Commentaria in Scripturam Sacram, Vol. 11: Prolegomena (prefaces and canons)
In the year of the world 3375, before Christ 576, which was the 16th from the destruction of Jerusalem, the 27th from the transmigration of Joachin, and the 35th of Nabuchodonosor, after a long and troublesome siege of 13 years Tyre was taken by Nabuchodonosor: wherefore God promises him and his army, as it were for a reward, that He will give him Egypt for a prey, because for so many years he had served Him in attacking and laying waste Tyre, Ezechiel 29:17. Wherefore Nabuchodonosor in this same year invaded and occupied Egypt, and having subdued it became monarch.
At length Ezechiel at Babylon, slain by the judge of the people of Israel because he rebuked him for the worship of idols, and crowned with martyrdom, was buried in the sepulchre of Sem and Arphaxad, the forefathers of Abraham; to which many are wont to flock for prayer, as the Roman Martyrology has it, on the fourth day before the Ides of April.
In the year of the world 3375, before Christ 574, which was the second from the devastation of Egypt and consequently from the monarchy of Nabuchodonosor, but the 37th of his reign, Nabuchodonosor, now proud and a glorious triumpher, returned to Babylon, saw in a dream a statue of four parts, namely with a head Then, his mind restored by the prayers and supplication of Daniel, he acknowledges and glorifies God to be worshipped: and he makes all this known to his subjects by letters. In the year of the world 3383, before Christ 566, which was the 45th of the reign of Nabuchodonosor, the 10th of his monarchy, the 26th from the destruction of Jerusalem, and the 37th of the transmigration of Joachin, Nabuchodonosor dies, and his son Evilmerodach, who was also called Balsasar, succeeds him in the kingdom: who in the same 1st year of his reign lifts up Joachin king of Juda and brings him out of prison, and exalts him above all the princes of Babylon, so that thenceforth all his life he ate at the king’s table with him, Jeremias last chapter, verse 34.
In the same 1st year of the reign of Baltasar, Daniel sees, chapter 7, in a dream four beasts, a lion, a bear, a leopard, and a fourth terrible one without a name, from whose head a little horn sprang up and grew, and warred down many: which designated four monarchies, of the Chaldeans, Persians, Greeks and Romans, out of the last of which Antichrist will arise, persecuting the saints, and, as a monarch, ruling the whole world for three years and a half; whom the Son of man, having received power from the Ancient of days, will destroy and crush, and He will reign for ever.
About the same time happened the history of Bel and the dragon, which Daniel destroyed, Daniel chapter 14.
In the year of the world 3385, before Christ 565, of gold, breast of silver, belly of brass, legs of iron, portending the four empires of the world, which would be crushed by the stone cut out of the mountain, that is, by Christ, as Daniel explained it to him, chapter 2, and therefore he was honoured by the king and made ruler over all Babylon. Soon the king, growing insolent because he heard from Daniel that he and his kingdom were the head of gold, sets up his golden statue and has himself adored in it by all: which, while the rest adored, Ananias, Azarias and Misael would not adore, and by the king’s command they are cast into a furnace of burning fire; but while those who cast them in were consumed by the flame, they, walking in the midst of the fire with the angel of God, unhurt and untouched, bless the Lord in a canticle, and exhort every creature to His praise: which Nabuchodonosor perceiving is astonished, and calling them out of the furnace, blesses their God, ordering and commanding by an edict that whoever blasphemes Him be put to death. which was the third year of Baltasar, Daniel sees the vision of the he-goat fighting against the ram and overcoming it; then a little horn springing from the he-goat After this Nabuchodonosor saw a dream of a lofty tree to be cut down, which Daniel alone interprets of the king’s coming seven years’ casting out and dwelling with the beasts, and of his being at length restored to his kingdom, which, because of the king’s alms-deeds done on Daniel’s advice, was put off for a year. Then the king, for his pride turned to madness, and driven from his kingdom, dwelling like a beast with the beasts of the forest, for seven years ate grass like an ox, and his body was wet with the heat and dew of heaven.
to exercise tyranny against the people and the temple of God: and he hears from Gabriel that the king of the Persians shall one day be overcome in battle by the king of the Greeks, and that from him shall arise a shameless king (namely Antiochus Epiphanes, a figure of Antichrist), who will kill the saints, profane the temple, take away and abolish the sacrifices and worship of God, and at length shall be crushed without hands, Daniel 7.
