, with its citizen kings, Louis
Philippe, Leopold of Belgium, Charles Albert of Piedmont, etc.
Gaussen agrees with Elliott with regard to the six first of the
seven heads, they understand by them the older Roman forms of
government. According to Gaussen, the wound unto death was
received by the sixth head — referring it to the overthrow of the
Roman empire by Odoacer 467 ; it is healed either 537, by
Justinian, or 800, by Charlemagne in the restoration of the
empire ; consequently, the sixth head was in existence till
1 806, when Francis II. (of Austria) had to give up his title,
Kaiser of the holy Roman empire. The seventh head is Napo
leon ; the eighth, the sovereignty of the people.
The false prophet and the harlot are to be viewed eonjointly,
and correspond to the little horn (Daniel vii.), or the papacy,
representing its two great epochs in the following manner : the
false prophet represents the polycratic period (chap, xiii.), and
the harlot the democratic period of the Roman empire. The
false prophet is an ecclesiastical kingdom, corresponding as the
spiritual counterpart to the government of the absolute kings ;
the harlot Babylon is the Roman court, which is able to gain
the democratic tnasses, and using this new turn of affairs for its
own advantage, persecutes the saints. The false prophet and
the harlot exist also cotemporaneously, and the latter is de
stroyed before the former by the Italian nations, who previously
adopt political radicalism.
Such is a rapid sketch of Gaussen's interpretation in its lead
ing features. There is something sublime and grand in his simple
juxtaposition of thethreeperiodsof the worldly and spiritual power,

384 GAUSSEN.
dragon and woman (chap, xii.); the beast out of the sea, and the
false prophet (chap, xiii.) ; the beast out of the bottomless pit,
and the harlot (chap. xvii.). Though this view is not perfectly
correct, yet the book abounds in ingenious, delicate, and sugges
tive observations, and would well deserve a German translation.
We mention, for instance, his clear insight into the relation of
the woman in chap. xii. to the woman in chap. xvii. The title
of the chapter, "les deux femmes," shows of itself, that Gaussen
saw the cardinal point which German exegesis has hitherto
overlooked. " The contrast to the spouse of the Lamb, the per
secuted, despised woman, a fugitive in the wilderness, but within
so beautiful, so pure, so full of glory (Ps. xiv.), is the woman
clothed in purple and scarlet, but a harlot and drunken with
blood, who is seen sitting upon the beast. The one was hidden
from the eyes of the mighty of this world, but the other rides
proudly aloft in the kingdom of the Latins — the one is oppressed
and in many tribulations, the other boasts of her prosperity, " I
sit a queen, she says, and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow "
(xviii. 7) ; the one is the spouse of the Lamb, the other a harlot;
the one is persecuted by the Latin kings, the other commits
fornication with them ; the one is a friend of the martyrs of
Jesus Christ, the other sheds their blood ; the one is nourished
in the wilderness by God ; the other is drunken, and with blood,
even the blood of Christ's people ; the one is the mother of them
" who keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony
of Jesus Christ," the other is the mother of harlots, and abomi
nations of the earth (xii. 17 ; xvii. 5). These two women re
present Jerusalem and Rome, the two prophetic poles of the
spiritual world, as Dr Cappadose calls them. The one is the
holy city Jerusalem, which comes down from heaven from God,
and has the glory of God (xxi. 2), the other is Rome, the great
city, which, in the time of St John, reigned over the kings of
the earth (xvii. 18), the Babylon of modern times, by whose
enchantments all nations were seduced, and in which is found
the blood of the prophets and saints" (p. 263, etc.).

criticism on Elliott's and gaussen's view. 385
On comparing these two books with the exposition of Bengel,
it is clear that the church- historical view has made consider
able progress in the right direction. It approaches the third
mode of interpretation, which starts from the idea of the history
of the kingdom. It is not guilty, to the same extent, of arbitrari
ness, and there is more of a leading principle in the expositions
of Elliott, and especially of Gaussen. Above all, the chronology,
which is a necessary adjunct of the church-historical view, is
much simpler ; by the admission that the 1260 days, 42 months,
and 3J times, are identical in all five passages, and represent the
long period of the Roman Germanic Church, their chronology is
not far from being correct. Besides this, there are many prin
cipal points of view, which this shape of the church-historical
view has in common with the third class, to which we belong ;
to instance only a few, the distinct character, and the union of
Roman and Germanic elements, heathen and christianised
world-power, invisible church, and church conforming to the
world. To speak of details. The exposition of the twelfth chapter,
given by Elliott and Gaussen, is, at all events, simpler, and co
incides better with fulfilment than that of Bengel. But this
chapter remains the chief stone of offence for the church-histo
rical view, and though Elliott's and Gaussen's exposition is per
haps the best which can be given from their stand-point, yet we
cannot characterise it as natural and textual. The birth of the
male son must needs be something more than the origin of the
Christian state, which was not a pure, divine child of the chaste
woman, but, as it is well known, had many impure and worldly
elements. Elliott himself does not seem to feel quite at rest in this
interpretation ; he is doubtful whether to refer it to the introduc
tion of Christianity as a State religion, or to the successful de
fence of the doctrine of the divinity of Christ, two events of a
vastly different character.
In like manner, the interpretation of the casting out of the
dragon is untenable. Elliott and Gaussen are forced to under-
2b

386 criticism on Elliott's and gaussen's view.
stand by the dragon, not the devil himself ; but this is against the
express interpretation given in the text itself, ver. 9. More
over, they overlook that the dragon is cast out in this aspect,
that he no longer accuses the brethren before God (ver. 10);
whereas, in his character as persecutor, he is not cast out, for
his persecutions continue even after the event here spoken of.
Notwithstanding all this, there are many valuable remarks in
Gaussen's exposition of this chapter ; and in the exposition of
the floods of waters, and their being swallowed up by the earth,
and also of the wrath of the dragon, we agree with the views of
both commentators.
With regard to the beast out of the sea and out of the bottom
less pit, even Elliott's view is much more advanced than that of
Bengel, inasmuch as he recognises its worldly political character,
and, consequently, sees that the five first heads reach back into
the time before John. It is true, he refers it after all only to
the papacy (in vol. iii. 558-570, he defends this view at length
against the objections of Hengstenberg and Lucke), and he gives
the same antipapistic interpretation to the false prophet and the
harlot. According to this view, all the chief symbols of the
Apocalypse would refer almost exclusively to the papacy. This
of itself is improbable, and Elliott himself feels it necessary to take
into consideration the apostasy of infidelity, for, in an Appendix
(iii. 575, etc.), he speaks of a parallelism between the doings
and sayings of the modern spirit of infidelity and that of the
dragon of Roman heathenism in its last conflict with Christi
anity. Besides, it is incompatible with the text to refer the three
symbolic figures to the papal church, because such an exposition
does not sufficiently distinguish between the beast symbols and
the human symbols of the book. And, lastly, this view limits
the practical importance and usefulness of the Apocalypse, as it
refers everything to those without, and cannot find any reproof
for ourselves ; in this respect let us bear in mind what is
written (1 Cor. v. 12, 13). Gaussen has advanced considerably
beyond Elliott, inasmuch as he refers the beast with the seven

the second view. 387
heads, in its various shapes and phases, altogether to the poli
tical power. He is mistaken, however, regarding the false
prophet, whom he places in too near a relation with the harlot,
and whom he likewise refers to the papal church ; here, also,
he overlooks the great distinction between beast symbol and
human symbol. Gaussen's views of " woman, harlot, and the
beast with the seven heads," are essentially correct. Only, with
reference to the last, we except his referring it, along with
Elliott, and after the precedent of Vitringa, to the former Roman
forms of government, and not the former world-monarchies ;
and, consequently, he adopts an erroneous view of the wound
unto death and its being healed.
We rejoice, however, that there is such considerable harmony
in essentials between Gaussen's exposition and our own ; and we
would fain cherish the hope, that the believers of all nations
will gradually arrive at a unanimous view of the essential con
tents of the Revelation of St John. For such a hope we bless
the Lord, who is preparing His Church for the heavy trials
which await her.

II. THE SECOND VIEW (EWALD, DE WETTE, LUCKE, ETC.)
This class of commentators take essentially the same view of
the twelfth chapter as we do. But their interpretation of the
two beasts and the harlot differs materially from ours. They
refer the first beast to the political world-power, but only to the
Roman empire, which manifests and centres its persecuting
spirit in Nero. The five first heads of the beast, of which it is
said, they are fallen, are the five emperors, Augustus, Tiberius,
Caligula, Claudius, Nero. , It is in the times of the last em
peror, and during the first impressions of his persecutions, that
the Apocalypse was written. Nero is the head with the death-
wound, for he committed suicide ; but the wound is healed, and
after the seventh emperor has reigned for a short time, he will
«

388 DE WETTE.
return again alive as the eighth, the Antichrist. Under the
second beast, the false prophet, " the' apocalyptic author may
have thought either of the Roman Augurs and Haruspices or of
magicians and deceivers, like Simon Magus" (De Wette, Offenb.
Johann., p. 142). The harlot is the city of Rome, of which
Nero is to take possession at his return, with the aid of the
ten horns, that is, his Parthian allies, or the Roman prefects.
After this, it seems that he goes to Palestine, where Christ, who
appears now the second time, conquers and destroys him (De
Wette i., 160, 165-171).
This view is, in the first place, exegetically untenable. It has
the fault, in common with the church-historical view, that it
does not sufficiently consider the Old Testament foundation of
the- Apocalyptic symbols, and that it cleaves to historical indi
vidual events ; with this important difference, however, that
this view, not believing in the existence of prophecy, in the
strict sense of the word, looks for the exposition of the Revela
tions to the events contemporary with John, and not, as the for
mer, to the future of the seer.
We have shown, in our, previous remarks, that the beast is,
on the one side, an image of the prince of the world ; on the
other, a combination of all the Danielic beasts, and that, for this
twofold reason, it can only refer to the world-power, in its total
world-historical development. Owing to their erroneous general
view, this second class of commentators are not capable of ex
plaining satisfactorily the number seven (of its heads) ; they
cannot show why John expected another emperor, and only one
other, to come after the one under whose reign he lived. With
regard to the harlot, we have likewise shown, that her un-
mistakeable connection with the woman in the twelfth chapter,
and the entire usus loquendi of Holy Scripture, render it impos
sible to refer her merely to the city of Rome. Another great
difficulty, which opposes this whole view, is thus expressed by
Ebrard (p. 462, etc.) in his own manner : — " According to this
view, John compiled his Apocalypse under the reign of Galba,

LTJCKE. 389
prophesied correctly that Otho was to reign only a short time,
but was under the false expectation that Nero would reappear
after Otho's death. Before the book could have had any circu
lation, history gave the lie to his predictions ; but as an honest
man of the modern enlightened school, he took great care not to
repress his fabrication, and the churches, as wise people, did not
at all perceive the mistake ! Would it not be waste of paper to
say anything in the way of refutation of such a hypothesis ? "
This is the same reason which, we saw in our remarks on
Danielr renders the supposition of the Maccabean data of that
book impossible.
The centre of the Apocalypse is, according to this view, based,
to use De Wette's words, " on a popular Roman rumour and
superstitious expectation," p. 168. This pagan superstition, that
Nero would reappear, occurs in Christian sibyllines and the as
cension of Isaiah, and such apocrypha are taken as helps for
interpreting the Revelations. Lucke has to confess (p. 167, etc.)
that "the prophecy was not fulfilled in its original sense, and
will never be fulfilled in such a sense." It is a natural conse
quence of such a view, that the Apocalypse cannot be what it
announces itself to be (chap. i. 1), a revelation of Jesus Christ,
given to him by God. Lucke gives the following summary of his
views on the subject, p. 400 : " Though we have no right to
deny absolutely an objective origin of the Apocalypse, from
ecstasies and visions, yet we have a right to think of the indivi
dual visions contained in the book as prophetic poetry," comp.
p. 200. " The purely practical literature of the first gospels and
apostolic epistles, works, which the exigencies of the times abso
lutely required, were gradually succeeded by a kind of leisure-
and-pleasure-literature, since many men, of a literary turn and
habit, entered the Christian Church, and saw nothing jn Chris
tianity to prevent their following literary pursuits." We see
such a view is, in its result, mythical, as it is in its principle
rationalistic and subversive of faith in revelation. In the main.
there is no difference between such a procedure and that of,

390 APOCRYPHAL APOCALYPSES.
Strauss, who degrades the canonical gospels to the level of the
apocryphal ; or that of Baur, who inserts the "apostolic epistles
into the series of the pseudo-epigraphic writings of the second
century. And such (according to Lucke, p. 1) is the " protec
tion and moderation of modern criticism and science, under
which the book has been placed now for some time." (!)
In our remarks on the apocalyptic form of prophecy, we spoke
of the apocryphal apocalypses. Their relation to the canonical
ones is no other than that in which, according to a universal
historical law, all imitations and caricatures stand to phenomena
of world-historical importance, and which is in proportion to the
grandeur and sanctity of the reality copied. Moses called forth
Egyptian sorcerers ; the Messiah, the false messiahs ; the ca
nonical gospel, the apocryphal ones ; the reformation, the Ana
baptists, etc. To take the lower phenomena as a measure of the
higher, is a fundamental feature which pervades the whole of
our " modern science," and is, indeed, very characteristic. The
word of God is degraded to the level of profane books ; the Son
of God to that of common men ; God himself to that of the
world. The next step is, — and, in consistency, it will be, and
is taken, that man is looked upon as a superior species of beast,
as is the case in the newest philosophy, which denies immortality
and spirit. And how can it be otherwise, when the holy distinc
tion is forgotten between "from above" and "from below?"
The end of this development is the beast nature. This is exactly
what the Apoealypse has foretold.
Lucke speaks, nevertheless, warmly about the canonical dignity
of the Apocalypse, and even attempts repeatedly to represent the
view according to which the Apocalypse speaks of contempo
raneous history as the pneumatic one (p. 916, 853, 1060). But
this only proves that the heart of this theologian stands in a dif
ferent relation to the sacred book from that which his intellect
points out ; but, looking away from the person to the thing itself,
we cannot designate this mode of treating the subject otherwise
than as an attempt to clothe the wolf in sheep's clothing. We

THEOLOGIANS OF THE TRANSITION PERIOD.' 391
do not doubt for a moment that Lucke is faithful and conscien
tious in his work on the Apocalypse, but we do doubt whether
his stand-point, viewed objectively, is at all tenable. There are
a number of theologians, of high honour and worth, who,
emerging from a period of transition, combine, in their persons,
Christian faith and devotion, with a rationalistic critical mode of
viewing holy Scripture. Let us, who belong to the younger
generation, never forget how much gratitude we owe them for
their manifold labours. But their stand-point is subjective and
individual, and it is a logical as well as moral impossibility to
make it the general and stereotype one in the Church. While
the one party advances from the milk of babes to a more nourish
ing meat for strong men, the other party who, adopting the
mythical view, refuse to hear anything about a devotional frame
of mind for understanding the Apocalypse, cannot be accused
of inconsistency. Indeed, if the mythic view of the two apoca
lyptic books of Daniel and John be correct, then one thing is
certain, they are not canonical. How am I to treat such a book
before my congregation ? And suppose a simple countryman,
looking me in the face with his unsophisticated eyes, should ask
me, Well, these angels did not appear really to John and Daniel ?
And it is not even quite certain whether such a man as Daniel
lived ? Did the Lord, from His throne, reveal to John the pagan
superstition about Nero ? Woe to the pastor who does not feel
such questions in his heart of hearts, and does not perceive his
inconsistent position, who dares to wrap himself up in the proud
folds of his academic robe. Thus the suspicion with which the
congregation regards learning and science, is justified and in
creased, and the discord prolonged which subsists between faith
and, not knowledge, but scholasticism. I may be permitted to
remind of what the Saviour says about giving offence to the least
of His faithful disciples ! Christianity, in its simplicity, vigour,
and adaptation for the people, — the Christianity of fishermen and
publicans, of the poor and the children, — easilybecomes a stranger
to us men of the professorial chair ; as there is an erudition pe-

392 THE THIRD VIEW.
culiar to the study, so there is a Christianity of the study which
never sees the sun except through the dusty window-panes. Lucke
warned us, not long since, in a most excellent manner, against the
artificial and unnatural method which threatens to insinuate itself
into orthodox exegesis through works such as that of Delitzsch
on the gospel of Matthew. We require such warnings ; we ought
to feel grateful for them. But what can be more artificial and
unnatural ; what can be more against common sense and con
science, than to say of a book, that it is both fictitious and
canonical ? This is exactly as if a man, who beats his wife, would
exhort his children to treat their mother with filial respect.
III. THE THIRD VIEW (HOFMANN, HENGSTENBERG,
EBRARD, ETC.)
From our previous remarks, the reader will have seen that the
first mode of interpreting the Apocalypse, according to which, the
book contains a chronological history of the Church, and the
second view, which refers it to contemporary history, stand in a
similar relation to each other, as Old Orthodoxy and Rationalism.
Whereas, the third view corresponds to the stand-point of modern
evangelical theology, the pneumatic or organic, or tbeanthropi-
cal, or by whatever name it may be characterized.
Two things are necessary in order to obtain a historical view.
In the first place, it is necessary to know the subject in its specific
peculiarity, and in all its bearings; and secondly, to connect
this subject with kindred subjects, either prior or subsequent,
which stand to it in a casual connection, in order to view it as a
link in the entire chain of historical development. Instead of
this, theologians, for upwards of a century, thought it a historical
method to ignore the two mentioned fundamental conditions of
the study of history ; to deprive biblical subjects of their specific
peculiarity, which consists in their connection with revelation,
and to view them in connection with heterogeneous objects, which
are altogether extraneous lo the sphere of revelation. In so far

