The revealing order of the principalities, archangels and angels, presides, through each other, over human hierarchies, in order that their elevation, conversion, communion and union with God may be in proper order. . . . 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.^[1]

The devil is also called a prince, as in the Gospel passage, Behold, the prince of this world comes, and in me he will not find anything.^[1] Likewise a good angel is called a prince, as we read in Daniel: Michael your prince. So they are saying that the hope of humankind must rest in neither wicked nor good angels but in the Lord alone. Even if we love the good angels for the devotion they bestow on us, we praise the Lord’s blessing that they manifest.

Daniel foretold two abominations, one of destruction, the other of desolation. What is the abomination of destruction other than that which Antiochus erected during his time? And what is the abomination of desolation other than that which will generally take place when the antichrist comes?

There shall be a time of trouble. For at that time there shall be great trouble, such as has not been from the foundation of the world, when some in one way, and others in another, shall be sent through every city and country to destroy the faithful; and the saints shall travel forth from the west to the east and shall be driven in persecution from the east to the south, while others shall conceal themselves in the mountains and caves. And the abomination shall war against them everywhere, and shall cut them off by sea and by land by his decree and shall endeavor by every means to destroy them out of the world.

And the sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name. For he has their names written in the book of life.^[1] He calls his own sheep by name.^[2] Because of this the apostle says, The Lord knows who are his.^[3] And he leads them out. And when he has led out his own sheep, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice.^[4]

That is, those worthy of salvation, who obeyed the preaching of Elijah, the ones whom he foreknew from the first and the very beginning. He calls the knowledge of God the book.

Nor is there any real contradiction between John’s all who are in the tombs^[1] and Daniel’s many in place of all. As an illustration of this, notice how, in one place, God said to Abraham, I have made you the father of many nations^[2] and in another, In your descendants all the nations of the earth shall be blessed.^[3]

It is the flesh that dies; the soul is immortal. So then, if the soul is immortal and the body is a corpse, those who say that there is a resurrection, but not of the flesh, deny any resurrection; because it is not that which remains standing but that which has fallen and been laid down that is to be set up, according to what was written: Does not he who falls rise again, and he who turns aside return?^[1] Since flesh was made to border on incorruption and corruption, being itself neither the one nor the other, and was overcome by corruption . . . and delivered over to death through disobedience, God did not leave it to corruption, to be triumphed over . . . but, after conquering death by the resurrection, he delivered it again to incorruption . . . For this corruptible must put on incorruption.^[2]

Many shall awake means the resurrection of their bodies, for I do not suppose that anyone would speak of souls sleeping in the dust of the earth. . . . The Lord, too, has clearly shown in the holy Gospels that there is a resurrection of the body, for they that are in the graves, he says, shall hear the voice of the Son of God. And they that have done good things shall come forth to the resurrection of life; but they that have done evil, to the resurrection of judgment.^[1] Now, no person in his right mind would ever say that it was the souls that were in the graves.

Who are the ones sleeping in the tombs of the earth but the bodies of those people who will receive their own souls back and rise from the dead? Some will rise to the resurrection of life, receiving pure, transparent and radiant bodies like the brilliance of the firmament. Others will arise to the resurrection of judgment, receiving bodies suitable to everlasting punishment.

Let those who try to apply these things to Antiochus tell us who was resurrected in his day—with some obtaining eternal life and others reaping the fruit of reproach and eternal shame. And if someone should say that the Maccabees are referred to by these words, inasmuch as they went out from the caves, he would incur rather much laughter, for the same people will have to be found to be both lovers of godliness and workers of iniquity, for the prophecy says, Many of those sleeping in the tombs of the earth will rise, some to everlasting life and others to reproach and everlasting shame. Therefore, if someone should apply these words to the Maccabees, they will say that the Maccabees themselves were both evil and good or that some of them were good and others evil. But this is impossible to find, for their whole company was godly. Moreover, eternal life does not fit them as far as the present life is concerned, since they all were killed and departed from this life. Then let us leave behind those old wives’ tales and learn about the common resurrection of the dead and the judgment that will take place after the resurrection. Some will receive eternal life, and others will be scorned and reproached forever.

