Thoughts on the Book of Daniel.
By J. W.
VERSE 21. And in his estate shall stand up a vile person, to whom they shall not give the honor of the kingdom; but he shall come in peaceably, and obtain the kingdom by flatteries. Tiberius Cæsar next appeared after Augustus Cæsar on the Roman throne. He was raised to the consulate in his twenty-eighth year. It is recorded that as Augustus was about to nominate his successor, his wife Livia besought him to nominate Tiberius (her son by a former husband); but the emperor said, “Your son is too vile a person to wear the purple of Rome;” and the nomination was given to Agrippa, a very virtuous and much-respected Roman citizen. But the prophecy had foreseen that a vile person should succeed Augustus. Agrippa died: and Augustus was again under the necessity of choosing a successor. Livia renewed her intercessions for Tiberius; and Augustus, weakened by age and sickness, was more easily flattered, and finally consented to nominate as his colleague and successor, that “vile” young man. But the citizens never gave him the love, respect, and “honor of the kingdom,” due to an upright and faithful sovereign. See Encyclopedia Americana, art., Tiberius. Verse 22. And with the arms of a flood shall they be overflowen from before him, and shall be broken; yea, also the prince of the covenant. Bishop Newton presents the following reading as agreeing better with the original: “And the arms of the overflower shall be overflowen from before him, and shall be broken.” The expressions signify revolution and violence; and in fulfillment we should look for the arms of Tiberius, the overflower to be overflowen, or, in other words, for him to suffer a violent death. To show how this was accomplished, we again have recourse to the Encyclopedia Americana, art., Tiberius:— “Acting the hypocrite to the last, he disguised his increasing debility as much as he was able, even affecting to join in the sports and exercises of the soldiers of his guard. At length, leaving his favorite island, the scene of the most disgusting debaucheries, he stopped at a country house near the promontory of Mæcenum, where on the sixteenth of March, 37, he sunk into a lethargy, in which he appeared dead; and Caligula was preparing with a numerous escort to take possession of the empire, when his sudden revival threw them into consternation. At this critical instant, Macro, the prætorian prefect, caused him to be suffocated with pillows. Thus expired the emperor Tiberius, in the seventy-eighth year of his age, and twenty-third of his reign, universally execrated.” “The prince of the covenant” unquestionably refers to Jesus Christ, the “Messiah the Prince,” who was to “confirm the covenant” one week with his people. Dan. 9:25-27. The prophet, having taken us down to the death of Tiberius, now mentions incidentally an event to transpire in his reign so important that it should not be passed over; namely, the cutting off of the prince of the covenant, or, in other words, the death of our Lord Jesus Christ. Did this event take place in the reign of Tiberius? It did. Luke informs us (3:1-3) that in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Cæsar, John the Baptist commenced his ministry. The reign of Tiberius is to be reckoned, according to Prideaux, Dr. Hales, Lardner, and others, from his elevation to the throne to reign jointly with Augustus, his father-in-law in August, A. D. 12. His fifteenth year would therefore be from August, A. D. 26, to August, A. D. 27. Christ was six months younger than John, and is supposed to have commenced his ministry six months later, both, according to the law of the priesthood, entering upon their work when they were thirty years of age. If John commenced in the spring, in the latter portion of Tiberius’ 15th year, it would bring the commencement of Christ’s ministry in the autumn of A. D. 27; and here the best of authorities place the baptism of Christ, it being the exact point where the 483 years from B. C. 457, which were to extend to the Messiah the Prince, terminated; and Christ went forth proclaiming that the time was fulfilled. From this point, we go forward three years and a half to find the date of the crucifixion; for Christ attended but four passovers, and was crucified at the last one. Three and a half years from the autumn of A. D. 27, bring us to the spring of A. D. 31. The death of Tiberius is placed but six years later, in A. D. 37. Verse 23. And after the league made with him he shall work deceitfully; for he shall come up, and shall become strong with a small people. The “him” with whom the league here spoken of is made, must be the same power which has been the subject of the prophecy from the 14th verse; and that this is the Roman power is shown beyond controversy in the fulfillment of the prophecy in three individuals, as already noticed, who successively stood at the head of the Roman Empire, Julius, Augustus, and Tiberius Cæsar. The first, on returning to the fort of his own land in triumph, stumbled and fell and was not found. Verse 19. The second was a raiser of taxes; and he reigned in the glory of the kingdom, and died neither in anger nor in battle, but peacefully in his own bed. Verse 20. The third was a dissembler, and one of the vilest of characters. He entered upon the kingdom peaceably, but ended both his reign and his life in violence. And in his reign the prince of the covenant, Jesus of Nazareth, was put to death upon the cross. Verses 21, 22. Christ can never be broken or put to death again; hence in no other government, and at no other time, can we find a fulfillment of these events. Some attempt to apply these verses to Antiochus, and make one of the Jewish high priests the prince of the covenant, though they are never called such. This is the same kind of reasoning which endeavors to make the reign of Antiochus a fulfillment of the little horn of Dan. 8; and it is offered for the same purpose, namely, to break the great chain of evidence by which it is shown that the Advent doctrine is the doctrine of the Bible, and that Christ is now at the door. But the chain cannot be broken nor the evidence be overthrown. Having taken us down through the secular events of the empire to the end of the seventy weeks, the prophet, in verse 23, takes us back to the time when the Romans became directly connected with the people of God, by the Jewish league, B. C. 161; from which point we are then taken down in a direct line of events to the final triumph of the church, and the setting up of God’s everlasting kingdom. The Jews being grievously oppressed by the Syrian kings, sent an embassy to Rome, to solicit the aid of the Romans, and to join themselves in “a league of amity and confederacy with them.” 1 Mac. 8; Prideaux, 2, 166; Josephus’ Antiq., B. 12, chap. 10, sec. 6. The Romans listened to the request of the Jews, and granted them a decree which is recorded at length by the authorities above quoted. At this time, the Romans were a small people, and began to work deceitfully, or with cunning, as the word signifies. And from this point they rose by a steady and rapid ascent to the hight of power which they afterward attained.