RATIONALISM AND ORTHODOXY. 393
as the development of sinful humanity has to pass, not merely
through antitheses, but also through contradictions, this may
be called a necessary point of transition, taking necessary in
the sense spoken of, Matt, xviii. 7. For a long time the Church
did not sufficiently recognize the historical development in reve
lation itself, but viewed revelation rather as an object which had
come to us all ready and finished, in order to be the source of true
doctrine. Hence, in a sense, it may be said, that it was neces
sary that for a while revelation should be lowered to the level of
a sphere where historical development and organic connection
were recognized and studied with ever-increasing diligence and
energy, viz., the sphere of profane history, that thus the histori
cal view of revelation may be attained. Here theology was
vividly reminded of what it had neglected so long, although the.
Bengel school, for example, shows that such a progress would
have been likewise possible from the biblical stand-point, which
adheres faithfully to belief in divine revelation. It is as erroneous
to lower revelation to the level of profane history, as it would be
to lower history to the level of inorganic matter, or man to the
level of the beast. Therefore, although it is not erroneous to say
that the old orthodox and the rationalistic stand-points are two
extremes, the one representing the exclusively divine, the other
the exclusively human mode of conception, yet let it be remem
bered that these two extremes are not equally legitimate.' For
truth descends from God to man; it does not develop itself
from man Godwards ; the divine element is the essential founda
tion throughout. Although Rationalism may be frequently in
the right, in a formal point of view, and though it prepares a
progression, scientifically in opposition to orthodoxy, yet as far
as its material contents are concerned, it is ungodly and un-
biblical. We acknowledge, gratefully, the services of Rational
ism as regards the ypdppa language, Archaeology, etc., although
our old divines were by no means so defective in these respects
as people like to represent ; but if Rationalism is a grammarian,
it is by no means pneumatic. It laid stress on the historical, but

394 RATIONALISM AND ORTHODOXY.
not yet in its unity with the ideal, the divine, and spiritual ; and
thus, after having divested the history of the Bible of its spirit,
it had necessarily to attack its historical character, and to de
grade it to the mythical. In the same way, it had necessarily to
give up the prophetic character of " prophecy" and to degrade it
to mere conception and presentiment, the truth of which consists
chiefly in a few general ideas. Because Rationalism does not
recognise the Bible as word, — as God's word, — in which the
Spirit created its body in the letter ; it falls, on the one side, into
a false literalness ; on the other, into a false spiritualism. Op
posed to all this, — orthodoxy is essentially and materially in the
right ; it has true reverence for the divine word, and is in sub
stantial agreement with its teaching, although it sometimes com
mits blunders in the scientific shaping of its views.
The Revelations of John and Daniel is one of the last posts
occupied by the commentators who oppose revelation. Even
here they are not without their merits ; they have dispersed the
mountains of arbitrary assumptions, heaped up by the church-
historical interpretation ; moreover, they guard against the
extravaganzas of exegetical fancy, such as make their appear
ance too frequently in the British churches and in the Apoca
lyptic pamphlet literature. Besides this, Rationalism has been
instrumental in opening our eyes to the , external arrangement
of the Apocalypse, by asserting successfully, the system of
-parallel groups ; it pointed out, in many respects, the natural
meaning of passages (for instance, of chapter xii.), and contri
buted valuable data from the apocryphal Apocalyptic books.
All this we admit; but we add, all this has been done at the
expense of the essential point. As the church-historical view
puts things arbitrarily into the book, the view of the Revelation,
as containing contemporary history, empties the book arbitrarily
of its fulness. The one adhered to the divine, spiritual point of
view, without regarding the historical measure and law, and
hence exchanges the symbolic interpretation for the allegorical :
it does not understand how to interpret the sacred book by

RATIONALISM AND ORTHODOXY. 395
church history, but it puts church history into the book. It
connects history and prophecy in an external, mechanical man
ner ; the interpretation does not grow out of the text, but is
forced into the text, — it is a filling up of the grand outlines,
given from above, with human history ; but the divine character
of the book is cordially and fully recognised. It is quite different
with the rationalistic view. There prophecy and history do not
coincide at all. Prophecy expected one thing, the development
of history proved another thing. History is not the fulfilment of
prophecy. But if so, then prophecy ceases to be prophecy ; it is
viewed only as conception, imagination, presentiment of the
future. In the church-historical view, it is only the interpreta
tion which is fantastic and allegorical ; but here it is the prophecy
which is represented as fantastical and allegorical : there inter
pretation ceases to be interpretation ; here prophecy loses its
prophetic character. But hereby the divine canonical dignity
of the book is given up. There is scarcely a subject, where the
deficiencies of the old orthodox, and the radical faultiness of the
modern rationalistic view, appear in so distinct and striking a
light as the Apocalypse.
The present task of evangelical theology is to overcome the'
rationalistic, unhistorical historicism, but not by a retrograde
movement to the old unhistorical stand-point, but by a right'
appreciation of sacred history. One of our most important tasks
is the history of revelation, viz., of the revelation of God to
humanity. It is only when viewed from this point — the history
of revelation — that the sacred book, which significantly, and in
a peculiar sense, bears the name Revelation, can be truly under
stood. Without the Apocalypse, it would be impossible for us
to have a history of revelation, or of the kingdom of God ; for
it is only the Apocalypse where we can distinctly see the goal
to which the ways of the Eternal are tending — the end and
purpose which He had in view in all His doings on earth from
the beginning. And, in like manner, as the book points, by its
contents, to the end of all revelation, its position is at the end

396 THE THIRD VIEW.
of the divine revelations, given hitherto, of which it forms the
final consummation. In this book all the other biblical books
end and meet.
Such is the starting-point of the view, which recognizes the
idea of the history of the kingdom, or of revelation, as of central
importance. We know that in all His revelations, also the
apocalyptic ones, the Lord adapts himself to the situations and
the necessities of men, His children on earth. Hence the Apo
calypse is an immediate product of divine inspiration, and, at
the same time, it is in connection and on the foundation of the
past and present of the history of revelation. In this manner,
our view contains the truth .of both the preceding stand-points,
not by joining them mechanically, but by inwardly overcoming
the defects of both. Essentially at one with orthodoxy — adher-
' ing firmly to belief in the revelation of God — this mode of
interpretation has yet not refused to learn from the Rationalists,
in a formal point of view. It regards the Apocalypse, not as
the production of a Jewish Christian, who, incited or excited
by contemporary events, devoted his leisure hours to embody his
imaginations and expectations of the future in the favourite
apocalyptic form, as an artistic one ; but it equally holds, that
the Apocalypse, as it actually lies before us, cannot be regarded
as a dictation of the omniscient God, containing individual
church-historical events. John, on the contrary, was most
thoroughly acquainted with Holy Scripture ; he had appropri-
ated the entire previous revelation of God, by a pure and pneu
matic understanding of it ; he had, more especially, thoroughly
digested the prophets, in their spirit, in their language, and
symbolism. Hence he possessed the surest spiritual insight into
the then state of the church, and the purest spiritual feeling and
perceptions. He was, at that time, the only surviving apostle of
those pillars of the church, on whom, humanly speaking, the whole
edifice of the church rested. All nerves of the body are concen
trated in him. The congregation of Christ had even then the
divine treasure in an earthen vessel. She extended ever further

THE THIRD VIEW. 397
over the godless world. Persecuted by the world, she is not de
stroyed, but, on the contrary, increases and spreads. But she is
ever more and more subdued by the world; and, while she
spreads over the world, the world insinuates itself into the Church.
John saw the beginnings of all these phenomena ; he regarded
them with a spiritual understanding — with eyes enlightened and
strengthened by the prophetic word, and especially by the
prophecies, which he had heard from the lips of his Divine
Master. These fundamental views were, perhaps, for years,
revolving in his mind ; and now that they had attained a certain
maturity, he received the holy Revelation, at a period of his life
which was characterized by most important and deeply exciting
events — during a time of persecutions, when all prophetic re
miniscences were called forth in him with fresh vividness, and
when, especially, the Danielic beasts must have forcibly recurred
to his mind. It was one great ecstasis which was given him ;
but we see how many points of connection with this revelation
the Lord had created in His beloved disciple, and how He had
prepared him to be a fit recipient of all those disclosures which
are necessary for the Gentile Church during her earthly pil
grimage. Such is the stand-point of the third view. In its material
aspect, it differs from the church-historical view, and that which
refers the Apocalypse to contemporary history, in that it regards
the book as related to the history of the kingdom ; in its formal
aspect, it may be designated as the symbolic view, while the
first is allegorical, the second mythical. The first scientific
development of the third view was given by Hofmann, in his
work " Weissagung und Erfullung." In this work prophecy
is explained throughout (only in a manner which goes too far)
by history and its typical contents, and the Apocalypse is re
presented as the crown and consummation of all preceding
prophecy. " The eontents of the Apocalypse," Hofmann
observes, p. 376, " is based, on the one side, upon the Old
Testament prophecy, seen in the light of the New Testament ;

398 HOFMANN. -
and, on the other, on an insight into the state of things, as ex
isting in the time of Domitian."

I. P. CHR. K. HOFMANN.
" The whole book of Revelation consists, excluding introduc
tion and conclusion, of five groups of prophecy, of which the
first refers to the present of the seer, chaps, ii. and iii.; the
second, chap. iv. 1— viii. 1, to the future as a whole ; the other
three — (1.) chap. viii. 2-xi. 19; (2.) chap, xii.-xiv. ; and, (3.)
chap. xv. 1, xvi. 15, to the end. The last three are thus dis
tinguished from each other : The third contains the last divine
calls to repentance previous to the judgment ; the fourth describes
the last struggle against the congregation in the flesh ; the fifth
the judgment of wrath upon the world, and the deliverance of
the Church " (p. 375, etc.).
According to this division, Hofmann refers also the twelfth
chapter, in its essential contents, to the past times. By the
woman, he understands, not the church in general, but only the
Jewish church, which gives birth to the Saviour, who is, conse
quently, the male son. From the time of the birth of the
Saviour, to the time of Antichrist, the Israelitish church is on
its flight. The goal of this flight is the Holy Land, now become
a wilderness and desolation, but whither the Jewish churcli of
God will return, in order to be protected there, in the last half
prophetic week, during which Antichrist reigns, against its
persecutor, and to be miraculously supported by God. The
flight of the woman is the same as the sealing of the 144,000.
The casting of the devil out of heaven likewise belongs to the
future, viz., the commencement of the Antichristian period ;
" because the description here given is intended to show the state
of the kingdom of God upon earth, as it will be at the time
when the devil can no longer hope to destroy the Jewish Church
of God by his accusations (before God), and will, therefore,

HOFMANN. 399
strive, with increased fury, to destroy her by his violence and
power upon earth " (p. 357). The flood of waters, and the
swallowing up of the flood by the earth, are figurative represen
tations. The remnant of the woman's seed is " the seed of
Abraham in the uncircumcision — the believing Gentile Christians
— against whom the wicked one will wage war, after the Church
of Israel has escaped him, by its miraculous speedy flight" (p. 353).
The beast with seven heads is the Roman world-power, in
that shape which it is to assume at the end of the history of
nations. " The five kings which are fallen," are the Assyrian,
Chaldean, Persian, Greek, and Antiochus ; Rome's Csesar is the
sixth ; the seventh, whom John yet expects, is the Germanic.1
The eighth, or the Antichrist, is Antiochus returning out of the
abyss, the abode of the dead, so that the wound unto death,
which was healed, refers to the fifth head (pp. 355, 305, 371,
377, 345). As the first beast represents the world-power,
attacking the church from without, so the second beast — the
false prophet — is the false doctrine, which is an ally of the king
of blasphemy, and an internal enemy of the church (375-356).
The harlot — Babylon — is the world-metropolis, the centre of
union for all nations ; which was Rome at the time of John. It
will be destroyed by the last world-ruler, aided by the ten horns,
which signify, not possessors of kingdoms, but of royal power
exercised in communion and connection with the beast (371, etc).
It is then that Christ reveals himself as the King, who destroys
the beast, and its prince, and its army. " It is necessary that the
struggle between the world-power and the Church of Christ on
earth, should end with the destruction of the one and the trans-

1 It does not appear very clearly in what relation, according to Hofmann,
the beast of the thirteenth chapter stands to that of the seventeenth. In the
former, to judge from p. 355, he seems to see the fourth Roman beast of
Daniel'; it is only (p. 371) when treating the seventeenth chapter, that he
speaks of world-monarchies in general, as he does, in a similar way (p. 305),
of seven shapes or phases of the world-power, which, taken conjointly, form
the symbol of the same.

400 HOFMANN.
figuration of the other, and this without forming the conclusion
of history itself; since world-kingdom and humanity are not one
and the same thing, and humanity may have a history after the
destruction of the former, even as it had one, before kingdoms
and nations existed," p. 376. This is the idea of the millennial
kingdom, more fully developed by Hofmann, p. 286. The
struggle between Christ and the wicked one will become stronger
and stronger, till no means will have remained untried by the
wicked one to tempt and afflict the Church, consequently, he can
threaten her with destruction, only in as far as the Church con
sists of men, who dwell in mortal bodies. But then the superior
power of Him, to whom the Church belongs, can manifest itself
only by changing their mortal bodies into immortal, according
to the power of His working, and by presenting to the eye of
the world, those who have died in the communion of His spirit
in a transfigured body, — only in such a manner can the invisible
life of the Church be finally justified and vindicated against un
belief and unreason. This final event is preceded by the highest
abuse of power, and by the most concentrated form of the false
witness on the one side, and by the severest divine chastisement
and the clearest witness for the truth on the other, and it is fol
lowed by a time in which the Church will rule the world by
the visible manifestation of herself in her transfigured glory.
Moreover, as the Church is in a world of nations and kingdoms,
it is necessary that she manifest herself in a manner adapted to
a world thus ordered, without, however, bringing about the final
end of history as such. The only thing, which is thus brought
to its end, is the opposition between the communion based upon
the redemption of Christ, and the communion based upon human
right and earthly power. But this opposition being done away
with, it is possible that a new method of divine education should
come into existence, since Christ, and the power exercised by
Him through His transfigdred Church, have taken the place of
those powers, which were hitherto active in the formation of
human communities. The manifest visible glory of the Church,

hofmann's view. 401
not only renders it impossible to doubt any longer the divine
character of her essence, but checks likewise the influence of
evil, which is otherwise left free, upon those human beings who
are not belonging to the congregation of God. The only thing
which will then oppose the influence of the power, proceeding
from the transfigured church, and which will prevent its pro
ducing saving effects in all souls, is the inherited sinfulness of
our nature. At last, even, this time and method of divine long-
suffering will come to its end, and not be succeeded by another.
For what influence can move the heart of him, in whom the
manifest visible glory of the church, during the time when the
influence of evil is restrained, evokes no longing after the com
munion of the church's King? As the history of the world of
nations ended with the manifestation of the Church in visible
glory, the history of humanity in general will end with the great
separation of the just from the wicked. All this is contained in
the present experience of the Church as a prophecy of the end of
her history. If we add to this, the testimony of the Old Testa
ment Scriptures concerning the end of God's leadings, we gain
especially the additional knowledge, that in those last days the
calling and election of Israel, and the destiny of Canaan, will be
manifested and realized. Israel, in contradistinction to the rest
of the world of nations and peoples, will again be the people of
God, because, as a whole — as a nation — it holds fast the hope
of the completion of the divine work of redemption ; and, for
this reason, Israel will be the special object of the hatred of
the world-power. As a consequence of this, Canaan and Zion
are again the chosen localities of God's deeds, and we have thus
to expect, that the land of promise will be glorified above, and
distinguished from, the other lands of the earth, when the Church
of Christ is revealed in glory. A prototype of the enmity with
which the world-power will assail Israel on account of its hope,
may be seen in the persecutions of the Jewish people by An
tiochus Epiphanes, which we are taught by the revelations of
Daniel to view in connection with the concluding history of
2c

402 criticism on hofmann's view.
Israel. Compare also Hofmann's Schriftbeweis, i. 53-55. We
regard it as a great merit of Hofmann, that he has not only
witnessed for the biblical truth of the millennial kingdom — a
doctrine which Bengel had brought again to light — and ex
pounded it in its scriptural fulness, but that he has attempted to
show the internal basis of this doctrine, and to view it as an
organic part of the total development of the divine kingdom.
Though we differ from him in some subordinate points, which,
owing to the comparative newness of these truths, have not yet
been sufficiently investigated, and which we can only expect will
become clear in the course of time, we are not hindered thereby
in our cordial agreement with his view as a whole. Hofmann
appropriated to modern theology the truth proclaimed by Bengel ;
he has given it a further development, and he is the first who
began to correct, in a scriptural manner, the error of Bengel and
the church-historical view in general, by leading us back to
the right interpretation of the beast out of the sea and out of the
bottomless pit, and by showing the seven heads to mean the
world-power according to the parallel image of Daniel. While
we acknowledge this, we must mention a minor difference in our
views of the monarchies. With Hengstenberg we leave out Antio
chus and prefix Egypt ; our reasons are contained in the previous
part of this book. There is nothing in Daniel to justify the
enumeration of Antiochus as representing a separate world-king
dom, for he is not mentioned at all in the principal passages
chap. vii. and chap, ii., and in the eighth and eleventh chapters
he appears only as a part of the Greek monarchy. This of itself
overthrows the fantastic idea, that Antichrist will be Antiochus
returning from the dead, for which there is not the slightest
foundation or necessity in the Apocalypse of John, or in the pro
phecies of Daniel, and which seems to us to be traceable to an
unfortunate impression left on Hofmann's mind by the rational
istic idea of the return of Nero.
This view of Hofmann does not account satisfactorily for the
wound unto death, for Antiochus did not die in any other manner

criticism on hofmann's view. 403
than Cyrus and Alexander, and we showed above, that the
wound refers not to the fifth but to the seventh head.
Asserting the two important truths concerning the millennial
kingdom and the world-power, Hofmann returned to the primi
tive view of the Apocalypse. The Chiliasm of the most ancient
church is a well known fact, which we need not prove. As
Gieseler says (Kirchengeschichte i., 1. p. 166) : "In all writings
of these centuries (the second and third) Chiliasm is so distinctly
and prominently mentioned, that we cannot hesitate in regarding
it as the general belief of that age." With regard to the beast,
the interpretation of the heads as denoting the world-kingdoms
or ages of the world, is found in the writings of Irenaeus and
Hippolytus, more distinctly in Andreas of Cesarea in Cappadocia,
who lived in the end of the fifth century, of whose commentary
Lucke says, p. 990, that it is the first connected commentary on
the Apocalypse, and the root of all the succeeding ones. Ire
naeus (ver. 25, etc.) applies his fundamental ideas of the dva-
Ke<paXal<oo-is or recapitulatio to Antichrist ; and in this case his
idea is peculiarly correct and fertile : Antichrist concentrates
and consummates all the apostacy and unrighteousness and
malice, and lying prophecy and cunning, which has existed
during the six millennia of the world's existence (ver. 28-2, 29-2).
There could not be a more striking description of the eighth in
his relation to the seven heads. Moreover, Irenaeus follows
Daniel so closely in his view of the whole, that Lucke himself
(page 863) observes, that his interpretation of the seven kings,
as representing the world-monarchies, is, according to Daniel.
Although, as far as I know, there is no passage in Irenaeus, in
which he develops more fully his view on the heads and king
doms, yet the truth of Liicke's observation appears also from the
circumstance, that Irenaeus (30-3) adduces as an argument in
favour of the interpretation, which refers the number of the beast
to the name Aareivos, that such was the designation of the last
kingdom, because the " Latins are now ruling." From whieh it
is evident, that he thought the fallen heads represented former

404 ANDREAS.
kingdoms. Of Hippolytus, we are told by Andreas, that he re
ferred the seven beads or kings, to world-periods (saecula), of
which five were past and the sixth present at the time, when the
apostle had his vision. Andreas himself1 is struck by the con
nection between the two expressions, mountains and kings. The
mountains he takes to be seven places, distinguished by their
worldly, power, metropolitan cities ; the kings are they who first
stood at the head of these local centres of the world-power ; but
their name stands per synecdoche for the whole kingdom. Ac
cordingly, he enumerates the seven heads as follows : The Assy
rian kingdom, with its founder Ninus, and capital Nineveh ; the
(ancient) Median, with Arbaras and Ecbatana ; the Persian,
with Cyrus and Susa ; the Greek, with Alexander ; the Roman,
with Romulus or Augustus, and Rome ; finally, the Oriental,
Christian-Roman kingdom, with Constantine and modern Rome.
Of the last he is doubtful ; he says, p. 143, " The seventh king
dom had not come yet in the time" of St John, it may refer to
the modern Roman kingdom, or perhaps to another." In this
view of the beast, Andreas follows principally the older commen
tators : Primasius in the sixth, Beda and Ansbertus in the eighth
century, and, in a latter age, Bishop Haymon of Halberstadt.
We think, however, Hofmann's view of the woman and the
harlot altogether erroneous. He does not see the true connec
tion of the two; and, moreover, he interprets them incorrectly,
by referring the woman to the Israelitish congregation exclusively,
and the harlot to the metropolis of the world-power. The harlot
cannot be of the same nature as the beast ; the distinctive
character of humanity and beast renders this impossible ; besides,
what could be meant by Antichrist destroying his own metro
polis, why should such great importance be attributed to this
event in chapters xvii.-xix., since it is (according to Hof
mann) only an insignificant prelude of the great judgment of
1 Andreae, Caes. Cappad. episc. in Joh. Apocal. Commentarii, antehac qui-
dem nunquam in lucem edit., nunc vero Theod. Peltani studio luce simul et
latinitate donati. Ingolsiadii 1584, p. 142, et seq.

