point of view, of the canonical work does not place it in a different literary category from the corresponding non-canonical work or works. Probably, indeed, the Book of Daniel formed the model, especially in chs. vii.—xii., upon which the non-canonical apocalypses were constructed: it is at all events undoubted that there are many passages in the book which furnished in germ the thought or imagery which was expanded or embellished by subsequent apocalyptic writers.

Comp., for instance, not merely the general mode of representation by means of symbolism and visions, the latter being often explained to the seer by the intervention of an angel; but also, more particularly, in Enoch, the titles 'Most High' (see on Dan. iii. 26), and 'watcher,' or wakeful one (see on iv. 13), the representation of the Almighty as an aged man, seated as judge on His throne, surrounded by myriads of angels (vii. 9, and p. 106 f.), the books in which the deeds of men are recorded (vii. 10), and those in which the citizens of the Messianic kingdom are registered (xii. 1), the resurrection and 'eternal life' (xii. 2), the 'son of man' (vii. 13, and p. 106 f.), the saints compared to stars (viii. 10, and xii. 3), the fear at the sight of the vision, and the restoration by an angelic touch (viii. 17, 18, x. 8 ff.), the revelation designed for the future, not for the present (viii. 26b, xii. 4), the 10 weeks' into which the history of the world is divided (En. xciii., xci. 12-15), the names and ranks of angels (more fully developed than in Dan.), with Michael appointed guardian over Israel (Dan. viii. 16, x. 13); comp. in Baruch and 2 Esdras, also, the fast, predisposing to a vision (Dan. x. 3; see on vv. 5-9).

The Book of Daniel is also one of the sources of the imagery, or the expression, of the Book of Revelation: see on iii. 4, vii. 3, 7 ('ten horns': Rev. xii. 3, xiii. 1, xvii. 3, 7, 12, 16), 8, 9 ('white as snow'), 10 (thrice), 13 (Rev. i. 7, 13, xiv. 14), 21 (Rev. xiii. 7), 25 (Rev. xii. 14; cf. also the 42 months of tribulation in xi. 2, xiii. 5 (see v. 7), and the 1260 days of xi. 3 and xii. 6-each being equal to 3 years), 27, viii. 10 (Rev. xii. 4), x. 6 (Rev. i. 14 6, 15), xii. 1, 7 (Rev. x. 5, 6, xii. 14). Comp. also p. xcvii f.

It remains to consider briefly certain doctrines and representations, which are characteristic of the Book of Daniel.

I. The kingdom of God. One of the most fundamental ideas in the Book of Daniel is the triumph of the kingdom of God

over the kingdoms of the world. This is the thought expressed already in Nebuchadnezzar's dream in ch. ii., where the stone 'cut out without hands,' falling upon the feet of the colossal image, and causing it to break up, and afterwards itself filling the entire earth, represents the triumph of the kingdom of God over the anti-theocratic powers of the world. It is the same ultimate triumph of the kingdom of God over the kingdoms of the world, which, with increasing distinctness of detail, and with more special reference to the climax of heathen hostility to the truth in the person of Antiochus Epiphanes, is depicted in chs. vii.— xii. upon a divinely appointed succession of world-empires follows at last the universal and eternal kingdom of the holy people of God, a kingdom which (ch. vii.) contrasts with all previous kingdoms, as man contrasts with beasts of prey. The book is thus dominated, 'not only by an unshaken confidence in the ultimate triumph of truth, but also by an over-mastering sense of a universal divine purpose which overrules all the vicissitudes of human history, the rise and fall of dynasties, the conflicts of nations, and the calamities that overtake the faithful1.'

According to the Book of Daniel, when the need of the saints is the greatest, through the exterminating measures of Antiochus Epiphanes (vii. 21, 25, viii. 24, 25, xi. 31-39, xii. 76), the Almighty will interpose: His throne of judgement will be set up, and the powers hostile to Israel will be overthrown (ii. 35, 44, vii. 9—12, 22a, 26, viii. 25 end, xi. 45 end); everlasting dominion will be given to the people of the saints, and all surviving nations will serve them (vii. 14, 226, 27); sin will be abolished and forgiven, and everlasting righteousness be brought in (ix. 24). The righteous dead of Israel will rise to an eternal life of glory; the apostate Jews will rise likewise, but only to be visited with contumely and shame (xii. 2, 3). The inauguration of the kingdom of God will follow immediately upon the overthrow of the 'fourth empire' in the person of Antiochus Epiphanes.

