To some it seems that Daniel is mistaken about the time and the one writing the book from the beginning puts in the third year instead of in the first year. And the proof of this is that the blessed Daniel says right after the beginning of the prophecy, And Daniel continued until year one of King Cyrus.^[1] For if the prophet had lived only up until the first year of Cyrus’ reign, the critic says, how could he have seen the revelation in the third year? Now I think that the former does not indicate the stated time nor does the first year of Cyrus’ reign mark the end of blessed Daniel’s life. For he does not say until the first year of Cyrus the king but for year one. As it appears to me, he intends to instruct those encountering the prophetic book that he survived until Cyrus, king of the Persians, who set free those Jewish captives.

And how is it that we read at the end of the first vision, And Daniel lived until the first year of Cyrus the king?^[1] Well then, we understand that he enjoyed his former high position among the Chaldeans and was clothed in purple and fine linen right up until the first year of King Cyrus, when Cyrus overthrew the Chaldeans, and afterwards Daniel commenced service under Darius, the son of Ahasuerus of the Median line, who reigned over the kingdom of the Chaldeans. Or else, indeed, that Darius had already died in whose first year Daniel had learned of the mystery of the seventy weeks, and he is now relating that he beheld these things in the third year of King Cyrus.

Quite suitably he calls it a word and a vision. He saw holy angels; he also heard them conversing and from them learned accurately the things that would happen. And he says that the word was true so that all might receive the things about to be spoken without any doubts.

And it was a true word and great strength refers either to the strength of the God who was going to perform these things or to the strength of the prophet who would comprehend them.

We must seek the source of his grief. . . . Although the king permitted all who wanted their freedom and permission to return [to their homeland and rebuild the temple], most had built homes in Babylon and were held back by their bond to these houses and, thinking lightly of the chance to return, preferred a foreign land to their own. Only the lovers of godliness and guardians of the ancestral laws despised their possessions in Babylon and preferred their desolate homeland and its kingdom. Then the following fact also wrought a great pain for blessed Daniel: when he saw the trustworthiness of the divine promise and the kindness and benevolence of the king—and the stubborn and ungovernable nature of the people—he was very despondent in his soul, and he spent his time grieving. . . . He spent three weeks fasting.

He says that the mourning had been protracted for three weeks, because he had fasted for all that space of time. He calls fasting mourning in the same sense used by our Lord, when he defended himself and his disciples from the de-tractions of the Pharisees. When the disciples were reproached by the Pharisees because they were not fasting, the Lord answered, The wedding guests cannot mourn, that is, fast, as long as the bridegroom is with them, can they?^[1]

This abstinence Daniel used in order to please God by humiliation, and not for the purpose of producing a sensibility and wisdom for his soul previous to receiving communication by dreams and visions, as if it were not rather to effect such action in an ecstatic state. This sobriety . . . will have nothing to do with exciting ecstasy but will rather serve to recommend its being wrought by God.

The prophet teaches us that fasting is a great virtue and so too is affliction with prayer. Through these things sometimes a person is deemed worthy even of visions.

Daniel paid no attention to his body in these days either by anointing the outside or [by taking] food within. Quite well and usefully he has added the descriptor desirable not to meat but to bread. For bread is the most necessary food of all; the wealthy enjoy meat, but the poor as well as the rich enjoy bread. Therefore, he called it the desirable bread, on the grounds that is a most common food and most desired of all food.

By this example we are taught to abstain from the pleasanter types of food (I think that the term desirable bread is that inclusive) during a period of fasting, and that we neither eat flesh nor drink wine and specially that we desire no anointing with ointments. This custom is maintained among those in Persia and India even to this day, that they use ointment as a substitute for baths. Also, Daniel afflicted his soul for three consecutive weeks so that his intercession might not appear cursory or casual.

On the fourteenth day of the first month at evening the divine law commanded them to celebrate the Passover, but blessed Daniel maintained his fast until the twenty-fourth day. . . . Daniel did not celebrate the Passover in obedience to the law, which expressly commands Israel to celebrate the three feast days in the place which the Lord God chose. Those Jews who dared to celebrate these festivals in a foreign land would have been transgressing this command.

