但以理書註釋 第 1 章 第 2/11 段

I will shatter gates of bronze, and break in pieces bars of iron, and I will open for you treasures of darkness, hidden and unseen. Having learned these things, Cyrus granted to those of the Jews who so wished the return to their native land;

and the book of Chronicles too teaches us the time.

For it says: In the first year of Cyrus, king of the Persians, after the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah was fulfilled, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus, king of the Persians, and Cyrus gave command to proclaim throughout all his kingdom, in the words of Scripture, saying:

Thus says Cyrus the king of the Persians:

All the kingdoms of the earth the Lord God of heaven has given me, and He Himself has charged me to build Him a house in Jerusalem, which is in Judea;

to Him be the glory unto the ages of ages.

In the second year of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, he dreamed a dream, and his spirit was troubled, and his sleep departed from him. From this we learn that immediately, at the very outset of his reign, he marched against Judea in the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim, and commanded the one to pay tribute, while the others he took as captives and carried off into the land of the Assyrians.

The prophet Jeremiah also bears witness to these times, speaking thus:

The word that came to Jeremiah the prophet, concerning all the people of Judah, in the fourth year of Jehoiakim son of Josiah king of Judah, this being the first year of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon. We therefore find here that, when the third year of Jehoiakim's reign was being completed, Nebuchadnezzar, having become king, made his expedition against the Jews;

and at the beginning of the fourth year, the prophet Jeremiah, offering exhortation to the people, said that this was the first year of king Nebuchadnezzar.

Having said that the first captivity took place in the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim king of Judah, he now added:

In the second year of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar he dreamed a dream. These things he added not idly, but so that we might learn the time precisely.

For this reason the divine prophets also, when they make mention of the kings, record as well the number of the years.

In the second year, then, of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, he dreamed a dream, and his spirit was troubled, and sleep departed from him.

(Chapter 2.) And the king commanded to call the enchanters, and the magicians, and the sorcerers, and the Chaldeans, to declare to the king his dream. Now the dispensation of God is plain to the prudent;

for wishing to make His own prophet known by means of the dream, so that from this the king might receive good and saving admonitions, He alarmed him indeed by the dream, but took away the memory of the dream.

But just as the forethought of the God of all is plain, so also the madness of the king is well known to all the pious.

For how is it not the height of derangement to seek from others the memory of the dream? Yet nonetheless, being summoned, he says, they came and stood before the king. (Verses 3, 4.)

And the king said to them:

I have dreamed a dream, and my spirit is troubled to know the dream.

And the Chaldeans spoke to the king in Aramaic, and said:

O king, live forever;

tell the dream to your servants, and we will declare its interpretation. And their request they made indeed fitting;

but their promise was arrogant;

for it was not of human understanding to interpret divine revelations apart from the cooperation from on high.

The Chaldeans conducted the discourse in Aramaic, inasmuch as they had been gathered from various nations and each possessed his own tongue, yet all in common employed the language of the Syrians—wishing to teach what would follow fittingly upon the answer.

But not even so did they persuade the boastful king not to demand of men things beyond nature.

For the king answered at once, and said to the Chaldeans:

if therefore you do not make known to me the dream and its interpretation, you shall be destroyed, and your houses shall be plundered.

But if you make known to me the dream and its interpretation, you shall receive from me gifts and rewards and great honor;

only declare to me the dream and its interpretation. Now these words display not only his savagery and brutishness, but also his exceeding folly;

for it is the height of senselessness to suppose that either by the threat of evils or by the promise of goods, greater knowledge would be engendered in the Chaldeans.

(Verse 7.) At once, then, those men said to him:

Tell your dream to your servants, and we will declare its interpretation. For we confess our servitude, he says, but we also know our nature;

and we shall be able to interpret the dream, if we should learn it; but to tell the dream itself—which was made known to you and then delivered over to forgetfulness—we cannot.

But nonetheless the foolish king pressed on, seeking the recollection of the dream.

For the king answered, he says, and said:

In truth I know that you are buying time, since you have seen that the matter has departed from me.

(Verse 9.) If therefore you do not declare to me the dream, there is but one decree for you; and I know that you have agreed together to speak a lying and corrupt word before me, until the time should pass;

tell me the dream, and I shall know that you will declare to me its interpretation. Now of these words, the demand is willful and mad, but the accusation is exceedingly true;

For you wish, he says, to learn the dream, so that having in common fabricated some false interpretation, you may deceive me as is your custom, taking the length of time as your accomplice and awaiting the season of the outcome.