This representation of the future kingdom of God, though it differs in details, and displays traits marking the later age to

1 Ottley, Bampton Lectures, 1897, p. 332.

which it belongs, is, in all essential features the same as that which is found repeatedly in the earlier prophets. The earlier prophets, as Amos, Hosea, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, the Second Isaiah, all pictured the advent of an age, when the trials and disappointments of the present would be no more, when human infirmity and human sin would cease to mar the happiness of earth, when Israel, freed from foreign oppressors without and purified from unworthy and ungodly members within, would realize its ideal character, and live an idyllic life of righteousness and peace upon its own soil (see e.g. Hos. xiv. 4–8; Is. i. 26, iv. 2—4, xxix. 18—24, xxxii. 1—8, xxxiii. 24, &c.), and when the nations of the world would either be themselves incorporated in the kingdom of God (Is. ii. 2, xix. 18—25; Jer. iii. 17; Is. li. 4, 5, Ivi. 7), or would be held in more or less willing subjection by the restored and invigorated people of Israel (Am. ix. 12; Is. xi. 14, xiv. 2, xlv. 14, lx. 10, 14, lxi. 5), or,—which is more particularly the representation of the later prophets,—in so far as they remained irreconcilably hostile, would be destroyed (Zeph. iii. 8 [but contrast iii. 9]; Ez. xxxviii.—xxxix.; Is. lx. 12, lxiii. 3—6, lxvi. 15, 16; Joel iii. 9-17; Zech. xiv. 12-13)1.

In comparing these representations with that contained in the Book of Daniel, there are two important points which ought to be borne in mind, one a point of difference, the other a point of resemblance. The point of difference is that the representation in Daniel is more distinctly eschatological than are those of the earlier prophets. The change did not take place at once; it was brought about gradually. At first the future contemplated by the prophets consisted of little more than a continuance of the existing state of society, only purged by a judgement from sin, and freed from trouble; but gradually it was severed more and more widely from the present order of things: whereas for long the prophets had been content to look at the destinies of the nation as a unity, without distinctly facing the question of the ultimate fate of individuals, in course of time

1 On the prophetic pictures of the future kingdom of God, see more fully Kirkpatrick's Doctrine of the Prophets; the present writer's Isaiah, his life and times, or the third of his Sermons on the Old Testament.

the destinies of individuals began to claim consideration1; the judgement which was to introduce God's kingdom assumed more and more the character of a final judgement, which, as soon as the idea of a resurrection began to be current, was regarded as held by God over the dead as well as over the living; and the expectation of a glorified earthly life of righteous Israelites, which was the prevalent ideal of the Old Testament, became gradually transformed into the belief in a spiritual or heavenly life of all righteous men in general, which is the ideal revealed in the New Testament. Some of the later prophets, the Book of Daniel, and the Apocalyptic writers spring from the transition-period, in which the former of these ideals was gradually merging into the other, and in which the line of demarcation between the earthly and the heavenly ideal was not always clearly or consistently drawn, so that it is not always easy to be confident in particular passages which of the two ideals the writer means to express. The passages from the prophets in which the character of the representation is such as to suggest that it is beginning to be eschatological, are Is. xxvi. 18—19; Joel iii. 9—17; Mal. iv. 2—3. The representation in Daniel is of the same intermediate character; it is more distinctly eschatological than the passages just quoted, but less so than, for instance, parts of the Book of Enoch. The scene of judgement in vii. 9-14 belongs far more to the other world than any other representation of God's judgement to be found in the Old Testament; and in xii. 2 the doctrine of a resurrection is taught more distinctly and definitely than is the case in any other Old Testament writing (see below, p. xcii).

The characteristic point of resemblance between the representation of the kingdom of God contained in the Book of Daniel and that found in earlier prophets is this. It was a great and ennobling ideal which the prophets, as described briefly above, projected upon the future, and it was one which was portrayed by many of them in brilliant colours. But it was an

1 Comp. A. B. Davidson, art. ESCHATOLOGY in Hastings' Dict. of the Bible, p. 7386.

ideal which was not destined to be realized in the manner in which they anticipated. The prophets almost uniformly foreshortened the future: they did not stop to ask themselves how national character was to be regenerated and transformed: and consequently they did not realize the length of period which must necessarily elapse,—for God does not in such cases interpose by miracle, before corrupt human nature could be so transformed as to produce a perfect or ideal society. Isaiah and Micah pictured the Messianic age as commencing immediately after the troubles were past, to which their nation was exposed at the hands of the Assyrians (Is. xi. 1—10, see x. 28—34; xxix. 19—26, see v. 31; xxxi. 7, xxxii. 1—8, see xxxi. 8; Mic. v. 4— 7); the prophets of the exile pictured it as beginning with the restoration of Israel to Palestine. Neither of these anticipations corresponded to the event in each case the sombre reality contrasted strongly with the glowing delineations of the prophets. The same foreshortening of the future is characteristic of the prophecies in the Book of Daniel. A careful study of Dan. vii.-xii. makes it evident that the reign of righteousness, and the everlasting dominion of the saints, are represented as beginning immediately after the fall of Antiochus : as in the case of the other prophets, the ideal consummation of history is thus conceived by the writer as being much closer at hand than actually proved to be the case.

The facts just referred to meet an objection which might otherwise perhaps be felt against the interpretation of the visions adopted in the present commentary, on the ground that the age of righteousness (vii. 27, ix. 24), or the resurrection (xii. 2), did not actually follow immediately after the fall of Antiochus the ideal glories promised by Isaiah and other earlier prophets were not realized, as these prophets in many cases plainly shew that they expect them to be realized, in the immediate future; the Book of Daniel, regarded from this point of view, is consequently in exact analogy with the writings of the earlier prophets. The non-agreement (as it seems) of the particulars contained in xi. 40—45 a with the event (see the notes) is also in exact accordance with the same analogies: the earlier prophets