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Day 241: Daniel in the Den of Lions
Jeremiah 24-25
Chapter 24: The Vision of the Baskets of Figs
Jeremiah 24:1-10 ~ Object Lesson # Six
This prose section is Jeremiah's sixth object lesson. However, Jeremiah does not receive it as a literal experience as in the past object lessons but as a vision. It may have been necessary for Jeremiah to receive a vision instead of a literal experience if Jeremiah could no longer go to the Temple. He was barred from entering the Temple in 605/4 BC (Jer 36:1, 5). Please remember that a number of the passages in the Book of Jeremiah are not in chronological sequence.
God communicates with His prophets through oracles, visions, and dreams. In the Bible, an oracle is a divine message that is heard and communicated, whereas a vision is something that is seen and experienced and then communicated in an oracle. Another form of divine communication is the dream, in which Yahweh or a divine messenger (angel) speaks to the subconscious of an individual in his sleep.
The passage sets the time of the vision to the reign of King Zedekiah, son of Josiah, the successor of his nephew King Jechoniah son of Jehoiakim. The Babylonians took King Jechoniah, along with his mother and other Jerusalemites of chief families, to exile in Babylon in 598/7 BC and placed Zedekiah on the throne of Judah in place of his nephew (2 Kng 24:10-17). We can, therefore, date the vision to between 597-593 BC and probably during the annual Feast of Sukkot/Tabernacles that closed the liturgical year, in the early fall.
Figs were offered at the Temple at the Feast of Sukkot (Shelters or Tabernacles), following the conclusion of the fruit harvest (Dt 26:1-15; Amos 8:1-3). Sukkot was one of the seven annual God-ordained festivals. It was also called the Feast of Ingathering since it was the last of the three annual "pilgrim feasts," and it lasted seven days and came to a close with a sacred assembly on the eighth day (Lev 23:33-44; Num 29:12-38; Ex 23:14-17; 34:18-23; Dt 16:5-17; 2 Chr 8:13).
The object lesson of the baskets of figs compares the future of the "good figs" who are the Jerusalemites sent away in the exile of 598/7 BC to those remaining bad Jerusalemites, or "bad figs" that remain under the rule of King Zedekiah until the fall of Jerusalem in 587 BC.
Chapter 25:1-13
Babylon the Scourge of Yahweh
Yahweh commands Jeremiah to preach submission to Babylonia in Chapters 25:1-29:32. The section contains four major parts:
- Jeremiah's oracle that Judah and other nations must accept Babylonian rule as the will of God (Chapter 25).
- A narrative concerning Jeremiah's trial for delivering sermons in the Temple (Chapter 26).
- Jeremiah's confrontation with the prophet Hananiah (Chapters 27-28).
- Jeremiah's letter to the Babylonian exiles (Chapter 29).
Jeremiah 25:1-7 ~ To a People Who Have Not Listened
The prose section in verses 1-13 is set in the fourth year of the reign of King Jehoiakim and predates the last section. The year is probably 605 BC.605 BC is the year King Nebuchadnezzar defeated Egypt and Assyria at the Battle of Carchemish and took control of the entire Levant, including the Davidic Kingdom of Judah.
Jeremiah begins his oracle by reminding the people that it was twenty-three years earlier that he received his prophetic call (Jer 1:4-18). From 627 BC until 605 BC, the prophetic "word of Yahweh has been addressed" to Jeremiah. He tells the people that he has faithfully delivered God's word to them, but they failed to listen to him just as they failed to listen to the prophets God sent before him.
The main mission of a prophet was to call the covenant people to repentance. If the people had listened to his message of repentance and renounced their evil practices, they could have continued living in the Promised Land. However, since the people rejected that part of Jeremiah's ministry, his role is now limited to explaining the calamities that they have brought on themselves because of the idols they have made with their hands and have followed instead of Yahweh (verses 6-7).
Jeremiah 25:8-13 ~ The Seventy Year Exile
In the past, Jeremiah only referred to the "enemy from the north" (ten times in Jer 1:13, 14, 15; 3:18; 4:6; 6:1, 22; 10:22; 13:20; 16:15). Jeremiah identified Babylon as Judah's enemy in the oracle of 20:1-6, delivered sometime before 605 BC, and now, for the first time, he names the "enemy from the north" as the Empire of the Babylonians.
