Let me tell where Western Massachusetts is - it is
the same latitude as upstate New York and it is not far from the White
Mountains of New Hampshire. The White Mountains of New Hampshire are one
of the coldest places there are in Winter, on a par with the Chilkat
Valley in Alaska.
Christ
was born on Christmas. It was the very early church that preserved this
date, not some invention later in the time of Constantine or whatever.
The ridiculous idea that sheep could not have been outside at that time
of year in the low hills and the Mediterranean latitudes is laughable.
Sheep in the Rocky Mountains of the United States survive quite well
outside night and day in the very middle of winter - farther to the
North in latitude and much higher in elevation, not to mention
Massachusetts and Iceland in winter. What do we think the wool coats of
sheep are for or why do we use wool for our warm outside winter
clothing? Because it keeps you warm day and night in the coldest winter.
Pagan feasts were every day of the year. Obviously Our Lord Jesus
Christ's birth would coincide with one of them - so what?! That
absolutely obviously was not the reason that God would choose the day He
chose for God the Son to to be born. The pagan Romans elevated a very
minor Roman pagan feast - the Saturnalia, to
with the
Christian celebration of Christmas. Christmas was the birth of Christ.
It was originally called and is still called the Feast of the Nativity
or the Natal Day of the Lord. All the complaints concocted by Talmudic
JudenRatz Protestant Freemasonic Pharisees are meaningless.
FINAL TRIAL
OF
CHRISTIANS AND MUSLIMS TOGETHER - THE ONLY TRUE ISRAELO-CHRISTIANS THE
PALESTINIANS
FINAL TRIAL
OF CHRISTIANS AND MUSLIMS TOGETHER - THE ONLY TRUE ISRAELO-CHRISTIANS
THE PALESTINIANS
click on picture
St.
Judas Maccabeus and the
abomination of desolation - the Jews in Palestine
Now lets
dispense with this Hanukkah nonsense. Judas Maccabeus is a Catholic
Saint. All faithful Catholics from the first Adam to the last Saint are
Saints of the Catholic Church of whom Jesus Christ is the Head. Judas
Maccabeus did all he could to fight against an abomination in the temple
that defiled it (the first was Antiochus IV Epiphanes, the Seleucid
king and his profanation of the temple, who died in 164 B.C.). Judas
Maccabeus, if he had been alive during the Apostolate of Christ on
earth, would have been Christ's disciple, same as St. Simon Zealotes.
Christ revealed Himself to the Jews as the Messiah on His birthday as an
adult in the temple on the feast of lights. It was Jesus Christ who
warned of the two final abominations of the temple -
1) the 18 temple benedictions which
blasphemed God and His Christ and caused the destruction of the temple
in 70 A.D.
2) the final Abomination of Desolation
which is the Jews invading Palestine and trying to rebuild their
accursed temple.
If
St. Judas Maccabeus were alive today he would be leading an army to
free Palestine from the Jews. You think Titus was harsh in 70 A.D.? St.
Judas Maccabeus would enact the Biblical ban on the Jews in Occupied
Palestine - all their forces would be destroyed and they would be driven
from the land with no mercy. Their crimes against the Palestinians are
secondary though very real. The crime of the nation of the Jews
is Deicide and Perfidy and these are the worst crimes that exist. The
nation of the Jews, by God's command do not have any right or business
being in the Holy Land which is the home of the Holy Family, Jesus, Mary
and Joseph.
|
Jesus,
Mary and Joseph |
The
Point
Edited Under Fr. Leonard Feeney M.I.C.M. —
Saint Benedict CenterDecember, 1956
This Christmas men
are looking to the Holy Land, and they are listening — not for the
strains of “Glory to God in the Highest,” but for the sounds of war upon
earth. And we might say: It is just. God long ago crashed the Temple of
Jerusalem to the ground, and cursed its people, the Jews, to be forever
homeless and wandering. If the world has defied this Divine judgment
and supported a Jewish return to Palestine, then let the world bear the
consequences of God’s righteous anger.
But
this leaves a greater part unsaid. For the Holy Land is infinitely more
than a geographical locality which God has forbidden to the Jews. It is,
for all time, the precious countryside where God became the Child of a
Virginal Mother, and where God as Man walked and taught and died for us.
It is, indeed, God’s Land.
If, therefore, we are
anxious this Christmas, our concern is this: The leaders of our nation
have proposed that Christian boys be ready to shed their blood in order
to make the Jews secure within the borders of the Holy Land. But should
this happen, should Christian lives be spent to keep God’s Land in the
hands of His crucifiers, the price of such betrayal will not be confined
to the deserts of the East. We will be paying, in kind, on bloody Main
Street, U. S. A.
* * * * *
THE
ENEMIES OF CHRIST AT CHRISTMAS
Soon, the Jews of America will be
trying once more to jostle Christmas from its place as the nation’s
chief interest in late December. As elbow for this endeavor, the Jews
will rely again on their festival of Chanukah — once a minor holiday but
recently seized on because of its timely Yuletide occurrence and now
celebrated with all the blare and bluster the Jews can produce.
Though
originally set up in 165 B. C., the observance of Chanukah (Hebrew for
“Dedication”) has long since lost its holy, Old Testament meaning. Thus,
when Jewish leaders decided a few years back to revive and exalt the
holiday, they found it expedient also to invest it with a fresh and
acceptable significance. They have, accordingly, made it an annual
practice to hire the principal halls in the principal cities of the
country for the staging of special Chanukah pageants. These
loudly-trumpeted extravaganzas (“Inspiring — Breathtaking —
Spectacular”) oppose the Birth of the true Messias by dramatizing, with
the solemnity of religious ritual, the birth of their own messianic
empire: the Jewish state of Israel.