We must lift up our eyes if we are to be able to discern a mystical vision.

In the first vision he says, Behold, the angel Gabriel [was] sent.^[1] Here, however, it is not so; he sees the Lord, not yet indeed as perfect man but with the appearance and form of man, as he says: And, behold, a man clothed in linen. For in being clothed in a various-colored coat, he indicated mystically^[2] the variety of the graces of our calling. For the priestly coat was made up of different colors, as various nations waited for Christ’s coming, in order that we might be made up (as one body) of many colors.

Instead of linen, as Aquila rendered it, Theodotion simply puts baddim [a transcription of the Hebrew word], whereas the Septuagint renders it as byssus [fine linen] and Symmachus as exaireta [choice vestments], that is, distinguished clothing (praecipua). And instead of what we have rendered as, Behold, a man, on the basis of the Hebrew text, Symmachus puts, One like to a man, for he was not actually a man but only had the appearance of one.

Now the word Uphaz, which is a word transferred from Hebrew to Greek, denotes pure gold.

[The Hebrew word] baddim means an intricately woven cloak, just as believers, whom Christ wears as a robe, are eminent in the weave of virtues. God puts on the faithful and girds them with the precious and pure gospel so that they might believe in the resurrection. For Orphaz means pure.

He says, And his body was like Tharseis instead of it resembled purified gold brought from Tharseis, for refined gold was brought to Solomon from there. And his face was like the appearance of lightning. He says that a radiance resembling light shone from his face. And his eyes were like lamps of fire and his arms and legs like the sight of burnished bronze and the sound of his words like the sound of a crowd. He says that he has eyes emitting fire and arms resembling the finest bronze. You would think that he had heard a multitude speaking.

For chrysolite, one of the twelve gems inserted in the oracular breastplate of the high priest, the Hebrew has tarshish, a word that Theodotion and Symmachus simply left unchanged in transcription. But the Septuagint called it the sea, according to the usage in the Psalms: With a violent gale you dash the ships of Tharsis in pieces, that is, the ships of the sea.^[1] Jonah, also, was desirous of fleeing not to Tarsus, the Cilician city (as most people suppose), substituting one letter for another, not to some region in India (as Josephus imagines), but simply out to the high seas in general.^[2]

What would you do then? That he who came for our salvation should become a minister of destruction because people could not bear him? Or that he should suit his grace to our measure? Daniel could not bear the vision of an angel, and were you capable of the sight of the Lord of angels? Gabriel appeared, and Daniel fell down; and of what nature or in what guise was he that appeared? His countenance was like lightning, not like the sun, and his eyes as lamps of fire, not as a furnace of fire. And the voice of his words [was] as the voice of a multitude, not as the voice of twelve legions of angels; nevertheless the prophet fell down. . . . If an angel appearing took away the prophet’s strength, would the appearance of God have allowed him to breathe? . . . So then after trial had shown our weakness, the Lord assumed that which people required: for since people required to hear from one of like countenance, the Savior took on him the nature of like affections, that people might be the more easily instructed.

Also at that time there were many who stood alongside Daniel, but they did not see the vision, for they were not worthy.

But perhaps someone would say, Why then did they flee, if they did not see the vision? Most likely this fact is what filled them all the more with dread, for since they saw no one and yet heard a great voice, they likely all ran away in fright. Then he calls their astonishment not only cowardice but also the inability to see. These events resemble the things that happened to Paul on the road near Damascus. There he too saw a light that flashed around him. His companions saw nothing but only heard a voice.^[1] And then his companions likewise fled from the divine prophet when they heard only the voice, while he remained there alone.

I was left alone. The unbelievers do not know Christ and flee, while the faithful will see him, since they are illuminated by him, even as faithful Daniel was.

The hand indicates partial knowledge of the truth of the gospel. For Christ is the one who will raise the whole human race.

The angel appeared in the form of a man and laid his hand on the human prophet as he lay upon the ground, in order that he might not be terrified, beholding a form similar to his own.