The Promised Land never "belonged" to the Israelites. They were God's tenants on His land (Lev 25:23). The purpose of the Sabbath year was that it served as an opportunity for the covenant people to demonstrate their faith and trust in God to provide for them in the Promised Land, as He promised in His list of blessings for covenant obedience (Lev 26:3-13 and Dt 28:1-14). For an entire year, every seventh year, the land was to lie fallow. No crops were sown, the vineyards were not pruned, no grain was harvested, and no grapes harvested from the untrimmed vines. However, whatever the land produced naturally in its Sabbath year without labor served to feed the people, their servants, the resident aliens, the cattle, and even the wild animals (Lev 25:4-7). The land was at "rest" just as God rested on the seventh day of the Creation event in Genesis 2:1-3. In abandoning God's Law, the covenant people also failed to keep the Sabbath rest while they enjoyed the land. Therefore, God will now take them out of His land so it can receive the 490 years of Sabbath rest it was owed!
Agape Bible Study Daniel 6 -7
Daniel in the Lion Pit
Obedience to God comes before obedience to men.
(Acts 5:29)
Daniel 6:2-10 ~ The Persian Satraps Resentment Concerning Daniel's Promotion
The events in Chapter 6 unfold in four parts:
- Daniel's exalted position in the court of the king and the enmity of the other ministers (verses 2-5).
- The plan to discredit Daniel and cause his death (verses 6-16).
- Daniel in the lion's pit, his salvation, and the fate of his accusers (verses 17-25).
- The king's profession of faith in Daniel's God (verses 26-29).
The story correctly reflects the bureaucratic organization of the Persian Empire. Historically, the number of satrapies in the Persian empire varied in different times from about twenty to thirty, and the duty of the satraps was to govern each region and to see to the collection of the taxes throughout the empire (Ezra 3:13-16). Daniel was one of three chief ministers appointed to govern the satrapies. Once again, Daniel's God-given wisdom makes him superior to the other royal ministers, and the king considered making him the chief minister over the entire kingdom.
Question: When the king appointed Daniel as one of the three chief ministers/presidents of the kingdom and considered giving him authority to rule the whole empire, what was the reaction of the other chief ministers and satraps? Their response is similar to what other story in the Book of Daniel?
Answer: The king's favoritism of Daniel generated jealousy among the other ministers and probably racial prejudice. It was the same professional jealousy that leads to Nebuchadnezzar's ministers plotting the destruction of Shadrack, Meshach, and Abed-Nego.
The jealousy of the Persian ministers and their desire to destroy Daniel is the way the wicked have always sought to destroy the righteous (Wis 2:12). Since there is no mention of the other Jewish ministers, were probably dead by this time, and Daniel alone represents God in the royal court of the pagan Persians.
Daniel 6:11-16 ~ Daniel Continues His Daily Prayers
Daniel realized that he was endangering his life by disobeying Cyrus' royal edict that forbade all worship except to the king for thirty days. However, like all the truly pious, he preferred to remain obedient to God, as St. Peter and the Apostles will tell the Jewish Sanhedrin when they declared: Obedience to God comes before obedience to men (Acts 5:29). Daniel demonstrated his obedience to God by observing the hours of the Temple's daily Tamid worship services in his personal prayer.
Daniel did not hide; he continued to pray by an opened window where he was visible. When the other ministers caught Daniel in the act of praying, they denounced him to the king.
Daniel 6:17-25 ~ Daniel is Thrown to the Lions
The king cannot overturn his decree without jeopardizing his royal authority in the eyes of his Persian and Median subjects. Bound by his unwise decree, he orders Daniel thrown into the lion pit, expressing the hope that Daniel's God will save him because he (the king) cannot (verse 17).
18 A stone was then brought and laid over the mouth of the pit; and the king sealed it with his own signet and with that of his noblemen, so that there could be no going back on the original decision about Daniel.
