First let's get something clear about erroneous notions of Paul and his founding a new religion, which he didn't. True, the halakhah of his Judaism switched from the Pharisaic oral law to the Ruach Hakodesh, but his religion was still one of the Judaisms of the time, not a new non-Judaism Gentile religion.

Daniel was a Jewish prophet in what is today southern Iraq in the

ancient city of Babylon. G-d gave him visions to interpret so

that he could see from the Exile to the end of time. He went into

exile almost 30 years before the main wave followed him later at

the time of the destruction of the Jerusalem Beis Hamikdash.

Along with three other youths, Daniel was trained as a court

aide. G-d rewarded Daniel for the way he dedicated himself to G-d

in what he ate and how he lived. G-d gave him wisdom to see the

Moshiach's coming kingdom. See Dn. 2:44, "The G-d of heaven will

set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed, nor shall its

sovereignty be left to another people." This is the Kingdom of

the coming Deliverer, the Moshiach, who is also glimpsed in the

fiery furnace.

A type of highly symbolic Jewish writing found in both the Old

and Brit Chadasha Scriptures is generally called apocalyptic

literature (Apokalepsis meaning "revelation"). The following

sections of Scripture should be studied to perceive different

aspects of the apocalyptic literary pattern: the book of Daniel;

the entire book of Revelation; Mt.24; Mark 13; and Luke 21. This

type of literature contains some or all of the these elements:

enigmatic dreams needing divine interpretation or visions with

angelic tour guide-interpreters, dualism where the world is

divided into two camps, either G-d's or Satan's allies, a sense

of history under divine sovereign control and moving toward an

imminent catastrophic end ushering in the new holy age, extensive

and complex symbolism including bizarre beasts, mysterious

numbers, and ominous portents, all with the underlying view that

G-d's purposes are actually at work in world history and that

Moshiach's Kingdom is coming in ultimate victory.

The conservative interpretation of Daniel is that Daniel himself

authored this book in the second half of the sixth century B.C.

around 530 (when he would have been about ninety years old, if he

were born ca. 620 B.C.E.) There is no conclusive linguistic or

historical argument to prove otherwise, and the manuscripts found

at Qumran in the Dead Sea Scrolls indicate conclusively that no

canonical material from the Tanakh was authored later than the

Persian period (450-330 B.C.E.), undermining the older liberal

view that Daniel was written about 165 B.C.E. by an unknown

author. Moshiach Yehoshua attests that Daniel the prophet wrote

this book (Mt. 24:15).

Some scholars propose that "Darius" (the Mede) is a throne name

of Cyrus (the Persian king who conquered Babylon in 539 B.C.E.)

and translate Dn. 6:28 "Daniel prospered in the reign of Darius,

even (that is) the reign of Cyrus the Persian." This translation

is possible. Compare I Chr. 5:26 Et' Ru'ach Pul Melech-V'et

Ru'ach Pilnesser Melech Ashoor with Dn. 6:28. But Gleason Archer

favors the hypothesis that Darius the Mede (Dn. 5:30-31) may well

have been the throne name of Gubaru, the known governor of

Babylon, whose reign would be understood as simultaneous with

that of Cyrus in Dn. 6:28 (history does not record how old Gubaru

was, so we cannot correlate his age with Dn. 5:31).

The whole of Biblical eschatology (the study of the last things)

is affected by one's interpretation of one verse in Daniel, that

is, Daniel 9:27. Of particular importance is how one construes

the ambiguous antecedent of the pronoun "he" in the clause, "he

will confirm a covenent with many for one week." Is the "he"

Moshiach or Anti-Moshiach? Some scholars argue on one side, and

some on the other, and many scholars make their case also germane

to the question of whether the rapture will come before or after

the Tribulation.

Tangentially, as far as this question is concerned, the rapture

debate is largely settled by the two witnesses in Rev. ch.11.

First of all, two witnesses are the "minyon" of the minimal

constituency of a local kehillah of Moshiach (Matthew 18:20) in

the Brit Chadasha. Moshiach Yehoshua sent his disciples out in

two's. At critical junctures, there were always two remnant

witnesses: Aaron and Moses at the beginning of the Exodus, Joshua

and Caleb entering the Promised Land from Egypt, Zerubbabel and

Joshua the Kohen returning to the Promised Land from the Exile,

Yochanan and Shliach Kefa at the empty tomb, Shliach Sha'ul and

Barnabus on the first journey of Moshiach's shlichut. As in a

court of law or in historiography (principles of

historical research), "let everything be established at the mouth

of two witnesses" (Deuteronomy 19:15; I Timothy 5:19; Mat.