Daniel was called by the angel a man of desires. What were those desires of his, but ardent longings for the beauty of wisdom? Because in his youth he had trampled on lust, as a prisoner he had crushed the pride of kings, when shut in close he had shut the mouths of lions.

It was fitting that [Daniel] was addressed as a man of desires, for by dint of urgent prayer and affliction of body and the discipline of severe fasting he desired to learn of the future and to be informed of the secret counsels of God. Instead of man of desires, Symmachus rendered it as desirable man. The term is apt, for every saint possesses a beauty of soul and is beloved by God.

I indeed maintain that even Gabriel^[1] in no other way foretells events to come than by the foreknowledge of the Spirit, by reason of the fact that one of the boons distributed by the Spirit is prophecy. And whence did he who was ordained to announce the mysteries of the vision to the man of desires^[2] derive the wisdom whereby he was enabled to teach hidden things, if not from the Holy Spirit? The revelation of mysteries is indeed the peculiar function of the Spirit, as it is written, God has revealed them to us by his Spirit.^[3]

Daniel, pay attention, . . . that is, learn and weigh carefully the mysteries of those things whose results you asked with constant prayer and with three weeks of mourning and fast.

From the first day, that is, from that day when you began to fast, being inflamed by the desire to learn those things that you asked, so that you persevered in praying and supplicating before your God. Your words have been heard, and I have come because of your words: your prayers led me, as well, to prepare a plan for the salvation of your people according to your vows.

On the twenty-fourth day of the first month, that is, of Nisan, after three weeks or twenty-one days had elapsed, he beheld this vision. And he heard from the angel that on the very first day he had begun to pray and to afflict himself before God; his words had been heard and granted. The question arises, why, if he had been heard, was the angel not sent to him right away? Well, by reason of the delay an opportunity was afforded him of praying to the Lord at greater length, so that in proportion as his earnest desire was intensified, he might deserve to hear more than he would otherwise. And as for the angel’s statement, And I have come in response to your words, his meaning is this: After you began to invoke God’s mercy by good works and tearful supplication and fasting, then I for my part embraced the opportunity of entering in before God and praying for you.

He does not simply say prince of the Persians but prince of the kingdom of the Persians. He means to say the one entrusted to rule over the very king of the Persians.

Accordingly we find in the holy Scriptures that there are rulers over individual nations, as for instance, we read in Daniel of a certain prince of the kingdom of the Persians and another prince of the kingdom of the Greeks, who, as is clearly shown by the sense of the passage itself, are not humans but powers.^[1]

Moses teaches us these things more distinctly: For when the Most High allotted the nations, as he scattered the sons of Adam, he appointed the boundaries of the nations according to the numbers of the angels.^[1] And in the holy Gospels our Lord says to the apostles, See that you do not despise one of these little ones, because their angels daily see the face of my Father in heaven.^[2]

. . . We learn then from these passages that each of the angels is entrusted with our care, to guard and protect us and to ward off the wicked demon’s plots, but the archangels are entrusted with authority over the nations. . . . And blessed Daniel agrees with them, for he also speaks of the prince of the kingdom of the Persians [and] . . . the prince of the Greeks, and [he] calls the prince of Israel Michael.

Why then [does] the prince of the Persian kingdom seem to oppose the advocate of God’s people? After all, it is clear to everyone that the nature of the angels is better than the passions by which we are gripped, and their nature is full of holiness. The fact that they unquestionably obey the wishes of God can be learned throughout Scripture. How then does the prince of the kingdom of the Persians seem to oppose the care of the Israelites? . . . For the prince of the Persians and the prince of Greeks, that is, those who have been entrusted with the protection and care of these nations, inasmuch as they are fondly disposed toward those in their care and see the transgression of Israel, were displeased to see the Israelites enjoying more consideration.^[3] They did not know the mystery that had been hidden in God, who made all things. After the incarnation of our Savior, as Paul says, The manifold wisdom of God was made known to the rulers and authorities through the church.^[4] Therefore, since they did not know this mystery and they saw God’s great providence for Israel, those who had been entrusted with the care for the other nations were displeased to see that after the law, the prophets and such teaching and care, the Israelites behaved worse and were inflamed by more evil than the nations who were shepherded by them.

