Observations upon the Prophecies of Daniel, and the Apocalypse of St. John · Isaac Newton
CHAP. IX.
_Of the kingdoms represented in _Daniel_ by the Ram and He-Goat_. The second and third Empires, represented by the Bear and Leopard, are again represented by the Ram and He-Goat; but with this difference, that the Ram represents the kingdoms of the _Medes_ and _Persians_ from the beginning of the four Empires, and the Goat represents the kingdom of the _Greeks_ to the end of them. By this means, under the type of the Ram and He-Goat, the times of all the four Empires are again described: _I lifted up mine eyes_, saith [1] _Daniel_, _and saw_, _and behold there stood before the river_ [Ulai] _a Ram which had two horns, and the two horns were high, but one was higher than the other, and the higher came up last.--And the Ram having two horns, are the kings of _Media_ and _Persia__: not two persons but two kingdoms, the kingdoms of _Media_ and _Persia_; and the kingdom of _Persia_ was the higher horn and came up last. The kingdom of _Persia_ rose up, when _Cyrus_ having newly conquered _Babylon_, revolted from _Darius_ King of the _Medes_, and beat him at _Pasargadæ_, and set up the _Persians_ above the _Medes_. This was the horn which came up last.
And the horn which came up first was the kingdom of the _Medes_, from the time that _Cyaxares_ and _Nebuchadnezzar_ overthrew _Nineveh_, and shared the Empire of the _Assyrians_ between them. The Empires of _Media_ and _Babylon_ were contemporary, and rose up together by the fall of the _Assyrian_ Empire; and the Prophecy of the four Beasts begins with one of them, and that of the Ram and He-Goat with the other. As the Ram represents the kingdom of _Media_ and _Persia_ from the beginning of the four Empires; so the He-Goat represents the Empire of the _Greeks_ to the end of those Monarchies. In the reign of his great horn, and of the four horns which succeeded it, he represents this Empire during the reign of the Leopard: and in the reign of his little horn, which stood up in the latter time of the kingdom of the four, and after their fall became mighty but not by his own power, he represents it during the reign of the fourth Beast.
_The rough Goat_, saith _Daniel, is the King of_ Grecia, that is, the kingdom; _and the great horn between his eyes is the first King_: not the first Monarch, but the first kingdom, that which lasted during the reign of _Alexander_ the great, and his brother _Aridæus_ and two young sons, _Alexander_ and _Hercules_. [2] _Now that_ [horn] _being broken off, whereas four_ [horns] _stood up for it, four kingdoms shall stand up out of the nation_ [of the _Greeks_], _but not in his_ [the first horn's] _power_. The four horns are therefore four kingdoms; and by consequence, the first great horn which they succeeded is the first great kingdom of the _Greeks_, that which was founded by _Alexander_ the great, _An. Nabonass._ 414, and lasted till the death of his son _Hercules_, _An. Nabonass._ 441. And the four are those of _Cassander_, _Lysimachus_, _Antigonus_, and _Ptolemy_, as above.
The three first of _Daniel_'s Beasts had their dominions taken away, each of them at the rise of the next Beast; but their lives were prolonged, and they are all of them still alive. The third Beast, or Leopard, reigned in his four heads, till the rise of the fourth Beast, or Empire of the _Latins_; and his life was prolonged under their power. This Leopard reigning in his four heads, signifies the same thing with the He-Goat reigning in his four horns: and therefore the He-Goat reigned in his four horns till the rise of _Daniel_'s fourth Beast, or Empire of the _Latins_: then its dominion was taken away by the _Latins_, but its life was prolonged under their power. The _Latins_ are not comprehended among the nations represented by the He-Goat in this Prophecy: their power over the _Greeks_ is only named in it, to distinguish the times in which the He-Goat was mighty by his own power, from the times in which he was mighty but not by his own power. He was mighty by his own power till his dominion was taken away by the _Latins_; after that, his life was prolonged under their dominion, and this prolonging of his life was in the days of his last horn: for in the days of this horn the Goat became mighty, but not by his own power.
