Commentaria in Scripturam Sacram, Vol. 11: Prolegomena (prefaces and canons)
Ver. 11. “Son of man, all these bones are the house of Israel: they say: Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost (of deliverance from Babylon, and return to the country): behold I will open your graves, and will bring you out of your sepulchres, and will bring you into the land of Israel.”
XXVIII. Ver. 16. “And thou, son of man, take thee one piece of wood: and write upon it: For Juda, and for the children of Israel his associates: and take another piece of wood, and write upon it: For Joseph the wood of Ephraim, and for all the house of Israel his associates. And join them one to the other for thee into one piece of wood, and they shall become one in thy hand.” By this symbol God signifies that he will unite the Jews and Israelites, or Samaritans, now at variance among themselves, in the Church, by the faith and grace of Christ. Hence he adds in explanation: “Behold I will take the children of Israel from the midst of the nations, whither they are gone, etc. And I will make them one nation in the land, in the mountains of Israel. And my servant David (Christ the son of David) shall be king over them all, and they shall all have one shepherd. And I will make a covenant of peace with them. And my tabernacle shall be with them: and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.” HIEROGLYPHICS FROM DANIEL.
I. Chap. ii, ver. 31. “Thou, O king, sawest, and behold there was as it were a great statue: the head of it was of fine gold, but the breast and the arms of silver, and the belly and the thighs of brass; the legs of iron, the feet part of iron and part of clay. Thus thou sawest, till a stone was cut out of a mountain without hands: and it struck the statue upon the feet thereof that were of iron and of clay, and broke them in pieces. This is the dream: we will also tell the interpretation thereof before thee. Thou, O king, art a king of kings, and the God of heaven hath given thee a kingdom, and strength, and power, and glory. Thou therefore art the head of gold. And after thee shall rise up another kingdom, inferior to thee, of silver: and another third kingdom of brass, which shall rule over all the world. And the fourth kingdom shall be as iron; as iron breaketh into pieces, and subdueth all things, so shall that break and destroy all these. And whereas thou sawest the feet, and the toes, part of potter’s clay, and part of iron: the kingdom shall be divided. But in the days of those kingdoms the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that shall never be destroyed, and his kingdom shall not be delivered up to another people: and it shall break in pieces and shall consume all these kingdoms, and itself shall stand for ever, according as thou sawest that the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands, and broke in pieces.” The head of gold was the monarchy of Nabuchodonosor; the breast of silver, the kingdom of Cyrus and the Persians; the belly of brass, the kingdom of Alexander and the Greeks; the legs of iron, the kingdom of the Romans: but all these the stone cut out of the mountain without hands broke in pieces, that is, Christ born of the Virgin, whose kingdom will be glorious and eternal.
a tree in the midst of the earth: and the height thereof was exceeding great. Its leaves were most fair, and its fruit exceeding much: and in it was food for all. And behold a watcher and a holy one came down from heaven. Cut down the tree, let his heart be changed from man’s, and let a beast’s heart be given him: and let seven times pass over him.” This tree is Nabuchodonosor, the watcher is the Angel threatening him with casting out from the kingdom, and change into a beast. So Daniel explains it. “They shall cast thee out from among men,” he says, “and thy dwelling shall be with beasts and wild beasts, and thou shalt eat grass like an ox, and shalt be wet with the dew of heaven: and seven times (that is, seven years) shall pass over thee, till thou know that the Most High ruleth over the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will. Wherefore, O king, let my counsel be acceptable to thee, and redeem thou thy sins with alms, and thy iniquities with works of mercy to the poor.”
III. Chap. v, ver. 25. “Mane, Thecel, Phares. Mane: God hath numbered thy kingdom, and hath finished it. Thecel: thou art weighed in the balance, and art found wanting. Phares: thy kingdom is divided, and is given to the Medes and Persians. The same night Baltassar was slain, and Darius the Mede succeeded to the kingdom.” This event clearly explains the vision.
IV. Chap. vii, ver. 3. “Four great beasts came up out of the sea. The first was like a lioness, and had the wings of an eagle, and the heart of a man was given to it. And behold another beast like a bear; and three rows were in the mouth thereof, and in the teeth thereof, and thus they said to it: Arise, eat much flesh. And after this I beheld, and lo another like a leopard, and it had upon it four wings as of a fowl, and the beast had four heads. After this I beheld in a vision of the night, and lo a fourth beast, terrible and wonderful, and exceeding strong, it had great iron teeth, eating and breaking in pieces, and treading down the rest with its feet; and it had ten horns. I considered the horns, and behold another little horn sprung out of the midst of them: and three of the first horns were plucked up at the presence thereof: and behold eyes like the eyes of a man were in this horn, and a mouth speaking great things.” These four beasts are four monarchies: the lioness is the Assyrians, the bear the Persians, the leopard the Greeks, the fourth beast the Romans. From the fourth shall arise ten horns, that is, ten kings at the end of the world; and the little horn, that is Antichrist, who will subdue three kings; whence the remaining seven will soon submit to him of their own accord.
V. Ver. 9. “I beheld till thrones were placed, and the Ancient of days sat: his garment was white as snow, and the hair of his head like clean wool: his throne like flames of fire: the wheels of it like a burning fire. A swift stream of fire issued forth from before him: thousands of thousands ministered to him, and ten thousand times a hundred thousand stood before him.” This is the eternal Father, who will adjudge the kingdom of Antichrist to Christ and Christians, whence he adds: “The judgment sat,” that is, the judges sat, “and the books were opened: and I beheld because the beast (Antichrist) was slain, and behold with the clouds of heaven, one like the son of man came, and he came even to the Ancient of days. And he gave him power, and glory, and a kingdom.”
VI. Chap. viii, ver. 3. “Behold a ram stood before the marsh, having high horns, and one higher than another: and behold a he-goat came from the west, and touched not the ground; and he struck the ram.” The ram is Darius, whom the he-goat struck, that is Alexander the Great.
Ver. 8. “And the he-goat grew exceeding great: and when he was grown, the great horn was broken, and there came up four horns: and out of one of them came forth a little horn: and it grew to be great, and was magnified even to the host of heaven, and cast down of the strong ones, and trod upon them.” The great horn is Alexander; he being broken, that is dead, his kingdom was divided into four horns, that is his chief generals: from one of whom sprang Antiochus Epiphanes, who laid waste Judea and God’s temple, and slew its worshippers.
VII. Chap. ix, ver. 24. “Seventy weeks are shortened upon thy people, and upon thy holy city, that transgression may be finished, and sin may have an end.” These are seventy weeks of years, and make 490 years, as if to say: 490 years will flow on until Christ.
VIII. Chap. x, ver. 5. “And behold a certain man clothed in linen, and his loins were girded with fine gold: and his body was like chrysolite, and his face as the appearance of lightning, and his eyes as a burning lamp: and his arms and all downward even to the feet, like in appearance to glowing brass: and the voice of his words like the voice of a multitude.” This man is the Archangel Gabriel, who in the following chapter narrated to Daniel the victories of the Machabees, of Christ and of Christians: wherefore he here assumes an august form, to represent them by it. First, then, the linen garment signifies the priesthood of the Machabees and their labors. Second, the golden girdle signifies their charity, wars and kingdom. Third, the chrysolite, their glory and triumph. Fourth, the lightning face, their violent zeal against enemies. Fifth, the eyes like a burning lamp, their prudence and vigilance. Sixth, the brazen arms and legs, their fortitude and the splendor of their arms. Seventh, the voice of a multitude, the army and phalanxes both of the Machabees and of the Angels fighting for them.