Commentary on Daniel 1 part 1/11

If it were easy for all men to unfold the oracles of the divine prophets, to pass beyond the surface of the letter, to plunge into the depths, and to hunt out the pearl of meaning hidden there, then it would perhaps reasonably have been thought superfluous to compose a written interpretation of these things, since all men would readily attain the prophetic sense at the very moment of reading.

But since, though we have all received one nature, we have not all received equal knowledge (for, as it says, 'To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for profit: to one is given through the Spirit a word of wisdom, to another a word of knowledge according to the same Spirit, to another faith in the same Spirit'; and the rest likewise are all distributed according to their several divisions),

I think I am doing nothing unbecoming if I hand down a written instruction to those who are ignorant of these divine writings, having myself been nurtured in them from childhood, and having gathered together some little knowledge from many pious authors.

For the divine Law also commands us to teach our descendants the things we have learned from the fathers;

'I will open my mouth in parables; I will utter dark sayings of old.' Then, showing whence he had learned these things, he says, 'What we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us, it was not hidden from their children, to another generation.' And teaching the reason for this knowledge, he says, 'For he established a testimony in Israel';

'all that he commanded our fathers, that they should make them known to their sons, so that another generation might know them, even the children yet to be born;'

'and they shall arise and declare them to their sons.' And showing the benefit that comes from this instruction, he adds:

'That they might set their hope on God, and not forget the works of God, but seek out his commandments.' Receiving, therefore, this teaching from the fathers, we owe a just debt to those who have come after you and those who are yet to be, and it is fitting to discharge the payment of this debt with good will.

And it is not only the divine Law that stirs us up, but also many of our distinguished acquaintances, having warmly and earnestly entreated us, have compelled us to take courage for this contest.

And perhaps this labor will not prove useless even to those who have been deemed worthy of knowledge;

for either they will find more than they had supposed, or, finding their own views within ours, they will confirm by this fellowship what they themselves had hunted out;

for the agreement of the greater number is somehow wont to strengthen the things that have been conceived.

This prophet, then, we now endeavor to interpret, not as though despising the others—far from it!—

for we know that they are all instruments of the divine Spirit;

but first, because it was the interpretation of this prophet that our acquaintances requested of us, and we deem it fitting to give to those who asked the very favor that was asked;

and next, because the folly and shamelessness of the Jews prompts us to leave the others aside for the present, and to lay bare and make plain the predictions of this prophet;

for they have driven themselves into such shamelessness as even to fence this prophet off from the choir of the prophets, and to strip him of the very appellation of prophet.

Now their contrivance is shameless indeed, yet not without its aim;

for since he foretold the coming of Jesus Christ, not only announcing beforehand the things he would do, but also predicting the time and inserting the number of years up to his coming, and clearly recounting all the grievous things that would overtake these very people after their unbelief, it is only natural that they—hateful to God and enemies of the truth as they are—dare shamelessly to say that he who prophesied these things and countless others is no prophet, supposing their own bare assertion sufficient for the confirmation of their falsehood.

For the latter things accord with the former.

'If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you.' And again:

'If they have called the master of the house Beelzebul, how much more the members of his household?' But that we may convict their shamelessness out of the great abundance of evidence, let us thus inquire of them:

What do you say is proper to a prophet? Well, perhaps they would say: to foreknow and foretell things to come.

We find, then, that he foretold much concerning the kingdom of the Babylonians, much concerning that of the Persians and Macedonians, and much also concerning that of the Romans;

both what the king of the Babylonians would suffer, and how the Persians would take over his kingdom, and then that the Macedonian, after overthrowing these, would himself die very quickly, and that four instead of one would inherit the kingdom;

and that from one of these there would spring up one who would work countless dreadful things against the Jews, and that, enjoying divine help, they would be delivered from his brutality.

Then, passing on from there, he foretells the might of the Romans, and that, having subdued all the kingdoms, they would exact tribute from all.

Why need I tell how many things he foretold concerning the kings of the Egyptians and of the Syrians, and how many dreadful things they would do to one another, and the treaties of peace that came after these, and the intermarriages and kinships, and then again the truceless wars after the reconciliation that had taken place? How, then, is it not impious and unholy to banish from the choir of the prophets one who foreknew and foretold all these things and left behind a written record of them? For if these things are alien to prophecy, what then belongs to prophecy? But if it is because he does not prefix to his own words the phrase 'Thus says the Lord' that they deprive him of the prophetic company on this account, let them tell us: what such thing did Abraham the patriarch say, that he was addressed as a prophet by the God of all?