Having heard these things, the Chaldeans (for, as it seems, these had greater freedom of speech with him than the rest) thereupon speak decisively, and utterly renounce the recollection of the dream.

There is no man that can make the matter known to the king, inasmuch as no great king or ruler asks such a thing of an enchanter or a Chaldean;

(Verse 11.) Because the word which the king asks is weighty;

and there is no other who can declare it before the king, except the gods, whose dwelling is not with any flesh. Whence it is not possible for it to happen just as you suppose.

Ask of us human things, they say, not things beyond nature;

for it befits kings above all men to guide their kingdom justly, and to ask of their subjects the things that are possible.

But what you now demand, you demand unjustly;

for such knowledge does not belong to men clothed with flesh, but to the bodiless nature which knows all things exactly.

He teaches the king that such knowledge belongs neither to men, who creep upon the earth, nor indeed to the gods who do not exist, but to the God who made all things.

But each of these will receive its fitting interpretation in its proper place.

Then, it says, the king in great fury and wrath commanded to destroy all the wise men of Babylon;

for arrogance and pride, having gained authority, contrives destruction for his subjects the Jews.

'O officer of the king, concerning what has this shameless decree gone forth from the king's presence?' For, as it seems, he was ignorant of it, inasmuch as he had not been summoned to the assembly of the wise men of Babylon;

for the three years had not yet passed, after which the king of the Babylonians had ordered that they, having been nourished for that appointed period with royal food, should be brought in before him.

But if before these things he narrated the account, that they both entered in and were preferred above the others, being seen to be superior, let no one wonder;

for wishing to bring that former narrative to its conclusion, he clearly set forth all that had then come to pass;

then thereafter he passes to another narrative concerning the things that had happened in the intervening time.

That he was not yet among those who had freedom of speech with the king when the king gathered together the wise men of Babylon, his ignorance of the unjust slaughter bears witness;

for being ignorant of this cause, he questioned Arioch.

And when he had learned it, he takes courage for the interview with the king, and asks him to grant him a little time for the search after the dream and the discovery of its interpretation;

then he teaches us the manner of the discovery, not seeking honor for himself, but calling us forth to a like earnestness.

For the workers of falsehood are destitute of the divine alliance, and employing only human reasonings stripped bare of piety, they say and do all things for the deceiving of men;

but the nurslings of truth do not venture to say or to do anything apart from the help from above;

and fastening their own requests upon the providence that oversees all things, they stand unmoved, not shaken, nor carried about hither and thither, but delivered from the tempest of human reasonings.

supplication and prayer, and not trusting to himself alone, but taking also those of like manner into fellowship of the supplication;

and he was not disappointed of his hope.

'Blessed be the name of the Lord God from everlasting and to everlasting, for wisdom and understanding are his.'

'And he himself changes seasons and times, sets up kings and removes them, giving wisdom to the wise, and understanding to those who know understanding.'

For it is fitting, he says, to hymn continually the eternal and everlasting God, who is the fountain of wisdom and understanding, who governs all things rightly and well, and by the changes of affairs convicts the instability of human prosperity, while showing clearly to all his own might;

for having ordained kings, again he readily deposes them, and having given authority, he takes it away whenever he wills;

and of wisdom too and of understanding he is the supplier;

and he gives this not indiscriminately, but to those who wish to understand him;

and he reveals as he wills the things that in no way appear, but are hidden as it were in some abyss by their not yet having come to be;

and being intellectual light, dwelling in unapproachable light, he knows exactly all the things that come to pass in darkness.

It is worthy to note also the moderate mind of this divine man;

for indeed, when making the request, he took his companions as partners of the prayer, and when weaving the hymn for the things he had received, again he made mention of them.

For he did not say, 'You made known to me the things I asked of you,' but, 'the things we asked from you.' Thus concluding the divine hymn:

'Do not destroy the wise men of Babylon, but bring me in before the king, and I will declare to the king the interpretation of the vision.' Fitting also is this compassion of the prophet;

for he did not endure to be delivered alone with his friends from the unjust slaughter, but he negotiates salvation also for the Chaldeans, hoping through this wonder both to release them from impiety and to lead them to the God of all. (v. 25)

For if he had been known, Arioch would not have spoken indefinitely;

'I have found a man of the sons of the captivity of Judea, who will declare the interpretation to the king.' (v. 26)

'Are you able to declare the dream which I saw, and its interpretation?' It must be noted also this, that Belteshazzar he does not always address him thus, but when he speaks with the king, who had imposed this appellation upon him.