It is, of course,
true that the Jews would have been eager to exploit any one of their
festivals that was opportune in order to affront the beauty and
singularity of Christmas. Yet Chanukah is especially suited for such a
use — because it was on that day that Our Lord revealed Himself to the
Jews as the Messias, and, for doing so, was almost stoned. The story is
told in the Holy Gospel of Saint John (Chap. 10, v. 22-39):
“And
the Dedication was in Jerusalem: and it was winter. And Jesus walked in
the temple, in Salomon’s porch. The Jews therefore compassed him round
about, and said to him, How long doest thou hold our soul in suspense?
If thou be Christ, tell us openly. Jesus answered them, I speak to you:
and you believe not, the works that I do in the name of my Father, they
give testimony of me, but you do not believe, because you are not of my
sheep. My sheep hear my voice: and I know them, and they follow me. And I
give them life everlasting: and they shall not perish for ever, and no
man shall pluck them out of my hand. My father, that which he hath given
me, is greater than all: and no man can pluck them out of the hand of
my father. I and the Father are one. The Jews took up stones, to stone
him. Jesus answered them, Many good works I have showed you from my
father, for which of those works do you stone me? The Jews answered him,
For a good work we stone thee not, but for blasphemy, and because thou
being a man, makest thyself God. Jesus answered them, Is it not written
in your law, that I said, you are God’s? If he called them God’s,
to whom the word of God was made, and the scripture can not be broken:
whom the Father hath sanctified and sent into the world, say you, That
thou blasphemest, because I said I am the son of God? If I do not the
works of my Father, believe me not. But if I do, and if you will not
believe me, believe the works: that you may know and believe that the
Father is in me, and I in the Father. They sought therefore to apprehend
him: and he went forth out of their hands.”
Because
it is reckoned by the Jewish calendar, the day on which Chanukah falls
may vary from year to year by as much as a month. This year it is due to
fall on its earliest possible date. But Jews have never been ones to
let liturgical niceties stand in the way of more vital considerations,
and so, the Jews of Boston (the only segment of whose plans we have
heard) are making an adroit adjustment in their schedule. Their annual
Chanukah pageant at the Boston Garden will be held this year, not when
the calendar says Chanukah should occur, but some three weeks later, on
December the twenty-third — just a stone’s throw from Christmas.
* * * * *
The
pride of Jewish rural life is the “kibbutz,” a sort of collective farm
settlement, of which there are presently some 250 well-populated
examples in the state of Israel. A recent volume to swell the praises of
these communes is Harvard University Press’
Kibbutz, Venture in
Utopia. The following two extracts from this book provide a raw,
startling picture of the Jews who today inhabit the Land of Christ’s
Birth:
“In its attempt to create a better world, the
kibbutz has found that it faces considerable opposition, and it has come
to view this opposition with an intense hatred. Indeed, it is not
unfair to say the kibbutz hates almost everybody, since it views almost
everybody as an opponent. Outside of Israel, all the ‘bourgeois’
countries are hated, and only the Soviet Union and ‘People’s
Democracies’ are ‘loved.’
“As for marriage, they
believed — and still believe — that a union between a man and woman was
their own affair, to be entered into on the basis of love and to be
broken at the termination of love; neither the union nor the separation
were to require the permission or the sanction of the community. Today,
for example, if a couple wishes to marry, the partners merely ask for a
joint room; if they wish a divorce, they return to separate rooms.”
* * * * *
Each
year when the Church commemorates the arrival of the Magi at Bethlehem,
on the Feast of the Epiphany, our priests are required to read, as an
integral part of their Breviary prayers, the following homily by Pope
Saint Gregory the Great:
“All things which He had
made, bore witness that their Maker was come ... And yet, up to this
very hour, the hearts of the unbelieving Jews will not acknowledge that
He, to Whom all nature gave testimony, is their God. Being more hardened
than the rocks, the Jews refuse to be rent by repentance.”
This
is but one instance of what the Jews would term the “anti-Semitism” of
the Church’s Advent and Christmas Season liturgy. With the possible
exception of Holy Week in Lent, there is no period in the whole
liturgical year which more emphasizes the bridgeless chasm separating
Christian faith and Jewish infidelity.
From Advent
through the Epiphany Octave, the texts of the Mass and the Divine Office
resound repeatedly with that theme which is at once the fulfilled
expectation of the Jews of the Old Law, and the indictment of the
deicide Jews of today:
“Behold, O Israel, your king
... Blow ye the trumpet in Zion, for the day of the Lord is nigh ... It
is the birth of the Christ, O Jerusalem ... The Savior of the world will
be our King ... He shall sit upon the throne of David His father.”
These
are the tidings of great joy which plague the Jews as sorely this
December as they did more than nineteen hundred years ago. And among
these tidings there is, for the Jews, no more hateful information than
the exultant shouts that the Baby of Bethlehem is the true Son of David,
inheriting a royal title from His foster father, Saint Joseph, and
royal blood from His Spotless Mother, the Virgin Mary. It was precisely
to attack this central truth of Christmas that the rabbis of the early
Christian centuries concocted that unprintably-filthy version of the
Birth of Christ which is now found in the Jews’ “holy” book, the Talmud.
We have determined never to reprint, in direct quotation, these
blasphemous assaults against the purity of the Mother of God. But that
they were invented by the rabbis, for the express purpose of challenging
Our Lord’s title to the Throne of David, is abundantly admitted by
Jewish authorities. The
Jewish Encyclopedia, for example,
blithely states, in its article on “Jesus,” that, “For polemical
purposes it was necessary for the Jews to insist on the illegitimacy of
Jesus as against the Davidic descent claimed by the Christian Church.”
At
no point in the Christmas liturgy, however, does the Church’s
consciousness of Jewish perfidy becloud her joy at the Birth of the
Messias. In this spirit, therefore, we anticipate the coming gladness,
and leave our readers with that jubilant exhortation from the Third Mass
of Christmas:
“Come ye Gentiles and adore the Lord,
for this day a great light hath descended upon the earth!”