For concerning Abraham it was said:

'Touch not my anointed ones, and do no evil to my prophets.' And Samuel, the greatest prophet, who from childhood was a temple servant, does not have the manner of prophecy after the pattern of the other prophets, but he too received foreknowledge, insights, and predictions either through dreams or through certain daytime revelations.

Wage war, then, against those men too openly, and cast them out of the assembly of the prophets in plain view;

but if you decline the drunken insult against those men, flee also from the slander against this one;

for a prophet—and a prophet who received the knowledge of things to come with longing and desire, who was taught the things that were to be through sweat and toil, fasting and hardship—one who both foreknew and foretaught not only what would befall the Jews alone, but the dispensation of the common affairs of the whole world.

'Because the Holy Spirit of God is in him.' For indeed it was in truth the work of the divine Spirit both to tell the dream which another had seen but had forgotten, and to declare its interpretation accurately and truly.

But the prophet, for his part, will suffer no harm from your contrivances;

for the divine writings show him to be a prophet, and the fulfillment of the prediction confirms his foreknowledge.

For now, seeing the events, we understand those ancient oracles, and, guided by the very events, we readily grasp the comprehension of the matters;

but you, by these very things, display your own drunken insolence.

For now we have made our refutations of your shamelessness in summary;

but the interpretation part by part will refute your folly more clearly.

Come, then, having sufficiently made both our defense on our own behalf and our accusation of the Jews, let us first make plain the subject matter of the prophecy, and then thus take hold of the interpretation according to the letter.

After Josiah (this was a godly king), Jehoahaz his son reigned over Judea three whole months and a few days;

for in the books of Kings and in Chronicles he is named Jehoahaz;

but the blessed prophet Jeremiah calls him Shallum.

This man Pharaoh Necho, the king of Egypt, took captive and carried off as a prisoner into Egypt;

and he appointed in his stead as king his brother Eliakim, and named him Jehoiakim.

This man reigned eleven years and a few months.

And in the third year of his reign, Nebuchadnezzar, the king of the Babylonians, having marched against him, took no small number of captives from among those distinguished for their noble birth;

and he took also some of the sacred vessels that had been consecrated to the divine services;

and, having laid a certain tribute upon Jehoiakim, he departed to Babylon.

Then, when this man was unwilling to pay the appointed tribute, he again marched against Jerusalem, and, having taken the city and slain him, he appointed in his stead as king the one born of him, called Jehoiachin by the Jews, but again renamed Eliakim.

And this man the blessed prophet Jeremiah names Jeconiah.

'For as I live, says the Lord, even if Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, were a signet ring upon my right hand, yet from there I would pluck you off, and I will give you into the hands of those who seek your life, of whom you are afraid before their face, into the hands of the Chaldeans.' And so, when this man too had administered the kingdom three months and a few days, then again Nebuchadnezzar, the king of the Babylonians, sending an army and a general, carried this man off as a captive to Babylon, and entrusted the kingdom to Zedekiah, who was his uncle on his father's side;

and when this man too had reigned eleven years, and then had not given the imposed tribute, the king of the Babylonians marched against Jerusalem with a great force, and then, having besieged it, and using famine as his ally against them, and bringing engines of war against the walls, he breaks through the wall, slays most of the people, enslaves and carries off the rest as captives, and delivers both the city and the temple to fire.

Yet, though God permitted the Jews to suffer this on account of their great lawlessness, neither did he, in punishing them, wholly strip them of his own care;

but to those in Judea he had given, as it were, certain tutors—Uriah the son of Shemaiah, and Jeremiah the son of Hilkiah, a man illustrious in priesthood and prophecy—

so that, having accurate teachers of the polity of the Law, they might not receive great harm from mingling with the barbarians, but might have men to serve as models, reminding them of their ancestral virtue and philosophy.

So great is the providence which the God of all exercises over sinners, that those who serve him with good will and are ever eager to worship him, for the sake of the benefit of those others, he permitted to be led away as captives, to endure grievous slavery, to fall into many dangers, and to journey through their life amid waves and surging billows.