To all who reason rightly, the heaviest of punishments is shame. We also have learned this in the case of the judgment, when some shall rise to everlasting life and some to everlasting shame and contempt. ^[1] APOSTATE PRIESTS PUNISHED. ISHO‘DAD OF MERV: And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, that is, many of those who lie among afflictions and are prostrated by their misfortunes, that is, the Maccabees—some to everlasting life, that is, their patience and justice will make them rejoice in the life in the two worlds, and, in addition, it will make them illustrious through a precious memory in all the centuries after those, in which they lived—and some to destruction and the opprobrium of their fellow citizens,^[1] that is, the impious and scandalous priests will be given to punishment because of their crimes, and they will leave an evil and accursed name to their fellow citizens forever. ^[2]

This sentiment set forth by Cicero . . . if the soul will be in a state of vigor without the body, it is a divine life; and if it is without perception, assuredly that is not bad, is clever . . . but false. For the sacred writings teach that the soul is not annihilated but that it is either rewarded according to its righteousness or eternally punished according to its crimes.

The dead shall rise again, and they that are in the graves shall awake. They that have kept the commandments of Christ and have departed this life in the true faith shall inherit eternal life; and they that have died in their sins and have turned aside from the right faith shall go away into eternal punishment. Do not believe that there is any true being or kingdom of evil or suppose that it is without beginning, or self-originated or born of God—forget such an absurdity! But believe rather that it is the work of us and the devil, come on us through our inattentiveness, because we were endowed with free will, and we made our choice, of deliberate purpose, whether it be good or evil.

Man [humanity], though he was not made mortal and corruptible, dies, and his soul is separated from his body, in order that his transgression might be destroyed by death, being unable to live after he was dead. Thus, with sin dead and destroyed, he can rise again in immortality and sing a hymn of praise to God who saves his children from death by means of death.

Gabriel speaks to Daniel. . . . Therefore the most holy Gabriel foretold that the saints should shine like the stars: for his sacred name did witness to them, that they might understand the truth. Nor is a resurrection only declared for the martyrs but for all people, righteous and unrighteous, godly and ungodly, that every one may receive according to his desert. For God, says the Scripture, will bring every work to judgment.^[1]

This body shall rise, but it will not abide in its present condition but as an eternal body. No longer will it, as now, need nourishment for life or stairs for its ascent, for it will become spiritual, a marvelous thing, beggaring description. Then shall the just, it is said, shine forth like the sun and the moon and like the splendor of the firmament.^[1] God, foreknowing human unbelief, has given to the smallest worms to emit from their bodies beams of light in the summer, that natural fluorescence might be a parable of what we expect. . . . He who makes the worm shine luminously will much more illumine the just person. Therefore we shall rise again, all with eternal bodies, though not all with like bodies. A just person will receive a heavenly body, to dwell worthily with the angels, whereas the sinner will receive an eternal body and so never be consumed, though it burn eternally in fire.

And the wise will shine. . . . And the Lord says in the holy Gospels, Then the righteous will shine like the sun.^[1] And from their many righteous deeds, they will shine like the stars forever and ever. The most upright above all will be compared with the brightness of the firmament and with the light of the sun itself. Those who are less than these (that is what he means by the word many) will imitate the luster of the stars, sending down this light forever. So also Paul distinguished the ranks of the godly: The glory of the sun is one kind, the glory of the moon another, and the glory of the stars yet another, for star differs from star in glory.^[2]

Porphyry argues this was written with reference to Antiochus, for after he had invaded Persia, he left his army with Lysias, who was in charge of Antioch and Phoenicia, for the purpose of warring against the Jews and destroying their city of Jerusalem. . . . Porphyry contends that the tribulation was such as had never previously occurred . . . [but after] the generals of Antiochus had been slain and Antiochus himself had died in Persia, the people of Israel experienced salvation, even all who had been written down in the book of God, that is, those who defended the law with great bravery. Contrasted with them were those who proved to be transgressors of the law and sided with the party of Antiochus.