God
and His Messiah Jesus Christ our Lord - our right and duty to witness
to Him: Food for thought
The prophets of the Old Testament so exactly
predicted the coming of the Messiah that Herod knew within two years
time that it was Jesus (Yeshua) at His birth. Anyone, especially Jews
who know their Torah of Moses and the Prophets from Moses to the time of
Jesus Christ, Yeshua ha Maschiach, should avail themselves of the Book
of Isaiah, Chapters 52 and 53 and the Book of Daniel, Chapter 11 in
order to show some of the more important proofs to themselves of the
fact that Jesus of Nazareth is the Christ promised to the Jews and
Gentiles alike. Faith in Him is salvific.
Jews
called in Christ: St. Isaiah
Jews
called in Christ: The way out of the 18 temple benedictions
The Jew false prophet Maimonides (Rabbi
Moses Ben Maimon), in order to hide the fact that the Jews KNEW that
the Prophet Daniel had prophesied the time of the Messiah's Incarnation
and He of course was Jesus Christ, said: "Daniel has elucidated to us
the knowledge of the end times. However, since they are secret, the wise
[rabbis] have barred the calculation of the days of Messiah's coming so
that the untutored populace will not be led astray when they see that the
End Times [the appearance of the Messiah - Jesus Christ] have
already come but there is no sign of the Messiah" (Igeret Teiman,
Chapter 3 p.24.)
",,,the End Times have
already come..." 2,000 years ago with the coming of Our Lord and Saviour
Jesus Christ, who only is the Messiah. "... but there is no sign
of the Messiah" means that Maimonides and the rest of the Perfidious
Jews unlawfully and out of utterly unrepentant evil
hearts knowingly reject the true Messiah, who is Jesus Christ, and the
Jews' nation are therefore damned for the unforgivable sin, forever.
The
seventy weeks of Daniel's Prophecy makes it absolute that the only time
the Messiah could come in history is the time when Jesus Christ, who
alone is the only Messiah and the only one who could be the Messiah,
came.
The seventy weeks are weeks of years. Hence 490
years.
The Messiah is the Christ.
The
seventy weeks begins in the Old Testament, at that time, with the
"going forth of the
word to restore and to build Jerusalem" (Dan.
9:25)
69 weeks or
483 years, takes us to the beginning of Christ's public life.
The Messiah
is "cut off" - Crucified, for our sins (Isaiah 53:8) in the midst of
the "week." That is after three and one half years.
DANIEL
9:24-27
CHAPTER IX.
Daniel's
confession and prayer; Gabriel informs him concerning the seventy weeks
to the coming of Christ.
24 *Seventy weeks
are shortened upon thy people, and upon thy holy city, that
transgression may be finished, and sin may have an end, and iniquity may
be abolished; and everlasting justice may be brought; and vision and
prophecy may be fulfilled; and the Saint of saints may be anointed.
25 Know thou,
therefore, and take notice: that from the going forth of the
word, to build up Jerusalem again, unto Christ, the prince, there shall
be seven weeks, and sixty-two weeks: and the street shall be built
again, and the walls, in straitness of times.
26 And after
sixty-two weeks Christ shall be slain: and the people that shall deny
him shall not be his. And a people, with their leader, that shall come,
shall destroy the city, and the sanctuary: and the end thereof shall be
waste, and after the end of the war the appointed desolation.
27 And he shall
confirm the covenant with many, in one week: and in the half of the week
the victim and the sacrifice shall fail: and there shall be in the
temple the abomination of desolation: and the desolation shall continue
even to the consummation, and to the end.
____________________
*
1: A.M. 3467, A.C.
537.
2: Jer. xxv. 11. and xxix. 10.
4: 2 Esd. i. 5.
5: Bar. i. 17.
11: Deut. xxvii.
14.
15: Bar. i. 1.; Ex. xiv. 22.
18: Jer. xxv. 29.;
Ps. xlviii. 2. 9. and ci. 8.
21: Supra viii. 16.
24: Mat. xxiv.
15.; John i. 45.
====================
Ver. 24. Seventy weeks (viz. of years, or seventy times seven,
that is, 490 years) are shortened; that is, fixed and determined,
so that the time shall be no longer. Ch. — This is not a
conditional prophecy. Daniel was solicitous to know when the seventy
years of Jeremias would terminate. But something of far greater
consequence is revealed to him, (W.) even the coming and death of the
Messias, four hundred and ninety years after the order for rebuilding
the walls should be given, (C.) at which period Christ would redeem the
world, (W.) and abolish the sacrifices of the law. C. — Finished, or
arrive at its height by the crucifixion of the Son of God; (Theod.) or
rather sin shall be forgiven. Heb. "to finish crimes to seal (cover
or remit) sins, and to expiate iniquity." — Anointed.
Christ is the great anointed of God, the source of justice, and the end
of the law and of the prophets, (Acts x. 38. and 1 Cor. i. 30. Rom. x.
4. C.) as well as the pardoner of crimes. These four characters
belong only to Christ. W.