18:16). If the two witnesses constitute an apocalyptic picture of

the universal Brit Chadasha kehillah being raptured in Revelation

ch. 11, then the rapture is public, not secret (see Rev. 11:12;

1:7) and, if one includes a nuclear holocaust in the Tribulation,

the rapture is in that limited sense pre-tribulational, for the

text plainly says that the rapture of the two witnesses takes

place before the destruction of those "who destroy the earth"

(Rev. 11:18; see also II Shimon Kefa 3:7; Zech. 14:12; Zeph. 1:2)

However, returning now to Daniel 9:27, it is not as clear as

some believe that, according to this verse, Anti-Moshiach must

conclude a seven-year covenant with the Jewish people. The text

says, "He will confirm a covenant with many for one week, and for

half of the week he shall make sacrifice and offering cease; and

on a wing (kenaf) will be a desolating abomination: even until

the End, even one being decreed (by G-d), overwhelms the

desolator (that is, the Anti-Moshiach)." Popular Dispensational

scholars like John F. Walvoord use this text in an Armageddon

countdown which they believe begins with the founding of Israel

as a modern nation in 1948. The scenario goes something like

this: a leader of a 10-nation confederacy of Mediterranean and

European powers (the Anti-Moshiach) will impose a seven-year

peace treaty protecting Israel. For three and a half years, the

Anti-Moshiach will consolidate world power. Meanwile, the

U.S.S.R. (which is Magog of Ezek. 38) will attack Israel but be

supernaturally defeated. Then the new world dictator, claiming to

be G-d, will break the treaty (Dn. 9:27) and unleash the Great

Tribulation, a time of terrible persecution. Most

Dispensationalists put the rapture before this point (some at the

beginning of the seven-year period, others at the mid-point of

the seven-year period) because they make an eschatological distinction between

Israel and the Brit Chadasha kehillah that is so radical that

these teachers have the two groups meeting Moshiach at different

times, the Brit Chadasha kehillah in a secret rapture, Israel

publically at the end of the battle of Armageddon. At any rate,

after the plagues and earthquakes and epidemics and famines and

other terrors are poured out on the wicked world by the L-rd,

there is world (nuclear) war that climaxes near the Israeli town

of Megiddo with the result that three-quarters of the world's

population is destroyed. The return of the Moshiach occurs,

Israel is rescued, the wicked are punished, the Millennium reign

of Moshiach begins from Jerusalem and continues for a thousand

years, then the wicked are resurrected and thrown into hell, and

the new eternal state of existence begins with the new heavens

and the new earth.

But returning to Dn. 9:27, when the Bible is ambigious, the

translation should be ambigious. Otherwise, to render an

ambigious passage by means of an unambiguous translation is to

add to the Bible the opinions and traditions of men (Mark 7:9).

G-d warned Jeremiah that He Himself would make the sacrifices

cease (Jer. 7:14). Moreover, Biblical theology tells us that G-d

and His Moshiach are the first cause of everything, even the

destruction of the Beis Hamikdash (the Scriptures reject a

dualism where Satan or his Beast could be a prime-mover co-equal

with G-d), even if Satan and his Beast may be secondary causes

(notice Dn. 11:31). Also, the ministry of the Moshiach was 3 and

1/2 years in length, at which time he prepared the body of his

sinless Beis Hamikdash to replace the Beis Hamikdash of Herod,

the veil of which was torn making it obsolete at the moment of

Moshiach's death when the once-for-all divinely acceptable

sacrifice was offered in indestructible heikhal, the Moshiach's

body. This means that after his death on the Aitz, there is three

and a half years of the same still awaiting his body, the Brit

Chadasha kehillah, before the Second Coming. This period is

called the Great Tribulation. Tribulation, (Acts 14:22 I Thes.

