1. REPEAT Dan. 11:1. Who is the speaker? Whom does Gabriel say he stood to confirm and strengthen? When?
2. Verse 2. What did Gabriel say he would show Daniel? How many kings did he say would yet reign in Persia? How did he say the fourth one would compare with the others? What did he say this fourth king would accomplish through his riches? Note 1.
3. Verse 3. What is the character of the king here brought to view? How was this king to rule? What king of Grecia fulfilled these specifications? Note 2.
4. Verse 4. What was to happen to Alexander's kingdom? How was it to be divided? Was the kingdom to fall into the hands of Alexander's posterity? How was this fulfilled? Note 3.
5. Verse 5. Of these four divisions of Alexander's kingdom, which one was the kingdom of the south? What is said of the king of the south? What is said of one of Alexander's princes? Which one of Alexander's princes soon became so strong as to possess three out of the four original divisions of the empire? Note 4.
6. What two powers then became "the king of the south" and "the king of the north"? Note 5.
7. Outline verses 6-14. Note 6.
8. Verse 14. In those times, about B. C. 200, who were to stand up against Egypt, the king of the south? What new power is here introduced in this line of prophecy? Note 7.
9. Verse 16. Where was this rising power of Rome to stand, and what destruction was to be accomplished by his hand? Note 8.
10. Verse 19. The history of what Roman ruler fulfilled the events of this verse? Note 9.
11. Verse 20. Who succeeded Julius Caesar? How is he designated in this verse? What Roman emperor justly earned the title of "a raiser of taxes"? Luke 2:1. How is the death of Augustus referred to in the prophecy? Note 10.
12. Verse 21. Who succeeded Augustus Caesar as emperor of Rome? How were his character and reign foretold in this verse? Note 11.
13. Verse 22. What note does the prophecy in this verse make of the death of Tiberius Caesar? Who else was to be cut off during the period of the reign of Tiberius?
NOTES.
1. Cyrus died in the year B. C. 529, and was succeeded by his son, Cambyses, who reigned seven years. Cambyses was succeeded by Smerdis, an impostor, who reigned but eight months, being succeeded in B. C. 521 by Darius Hystaspes. Darius Hystaspes reigned thirty-six years, and was succeeded by Xerxes in the year 485 B. C. Xerxes, by his strength and through his riches, did stir up all against the realm of Grecia. He collected the most numerous army ever marshaled for war, estimated by careful historians to have numbered 2,641,610 fighting men, with an equal number of attendants, making a total of 5,283,220. This army was seven days and seven nights crossing the Dardanelles, on two immense bridges of boats built for the purpose. Xerxes was the last of the Persian monarchs who invaded Grecia; therefore, the prophecy takes no note of his eight successors, but passes, as we shall see, in the third verse, to the empire of Grecia.
2. Truly it may be said of Alexander the Great that he did according to his will. His entire reign was one of unparalleled conquest, and at the age of thirty-two years he is said to have conquered the whole of the then known world, and to have wept because there was not another world to conquer.
3. Within twenty years of Alexander's death it is said that there was not one of his posterity left, and his kingdom was divided toward the four winds, between his four leading generals. See the territorial boundaries of these four divisions, as outlined in note 5, lesson 4.
4. In B. C. 281 Lysimachus was slain in battle, and Seleucus annexed all of his dominion; and as Lysimachus had previously conquered the territory assigned to Cassander, this left Seleucus ruler of three of the four portions of the original division of Alexander's kingdom.
5. The successive rulers of that territory of the north, which fell under the dominion of Seleucus, are referred to in this prophecy as "the king of the north," while Egypt is called "the king of the south."
6. Verses 6-14 refer to the frequent wars and intriguing between Syria, the king of the north, and Egypt, the king of the south. History supplies the details for all these specifications of the prophecy.
7. "And in those times [about B. C. 203] there shall many [Antiochus Magnus, king of Syria; Philip, king of Macedon; and many of the provinces which had revolted from Egypt] stand up against the king of the south [Egypt]; also the robbers [breakers] of the people [Rome] shall exalt themselves [rear her head among the nations of earth] to establish the vision [destined to exert a mighty influence among the nations of earth in fulfilment of the prophecy till the end of time]; but they shall fail [be broken up into many kingdoms, and finally be "destroyed and given to the burning flame." Dan. 7:11]."
8. In B. C. 63, Pompey, the Roman general, demolished the walls of Jerusalem, transferred several cities from the jurisdiction of Judea to that of Coele-Syria, and imposed tribute upon the Jews. Thus was Jerusalem placed by conquest in the hands of that power which was to hold "the glorious land" in its iron grasp till it had utterly consumed it.
9. Verse 19.— "Then he [Julius Caesar] shall turn his face toward the fort of his own land [Rome]; but he shall stumble and fall [assassinated by Brutus and Cassius and other conspirators, B. C. 44], and not be found."
10. Verse 20.— "Then shall stand up [reign] in his [Julius Caesar's] estate a raiser of taxes [Augustus Caesar. See Luke 2:1] in the glory of the kingdom [the "Augustan Age," an expression commonly used to denote the golden age of Roman history]; but within few days he shall be destroyed, neither in anger, nor in battle." Eighteen years after the taxing brought to view, seeming but a "few days" to the distant view of the prophet, Augustus Caesar died peacefully in his own bed at Nola, whither he had gone to seek repose and health, A. D. 14, in the seventy-sixth year of his age.
11. Verse 21.— "And in his [Augustus Caesar's] estate shall stand up [reign] a vile person [Tiberius Caesar], to whom they [the people of Rome] shall not give the honor of the kingdom; but he shall come in peaceably, and obtain the kingdom by flatteries."
It was through the flatteries of his mother, Livia, that Tiberius reached the throne. But the citizens of Rome never gave to him the respect and "honor of the kingdom," due to an upright and faithful sovereign.
"Augustus rested in his last hopes on Tiberius. It is almost superfluous to enumerate the unworthy successors of Augustus. Their unparalleled vices, and the splendid theater upon which they were acted, have saved them from oblivion. The dark, unrelenting Tiberius, the furious Caligula, the feeble Claudius, the profligate and cruel Nero, the beastly Vitellius, and the timid, inhuman Domitian, are condemned to everlasting infamy. Rome groaned beneath an unremitting tyranny, which exterminated the ancient families of the republic, and was fatal to almost every virtue and every talent that arose in that unhappy period. Under the reign of these monsters the slavery of the Romans was accomplished with peculiar circumstances."—Gibbon.