CHAPTER XII. 405
God, which soon after is sent on the whole antichristian power ?
Compare, with this view, the truth, that the world-power is
called to execute judgment on the apostate church, which is not
only a satisfactory and literal exposition of the text, but based
on the analogy of Holy Scripture.
Hofmann's exposition of the twelfth chapter appears to us very
forced. Compared with ours, we admit that, at first sight, it
seems to have the advantage in point of consistency. We also
understand by the woman at first the Israelitish congregation of
God, but afterwards refer it to the faithful congregation of Chris
tians, which is based on the Israelitish church and forms its con
tinuation, since, in place of the natural branches broken off the
olive-tree, others from the wild olive-tree were grafted in (Rom. xi.
1 7). Now, would it not have been more consistent to refer the
woman throughout to the Jewish Church? It is impossible to
do this. There is no believing Jewish Church during the whole
church-historical period, and only the believing congregation of
God can be called " the woman." If such was not the case, we
would expect an indication similar to that, given of the beast, of
its non-existence and return. And, moreover, how unnatural
and forced is the sudden transition from the birth of Christ (ver.
6) to the antichristian period, a transition for which there is no
ground or connecting link in the words of the text. How un
natural, to understand by the wilderness the Holy Land, and,
consequently, to make the woman flee from Canaan, where she
gives birth to the Saviour, to Canaan — without the slightest inti
mation being given of the intermediate period, which embraces
more than a thousand years ! Alsb, the casting out of Satan,
the flood, and the swallowing up of the flood by the earth, do
not receive a full and adequate explanation. Finally, it is im
possible to say in what relation the 1260 days or three times and
a half, during which believing Israel is to be sheltered in the
Holy Land from the persecutions of Antichrist, stand to the
1260 days or forty-two months, during which • Jerusalem is
trodden under foot by the Gentiles, and the believing Israelites

406 CHIEF DEFECT OF HOFMANN'S VIEW.
are exposed to the persecutions of Antichrist (Rev. xi. 2, 3 ;
Dan. vii. 25).1 According* to Hofmann, these two periods can
not be identical, for it is impossible that the Jewish congregation
of God should be, at the same time, persecuted and sheltered from
persecution ; that the Holy Land should be, at the same time,
desolate and a place of refuge. But it is impossible that the
times of Jerusalem's distress should precede the time of its
restoration, for, if so, how could the Jewish Church flee to the
Holy Land in order to escape this very persecution ? Nor can
it be subsequent, for then the Church of God would not have
been really sheltered from destruction.
We can here see distinctly the chief defect of Hofmann's in
terpretation, which appears frequently in his exposition. He
proceeds, as yet, too one-sidedly, from an Old Testament and
eschatalogical stand-point. The prophets of the Old Covenant,
who spoke to and for their nation, mostly passed over the church-
historical period, because, during that time, Israel retreats into
the background. But John, who writes for the Gentile Chris
tian Church, writes with the very purpose to throw apocalyptic
light on this period. Hence, would it not be strange, if in this
book, the Gentile church was mentioned only incidentally at the
end of the twelfth chapter, in an annexed (seventeenth) verse. For
the same reason, it is erroneous to refer everything in our
book to the last Antichristian times exclusively. This is espe
cially true, with regard to the numbers. The period of three and
a half times, or forty-two months, or 1260 days, embraces hot
merely the time of Antichrist's power, but it is evidently meant
in the Apocalypse, to refer, according to the stand-point of the
New Testament, to the times of the Gentiles in general. It is
true that, in the last times, there is a recapitulation — a final
consummation of the whole church-historical development ; it is
true that then, and not sooner, an essentially new period of the
kingdom commences, which is the subject and centre of pro-

Comp. Ebrard Offenb. Joh., p. 363.

HENGSTENBERG. 407
phecy, and to which it brings every one of its groups to con
verge ; this is the grand respice finem. But we are instructed
likewise to judge of the tree by its fruits. Hofmann does not
recognise this sufficiently ; to the church-historical view he op
poses justly that view which regards the history of the kingdom
as the central and leading idea ; but he is too one-sided in his
opposition, and overlooks the important place which the church-
historical period occupies in New Testament prophecy. Heng
stenberg's commentary may be viewed as a reaction from this
extreme, but is itself another extreme. Hofmann is too one-
sidedly futuristic, Hengstenberg too one-sidedly, and much more
one-sidedly preteristic, if I may use the expressions of the
English Theologian Davidson (Lucke, 1067, etc.).

II. HENGSTENBERG.
Hengstenberg's exposition of the twefth and thirteenth chapters,
is essentially the same as ours. There are differences in the de
tails, and in general he inclines to a figurative, indefinite, and
generalising mode of conception.
He regards with us the woman as " the one inseparable
church of the Old and New Covenants" (i. 595), the birth of the
male son, and his removal to heaven, as the birth and ascension
of Jesus ; the casting out of the devil, which he takes as figura
tive, as the immediate fruit of the redemption accomplished by
Christ, in the sense of John xii. 31. The flight into the wilder
ness (ver. 6, 14), he generalizes and sees in it " the preservation
of the suffering cross-bearing church, notwithstanding all its
persecutions and destitution," p. 609. In like manner, the
number of 1260 days, or three and a half years, has "no histori
cal signification whatever, and is only to be viewed in its rela
tion to the number seven, viz., as symbolising the apparent
victory of the world over the Church," p. 610. By the floods
of water, Hengstenberg understands the Roman persecutions,

408 HENGSTENBERG,
and by the earth helping the woman, the Germanic tribes, which
is the reverse of our expositions, but stands in necessary connec
tion with his interpretation of the beast.
The beast out of the sea and the bottomless pit, he explains as
we do, only that he refers the deadly wound to the sixth head, and
understands by it " the deadly wound, which the God-opposed
Roman power received, through the redemption of Christ" (ii. 1,
p. 3, 24, etc.) ;' that the wound was healed, though only " ap
parently, and for a time," appears from the Roman persecutions
of Christians. The beast out of the earth is " the wisdom of
this world, which has always been the companion and ally of
the God-opposed world-power," p. 43. Thus Pharaoh and
Nebuchadnezzar had their wise men, and, in the Roman perse
cution of the Christians, " the weapons of spirit, and the weapons
of power, combined in opposing the new principle; likewise the
efforts made by worldly philosophy to prop up pagan idolatry,
are to be viewed in this connection," p. 48, etc. " The great
harlot differs from the sixth head, only in sp far as this head
denotes the Roman world-power, whereas the harlot means the
city of Rome, in which this world-power is concentrated. By
fornication is meant cunning and evil policy," pp. 240, 241.
Hengstenberg's exposition of chap, xvii.-xx. is very peculiar.
He sees in them a description of the overthrow of the Roman
world-power by the Germanic nations, and the Christianization
of the latter. For the ten horns, he says, which we are to
conceive as belonging to the seventh head, are in round num
ber the Germanic tribes and kings, which, like a flood, invaded
the Roman empire. The destruction of Babylon by the ten
horns, is the overthrow of the Roman world-power by the
Germanic tribes. They also are at first opposed to Chris
tianity, as is shown by the numerous martyrs, down to Boni
face ; but they remain only a short time (Rev. xvii. 10-14) as
Antichristian powers. " The first world-historical appearance
of the Germanic nations coincides almost exactly with the
beginning of their Christianization ;" and this Christianization

CRITICISM OF HIS VIEWS. 409
is represented in chap. xix. under the image of their being con
quered in a great battle by Christ. " It is true," Hengstenberg
admits, " that everything in that chapter leads us to view the
mission of Christ, there spoken of, as chiefly one of wrath and
judgment ; but heavy afflictions are the occasion of the Germanic
nations turning to Christianity. What terrible events were
necessary, in order to crush their obstinacy, and to make their
hard hearts soft and receptive. 162,000 men covered the
battle-field in the plains of Chalons ; in the country of the
Picenti 50,000 men died of hunger," etc. (pp. 266, 263, 375,
332, etc.). Thus " the commencement of the millennial kingdom
coincides with the Christianization of the Germanic nations, and
the millennium itself is (to speak roughly), identical iviiji the German
empire, which lasted a thousand years," p. 375. At present, spe
cially since the year 1848, we are living in the period of Gog
and Magog, that " short space of time, during which Satan is
loosed again."
Such is an abstract of Hengstenberg's view. We rejoice,
that in the interpretation of the woman, the dragon, and the
beast, we agree with Hengstenberg, at least in the most import
ant points ; likewise we attach the same important and awful
character to the present time as he does. But, for this reason, we
must protest the more energetically against his extravagantly
exaggerated estimate of the past, and against the arbitrariness
and violent strokes of his exegesis connected with this view.
We shall direct our attention to these in particular ; and there
is no important symbol of the Apocalypse, where such arbitrari
ness is not to be met in his exegesis.
In the vision of the woman and dragon, we must object to the
interpretation of the flood and the earth. We have proved
before, that water and earth form a contrast, in the symbolic
language of Revelation. Water, and still more floods of water,
represent the world of nations, moving and flowing in un
bounded unregulated freedom ; the earth, on the contrary,
symbolises consolidated and organized nations. Hence the

410flood of water can only refer to the Germanic tribes, and the
earth to the Roman world-power, but not the reverse.
In the interpretation of the beast with seven heads, Hengsten
berg's view of the deadly wound and the eighth head (Rev. xvii.
11), is untenable.1 We agree in viewing the wound in connec
tion with the work of Christ. But he refers the wound to the
sixth head, and speaks of an annihilation of the Roman world-
power, contemporary with the death of Christ. It may be fair to
ask, where in history we may find a vestige of such an annihila
tion ? If we are to understand, as Hengstenberg does, by the
deadly wound, the judgment, which was passed in Golgotha
upon the world (John xii. 31), then the " healing of the wound"
has no meaning, and the seventh, Germanic head, should like
wise be represented as wounded to death. For the judgment of
Golgotha is a judgment for all times.
Hengstenberg is altogether incapable of explaining the eighth
head, and the change which, according to the seventeenth
chapter, passes over the beast. He wants to supply to " even
he (the beast) is the eighth" (Rev. xvii. 11) " in perdition," that
is, whereas the beast survived formerly its different heads, it is
now itself to be cast into the burning lake (p.. 257). But such
a supplement is, in the first place, altogether arbitrary, and, in
the second, of no use whatever. For it is true, that the whole
beast is now destroyed ; but for this very reason it cannot assume
a new shape, least of all when it is in perdition, in the burning
lake. We might expect, with the same right, that in the case of
the image seen by Nebuchadnezzar, a fifth king should make his
appearance after it is broken in pieces by the stone ; and what
meaning could this possibly have? Hengstenberg, owing to
this interpretation, cannot understand the doctrine of a personal
Antichrist, and he has to explain it away in a forced manner in
2 Thess. ii. For this reason he sets aside the natural, and, as he

1 Comp. Baur. Criticism on Hengstenberg's Commentary of the Apocalypse,
in Baur and Zeller's Theolog. Jahrbb., 1852, iii. pp. 343, 346, etc.

CRITICISM OF HIS VIEWS. s 411
himself admits, generally adopted interpretation, which combines
the eighth horn, and the little horn in Daniel, and advances the
fantastic view, that the latter corresponds to Gog and Magog.
In doing so, he altogether forgets his own admission, " that the
horns in Daniel correspond exactly to the ten horns in the
Apocalypse" (ii. 1, 15). If so, how can Gog and Magog refer
to the past, and humble three of the ten horns (Dan. vii. 8, 24),
which were cast into the burning lake, a thousand years before
their time ? But we must remember, that according to Heng
stenberg, the casting into the burning lake refers to the Chris
tianization, and that, strictly speaking, the ten horns are still
existing on earth (p. 263). It is said also of Satan, that he was
cast into the lake of fire, where the beasts are (Rev. xx. 10). Is
this likewise to refer to his Christianization ?
With regard to the pseudo-prophet, Hengstenberg has beau
tifully shown, that he is the constant companion, ally, and
servant, of the political world-power.- But he admits, according
to the words of the text, " that the work of this enemy, as
described in the Revelations, begins only at the time when the
conflict between the first beast and the kingdom of God is re
sumed after the healing of the deadly wound (p. 43, etc.). This
struggle lasts during the existence, not only of the sixth, but, as
we saw, also of the seventh head, that is, of the Germanic
tribes, before their Christianization. How can this be reconciled
with Rev. xix. 20, where it is said, that the false prophet is cast
along with the first beast into the burning lake ? Did perhaps
the hordes of the migration oppose a false philosophy to Chris
tianity ?
It might be difficult for Hengstenberg to show, that according
to the usus loquendi of Scripture, fornication can mean " cunning,
evil policy." In general he shares the misapprehension, corny
mon to German commentators, who understand by the harlot
only the city of Rome, which is the more remarkable, as he
points out the parallelism of the women in the twelfth, seven
teenth, and twenty-first chapters (i. 595, ii. 1, 238). This was

412 HENGSTENBERG,
done likewise by Bengel. This error has consequences, which
prove peculiarly inconvenient to Hengstenberg's view; for he
has to refer the destruction of Babylon to the overthrow of the
Roman world-power by the Germanic tribes. We saw above,
that according to him, there is. no other difference between the-
harlot and the sixth head of the beast, than there is between
the city of Rome and the Roman world-power. But the Ger
manic tribes destroyed the latter, and not the former ; therefore
he has to invert his former interpretation, and to say, that
Babylon does not mean the city of Rome, properly speaking, but
the Roman world-power (ii. pp. 272, etc., 315, etc.).
As regards his view concerning the coming of Christ (chap.
xix.) to judge the two beasts, the analogy of the destruction of
Jerusalem, which the Lord himself denotes as an act of His
Messianic coming, might be adduced in favour of explaining
also this coming to be invisible. But can any thing equal the
arbitrary manner in which Hengstenberg changes judgment into
conversion, the casting into the burning lake into Christianiza
tion. Against such a procedure testifies the very analogy of the
-destruction of Jerusalem, the analogy (spoken of before) of the
devil, and every word of the text.
Hengstenberg denies that the first resurrection is to be real
and literal, because it is not mentioned in any other part of
Scripture. We may refer him simply to even De Wette's inter
pretation of 1 Cor. xv. 23 ; 1 Thess. iv. 16. According to
Hengstenberg, " there can be no doubt that the most natural
exposition is to refer the first resurrection to the blessedness of
believers, which begins immediately after their departure from
this life." And the reason why this blessedness is here spoken
of, he says, " is altogether and exclusively, because here the ques
tion is suggested to St John, with regard to the destiny of the
believers who fall asleep during this millennium " (ii. 1, p. 357,
etc.). Such artificial expedients meet their o.wn reward. But we
would request Hengstenberg to consider what he is doing here.
Such a procedure is, to speak the strict truth, to reject the

CRITICISM OF HIS VIEWS. 413
words of God, in order to keep his own additions. In another
place, he -himself says, "I am endeavouring to have a good con
science with regard to all the declarations of Holy Scripture, to
do violence to none, to wish of none of them in my heart, that
they were not in the Bible, and to stand to them in the same
relation as that occupied by the investigator of nature, who
microscopically examines her phenomena again and again, and
afterwards faithfully reports what he has thus seen (Uber den
Tag des Herrn, p. 4, etc.).
And what shall we say to his doctrine of the millennial king
dom? One is at a loss, whether to be more astonished at the
enormous weakening and spiritualising of the words of prophecy,
in his interpretation, or at his extraordinary over-estimate of the
church-historical time in general, or the manner in which, with
out making any distinction, he places the darkest periods of the
middle ages, and of the papacy, on an equality with the period
of the Reformation, and looks on them as golden times. And
is it during these thousand years, in which Roman Catholics,
Rationalists, and orthodox Protestants committed so many — and
oh ! so many grievous sins, and that in the very name of Christ,
that Satan was bound ? Is it in the times of the persecution of
the Waldenses, of the Inquisition, of the Huguenots, and mas
sacre of St Bartholomew, that the martyrs ruled the world ? Is
it in these ages — when, it is true, princes called themselves
apostolic majesties, most Christian kings, etc., but lived in most
heinous sins — that the priests of God and Christ were kings ?
Is it in these times " that the transfigured members of Christ
could look down with holy pride upon earth, where the Church,
to which they had devoted their strength and their lives, in
times of affliction and humiliation, was now the ruling power,
so that all things on earth were ordered according to their will,
resting on Christ" (p. 361)? It is very lamentable, indeed, that
a man like Hengstenberg is thus contributing to the confusion
of the spiritual judgment of the Church and the world, and is not
able to o-ain, even from the study of the prophets, a clearer and

414 HENGSTENBERG, CRITICISM ON HIS VIEWS.
deeper insight. He confuses what was a false anticipation of
the millennial kingdom, with that kingdom itself — an external
political, with essential and spiritual, Christianity — what was
merely nominal, and profession of the lip, with Christianity,
real, and really victorious. If we seek the glory of the millennial
kingdom, which ought to be our hope, incitement, and our light,
in the ages that are past, then we necessarily fall into a dangerous
looking back to, and striving after, the state of those times,
when Christianity possessed greater outward and political power,
instead of looking forward, and keeping fast the hope of better
times ; and a practical consequence of such a view, is a confusion
of church and state, introducing state-elements into the affairs
of the church, and church-elements into the affairs of the state —
a confusion which is based on a deep misunderstanding of the
cross of Christ, as the mystery of His kingdom, and which is, to
say the least, in constant danger of making flesh its arm. This
view, however, is not only a retrograde motion in an ecclesi-
astico-political respect, but also in a theological one. By its
confusing church and state, this interpretation throws away the
results of Bengel's and Spener's labours, and sinks back to the
stand-point of the old orthodox exegesis, the error of which was
much more pardonable, since the truth held in the apostolic
ages had not been then found again by the Church. Thus the
progress which, according to Delitzsch's remark, quoted above,
prophetic theology has made since Bengel, and is making in our
own times, would be hereby swept away, as the buds and blos
soms of spring are blighted by a frosty night. What a broad
shadow falls from this point on Hengstenberg's entire view of the
Old Testament !
The true elements of Hengstenberg's interpretation of the
Apocalypse are likewise contained in our exposition. What
Hengstenberg calls the millennial kingdom, we regard as the
healing of the deadly wound of the beast. And he himself in
voluntarily expresses his approbation of this view, when he
observes, correctly as to the matter, but unfounded as regards

EBRARD. 415
the exegesis (ii. 144) : " The first beast appears again in Gog
and Magog, and, therefore, we have to view his inseparable
companion, the second beast, as not buried for ever. Every
word that is said concerning the false prophet, is full of practical
importance for us. Wherever the God-opposed world-power
gains strength, there also God-opposed wisdom immediately
makes its appearance."