3:3), not the wrath of G-d (I Thes. 5:9) is appointed for the

Brit Chadasha kehillah. This Tribulation period is called the "42

months" or the "1,260 days" in passages like Revelation 11:1-2

and 13:5. It is bad exegesis not to make a distinction between

the "wrath of G-d" and the "Tribulation" (the wrath of

Anti-Moshiach in Dn. 8:18 is not the wrath of G-d) just as it is

bad translation to remove the ambiguity in Dn. 9:27, where the

verse may contain an allusion to the Moshiach's "many" in Isaiah

53:11-12. There is one particular verse on the side of those who

say that the "he" in "he will confirm a covenant with many for

one 'seven' is not Moshiach (Dn. 9:25-26) but the

Anti-Moshiach (the ruler in "the troops/people of the ruler" of

Dn. 9:26). This verse is Dn. 8:11, "Even against the Prince of

the host (i.e. G-d) it acted arrogantly; it took the regular

burnt offering away from Him and overthrew the place of His

Sanctuary," a passage referring to Antiochus Epiphanes who

prefigures Anti-Moshiach. See also Dn. 11:31, a reference to the

pagan G-d Zeus Olympius, set up in 168 B.C.E. by Antiochus

Epiphanes and prefiguring the Anti-Moshiach's final sacrilege.

See also Dn. 12:11. If the covenant is confirmed by the "ruler"

in the "troops/people of the ruler" of Dn.9:26, then this

covenant is also referred to in I Maccabees 1:11.

In either view just described, the Bias HaMoshiach (the Parousia)

is imminent (i.e. it can happen anytime), because we do not know

where at any particular time we are in the three and a half year

period before the end. No man knows the day or the hour. Also, as

we well know in a push-button nuclear age, Armageddon and the

apocalyptic End could happen at anytime. This is important

because Dn. 12:7 says that the Great Tribulation (called the time

of Jacob's trouble-- Jer. 30:7; see also Mt. 24:21) will be for

three and a half years, and "when the power of G-d's holy people

has been finally broken, all these things will be completed."

II Thes. 2:4 could also be apocalyptic picture language since the

same word naos is used of the Brit Chadasha kehillah in I Cor.

3:16. That is, Hitler did not have to goose-step into a little

building in Jerusalem to qualify as the Anti-Moshiach for the

first half of the 20th century, and neither will the final

Anti-Moshiach (whose coming like the Moshiach's is also

imminent). So neither will the final "Hitler" need the Jerusalem

Beis Hamikdash rebuilt in order to usurp G-d's "seat" and so

fulfill II Thes. 2:4 as the final Anti-Moshiach.

Those who want to make a sharp distinction between the Moshiach's

coming for his saints (I Thes. 4:16-18) and with his saints (Jude

14-15, see notes in GREEK section) are hampered by the fact that

kedoshim can mean either earthly or heavenly "holy ones," i.e.

either saints (Dn. 8:24) or angels (see Ps. 89:5,7). All this

forces each of us to exercise humility in teaching eschatology.

It does seem that the Anitchrist will persecute the saints for

three and a half years (Dn. 7:21, 25 cf. 4:16).

If the decree mentioned in Dan. 9:25 took place in 457 B.C.E.

(Ezra 7:12-26) then the first 7 heptads (49 years) run from 457

to 408, within which time the rebuilding of the Jerusalem walls,

streets etc was completed. Then 62 heptads (7 X 62=434 years)

later brings us to C.E. 26 because 434-408 = 26 (actually C.E. 27

because we gained one year passing from 1 B.C.E. to C.E. 1, since

there is no year zero in between). This would take us to the time

of the coming of the Moshiach, and it would be after this time of

62 heptads, but while the second Beis Hamikdash was still

standing (a narrow corridor of time from C.E. 27 to C.E. 70) in

which the Moshiach must come and be killed in order to fulfill

this prophecy of Daniel 9:25-27. Moshiach Yehoshua did it, and

Zechariah predicted that the Moshiach's name would indeed be

Moshiach Yehoshua (Zch. 6:12; Ezra 3:8), just as Isaiah

predicted the Moshiach (called "David" or "the son of David" in

various Scriptures) would die and rise from the grave (II Kings

19:34; Isaiah 4:2: 11:1-4; 53:2,8-12). For more regarding Daniel,

the reader is referred to Gleason Archer's commentary on Daniel

in Frank E. Gaebelein's The Expositor's Bible Commentary: Volume

7, Zondervan Publishers, 1985.