Now because this horn was a horn of the Goat, we are to look for it among the nations which composed the body of the Goat. Among those nations he was to rise up and grow mighty: he grew mighty [4] _towards the south, and towards the east, and towards the pleasant land_; and therefore he was to rise up in the north-west parts of those nations, and extend his dominion towards _Egypt_, _Syria_ and _Judea_. In the latter time of the kingdom of the four horns, it was to rise up out of one of them and subdue the rest, but not by its own power. It was to be assisted by a foreign power, a power superior to itself, the power which took away the dominion of the third Beast, the power of the fourth Beast. And such a little horn was the kingdom of _Macedonia_, from the time that it became subject to the _Romans_. This kingdom, by the victory of the _Romans_ over _Persius_ King of _Macedonia_, _Anno Nabonass._ 580, ceased to be one of the four horns of the Goat, and became a dominion of a new sort: not a horn of the fourth Beast, for _Macedonia_ belonged to the body of the third; but a horn of the third Beast of a new sort, a horn of the Goat which grew mighty but not by his own power, a horn which rose up and grew potent under a foreign power, the power of the _Romans_.
The _Romans_, by the legacy of _Attalus_ the last King of _Pergamus_, _An. Nabonass._ 615, inherited that kingdom, including all _Asia Minor_ on this side mount _Taurus_. _An. Nabonass._ 684 and 685 they conquered _Armenia_, _Syria_ and _Judea_; _An. Nabonass._ 718, they subdued _Egypt_. And by these conquests the little horn [5] _waxed exceeding great towards the south, and towards the east, and towards the pleasant land. And it waxed great even to the host of heaven; and cast down some of the host and of the stars to the ground, and stamped upon them_, that is, upon the people and great men of the _Jews_. [6] _Yea, he magnified himself even to the Prince of the Host_, the _Messiah_, the Prince of the _Jews_, whom he put to death, _An. Nabonass._ 780. _And by him the daily sacrifice was taken away, and the place of his sanctuary was cast down_, viz. in the wars which the armies of the _Eastern_ nations under the conduct of the _Romans_ made against _Judea_, when _Nero_ and _Vespasian_ were Emperors, _An. Nabonass._ 816, 817, 818. [7] _And an host was given him against the daily sacrifice by reason of transgression, and it cast down the truth to the ground, and it practised and prospered_.
This transgression is in the next words called _the transgression of desolation_; and in _Dan._ xi. 31. _the abomination which maketh desolate_; and in _Matth._ xxiv. 15. _the abomination of desolation, spoken of by _Daniel_ the prophet, standing in the holy place_. It may relate chiefly to the worship of _Jupiter Olympius_ in his Temple built by the Emperor _Hadrian_, in the place of the Temple of the _Jews_, and to the revolt of the _Jews_ under _Barchochab_ occasioned thereby, and to the desolation of _Judea_ which followed thereupon; all the _Jews_, being thenceforward banished _Judea_ upon pain of death. _Then I heard_, saith [8] _Daniel, one saint speaking, and another saint said unto that certain saint which spake, How long shall be the vision concerning the daily sacrifice, and the transgression of desolation, to give both the sanctuary and the host to be trodden under foot? And he said unto me, Unto two thousand and three hundred days; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed._ _Daniel_'s days are years; and these years may perhaps be reckoned either from the destruction of the Temple by the _Romans_ in the reign of _Vespasian_, or from the pollution of the Sanctuary by the worship of _Jupiter Olympius_, or from the desolation of _Judea_ made in the end of the _Jewish_ war by the banishment of all the _Jews_ out of their own country, or from some other period which time will discover. Henceforward the last horn of the Goat continued mighty under the _Romans_, till the reign of _Constantine_ the great and his sons: and then by the division of the _Roman_ Empire between the _Greek_ and _Latin_ Emperors, it separated from the _Latins_, and became the _Greek_ Empire alone, but yet under the dominion of a _Roman_ family; and at present it is mighty under the dominion of the _Turks_.