Then it was, he asserts, that these guardians of the law, who had been, as it were, slumbering in the dust of the earth and were cumbered with a load of afflictions and even hidden away in the tombs of wretchedness, rose up once more from the dust of the earth to a victory unhoped for, and lifted up their heads, rising up to everlasting life, even as the transgressors rose up to everlasting disgrace. But those masters and teachers who possessed a knowledge of the law shall shine like the heaven, and those who have exhorted the more backward peoples to observe the rites of God shall blaze forth after the fashion of the stars for all eternity. He also adduces the historical account concerning the Maccabees, in which it is said that many Jews under the leadership of Mattathias and Judas Maccabeus fled to the desert and hid in caves and holes in the rocks and came forth again after the victory.^[1]

In accordance with the merits of each, some shall rise up to eternal life and others to eternal shame. But the teachers shall resemble the very heavens, and those who have instructed others shall be compared with the brightness of the stars. For it is not enough to know wisdom unless one also instructs others; and the tongue of instruction that remains silent and edifies no one else can receive no reward for labor accomplished.

Is he not good, who exalted the earth to heaven, so that, just as the bright companies of stars reflect his glory in the sky, as in a mirror, so the choirs of apostles, martyrs and priests, shining like glorious stars, might give light throughout the world.

Quick, flee from sin, think at once of death, for it is written, The prudent person treats sin harshly, and the face of ascetics will shine like the sun. INSTRUCTIONS 1.32.

The person who loves God shall arrive at such excellence as even to see God, and hear his word and from the hearing of his discourse be glorified to such an extent that others cannot behold the glory of his countenance.

Death . . . is entered on for a time and then . . . is put aside. He has shown, too, that the course of the life that is to be after death will be better than that which before death is passed in pain and sorrow. For the life after death is compared with the stars, while our life here is condemned to misery.

And Jeremiah also says, In the last days they shall understand these things.^[1] For every prophecy, before its fulfillment, appears to people to be full of enigmas and ambiguities. But when the time has arrived and the prediction has come to pass, the prophecies have a clear and certain meaning.

He who had revealed manifold truth to Daniel now signifies that the things he has said are matters of secrecy, and he orders him to roll up the scroll containing his words and set a seal on the book, with the result that many shall read it and inquire as to its fulfillment in history, differing in their opinions because of its great obscurity. . . .

Also in the Revelation of John, there is a book seen that is sealed with seven seals inside and outside. And when no one proves able to break its seals, John says, I wept terribly; and a voice came to me, saying, ‘Weep not: behold the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has prevailed to open the book and break its seals.’^[1] But that book can be opened by one who has learned the mysteries of Scripture and understands its hidden truths and its words that seem dark because of the greatness of the secrets they contain. He it is who can interpret the parables and transmute the letter that kills into the spirit that gives life.

He says, Add to the book the seals of obscurity, and do not make matters clear to all until knowledge is increased and the whole earth is filled with the knowledge of the Lord, like deep water covering the seas, in accordance with the prophecy. The grace of the divine Spirit along with the appearance of our Savior has removed the seals and has made clear to believers what had been unclear. ^[1] PERSUADING THE WEAK. ISHO‘DAD OF MERV: He orders him to seal the book, that is, with the seal of obscurity, and to avoid revealing it to anybody, so that its memory may not be lost and the nations may not be overwhelmed with fear and renounce to ascend to the promised land; and, at the same time, in order that the weak ones of the people, by learning about the affliction that will befall them, may not be held back from going up from Babylon to Jerusalem. Many will look for^[1] God, and the knowledge will increase^[2] and will abound all over the world. ^[3]

The same knowledge from which Scripture itself was originally composed is always increased and never ceases to be multiplied. . . . Moses ac-quired more knowledge than the patriarchs. . . . Likewise the Lord himself declares the apostles to have known greater things than the prophets. . . . Many prophets . . . desired to see the things you see and did not see them. . . .^[1] But he also promises them still greater grace of knowledge after his resurrection and ascension.