The lions were in a pit that appears to be a subterranean cave or room with at least one opening above (also see Dan 14:31-36/28-42. They closed the opening with a large stone (verse 18). The ensure the entrance remained closed, a stone was on top of the opening with the royal seal and the seals of the king's noblemen impressed into wet clay where the stone's edge met the pit's opening. For other mentions of a royal seal, see 1 Kings 21:8; Esther 3:12; 8:8, 10, and the stone across the entrance to the tomb of Jesus in upon which the Romans placed seals in Matthew 27:66.
In the morning, after a sleepless night and filled with anxiety, the king goes to the lion's pit and calls out to Daniel (verses 19-21). Daniel replies: "May Your Majesty live forever! 23 My God sent his angel who sealed the lions' jaws; they did me no harm, since in his sight I am blameless; neither have I ever done you any wrong, Your Majesty." Daniel's survival, thanks to the protection of an angel of the Lord in the same way God saved the three Jews in the burning fiery furnace, proves his innocence and the power of his God. The key phrase is: Daniel was released from the pit and found to be quite unhurt, because he had trusted in his God. Daniel tells the king that his salvation was due to the justice of God who will not allow His innocent servant to suffer unjustly.
25 The king then sent for the men who had accused Daniel and had them thrown into the lion pit, and their wives and children too; and before they reached the floor of the pit the lions had seized them and crushed their bones to pieces.
God's justice protects the innocent but also demands punishment for the wicked. In keeping with the Law of Moses regarding false witnesses, those who condemned Daniel by suggesting that because he prayed to his God that he did not give the king his loyalty suffered the same fate they planned for him (see Dt 19:19). It does not seem just, of course, that the wives and children of those men had to share their fate. In the ancient world, the concept of family solidarity considered it just that a man's entire family should pay the price for his crimes. However, the Law of Moses forbade such actions as making the children suffer the penalty for the sins of their fathers: Parents may not be put to death for their children, nor children for parents, but each must be put to death for his own crime (Dt 24:16; also see 2 Kngs 14:6).
Daniel 6:26-29 ~ The King's Profession of Faith
Like King Nebuchadnezzar, the first Gentile king Daniel served, King Darius, Daniel's last Gentile king, makes a profession of faith in Daniel's God and offers religious protection for all Jews who worship Yahweh. Both pagan kings were fundamentally good men who responded positively to the works of God through His servant Daniel, and they prefigure the Gentile rulers who will one day accept Jesus' Gospel of salvation and make a profession of faith in Jesus as Savior and King of kings.
Chapter 7
Chapter 7 is the beginning of the second half of the three major divisions in the book:
- Daniel's captivity and exile in Babylon in service to pagan rulers (1:1-6:29)
- Daniel's visions and God's plan for the time of the Gentile nations (7:1-12:13)
- Appendix (13:1-14:42)
This part of the book continues to record Daniel's experiences during the reigns of pagan kings (as the ancient's counted):
- Chapters 7-8 concerns events during the first and third years of Belshazzar as co-ruler in 550 and 548 BC.
- Chapter 9 returns to the first year of Darius the Mede in 539 BC.
- Chapter 10 concerns events in the third year of King Cyrus in c. 537 BC.
Chapter 7:1-28 is the end of the part of the Book of Daniel written in Aramaic that began in Chapter 2. The chapter is in two parts:
- Daniel's dream/vision of the four beasts, the "Ancient of Days," and the "Son of Man" (verses 1-14).
- The interpretation of the dream/vision (verses 15-28).
Unlike chapters 2-6 where Daniel has been the interpreter of the dreams and visions of pagan kings, his dreams and visions are now interpreted for him by an angelic being. The angel sent by Yahweh will explain:
- Daniel's dreams and visions in Chapters 7-8.
- The meaning of Scripture in Chapter 9.
- Daniel's last vision concerning the man clothed in linen and final times in Chapters 10-12.
In 2:28, Daniel announced to King Nebuchadnezzar that God in Heaven had shown the king the "final days" as part of the interpretation of the king's dream. In the second part of the book, Daniel discovers when those final days will take place (12:5-12), and he uses his wisdom from God to comprehend a revelation concerning the unfolding of human history and its meaning. Daniel was not only a prophet to his generation but future generations.
Daniel 7:1-8 ~ The Vision of the Four Beasts
There are two scenes in the vision of Chapter 7:
- The four beasts coming out of the wind-stirred sea (verses 2-8).