Ver. 25. Word, &c. That is, from the twentieth year of
king Artaxerxes, when, by his commandment, Nehemias rebuilt the walls of
Jerusalem, 2 Esd. ii. From which time, according to the best
chronology, there were just sixty-nine weeks of years, the is 483 years,
to the baptism of Christ, when he first began to preach and execute the
office of Messias. Ch. — The prophecy is divided into three
periods: the first of forty-nine years, during which the walls were
completed; (they had been raised in fifty-two days, (2 Esd. vi. 15.) but
many other fortifications were still requisite) the second of four
hundred and thirty-four years, at the end of which Christ was baptized,
in the fifteenth of Tiberius, the third of three years and a half,
during which Christ preached. In the middle of this last week, the
ancient sacrifices became useless, (C.) as the true Lamb of God had been
immolated. Theod. — A week of years denotes seven years,
as Lev. xxv. and thus seventy of these weeks would make four hundred
and ninety years. V. Bede. Rat. temp. 6 &c. W. — Origen
would understand 4900 years, and dates from the fall of Adam to the
ruin of the temple. Marsham begins twenty-one years after the captivity
commenced, when Darius took Susa, and ends in the second of Judas, when
the temple was purified. This system would destroy the prediction of
Christ's coming, and is very uncertain. Hardouin modifies it, and
acknowledges that Christ was the end of the prophecy, though it was
fulfilled in figure by the death of Onias III. See 1 Mac. i. 19.
Senens. Bib. viii. hær. 12. and Estius. From C. vii. to xii. the
changes in the East, till the time of Epiphanes, are variously
described. After the angel had here addressed Daniel, the latter was
still perplexed; (C. x. 1.) and in order to remove his doubts, the angel
informs him of the persecution of Epiphanes, as if he had been speaking
of the same event. We may, therefore, count forty-nine years from the
taking of Jerusalem (when Jeremias spoke, C. vi. 19.) to Cyrus, the
anointed, (Is. xlv. 1.) who was appointed to free God's people.
They would still be under the Persians, &c. for other four
hundred and thirty-four years, and then Onias should be slain. Many
would join the Machabees; the sacrifices should cease in the middle of
the seventieth week, and the desolation shall continue to the end of
it. Yet, though this system may seem plausible, it is better to stick
to the common one, which naturally leads us to the death of Christ,
dating from the tenth year of Artaxerxes. C. — He had reigned
ten years already with his father. Petau. — All the East was
persuaded that a great king should arise about the time; when our
Saviour actually appeared, and fulfilled all that had been spoken of the
Messias. C. Diss. — Ferguson says, "We have an astronomical
demonstration of the truth of this ancient prophecy, seeing that the
prophetic year of the Messias being cut off was the very same with the
astronomical." In a dispute between a Jew and a Christian, at Venice,
the Rabbi who presided...put an end to the business by saying, "Let us
shut up our Bibles; for if we proceed in the examination of this
prophecy, it will make us all become Christians." Watson, let. 6. — Hence
probably the Jews denounce a curse on those who calculate the times,
(H.) and they have purposely curtailed their chronology. C. — Times, &c.
(angustia temporum) which may allude both to the difficulties
and opposition they met with in building, and to the shortness of the
time in which they finished the wall, viz. fifty-two days. Ch.
Ver. 26. Weeks, or four hundred and thirty-eight years, which
elapsed from the twentieth of Artaxerxes to the death of Christ,
according to the most exact chronologists. C. — Slain.
Prot. "cut off, but not for himself, and the people of the prince that,"
&c. H. — S. Jerom and some MSS. read, Christus, et
non erit ejus. The sense is thus suspended. The Jews lose their
prerogative of being God's people. C. — Christ will not receive
them again. S. Jer. — Gr. "the unction shall be destroyed, and
there shall not be judgment in him." The priesthood and royal dignity
is taken from the Jews. Theod. — The order of succession among
the high priests was quite deranged, while the country was ruled by the
Romans, and by Herod, a foreigner. C. — Leader. The
Romans under Titus. Ch. C.
Ver. 27. Many. Christ seems to allude to this passage. Mat.
xxvi. 28. He died for all; but several of the Jews particularly, would
not receive the proffered grace. C. — Of the week, or in
the middle of the week, &c. Because Christ preached three years
and a half: and then, by his sacrifice upon the cross, abolished all
the sacrifices of the law. Ch. — Temple. Heb. "the
wing," (C.) or pinnacle, (H.) the highest part of the temple. C. — Desolation.
Some understand this of the profanation of the temple by the crimes of
the Jews, and by the bloody faction of the zealots. Others, of the
bringing in thither the ensigns and standard of the pagan Romans. Others,
in fine, distinguish three different times of desolation: viz. that
under Antiochus; that when the temple was destroyed by the Romans; and
the last near the end of the world, under antichrist. To all
which, as they show, this prophecy has a relation. Ch. — Prot.
"For the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even
unto the consummation; and that determined, shall be poured upon the
desolate." H. — The ruin shall be entire. C.
Traditional
Catholic Prayers: The Rebuilt Temple of Remphan in Jerusalem and the
Armour Bearer of the Antichrist, the False Prophet
DANIEL 11
CHAPTER XI.
The angel declares to Daniel many things to
come, with regard to the Persian and Grecian kings: more especially with
regard to Antiochus, as a figure of antichrist.
1 And from the
first year of Darius, the Mede, I stood up, that he might be
strengthened, and confirmed.
2 And now I will
shew thee the truth. Behold, there shall stand yet three kings in
Persia, and the fourth shall be enriched exceedingly above them all: and
when he shall be grown mighty by his riches, he shall stir up all
against the kingdom of Greece.
3 But there shall
rise up a strong king, and shall rule with great power: and he shall do
what he pleaseth.
4 And when he shall come to his height, his
kingdom shall be broken, and it shall be divided towards the four winds
of the heaven: but not to his posterity, nor according to his power with
which he ruled. For his kingdom shall be rent in pieces, even for
strangers, besides these.
5 And the king of
the south shall be strengthened, and one of his princes shall prevail
over him, and he shall rule with great power: for his dominion shall be
great.
6 And after the end of years they shall be in
league together: and the daughter of the king of the south shall come to
the king of the north to make friendship, but she shall not obtain the
strength of the arm, neither shall her seed stand: and she shall be
given up, and her young men that brought her, and they that strengthened
her in these times.