Michael is called ruler of the Jewish people and other angels rulers over other nations. For the Most High established borders of nations according to number of his angels. . . . Michael became leader of the Jewish people, demonstrating distinctly that there is one Providence over the whole, one Being established above all the powers unseen and seen, and that all the angels who preside over each nation, elevate, as far as possible, those who follow them with a willing mind, to that Providence as their proper head.

This means I spent all these days persuading him how the Israelites were justifiably worthy of this attention. And Michael, one of the chief princes, joined in advocating with me.

In my opinion this was the angel to whose charge Persia was committed, in accordance with what we read in Deuteronomy.^[1] These are the princes of whom Paul also says, We speak forth among the perfect a wisdom that none of the princes of this world knew. For if they had known it, they would have never have crucified the Lord of glory.^[2] And so the prince of the Persians offered resistance, acting on behalf of the province entrusted to him, in order that the entire captive nation might not be released. And it may well be that although the prophet was graciously heard by God from the day when he set his heart to understand, the angel was nevertheless not sent to proclaim to him God’s gracious decision, for the reason that the prince of Persia opposed him for twenty-one days, enumerating the sins of the Jewish people as a ground for their justly being kept in captivity and as proof that they ought not to be released.

We cannot possibly doubt that this prince of the kingdom of the Persians was a hostile power that befriended the nation of the Persians as an enemy of God’s people. For in order to hinder the good which he saw would result from the archangel’s solution to the question for which the prophet prayed to the Lord, in his jealousy he strove to prevent the saving comfort of the angel from reaching Daniel too speedily and strengthening the people of God, over which the archangel Gabriel was set.

The Greek version has a more concise expression for give me understanding, sunetison me, expressing give understanding by the single word sunetison, which the Latin cannot do; as if one could not say, Heal me, and it were necessary to say, Give me health, as it is here said, Give me understanding; or Make me whole, as here it may be said, Make me intelligent. This indeed an angel could do, for he said to Daniel, I come to give you understanding; and this word is in the Greek, as it is here also, sunetisai se; as if the Latin translator were to render therapeusai se by sanitatem dare tibi. For the Latin interpreter would not make a circumlocution by saying, to give you understanding, if, as we say from health, to heal you, so one could say from intellect, to intellectuate you. But if an angel could do this, what reason is there that this man should pray that this be done for him by God? Is it because God had commanded the angel to do it? Just so: for Christ is understood to have given this command to the angel.^[1]

The very petition that Daniel had requested is the thing that he deserves to hear from God, namely, what is going to happen to the people of Israel, not in the near future but in the last days, that is, at the end of the world.

While I was in this position, he continues, I was strengthened beyond my hope. For one unseen touched me, and immediately my weakness was removed, and I was restored to my former strength. For whenever all the strength of our life and its glory pass from us, then are we strengthened by Christ, who stretches forth his hand and raises the living from among the dead, and as it were from Hades itself, to the resurrection of life.

Like the Son of man. He foresees the incarnation of the Only Begotten and calls him the Son of man, the one who was to be born of holy Mary and made human. And my insides churned. Since life is compared with a wheel, the one who lives among the saints, that is, the soul being directed in this life, ought to leave behind the evils here below and ought to bring up good things, that is, good deeds, from the earthly realm to the sublime and heavenly.

Let those Anomoeans^[1] listen who, out of curiosity, are investigating into the essence of the Lord of angels. Daniel, to whom the eyes of the lions showed reverence,^[2] Daniel, who had a more than human power in his human body, could not endure the presence of his fellow servant but lay on the ground before the angel^[3] and could not breathe. For he said, My bowels were turned within me at what I saw, and no breath was left in me. But these Anomoeans, who are so far removed from the virtue of that just man, profess to know with all exactness the highest and first of essences, the very essence of God, who has created myriads of these angels. And yet Daniel did not have the strength to look on a single one of them.