This last horn is by some taken for _Antiochus Epiphanes_, but not very judiciously. A horn of a Beast is never taken for a single person: it always signifies a new kingdom, and the kingdom of _Antiochus_ was an old one. _Antiochus_ reigned over one of the four horns, and the little horn was a fifth under its proper kings. This horn was at first a little one, and waxed exceeding great, but so did not _Antiochus_. It is described great above all the former horns, and so was not _Antiochus_. His kingdom on the contrary was weak, and tributary to the _Romans_, and he did not enlarge it. The horn was a _King of fierce countenance, and destroyed wonderfully, and prospered and practised_; that is, he prospered in his practises against the holy people: but _Antiochus_ was frighted out of _Egypt_ by a mere message of the _Romans_, and afterwards routed and baffled by the _Jews_. The horn was mighty by another's power, _Antiochus_ acted by his own. The horn stood up against the Prince of the Host of heaven, the Prince of Princes; and this is the character not of _Antiochus_ but of _Antichrist_. The horn cast down the Sanctuary to the ground, and so did not _Antiochus_; he left it standing. The Sanctuary and Host were trampled under foot 2300 days; and in _Daniel_'s Prophecies days are put for years: but the profanation of the Temple in the reign of _Antiochus_ did not last so many natural days. These were to last till the time of the end, till the last end of the indignation against the _Jews_; and this indignation is not yet at an end. They were to last till the Sanctuary which had been cast down should be cleansed, and the Sanctuary is not yet cleansed.
This Prophecy of the Ram and He-Goat is repeated in the last Prophecy of _Daniel_. There the Angel tells _Daniel_, that [9] _he stood up to strengthen _Darius_ the _Mede_, and that there should stand up yet three kings in _Persia__, [_Cyrus_, _Cambyses_, and _Darius Hystaspis_] _and the fourth_ [_Xerxes_] _should be far richer than they all; and by his wealth thro' his riches he should stir up all against the realm of _Grecia__. This relates to the Ram, whose two horns were the kingdoms of _Media_ and _Persia_. Then he goes on to describe the horns of the Goat by the [10] _standing up of a mighty king, which should rule with great dominion, and do according to his will_; and by the breaking of his kingdom into four smaller kingdoms, and not descending to his own posterity. Then he describes the actions of two of those kingdoms which bordered on _Judea_, _viz_. _Egypt_ and _Syria_, calling them the Kings of the _South_ and _North_, that is, in respect of _Judea_; and he carries on the description till the latter end of the kingdoms of the four, and till the reign of _Antiochus Epiphanes_, when transgressors were come to the full.
In the eighth year of _Antiochus_, the year in which he profaned the Temple and set up the heathen Gods in all _Judea_, and the _Romans_ conquered the kingdom of _Macedon_; the prophetic Angel leaves off describing the affairs of the kings of the _South_ and _North_, and begins to describe those of the _Greeks_ under the dominion of the _Romans_, in these words: [11] _And after him Arms_ [the _Romans_] _shall stand up, and they shall pollute the sanctuary of strength_. As [Hebrew: MMLK] signifies _after the king_, Dan. xi. 8; so here [Hebrew: MMNW] may signify _after him_: and so [Hebrew: MN-H'CHT] may signify _after one of them_, Dan. viii. 9. Arms are every where in these Prophecies of _Daniel_ put for the military power of a kingdom, and they stand up when they conquer and grow powerful. The _Romans_ conquered _Illyricum_, _Epirus_ and _Macedonia_, in the year of _Nabonassar_ 580; and thirty five years after, by the last will and testament of _Attalus_ the last King of _Pergamus_, they inherited that rich and flourishing kingdom, that is, all _Asia_ on this side mount _Taurus_: and sixty nine years after, they conquered the kingdom of _Syria_, and reduced it into a Province: and thirty four years after they did the like to _Egypt_.
By all these steps the _Roman_ arms stood up over the _Greeks_. And after 95 years more, by making war upon the _Jews, they polluted the sanctuary of strength, and took away the daily sacrifice, and_, in its room soon after, _placed the abomination which made_ the Land _desolate_: for this abomination was placed after the days of Christ, _Matth._ xxiv. 15. In the 16th year of the Emperor _Hadrian_, A. C. 132, they placed this abomination by building a Temple to _Jupiter Capitolinus_, where the Temple of God in _Jerusalem_ had stood. Thereupon the _Jews_ under the conduct of _Barchochab_ rose up in arms against the _Romans_, and in that war had 50 cities demolished, 985 of their best towns destroyed, and 580000 men slain by the sword: and in the end of the war, A.C. 136, they were all banished _Judea_ upon pain or death; and that time the land hath remained desolate of its old inhabitants.
Text from Project Gutenberg, public domain in the United States.