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given rests on the Greek translation and involves a small correction of the Hebrew. The verse would seem to refer to the confusion and distress which will attend and mark the final crisis. 'Two others': i. e. two other angels.

'And one said': i. e. one of these two new angels said to the angel 'clothed in linen,' who had already been speaking to Daniel.

'A time, and (two) times, and an half time.' Here we have again the same period fixed for the final period of calamity, namely, three years and a half.

'Many shall be purified.' A season of affliction purifies those who incline towards goodness; those whose hearts are set towards evil are only confirmed by it in evil doing, for they do not understand its purport or realize that it is only for a day.

1,290 days. Another computation of days. Before we had 2,300 or more probably 1,150, i. e. three years and fifty-five days. Here we have 1,290, i. e. three years and 195 days. Finally there is to be a further stage in the development of the Messianic era at the end of an extra forty-five days, making 1,335 days in all. The reason for these chronological discrepancies and variations is doubtful and disputed; nor is it worth our while in this place to spend time upon their discussion. It is, however, noteworthy that 1,290 days make forty-three months of thirty days each, and forty-three months, allowing for an extra intercalary month, are exactly three years and a half. As regards all these calculations, it is difficult, as Professor Driver says, to suppose that the same period of three to three and a half years is not intended throughcut. 'Did we know the history of the time' [i. e. of Antiochus Epiphanes] more accurately, it would probably appear why a slightly different terminus a quo (or ad quem) was fixed in the several cases.'

'But do thou depart and rest.' Apparently the meaning is: 'Live thy life on earth, and die and rest in thy grave until the resurrection age. Then thou shalt arise and receive thy portion of bliss with the other holy men at that appointed season.' Thus the death of Daniel is ingeniously and artistically connected with the great subject of his book. A simpler or better close could hardly be desired; solemn and peaceful are these concluding words.

§ 22. The precise date of the Book of Daniel.-Such, then, is the apocalyptic pamphlet which was written by some unknown Jewish patriot in the reign of Antiochus Epiphanes. The interest and value of the book appeared to justify my inserting it in its entirety. The fact that, alone among the books of the Hebrew Bible, we

can fix its date with such remarkable precision adds also to its peculiarity and significance. After the altar of Zeus had been erected in the temple of Jehovah, and before the Syrian monarch ended his life in the city of Tabae-here are the two limits on either side between which, as we have seen, this first of the apocalypses must have been composed. As to these two limits, then, 168 and 164 B. C., almost all scholars are completely agreed. The natural desire to find a more precise date still is less easily satisfied. The point at issue is whether our author wrote and finished his book before or after that rededication of the Temple in December 165 B.C., of which we shall hear in the following chapter. Those who think that he wrote after the rededication lay stress on the various calculations as to the duration of the heathen altar which seem to these scholars to be no less accurate vaticinia post eventum than the other definite predictions of the book. Those who think that he wrote before the dedication lay stress on the phrase 'they shall be helped with a little help,' which seems to indicate an early stage in the Maccabean conflict, and the force of which is scarcely parried by the following words, and many shall cleave to them deceitfully. They also point out that our author appears to connect together in closest combination the cleansing of the sanctuary and the advent of the Messianic age. If he had witnessed the dedication, would he not have been careful to indicate that there would be a distinct or considerable interval between the Maccabean occupation of Jerusalem and the final catastrophe and transformation}

Such on either side are the arguments of the learned. In any case the Book of Daniel remains to us as a remarkable literary monument of a terrible and momentous time, and though written for a temporary purpose to fulfil special and momentary needs for a small community in a petty province of Syria, it still keeps its hold, after an interval of over 2,000 years, upon the interest and the thought of all patient students of history and of religion. Its influence upon the subsequent history of religion and theology has been enormous. Was its immediate effect upon the martyrs and warriors of Judæa commensurate with the hopes and enthusiasm of its author? That we cannot tell. But to those warriors and their history we must now return.

JUDAS MACCABÆUS

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CHAPTER III

THE PROWESS OF JUDAS AND THE DEDICATION

OF THE TEMPLE

§1. The battle of Bethhoron.-We broke off the story of the Maccabean uprising at the death of Mattathias. We have now to hear of the doings of his son, the warrior and hero, Judas Maccabæus. This surname 'Maccabee' has given the title to the whole movement and party. It is commonly supposed to mean the Hammer, and no more probable explanation has so far been found. But even to this explanation there is more than one difficulty. It has, for instance, been argued that Makabah in Hebrew is the hammer of the sculptor or the builder, but not the great hammer or battle-axe as a weapon of war.