But being nevertheless questioned whether he could declare to the king both the dream and the interpretation, he answered, saying:

'The mystery which the king asks, it is not for wise men, magicians, enchanters, and Gazarenes to declare to the king;

(v. 28) but there is a God in heaven who reveals mysteries.' Marvelously did he begin the teaching;

for having convicted that chorus of foolish men, and laid bare their weakness, he declared God to be the teacher of the revelation of mysteries;

and he added, 'in heaven,' casting out the gods that are made below and worshiped.

And by the singular name he casts out the multitude of the gods that do not exist, and by the abode 'in heaven' he shows that those appearing below are not gods, but a deceit having as its occasion the craft of men.

'This God has made known to King Nebuchadnezzar the things that must come to pass in the last of the days.' Having thus introduced his theme, again he draws the king's hearing by the blessing toward good will.

'For, O king,' he says, 'live forever.' For since he is about both to tell the dream and to bring forth the interpretation, and to foretell to him the dissolution of his kingdom, he prefaces it;

'It is my prayer,' he says, 'that you may live continually;

do not therefore ascribe to me the thing signified by the dream.'

'Your dream, and the visions of your head upon your bed, this is it, O king.' That is to say:

'The things you beheld by night, these are they;'

'Your thoughts came up upon your bed as to what must come to pass hereafter.' You were reasoning, he says, as you lay upon your couch, whether you should live forever, or by the law of men should come under death;

and you desired to learn also the things not yet come to pass.

'And he who reveals mysteries has made known to you the things that must come to pass.'

And everywhere he proclaims the one God, casting out the error of polytheism;

then he shows also the moderation of his own mind.

'For to me,' he says, 'this mystery was revealed, not by the wisdom that is in me beyond all the living, but for the sake of making the interpretation known to the king, and that you might know the thoughts of your heart.' 'For I obtained this revelation,' he says, 'not because I am wiser than all men, but that you might learn what you desired to learn;

and he used me as the minister of this knowledge, as his own servant.'

He begins then the exposition, and first tells the dream itself.

'You, O king, were beholding, and behold, one image, vast, that image great, and its appearance surpassing, standing before your face, and its aspect terrible.'

'An image, whose head was of pure gold, its hands and its breast and its arms of silver, and its belly and its thighs of bronze.'

'Its legs of iron, its feet part of iron and part of clay.' By the things aforementioned he indicated four materials: the gold, the silver, the bronze, the iron;

for he did not speak of clay by itself, but mingled with the iron.

For that other kingdoms too have arisen, and even at the present time subsist, is manifest;

yet one cannot see them ruling over all or over the greater part of the nations, but only over one or two.

He says therefore that the first of all to arise was the dominion of the Assyrians, which is the same as that of the Babylonians;

for Assyrians are both these and those;

but at one time they held the royal seat in Ninus, called Nineveh among the Hebrews, and at another time in Babylon.

That the kingdom of these and of those is one, the prophet himself also bears witness;

for interpreting the dream, he says:

'The head of gold, you are it, O king.' And the blessed prophet Jeremiah also says:

'Babylon was a golden cup in the Lord's hand, making all the earth drunk;

the nations drank of her wine.'

For this reason they were shaken, and suddenly Babylon fell and was broken to pieces. But if the kingdom of the Assyrians was other than this one and older than it, what material would one call it? The most divine Moses too bears witness that these things are so;

for in the account of the world's origin, having spoken concerning Nimrod that he was a mighty hunter before the Lord, he went on to add:

Therefore the first material, which is the gold, signifies the kingdom of the Assyrians and Babylonians;

and he names it the head, as having come into being first;

the second, which is the silver, is that of the Persians and Medes.

For Cyrus, springing from both sides—on his mother's side from the Medes, on his father's side from the Persians—overthrew the kingdom of the Assyrians, that is, of the Babylonians, and transferred the kingdom to the Persians.