For thus also through the prophet Hosea he says, 'I have slain them on your account by the prophets, by the word of my mouth.' Thus, working out the salvation of the world, he permitted the holy apostles to suffer those sufferings that are written down.

And not to him alone, but also to all his subjects;

for the things that man learned through this prophet's teaching, he passed on to his subjects, having established a law that expressly enjoined all who were ruled to worship the God proclaimed by this prophet.

When, therefore, this divinely inspired prophet was led away into Babylon, and for what reason, and how great blessings he became the occasion of, not to his own countrymen only but also to the barbarians, we have told concisely;

but the power of the prophecy we shall set forth more accurately from the interpretation part by part.

Having therefore called upon the divine grace as our fellow-worker, let us begin with clarity.

'In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem and besieged it.' Of necessity, before all else, he mentioned the king of that time and taught us the time, so that we might be able to know clearly the occasion of the first captivity.

For in the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim—who is also Eliakim, who reigned after Jehoahaz, and was the father of Jehoahaz, who was also named Jehoiakim and Jeconiah—the first capture of Jerusalem took place.

And this very thing—that he makes mention of the kings of that time and of the times—indicates the prophetic character.

For in this way one may find the other prophets also doing.

'For the vision,' it says, 'which Isaiah the son of Amoz saw in the days of Uzziah, and Jotham, and Ahaz, and Hezekiah, who reigned over Judea.' And:

'The word of the Lord came to Jeremiah in the days of Josiah the son of Amon, king of Judah, in the thirteenth year of his reign.' And Ezekiel too, and each of the other prophets, for the most part employs this preface to his prophecy.

This alone, therefore, suffices to convict the lawlessness of the Jews, and to prove that he who was truly a prophet was indeed a prophet.

'from part of the vessels of the house of God.' And this too displays his spiritual grace.

For it is not given to everyone to know the divine dispensations;

but this man, having been deemed worthy of the divine Spirit, both knew clearly and taught others, that when the God of all had permitted it—on account of the lawlessness of both the people and the king, and their great impiety—the city was captured, and some of the sacred vessels came under the power of the enemies.

And most fittingly he added the words:

'The Lord gave into his hand Joachim, king of Judah,' lest anyone suppose that Nebuchadnezzar, using his own power, had prevailed over the city dedicated to God;

so that all might learn accurately that it was because God had given it up beforehand, and had withdrawn the grace that of old had guarded the city, that it fell under the enemies.

Making this plain also through Isaiah the prophet, the God of all Himself speaks thus:

'And he brought them,' it says, 'into the land of Sennaar, into the house of his god, and he brought the vessels into the treasure-house of his god.' And perhaps someone might say:

Why then, when it was men who had sinned, were the holy vessels, dedicated to God, handed over to impious men? Now those who are ignorant of the aim of the divine dispensations say these things.

For 'the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God';

but 'the spiritual man judges all things,' according to the divine Apostle;

and he is persuaded that nothing is ordered in vain by the divine providence, and, being enlightened by the divine Spirit, he learns the causes as well;

just as, indeed, the very matter now under inquiry can be understood by one who chooses to think spiritually.

For much benefit came from this not only to the Jews, but also to the barbarians themselves.

For first, the Jews were taught the self-sufficiency of the divine nature;

for the God of all does not receive what men offer as though He were in need of anything, but in order to teach them gratitude, and to give them both a means of worship and an occasion for recompense.

For how else could we have been able, in return for the benefits we received, to repay so far as possible our Benefactor God, if He did not accept these small and paltry things from those who offer them? Wishing, therefore, to persuade the Jews that it was not to fill His own need, but in condescension to their weakness, that He accepted the sacrifices offered by them, He fittingly turned away from them and delivered them to captivity; and the vessels offered by them, through which they thought they were serving Him, He gave over into captivity along with them.

for they act impiously just as those others did—nay rather, even more than those others.

For the latter, having neither received a law nor enjoyed the guidance of prophets, were held fast by ignorance;

but the former, though enlightened by countless prophets both old and new, and though they had become eye-witnesses of ever so many miracles, despised the God of all, while they continued serving lifeless idols.

He handed over the vessels to the barbarians, all but declaring through the very deeds themselves that: In no way do you differ from the barbarians;

for you likewise defile them by your transgressions, and it is all one whether you possess these things or the Babylonians do;

for impiety holds sway over both you and them.