III. EBKARD.
Hofmann, we saw, referred the contents of the chief portion
of the Apocalypse, under our consideration, too one-sidedly to the
future ; Hengstenberg, with still greater one-sidedness, to the
past; Ebrard has begun to keep the right mean. The fundamen
tal view with which he starts, is the true and correct one: " The
book of Revelation does not contain predictions and presages of
contingent, individual events; but it contains warning and
comforting prophecies concerning the great leading powers,
which take part in the great conflict between Christ and the
enemy : it contains so much, that every age may learn from it
more and more how to recognize and guard against the serpent,
in its manifold disguised appearances, and that the afflicted and
troubled Church of Christ, during all periods, may derive courage
and comfort from its disclosures " (p. 634). Ebrard sees cor
rectly from this stand-point, that the two grand forms of the
serpent's disguise are false faith and infidelity — Phariseeism and
Sadduceeism. The manner, however, in which he carries out
this leading idea, in which he interprets and explains individual
passages, is often arbitrary, rash, and superficial.
The arrangement of the book is, according to him, as follows :
" The prophecies are divided into four visions, differing both in
contents and form. The first (chap. i. 9-chap. iii.) represents
Christ, in His relation to the seven manifestations of His Church,
as shepherd ; the second, that of the seven seals and seven

416 EBRARD.
trumpets (chaps, iv.-xi.), represents Christ in His relation, as
Ruler of the world, to the powers of the world and nature,
which must serve for the spread of His kingdom ; the third, the
¦ vision of the dragon and the beast out of the sea (chaps, xii.-xiv.),
represents the relation between the godless, who stand under
the prince of this world, and the Church of Christ; and the
fourth (from chap. xv. to the end), the final development and
consummation " (p. 550). Accordingly, Ebrard views the visions
of the twelfth and thirteenth chapters as referring distinctly to
church history ; those of chapters seventeenth to nineteenth as
eschatological, and referring to the last antichristian period.
Also, in his view of the indications of time, we are essentially
at one with him. The 42 months, or 1260 days, are the church-
historical period from the ascension of Christ and the destruction
of Jerusalem, to the coming of Antichrist ; the 3-J- days (Rev.
xi. 9) are identical with the 3-| times of Daniel (vii. 25), viz.,
the period of Antichrist, which forms the transition between the
church-historical period and the millennial kingdom. While we
agree in all these respects, we have to object to many points of
the interpretation given by Ebrard, of the individual symbols of
the Apocalypse.
The woman of the twelfth chapter, he interprets in a similar
way as Hofmann (to whom he attributes, by a strange mistake,
our view, pp. 359-372), to refer to Israel according to the flesh,
in so far as it is the subject of promises. The male son is the
Lord Jesus, whose birth and ascension are here described. The
flight into the wilderness (ver. 6) denotes the banishment and
dispersion, into which the children of Israel are again sent
during the church-historical period. Since the progression, in
this chapter, is one of simple chronology, the casting out of the
dragon takes place at the end of the church-historical and the
beginning of the Antichristian period, and signifies that Satan
can no longer accuse Israel, as it is now a converted people.
For this reason he persecutes converted Israel, into which the
Christian Churchis then received, so that the two are identical

ebrard's views. 417
(p. 370). The woman, however, who, accordingly, is now the
whole Church of the Messiah, is sheltered from the persecutions
in a place of refuge, which is probably Jerusalem and Canaan
(p. 593). This is meant by the flight into the wilderness with
eagle's wings (ver. 14), which must be carefully distinguished
from the flight spoken of ver. 6. The 3^ times ("ver. 14) are
identical, not with the 1260 days of the church-historical period,
but the 3^- days of Antichrist (xi. 9). The floods of water re
present the army of Antichrist, from which the congregation is
sheltered (ver. 15, etc.). The remnant of the seed of the woman
means the Gentile Christians (ver. 17) ; however, this verse is
not to be connected with the preceding verses, but, referring to
a previous portion of history, it serves as indicating the subject
of the following chapter (chap, xiii.), which contains a de
scription of Satan's war against the . Gentile Christian Church
(p. 372, etc.).
The beast out y of the sea is the world-power,, viewed in its
totality. The seven heads are (as with Hofmann) Assyria,
Babylon, Persia, Greece, Syria, and Antiochus, Rome and the
Germanic nations. The thirteenth chapter speaks of the beast
only in its sixth, that is, Roman, manifestation. The wound
unto death refers to the sixth head, and signifies the overthrow
of the Ottoman empire by the Germanic and Slavonic tribes of
the migration ; the healing of the wound is the new Christian-
Roman world-power, which is represented chiefly by the
papacy. The ten horns, which signify the Germanic nations,
are, consequently, to be conceived as belonging to the sixth
head, which is in reality then still existing. The beast ap
pears quite differently in the seventeenth chapter, in which the
period of the seventh head and the eighth is described, viz., the
Antichristian times. Here the ten horns belong to the seventh
head, which represents the Germanic kingdoms in their last
Antichristian phase, which is only of very short duration. The
eighth is " out of the seventh." By this expression Ebrard un
derstands with Hofmann a reference to Antiochus, interpreting
2d

418 ebrard's views.
the words, " and is not" (ver. vii.), to indicate that Antiochus is
dead ; only Ebrard does not suppose the words to mean a per
sonal return of Antiochus ; but that the eighth will be, so to say,
an Antiochus Epiphanes risen from the grave, viz., the person of
Antichrist (pp. 465, etc., 626). Thus he distinguishes carefully
the wound unto death, and its being healed, from the not-being
and the return of the beast (pp. 377, etc.,460). The characteristics
of Antichristianity are to be gathered chiefly from the contempo
rary sixth trumpet and vials of wrath, ver. 13, viewed in conjunc
tion. The army of horsemen, which appears during the sixth
trumpet (Rev. ix. 13, 16, etc.) is a revolutionary army, and
the three unclean spirits which, during the sixth vial, come
out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the
beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet (xvi. 13),
represent a spirit which promises the masses to give them a
share in the government of the world, a spirit which gives the
masses power to interfere with the church, and which preaches
to them the false doctrine of Pantheism ; and, thirdly, a spirit
which blasphemes and denies, in daring infidelity, the God of
heaven, and openly mocks and scorns His commandments, for
instance, by declaring marriage to be a foolish and senseless
institution, property to be theft, murder a virtue (p. 622). Pre
ludes of the final fulfilment of this prophecy belong to the history
of our own days.
The false prophet, whom Ebrard calls the pseudo-lamb, on
account of his " two horns of a lamb," is a spiritual power,
which, in its appearance and form, resembles Christ as ruling
His congregation, but which in reality seduces the nations to
serve the prince and the kingdom of this world, instead of serv
ing the Most High. This refers to the abuse of the divine word
and spiritual things in general, as is the case when indulgences,
forgiveness of sin, salvation of the soul, discipline of the church,
excommunication, are used solely for worldly purposes, as means
of aggrandisement, and in the interest of political power. The
papacy, as a spiritual power, manifests the Roman world-power,

ebrard's views. 419
in a visible form, in the see of Rome, and in the Pope, the image
of the beast out of the sea (386, 602, etc., 609).
Ebrard's interpretation of the harlot is very peculiar. He re
gards this symbol as Roma, and identical with the beast of the
thirteenth chapter, viz., the Roman (Papal) world-power ; it
denotes, according to him, this world-power in the last stage of
development, in which it has ceased being a world-power in
reality, and is only a weak woman, a pseudo-ecclesiastical
power (pp. 409, 450, etc., 472, 623, etc.). In this state it is de
stroyed by Antichrist and his kings ; thus false faith is destroyed
by infidelity. And then, after this destruction, the Lord ap
pears to judge the Antichristian powers, and to found the mil
lennial kingdom.
Ebrard views the latter subject with biblical soberness and
earnestness ; this may appear from the following remark, which
deserves consideration (p. 511, etc.): "The thousand years
must be considered as a mystical number. When the whole
long period, from the ascension of Christ to His second coming,
is represented symbolically, as half a prophetic week of three
and a half years, and the period of the visible existence of the
kingdom of God upon earth as a thousand years, we have
therein an indication, that the period, after the result of the
preceding ages has been gained, will be very much longer than
the period of conflicts. The time when Christ's kingdom will
exist on earth, will be the true New Testament time, in the
strict sense of the word ; the present period of the oppressed and
militant church is of a duration which appears insignificant
when compared with it. And this corresponds also spiritually
with the dignity of Christ, whose way it is, not to gain great
results by long struggles, but by short conflicts to achieve vic
tories extending through aeons."
Such is Eorar^'s view. We observe, first, that his interpre
tation of the twelfth chapter is not successful. The idea of the
woman, as a symbol of the Church of God, that is, the real,
faithful, believing Church, speaks of itself against his and Hof-

420 CRITICISM ON ebrard's views.
mann's views. During the church-historical period, Israel,
although in possession of divine promises, is not the woman
clothed with the sun ; on the contrary, Israel then lives in dark
ness, and is the same adulterous and unfaithful, perverse gene
ration, as it was in the times of Christ. Secondly, the casting of
Satan out of heaven cannot refer to so late a period as Ebrard
assigns to it, immediately before his being shut up in* the bot
tomless pit, and it was evidently of more universal importance
than merely the conversion of Israel. Satan is the prince of the
whole world, and the conversion of Israel is by no means iden
tical with the casting of Satan, the prince of the world, out of
heaven ; if the conversion of the Jews were meant, the symbol
would be too grand and important for the subject, and contain an
exaggeration which would lead thereader astray. Besides, we would
naturally expect to see a change produced by this event in the
woman. Ebrard's exposition is peculiarly defective in his view
of the fourteenth verse, and its relation to the sixth. It is pos
sible that the chronological terms are to be explained differently
in the two verses, but it is difficult to believe that the wilderness
should mean a place of banishment in the one passage, and a
place of shelter in the other ; that in the one verse it should
stand for the heathen country of exile, in the other for Jerusalem
and Canaan, and, consequently, that the fourteenth verse should
contain the very opposite of what is said in the sixth, though
the two verses are almost verbatim the same. Ebrard is not
able to explain what is meant by the earth, ver. 16, which is so
emphatically contrasted with the floods of water, ver. 15 ; he is
inclined to take " earth" literally, and to connect it with Zech.
xiv. 4, where it is said that " the Mount of Olives shall cleave
in the midst thereof," and " through this cleft the congregation
of God is to pass, whereas the persecutors are to be devoured by
it" (p. 370). The great objection to this interpretation is, that
we would have to take the flood of waters likewise in a literal
sense. The most arbitrary of Ebrard's interpretations is that of
verse 17. He refers the remnant of the woman's seed in the

criticism on ebrard's views. 421
same manner as Hofmann, to the Gentile Christians. But it is
impossible to see how such an exposition can be brought into
harmony with his view, that the woman, since her conversion,
includes also the Gentile church. If so, the persecutions men
tioned in verse 15, were directed against it as well as against
believing Israel. Ebrard feels the difficulty, and tries, there
fore, to refer the seventeenth verse to the subsequent chapter ;
but how is this possible, seeing that in verse 17 the dragon is
still the subject, and the woman is likewise mentioned ?
Ebrard's exposition of the beast with the seven heads agrees
in its essential point with our interpretation. He likewise dis
tinguishes three periods of the world-power, the heathen period,
the -period of outward civilisation, and the period during which
the world-power divests itself of this outward Christianity
and develops its especial Antichristian character. However,
Ebrard lays too great emphasis on the papacy, and the details of
his exposition are somewhat complicated and artificial, especi
ally with regard to the ten horns and their relation to the sixth
and seventh head. According to him, the ten horns inflict the
deadly wound on the sixth head, and are hence its enemies,
whereas, immediately afterwards, they appear as its friends and
vassals. Subsequently, they pass over to the seventh head, and
are again hostile to the sixth, which, in the meantime, has be
come the Babylonian harlot. All this is simply put into the
text ; and we may confidently ask, whether our exposition of
this portion is not much simpler and more natural, whether
especially it is not more in harmony with the spirit of the
whole passage, to view the death-wound, and not its being
healed, as the christianisation of the world-power ; for by this
outward christianisation it has ceased (relatively speaking) to
exist in its. beast-like, hostile character. By this interpretation
we are freed from the necessity of distinguishing between the
wound unto death and the beast's non-existence, between the
healino- of the wound and the return of the beast, a distinction
which, as far as we know, is peculiar to Ebrard, and cannot be

422 criticism on ebrard's views.
termed successful. For, if Antichrist is only in a figurative sense
a returning Antiochus, then he is not of the seven, and it is im
possible to see what is meant by the non-existence of the beast.
But the " false prophet" shows much more clearly that this
distinction is erroneous. He is the companion of the beast with
the seven heads, from the healing of the death-wound to its
being cast into the burning lake. Consequently, according to
Ebrard, during two of its phases, that of the thirteenth and that
of the fourteenth chapter, the pseudo-Christian of the sixth
head, and the Antichristian of the seventh and the eighth. But
if the first beast passes, after the healing of the wound, through
two phases so essentially different, how is it that the second
beast remains perfectly unchanged ? Can the pseudo-lamb, to
use Ebrard's expression, that is, the pseudo-Christian spiritual
power, be as such the ally and assistant of the Antichristian
power ? and, remember, the ally of the Antichristian power as
opposing the pseudo-Christian, which, according to chap, xvii.,
is then existing as the harlot ? It is perfectly plain that, ac
cording to Ebrard's exposition, the false prophet should stand in
chaps, xvii.-xix., not as an ally of the beast, but as anally of
the harlot. He has felt this difficulty but has not solved it
(p. 807).
But the view of the harlot is defective in many points.
Ebrard excels the other German interpreters, in that he recog
nises that Babylon is the pseudo-churchly power, the false
church. But he does not arrive at this view in the right way,
nor does he give a correct development of it. He is led to it,
not by the idea of the woman, the Church, but of the city of
Rome. It is not exegesis, but fulfilment, which tells him, that
the Babylonian harlot is the false church. He has not found
yet the truth in its principle, though he has come near to it
de facto. This explains the strange manner in which he identi
fies the harlot with the beast of the thirteenth chapter, from
which it is evident, that he does not see the fundamental
principle of the exposition, the distinction between symbols of

CRITICISM ON ebrard's VIEWS. 423
beast and of human beings. The simple question is : Is it more
natural, to view the woman of the seventeenth chapter as a
continuation of the woman in the twelfth, or as a continuation
of the beast in the thirteenth, which, moreover, has its continua
tion, as is admitted by all, in the beast of the seventeenth
chapter? Here again we see how erroneous it is to refer the
woman of the twelfth chapter to Israel, as is done by Ebrard
and Hofmann. For this reason, Ebrard has not attained to a
right view of the harlot as the apostate church. Starting from
the idea of the city, Rome, he limits the reference to the Roman
church in a too narrow and external manner. The harlot is
the unfaithful church, generally and universally ; she bears the
name of the world-city Babylon, not so much because of its
geographical central position, but on account of its inward
worldly character, which may possibly concentrate itself again
in Rome in the final period, when all apocalyptic powers assume
concrete embodiments. In accusing the papal church of Pharisee-
ism, let us not ourselves fall into the faults of the Pharisee, but
strive to remain in the truly evangelical humility of the publican .
Such are our objections against Ebrard's interpretation. It
is erroneous to refer to the papacy, as is done by him and
Elliott, the three principal symbols of the book, the beast, the
false prophet, and the harlot. There is evidently a pseudo-
English element in his view, his exposition may be designated as
a combination of Hofmann's with that of Elliott and Gaussen.
He feels himself that the Apocalypse cannot possibly refer to
the papacy exclusively, and hence, speaking of the beast in the
seventeenth chapter, and the parallel passages, he turns to the
consideration of infidelity and radicalism. In doing so, he is
not free from the mistakes of Gaussen and others, and refers
prophecy in too immediate and direct a manner, to events of the
present ; but we must repeat, in conclusion, that he has estab
lished several correct important views, and that his view, as
compared to those of Hengstenberg and Hofmann, is decidedly a
progress in the right direction.