He called him breast and arms, in order to show his kinship with two nations;

for by the right arm he signifies his paternal descent, and by the left his maternal, whose union the breast is entrusted to hold, since it contains the heart, the storehouse of the reasonings—and it is by reasoning that marriage contracts too are accomplished.

The bronze he called the Macedonian kingdom, which appeared after the Persian and likewise gained mastery over all;

and to it he assigned the belly and the thighs, indicating by the belly the sole rule of Alexander, and by the thighs the division of the kingdom that came about after his death.

The iron he called the Roman kingdom;

and this succeeded the Macedonian.

To it he assigned the legs, inasmuch as they are at the extremity of the whole body and are able to carry the entire body;

and the soles of the feet, which are themselves also of iron but mingled with clay.

He set forth the difference of the materials, showing the distinction not of value but of strength;

for the silver is more solid than the gold;

and the bronze is firmer than the silver;

and the iron is by a great measure more solid than the bronze itself.

The difference, therefore, is not in value but in strength and power.

It is necessary to inquire why on earth he beheld the composition of these materials in an image; for nothing is revealed by the God of all things simply and in vain.

For nothing is revealed simply nor in vain by the God of all.

The image has forms, but not realities.

Such is the present life: having nothing enduring nor abiding;

wherefore the blessed Paul also cried out that 'the fashion of this world passes away.' And elsewhere, exhorting, he says:

'Yet all things are vanity, every living man. Surely man walks about in an image; he heaps up treasure, and does not know for whom he will gather it.'

Since, then, the present life has swift-veering changes (for all visible things are mortal, temporary, and perishable), and the image has not the activity of realities but only displays the forms of kings and rulers and subjects, and besides this the very form is easily dissolved—

fittingly the God of all things, wishing to instruct that arrogant king in the vanity of human pride and to teach that human affairs undergo the readiest change, set before him in a dream an image, and apportioned its parts among the materials, teaching the frequent and successive successions of kings, and persuading all that He alone holds perpetual dominion, without beginning and without end, in a word, an everlasting kingdom.

'You were watching until a stone was cut out of a mountain without hands, and it struck the image on its feet of iron and clay, and utterly crushed them.'

'Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver, the gold were crushed all at once, and became like chaff from a summer threshing floor; and the wind carried them away, and no place was found for them; and the stone that struck the image became a great mountain and filled the whole earth.' Such was the end of the dream;

but it is fitting for us to begin the interpretation from below.

Let us therefore first inquire who is he that is called a stone, and who at first appeared small but afterwards was shown to be very great and covered the inhabited world.

Let us hear God Himself speaking through Isaiah the prophet:

'The stone which the builders rejected, this has become the head of the corner.'

'This was the Lord's doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes.' And the blessed Peter too, when addressing the Jews and bringing forward into their midst the Lord's prophecy, says:

'This is the stone which was set at nought by you the builders, which has become the head of the corner.' And the blessed Paul also says:

'Built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone.' And elsewhere he says:

'No one can lay a foundation other than the one that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.' And again:

'For He was cut from a mountain without hands, having been born of a Virgin apart from marital union;

and Holy Scripture often knows how to call the birth that is above nature a 'quarrying.'

This one, who of old appeared small on account of the nature He put on, was all at once shown to be a very great mountain, filling the whole inhabited world.

For 'the whole earth was filled with the knowledge of the Lord, as many waters cover the seas.' This one shall strike the image on its feet of clay and iron, that is, He shall bring to rest also the last kingdom, and make it vanished and invisible.

For no other kingdom shall succeed it, but He shall strip bare His own kingdom and reveal it to all;

and of all those kingdoms He shall make even the memory to vanish, like dust, which is produced from a threshing floor but is scattered by the wind.

Having thus told the whole dream to the king, he went on to add:

'This is the dream, and we will tell its interpretation before the king.'

'You, O king, are a king of kings.' He did not say this out of flattery, but making use of the customary title;

for over all the rulers of nations, who were called kings, he held the dominion.

'You, he says, O king, are a king of kings, to whom the God of heaven has given a kingdom mighty and strong and honoured in every place.' For it is not by human strength, he says, that you have prevailed over all, but from God, who holds the heavenly kingdom, who has given you this authority, so as to rule and reign over the people in every place, wherever the sons of men dwell.

'And the beasts of the field and the birds of heaven He has given into your hand, and has made you lord over all.'