For the Jews, then, this was sufficient both to convict and to instruct them, and to procure for them no small benefit;

but the Babylonians, when they honored the vessels—as they supposed—by putting them beyond human use and dedicating them to the gods they worshiped, met with no grievous consequences whatever.

he paid the fitting penalty, and through the punishment taught all men how great is the power of God over those vessels, and that He was not deprived of what was His own against His will, but willingly gave them up beforehand because of the people's great lawlessness.

And this He also did of old in the case of the ark.

For when Ophni and Phinees, the lawless and abominable sons of Eli the priest, took it out as an aid to their kinsmen, God convicted their impiety, deeming them worthy of no providence, but delivering them over to a fitting slaughter, and the ark to the foreigners;

again instructing Israel, and teaching them that He had no need of the ark, but had provided it for their sake, and that its use was superfluous to them who freely transgress the divine law and choose to live in impiety.

But lest the foreigners should become proud, as though they themselves had prevailed over God (for they supposed the ark to be the very God of the Jews, judging by the fashioning of their own idols), and lest thereby they should draw upon themselves much harm, as having taken captive the God of the Jews and dedicated Him as a kind of trophy to their own gods;

and this not once, but twice and many times.

He brought upon them also diverse plagues, until they gave back the ark and set up votive offerings signifying the punishment.

for not only the Jews, but also the barbarians, were benefited by the permission that came from God for a short time.

'And the king said to Asphanez his chief eunuch, to bring in some of the sons of the captivity of the sons of Israel, and of the seed of the kingdom, and of the phorthommin;'

'young men in whom there is no blemish, fair in appearance, and skilled in all wisdom, and having knowledge and understanding, and discerning in prudence, in whom there is strength, so as to stand in the king's house, and to teach them the letters and languages of the Chaldeans.' Now the God of all chose the foolish things of the world, and the weak, and the things that are despised, that through these He might put to shame the wise and the mighty;

but men seek out the beauty of bodies, and stature, and strength, and a wisdom not that which knows divine things, but that which is embellished with eloquence.

It is possible, therefore, to learn from this too how great is the interval between things divine and things human.

Yet here likewise is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah, which he foretold to King Ezekias.

'Hear,' he says, 'the word of the Lord of Sabaoth, which He spoke to me:'

'Behold, days are coming, and they shall take all that is in your house, and all that your fathers have gathered together until this day shall come to Babylon, and they shall leave nothing at all, says God.'

Now 'phorthommin' he called 'the virgins' in the Hebrew tongue;

but Symmachus rendered 'porthmin' as 'the choice ones.'

'And the king appointed for them a daily portion from the king's table, and from the wine of his own drink, and to nourish them for three years, and after that they were to stand before the king.'

he did not provide them with slavish food, but commanded that they should partake of the royal table.

But shortly afterwards he teaches their self-control and love of wisdom, not out of vainglory, but setting forth an instruction of benefit for those who choose to be benefited.

It is possible also to see his moderation of mind;

for having said above that the king had commanded that young men should be chosen from the seed of the kingdom, resplendent in beauty and distinguished in stature, and having here set down the names of the persons, he mentioned simply the tribe of Judah, and concealed the kinship with the royal house.

'And the chief eunuch put names upon them';

for those who purchase household slaves change their appellations, so that by the very change of name they may make the servitude known.

And this too the chief eunuch did here: removing their Hebrew appellations, he imposed Chaldean ones, since the king had also enjoined that the young men should learn the language of the Chaldeans.

But here one may find a surpassing excess of wonder;

for children reared among the Jews, and taught the local worship of God, then, dwelling in a foreign land and compelled to serve, while yet of a very tender age, being forced to live under other laws, are earnest to preserve their ancestral piety;

and since they saw the Babylonians defiling their viands with the invocations of idols, and polluting the house with libations, they despised the visible means of preservation, and trampling underfoot the pleasure of the royal banquet, they entreat the chief eunuch to grant to themselves, who begged off from the royal provisions, to partake of other food instead.

This one may find to have happened also in the case of Joseph;

'Ask the generations that were before you: who trusted in the Lord and was put to shame?'