7 And a plant of the
bud of her roots shall stand up: and he shall come with an army, and
shall enter into the province of the king of the north: and he shall
abuse them, and shall prevail.
8 And he shall also
carry away captive into Egypt their gods, and their graven things, and
their precious vessels of gold and silver: he shall prevail against the
king of the north.
9 And the king of the south shall enter into
the kingdom, and shall return to his own land.
10 And his sons
shall be provoked, and they shall assemble a multitude of great forces:
and he shall come with haste like a flood: and he shall return, and be
stirred up, and he shall join battle with his forces.
11 And the king of
the south being provoked, shall go forth, and shall fight against the
king of the north, and shall prepare an exceeding great multitude, and a
multitude shall be given into his hand.
12 And he shall
take a multitude, and his heart shall be lifted up, and he shall cast
down many thousands: but he shall not prevail.
13 For the king of
the north shall return, and shall prepare a multitude much greater than
before: and in the end of times, and years, he shall come in haste with a
great army, and much riches.
14 *And in those
times many shall rise up against the king of the south, and the children
of prevaricators of thy people shall lift up themselves to fulfil the
vision, and they shall fall.
15 And the king of
the north shall come, and shall cast up a mount, and shall take the best
fenced cities: and the arms of the south shall not withstand, and his
chosen ones shall rise up to resist, and they shall not have strength.
16 And he shall
come upon him, and do according to his pleasure, and there shall be none
to stand against his face: and he shall stand in the glorious land, and
it shall be consumed by his hand.
17 And he shall set
his face to come to possess all his kingdom, and he shall make upright conditions with
him: and he shall give him a daughter of women, to overthrow it: and
she shall not stand, neither shall she be for him.
18 And he shall
turn his face to the islands, and shall take many: and he shall cause
the prince of his reproach to cease, and his reproach shall be turned
upon him.
19 And he shall turn his face to the empire of
his own land, and he shall stumble, and fall, and shall not be found.
20 And there shall
stand up in his place one most vile, and unworthy of kingly honour: and
in a few days he shall be destroyed, not in rage nor in battle.
21 And there shall
stand up in his place one despised, and the kingly honour shall not be
given him: and he shall come privately, and shall obtain the kingdom by
fraud.
22 And the arms of the fighter shall be
overcome before his face, and shall be broken; yea, also the prince of
the covenant.
23 And after friendships, he will deal
deceitfully with him: and he shall go up, and shall overcome with a
small people.
24 And he shall enter into rich and plentiful
cities: and he shall do that which his fathers never did, nor his
fathers' fathers: he shall scatter their spoils, and their prey, and
their riches, and shall forecast devices against the best fenced places:
and this until a time.
25 And his strength,
and his heart, shall be stirred up against the king of the south, with a
great army: and the king of the south shall be stirred up to battle
with many and very strong succours: and they shall not stand, for they
shall form designs against him.
26 And they that eat
bread with him, shall destroy him, and his army shall be overthrown:
and many shall fall down slain.
27 And the heart of
the two kings shall be to do evil, and they shall speak lies at one
table, and they shall not prosper: because as yet the end is unto
another time.
28 And he shall return into his land with much
riches: and his heart shall be against the holy covenant, and he
shall succeed, and shall return into his own land.
29 At the time
appointed he shall return, and he shall come to the south, but the
latter time shall not be like the former.
30 And the galleys
and the Romans shall come upon him, and he shall be struck, and shall
return, and shall have indignation against the covenant of the
sanctuary, and he shall succeed: and he shall return, and shall devise
against them that have forsaken the covenant of the sanctuary.
31 And arms shall
stand on his part, and they shall defile the sanctuary of strength, and
shall take away the continual sacrifice, and they shall place there the
abomination unto desolation.
32 And such as deal
wickedly against the covenant shall deceitfully dissemble: but the
people that know their God shall prevail and succeed.
33 And they that
are learned among the people shall teach many: and they shall fall by
the sword, and by fire, and by captivity, and by spoil for many days.
34 And when they
shall have fallen, they shall be relieved with a small help: and many
shall be joined to them deceitfully.
35 And some of the
learned shall fall, that they may be tried, and may be chosen, and made
white, even to the appointed time: because yet there shall be another
time.
36 And the king shall do according to his will,
and he shall be lifted up, and shall magnify himself against every god:
and he shall speak great things against the God of gods, and shall
prosper, till the wrath be accomplished. For the determination is made.
37 And he shall
make no account of the God of his fathers: and he shall follow the lust
of women, and he shall not regard any gods: for he shall rise up against
all things.
38 But he shall worship the god Maozim, in his
place: and a god whom his fathers knew not, he shall worship with gold,
and silver, and precious stones, and things of great price.
39 And he shall do
this to fortify Maozim with a strange god, whom he hath acknowledged,
and he shall increase glory, and shall give them power over many, and
shall divide the land gratis.
40 And at the time
prefixed the king of the south shall fight against him, and the king of
the north shall come against him like a tempest, with chariots, and with
horsemen, and with a great navy, and he shall enter into the countries,
and shall destroy, and pass through.
41 And he shall
enter into the glorious land, and many shall fall: and these only shall
be saved out of his hand, Edom, and Moab, and the principality of the
children of Ammon.
42 And he shall lay his hand upon the lands:
and the land of Egypt shall not escape.
43 And he shall have
power over the treasures of gold, and of silver, and all the precious
things of Egypt: and he shall pass through Lybia, and Ethiopia.
44 And tidings out
of the east, and out of the north, shall trouble him: and he shall come
with a great multitude to destroy and slay many.
45 And he shall fix
his tabernacle, Apadno, between the seas, upon a glorious and holy
mountain: and he shall come even to the top thereof, and none shall help
him.
____________________
*
14: Isai. xix. 1.