424 DR ISAAC DA COSTA.

IV. CONCLUSION.

We have heard voices from England and from France. Let
us listen also to a voice from Holland ! Dr Isaac da Costa of
Amsterdam, a richly-gifted Israelite, who has found the Messiah,
says : " As one of the most remarkable of the many and mani
fold signs of the times, we regard this feature of our day, that
the hearts of believers are much more directed to the study of
the prophetic books of the Old and New Testament, than was
the case formerly. At no time was the attention of Christians
in all countries so universally directed to the study of unfulfilled
prophecy. This interest, this study, characterises a new epoch
in the history of the Church, which may be said to have com
menced towards the end of the eighteenth century, and which,
in its rapidly increasing development, is specially perceptible in
our own times. Thus, this period coincides with the period
called in the history of the world, the period of the Revolution.
And the relation in which this new epoch stands to the Chris
tian Church, is not less remarkable. While infidelity is shaking
the fundamental pillars of the papacy, and in its refined forms of
Philosophism, Rationalism, and Mysticism, is undermining the
Protestant Churches, a new banner is raised up, under which
the faith, the zeal, and the interest of Christians may meet and
rally. From all sides, we hear voices, calling for a new ap
preciation, a new and deeper investigation of the Apocalypse.
The old spiritualising interpretations of the ancient prophets of
Israel, both of fulfilled and unfulfilled prophecy, are no longer
thought satisfactory.1 These voices call for a more concrete, and,
at the same time, more simple interpretation of the infallible
Word of God, which testifies not only of individual conversions,
and the blessedness of heaven, but speaks of a real glory and
' Israel und die Vollcer, ans dem Hollandischen. Frankf. Bronner, 1 854, p. 8 •
(translated into English), Israel and the Gentiles. London : Nisbet and Co.

CHARACTERISTICS OF THE AUTHOR'S VIEWS. 425
reign of Christ as King <5f Israel, and of all nations, and describes
great events, by which this kingdom will be prepared, estab
lished, and characterised."
We endeavoured to contribute, by the present work, towards
the solution of the problem, correctly described in the above
quotation ; both by the historical survey of the modern inter
pretation of the Apocalypse, and our own exposition. The
characteristic peculiarity of the latter consists in the interpreta
tion of the Babylonian harlot, as viewed in connection with the
woman of the twelfth, and also of the nineteenth and twenty-
first chapters. All the three classes of German interpretation
are defective in this point, not only Ewald and De Wette, but
also Bengel, Hofmann, Hengstenberg, and, strictly speaking, even
Ebrard. We found a confirmation of our view in the remarks
of Gaussen, of Zeller of Beuggen, and several treatises of a more
popular kind. Indeed, it is difficult to say, whether it would
be more surprising, that all the spiritually-minded men should
have been mistaken, who found in the Apocalypse indications of
the future apostasy of the Church, and her conforming to the
world, or that the Apocalypse should not contain a prophecy,
which is of frequent occurrence in the saying of the Lord Jesus
and His apostles (Matt. xxiv. ; 2 Tim. iii. ; 2 Pet. ii. and iii. ; 1
John ii.). We wish that the spiritual interpretation of the
harlot may be appropriated by German exegesis. We had,
moreover, to combine this discovery with Hofmann's and
Hengstenberg's view of the beast with seven heads, and we
thus arrived at our exposition of the death-wound and its healing,
which contains, at the same time, the answer to the question
left unsolved in our consideration of Daniel, whether prophecy
made no distinction between the Christian world-power and the
heathen ones. From this point of view, everything assumes
simplicity and order, as we trust appears from our exposition,
the chief aim of which is, to reduce to fixed principles apoca
lyptic symbolism, in its connection with the symbolism of Daniel.
We have left, occasionally, points of details in uncertainty,

426 THE PRACTICAL BEARING.
because we ourselves have not attained to certainty on all points,
and because our chief object is to explain and establish our
method and principle.
But our object is not merely to contribute to exegetical theo
logy, and to vindicate the dignity and honour of Holy Scripture
in one of its portions hitherto neglected ; nor is our object
merely to give a fuller treatment of a chapter in eschatological
dogmatics, or to arrive at scriptural fundamental ideas on the
history of the world and of the Church, so as to be able to view
the times in which we live in the light of the divine word. All
these objects are of great importance, and though they refer
chiefly to the theoretical aspect of the subject, we know that all
biblical knowledge is full of life and peace, strength and consola
tion. But what is of chief importance here, is the practical
bearing of the knowledge obtained. The results of our investi
gation are of the greatest importance in influencing our life as
individual Christians and as members of a Church. They con
tain an earnest judgment on many things done, not only by our
enemies in their fury, but by many friends of the kingdom of
God, doubtless with good intention, but without such a know
ledge of the plans of God as we might possess, and for the
ignorance of which we are responsible.
The Revelation of St John, which is given to the Church to
be a lamp unto her on her dark path until the coming of the
Lord (2 Pet. i. 19), claims and deserves a much more diligent
investigation, and earnest consideration, in connection with
practical duties, than it has hitherto obtained. It is true, that
the great discrepancy between the different interpretations of
this book, forms a considerable obstacle, which can only be re
moved gradually. But so much, we trust, is evident from the
preceding pages, that this holy book does not contain a doctrine
peculiar to itself, and which is not to be found in other portions
of the Bible ; but that the fundamental truths of the Old and
New Testament are repeated here in a more condensed man
ner. We meet, in this book, the old well-known elements,

THE KINGDOM AND THE CHURCH. 427
heathenism, unfaithful Israel, the remnant of believers ; we see
here Phariseeism and Sadduceeism, disciples, high priests and
governors, the cross and the resurrection ; we meet here simple
truths, as those of the straight and the narrow way, of God's
choosing what is despised in the eyes of the world ; that the
things that are seen are temporal, the things that are not seen
are eternal ; that to whom much is given, of them much shall
be required ; that faith and patience are the only way leading
to seeing, and reigning, etc. The word of prophecy contains
nothing else but the practical application and the historical
development of these fundamental truths. Therefore, notwith
standing all disputes about different points of interpretation, the
essential truths of the Apocalypse are so distinct, that we can
plead no excuse for disregarding them ; and if we earnestly en
deavour to take them to heart, we will not fail to experience also
their divine power and consolation.
But the whole centres in the right distinction between the
kingdom and the Church ; suffering and reigning, cross and re
surrection ; or, in other words, in the knowledge of the doctrine
of the millennial kingdom. He who does not believe that the Lord
will come himself to bring about the victory of His kingdom, and
to establish it upon earth, thinks of bringing about this great
consummation by his own endeavours, and forgets the words :
"Without hands of man" (Dan. ii. 34). This is the secret
source of the most subtile and powerful delusions which are
most dangerous, especially to the elect. These seductions are
different from the Antichristian errors which the Bible charac
terises as possessing the beast nature, such as Pantheism, Mate
rialism, the spirit of the revolution, Socialism, etc. ; although
these will be yet much more dangerous when they attain to
great power. But it is under the semblance of Christianity, in
the name of Christianity, and as is thought, for Christian con
science' sake, that many things are done now-a-days which must
appear suspicious and dangerous to such as regard God's word
as the infallible guide-book of the Church. There is among us

428 SUBTLE ERRORS.
a strong tendency to change the invisible Church into a visible
Church, and the kingdom of the world into the kingdom of God.
An element of Roman papal whoredom has insinuated itself into
Protestantism ; not only among such as regard Rome with
favour, but even among the opponents of the papacy. We see
the same spirit manifest itself in various forms, whether it be
that the kingdom of God is measured by the standard of the
world, or that the Church is given into the hands of the worldly
power, or that the Church is striving after outward triumphs, or
that the gospel is divested of the offence and ignominy of the
cross, and Christianity made palatable to the world by all sorts
of concessions and compromises, or that an external perfect
Church is contemplated by the means of confessions of faith,
liturgies, etc., or even new " apostles " and miraculous gifts —
it is always the same spirit, in different forms, which oppose
each other the more violently and bitterly, as they partake in
wardly of the same character. Chiliasm is thought, in such
quarters, to be fantastic and a dream ; and we do not deny that
there may be a Chiliasm deserving such a designation. But let
us ask, whether it is more " fantastic" to expect that Christianity
will obtain universal power, in the usual course of history, by
human exertions, or to hope for the coming of the Lord (Isa.
xxv. 9). Many apparent victories of Christianity are, in truth
and reality, to be viewed as defects ; whereas, what often ap
pears to be a defect, is essentially a victory, because it is a fulfil
ment of the fundamental laws and prophecies of the gospel. Thus,
it will be proved, whether we love in Christianity what is exter
nal and acknowledged by man, or what is invisible and eternal.
However, there are even more subtle errors abroad ; errors
which start from the prophetic point of view, and tlead to an
attempt to externalise the Church ; which reach the papal prin
ciple of the visible character of the Church by a hyper-pro-
testant separatistic method. There are Christian brethren who
see clearly the affliction of Jacob, and who are moved with pity
for the people in its distress, but losing the soberness and disci-

CONCLUDING REMARKS. 429
pline of the Bible, they wish to go out of Babel before the com
mand is given from on high, and to go to a Jerusalem, as if it
were for us and not for the angels, to gather the elect (Matt.
xiii. 28, etc. ; 39 etc. ; xxiv. 30, etc.).
Let us who love the word of prophecy, not forget the pre
sent, and what has been given us already, in thinking of the
things we hope for, lest our study of prophecy degenerate into
a mere favourite pursuit of our fancy and unspiritual excite
ment. Let this hope of the kingdom take the same place in our
heart as is assigned to it in the divine word, and let us not
change the proportion in which Holy Scripture has placed it to
the fundamental truths of Christianity. Let the apostolic word
be our motto : For the grace of God, that bringeth salvation,
hath appeared to all men, teaching us that denying ungodliness
and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly,
in this present world (aeon), looking for that blessed hope, and
the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus
Christ (Titus ii. 11-13).
All Christians of the present day find it difficult to lay to
heart the words, which apply to our days as well as to the days
of Isaiah : In quietness and confidence shall be your strength
(Is. xxx. 4). But let us remember, that we are living in a time
when judgments are preparing, and our only duty is, to be the
watchful and prayerful witnesses of the coming Lord. We are,
for this reason, not slothful ; we do not fold our hands, only we
do not cherish illusive hopes and expectations from our work.
Let us be faithful in the little things entrusted to us ; as for the
great things, we cannot take them to ourselves, but we wait till
the Lord will bring them to us. We look to the souls which
have a love for the truth, and our object is to bring them to a
knowledge of salvation. If we do not attempt grand and colossal
things, if we do not waste our strength in perfecting what is ex
ternal, then we will have more real fruit unto eternal life ; and
after all, all other things are as nothing, as the chaff of the
summer thrashing floors. What our generation wants is, wit-

430 CONCLUDING REMARKS.
nesses who can lift up their voice in the spirit and power of the
prophets, men who can stand in the breach in the hour of
temptation, which is coming over the whole earth. In that hour
, we need to be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might,
so that we may achieve the victory ; then we must lift up our
heads in blessed hope and joy, knowing that our redemption
draweth nigh. May our merciful God prepare us for that hour,
by teaching us to understand aright, and to practise faithfully
the word of the Apocalypse : " Here is the patience and the
faith of the saints."

APPENDIX.

Sec. 1. The times of the world may be divided according to
different leading ideas, either into the times before and after the
birth of Christ, or into the times before and after the flood, or
into the times before the giving of the law, the times of the law
and the times of the New Testament, or in other ways still ; but
if we view the kingdom of God in connection with domestic and
political institutions, it may be regarded as a good division, and
useful in many ways, to divide the times of the world into four
periods, of which the first extends from Adam to the exodus of
the children of Israel out of Egypt ; the second, from the exodus
to the beginning of the Babylonian captivity ; the third, from
the exile to the beginning of the blessed thousand years
(Rev. xx.) ; and the fourth, which embraces the thousand years,
and lasts to the end of the world.
Sec. 2 and 3. For the first period of the world-times, God
ruled at first all men, and subsequently the better portion of
humanity, viz., the families of the patriarchs, and He ruled
through the fathers of families ; for before Nimrod kingdoms
were not known, and after him for a long period, world-kingdoms
were rare on earth. Job, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, had no
king or ruler over them, but were free people. Also in Egypt
the children of Israel dwelt at first as strangers or guests
(Ps. cv. 23 ; Acts vii. 29 ; Gen. xv. 13), and not so much as
' By Magnus Friedrich Eoos. (Comp. p. 20).

432 APPENDIX BY ROOS.
subjects ; and for this reason, the tyranny which the kings of
Egypt exercised over them, and the force wherewith they
wished to hinder them from the exodus, were most unjust.
Thus, up to the exodus, the government of the fathers of families
was the chief rule established among men, although, sooner or
later, there were established kingdoms among the heathens,
which differed in magnitude and duration, and of which the
tower of Babel was the first cause.
Sec. 4. The second period of the world-times was the period
of the free and Old Testament Theocracy, or the free royal rule of
God over His people Israel, according to the law of the Old
Testament. God united at that time the children of Israel, who
had become very numerous, that they should form one nation,
and be His people and a priestly kingdom. He no longer left
every father of a family to have the highest authority and
governing power, but He gave laws and statutes for all the
children of Israel, which Moses, the elders, the priests, the
judges, and the kings, were to enact and to administer, without
adding anything unto them or taking anything from them. But
He himself wished to be Israel's king. Thus, there was esta
blished a visible kingdom of God upon earth, which, with its
holy laws and statutes, was to be a bright light unto the whole
world, and was to allure all men to faith in Jehovah, who is the
God of the whole world.
Sec. 5. And the reason why I call this the time of the Old
Testament Theocracy, is, because we hope yet for a New Testa
ment Theocracy (see Sec. 7). Moreover, I call it free Theocracy,
because the people of Israel was not to acknowledge the rule of
another nation or king as legitimate. Although there were
occasionally, during the period of the Judges, times of bondage,
and hence times when Israel was subject to other nations, yet
such times of servitude were of brief duration, compared with
the times of liberty. They were an exception to the rule, which
does not annul, but only limit the rule. The foreign kings who
subdued Israel, were looked upon as robbers, who were allowed

APPENDIX BY ROOS. 433
by Divine permission to oppress the people for a while, but they
were not regarded as legitimate rulers of Israel ; and, therefore,
whenever Israel repented, God called up judges, who drove
away or put to death these robbers. In the times of the kings
of Israel, no strange nation subdued the whole Jewish people,
till the time of the Babylonian monarchy, or the fourth year of
Jehoiakim. From that time the Theocracy did not, it is true,
cease altogether, inasmuch as the Jews, after the return from
Babylon, observed the Jewish law as far as possible, under the
direction of their elders and priests, yet they remained subject
to the Persians, Greeks, and Romans ; and no repentance, no
zeal in God's service, no believing the words of the prophets, or
even of Christ, brought them deliverance from this bondage, till
at last the Theocracy was entirely suspended by the destruction
of Jerusalem through the Romans.
Sec. 6. The free Theocracy ceased in the first year of Nebu
chadnezzar, and the fourth year of Jehoiakim, king of Judah;
for at that time the Jewish people came, according to God's
holy will, under the supremacy of the Babylonians. In this
year, which was the 33§8 year of the world, commenced the
seventy years of the Babylonian exile, as the blessed Doctor
Bengel has demonstrated in his " Ordo Temporura." The
three last kings of the Jews, Jehoiakim, Jechoniah, and Zede-
kiah, with the Jewish nation, were subjugated by the Baby
lonians ; and when they made an atteppt to revolt, it did not
succeed, as before, in the days of King Hezekiah (2 Kings xviii.
7) ; but because it was God's will that they should serve the
Babylonians (comp. Jer. xxvii. 9-11), their resistance brought
only bitter consequences, and they did not succeed, as must
happen to all who do not submit to the ways of God, and are
not willing to take heed to the signs of the times. From that
time the Jewish people has remained subject to the Gentiles
and dispersion. After the Babylonian captivity, which the
seventy years of the Babylonian servitude rendered a very hard
time, a portion of the Jewish people returned again to their
2e

434 APPENDIX BY ROOS.
country ; yet the whole people was not gathered together, and
the efforts and undertakings of the Maccabees to deliver Israel
from the Greek dominion, was only a " little help" (Dan. xi. 34),
and to be regarded as an exception to the rule. Thus the third
period of the world-times is the period of the servitude and
dispersion of the holy people.
Sec. 7. In the fourth period of the world-times, the people of
Israel shall be again converted, gathered, freed from all foreign
supremacy, be visited by God in mercy, with many spiritual
and temporal gifts, and be established as a New Testament
Theocracy, which is the greatest glory upon earth.
Sec. 8. During the rule of the fathers of families, the Be-
deemer was promised by God, under the name of the Seed. For
this was adapted to the times. Because to men, who are not
living under civil institutions, nothing is more important than
their seed. Father of a tribe and seed were then the two most
important names upon earth. For this reason God said, to the
joy of man, that Eve would have a seed who was to bruise the
head of the serpent, that Abraham would have a seed in whom
all families of the earth would be blessed. Yet Enoch, at a time
when the wickedness of earth was exceeding great, prophesied
of the coming of the Lord as a Judge (Jude 14, 15) ; and
Jacob, when prophesying about the future possession of the
land of Canaan by his descendants, called in this prospect, the
Redeemer a Shilo, or Prince of Peace, unto whom shall be the
gathering of the nations. But when Moses the prophet was the
leader and captain of the Jews, he prophesied of the Messiah as
a prophet (Deut. xviii. 18) ; and when the Davidic kingdom was
flourishing, Christ was promised, in the Second Psalm, and in
many other passages, as a King, although there was at that time
also the prophecy of His eternal priesthood (Ps. ex. 4), because
the Levitical priesthood was then best regulated. The following
prophets, who lived during the reigns of the kings of Judah
and Israel, explained these prophecies more fully, and in this
manner, that they praise and magnify the future Saviour as a