Daniel teaches how to remain steadfast during times of

oppression, in the face of pressure to apostatize or to

compromise one's faith, even if it means having to exercise civil

disobedience against some anti-Moshiach law (Dn. 3:28). The

Moshiach who is with us to the end of the age (Mt. 28:20) will be

with us in the fiery furnace or in the lion's den, if we will

remain faithful to G-d. The Son of Man may be served as G-d but

not idols. See Dn 3:18 and 7:13-14 where the same Aramaic verb is

used for "serve (G-d)" or "pay reverence to deity" as in serving

G-d. The word is p'lach. With Nebuchadnezzar's

boanthropy, Daniel prophesies that the pride of the Beast (Dn.

4:16) of Babylon will be brought low (Dn. 4:37), his seed will be

cut off (Dn. 5:30 --Belshazzar was the "son" of

Nebuchadnezzar in the sense of "successor in office"), and the

handwriting on the wall will show that G-d's judgment cannot

be escaped and that the days of any anti-Moshiach kingdom are

numbered (Dn. 5:26). The purpose of humbling Nebuchadnezzar is to

teach him that until G-d's sovereignty is acknowledged, man is

bestially stupid (Dn. 4:34-35); on the other hand, when the

L-rd's sovereignty is acknowledged, man's reason returns to him

(Dn. 4:36). We know from historical sources such as I Maccabees

and the writings of Josephus a great deal about another madman

named Antiochus Epiphanes who learned Nebuchadnezzar's lesson the

hard way.

Daniel teaches that history is going somewhere, and that G-d has

history under control. Daniel shows the movements in history of

major kingdoms or empires. The Babylonian empire of Dn. 2:38 is

depicted as the gold portion of an idolatrous statue in ch.2 and

as a lion in ch. 7. The Medo-Persian empire of Dn. 8:20 is

depicted as the silver portion of a statue in ch.2 end as that of

a bear in ch. 7 and as a ram in ch. 8. The Greek empire (the

male goat of 8:21) is the Greco-Macedonian Empire of Alexander

the Great which is indicated by the bronze part of the statue in

Daniel ch. 2 and a leopard in ch. 7. The iron/clay portion of the

statue of Daniel 2 and the beast with iron teeth in ch. 7

symbolize the Roman empire. The Moshiach's Kingdom is seen in the

supernatural stone in Dn. chp. 2 and in the Son of Man in the

clouds at G-d's judgment court in heaven in ch.7. The fate of

Anti-Moshiach (important because of his anti-G-d kingdom) is

stated in Dn 7:11,26; 11:45.

Study the word "kingdom" which is a key word in the book,

occurring well over 50 times, and which contreats the kingdoms of

this world with the eternal Messianic Kingdom of G-d (2:44,

7:14).

This book should be studied especially at the time of Chanukah

each year (the first Chanukah--celebrated 25 Chislev 164--being

predicted in Dn. 8:8, where it says that "the sanctuary shall be

restored to its rightful place." The coming of the Syrian King of

the Seleucid dynasty, Antlochus Epiphanes (175-163 B.C.E.), is

predicted by Daniel. This despot put pressure on the Jews to cash

in their Hebraic faith and their Kohen Gadol and Beis Hamikdash

sacrifices for Hellenistic (Greek-influenced) culture. A

rebellion began in 168 B.C.E. against Antiochus but his

desecration of the Beis Hamikdash became a symbol for the coming

of religious apostasy and of Anti-Moshiach in the last days. The

kohen line of Zadok was usurped when Antiochus Epiphanes sold the

kehunah to Menelaus (see II Maccabees 4:23-50), who lacked the

G-d-ordained Aaronic genealogical credentials.

The book of Daniel is about both the meaning of history, from

G-d's perspective and under his sovereign control, and about

end-time divine intervention in history, whether in a fiery

furnace or a lion's den or by the Son of Man, when history

reaches its goal at the end of days or, as Daniel says, "at the

time of the End." Daniel fasts and prays and watches as the

L-rd's seer from where he has been placed in the royal court of

the Babylonian and Persian empires. The first six chapters speak

of various miraculcus events and visions during the Babylonian

reigns of Nebuchadnezzar and Belshazzar, and the Persian reign of

Darius the Mede. The second half of the book speaks of the coming

of Antiochus Epiphenes, the rebuilding of Jerusalem and the Beis

Hamikdash, the coming of the Moshiach and his being cut off, a

subsequent second destruction of Jerusalem, the coming of the

Anti-Moshiach, the Moshiach's return as the glorious Son of Man

who receives the Kingdom from G-d, and the Techiyas HaMesim, some

to Chayyei Olam (Eternal Life) and some to the shame and

everlasting contempt of Gehinnom (Dn. 12:2).