====================
DANIEL 11
CHAPTER XI.
Ver. 1. Confirmed. Gabriel assisted Michael to comply with
God's orders. C. x. 21. C. — The angel continues his speech,
and informs us that he had prayed for Darius after the fall of Babylon,
seeing that he was well-inclined towards the Jews, as his successor
Cyrus (who liberated them) was also. W.
Ver. 2. Three, &c. Cambyses, Smerdis magus, and Darius
the son of Hystaspes. Ch. W. — Cyrus had been mentioned
before. C. x. 13. 20. Smerdis, or Artaxerxes, (1 Esd. iv. 7.) was the
chief of the seven magi, and usurped the throne for six months after the
death of Cambyses. C. — He had been declared king before (H.)
by Patizites, his own brother. The news excited the fury of Cambyses,
who mounting on horseback gave himself a mortal wound in the thigh.
Herod. iii. 21. See Ezec. xxxviii. 21. H. — Fourth: Xerxes.
Ch. — He invaded Greece with an immense army, forcing those on
the road to join him. Just. i. 10. Herod. vii. and viii. C.
Ver. 3. A strong king: Alexander. Ch. — The sequel
clearly points him out. Before fifteen years had elapsed, his mother,
brother, and children were slain. Arideus, his brother, was declared
regent till it should be seen what Rozanna should bring forth. After
the death of those who might be heirs of Alexander, four general took
the title of kings. Others governed in different places, but were
destroyed by degrees.
Ver. 4. These four; Ptolemy, Seleucus,
Antigonus, and Antipater, kings of Egypt, Syria, Asia, and Greece. C.
vii. 6. and viii. 22. Besides the other generals, (C.) foreigners began
to erect new kingdoms in what had formed the empire of Alexander. S.
Jer. Livy xlv. C.
Ver. 5. South: Ptolemeus, the son of Lagus,
king of Egypt, which lies south of Jerusalem. Ch. —S. Irenæus
(iv. 43.) observes, that all prophecies are obscure till they be
fulfilled. History shews that this relates to Ptolemy. The kingdoms of
Egypt and of Syria are more noticed, as they had much to do with the
Jews. W. — Ptolemy took Cyprus (C.) and Jerusalem. Jos. Ant.
xii. 12. — His princes (that is, one of Alexander's
princes) shall prevail over him; that is, shall be stronger than
the king of Egypt. He speaks of Seleucus Nicator, king of Asia and
Syria, whose successors are here called the kings of the north, because
their dominions lay to the north in respect to Jerusalem. Ch. — Nicator
means a "conqueror." H. —This king was master of all from Media
and Babylonia to Jerusalem. Appian, &c. C. —Philadelphus
was more powerful than his father. W.
Ver. 6. South. Bernice, daughter of Ptolemeus Philadelphus,
given in marriage to Antiochus Theos, grandson of Seleucus, (Ch.) and
king of Syria. She brought a great "dowry," and was therefore styled Phernophoros.
Antiochus agreed to repudiate Laodicea; but he soon took her back.
Fearing his inconstancy, she poisoned him, and slew his son by Bernice.
This lady in a rage mounted her chariot, and having knocked down the
cruel minister of such barbarity, trampled upon his body. The rest
pretended that the infant was still living, and delivered up a part of
the palace to Bernice, yet slew her as soon as they had an opportunity.
S. Jer. Usher, A. 3758. V. Max. ix. 10. &c. C.
Ver. 7. A plant, &c. Ptolemeus Evergetes, the son of
Philadelphus. Ch. — Three of Bernice's maids of honour (H.)
covered her body, and pretended that she was only wounded, till her
brother Evergetes came and seized almost all Asia, Callinicus not daring
to give him battle. S. Jer. &c. Vaillant. A. 79. Lagid. C. — He
laid waste Syria. W.
Ver. 8. Gods. He took back what Cambyses had
conveyed out of Egypt; and it was on this account that the people
styled him "benefactor." S. Jer. C. — North. Seleucus
Callinicus. Ch. — If Evergetes had not been recalled into Egypt
by civil broils, he would have seized all the kingdom of Seleucus.
Just. xvii. — As he passed by Jerusalem (v. 9.) he made great
presents, and caused victims of thanksgiving to be offered up. Jos. c.
Ap. ii.
Ver. 10. His sons. Seleucus Ceraunius and
Antiochus the great, the sons of Callinicus. Ch. — The former
was poisoned after three years' reign, as he marched against Attalus.
Just. xxix. — Antiochus the great reconquered many provinces from
Egypt, but was beaten at Raphia, on the confines, and lost Cœlo-syria.
C. — He shall, &c. Antiochus the great. Ch. — He
prosecuted the war, as his brother was prevented by death. W.
Ver. 11. South. Ptolemeus Philopator, son of Evergetes. Ch. — He
was an indolent prince; but his generals gained the victory. C.
Ver. 12. Prevail. Many fell on both sides. H. — But
Antiochus did not prevail; (W.) or rather Philopator neglected the
opportunity of dethroning his rival, (C.) as he might have seized all
his dominions, if he had not been too fond of ease. Just. xxx. — He
followed the suggestions of his proud heart, when he attempted
to enter the most holy place of the temple; and though he was visibly
chastised by God, he would have vented his resentment on the Jews, if
Providence had not miraculously protected them. 3 Mac. C. See Eccli.
l. H.
Ver. 13. Times, seventeen years after the
battle of Raphia. When Philopator was dead, and his son Epiphanes not
above five years old, Antiochus and Philip of Macedon basely attempted
to divide his dominions. Scopas engaged Antiochus, but lost the battle,
and all that Philopator had recovered. C. — Many revolted in
Egypt on account of the arrogance of Agathocles, who ruled in the king's
name. v. 14. S. Jer.