APPENDIX BY ROOS. 435
•
king, almost throughout all their writings. The last prophets,
Ezekiel, Daniel, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi, who had lived
to see the end of the Jewish kingdom, called the Redeemer a
Shepherd, an Anointed One, Angel, Zemach. They did not
keep silence as to His kingship, but did not speak of it so fre
quently ; moreover, they distinguished the times during which
the kingdom was to come gradually, more distinctly, than the
former prophets did, so that their prophecies are very necessary
to teach us how to understand the older ones. At last the long
expected Saviour came into the world, He who is the beginning
and the end of all world-times, the salvation of the world, and
the Restorer of fallen humanity, and accomplished the work of
redemption. This appearing of life among the dead, of light
among the blind, of the Saviour among sinners, makes the third
period of the world-times, though bearing its name from the
servitude and dispersion of God's people Israel, a time of mer
ciful visitation to all who know the things which belong to their
peace. But it is in the fourth period of the world-times, that the
Saviour will be revealed in glory among Israel, and thereby
also among all nations. The fulness, or the whole multitude of
the Gentiles, will then enter into the kingdom of God, and all
Israel be saved (Rom. xi. 25). Then Israel will arise and shine,
for His light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon
him. But the Gentiles shall come to his light, and kings to the
brightness of thy rising (Is. Ix. 1-3).
Sec. 9. Under the rule of the fathers of families, there were
few institutions to check, by force, the progress of wickedness, or
to inflict punishment on evil doers. For although it is clear,
from Gen. xxx. 24, that Judah wished to punish his daughter-
in-law, Thamar, with death, on account of fornication, and this
in virtue of his being father of the family ; yet it is not probable,
that such capital punishment, or other severe measures, were
employed frequently at that period, of which there is at least no
mention made in Holy Scripture. In the kingdoms of the
heathens, which had sprung up, there were indeed civil punish-

436 APPENDIX BY ROOS.
ments, as appears in the course of Joseph's history ; men likewise
now began to carry on wars, but of short duration ; in general
men lived in great liberty. Extraordinary punishments from on
High were, therefore, peculiarly necessary under this constitution
of things, when the sword of government and of war was either
not used at all, or very sparingly. And thus the first world
was punished by the deluge, Sodom and Gomorrha with fire, the
house of Pharaoh and Abimelech with plagues (Gen. xii. 7),
Egypt and Pharaoh before and after the exodus of the children
of Israel, with very great plagues, and even death ; and as the
Theocracy was not yet firmly established in the wilderness, and
the powers appointed by God could not yet properly wield the
sword, God again and again sent extraordinary punishments.
But under the free Theocracy, and during the time of the
servitude of the holy people, the judgments of God have mostly
assumed a different shape. The sword, which government
bears, and is to unsheathe and use righteously, tyrants, who
plague a sinful nation, and foreign enemies, who invade a
country, are now the ways in which, beside the ordinary
plagues of famine and epidemics, God manifests His punish
ing justice to whole nations, and by which He accomplishes,
what, by His command, the miraculous fire had to accomplish
in the case of Sodom, the water in the case of Pharaoh and his
hosts, and the earth in the case of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram.
During the free Theocracy of the Old Testament,' the divine
law, the Urim and Thummim, the word of the prophets sent
by God, explained, threatened, or commanded to execute the
judgments and punishments of God ; but since the dispersion of
the people of God, as it is now ruled by many rulers, and
according to different heathen laws, or by the arbitrariness of
mighty men, whom God uses as His instruments, the retributive
justice of God, though it is immutable in its essence, reveals
itself in a more concealed way. A cruel man falls into the
hands of another, who is also cruel ; an unjust man is punished
by the injustice o"f his fellow ; pride oppresses pride, avarice

APPENDIX BY ROOS. 437
impoverishes avarice, wherever it sees a possibility. The world
is for the most part careless about the Word of God, and yet
fulfils the same without either knowing or wishing it, as
regards the threatenings it contains. But thanks to our Lord,
He preserves still good laws and statutes in all countries, by
which much wickedness, especially among the common people,
is justly punished. We have hints concerning the judgments
which are to take place during the last thousand years of the
world in Isa. Ix. 12, Ixv. 20; Zech. xiv. 17; Ezek. xxxviii.
19-23; Rev. xx. 7. But of this time it is said (Isa. Ix. 18),
" Violence shall no more be heard in thy land, wasting nor
destruction in thy borders : but thou shalt call thy walls Salva
tion, and, thy gates Praise." And Isa. ii. 4, " They shall beat
their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning-
hooks : nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither
shall they learn war any more." And Isa. liv. 14, " In righte
ousness shalt thou be , established : thou shalt be far from
oppression ; for thou shalt not fear : and from terror ; for it
shall not come near thee."
Sec. 10. In the same manner, as the judgments of God, by
which evil is punished and checked, are executed in different
ways in the different times and periods of the world, so, likewise,
are the ways different by which God leads His children. We
must first consider the Bevelations of God in their different modes
and gradations. During the government of the fathers of families,
there was no written word ; for Scripture commenced only in the
time of the Theocracy. In the whole book of Genesis we do not
read anything about love to God, although the hearts of the
patriarchs were not strangers to that love. But because there
was, at that time, no written law of God by which men might
see the zeal and hatred of God against sin, and because there
was no ruler upon earth to punish and avenge sin as the repre
sentative of God, it is mentioned to the praise and honour of the
patriarchs, that they feared God. Thu3 the angel said to Abra
ham, when he was about to sacrifice his son Isaac, Now, I know

438 APPENDIX BY ROOS.
that thou fearest God, Gen. xxxi. 54 ; comp. ver. 42, and Gen.
xxii. 12, xiii. 18. But after God hadrevealed himself on Mount
Sinai as a jealous and terrible God, and filled men with great
fear and awe, the commandment to love God was added ex
pressly, lest men should go too far in their fear, and merely have
a slavish terror of God ; in the same way, afterwards, in the
New Testament, when faith came, as St Paul says, Gal. iii. 23,
when the promised and expected salvation appeared in Christ
Jesus, this faith, dwelling in the heart, is more tried, exercised,
and brought forward. During the period of the fathers of fami
lies, God appeared by visiting them, thus adapting Himself to the
institutions of that period. He came as a guest, accompanied by-
two angels, to Abraham ; He gave names to Abraham, to Sara,
and to Isaac, just as fathers usually give names to their children.
He speaks to them about their seed. He appears to Jacob at
the head of a ladder, which reached from earth to heaven as a
staircase, and upon which the angels of God came down and
went up, as is done in a house. He appeared, finally, to this
same Jacob as a man, wrestled with him, and gave him the name
Israel. From all which, may be seen, the friendliness and great
condescension of God at that time, and it is therefore the more
beautiful that the patriarchs feared God in their heart, and did
not abuse His great mercy. But when God intended to establish
a new institution among men, and to prepare them more especi
ally for the knowledge of his Son, as their Redeemer, He revealed
himself upon Sinai, without image or similitude, amid thunders
and lightnings, as a holy and terrible God. Then it was mani
fest that the sinner is not only dust and ashes, as Abraham said,
but is at a great distance from God, because he is a sinner ; and
that it was no light and easy matter to open and grant, to such
a one, access to the holy God. For this purpose, the manifold
institutions of the levitical service were given to serve as types of
Christ, that the people may be taught by them the holiness of
God, the sinfulness and manifoldness of sin, and the necessity
and nature of an atonement, and be thus led to understand Christ,

APPENDIX BY ROOS. 439
and the redemption through His blood. But because God chose
the people of Israel to be likewise a kingdom, He established, also,
kingly institutions, gave kingly statutes and commandments,
ordered the ark of the covenant, with the mercy-seat and cheru-
bims, to be erected as a throne, and chose the city of Jerusalem
as His residence. He is called king for the first time, Exod. xv.
18, and when the people of Israel had to fight often afterwards,
and became a warlike nation, He is called the Lord Sabaoth, the
Lord of Hosts, which name occurs for the first time 1 Sam. xvii.
45. The Lord spoke very frequently of His kingdom by the
mouth of His servant David. In the year of the death of King
Uzziah, Isaiah saw the Lord as the immortal king of his orphaned
nations, sitting on a high and lofty throne above the temple in
Jerusalem. And when the time had come that this temple was
to be destroyed, and the Jewish people sent into captivity,
Ezekiel saw the Lord sitting on a throne above the cherubim,
and departing from the temple, Ezek. i. 26, x. 19, xi. 22, 23.
All these visions, and others, were adapted to the times in which
they were vouchsafed, and very different from the appearances
which the patriarchs, as fathers of families, saw. The royal
throne was always connected with the temple, as is the case in
the Apocalypse, Rev. vii. 15, because, Christ is to be a king on
his throne and a priest (Zech. vi. 13), and because the people,
whose king the Lord is, cannot approach Him except by a
priestly mediation. Every new manifestation and revelation of
God, as also every declaration of a new name of God, was pre
ceded by a time of great distress, because it was given, not to
satisfy curiosity, but to comfort languishing and humble souls,
and to teach them faith, patience, and hope. When afterwards
the free Theocracy of God among men was suspended, and the
people of God were given into the power of Babylonians,
Persians, Greeks, and Romans, God did not cease to bear the
name of king (comp. Zech. ix. 9), even as our Saviour, in His
deepest humiliation, confessed a good confession of His kingdom
before Pharaoh, nor did the name of Lord Sabaoth disappear,

440 APPENDIX BY ROOS.
but rather occurs the more frequently in the books of the pro
phets Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi, who, doubtless, wished to
counteract thereby the terror of the Jews, who, as a poor and
despised nation, feared the power of the heathens, and to show
them that the God in whom they believed, had hosts enough to
protect them, although they themselves possessed no earthly
power wherewith to resist and repel the enemy. Moreover, soon
after this, the Son of God revealed himself among men, by
taking upon himself our nature ; He walked before their eyes,
worked, taught, and performed miracles among them, ate and
drank with them, went to the temple as the Angel of the Cove
nant, taught in it, and purified it, and finally finished His course
before the eyes of men in His suffering and death, burial, resur
rection, and ascension. This condescension of the Son of God
to the children of men surpassed all the manifestations which had
been given to the patriarchs. They also were visited by the Son
of God in human shape, but only for a short while ; they received
comforting promises; but the work of redemption was not then
accomplished, nor was the human form then assumed by the
Lord, that human nature which He united to His divinity, and
in which He was exalted to heaven, but only a figure and shadow
of the same. But when, in the fulness of time, the Son of God
became flesh, He dwelt among us thirty-three years, united
humanity to His divinity inseparably, and accomplished the
greatest of all works, the redemption. And as He said many
things on earth, both in parables and without parable, concern
ing the kingdom of God, so John saw the throne of God (Rev.
iv.), and the Father, and the Lamb, and the Holy Ghost, and
heard, at the same time, many things about the future reign of
God. Thus the third period, though more abounding in afflic
tion than any other, contains whatever was good in the two pre
ceding ones. The merciful condescension of God towards the
patriarchs, and the priestly, royal institution given to the people
of Israel ; in short, everything that had been revealed before, in
a fragmentary manner, was summed up in the person of Christ ;

APPENDIX BY ROOS. 441
but, at the same time, everythingbecame more heavenly, invisible,
spiritual, so that a greater amount of faith is now required to
take hold of it. The more the love of God reveals itself, the
more it conceals itself from the eyes of reason. ' The outward
glory and splendour which the types of Christ possessed, as, for
instance, Melchisedec, Aaron, David, was not to be seen by
human eyes in the person of Christ himself. His incomparable
excellence, beauty, and majesty, were invisible, and His outward
appearance such as could not please the taste of this world, Isa.
liii. The cross of Jesus, the preaching of the apostles, was, in
the judgment of natural reason, more foolish than the preaching
of Moses and Abraham, and yet it accomplished more than
Moses' and Aaron's preaching. Because it was Christ's will to
appear upon earth in the humble form of a servant, He chose the
third part of the world- times, which is the darkest of all as re
gards His people, and it is according to the spirit of this period
that His apostles and disciples are held up, to this day, to be a
folly and a curse, and that His kingdom exists and grows under
the enmity and oppression of the world, in a hidden and wonder
ful manner. But, notwithstanding, the faithful people of God,
also such as are descended from Gentiles have, in Christ, the ful
ness of mercy and truth. They are no longer strangers and
aliens in the kingdom of God, but fellow-citizens of the holy
Israelites, who, in times of old, during- the Theocracy, had ob
tained grace to be citizens in the kingdom of God, and they are
now of the household of God, as the patriarchs were, who walked
before God in childlike humility and trust. But in the last
thousand years of the world, this knowledge and enjoyment will
be much greater, and more universal. Israel or Zion will then
be the chief church of the earth ; the glory of the Lord will be
seen specially upon them ; but the Gentiles, also, will walk in
their light, and kings in their brightness. The priesthood of
Christ will then be explained much more deeply and fully, both
by the types and the writings of the New Testament, in that
temple of which Ezekiel speaks. The Spirit of God will then

442 APPENDIX BY ROOS.
bestow great gifts, and produce mighty effects. Then the Song
of Solomon, which is now the most obscure book in Holy Scrip
ture, will be clearly understood, and correspond more than any
other with the experience of the Church, for the marriage-feast
of the Lamb will be celebrated in heaven (according to Rev.
xix.), and on earth it will be a Solomonic period, peaceful, quiet,
glorious, nuptial, not in a carnal sense, but in a spiritual, even
as the Scripture of all the prophets testifies. Israel will then be
again a Theocracy ; it will be ruled, not according to worldly,
but according to divine statutes ; not by strangers, but by Israel
ites ; however, there will be then no king, but a prince, and thus
the blessed Sabbatic period of the Judges will return, not in the
glory of the Old, but of the New Testament (Ezek. xiv., etc ;
Isa. i. 26). Such will be the kingdom of the Lord, Obad. 21 ;
Rev. xi. 15.
Sec. 11. God leads His people by the statutes which He gives
to His believers, or by the rules according to which their conduct
to others is to be ordered. The command of love is, and always
must be, the holy law for all times, to which all men must con
form, because it flows from the nature of God, who is love ; but
the outward manifestations of this love are different in different
periods of the world. During the government of the fathers of
families, the holy patriarchs had to suffer and overlook much
evil, and could not check it, because they had not power for so
doing, and the authorities, who possess such power, were not as
yet instituted by God. Melchisedec was king of Salem, and at
the same time a priest ; but Abraham, and the patriarchs before
him and after him, were not invested with such an office, and
hence they could exercise the duties of love, and follow their zeal
agajnst evil, only in as far as their position of fathers permitted.
If they were treated unjustly, their best course was to suffer and
to yield, to escape and to flee, because there was no ruler to
protect them, and they were not rulers themselves. (Gen. xxvi.
22 ; 1 Cor. vi. 7). Abraham's expedition against the kings. of
the East was something extraordinary ; and Abraham did not

APPENDIX BY ROOS. 443
make any conquest or take any booty for himself; but God
rescued Lot, and other prisoners, and their possessions, through
Abraham, from -the hands of their enemies, that all heathens
might see that the faith of one man is stronger than the united
might of many ungodly nations. After the establishment of the
Theocracy, the elders, the judges, the kings, and, in extraordinary
cases, even the prophets were invested with power to inflict
capital punishment according to the divine law, and this not only
for crimes referring to civil life, but also for such as refer to re
ligion. For as God had established a visible kingdom on earth,
why should He not inflict visible punishment of death on all who
sin against Him their King, out of malice and wickedness? for no
Israelite could plead ignorance, but all apostasy from their God
and King arose .from wilfulness. Besides, the whole people of
Israel had the right to conquer the Holy Land promised to them,
by the edge of the sword, to exterminate the Canaanites destined
to destruction by the express command of God, to defend them
selves afterwards with the sword against all heathens who wished
to disturb them in their quiet possession of the land and its
liberty ; not to submit to any foreign king, and if it should be
subjugated for a while, and be forced to serve a foreign power,
to take the first opportunity to shake off such a yoke, as an ille
gitimate one, and as opposing their privileges, even though this
should make the shedding of blood necessary. But how differ
ent was every thing after the Jewish people had come into the
power of the Babylonians in the fourth year of King Jehoiakim.
He had to obey the king of Babylon, and when he tried to shake
off his yoke he came into great distress. Jechoniah likewise had
to surrender to the Babylonians ; Jeremiah gave the same advice
to Zedekiah, who perished miserably because he did not follow
it. After the Babylonian exile neither Zerubbabel, nor Mordecai,
nor Nehemiah, made any attempt to liberate their nation ; no
prophet called them to do so, as Deborah called Barak, nor an
angel, as in the case of Gideon. The Jewish people were to
serve the Gentiles, hence Daniel, Haggai, and Zechariah, men-

444 APPENDIX BY ROOS.
tion the year of the reign of the Persian kings as the dates of
their prophecy, and this indicates that they are their subjects.
God sent the Jewish people help against the tyranny of the
Syrian kings in the Maccabeean heroes, and gave them some
liberty for a short time, but it was of very short, duration ; and
then the nations came under the rule of the Romans and the
Herodians, and from that period all attempts to free the Jews
from the rule of the Gentile nations only aggravated their sad
condition. Hence our Saviour himself exhorted the Jews to
give unto Csesar the things that are Caesar's, and commanded
His disciples to take to flight, when the Jewish war, in which
Jerusalem was destroyed, would commence, and not to take any
part in the insurrection of the Jews. The apostles and primi
tive Christians obeyed most faithfully the heathen governments,
although hated and persecuted by them, and for our own time
also the following words are our rule : Let every soul be sub
ject unto the higher powers (Rom. xiii. 1), and " He that (wishes
to defend and spread religion by outward force, and therefore)
leadeth unto captivity shall go into captivity ; he that killeth
with the sword must be killed with the sword. Here is the
patience and the faith of the saints" (Rev. xiii. 10). Behold, thus
the statutes of the saints vary with. the times, but be who does
not consider the character of the period in which he lives, will
act foolishly and do harm to himself. In the last thousand years
of the world the people of Israel will be delivered out of the
hands of its enemies by the Lord himself, without human
weapons ; for the Lord will utterly defeat Antichrist and his
army. Then Israel will be a free nation, and no more have any
occasion for war, even as all other nations will then give up
warfare (Isa. ii.). Hence, what is said, Isa. xi. 14, about Israel
ruling over Philistines, Edomites, Moabites, and Ammonites,
and " spoiling them of the East," does not refer to warlike vio
lence, or unjust spoliation, but the meaning of it is, that the
nations mentioned will acknowledge the pre-eminence of Israel,
and freely be subject to the Jewish people in all things, and allow

