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| What Daniel Predicted Regarding the Persecution of Antichrist, the Judgment of God, and the Kingdom of the Saints.
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Chapter 23.—What Daniel Predicted
Regarding the Persecution of Antichrist, the Judgment of God, and
the Kingdom of the Saints.
Daniel prophesies of the last
judgment in such a way as to indicate that Antichrist shall first
come, and to carry on his description to the eternal reign of the
saints. For when in prophetic vision he had seen four beasts,
signifying four kingdoms, and the fourth conquered by a certain
king, who is recognized as Antichrist, and after this the eternal
kingdom of the Son of man, that is to say, of Christ, he says,
“My spirit was terrified, I Daniel in the midst of my body, and
the visions of my head troubled me,”1435
etc. Some have interpreted these
four kingdoms as signifying those of the Assyrians, Persians,
Macedonians, and Romans. They who desire to understand the
fitness of this interpretation may read Jerome’s book on Daniel,
which is written with a sufficiency of care and erudition. But he
who reads this passage, even half asleep, cannot fail to see that
the kingdom of Antichrist shall fiercely, though for a short time,
assail the Church before the last judgment of God shall introduce
the eternal reign of the saints. For it is patent from the
context that the time, times, and half a time, means a year,
and two years, and half a year, that is to say, three years and a
half. Sometimes in Scripture the same thing is indicated by
months. For though the word times seems to be used here in
the Latin indefinitely, that is only because the Latins have no
dual, as the Greeks have, and as the Hebrews also are said to
have. Times, therefore, is used for two times. As for the ten
kings, whom, as it seems, Antichrist is to find in the person of
ten individuals when he comes, I own I am afraid we may be deceived
in this, and that he may come unexpectedly while there are not ten
kings living in the Roman world. For what if this number ten
signifies the whole number of kings who are to precede his coming,
as totality is frequently symbolized by a thousand, or a hundred,
or seven, or other numbers, which it is not necessary to
recount?
In another place the same Daniel
says, “And there shall be a time of trouble, such as was not
since there was born a nation upon earth until that time: and in
that time all Thy people which shall be found written in the book
shall be delivered. And many of them that sleep in the mound of
earth shall arise, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and
everlasting confusion. And they that be wise shall shine as the
brightness of the firmament; and many of the just as the stars for
ever.”1436
This
passage is very similar to the one we have quoted from the
Gospel,1437
at least
so far as regards the resurrection of dead bodies. For those who
are there said to be “in the graves” are here spoken of as
“sleeping in the mound of earth,” or, as others translate,
“in the dust of earth.” There it is said, “They shall come
forth;” so here, “They shall arise.” There, “They that
have done good, to the resurrection of life; and they that have
done evil, to the resurrection of judgment;” here, “Some to
everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting confusion.”
Neither is it to be supposed a difference, though in place of the
expression in the Gospel, “All who are in their graves,” the
prophet does not say “all,” but “many of them that sleep in
the mound of earth.” For many is sometimes used in
Scripture for all. Thus it was said to Abraham, “I have
set thee as the father of many nations,” though in another place
it was said to him, “In thy seed shall all nations be
blessed.”1438
Of such
a resurrection it is said a little afterwards to the prophet
himself, “And come thou and rest: for there is yet a day till
the completion of the consummation; and thou shall rest, and rise
in thy lot in the end of the days.”1439
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