Daniel saw two angels standing on either side on the bank of the river of Babylon. Although it is mentioned here without specifying its name, I suppose that in line with the preceding vision it would be the Tigris River, which is called Eddeqel in Hebrew. Yet Daniel does not address his question to those who were standing on either bank but rather to the one whom he had seen at the beginning, who was clothed in vesture of linen or byssus, which is called baddim in Hebrew.

And this same angel was standing on the waters of the river of Babylon, treading on them with his feet. From this fact we understand that the former pair of angels whom he saw standing on the bank and did not question or deem worthy of interrogation were the angels of the Greeks and Persians. But this first angel was the gracious one who had presented Daniel’s prayers before God during the twenty-one days while the angel of the Persians was opposing him. And Daniel was asking him about these wonders spoken of in the present vision, as to the time when they should be accomplished.

That is, when that angel, who talked to me, left, and appeared to have entered the riverbed, to look for a place to ford. Suddenly two others appeared, standing on the opposite banks. Therefore the angel, while he proceeded in the riverbed and trod the stream in safety, played the role of he who knows the depth of the mysteries of God. So the one standing on this bank of the stream and the one on the other represent the symbol of the faculty to ask questions omitted by the prophet, which has been granted to them both. For this reason, as if they had received the faculty to do so, they question the other angel.

And who is the one standing above the water other than this very one, concerning whom these very prophets had proclaimed long ago, who at the end of time was about to be attested to by the Father at the Jordan river and to be shown boldly to the people by John, who wore the band of a scribe around his loins and the linen and was clad in an intricate long robe? The two men saw him and asked him because all rule and authority was given to him. Hence they asked from him more precisely when he would bring the world to judgment and when the things he had spoken would be fulfilled. But he wished to persuade these men in every manner and lifted up his right hand and his left hand to heaven and swore by the living One forever. Who swore, and by whom did he swear? The Son swore by the Father, when he said that the Father lives forever. Most surely, they will know all these things when the scattering will be accomplished in a time, times and half a time.

Here we learn accurately that the one speaking at the time was not the Lord. For as the holy apostle says, Since the Lord could not swear by anything greater than himself, he swore by himself, saying, ‘as I live, says the Lord.’^[1] And blessed Moses shows him to say, I will lift my hand to heaven, and I will swear by my right hand and say, ‘As I live forever.’^[2] The man in our text is one of those subjected and well disposed to the Lord.

When the scattering of the holy people. . . . The scattering of the sanctified people will prevail for three and a half years, and all these things will be accomplished. Then they will know the holy One. He alludes here to the great Elijah; around the end of the antichrist’s reign, great Elijah will appear and proclaim the second coming of our Savior.

The word times may seem an indefinite plural in our language [Latin], but the Greek texts (and, so I am told, the Hebrew texts as well) show that times is written in the dual number and so means two times.

Porphyry interprets a time and times and half a time to mean three and a half years; and we for our part do not deny that this accords with the idiom of sacred Scripture.

The last of all persecutions, the antichrist’s, is to go on for three and a half years. . . . Now the question, quite reasonably, presents itself: Should these three and a half years, brief as they are, be included in the thousand years of the devil’s binding and the saints’ reign with Christ, or are they outside the thousand and superadded to them? . . . We conclude that the reign of Christ with his saints will be longer than the devil’s bonds and imprisonment, for, even when he is released, they will continue to reign with their King, the Son of God, for these three and a half years.

