Daniel 11:20-44 contains a review of the chief events of Antiochus’s reign.  This description closes with the prediction:  “He shall plant his palace between the Mediterranean and the glorious holy mountain; so he shall come to his end and none shall help him.”  Contemporary records indicate, however, that Antiochus died while engaged in a campaign in distant Persia and not in western Palestine as the author of Daniel anticipated.  In the other visions, after the description of Antiochus’s persecutions, the details suddenly give place to general predictions, implying that at this point the author turned from the contemplation of past and present events to that which was to him future.  The great victories of Judas and his followers that led to the restoration of the temple in 165 B.C. are nowhere mentioned.  In 11:34 is found an allusion to the Maccabean uprising:  “Now when they are falling they shall be helped with a little help; but many shall join themselves to them with false protestations.”  This movement, clearly, is not regarded by the author as significant.  The date of these visions, therefore, may be fixed with great confidence between the years 168 and 166 B.C.

IV.  Their Real Character and Aim.  In interpreting these visions it is important to note that they belong to the so-called apocalyptic type of literature.  Already Ezekiel and Zechariah had employed the complex symbolism of the apocalypse to stir the imagination and strengthen the faith of their discouraged countrymen.  The aim of the author of the closing chapters of Daniel was primarily to present a religious philosophy of history.  Through the rise and fall of nations Jehovah’s purpose was slowly but surely being realized.  They are the expression of the eternal optimism of the prophets.  They voice their deathless hope that “the best is yet to be.”  They were intended to encourage those in the midst of persecution with the assurance that God was still in his heaven, and that all would yet be right with his world.

V. The Four Heathen Kingdoms and the Kingdom of God.  In the symbolism of the prophet the four beasts of Daniel 7 represented the Chaldean, Medean, Persian, and Greek Empires.  The fourth beast with iron teeth that devoured and broke in pieces the rest was clearly the empire of Alexander, and the little horn that sprang up was the little horn which gored and mangled the helpless people of Jehovah.  Opposed to the four beasts which represented the angels, or demons, the champions of each of the great heathen kingdoms, was Israel’s patron angel Michael.  It is this angel that is apparently referred to in 7:13 as coming from heaven, and in appearance like to a son of man.  At Jehovah’s direction he was to establish a glorious, universal kingdom, the citizens of which were to be the saints, the faithful Jews who remained loyal to Jehovah during the long, cruel persecutions.  Not only those who survived but the martyrs sleeping in the dust of the earth