Theodotion interprets it this way, in accordance with what we read in Psalm 102 [Vulgate]: Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name.^[1] For our inward nature must direct its gaze without, before we deserve to behold a vision of God; and when we actually have beheld a vision of God, then our inward nature is converted within us and we become wholly of the number of those concerning whom it is written in another psalm: All the glory of the daughter of kings is within, in golden borders.

Let no one think that the one who appeared to Daniel was the Lord because Daniel addressed him as lord. For Daniel at the end of the vision said, He stretched out his hand to the heaven and swore by the living God,^[1] confessing candidly thereby his servitude to the Lord. Daniel called him lord not as if he were God, but rather paying him the customary honor. For when we too converse with humans of more honorable rank, we typically use this salutation, just as also blessed Abraham did when he saw the angels appearing as men and conversed with them as with men: I ask you, my lord, if I have found favor in your sight, do not pass by your servant. And blessed Rebecca spoke to the servant of blessed Abraham, Drink, my lord, and I will give water to your camels.^[2] Accordingly, also this word lord does not altogether indicate God. And we will learn this more clearly from the end, as long as we hold to this train of argument.

When the strength of our life fails and we leave behind all earthly glory, so that we are no longer strong in it, then we receive the power from God, as Christ stretches out his hand upon us and says, Be bold and strong.

For unless the angel had reassured him by touching him like a son of man, so that his heart was freed of terror, he would not have been able to hearken to God’s secrets.

He meant, Do not be in distress at all; for I did not come to harm you but to make known to you what you desired to know. Cast off your fear, be brave, and be strong. And the deed followed word.

Each nation has a guardian angel over them, so that they may not be harmed by the demons. . . . Therefore, the prince of the Greeks was also in the presence of God so that he himself heard the prophecies that were spoken concerning Alexander and those after him who would rule the world.

For as I was coming away, the prince of the Greeks appeared and entered.^[1] He means, I myself was departing from God’s presence in order to announce to you the events that are to befall your people in the last days; and yet I am still not secure, since the prince of the Persians stands to plead against the granting of your petitions and the acceptance of my advocacy on your behalf. And behold, the prince of the Greeks, or Macedonians, had just come, and he entered in before God’s presence to lodge accusation against the prince of the Medes and Persians, in order that the kingdom of the Macedonians might succeed in their place. Truly marvelous are the secret counsels of God, for it indeed came to pass that after the Jewish people had been freed from captivity, Alexander, king of the Macedonians, slew Darius and overthrew the kingdom of the Persians and Medes, so that the prince of the Greeks did overcome the prince of the Persians.

Nevertheless I will relate to you what has been set down in the Scripture of truth. That is the order that the words follow: The fulfillment is still in doubt. For even though you do beseech the Lord and I present your prayers to him, yet the prince of the Persians takes his stand on the opposite side and is unwilling that your people be freed from captivity. But because the prince of the Greeks has come and in the meanwhile is contending against the prince of the Persians, and also because I have Michael there as my assistant, I shall, during their mutual conflict, report to you the coming events that God has foretold to me and has asked me to relate to you.

The angel reported these events, so that Daniel might know that there were not many among the Jews who asked God for their return, nor did the angels approve Daniel’s vow, nor was everything you requested, Daniel, accepted by the angels, in order that the freedom of human will not be restricted.

He implies, I am that angel who presents your prayers to God, and I have no other helper in petitioning God on your behalf except the archangel Michael, to whose charge the Jewish nation has been entrusted.

He says in effect, Why then do I speak of one or two, the prince of the Persians or that of the Greeks? For none of the heavenly powers wishes your people to obtain anything good, manifestly because of their great lawlessness. Only Michael so desires, who was entrusted with the care of your people. He used the expression to wage war instead of to argue and persuade, since he wished to show the just irritation of his opponent at the people and his own good will on their behalf. It is likely that the angel who is doing the debating is the holy Gabriel, for this angel had already interpreted the other dreams for him.