The prophet wished to comprehend what he had seen, or rather, what he had heard, and he desired to understand the reality of the things to come. For he had heard of the various wars of kings, and of battles between them and a detailed narrative of events; but he had not heard the names of the individual persons involved. And if the prophet himself heard and did not understand, what will be the case with those people who presumptuously expound a book that has been sealed, and sealed until the time of the end, a book that is shrouded with many obscurities? But he comments that when the end comes, the ungodly will lack comprehension, whereas those who are learned in the teaching of God will be able to understand. For wisdom will not enter the perverted soul.^[1]

Not in vain have I said these rather obscure matters and put obscurity on these words as if they were seals, for divine matters must not be imparted to all indiscriminately, but the wise will understand it through the knowledge imparted to them from above. Those who pass their life in folly and impiety will not be able to understand any of the things contained here. And whenever the matters come to pass, then they will clearly learn the prophecies concerning these things. The workers of iniquity will be separated from the just, for fire will test all things.

The words are sealed up until those who are intelligent understand and those who are white are made white.^[1] [The Gnostic Marcosians] boast that they themselves are the ones who are white and quite intelligent.

And who are they who are chosen but those who believe the word of truth, so as to be made white thereby, and to cast off the filth of sin and put on the heavenly, pure and glorious Holy Spirit, in order that, when the Bridegroom comes, they may go in immediately with him?

Next, in predicting the length of time these evils would last, Daniel’s angel said, From the time of the changing of the continuity. The daily sacrifice was called the continuity, for what is continuous is frequent and unceasing. And among the Jews it was customary to offer sacrifice to God in the evening and about dawn each day; this is why they called that daily sacrifice a continuity. But when Antiochus came, he completely did away with this practice.

Daniel said there were 2,300 days from the time that the abomination of Nero stood in the holy city, till its destruction. . . . [This] makes six years and four months, during the half of which Nero held sway, and it was half a week; and for a half, Vespasian with Otho, Galba and Vitellius reigned. . . . After the 1,335 days . . . war ceased.

Daniel speaks, therefore, of two abominations: the one of destruction, which Antiochus set up in its appointed time and that bears a relation to that of desolation, and the other universal, when antichrist shall come. For, as Daniel says, he too shall be set up for the destruction of many.

He calls the antichrist the abomination of desolation. He calls the order of the church’s worship, which would be disrupted and made to cease by the madness and raving of the antichrist.

He signifies the times of Antiochus, when the impious king will take away the regular burnt offering, and will set up the abomination that desolates and will try to overturn the people of God and to corrupt his religion. Therefore 1,290 days will fill that entire space of time, when the Jews are afflicted by the harshest calamities, and the temple is violated and inside the secret recesses blasphemous and impious people dare raise an altar to their gods.

Porphyry asserts that these 1,290 days were fulfilled in the desolation of the temple in the time of Antiochus, and yet both Josephus and the book of Maccabees, as we have said before, record that it lasted for only three years. From this circumstance it is apparent that the three and a half years are spoken of in connection with the time of the antichrist, for he is going to persecute the saints for three and a half years, or 1,290 days, and then he shall meet his fall on the famous, holy mountain. And so from the time of the removal of the endelekhismos, which we have translated as continual sacrifice, namely, the time when the antichrist shall obtain possession of the world and forbid the worship of God, unto the day of his death, the three and a half years, or 1,290 days, shall be fulfilled.

Blessed is he that waits. . . . That is why we are to go into hiding and take to flight. For quite likely we shall not have gone over the cities of Israel till the Son of man comes.^[1] Who are the blessed that bear witness devoutly for Christ? I tell you that those who are martyrs at that time take precedence over all other martyrs. For . . . the martyrs under antichrist do battle with Satan in his own person. . . . [The antichrist will] show illusory signs and wonders. . . . May it not enter into anyone’s heart to ask, What did Christ do greater than this? For what power enables this man to do such deeds? Unless God willed it, he would not have allowed it.

