NOTES for Dan 11:1-45

To understand the meaning of the vision recorded by the author of Daniel and placed by him in the mouth of his hero, it is important to remember that it was received by an apocalyptic visionary whose name is unknown to us in the middle of the second century BC, and probably after the death of Antiochus Epiphanes (v. 45). The events mentioned in it are easily recognizable. The story begins with the confrontation between the Persian Empire and the Greek world that led to its fall (vv. 2-3; the "mighty king" is obviously Alexander the Great). Then it speaks of the breakup of Alexander's empire, in place of which arose the states created by his successors (v. 4). After that follows a brief description of the confrontation between two of the three Hellenistic states created by Alexander's successors: Syria, the "northern kingdom" and the "northern king," and Egypt, the "southern kingdom" and the "southern king" (vv. 5-20). Mention is made here of the marriage of Berenice, daughter of the Egyptian king Ptolemy II, to Antiochus II, king of Syria, and her subsequent removal from power, which led to war between the two states (vv. 5-9); the victory of Seleucus III over Egypt, which secured Judea for Syria for forty years, whereas before it had been part of Egypt (v. 10); the temporary victory in 217 BC of Ptolemy IV, who again regained the lands that had once belonged to his grandfather (vv. 11-12); and the victories of Antiochus the Great, who not only returned Judea to Syrian rule, but also seized some Asia Minor lands, the "islands" (vv. 13-19). Also mentioned is the unbearable tribute imposed on Judea by Seleucus IV, son of Antiochus the Great (v. 20).

It would seem that there is no special meaning in this listing of historical events from the past: after all, both the author of Daniel and his contemporaries were interested not so much in the past as in the present and the future. But apocalyptic is unthinkable outside history. A picture of a world where everyone is at war with everyone, where an endless and senseless war is going on, had to lead the visionary to a simple thought: in a fallen world nothing can be changed, but God does not lose sight of the fate of His people, carefully following all the turns of world history insofar as the people take part in them. But as long as these turns do not directly concern His people, He waits; He waits because the time for the coming of the Messiah and the appearing of the Kingdom has not yet come.

The closer the narrative comes to the time when the Book of Daniel was written, the more detailed the visionary's account becomes, and the more details flash by, as happens when an airplane, preparing to land, descends from a great height and approaches the ground. Now the image of the wicked king appears in all its fullness, along with a heap of events connected with his reign: wars, the defilement of the Temple, grandiose projects, persecutions against the Synagogue... The flow of time seems to accelerate, heaven seems to draw near to earth, and God's servants look more intently at what is happening below.

This is not surprising: in those times heaven was indeed drawing near to earth. More precisely, the Kingdom drew near in order to enter the world. For the Son of Man, of whom the Book of Daniel speaks, also begins His preaching with a call to conversion because the Kingdom has drawn near. The meeting point was already close; the Maccabean wars, the rule of the Hasmoneans, the Roman conquest, and finally the catastrophe of the year 70 outline that historical circle of events whose center it became.

And within this circle events develop with extraordinary intensity. Not only in the sense of their outward course, but also in the sense of their spiritual density. It is no accident that the author of the book sees both the persecutions of Antiochus and the Maccabean wars as an era of what was then called the "messianic woes": trials that befall the faithful immediately before the coming of the Messiah. The era of the "messianic woes" belongs not only to the history of the fallen world, but also to the history of the Kingdom, for the Kingdom too has its own history, though it unfolds differently from the history of the fallen world.

This era stands on the boundary between the fallen world and the Kingdom. More precisely, it itself is the boundary: everything before it belongs wholly to the fallen world, and everything after it belongs to the messianic Kingdom. And at the boundary between two different environments, processes always proceed in unusual ways and often accelerate. This is true both for the physical world and for the spiritual one. Such is the flow of history, accelerated and unusual, as it appears to the visionary who finds himself at the boundary of the Kingdom.