Ver. 14. Vision. Many Jews, deceived by Onias, erected a temple
in Egypt, falsely asserting that they fulfilled the prophecy of Isaias,
xix. 19. W. — This Onias was the son of Onias III. who was slain
at Antioch. C. ix. 25. H. — The temple of Onion was called
after him. All allow that he transgressed the law, by offering
sacrifice there after God had pitched upon Jerusalem. But this was done
(C.) under Philometor, forty-seven years (Usher) or longer after those
times, when Epiphanes fought against Antiochus. The rebellion of
the Jews against Egypt may therefore be meant. It was decreed that they
should by under Antiochus, that his son might cause them to fall, (C.)
and punish them for their crimes. H.
Ver. 15. Cities; Sidon, Gaza, and the citadel of Jerusalem,
&c. C.
Ver. 16. Upon him. Antiochus shall come upon
the king of the south. — Land: Judea. Ch. — Consumed, or
"perfected." Antiochus was very favourable to the Jews; (C.) invited
all to return to Jerusalem, and furnished what was requisite for the
sacrifices. Jos. Ant. xii. 3.
Ver. 17. Kingdom, viz. all the kingdom of Ptolemeus Epiphanes,
son of Philopator. Ch. — The Romans interrupted Antiochus, who
resolved to lull the young prince asleep, till he had subdued these
enemies. C. — Of women. That is, a most beautiful woman,
viz. his daughter Cleopatra. — It, viz. the kingdom of
Epiphanes; but his policy shall not succeed; for Cleopatra shall take
more to heart the interest of her husband than that of her father. Ch. — He
came with her to Raphia, and gave her Judea, &c. for her dowry,
reserving half of the revenues. Heb. and Gr. have, "to corrupt her;"
(C.) Vulg. eam; as he wished his daughter to act perfidiously,
that he might seize the whole kingdom. H. — Epiphanes and his
generals were on their guard, and Cleopatra took part with her husband.
S. Jer.
Ver. 18. Islands, near Asia. He also went
into Greece, and was master of that country when the Romans declared war
against him. C. — Of his reproach. Scipio, the Roman
general, called the prince of his reproach, because he overthrew
Antiochus, and obliged him to submit to very dishonourable terms, before
he would cease from the war. Ch. — Prot. "for a prince
for his own behalf shall cause the reproach offered by him to cease,
without his own reproach he shall cause it to turn upon him." H. — Being
defeated at Magnesia, he chose the wisest plan of avoiding fresh
reproach, by making peace, though (C.) the terms were very hard. Livy
xxxvii. — He jokingly observed, that he was obliged to the Romans
for contracting his dominions. Cic. pro Dejot.
Ver. 19. Found. Antiochus plundered the temple of the Elymaites
to procure money; but they, (S. Jer.) or the neighbouring barbarous
nations, rose up and slew him. Just. xxxii.
Ver. 20. One more vile. Seleucus Philopator, who sent Heliodorus
to plunder the temple; and was shortly after slain by the same
Heliodorus. Ch. — He reigned about twelve years; and had sent
his own son, Demetrius, to be a hostage at Rome instead of Epiphanes,
whom he designed to place at the head of an army to invade Egypt. Heb.
"one who shall cause the exactor to pass over the glory of the kingdom,"
the temple. 2 Mac. iii. C.
Ver. 21. One despised; viz. Antiochus Epiphanes, who at first
was despised and not received for king. What is here said of
this prince, is accommodated by S. Jerom and others to antichrist, of
whom this Antiochus was a figure. Ch. — He lived and died
basely; as the origin and end of antichrist will be ignominious. W. — All
that follows, to the end of C. xii. regards Epiphanes. He had no title
to the crown, which he procured by cunning, and held in the most
shameful manner. He canvassed for the lowest offices, so that many
styled him Epimanes, "the madman." Diod. in Valesius, p. 305.
C.
Ver. 22. Fighter. That is, of them that shall
oppose him, and shall fight against him. Ch. — Heliodorus, who
had murdered his brother and usurped the throne, and Ptolemy Epiphanes,
were discomfited. The latter was making preparations against Seleucus,
and said that his riches were in the purses of his friends, upon which
they poisoned him. S. Jer. C. — Covenant, or of the
league. The chief of them that conspired against him; or the king
of Egypt, his most powerful adversary. Ch. — This title belongs
to antichrist, who will join the Jews, and be received as their
Messias. S. Iren. v. 25. S. Jer. &c. Jo. 543. W.
Ver. 23. People. Ephiphanes pretended to be tutor of
Philometor. But the nobles of Egypt distrusted him; whereupon he came
to a battle, near Pelusium, and the young king surrendered himself. His
uncle thus took possession of Egypt with surprising facility. Yet the
people of Alexandria crowned Evergetes, which occasioned a civil war.
C.
Ver. 24. Places. Theodot. reads, "Egypt,"
omitting the b, (H.) which gives a good sense. — C.
Ver. 25. The king. Ptolemeus Philometor. Ch. — Epiphanes
came under the pretext of restoring Philometor, and gained a victory
over Evergetes; but returned in Syria, that the two brothers might
weaken each other, (C.) while the Syrians formed designs against
both. H.
Ver. 26. Slain. This was the perfidious
policy of Epiphanes, who expected that the two brothers would destroy
each other, so that he might easily seize Egypt, of which he kept the
key, retaining the city of Pelusium. They were however reconciled, and
reigned together. The Scripture often represents that as done which is
only intended.
Ver. 27. Two kings: Epiphanes and Philometor. — Time.
Epiphanes, vexed that he should thus be duped, returned again into
Egypt. v. 29.
Ver. 28. Riches, taken in Egypt (C.) and in
Jerusalem. H. — The people had refused to receive Jason; and
Epiphanes treated them in the most barbarous manner, profaned the
temple, &c. 1 Mac. i. 23. and 2 Mac. vi. 21. C.