He suggests and indicates that when this person sustains a divine blow, the great Elijah will continue preaching the remaining forty-five days when the Lord will appear, borne on the clouds of heaven, and will crown those who kept inviolate their treasure acquired by patience. Also the Lord says this in the holy Gospels: Whoever endures to the end will be saved.^[1]

He means that one is blessed who waits for 45 days beyond the predetermined number, for it is within that period that our Lord and Savior is to come in his glory. But the reason for the 45 days of inaction after the slaying of the antichrist is a matter that rests in the knowledge of God; unless, of course, we say that the rule of the saints is delayed in order that their patience may be tested. Porphyry explains this passage in the following way: that the 45 days beyond the 1,290 signify the interval of victory over the generals of Antiochus or the period when Judas Maccabeus fought with bravery and cleansed the temple and broke the idol to pieces, offering blood sacrifices in the temple of God. He might have been correct in this statement if the book of Maccabees had recorded that the temple was polluted over a period of three and a half years instead of just three years.^[1]

The conflict lasted a month and a half, and in that time the victory became complete, as did also the deliverance of the Jews from the evils that weighed heavy on them. And when he said, Blessed is the one who stands firm 1,335 days, he revealed their deliverance. He did not simply say, the one who attains, but the one who stands firm and attains. The reason for this is that many of the unholy ones saw the change, but he does not call them happy; he calls blessed only those who gave witness during the time of troubles, who did not desert their religion and who then found abatement of their ills. ^[1] WHEN JESUS WILL APPEAR. ISHO‘DAD OF MERV: Blessed are those who will go through the days mentioned before^[1] and will exceed them by 45 days; that is, When the evils are completed, there will be rest for the people and the end of their afflictions. According to others: 1,335 days, that is, Jesus Christ, Great Savior—if you count the letters of these four words, they give the name cited above; that is, [Daniel] has received the revelation that he will encounter and see Jesus, etc. Severus^[2] says, Happy are those who persevere in order to see the days in which his economy is fulfilled, after his baptism to his ascension, and in which he has been pleased with his aspect and miracles, [days] that will make 1,335. Theodoret^[3] asserts that these three years and a half constitute the time when the antichrist will reign at the end, and the 45 days the time beginning from the moment in which the son of perdition^[4] will be condemned, and Elijah will triumph and will drive all people away from the [antichrist], will admonish the Jews and will pray our Lord until he appears from heaven. ^[5]

All dominions shall serve him.^[1] Lest this promise should be understood as referring to this time, the prophet declared, Stand in your place at the consummation of days.

And as for you, rest and rise at your time—a more correct reading would be for your inheritance, as will become clear from the things that follow—at the end of the days. He says in effect, Now you must receive the end of your days; but you will rise—and not merely rise but rise for your inheritance, that is, with the company of like-minded people. And once he has shown this, he adds, at the end of the days. So the divine archangel clearly taught the resurrection through the blessed, no, thrice-blessed Daniel.

We have learned these things from the divine oracle of Daniel. The Jews mourned him as a righteous man, although they dare to place this divine prophet outside of the list of prophetic books. And yet from experience they have learned the truthfulness of this prophecy. . . . The Hebrew Josephus is a noteworthy witness that Jews of previous generations called blessed Daniel the greatest prophet. Josephus, to be sure, does not accept Christian teaching, but he cannot allow the truth to be hidden. In the tenth book of his Jewish Antiquities, Josephus said many other things about blessed Daniel but then adds the following: Everything was freely given to him unexpectedly, as to one of the greatest prophets. During his lifetime he enjoyed honor and glory, both with kings and the common people. Although he died, his immortal memory lives on. The books that he composed and left behind are still read among us even now, and we have come to believe from them that Daniel consorted with God. Not only did he spend his time foretelling future events, as did the other prophets, but also he marked off the time when these things would take place. ^[1] THE GENERAL RESURRECTION. ISHO‘DAD OF MERV: The words, You shall rise at the end of the days, through the previous sentence shows him that he will not be forever tested by the afflictions of the people. Through this sentence he says to him that, at the fixed and appointed time, at the end of the world, he will receive the expected resurrection, which Christ will perform at his second coming. ^[1]