APPENDIX BY ROOS. 445
them to rule over them according to the royal law of love, and
this ig in harmony with the order which God has instituted in
His Church, according to which the weak follows the strong, the
disciple his teacher. Israel will spoil those of the East in the
same way as you take a sharp knife from a child, exercising
your parental authority for its good, or as one robs a kind friend
of the gift which he gives freely, and out of his own accord.
With regard to the temporal welfare of God's people, which
must also be considered in treating of God's leadings, it seems
that the patriarchs enjoyed it to a great extent. They lived
long, they were highly honoured, they had sufficient land for
themselves and their cattle. No government oppressed them,
no war disturbed them. But they had also sufferings ; and the
word : The Lord chastenettr whom He loveth, was true at that
time also. However, for a long time the dark paths of the cross,
through which God leads His people, were not known upon
earth, as appears from the history of Job, whose extraordinary
and manifold afflictions — but not equal to those of the apostles —
were a stumbling-block to himself and to his friends, who were in
other respects wise men. Towards the. end of the period of
the fathers of families, tribulations became more frequent and
heavy, and life shorter ; thus we read that Jacob had to suffer
more than Isaac ; Isaac more than Abraham. During the
Theocracy there were many plagues, which fell on the just and
on the unjust ; for wherever the great majority of the people
fell from God, war, famine, pestilence, tyranny, etc., were not
kept back on account of the few righteous, but they being mem
bers of the kingdom, had to suffer with the wicked ; the suffer
ings were a blessing to God's people and a curse to the unbelievers.
Afterwards, God showed what a people had to suffer from the great
power of a godless man, who abuses it to persecute the just and
to suppress the true worship of God ; for example, in the case of
Saul and of Ahab. From the example of David, and of all the
prophets, the people were to learn the nature of salutary spiritual
conflicts and troubles. During this period, it is likely that the

446 APPENDIX BY ROOS.
people of God enjoyed earthly prosperity; whenever it was
governed according to the laws of God, which are the most
righteous and equitable of all laws, they experienced that, under
the shelter of a divine form of government, they could lead a
quiet and peaceable life in all soberness and honesty ; moreover,
the Old Covenant contained many and special promises of tem
poral blessings, of which God's people took hold in faith, though
they were exercised, and their patience sorely tried, and though
they were sometimes chastised, or even put to death as martyrs.
In the third period of the world, general and individual sufferings
became more frequent and more severe. The two last destruc
tions of Jerusalem, the Babylonian captivity, the Persian, Greek,
and Roman servitude of the Jews, the distress which they had
to suffer during the wars of the Syrians and Egyptians, the
cruel religious persecution of Antiochus Epiphanes, etc., were
heavier afflictions than had been experienced in the preceding
ages. Finally, the Lord Jesus Christ himself opened fully the
path of sufferings and the cross, by His doctrine and blessed
example ; and the apostles, when they wished to glory, gloried
in their tribulations, and rejoiced that they were allowed to suffer
with Christ ; and, indeed, their sufferings were heavier, and
lasted longer, than those of the patriarchs and prophets, but the
spirit of glory, and the rich blessing of God, rested on them.
After the coming of Christ, His Church had scarcely any out
ward rest for two centuries, and many thousand Christians were
persecuted, maltreated, and put to death. After that arose the
Arian, Mohammedan, and Papal oppressions, in short, the dis
tress signified in the Revelations of St John by the seven trum
pets, and which will only end when the wrath of God has poured
out the seven vials. The whole third period of the world abounds
much more in afflictions than the others, and he who wishes to
live aright in our times must try to understand the cross. Since
the third year of Jehoiakim there has not been a time equal in
temporal prosperity to that of the patriarchs, or judges, or David,
Solomon, Asa, Jehoshaphat, etc. But there will be times of

APPENDIX BY ROOS. 447
greater prosperity than the earth has ever seen. Temporal
blessings and spiritual prosperity will go together in the mil
lennium. Long life (Is. lxv. 20, 21, 22), peace (Is. ii. 4), honour
(Is. Ix. 14, 15, 16), righteous government (Is, liv. 14; Ix. 18) —
all the rivers of blessings, which flowed in the periods of the
patriarchs and the Theocracy, will meet, and the brightness of
the New Testament, the spirit of grace and of supplication
poured out abundantly, and the transcendant knowledge of
Christ and His gospel will fill all hearts with peace and joy, and
sanctify the enjoyment of all earthly blessings. Oh for the
blessedness of the people who lived then to see the works of the
Lord upon earth. But how great is the blessedness of them who
will partake at that time of the marriage supper of the Lamb in
heaven. Sec. 12. The transition from one period to another was always sig
nalised by remarkable events. Judgment always begins at the
house of God, after that even severer judgment is sent on His
enemies. Israel was sorely afflicted in Egypt ; but the Egyp
tians were plagued with ten plagues ; Pharaoh and his hosts
were destroyed, but Israel was delivered. In the wilderness
the unbelieving Jews were destroyed, but soon after the Canaan -
ites were exterminated. At the end of the second, period, great
judgments were sent on the Jews, as Jeremiah describes in his
Lamentations. But, soon after the wrath of God came over
Babylon, and the Jews received liberty to return to their land.
But as the time of servitude was to continue for a long time,
there arose always new enemies and persecutors of Israel and
the Church, who end, without exception, in destruction. But
finally, the Church will have to suffer grievously from the enmity
of Antichrist, but will obtain perfect liberty after his downfal.
In like manner, the last day will make a perfect end of every
thing evil, and transplant the whole Church into the glorious
liberty of the children ofGod (Rom. viii. 22). These two great
and principal changes of the world are fully described in the
prophetic word, in order that God's people may be warned be-

448 APPENDIX BY ROOS.
forehand. God revealed the exodus to Abraham four hundred
years before it took place (Gen. xv. 13, 14). Jacob prophesied
concerning it and the condition of his descendants during the
Theocracy (Gen. xlviii. 21, and xlix.). Joseph also spoke of
the exodus (Gen. iv. 25). Isaiah, Jeremiah, and other prophets,
gave many prophecies concerning the Babylonian captivity and
the return from this exile ; and the .same prophets, as well as
those who' lived during and after the exile, but especially the
Revelations of St John, prophesy frequently the downfal of the
New Testament Babylon, the destruction of the beast, and the
deliverance of the Church of Christ. Holy Scripture speaks in
many places of the final judgment. Thus the Holy Ghost re
vealed through the prophets the great changes, which are of
peculiar importance to the chosen seed. If we take heed to
these, we will interpret prophecy aright, whereas many mistakes
are committed by attaching importance to this or that war and
calamity, which, though they may be important for those immedi
ately affected by it, do not cause a great change on earth. We
remark, however, that at every one of these four great transition
times, the Lord sends great men to guide and help His Church.
Thus, He sent Moses at the exodus out of Egypt, Jeremiah,
Ezekiel, and Daniel, at the commencement of the Babylonian
captivity, and each one of these had a different mission ; the
first remained in the land of Israel, the second was in Babylon,
the third at the Babylonian and Persian courts. Shortly before
the destruction of Antichrist, the two witnesses, which are de
scribed, Rev. xi-, will be sent of God, I do not know whether
God will send such great men previous to the final judgment,
but it is probable.
Sec. 13. Moses, in, his first book, describes the rule of the fathers
of families ; hence it is not strange that he narrates such appa
rently insignificant things, and includes marriages, quarrels be
tween brothers, compacts and contracts between neighbours,
buying and dividing of property, money affairs, births of child
ren, stories of bond-servants and maid-servants, etc. Such were

APPENDIX BY ROOS. 449
at that time the most important instances in which God revealed
His power and mercy, love and righteousness. The first book
of Mqses is the best family-book, from which we may learn
what is necessary for a family. After families come kingdoms,
therefore the Bible gives first the history of the former. But as .
the institution of families continues during the kingdoms, this
book of Moses is useful in all times. The book of Job belongs to
the same period, for his long life proves that, he lived either in
the time or before the time of Moses. We read in this book
that Job, a good and upright man, was sorely afflicted in body
and soul, house and goods, honour and children ; that Satan
and earthly enemies, and inexperienced friends, and even his
own wife, were united against him. Job was no king, and had
no prince or ruler over him, therefore he could not ask any one
to protect him against the Chaldeans and Arabs, who had
robbed him ; and for this reason he does not complain that
justice was refused him. He was the free ruler of his house
and numerous servants as Abraham ; but he had, moreover,
"his .help in the gate," from which it is likely that he stood in
connection' with other tribes, with whom he judged people
under the gate.
Sec. 14. The history of the establishment of the Theocracy or
the kingly government of God over His people, is described in
Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy ; but its subse
quent history is contained in the other books of the Old Testa
ment, with the exceptions of the books of Daniel, Haggai, Zecha
riah, and Malachi, Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther. The most
flourishing part of this period was the time when there was no
visible king, and every one did as he thought right, when the
people of Israel enjoyed the greatest liberty in serving God and
obeying His commandments. At that time Israel enjoyed rest,
a foretaste of heaven, whence the expression, " the land had
rest," is of such frequent occurrence in the book of Judges,
whereas it occurs only once in the times of the kings, and then
only as referring to ten years (2 Chron. xiv. 1). The judges,
2 F

450 APPENDIX BY ROOS.
which the Lord gave to the people by His immediate call when
ever necessity required it, were not such burdens on the people as
the kings proved afterwards, even as Samuel foretold them (1
Sam. viii.). Moreover, in the time of the judges the people were
more easily turned to repentance after they had departed from
the right way, by chastisements and the authority of the judges,
whereas, in the latter times of the kings, neither the severest
afflictions, nor the prophets so frequently sent to them, nor even
the kings (for example, 2 Chron. xv. 17) were able to lead the
people back to the true worship of God after their falling into
idolatry and all kinds of godlessness. Therefore, when God pro
mised to the people of Israel, by His prophet Isaiah, the future
better times, He says : " Ah, I will ease me of mine adversaries
and avenge me of mine enemies, and I will turn my hand upon
thee, and purely purge away thy dross, and take away all thy
tin, and I will restore thy judges as at the first, and thy coun
sellors as at the beginning ; afterward thou shalt be called
the city of righteousness, the faithful city" (Isaiah i. 25, 23,
26). Sec. 15. The book of Daniel comprises the whole third period,
or the whole time of the servitude and dispersion of the holy
people. Hence the importance of this book, and its great use
for our times. And surely this book will find many readers and
investigators at this time, the end of the third period, who will
find in it great wisdom, for1 during the fourth period of the
world it will not be so necessary. But this period is described
not only by Daniel, but also by Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi ;
also, the evangelists and apostles lived during this period, and
both as prophets and teachers they speak of its peculiarities.
There is, moreover, no book in the Old Testament in which
mention is not made of this period, for all the prophecies of
Christ's incarnation, suffering, death, resurrection, and ascen
sion, as also the prophecies relating to the dispersion of Israel,
refer to this time. But Daniel has this advantage, that he
lived at the beginning of this period, and that he described it to

APPENDIX BY ROOS. 451
its end ; some beautiful but passing glances into the last period
of the world were likewise granted him.
Sec. 16. The Revelation of John, or rather of the Lord Jesus
Christ, resembles in many ways the prophecies of Daniel, em
bracing as it does, a great part of the same period described by
Daniel ; but the two books differ in several respects. Daniel
begins with an earlier period than the Revelations, for the latter
does not speak of the Babylonian, Persian, and Greek king
doms, which, at the time of John, belonged to the past (?).
Whereas the Apocalypse extends into more remote times than
Daniel, and also contains a description of the last thousand
years of the world (the beginning and general character of
which were revealed also to Daniel), as also the final judgment,
the New Jerusalem, etc. The prophecies of Daniel refer, in the
first place, to Christ and the Roman destruction of Jerusalem
(Dan. ix.). Then they describe the last Antichrist (xi. 36).
But the great intermediate period from the destruction of Jeru
salem to Antichrist, is filled up by the Revelations of St John,
which extends to the times after Antichrist. Besides, a Daniel,
who was a holy statesman, described the history of the people of
God, viewed in relation to the four world-kingdoms. John, on
the other hand, as an apostle and teacher of the Church, had to
view history from the Christian or churchly aspect, though he
mentions worldly kings and kingdoms occasionally. In the
prophecies of Daniel, the four world kingdoms, which he saw
represented by different symbols, form the thread which runs
through the whole book, so that he prophesies the sufferings of
the people of God under each of these kingdoms. It is quite
different injhe case of John. He saw and described the history
of the Church during and after the fourth world-kingdom, but
he did not see that kingdom itself under any symbol (?), whereas
he saw the Church as a woman clothed with the sun (Rev. xii.),
which Daniel did not see apart from the kingdoms of the world.
Thus, Daniel saw the last Antichrist as a horn growing out of
the fourth beast or fourth kingdom, but John described it as a

452 APPENDIX BY ROOS.
separate beast, having an individual existence. Daniel called
him a king, and dwells at length on his worldly conquests and
warfares ; John looked more to his spiritual tyranny and se
duction ; for which reason he adds a second beast, the false
prophet, who comes in the semblance of spirituality. Thus,
Antichrist and his followers are described by the two prophets,
Daniel and Isaiah. Isaiah xxix. and Joel iii., and Zechariah
xii., xiii., and xiv., describe more particularly the army of Anti
christ or the heathens which came up against Jerusalem and
Israel, but Antichrist himself is not mentioned in their prophecy.
Thus, one prophet supplements the other, for they all pro
phesied only " in part." What was obscure to the one was re
vealed to the other ; what is only briefly described by the one
is more fully prophesied by the other.
Sec. 17. With regard to the fourth period of the world, or the
thousand last years of the world, there is no book of the Bible
which treats of them exclusively ; but the promises referring to
that blessed time are scattered throughout the Scriptures, and
added as a source of consolation and hope to the prophecies
concerning the dangers and afflictions of the Church. And let
this suffice. In this order we must speak and write about it.
It is revealed, not to satisfy curiosity, but to strengthen our
faith and to quicken our hope. It is easy for us to bear good
and joyful events whenever they come, though they were not
circumstantially foretold ; but it* consoles a Christian, who is
often grieved and distressed in these dark times, and who has a
zeal for the honour of Jesus Christ and' His kingdom, to look
forward to the golden times, when all pia desideria will be ful
filled and realised, and to see them even now in the mirror of
the divine word.

INDEX

AUTHORS AND SUBJECTS.

Abomination of desolation, 105-7.
Adam, the book of, referred to, 41.
Advent of Christ, the second, 226,
229,321,322.
Aeon, the present and future, 226,
227, 330.
Afflictions of God's people, 445,446.
Ai&v ouro; and a.luv [AlWuv, 330.
Amner, Richard, his essays on the
Prophecies of Daniel cited, 181.
Analysis of the 70 weeks of Daniel,
131, etc.
Andreas of Cesarea referred to, 403,
404.
Angels, their ministry, 56-58, 142.
Ansbertus referred to, 404.
Antichrist, 39, 40, 42, 58, 208, 224 ; his
attributes, 225; a person, 303.
Antichristian power judged, 319.
Antiochus Epiphanes, the Antichrist
of the Old Testament, 54, 56, 58,
59, 64, 163, 208 ; not referred to in
Dan. ix., 157—160 ; nor in the first
six chapters, 178; and the Messiah,
Ui3.
A»*>Xtn|>K, meaning of, as distinguish
ed from Tgo^T6/«, 80-82
Apocalypse, the date of, 235; starting
point of, 235-9 ; difficulty of explain
ing it, 233; modern interpretation,
359, ete.
Apocalypses of the Old and New Tes
taments compared, 76-79, 337, 338 ;
apocryphal, 41, 390.
Apocalyptic prophecy, object of, 70 ;
for whom written, 72, 73; peculiar
characteristic differences from other
prophecies, 74-76; subjective form
of, 80-3 : objective form, symbolism,
83-90; apocryphal imitations of, 71,
72.

Apocalyptic state, 81, 82.
Apocryphal apocalypses referred to,
41, 390.
Apostaey of the last times, 315.
Apostate Israelites, referred to in
Daniel, 165.
Apostles, the twelve, judging the
twelve tribes. of Israel, 355.
Arndt, John, referred to, 369.
Assyria and Egypt, why not mentioned
in Daniel, 180.
Athnac, peculiar position of, in Dan.
ix., 135.
Auberlen, Die Theosophie Otingers,
etc., referred to, 327.
Augustine, quoted, 8.
Baader, Franz von, quoted, 14.
Babel, the tower of, 207.
Babylon, the mystical, 275; and Jeru
salem, 291.
Babylonish captivity, the signifipanee
of, 15, etc.
Bacon on the nature of prophecy, 26.
Balaam compared with Daniel, 44-7.
Bahr's Symbolik referred to, 138.
Bauer, Bruno, referred to, 181.
Baumgarten's History of the Apostolic
Church, quoted, 7, 201, 202, 208,
231, 336; criticism on Hengsten
berg's Commentary on the Apoca
lypse, quoted, 410.
Baur, his and Zeller's Theologische
Zahrbucher, referred to, 79.
BSeAuj- .UK TV,i i^ifA&tauas, 106.
Bear and leopard of Daniel, 190.
Beast, with seven heads and ten horns,
263; deadly wound healed, 29fi;
which was, and is not, and is to re
turn, 296.
Beasts, the four wild, of Daniel, 35-8,

454

INDEX OP AUTHORS AND SUBJECTS.

168, etc., 183, 184; of the reve
lations of John, 237, etc.
Beck, J. T., quoted, 361.
Beda, referred to, 404.
Bengel, his view of Daniel,, 26 ; of the
70 weeks; his chronological calcu
lations of prophetic times, 365-9;
view of the woman of Revelation xii.
370 ; of the beast, 370, 371 ; remarks
on his apocalyptic expositions, 373 ;
and Spener, 374.
Bertholdt's view of the four monar
chies, 169.
Bleek, referred to, 10.
Blessings in the millennium, 447.
Blood-guiltiness of the harlot, 289.
Bram Blicke, on the unity of the laws
pervading all religions and all orders
of created beings, 87.
Buddeus, referred to, 118.
Burk, Bengel's Leben und Werken,
cited, 365, 372, 377.
Calovius, referred to, 118.
Calvin, on the captivity, 19; on the
stone that smote the great image,
33 ; on the 70 weeks, 124.
Captivity, the Babylonish, 15.
Chiliasm, 326 ; and the Papacy, 375.
Christ, the three stages of His conflict
with Satan, 253, 254; His second
advent, 226, 229, 321, 322.
Christendom, corrupt, the harlot of the
Revelation, 293.
Christianity, its spread and influence,
227, 228.
Christianization of the world-power,
296, etc.
Christocracy, 337.
Chronology, the uncertainty of ancient,
126.
Chronological calculations of prophetic
times by Bengel, 365-9.
Chronological calculations of the 70
weeks 14:7 etc
Church.'of God, 227, 238, 239 ; flying
into the wilderness, 249, etc. ; history
of, and the world-power, 272, etc. ;
and state, 284 ; reign of, 332 ; trans
figuration, 333.
Churches, the seven, of Asia, 336-8.
Cicero, quoted, 133.
Civilization, its character and worth,
203, etc.
Coming of Christ, the second, 226,
229, 321, 322.
Corrodi, referred to, 152.
Costa, Dr Isaac da, his Israel und die
Volker, quoted from, 424.
Covenant, the, confirmed, 104, etc.