- God rendering judgment in the heavenly court (verses 9-14).
According to the verse 1, the vision Daniel receives takes place "in the first year of Belshazzar" and probably refers to the year his father, Nabonidus, made him co-ruler in about 550 BC, ten years (as the ancients counted) before the episode with Belshazzar in Chapter 6. To adjust for this lack of continuity between Chapters 6 and 7, the ancient Chester Beatty papyrus Codex 967 avoids the confusion by placing Chapters 7-8 before Chapters 5-6. Usually, Scripture distinguishes dreams from visions: dreams take place at night while asleep, and visions occur while one is awake. The third type of direct communication from God is an oracle which is something the prophet hears but does not see. However, in this case, Daniel describes his experience as a dream that contained visions, perhaps because the images were so vivid that it seemed he was awake.
It is a revelation Daniel commits to writing from verse 1 to 28 so it will be a source of comfort and hope for the covenant people in exile.
3 four great beasts emerged from the sea, each different from the others. 4 The first was like a lion with eagle's wings and, as I looked, its wings were torn off, and it was lifted off the ground and set standing on its feet like a human; and it was given a human heart.
It was not uncommon for prophets to use animals as symbols for empires:
- Ezekiel used a crocodile for Egypt in Ezekiel 32.
- Ezekiel and Jeremiah used an eagle and a monster for Babylon in Ezekiel 17:3 and Jeremiah 51:34.
Saints Jerome and Hippolytus believed the four winds of Heaven mentioned in verse 2 represented angelic powers while the four beasts symbolized the same four successive kingdoms that will dominate the history of the region and the covenant people from Nebuchadnezzar's dream in Chapter 2: Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, and Rome.
The four beasts of Daniel's vision:
- A beast like a lion with eagle's wings (verse 4).
- A beast like a bear standing with three ribs in its mouth (verse 5).
- A beast like a leopard with four bird's wings and four heads (verse 6).
- A fearful beast different from the others with iron teeth and ten horns (verse 7).
In Scripture the image of a horn represents power (Ps 18:2; 89:24; 132:17; 148:14; Jer 48:25; Mic 4:13; Zec 2:1/1:21) and in this case represent powerful people. The "little horn" of 7:8 is a person appearing in context with the fourth kingdom of Rome, although Biblical scholars both ancient and modern dispute what individual it represents. Some maintain it refers to one of the Caesars; others suggest the reference is to the Greek Seleucid ruler Antiochus IV, and there are those who believe that it is a reference to one in the spirit of antichrist or the Antichrist who rules over a Roman Empire of the future. Protestants like to picture the "little horn" as an evil Pope of the Catholic Church. The problem with this interpretation is that the Church is not an earthly kingdom but an eternal, spiritual kingdom, and all the other "horns" in Chapters 7 and 8 refer to leaders of earthly kingdoms. That the "horn" is "little" probably refers to his power lasting only a short time.
Daniel 7:9-14 ~ The Vision of the Messianic King
Next, Daniel's dream turns into a prophetic vision of the divine judicial proceeding convened against humanity in the heavenly Sanctuary when the Book of Life and the Books of Deeds are opened to present evidence for and against humanity. The same scene appears in the Book of Revelation 20:11-15 when St. John sees a large white throne and the one who was sitting on it as scrolls were opened containing the deeds of all men and women and a second scroll was opened that was the book of life as the dead were judged according to their deeds (Rev 20:12).
The "Most Venerable" is God the Father who sits upon a flaming chariot-throne like the one witnessed by the prophets Elijah, Elisha, and Ezekiel (2 Kng 2:11; Ez 1:4-28). St. John witnessed the same heavenly court in the Book of Revelation Chapters 4-7 and had a vision of a great multitude, which no one could count, from every nation, race, people, and tongue. They stood before the throne (Rev 7:9). The vision of God the Father that Daniel witnessed in verses 9-10 recalls Israel's theophany of God in His glory at Mount Sinai (Ex 19:18-19; also see Ps 50:3 and Rev 5:11).