'I fear my lord the king, who has appointed your food and your drink, lest he should see your faces gloomy compared with the youths of your own age, and you should condemn my head to the king.' Not without reason was the chief eunuch's fear;

for he was a man who had not tasted spiritual grace, but regarded human affairs in a human way, and thinking that bodies could be nourished and flourish only from the costliness of viands, he feared lest, when the one group were sumptuously fed and these others lived ascetically, some difference should appear in their countenances, and he should undergo the utmost punishment from the king who had commanded the contrary.

'Test now your servants for ten days, and let them give us of the seeds, and let us eat, and let us drink water.'

'And let our appearances be seen before you, and the appearances of the youths who eat the king's table;'

For what surpassing degree of piety is left, when to believe and be confident that he would enjoy the divine favor—and that, not eating of what those who eat and revel and enjoy the royal luxury eat, he would appear more comely and more beautiful and greater? And he blended his supplication well with persuasiveness:

'For test,' he says, 'your servants for ten days, and let them give us of the seeds, and let us eat, and let us drink water; and be yourself the judge of the countenances;'

'and if you find any harm coming to the bodies from such food, you shall command what seems good to you, and we will not gainsay it.'

So great was the care for the divine laws which this divine man had from childhood, and his faith toward the Lawgiver;

and while he said these things, the other received his supplication.

'For he hearkened to them,' it says, 'in this matter, and tested them for ten days.'

'And after the end of the ten days their appearances were seen to be good, and they were stronger in flesh than the youths who ate the king's table.' For this divine prophet obtained what he desired, and showed the promises to be true to the one who had been entrusted with their care;

for having enjoyed the divine grace, they appeared far better than those who partook of the royal table.

'And Amelasar took away their supper and the wine of their drink, and gave them seeds.' And he reaped a twofold gain;

for first, he learned that it is possible even for one practicing fasting to acquire bodily strength and comeliness;

Then, receiving for himself the very food that was supplied to those others, he the more eagerly furnished them with the seeds they longed for.

Next, since he had spoken concerning himself alone, he necessarily calls forward also those who shared his piety, and says:

And to these four youths God gave understanding and prudence in all learning and wisdom. For it was not the discipline of the Chaldeans, he says, that rendered them intelligent and filled them with all wisdom; rather, having been deemed worthy of understanding and wisdom and all knowledge from divine grace, they were shown to be superior to all.

And he was also able to interpret the things revealed to others;

for the phrase 'he understood' makes this plain.

And even if He finds this grace in a young man, He sets him before many elders.

One may find that He did the same thing also in the case of Joseph, and in the case of Samuel the prophet;

for while he was a mere child, exceedingly young, He appeared to him also and bade him foretell the punishments coming upon the old man—as an accusation against the aged one, but as a demonstration of the grace that flourished in the youth.

And after the completion of the days which the king had said they should be brought in, the chief eunuch brought them in before Nebuchadnezzar,

and they stood before the king.

And in every matter of wisdom and knowledge concerning which the king inquired of them, he found them tenfold beyond all the enchanters and magicians who were in his kingdom. Now Amelasar indeed knew the difference of the foods, and learned assuredly the power of divine grace;

but the king perhaps knew nothing of these things.

For how could he have learned it, since the food was supplied by him in the same manner, but was consumed by Amelasar? Yet nonetheless he too received no small benefit, finding them better than all who had been chosen from the other nations—in beauty and stature of body, in wisdom and understanding of soul, in the fluency of their speech and in every rational science.

By putting certain questions to them, he took experience as the teacher of the truth, and found them not merely superior, but ten measures better.

And for the time being he learned that the Jews were wiser than all the other nations.

Having said these things, he added the twenty-first verse.

For this reason he also taught us the beginning of the prophecy and appended its end, so that by numbering the years of the kings in between, we might learn the entire span of the prophecy.

In addition to these things he teaches us that he beheld also Cyrus, who granted the release from captivity, and that in this present life he enjoyed the consolation of seeing the freedom of his kinsmen;

for that one proclaimed openly:

Saying to Jerusalem, You shall be built up;

and to the cities of Judea, You shall be inhabited;

He who says to Cyrus, Be wise, and, He shall perform all My wishes.—Thus says the Lord to My anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have held, that nations should obey before him, and cities shall not be shut up;

for I will go before your face, and I will level mountains;