And by 'beasts' he means those barbarians who live more brutishly, and by 'birds' those adorned with understanding, superior to other men, and winged in their thinking.

'Over all these,' he says, 'He has declared you king.'

'You therefore are the head of gold'—that is, your kingdom is.

For he does not speak concerning the person, but concerning the kingdom itself.

For indeed after his death, Evil-Merodach reigned over the Babylonians, and after him Belshazzar.

But if he had spoken concerning the person himself, that 'You are the head of gold,' how shall we understand the words:

'After you shall arise another kingdom inferior to you'? For he does not indicate the kingdom of his sons, but the Persian.

The kingdom of the Assyrians, that is, of the Babylonians.

'And after you shall arise another kingdom inferior to you.' The Persian;

and he calls it inferior, not as being weaker, but as being second.

'And a third kingdom, which is the bronze, which shall rule over all the earth.' He means the Macedonian;

for Alexander the son of Philip ruled over all the earth, subduing all mankind in twelve years of his reign.

'And a fourth kingdom shall be strong as the iron;

for even as the iron breaks small and subdues all things, so it shall break all things small and subdue them.' He means the Roman kingdom, which became most mighty and prevailed over all nations, so to speak, and exacted tribute and tax from all.

For the 'shall break small' he placed with reference to this, but the 'shall subdue' with reference to obedience and good order and lawful government.

'And whereas you saw the feet and the toes, part of iron and part of clay, it shall be a divided kingdom, and there shall be in it of the strength of the iron, even as you saw the iron mingled with the miry clay.' He said 'another' not according to kind, but according to the quality of its power.

For if he had been speaking according to kind, he would have called it a fifth, just as he had called one third and another fourth.

But since he knows that the latter ends of the iron kingdom are weaker, he placed 'another' on account of its weakness, and quite fittingly.

For above he showed it to be exceedingly mighty;

for such were its beginnings.

But nevertheless he does not say that its final parts too will be entirely weak.

'For from the root of the iron,' he says, 'there shall be in it, in the manner that you saw the iron mingled with the earthen clay.'

(42) 'And the toes of the feet were partly of iron and partly of clay.' This does not even require our own interpretation;

for the Prophet himself, interpreting, says:

'Part of the kingdom shall be strong, and part of it shall be broken.' To these words he adds:

'And whereas you saw the iron mixed with the earthen clay, they shall be mingled together in the seed of men.' This most of all shows that this kingdom is not other than the iron, but the same one in a weaker condition, and that part of it is strong and part weak;

yet the bond of kinship shall join the weak portion to the strong.

For the phrase, 'They shall be mingled together in the seed of men,' declares this:

'There shall be,' he says, 'a certain intermingling and intermarriage between these and those; yet the discord shall destroy the rights of kinship.'

'For they shall not,' he says, 'be cleaving one to another, even as the iron does not mingle with the clay.'

It is fitting also to bring forward into the midst the opinions of some who have interpreted before us;

for in this way the truth will be shown more clearly.

Now some of the writers said that the fourth kingdom, that is, the iron, was Alexander the Macedonian;

But they ought to have observed, first, that he said Nebuchadnezzar himself was the golden head, that is, the kingdom of the Babylonians, or rather the Assyrians;

and the kingdom of the Persians and Medes succeeded it at the same time;

for Cyrus was sprung from both nations, and ruling over both these and those, having overthrown the kingdom of the Babylonians, he gained mastery over the Persians;

This kingdom he named the third;

and no other succeeded it, but that of the Romans.

They ought, therefore, first of all, from the number and from the matters indicated, to have understood and learned that the third is the kingdom of the Macedonians, that is, the bronze;

the iron. But if those things seemed to them altogether too obscure, they ought at least, from the end, to have discerned the whole prediction;

for immediately after showing the weak and earthen end of the iron kingdom, he added:

'And in the days of those kings.' That is, when the earthen and the iron have their intermingling, and have embraced kinship with one another, yet have obtained no concord even from that kinship,

'The God of heaven shall raise up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed unto the ages, and his kingdom shall not be left to another people.'

'It shall break in pieces and winnow all the kingdoms, and it itself shall stand unto the ages.'

(45) 'In the manner that you saw that a stone was cut from a mountain without hands, and it broke in pieces the clay, the iron, the bronze, the silver, the gold.' These things directly show the end of things present, and the endlessness of the kingdom of the heavens.