The "horn" who is a beast-person and a persecutor of God's people is judged by God to be worthy of eternal death. God will allow the other "beasts" deprived of their world empires to continue for a designated time before they receive their divine judgments. This could be a reference to Sheol, the abode of the dead to which the righteous and wicked before Christ descended to Sheol to liberate the righteous who entered the gates of Heaven but those who refused His gift of salvation condemned themselves to the Hell of Satan and his demons (Apostles' Creed; 1 Pt 3:18-20; 4:6).
What Daniel witnessed took place c. 580 years before it happened in earthly time (as we count from 550 BC to AD 30 (with Jesus' ministry beginning when He was 30 years old in the 15th year of Emperor Tiberius in AD 28). Other visions of the heavenly throne room appear in Isaiah 6:1-7 and St. John's vision in the Book of Revelation. Compare Daniel's vision with St. John's visions in Revelation:
| Daniel 7:9a | ...and I saw a throne standing in heaven, and the One who was sitting on the throne, and the One sitting there looked like a diamond and a ruby...Flashes of lightning were coming from the throne, and the sound of peals of thunder (Rev 4:3-5a). |
| Daniel 7:9b | His head and his hair were white with the whiteness of wool, like snow, his eyes like a burning flame (Rev 1:14). |
| Daniel 7:10a | In my vision, I hard the sound of an immense number of angels gathered round the throne... there were ten thousand times ten thousand of them and thousands upon thousands (Rev 5:11). |
| Daniel 7:10b | Then I saw a great white throne and the One who was sitting on it. In his presence earth and sky vanished, leaving no trace. I saw the dead, great and small alike, standing in front of his throne while the books lay opened. And another book was opened, which is the Book of Life, and the dead were judged from what was written in the books, as their deeds deserved (Rev 20:11-12). |
| Daniel 7:11 | But the beast was taken prisoner, together with the false prophet who had worked miracles on the beast's behalf... These two were hurled alive into the fiery lake of burning sulfur (Rev 19:20). |
Jesus will make two significant references to Daniel 7:13a ~ I was gazing into the visions of the night, when I saw, coming on the clouds of heaven, as it were a son of man... It is a vision Daniel witnesses from the heavenly throne room, but the Apostles and disciples witnessed from the perspective of the earth in Acts 1:9. Alluding to Daniel's vision of the divine Messiah who looked like a man:
| Matthew 24:30-31 | Jesus said, referring to His Second Advent: "And then the sign of the Son of man will appear in heaven; then, too, all the peoples of the earth will beat their breasts; and they will see the Son of man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And he will send his angels with a loud trumpet to gather is elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other." |
| Matthew 26:64 | Jesus said, at His trial before the High Priest and the Sanhedrin: "...you will see the Son of man seated at the right hand of the Power and coming on the clouds of heaven." Then the high priest tore his clothes and said, "He has blasphemed. What need of witnesses have we now? There! You have just heard the blasphemy. What is your opinion?" They answered, "He deserves to die." |
Daniel 7:15-28 ~ The Interpretation of the Vision
16 So I approached one of those who were standing by and asked him about all this. And in reply he revealed to me what these things meant.
One of those "standing by" in the heavenly court was an angelic being who revealed the meaning of the vision to Daniel. This event is the beginning of Daniel's conversations with angels.
17 "These four great beasts are four kings who will rise up from the earth.
The vision doesn't represent only four kingdoms but four kings. Church Fathers Hippolytus, Cyril of Jerusalem, Chrysostom, Theodoret, Jerome, and others agree that the image of the lion/lioness in 7:4 (lioness from the Greek Septuagint) refers to King Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonian Empire. A lion-like creature with wings was the symbolic emblem of Babylon and her king, and Daniel told Nebuchadnezzar that he was the "golden head" of the first part of the composite statue (Dan 2:38).
The Church Fathers suggested that tearing off the wings of the first beast followed by its restoration with a human heart may refer to Nebuchadnezzar's judgment for his pride followed by his repentance and restoration in Chapter 4.
A winged lion-like beast relief from the ancient city of Babylon:
These same ancient scholars agree that the bear-like second beast refers to Cyrus and the Medo-Persians with the three ribs representing the three ruling ministers of the Persian Empire (Dan 5:29; 6:2-3) or the major divisions of the Persian Empire being Babylon, Media, and Persia.