Ver. 30. Galleys. Heb. "ships of Chittim." H. — The
ambassadors probably came in vessels belonging to Macedonia, (C.) which
they found at Delos. Livy xliv. — Romans. Popilius and
the other Roman ambassadors, who came in galleys, and obliged him to
depart from Egypt. Ch. — He was only four or seven miles from
Alexandria, and went to meet the ambassadors, who gave him the senate's
letter, ordering him to desist from the war. He said he would consult
his friends: but Popilius formed a circle round him with his wand,
requiring an answer before he went out of it. Hereupon the king
withdrew his forces. Polyb. xcii. V. Max. vi. 4. — Succeed.
Apollonius massacred many Jews on the sabbath. 1 Mac. i. 30. — Against.
Heb. "respecting." Prot. "have intelligence with them," &c.
H. — These wretches prompted him to make such edicts, for he was
attached to no religion. 2 Mac. iv. 9.
Ver. 31. Arms, (brachia) or strong men, Apollonius,
Philip, &c. (2 Mac. vi.) and likewise the senator from Antioch,
who executed his decrees. C. — Abomination. The idol of
Jupiter Olympius, which Antiochus ordered to be set up in the sanctuary
of the temple, which is here called the sanctuary of strength, from
the Almighty that was worshipped there. Ch. — Other idols were
set up, and the people were compelled to sacrifice. C. — Yet
even in the hottest persecutions some remained faithful. W.
Ver. 32. Dissemble. Thus acted the officers and apostate Jews. — Know.
Such were the Assideans, Eleazar, and the Machabees.
Ver. 33. Learned; the priests, Matthathias, &c. Mal. ii.
7.
Ver. 34. Help. The victories of the Machabees
were miraculous. — Deceitfully, like those who took the
spoils of idols, and were slain. Heb. may imply, "secretly." C.
Ver. 35. Fall, or became martyrs. H. — Such were Eleazar,
&c. C. — Another time, after death; (H.) or the
perfect deliverance shall take place later, v. 27.
Ver. 36. Every god. "He plundered many (C. or most; pleista. H.) temples." Polyb. Athen. v. 6. — The
Samaritans, and even the priests of the Lord, obeyed the impious
decree; so that the king looked upon himself as a sort of god. — Accomplished against
the Jews, when Epiphanes shall be punished.
Ver. 37. God. He laughed at religion, yet sometimes offered
splendid presents and victims, which shewed his inconstancy. C. — Women.
He kept many concubines, (Diod.) and committed the greatest obscenities
publicly: mimis et scortis. S. Jer. — Heb. may have
quite a different sense. He had no regard for the sex, (C.) killing all
indiscriminately. Grot.
Ver. 38. The god Maozim. That is, the god of forces or strong
holds. Ch. — Mahuzzim denotes "strong ones," (H.) guardians, &c.
Dr. Newton (Diss.) explains, the king (v. 36.) of the Roman
state; and supposes that here the guardian saints and angels are
meant, whose worship he shews "began in the Roman empire, very soon
after it became Christian. This exposition seems far preferable to that
which interprets" Jupiter or the heavens, and understands
the idol set up by Epiphanes. See Univ. Hist. x. Parkhurst. — If
these authors speak of the inferior veneration shewn to saints and
angels in the Catholic Church, it had a much earlier commencement, being
coeval with religion itself. But only the blindest prejudice can
represent this as idolatrous, and of course this system must fall to the
ground. H. — Others suppose that Mars, Hercules, Azizus, or
Jupiter, may be designated. Heb. "He will rise up against all, (38)
and against the strong God (of Israel. v. 31. C. viii. 10. C.)
he will, in his place, worship a strange god, " &c. Jun. — None
of the ancestors of Epiphanes had ever adored Jupiter on the altar of
holocausts. C. — He and antichrist adore either the great
Jupiter or their own strength. W.
Ver. 39. To. Heb. "in the most strong holds, with," &c.
H. — He built a fortress near the temple, styled Maoz, (Ezec.
xxiv. 25.) on account of its strength. C. — Glory. He
shall bestow honours, riches, and lands, upon them that shall worship
his god. Ch. — He will entrust the strong places to them.
Ver. 40. Fight. Epiphanes made war on Egypt, till the Romans
forced him to desist. The prophet explains his preceding attempts, to
which he only alluded. v. 29, 30.
Ver. 41. Land; Egypt, or rather Judea. C. — Ammon.
He will not divide his forces. S. Jer.
Ver. 43. Ethiopia. Heb. "the Lubim and Cushim shall be at his
steps." Theodot. reads, "in their fortresses." He had troops from
these nations, or Egypt was guarded by them.
Ver. 44. North. Judas continued victorious. Armenia (C.) and
Parthia rebelled. Tacit. v. 8. — Many. Epiphanes left
three generals and half his army to destroy the Jews. C.
Ver. 45. Apadno. Some take it for the proper name of a place;
others, from the Heb. translate it, his palace. Ch. — He
fixed his royal tent between the Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. W. —Porphyrius
explains this of the march beyond the Euphrates, which S. Jerom does
not disapprove. Apadno may denote Mesopotamia, which is styled Padan
Aram. — Glorious. Heb. Zebi, C. or Tsebi, (H.)
may allude to Mount Taba, where the king perished, without help.
1 Mac. vi. 11. and 2 Mac. ix. 9. S. Jerom and many others explain all
this of antichrist, and no doubt he was prefigured. The final events
will take place again towards the end of the world. The particulars are
summed up in the Church Fathers, see below: The Antichrist. Here we
have adhered to the history of Antiochus. C.
See:
The Antichrist
And
the Second Coming of Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, see:
Parousia of Jesus Christ Our Lord
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