Daniel 8
Theodoret of Cyrus · Comentário Patrístico (catena)
Daniel 8:1
Now, it is not without purpose that he indicates the time: it is to inform us that long before these things happened, he received foreknowledge of them from the God of all. — COMMENTARY ON DANIEL 8:1
Daniel 8:2
"I saw in a vision" means I was not awake, nor did I see it during the day: the God of all showed it to me in a dream. — COMMENTARY ON DANIEL 8:2
Daniel 8:3
He sees the Persian Empire in the form of a ram since it was flush with wealth and had a great abundance of resources. — COMMENTARY ON DANIEL 8:3
Daniel 8:3
He perceived two horns on the ram because Cyrus was the first to reign over it and transmitted the empire only to his sons; when his son Cambyses died, soothsayers held power for a few months, but shortly afterwards Darius son of Hystaspes, who passed the empire on to his offspring and theirs up to the last Darius, whose empire Alexander the Macedonian took over after slaying him. So by the two horns he means two races of kings, seeing both to be tall, but the second taller than the first. — COMMENTARY ON DANIEL 8:3
Daniel 8:4
By "beasts" he refers again to the other kingdoms individually, Syria, Cilicia, Arabia, Egypt, calling them "beasts" on account of their being fearsome to those they ruled. So no kingdom, he is saying, could resist that empire charging to the north, south and west, nor could any human being liberate anyone from that power. Yet for all its appearance it met its end. — COMMENTARY ON DANIEL 8:4
Daniel 8:5
The dream's riddle here suggested the Macedonian Empire, calling it a "goat" because of its speed and fleetness of foot, a goat being faster than a ram. He said it came from the southwest: since it had previously subjugated Egypt, it thus advanced into the land of the Persians, conquering Darius in Cilicia, and from there traversing Syria, Phoenicia and Palestine, taking some of the cities by surrender, securing others by force. It then also gained possession of that empire, occupied the Persians and destroyed the greater part of their power. — COMMENTARY ON DANIEL 8:5
Daniel 8:5
By the "one horn visible," in the sense of famous and illustrious, he refers to Alexander; he says the horn was growing between its eyes on account of the shrewdness, intelligence and sagacity of Alexander's thinking. — COMMENTARY ON DANIEL 8:5
Daniel 8:8
Despite that great conquest, Alexander met the common fate of humankind. — COMMENTARY ON DANIEL 8:8
Daniel 8:8
By "four horns" he hints at the four kings who succeeded Alexander at the one time: Ptolemy son of Lagus took control of Egypt; Seleucus Nicanor got possession of Babylon and the other parts bordering on Syria; Antigonus was in charge of Asia; Antipater, Macedonia—or, as some historians think, Philip, who is also called Arrhideus, brother of Alexander. — COMMENTARY ON DANIEL 8:8
Daniel 8:9
The first and second books of the Maccabees inform us of this more clearly, and the historian Josephus made a precise record of it, and we shall outline concisely the facts about him. When the Jews of the high-priestly family rebelled against the high priest of the time, those anxious for the position went to Antiochus and persuaded him to change the Jewish way of life to the Greek and to build a gymnasium in the city. When this happened, devout people were in mourning at seeing the blatant violation of the laws, while the remaining throng had no qualms about trampling on the divine law and treating with contempt the commandment about circumcision. When the uprising became more serious, Antiochus arrived and put to death most of the devout, and he had the audacity even to enter the precincts of the temple; after entering he sacked the whole temple, appropriating to himself the treasures, all the offerings, cups and bowls and vessels, the golden table, the golden censer, the lampstands made of gold, and in short all the instruments of divine worship. In addition to this he built in God's temple an altar to Zeus, filled the whole city with idols and obliged everyone to sacrifice, while he himself sacrificed a pig on the divine altar and named the temple after Zeus of Olympus. — COMMENTARY ON DANIEL 8:10
Daniel 8:10
Most of the people by transgressing God's law quickly fell away from heavenly things, and they were trampled down by this tyrant to their own destruction. He referred to them as stars on account of the fame and splendor of their piety, hinting also at the promise to Abraham, "I shall make your offspring like the stars of heaven." — COMMENTARY ON DANIEL 8:10
Daniel 8:11
Then he foretells with greater clarity the audacity that would be committed by Antiochus. "On account of him sacrifice was disrupted by transgression": he did not permit the sacrifices prescribed by law to be made, requiring instead that they be performed in the Greek manner. — COMMENTARY ON DANIEL 8:11
Daniel 8:13
The word phelmouni means "a person" in Greek; Syriac, which is close to Hebrew, also confirms this. So blessed Daniel is saying, I heard one holy one asking another holy one. Clearly he is witnessing angels conversing and wanting to learn how long is the period of the offenses of impiety and lawlessness, the devastation of the temple, the illicit and loathsome sacrifice and the oppression of the people. — COMMENTARY ON DANIEL 8:13
Daniel 8:14
By "evening" he referred to the beginning of the calamities and by "morning" to the end of the calamities, since night and darkness are figures of distress. From the present time, the beginning of the troubles, to the end, he is saying, the period is of that length [twenty-three hundred evenings and mornings]. — COMMENTARY ON DANIEL 8:14
Daniel 8:16
I heard someone else as well using a human voice and bidding the one standing near me, whom he called Gabriel, to interpret the riddle of the revelation to me. It is possible from what was said to come to the conclusion that the one giving the orders was the Lord. — COMMENTARY ON DANIEL 8:16
Daniel 8:17
Do not think that these things come to fulfillment in the present age; they will happen after a great number of years. When the set time has run its course, then each of them will reach its fulfillment. — COMMENTARY ON DANIEL 8:17
Daniel 8:18
Perceiving me prostrate with fear, he first set me upright, then consoled me by making known why he had come, to inform me in my anxiety of the future and what in turn would overtake my people as a result of God's wrath. Then, in his wish to allay the fear besetting me, he mentioned that this would happen after a time and interpreted to me the meaning of each of the things I had seen. — COMMENTARY ON DANIEL 8:18-19
Daniel 8:22
After [Alexander's] death his empire will be divided into four kingdoms, but though those reigning over them are four, they will not succeed in achieving what he achieved but will be seen to be much inferior to his strength. — COMMENTARY ON DANIEL 8:22
Daniel 8:24
Nothing will be an obstacle to him; instead, he will do what he wishes. Of such people blessed David says in exhortation, "Do not vie with the one who prospers in his way, with the one who commits lawlessness": it often happens that people living a godless and lawless life prosper considerably in their lawless pursuits. — COMMENTARY ON DANIEL 8:24-25
Daniel 8:26
"Seal up the vision because it will be in many days time," that is, leave it obscure for many people; I have made it clear to you in your longing before the event. — COMMENTARY ON DANIEL 8:26
Daniel 8:27
On learning the troubles that would overtake the people in due course, I became so unwell as to fall a victim to illness. Yet despite being thus indisposed, I managed the work entrusted to me by the king, with no one aware of the cause of the sickness. He was in the habit of saying along with blessed Paul, "Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is made to stumble, and I am not indignant?" and "Weeping with those who weep, rejoicing with those who rejoice," and "If one limb suffers, all the limbs suffer together." This man felt the same way, and he had this affection for his fellow slaves; and on learning of the calamities to overtake his fellow slaves many generations later, he kept weeping and wailing. He had a precise knowledge that he personally would not experience those things but would instead be freed from the present life before long. — COMMENTARY ON DANIEL 8:27