1 jan 164 ano antes da era comum - ***Book of Daniel Most Recent Book of Old Testament

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And so we don't see the idea of life after death really in the Hebrew Bible until this very late apocalyptic book of Daniel. (pg. 327)

Chapters 7 through 12 are fully apocalyptic in genre and they were composed between 167 and 164--I don't know if I wrote that up there, yeah, 167 and 164 BCE. This was a time when Jews were suffering intense persecution at the hands of the Seleucid King of Syria, Antiochus Epiphanes, Antiochus IV. And so Daniel is the latest book of the Hebrew Bible. (330)


So let's turn now to Daniel for a full apocalyptic work. Daniel also can be divided really into two parts and the first six chapters have often been described as heroic fiction. The book of Daniel features a Jew who lives in a Gentile court and he's saved from disaster. I've listed the kings who are discussed in the Book of Daniel. These chapters tell of Daniel's adventures under two Babylonian kings, Nebuchadnezzar and Belshazzar; the text says two Babylonian kings, Nebuchadnezzar and Belshazzar; a Median king Darius who happens to be unknown to history, a Persian king Cyrus--that's a whole lot of years!
The historical inaccuracy of the work, right? You have the chronology of more than a century being telescoped here! There're other inaccuracies. Belshazzar was actually never a king; he was sort of a prince regent. He was defeated by Cyrus, not by Darius, so there are tremendous historical inaccuracies and this is a sign that this was written at a much later time, looking back when the history of a period 300 years ago was very confused. There's no clear historical knowledge of the Babylonian and Persian period. So the book, we know, was written quite late, perhaps the end of the third century, those first six chapters. (330)

Chapter 12 imagines a resurrection of the dead as a compensation to those who died under the persecutions of Antiochus. It's a clear attempt to deal with the injustice that mars this world, and it's the only passage of the Bible to explicitly espouse the idea of an individual life after death, and as I say, breaks with a longer Israelite tradition that's vague or silent on this issue.
Not all Jews accepted the idea, but it would be essential to the rise of Christianity which is deeply indebted to apocalyptic thinking. And through Christianity, it came to have a very far-reaching impact on Western civilization.
The Book of Daniel is a response to specific historical circumstances. It's a response to the crisis of persecution and martyrdom that was going on in the second century. That was a new kind of crisis that led to a new kind of response, because the earlier crises of 722 and 586--they could be explained as punishment for sin and faithlessness. But now in the second century, Jews were dying not because they were faithless but precisely because they were faithful; because they refused to obey the decrees of Antiochus and to violate their law and covenant and they were dying. So this new phenomenon of martyrdom, really for the first time, required new responses and the book of Daniel provides a fully apocalyptic response. Remain faithful, wait, Daniel urges, know that this will all be set right by God, not in this world but in an ultimate and cataclysmic triumph of life and faith over death and evil, and it will be soon.
Daniel emphasizes God's firm control of history and so bolsters loyal Jews who are suffering indignities and torture and even death all around him because of their faith.(333)

