pleted the dashing in pieces [7] of the power of the holy people, all these things shall be accomplished." That is, the time when Antiochus will cease from persecuting the Jews and profaning the temple, or the end of the wonderful things that have been foretold, will be 33 years from the commencement of his most violent course; and when he shall have been destroyed and his power over the Jews shall have come to an end, then will have been fulfilled all the things of which the angel had been giving information to Daniel. In other words; Dan. 12: 7 marks the terminus ad quem of the predictions which immediately precede it. And that the dashing in pieces, i. e. utterly destroying or suppressing the power of the Jews, is to be referred altogether to Antiochus, no one who reads Dan. 7: 25, and 11: 21-45, and makes comparison of them with the annunciation here, can well doubt. Verses 30-35 of chap. XI. show fully what is meant in 12: 7, by dashing in pieces the power of the holy people; and the whole shows that the outrages of Antiochus, i. e. his final and most bitter persecution of the Jews, with their complete subjugation, is designed to be characterized here. And this, as we have already seen, lasted for a period of 33 years.

We see, then, an entire coincidence of manner and matter between Dan. 7: 25 and 12: 7. The same time is designated by both in the same way, and the same person and same events are referred to in both. Of course we do not need a re-investigation here of facts in the history of Antiochus. The correspondence of prediction and history is so striking, that none can refuse to perceive it. The only difficult question that will arise here for the interpreter is: Whether 12: 1-3 is to be interpreted so as to refer it to the troubles which Judea experienced shortly before the great victory under Judas Maccabaeus which ended in the restoration of liberty to the Hebrews, and also

to the blessings consequent on their renewed liberty, thus making it parallel with Ezek. 37: 1-14; or whether the passage looks forward to the Messianic period and final resurrection. Into this question I cannot enter here; nor is it important to the object which I have in view. The passage in 12: 7, undoubtedly refers to the leading and prominent part of the prophecy which precedes; and this plainly has respect to Antiochus.

I am aware that some have found a vлórola in 7: 25, and also in 12: 7; i. e. they have interpreted both passages as having reference to Antichrist in their secondary sense, or to the beast which is described in Rev. xIII. and the sequel. But how this can be brought about, in the present case, I do not perceive. There, so far as it respects Antiochus, no more than 3 years literally understood can possibly be meant. The utter absurdity of supposing Daniel to predict, that Antiochus himself in person should persecute the Jews for 1260 years, needs no exposure. But how 3 literal years can be meant in the type, (as they speak), and yet this same identical period amount to 1260 years in the antitype, i. e. Antichrist, is a problem in exegesis, that has yet received no solution, and surely admits of no satisfactory one. The bare statement of the whole matter is a complete refutation of the exegesis put upon the passages in question.

I have only one more remark to make, before I proceed to the examination of other passages. This is, that the reader should well note here the general nature of the limitation of time. It is not specifically designated by years, or months, or days, but it is expressed in general language, viz., "time, times, and a half." The very manner of the expression indicates, of course, that it was not the design of the speaker or writer to be exact to a day or an hour. A little more or a little less than 3 years would, as every

reasonable interpreter must acknowledge, accord perfectly well with the general designation here, where plainly the aim is not statistical exactness, but a mere general characterizing of the period in question. We shall see reason to believe, in the sequel, that some 30 days more than exactly 3 prophetic years were occupied by the disastrous occurrences under the reign of Antiochus; for in another passage, where the exact period is probably intended to be marked, the number of days is specifically given.

As this exact period stands particularly related to the general designation of 3 years, which we have already considered, it will facilitate our inquiries to take the exact designation' next into consideration. In Dan. 12: 11 it is said: "From the time that the daily sacrifice shall be taken away, and the abomination that maketh desolate set up, there shall be a thousand two hundred and ninety days." This period exceeds the 1260 days by one month or thirty days.

That the same persecuting power is adverted to here, as in Dan. 7: 25. 11: 30-35, and 12: 7, no one, I apprehend, will doubt, who well considers the language. Antiochus "took away the daily sacrifice," as is here declared. This was in the latter part of May, B. C. 168. Profane history does not indeed give us the day; but it designates the year and the season. As we have already seen, about 31⁄2 years elapsed, after the temple worship was entirely broken up, before Judas Maccabaeus expurgated the temple and restored its rites. This terminus ad quem is not mentioned in the verse now before us; but still, it is plainly implied. The end of the 1290 days must of course be marked by some signal event, just as the commencement of them is so marked. And as the suppression of the temple-rites constitutes the definitive mark of the commencement, so it would seem plain, that the restoration of the

same rites must mark the conclusion of the period which is designated. The "time of the end," i. e. the period at the close of which the persecutions of Antiochus would cease, is distinctly adverted to in 7: 25. 11: 30-35, and 12: 7. The nature of the case, in the verse before us, shows that the same period is tacitly referred to in the words of the speaker.

It is needless, therefore, to repeat here what has already been set before the reader, viz. the history of the invasion and profanation of the temple by Antiochus. No doubt remains, that his march from Antioch to Egypt, for hostile purposes, was in the Spring of the year 168 B. C. He was delayed for some time on this march, by ambassadors from Egypt who met him in Colo-syria. Very naturally therefore we may conclude, that he arrived opposite Jerusalem in the latter part of May, and that there and then he commissioned Apollonius to rifle and profane the temple. The exact time from the period when this was done, down to the time of expurgation, seems to have been, and is designated as being, 1290 days.

Intimately connected with the passage last examined, and standing in immediate succession, is another passage in Dan. 12: 12. It runs thus: "Blessed is he that waiteth, and cometh to the one thousand three hundred and thirtyfive days." The place which this passage occupies, shows that the terminus a quo, or period from which the days designated are to be reckoned, is the same as that to which reference is made in the preceding verse. This, as we have already seen, is the period when Antiochus, by his military agent Apollonius, took possession of Jerusalem and put a stop to the temple worship there. The author of the first book of Maccabees, who is allowed by all to deserve credit as a historian, after describing the capture of Jerusalem by the agent of Antiochus, (in the year 145

of the era of the Seleucidae: = 168 B. C.), and setting before the reader the wide-spread devastation which ensued, adds, respecting the invaders: "They shed innocent blood around the sanctuary, and defiled the holy place; and the inhabitants of Jerusalem fled away; . . . . the sanctuary thereof was made desolate; her feasts were turned into mourning, her sabbaths into a reproach, and her honour into disgrace;" 1 Macc. 1: 37-39. To the period when this state of things commenced we must look, in order to find the date from which the 1335 days are to be reckoned. Supposing then that Apollonius captured Jerusalem in the latter part of May, B. C. 168, the 1335 days would expire about the middle of Feb. in the year B. C. 164. Did any event take place at this period, which would naturally call forth the congratulations of the prophet, as addressed in the text before us to the Jewish people?

History enables us readily to answer this question. Late in the year 165 B. C., or at least very early in the year 164 B. C., Antiochus Epiphanes, learning that there were insurrections and great disturbances in Armenia and Persia, hastened thither with a portion of his armies, while the other portion was commissioned against Palestine. He was victorious for a time; but being led by cupidity to seek for the treasures that were laid up in the temple of the Persian Diana at Elymais, he undertook to rifle them. The inhabitants of the place, however, rose en masse and drove him out from the city; after which he fled to Ecbatana. There he heard of the total discomfiture by Judas Maccabaeus of his troops in Palestine, which were led on by Nicanor and Timotheus. In the rage occasioned by this disappointment, he uttered the most horrid blasphemies against the God of the Jews, and threatened to make Jerusalem the burying-place of the nation. Immediately he directed his course toward Judea; and designing to