Study Daniel's eating habits and fasting and prayer (Dn. 1:5-21)

which may have had something to do with Daniel's long life (605

B.C.E. = Dn.1:1; 539 B.C.E. = Dn.1:21). Also see 10:3. Study

Daniel's prayer (Dn. 9:4-19) and notice how prayer is struggling

against cosmic principalities or demons (Eph. 6:12; cf. Dn.

10:12-11:1).

Chapter 11 gives us predictions of the struggles between

Alexander the Great's successors, namely his four generals, the

most important of whom are Seleucus I taking his throne over

Syria and Ptolemy I over Egypt. But first, the three kings of Dn.

11:2 are Cambyses, Cyrus's elder son (529-523 B.C.E.), Gaumata or

Pseudo-Smerdis (522 B.C.E.) and Darius the First (522-486

B.C.E.). The "fourth" is Xerxes (486-465 B.C.E.), the husband of

Queen Esther. The coming of Alexander the Great is predicted,

starting in Dn. 11:3. After one of his drunken bouts, he died of

a fever in 323 B.C. in Babylon (see Dn. 11:4). His baby was

murdered. His seed was cut off, seemingly a divine punishment.

Dn. 11:5-20 describes the war between the Ptolemies and the

Seleucids, variously named king of the north or south. Dn.

11:21-35 (also Dn. 8:9-12, 23-26) have to do with the career of

Antiochus Epiphanes, whereas the eschatological Antichrist comes

on the scene starting at Dn. 11:36 and is referred to in 2:34;

7:8-26; 9:27 and 12:11.

Antiochus, the sinister little horn and despicable tyrant, as he

is called (Dn. 11:21), will suspend the worship of G-d in the

Beis Hamikdash, according to Daniel's prophecy. Not only did

Antiochus claim divine honors for himself on every major coin

that he had minted, but he had a second beast, Menelaus, who

bribed and murdered his way into the Kohen Gadol's office,

plotting the murder of the legitimate Kohen Gadol Onias III. Thus

Antiochus could lead the Jewish people in their apostasy of

"forsaking the holy covenant" (see Dn. 11:30; II Thes. 2:3; Rev.

13:11-17.) Together, Antiochus and Menelaus desecrated and

plundered the Beis Hamikdash. I Maccabees 1:21 says Antiochus

"arrogantly entered the sactuary" (II Thes. 2:4). The ominous

period in which the Beis Hamikdash was desecrated and during

which time there was great persecution and death was about three

years. Antiochus, who became totally mad at the end of his life,

did not die in the Holy Land but in Persia (Iran), looting

another temple.

The armies of the Maccabees versus the Seleucid armies of

Antiochus Epiphanies give us a picture of the armies of the

Moshiach who will destroy the Anti-Moshiach at Armageddon. See

also Mic. 4:12-13; Zech 9:13; 10:8-9 and also the end of Heb.

11:33-35 for possible references in the Bible to the Maccabees.

See especially "the people who know their G-d will firmly resist

him" (Dn. 11:32).

Only Dn. 2:4b-7:28 is in Aramaic; the rest is written in Hebrew.

In volume I of the Expositor's Bible Commentary, on p. 217 R.K.

Harrison comments on the Nabonidus Chronicle, an Akkadian account

discovered at Haran that refers to "King of the Medes" in the

tenth year of Nabonidus (516 B.C.E.), proving that "Darius the

Mede" was a real person and not a confused tradition erroneously

put in the text by any Maccabean ghost writer. Also, on p. 318,

R.K. Harrison says "the manuscript evidence from Qumran

absolutely precludes a date of composition in the Maccabean

period, but does indicate one in the Neo-Babylonian era (626-539

B.C.E.)."

DANIEL 9:26b

...Moshiach will be cut off (violently killed) and to him there

will be nothing, and the troops of the prince who is to come will

destroy the city and the holy sanctuary (the Beis Hamikdash). Its

(his?) end will come with a flood and to the end there shall be

war. Desolations are decreed.