Daniel, difference between him and
other prophets, 2, 3 ; his position at
the Babylonian Court, 20, etc. ; in
structed in the wisdom of the Chal
dean Magi, 21, 22; his purity and
faithfulness, 22-23; compared with
Joseph, 23, 24 ; with Balaam, 44-7 ;
remarkable events in his life, 63, and
John 236, etc.
Daniel, the book of : difference between
it and other prophets, 2, 3 ; its self-
testimony, 4, 5 ; testimony of thS
New Testament to, 5, 6 ; of the
Church to, 6, etc. ; present aspect
of the question concerning, 9, etc. ;
reaction in favour of, II ; position in
the Hebrew canon, 24-6 ; compared
with the Apocalypse of John, 25;
contents and division of, 27-31 : why
written in two different dialects, 29-
30 ; incidental proof of its antiquity,
60 ; its use for our times, 450.
Davidson, Dr, referred to, 407.
Decree to rebuild Jerusalem, 112, etc.
Delitzsch, Biblisch Prophetische The-
, ologie, 133, 219 ; referred to, 373,
392.
Development of humanity, 198-203.
Devil, the ; three stages of his conflict
with Christ, 253, etc. ; his rule in
heaven, 254 ; history of, 256, 257 ;
ejection from heaven, 257 ; perse
cutes the Church, 260, etc.
De Wette's Introdnctiou quoted or re
ferred to, 10, 11, 112, 176 ; exposition
of the Revelation, 360 ; his interpre-
tion of, criticised, 387, etc.
Deyling referred to, 118.
AmcLtaffuiin, 97.
Dillinan's Book of Adam, referred
to, 41.
Dionysius of Halicarnasse quoted, 223.
Dogmatic argument against the book
of Daniel, 10.
" Door of hope for Britain and Chris
tendom," quoted, 209.
Dorner's Dissertatio de ovatione
Christi eschatologiea, referred to,
354.
Dragon and the woman, 240, etc.
Dreams as a mode of divine revela
tion, 81.
Drechsler, referred to, 248.
Duke of Manchester's Times of Daniel
referred to, 143.
Eagle, the wings of a great, 249, 260.
Earth, the ; its symbolic import, 245,
246; helping the woman, 261 ; to be
governed by Christ, 330.

INDEX OF AUTHORS AND SUBJECTS.

455

Ebrard, quoted, 10, 102, 174 ; on the
seventy weeks, 125; his Offeuba-
rung, 189, 362, 388-9; his view of
Revelation stated, 415-19; criticised,
419-23.
Egypt and Assyria; why not men
tioned in the Prophecies of Daniel,
180 ; its symbolic import, 249.
Eiohhorn quoted, 24.
Elliott's Horse Apocalypticae, referred
to, 360; statement of the views it
propounds, 379-81 ; criticisms on,
385-7.
Ephrem Syrus referred to, 168.
Ewald, die Propheten des Alten
Bundes, cited, 103, 143 ; his view of
the 70 weeks, 144 ; of the four mo
narchies, 171 ; Commentarius Apo-
cal. crit. exeget. referred to, 360.
Ezra and Nehemiah ; their labours for
the restoration of the Jewish civil
and religious polity, 112, etc.
Fabri referred to, 377.
Families, rule of the fathers of, 344,
etc., 348.
Family Book, Genesis so called, 449.
Fathers of Families, their rule, 434,
etc., 448.
Flood of waters cast forth after the
woman by the dragon, 261.
Four beasts, the, of Daniel, 168, etc.,
183, 184.
' kingdoms of the world, the, 198.
' the number ; its mystical signifi
cance, 133, 183.
Fourth monarchy, the, 192, etc. ; its
relation to the Messianic kingdom,
216; its character, 225-6.
Gaussen referred to, 118, 220; his
Daniel le Prophete referred to, 360;
statement of the views it propounds
of the book of Revelation, 381-4;
criticism on, 385-7.
Geir, referred to, 118.
Ttvsai., its import, 354.
Generation and " this generation," 354.
Gerlach referred to, 118.
Gieseler's Kirchengeschichte, quoted,
403.
Goat, the, he and ram, of Daniel, 190.
Great men, their appearance before
great events, 448.
Grecian monarchy, the, 189-97.
Grotius, referred to, 168, 181.
Hagenbach quoted, 5.
Hahn, J. M., Briefe und Lieder fiber
die Offenbarung, cited, 293.

Harlot, the great, 274, 296.
Harlot and the false prophet, 307.
Harlot and beast, 316.
Harlot judged first, 317.
Havernick's Introduction to the Old
Testament, referred to, 8; com
mentary on Daniel, referred to or
quoted, 26, 92, 174, 189, 218.
Haymon, Bishop of Halberstadt, re
ferred to, 404.
Heads, the seven, of the beast, 266-
72.
Heathen, the, and Israel, at the second
advent of Christ, 339, 340.
Hegel, referred to, 24, 202.
Heine, referred to, 118.
Hengstenberg, opens the struggle with
rationalism on the authenticity of
Daniel, 12 ; his Beitrage and Christ
ology, quoted, or referred to, 27, 74,
218; his Christology, 92, 106; his
View of the Seventy "Weeks, 124, etc.,
132 ; his Commentary on the Reve
lations, 362 ; View of the Revelations,
407-9 ; Criticism on, 409-15.
Herodian, quoted, 223.
Herodotus, referred to, 202.
Hess, quoted, 128.
Hippolytus, referred to, 403, 404.
History, its profound importance,
201-2.
Hitzig, his Commentary on Daniel,
quoted, or referred to, 4, 10, 40, 125,
130, 132, 192, 193 ; calculation of the
Seventy "Weeks, 144, 145, 149,150;
on the Confirmation of the Cove
nant, Dan. ix., 156 ; View of the four
Monarchies, 166-170, 189.
Hofmann, W., quoted, 43 ; referred to,
US.
Hofmann, J. Chr. K.; his Weisagung
and Erfullung, referred to, 12 ; his
Schriftbeweis, 99, 334 ; Die 70 Jahr.
etc., 125, 143; calculation of the
Seventy Weeks, 144, 145, 147-9, 150,
151, 155 ; his Views of the Revela
tions criticised, 398-407 ; variously
referred to, 40, 156, 158, 174, 231,
236, 362, 396, 397.
Horn, the little, 208.
Horns, the ten, 192, 199; the three
rooted up, 192, 193.
Irenaeus, referred to, 403, 404.
Israel, and the Christian Congrega
tion, compared as to position and
privileges, 76, 77 ; at the second ad-
' vent of Christ, 340-50.
Israelites, the apostate, referred to in
Daniel, 165.

456

INDEX OF AUTHORS AND SUBJECTS.

Jahn, referred to, 170.
Jerome, quoted, 7, 8.
Jerusalem and Babylon, 291.
Jews persecuted by Antichrist, 321 ;
and heathens at the second advent
of Christ, 338-40.
John, his position in the history of
Revelation, 235; and Daniel com
pared, 23, etc.
Josephus, his Bel. Jud., quoted, 107,
129 ; contra Apion, 115; his Archa-
logiai, 128.
Judaising Gnostics, 308.
Judgment of the Church and the
world-power, 313.
Judgments of God, variously executed,
435-7, 447.
Keil, his Introduction to the Old Tes
tament, referred to, 12, 131 ; quo
tation from, respecting the miracles
in Daniel, 51.
Kingdom of God, 40, etc., 226; and
the kingdom of the world, 236 ; their
development in history, 240, etc. ;
of Christ, 325.
Kingdoms of the world, the four, 198,
etc.
Kings and Priests, 335, 336.
Kleinert, referred to, 118.
Knobel's opinion of Daniel, cited, 10.
Kurtz, Geschichte des Alten Bundes,
referred to, 140 ; his Lehrbuch, 217,
232.
Lange, J. P., his Positive Dogmatik,
quoted, 69 ; Apostalisches Zeitalter,
quoted, 188, 204, 261.
Lechler, Das Apost. und Nachapost.
Zeitalter, quoted, 326.
Lectures on the Prophet Daniel,
' quoted, 37.
Lengerke's View of the Four Mo
narchies of Daniel, 169, 170; enu
meration of the ten Syrian Kings,
whom he supposes to be represented
by the ten horns, 192.
Leo, Heinrich, referred to, 202.
Leopard and bear of Daniel, 190.
Lepsius, referred to, 60.
Lucke, Einleitung in die Offenbarung
Johannis, referred to, 3, 361, 364,
403, 404 ; cited respecting the Jewish
Sibylistic, 41 ; on the Apocalyptic
State, 81, 82 ; his Views of the Apo
calypse, 360; his views criticised,
389-92; cited, 229.
Luthardt, Das Johannische Evange
lium, referred to, 258.
Luther, his View of Daniel's Four

Great Empires, 8, 33; variously
cited, 55, 59. 217, 362.
Lutterbeck's Neutestamentl. Lehrbe-
griffe, referred to, 22.
Man child, the, of Revelations xii., 243,
etc.
Marriage relation between God and
his Church, 241.
Martensen, Christliche Dogmatik, re
ferred to, 138. 209.
Maschiach Nagid, 102, 138, 145, 155.
Median Kingdom, the, 187-9.
Medo-Persian Empire, the, 187-91.
Menken, das Monarchieenbild, re
ferred to, 33.
Messiah, the, of Daniel, 40-4, 96, etc. ;
cut off, 100, etc.
Messianic prophecies, their gradual
unfolding, 434, 435.
Michael, the archangel, 56, 57, 254.
Millennium, the, 324, etc., 358.
Miracles recorded in Daniel, 51.
Mission of great men before extraor
dinary events, 448.
Monarchies, the Four, and the King
dom of God, 31, etc., 168, etc.
Monarchy, the Fonrth, 192; its rela
tion to the Messianic Kingdom, 216;
its character, 225, 226/
Moon, the, its symbolic import, 245,
246.
Mountain and Mountains, symbolic
import, 268-270.
Muller, Johannis Von, referred to, 201.
Muff-r^jen, mystery, its import, 275.
Nagelsbach, Gottmensch. 210.
Napoleonism, 221.
Nature, history, revelation, the three
great kingdoms of divine manifes
tation, 357.
Nebuchadnezzar, 211.
Nehemiah and Ezra, their joint labours
to restore Jerusalem, 112, etc.
Newton, Sir Isaac, his View of the Pro
phecies of Daniel, 9 ; referred to,
124.
Niebuhr, Barthold, referred to, 202.
Nitzseh, System der Christliche Lehre,
referred to, 84.
Number of the beast, 267.
Numbers, their significance, 136.
Oehler, Veteris Testamenti Sententia
de rebus post mortem futuris, re
ferred to, 77.
Old Testament Antichrist, 55.
Orthodoxy and Rationalism, 392-6.
Otinger, quoted, 322, 327, 372.

INDEX OF AUTHORS AND SUBJECTS.

457

Papacy, the, 220 ; a false anticipation
of the millennial kingdom, 827, and
Chiliasm, 375
Parable and symbol compared, 87, 88.
Xlxeovirlx of Christ, visible, 322 ; its
object, 338.
Pauline epistles on the final apostasy,
316.
Persecutions of the last times, 310,
320.
Porphyry, his attack on Daniel, 7.
nifjficcnzvs, its meaning (Rev. xi. 8),
274, 275.
Preiswerk quoted, 84; referred to,
118, 220 ; on the uncertainty of an
cient chronology, 126.
Prideaux referred to, 115, 118.
Priests and kings to God, 335, 336.
Primasius referred to, 404.
Prophet, the false, 305.
Prophecies, Messianic, 434, 435.
Prophecy, biblical, characteristics of,
38, 41 : apocalyptic, 70 ; obscure,
127, etc. ; increasing study of, 424.
n^e^T£/a distinguished from «.*oxa..
Jw+'s, 80-2.
Protestantism, its work, 377.
Punishments, various, inflicted by God,
435-7.
Ram and he-goat of Daniel, 190.
Rationalism and orthodoxy viewed in
relation to their different treatment
of the Apocalypse, 392-6.
Reformation, the, 311.
Reformation, the, 227 ; analogy be
tween, and the post-exilian Jewish,
294, 295 ; its object, 327, 375-9.
Reichel, on the four world-kingdoms
of Daniel, 169; quoted, 219.
Reign of Christ and His saints, 330.
Remnant of the woman's seed, 262.
Resurrection, why introduced in Dan.
xii. 3, 174, 175 ; the first, 331, 332.
Revelations of God to His people, 437-
440.
Roman Catholicism, a mixture of pa
gan and Christian elements, 311.
Roman Empire, 216, 220-6 ; still ex
isting, 220.
Roman and Greek churches, the, em
phatically harlot, 295, 296.
Rome, the city of, not the harlot, 274.
Roos, Magnus Frederick, his Interpre
tation of the Prophecies of Daniel,
19 ; on the name Lord of Saboath,
63; world-periods, Appendix, 431-
452 ; cited or referred to, 19, 20, 28,
83, 89, 136, 104, 166, 213, 214, 217,
218, 219, 226, 227, 327.

Rothe referred to, 61, 336.
Rule of fathers of families,- 434, 436,
448.
Sack, his Apologetik referred to, 118 ;
quoted, 126.
Saints of the Most High, 321; reign
with Christ, 330.
Satan, three stages of his conflict with
Christ, 253, etc. ; his rule in heaven,
254, etc.; history of, 256, 257 ; ejec
tion from heaven, 257, etc. ; perse
cutes the Church, 260 ; bound, 329.
Schenkel, quoted on the supposed
gradual improvement of the world,
229-231.
Schleiermacher referred to, 10.
Schmidt, Chr. Fr., referred to, 325.
Schmieder referred to, or quoted, 104,
123, 248, 269.
Schneider referred to, 118.
Schubert's Symbolik des Traums re
ferred to, 84.
Schultz referred to, 117.
Second beast, work of, 309.
Seed, the, of the woman, of Abraham,
etc., 434.
Semler quoted, 9.
Serpent, the, and the Son of Man, 42.
Seven, the number, its mystical signi
ficance, 133, 183.
Seven churches of Asia, 236, 238.
Seven heads, the, of the beast, 266-
272; hills, 273.
Seventh kingdom, the, 298, 299. .
Seventy weeks of Daniel, 110, etc.;
analysis of, 131, etc.
Son of Man, the, who ? 40, 41 ; and
the serpent, 42; and Son of God, 242.
Sostmann referred to, 118.
Spener, his Rechter Gebrauch und
Missbrauch von Klagen iiber den
Verfall der Kirche, referred to, 377 ;
quoted or referred to, 374, 375, 376,
377.
Stars, their symbolic import, 245, 216.
State and Church, 284.
Stier's Words of Jesus referred to,
106, 340.
Strauss, Otto, his Nahumi de Nino
Vaticiuium explicavit ex Assyriis
Monumeutis Illustravit, referred to,
37.
Suetonius quoted, 129.
Sun, the, its symbolic import, 245.
Symbol and parable compared, 87, 88.
Symbolism, 83-90.
Syrian kings, the ten, a list of, 192.
Tacitus quoted, 129.

458

INDEX OF AUTHORS AND SUBJECTS.

Ten, the number, its mystical signifi
cance, 133, 183.
Ten horns of the beast, 192, 270.
Theologians of the transition period,
391.
Theology of modern times, 312.
Theology, traditional, its punishment,
341.
Theocracy, sketch of its development,
16-19 ; free, 432, 433.
Thiersch, die Kirche im Apostolischen
Zeitalter referred to, 210, 236.
Three, the number, its mystical signi
ficance, 133, 183.
Thym, Superintendent, referred to,
377.
Time of the end, 78.
Traditional theology, its punishment,
341.
Transfiguration of the Church, 333.
Transition period theologians, 391.
Universalism internally and externally
represented, 224.
Vaihinger referred to, 117.
Visions of Daniel, first and second, 172.
Waters, the symbolic import of, 261.
Ways by which God leads His people,
437-447.

Weeks, the seventy of Daniel, termi
nus a quo of, 110, etc., 118, etc. ;
analysis of, 131, etc, ; last of the,
137.
Whiston referred to, 365.
Wieseler, his Chronological Synopse,
referred to, 124; die 70 Wochen,
etc. 143 ; calculation of the seventy
years (weeks) of Daniel, 144, 145,
149, 122; variously referred to, or
quoted, 54, 55, I06J 124, 156, 158.
Wilderness, the, its symbolic import,
247-252.
Winer's Realwbrterbuch referred to,
60, 115.
Wings of a great eagle given to the
woman, 249, 260.
Witnesses, the two, 336.
Woman and beasts of Revelation, 233-
237 ; and dragon, 240.
World-periods, 432, etc.
World-power, 31-34, 39, 47, 48, 198,
263, etc. ; its christianization, 169,
etc.
Worldliness of the Church, 286-288.
Xerxes, 63.
Zealots, the, 107.
Zeljer, C. H., quoted, 349.
Ziillig referred to, 360.

INDEX.

PASSAGES IN DANIEL EXPLAINED.

Chap.

Verse.

Page.

I.

1

15

4, etc.

22

8, etc.

22

17, etc.

22

21
15
II.
22
80
34, etc.
34, 322
37, etc.
39
39, etc.
183, 198
40
220
41
134, 221, 222
44
218
HI.
5-7
11
IV.
16
211
17
111
30
.37
V.
28
187
VI.
1
187, etc.
8
187
11
60
20
187
VII.
1
1, 184
2
16, 185, etc.
3
183
4
49, 211
5
190
6
58, 190
7
38, 134, 183, 222
8
39, 204, 213, 225
_2J4r225
/'ll, etc
. 225""~~>v
1 13
205, 208 J
yi4 ,
¦"""407216
19
222
20
213 222
21
321
Chap.
Verse. Page.
VII.
22 40
23 222, 223
24 222
25 251, 321
26 822
27 40, 216, 218
VIII.
3 190
5 186, 190
8 183, 191
9 213
11 163
13 163
14 161
17, etc. 73
20, etc. 53, 187, 191
26, etc. 73, 77
IX.
1 15, 187, 188
24, etc. 91, etc.
X.
1 187
2, etc. 68
4, etc. 82
8, etc. 82
13 180, 254
21 254
XI.
2 58, 180, 187 |
30 54
30, etc. 163, etc.
...
36, etc. 58, etc. '
40 58, etc.
XII.
1 254
1-3 173, etc.
4 73, etc.
6, etc. 65, 251
7 43, 108, 161, 321
8, etc. 65, 68
9, etc. 73
11, etc. 106, 165
MURRAT AND GFBB, PRINTERS, EDINBURGH.

YALE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY

3 9002 05032 6967