Yale New Testament (pg. 46). Now, that's the way one people responded to this, they revolted against the rulers. Another way some Jews responded was by believing that military revolt wasn't the way to go, that God would somehow intervene miraculously that God would send an angel or some kind of heavenly figure down to earth and an army of heavenly figures would defeat Antiochus and usher in the new Kingdom of Israel. And that's where you get the story of that from the book of Daniel. I asked you to read Daniel, at least the last part of Daniel for today, if you've got your Bibles take it out and turn with me first to Daniel 8:20. Now the book of Daniel is in two halves. The first half of it tells about the adventures of this young man Daniel who's very, very wise and very smart and very loyal, and who refuses to worship the Persian god. Of course this--these are morality stories written for Jews who were living under Greek domination encouraging them not to worship Greek gods but its past in the distant past. Then the second half of Daniel is a whole series of visions and prophecies. Daniel says, "I was in a dream, I was in a vision on a day, and I saw this, and this angel told me to do this and this person told me this," and so it's the narration of the history of humankind that's part of which has already happened by the time of Daniel, but most of which is to happen in the future for Daniel. Some of this stuff actually does happen. So for example, and he tells about different beasts. There's the ram that does this, there's the beast that does this, but you know that these beasts represent different kingdoms because in Chapter 8:20 he says, "As for the ram that you saw [in your vision] with the two horns, these are the Kings of Mede and Persia." There was the kingdom of the Medes and the kingdom of the Persians who came together under Cyrus. "The male goat is the King of Greece, and the great horn between its eyes is the first king," so that would be Phillip, Alexander's father. "As for the horn that was broken in place of which four others arose, four kingdoms shall arise from his nation but not with his power." This is Alexander, he's broken, and his kingdom is divided up into four empires, like I told you about earlier, but none of those four empires enjoys the same power that Alexander the Great enjoyed with his.
Notice how you're already given a clue, right here in Daniel, that these different images, these different beasts are to refer to kingdoms that are going to come in the future from Daniel's perspective. We know, actually, that they already did. Then what happens in Daniel is each different chapter, the last part of Daniel, in a sense tells the story over again. He has another vision and instead of reading it chronologically, as if Chapter 9 told about one century, and then Chapter 10 or Chapter 11 is the next century, and the next century, you actually have to read them cycles because what Daniel is doing he's giving you a prophecy of what's going to happen politically related to Judea, but he's giving it to you in several different visions that all tell the same story, just in different kind of symbols.
Turn over now to Chapter 11. Here again it's sort of like the fourth--Chapter 11:2, "The four shall be far richer then all of them when he has become strong to his riches, he shall stir up all against the Kingdom of Greece," so this is actually talking about the Persian ruler who will attack Greece. "Then a warrior king shall arise who shall rule with great dominion," that's Alexander, "While still rising in power,"--Alexander remember was still young and increasing his power when he died--"his kingdom shall be broken and divided to the four winds of heaven but not to his posterity." Alexander had a child but the child dies, and Alexander's kingdom did not go to any of his own offspring, they went to these other four generals.
Then notice in verse 5, "The King of the South shall grow strong," and the next verse, "The daughter of the King of the South shall come to the King of the North to ratify the agreement." What's the King of the South? Who's the King of the South? Ptolemy, some Ptolemy, one of the Ptolemies. So whenever you see King of the South in Daniel it's always referring to the Ptolemaic Dynasty, one of the Ptolemies. Who's the King of the North? Seleucus or Antiochus, so whenever you see the King of the North it refers to one of the Seleucids. So over and over again in Daniel, you're going to get the King of the North, the King of the South, the King of the North, and notice how it says, "The daughter of the King of the South shall come to the King of the North to ratify the agreement." If you look down--if you have a study bible and you look at your footnotes it'll actually give you the names of these different people that historians can identify. This may be Berenice because we know that she was a daughter of Antiochus or Seleucus, she was married to one of the Ptolemies. If you follow in your study bible--now it has to be a good critical study bible. I mean if you--by real scholars--if you use these bibles that take all this as prophecy that relates to the Soviet Union or to Russia they might tell you things like, "Well the King of the North here refers to the head of Politburo or something like this," and so if it's a bible by a contemporary church that takes all this is referring to our time or the time immediately to the future, which of course a lot of Christians do, then their footnotes might be different. But the footnotes in any good study bible will place these people to the history of what's going on in Judea as this time.
Now go over to 11:29 because I'm not going to lead you through all the stuff that happens in Chapter 11 because if you read it, and you read it with the footnotes, it's basically telling you a history of the battles and alliances between the Seleucids and the Ptolemies and where Judea was caught in the middle at different times. "At the time appointed he shall return and come into the south," this is one of the--this is Antiochus, not Antiochus IV, "But this time it shall not be as before for ships of Kittim shall come against him and he shall lose heart and withdraw." Who are the Kittim? Romans, exactly. "The Kittim" is a term that's used in Hebrew, and in a lot of different ancient Jewish texts, and sometimes it seems to refer to the Greeks, and here it clearly refers to the Romans because the Romans come and they force the King of the North back.
Notice what it says, "Forces sent by him--he shall turn back and pay heed to those who forsake the holy covenant." Antiochus IV will pay attention to the Jews who have forsaken the Torah, "Forces sent by him shall occupy and profane the temple and the fortress. They shall abolish the regular burnt offering and set up the abomination that makes desolate," or in some modern English translations, "the abomination of desolation." That term will be used also in the New Testament in several places. "He shall seduce with intrigue those who violate the covenant." That is, the bad Jews who have violated the Torah will be in cahoots with Antiochus.
"But the people who are loyal to their God shall stand firm and take action. The wise among the people shall give understanding to many; for some days, however, they shall by fall by sword and flame and suffer captivity and plunder." Who are the wise? The author of the book. Remember he spent the whole first part of the book setting up Daniel as a wise man. So this author writing under the name of Daniel, a wise man, identifies other wise Jews of his own day and he says they're going to oppose Antiochus IV and some of them will die because of it. "When they fall victim they shall receive a little help and many shall join them insincerely." Some scholars believe that this "little help" may be this author's reference to Judas Maccabeus. It may be that he knows that there is an armed resistance, and it's a little bit of help, but he doesn't believe, himself, that the answer to Antiochus IV is going to be an armed revolt, he believes it's not going to ultimately succeed. Why? Because God's going to be the one who will intervene, not Judas Maccabeus.
"The king shall act as he pleases. He shall exalt himself andconsider himself greater than any god,"--remember Antiochus Epiphanes? "God manifest"?--"and shall speak horrendous things against the God of gods. He shall prosper until the period of wrath is completed for what is determined shall be done. He shall pay no respect to the gods of his ancestors or to the one beloved by women; he shall pay no respect to any other god, he shall consider himself greater than all." So it's all about setting himself up.
Now look, "He shall come into the beautiful land," obviously we're talking about Judea, "And tens of thousands shall fall victim but Edom and Moab, and the main part of the Ammonites shall escape from his power, he shall stretch forth his hand against the countries and the land of Egypt shall not escape." In other words, Antiochus IV this time is actually going to capture Egypt, he's [this author] predicting. "He shall become ruler of the treasures of gold and silver and all the riches of Egypt, and the Libyans and the Ethiopians shall follow in his train." Not only will he overrun Egypt he's going to go west of Egypt and take Libya and south of Egypt and take Ethiopia. "But reports from the east and the north shall alarm him, and he shall go out with great fury to bring ruin and complete destruction to many. He shall pitch his palatial tents between the sea,"--what's the sea? the Mediterranean, thank you, somebody is awake--"and the beautiful holy mountain," what the holy mountain? Say it, Zion, Mount Zion which is where Jerusalem is founded. "Yet he shall come to his end with no one to help him."
"He shall come to his end"--wait a minute, he conquers Egypt, takes Libya, takes Ethiopia, comes back through Judea, sets up camp, somewhere in that coastal area between Jerusalem and the Mediterranean and there he dies. That didn't happen. Antiochus IV never took all of Egypt, he never took Ethiopia, he never took Libya, and he did eventually die, but he died way over in Babylon. He didn't die here.

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