Judas was soon to show himself worthy of his father's choice as a fearless warrior and leader of men. His first conflicts with the Syrians are thus described by our primary authority, the first Book of the Maccabees.

And his son Judas, who was called Maccabæus, rose up in his stead. And all his brethren helped him, and so did all they that clave unto his father, and they fought with gladness the battle of Israel. And he gat his people great glory, and put on a breastplate as a giant, and girt his warlike harness about him, and set battles in array, protecting the army with his sword. And he was like a lion in his deeds, and as a lion's whelp roaring for prey. And he pursued the lawless, seeking them out, and he burnt up those that troubled his people. And the lawless shrunk for fear of him, and all the workers of lawlessness were sore troubled, and salvation prospered in his hand. And he angered many kings, and made Jacob glad with his acts,

and his memorial is blessed for ever. And he went about among the cities of Judah, and destroyed the ungodly out of the land, and turned away wrath from Israel: and he was renowned unto the utmost part of the earth, and he gathered together such as were ready to perish.

And Apollonius gathered the Gentiles together, and a great host from Samaria, to fight against Israel. And Judas perceived it, and he went forth to meet him, and smote him, and slew him: and many fell wounded to death, and the rest fled. And they took their spoils, and Judas took the sword of Apollonius, and therewith he fought all his days.

And Seron, the commander of the host of Syria, heard say that Judas had gathered a gathering and a congregation of faithful men with him, and of such as went out to war; and he said, 'I will make myself a name and get me glory in the kingdom; and I will fight against Judas and them that are with him, that set at nought the word of the king.' And there went up with him also a mighty army of the ungodly to help him, to take vengeance on the children of Israel.

And he came near unto the going up of Bethhoron, and Judas went forth to meet him with a small company. But when they saw the army coming to meet them, they said unto Judas, 'What? shall we be able, being a small company, to fight against so great and strong a multitude? and we for our part are faint, having tasted no food this day.' And Judas said, 'It is an easy thing for many to be shut up in the hands of a few; and with heaven it is all one, to save by many or by few: for victory in battle standeth not in the multitude of a host; but strength is from heaven. They come unto us in fulness of insolence and lawlessness, to destroy us and our wives and our children, for to spoil us: but we fight for our lives and our laws. And he himself will discomfit them before our face: but as for not afraid of them.'

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Now when he had left off speaking, he leapt suddenly upon them, and Seron and his army were discomfited before him. And they pursued them in the going down of Bethhoron unto the plain, and there fell of them about eight hundred men; but the residue fled into the land of the Philistines.

'STRENGTH IS FROM HEAVEN'

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And the fear of Judas and his brethren, and the dread of them, began to fall upon the nations round about them: and his name came near even unto the king, and every nation told of the battles of Judas.

§ 2. The battle of Emmaus.-The last words of our quotation are doubtless a pardonable exaggeration. Nevertheless the rebellion was serious enough to cause Antiochus anxiety. But instead of coming against Judas in person with his whole force, the king happily marched eastwards to a campaign against the Parthians, leaving Lysias as his viceroy in Syria. Meanwhile the band of Judas had increased to an army, and his next victory at Emmaus was on a larger scale. Its date was the close of 166 or the opening of 165 B.C.

But when king Antiochus heard these words, he was full of indignation: and he sent and gathered together all the forces of his realm, an exceeding strong army. And he opened his treasury, and gave his forces pay for a year, and commanded them to be ready for every need. And he saw that the money failed from his treasures, and that the tributes of the country were small, because of the dissension and plague which he had brought upon the land, to the end that he might take away the laws which had been from the first days; and he feared that he should not have enough as at other times for the charges and the gifts which he gave aforetime with a liberal hand, and he abounded above the kings that were before him. And he was exceedingly perplexed in his mind, and he determined to go into Persia, and to take the tributes of the countries, and to gather much money.

And he left Lysias, an honourable man, and one of the seed royal, to be over the affairs of the king from the river Euphrates unto the borders of Egypt, and to bring up his son Antiochus, until he came again. And he delivered unto him the half of his forces, and the elephants, and gave him charge of all the things that he would have done, and concerning them that dwelt in Judæa and in Jerusalem, that he should send a host against them, to root out and destroy the strength of Israel, and the remnant of Jerusalem, and to take away their memorial from the place; and that he should make strangers to dwell in all their coasts, and should divide their land to them by lot.