- St. Jerome wrote: "The second beast resembling a bear is the same as that of which we read in the vision of the statue, His chest and arms were of silver.' In the former case, the comparison was based on the hardness of the metal, in this case on the ferocity of the bear. For the Persian kingdom followed a rigorous and frugal manner of life (Jerome, Commentary on Daniel, 7.5).
- St. Theodoret, Bishop of Cyr wrote: "Here he indicates the Persian kingdom, which he states to have been like a bear because of the cruelty and savageness of the punishments it meted out. For the Persians were the cruelest of all the barbarians when it came to punishing. They would rip out the very hearts of offenders, or they would contrive long tortures in which they would sever the guilty limb by limb" (Theodoret, Commentary on Daniel, 7.5).
Concerning the three ribs protruding from the mouth of the bear-like beast standing erect, St. Jerome wrote: "But as for the three rows or ranks that were in his mouth and between his teeth, one authority has interpreted this to mean that allusion was made to the fact that the Persian kingdom was divided up among three princes, just as we read in the sections dealing with Belshazzar and with Darius that there were three princes who were in charge of the 120 satraps....therefore the three rows in the mouth of the Persian kingdom of the Babylonians, the Medes, and the Persians, all of which were reduced to a single realm (Jerome, Commentary on Daniel, 7.5 referring to Daniel 5:29 and 6:2-5).
The Church Fathers agree that the third beast that looked like a leopard with four wings and four heads and granted authority refers to Alexander the Great. They say the wings symbolized the four quarters of the known world that he conquered with the aid of his four generals directing his swift advance in overcoming foreign nations. The heads granted authority refer to his four generals who founded four Greek kingdoms after his death.
- St. Hippolytus wrote: "In mentioning the leopard, he means the kingdom of the Greeks, over whom Alexander of Macedon was king. And he likened them to a leopard, because they were quick and inventive in thought and bitter in heart, just as that animal is many-colored in appearance and quick in wounding and in drinking human blood" (Hippolytus, Scholia on Daniel, 7:6).
- St. Jerome wrote: "And by the four heads reference is made to his generals... Ptolemy, Seleucus, Philip, and Antigonus" (Jerome, Commentary on Daniel, 7.6).
- St. Theodoret wrote: "the four heads refer to the division of the empire that took place after Alexander. Four kings were established instead of one. The rulership of Egypt was entrusted to Ptolemy, son of Lagos; the realm of the Orient was granted to Seleucus; Antigonus acquired Asia; and Antipater Macedonia (although some say that Alexander's brother, Philip, also known as Aridaeus) acquired Macedonia" (Theodoret, Commentary on Daniel, 7.6).
They also agree that the fourth beast refers to the Romans. Chapter 7 mentions that the fourth beast is different from the other beasts five times (7:3, 7, 19, 23, 24). It has ten horns and is unrecognizable to Daniel in comparison to any other animal. Since the images concern kings, the ten horns may represent the rulers of the ten Roman provinces or the ten Roman rulers from Julius Caesar to Vespasian and the destruction of the Jerusalem Temple in 70 AD.(1)
- St. Jerome wrote: "The fourth empire is the Roman Empire, which now occupies the entire world" (Jerome, Commentary on Daniel, 7.7).
- St. Theodoret wrote: "He calls the Roman Empire the fourth beast,' but he does not give it a name because the Roman state was forged together from very many nations, and so acquired mastery over the whole world.... And as for the next statement, devouring and crushing and pounding all the rest to pieces under his feet,' this signifies that all nations have either been slain by the Romans or else have been subjected to tribute and servitude" (Theodoret, Commentary on Daniel, 7.7).
- St. John Chrysostom wrote: "...then he tells that the fourth beast would arrive in all sorts of different ways and nothing could be compared with it, it was so different. But at last it conquered all the other kingdoms. The other empires all got their strength from the speed by which they conquered, but this beast would have its strength in its teeth, made of iron. And he trampled the rest with is feet.' He understands many wars" (Chrysostom, Commentary on Daniel, 7).