In the year of the world 3417, before Christ 539, which was the 34th and last of Baltasar, Cyrus king of the Persians, and Darius king of the Medes, his maternal uncle, besiege Babylon. But king Baltasar, relying on the fortification of the city, giving himself up to banquets, drinks wine with his princes, wives and concubines out of the vessels of the temple of Jerusalem, praising his idols; wherefore he sees a hand writing on the wall: Mane, Thecel, Phares; which writing when the magicians of Babylon could neither read nor interpret, Daniel alone reads to the troubled king, and interprets it to signify that he was to be driven from his kingdom, and that it would be given by God to the Medes and Persians.
Whereupon Daniel is honoured with a golden chain and purple, and appointed third in the kingdom, Daniel 5. The same night the Medes and Persians, having turned aside the stream of the Euphrates, entered Babylon through the dry bed, kill king Baltasar and the people, destroy the city and the tower, and Darius the Mede, aged 69, takes the kingdom, Jeremias 51; and he went before Cyrus, because he was older, because he was his uncle, and because he was lord of the more powerful kingdom: for St. Jerome assigns this threefold reason.
But Daniel, taken by Darius into Media, is appointed prince over the satraps of the kingdom. And when for his wisdom he was dearer to the king than the rest, he is accused to the king through the envy of the princes, that against the royal edict he prayed to God three times a day in his chamber. Whereupon, though the king resisted greatly, he is cast into the lions’ den, and a stone being rolled up, the mouth of the den is sealed. At first dawn the king, finding Daniel preserved by God and unhurt by the lions, brings him out, and casts his accusers to the lions, who are suddenly devoured, and by the publication of a decree throughout the whole kingdom he proclaims that the God of Daniel is to be feared. Daniel chapter 6.
and teacher of Christians, there shall be 69 weeks of years, that is, 483 years; but in the seventieth week, that is, the last and final one, Christ will confirm the covenant, that is, the Evangelical law, the New Testament, and His Gospel, by many miracles: but in the midst of the same week Christ will be put to death, and the sacrifice of the old law will cease; the people that would deny Him as Christ will be cast away: the abomination of desolation will be in the temple, or will be set up (“which was spoken of,” says Christ, Matthew chapter 24, “by Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place: he that readeth, let him understand”): and the city and the temple will be destroyed and laid waste by a leader and a people to come, and their desolation will last until the end of the world.
In the year of the world 3418, before Christ 536, in the 70th year of the desolation of Jerusalem, the sabbath of the land being now completed, Darius the Mede being dead, Cyrus king of the Persians, having obtained the monarchy, in the 4th year of his monarchy at once, divinely inspired, an edict being published everywhere throughout the whole kingdom, gives the Jews leave to return to Jerusalem and Judea, their fatherland and land, and commands that a temple be built there to the God of Israel at the king’s expense, restoring to them the 5400 vessels of gold and silver of the temple, which Nabuchodonosor had taken away from Jerusalem. 2 Paralipomenon 36, In the year of the world 3428, before Christ 549, which was the third and last of the monarchy and life of Cyrus, when Daniel had afflicted himself with mourning, fasting and prayer for three weeks, he sees, on the 24th day of March, by the river Tigris a man clothed in linen, and shining: whereupon, fearing and trembling, he is strengthened by him, and taught of Michael, prince of the Synagogue, helping the Jews, and of the various wars to come between the kings of the Persians and of the Greeks, and between the kings of the South, that is Egypt, and of the North, that is Syria: likewise of Antiochus Epiphanes, and of his antitype Antichrist, who will exalt himself against the God of gods, and, the perpetual sacrifice being taken away, will persecute the Jews for three years and a half. Finally, that after great affliction the dead will rise again, some to everlasting reproach, some to life everlasting: where the learned and teachers shall shine as stars.