It is possible that the 10 toes of the fourth beast represent ten Roman rulers, but there were also 10 Roman provinces ruled by Roman vassals; in either case, the reference could be to Rome. After Julius Caesar's death in 44 BC, and the ascension of his great-nephew as the first Roman Emperor in 29 BC until the rule of Vespasian in 68 BC and the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem in AD 70 (during Vespasian's reign) there were 10 Roman rulers:
- Julius Caesar
- Augustus
- Tiberius
- Gaius Caligula
- Claudius
- Nero
- Galba
- Otho
- Vitellius
- Vespasian
In any event, the prophecies of Daniel received appear to fit the Roman Empire as the fourth empire, and there is a link to the serpent and the beast in the Book of Revelation. For more on the Revelation passages, see the Revelation study Chapter 12 and Chapter 13.
The visions in the Book of Daniel accurately predicted the rise and fall of men and the world powers that would exercise control over the people of God from the Babylonians, to the Persians, to the conquest of Alexander the Great, and the Greeks, to the rise and dominance of the Roman Empire over all the other empires. Rome will dominate Judah, which will be renamed the Roman province of Judea [jew-day'-uh] from 63 BC until the Jewish rebellion against Rome in the revolt of 66 AD. The Jewish Rebellion destroyed Judea, Jerusalem, and the Jerusalem Temple and the final collapse of the last of the Jewish defenders at Masada in 73 AD. At the time Jerusalem and the Second Temple was destroyed [9th of Av, AD 70], the Romans deported almost a million people sold into slavery, and the nation of Judea ceased to exist. The land became the Roman Province of Syria-Palestine, and the Romans renamed Jerusalem Aelia Capitolina. It is significant that the prophecy says all these world empires will be crushed and brought to ruin, but God reveals to Daniel that in their place will arise a promised fifth Kingdom. These "final days" to which Daniel refers are the days that will signal the coming of the Messiah and the Final Age of humanity.
| The Vision | Book of Daniel | Book of Revelation |
| The Lion, the Bear, and the Leopard | Chapter 7:4-6 | Chapter 13:2 |
| The ten horns | Chapter 7:8 | Chapters 12:3, 13:1; 17:3, 8 |
| The Beast mouthing boasting and blasphemies | Chapter 7:8, 11 | Chapter 13:5 |
| The Throne of God, worship of the multitude, and the Son of Man coming on the Glory-Cloud to receive power and dominion | Chapter 7:13-14 | Chapter 1:7; 4-5; 14:14 |
| The war against the Saints | Chapter 7:21 | Chapter 13:7 |
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CHALLENGE: “St. Jerome (c. 347–420), the foremost Scripture scholar of his day, didn’t accept the deuterocanonical books as Scripture.”
DEFENSE: Jerome’s attitude is ambiguous and may have changed over time. Furthermore, no one Church Father can settle the canon.
While learning to translate Hebrew, Jerome was in contact with non-Christian Jews who were intellectual descendants of the Pharisees and therefore rejected the deuterocanonicals (see Days 255 and 257). Under this influence, he at least for a time rejected their canonicity.
This is indicated in the prologues to the Vulgate, where he says certain books are non-canonical (e.g., he says this of Wisdom, Sirach, Judith, and Tobit in the prologue to Kings). In other cases, he says a book is not read among Hebrew-speaking Jews but does not clearly state his own view (e.g., he says this of Baruch in the prologue to Jeremiah).
Nevertheless, Jerome shows deference to the judgment of the Church. In the prologue to Judith, he tells his patron that “because this book is found by the Nicene Council [of A.D. 325] to have been counted among the number of the Sacred Scriptures, I have acquiesced to your request” to translate it. This is interesting because we have only partial records of First Nicaea, and we don’t otherwise know what this ecumenical council said concerning the canon.
Jerome’s deference to Church authority was also illustrated when he later defended the deuterocanonical portions of Daniel, writing: “What sin have I committed in following the judgment of the churches?” (Against Rufinus 2:33). In the same place he stated that what he said concerning Daniel in his prologues was what non-Christian Jews said but was not his own view.
This may indicate Jerome changed his mind or that his reporting of Jewish views may not indicate his own view.
Jerome’s deference to the Church is correct. The guidance of the Holy Spirit is given to the Church as a whole. No one Church Father, however prominent, can settle the canon of Scripture, and on this subject Jerome was in the minority (see Day 273).
Jimmy Akin, A Daily Defense: 365 Days (Plus One) to Becoming a Better Apologist
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