Antiochus IV Epiphanes sounds like a real swell guy. 😉 He was obviously wanting a One World Order and his plan was for him to be the Order. What is the difference between Antiochus and Hitler? Nothing.
At the time of this writing (April, 2019), the only difference between Antiochus and Bush and Obama is that Antiochus is dead.
Now I want to look at…
Daniel 9
Daniel’s Prayer for the People
1 In the first year of Darius the son of Ahasuerus, of the seed of the Medes, which was made king over the realm of the Chaldeans;
King of ancient Persia, whose reign lasted from 522 to 486. He seized power after killing king Gaumâta, fought a civil war , and was finally able to refound the Achaemenid empire, which had been very loosely organized until then.
Darius fought several foreign wars, which brought him to India and Thrace. When he died, the Persian empire had reached its largest extent. He was succeeded by his son Xerxes.
2 In the first year of his reign I Daniel understood by books the number of the years, whereof the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah the prophet, that he would accomplish seventy years in the desolations of Jerusalem.
3 And I set my face unto the Lord God, to seek by prayer and supplications, with fasting, and sackcloth, and ashes:
9:3-19 – Daniel’s prayer contains humility, worship, confession, and petition.
4 And I prayed unto the LORD my God, and made my confession, and said, O Lord, the great and dreadful God, keeping the covenant and mercy to them that love him, and to them that keep his commandments;
5 We have sinned, and have committed iniquity, and have done wickedly, and have rebelled, even by departing from thy precepts and from thy judgments:
6 Neither have we hearkened unto thy servants the prophets, which spake in thy name to our kings, our princes, and our fathers, and to all the people of the land.
7 O Lord, righteousness belongeth unto thee, but unto us confusion of faces, as at this day; to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and unto all Israel, that are near, and that are far off, through all the countries whither thou hast driven them, because of their trespass that they have trespassed against thee.
8 O Lord, to us belongeth confusion of face, to our kings, to our princes, and to our fathers, because we have sinned against thee.
9 To the Lord our God belong mercies and forgivenesses, though we have rebelled against him;
10 Neither have we obeyed the voice of the LORD our God, to walk in his laws, which he set before us by his servants the prophets.
11 Yea, all Israel have transgressed thy law, even by departing, that they might not obey thy voice; therefore the curse is poured upon us, and the oath that is written in the law of Moses the servant of God, because we have sinned against him.
“Curse…written in the law” – see Lev 26:33; Deut 28:63-67.
12 And he hath confirmed his words, which he spake against us, and against our judges that judged us, by bringing upon us a great evil: for under the whole heaven hath not been done as hath been done upon Jerusalem.
13 As it is written in the law of Moses, all this evil is come upon us: yet made we not our prayer before the LORD our God, that we might turn from our iniquities, and understand thy truth.
14 Therefore hath the LORD watched upon the evil, and brought it upon us: for the LORD our God is righteous in all his works which he doeth: for we obeyed not his voice.
15 And now, O Lord our God, that hast brought thy people forth out of the land of Egypt with a mighty hand, and hast gotten thee renown, as at this day; we have sinned, we have done wickedly.
16 O Lord, according to all thy righteousness, I beseech thee, let thine anger and thy fury be turned away from thy city Jerusalem, thy holy mountain: because for our sins, and for the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and thy people are become a reproach to all that are about us.
17 Now therefore, O our God, hear the prayer of thy servant, and his supplications, and cause thy face to shine upon thy sanctuary that is desolate, for the Lord’s sake.
18 O my God, incline thine ear, and hear; open thine eyes, and behold our desolations, and the city which is called by thy name: for we do not present our supplications before thee for our righteousness’s, but for thy great mercies.
19 O Lord, hear; O Lord, forgive; O Lord, hearken and do; defer not, for thine own sake, O my God: for thy city and thy people are called by thy name.
20 And whiles I was speaking, and praying, and confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel, and presenting my supplication before the LORD my God for the holy mountain of my God;
“Whiles I was speaking” – see Is 65:24.
21 Yea, whiles I was speaking in prayer, even the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision at the beginning, being caused to fly swiftly, touched me about the time of the evening oblation.
22 And he informed me, and talked with me, and said, O Daniel, I am now come forth to give thee skill and understanding.
23 At the beginning of thy supplications the commandment came forth, and I am come to shew thee; for thou art greatly beloved: therefore understand the matter, and consider the vision.
24 Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy.
“Weeks” – probably seven-year periods of time, making a total of 490 years, but the numbers may be symbolic. Of the six purposes mentioned (all to be fulfilled through the Messiah), some believe that the last three were not achieved by the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ but await His further action.
The establishment of everlasting righteousness (on earth), the complete fulfillment of vision and prophecy, and the anointing of the “most Holy” (either “most holy place” or “most holy One”).
25 Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks: the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times.
9:25-27 – the time between the decree authorizing the rebuilding of Jerusalem and the coming of Jesus (“the Anointed One”) was to be 69 (7 plus 62) “weeks,” or 483 years.
The “seven weeks” may refer to the period of the complete restoration of Jerusalem (partially narrated in Ezra and Nehemiah) and the “threescore and two weeks” to the period between that restoration and Jesus’ coming to Israel.
The final (70th) “week” is not mentioned specifically until v. 27, following the prophecy of the destruction of Jerusalem by “the people of the prince that shall come” (Titus in 70 A.D.)
The Hebrew name was Kasdim;
The 11th dynasty of the Kings of Babylon (6th century B.C.) is conventi
onally known to historians as the Chaldean Dynasty.
Their kingdom in the southern portion of Babylonia lay chiefly on the right bank of the Euphrates.
Though the name came to be commonly used to refer to the whole of Mesopotamia, Chaldea proper was the vast plain in the south formed by the deposits of the Euphrates and the Tigris, extending to about 400 miles along the course of these rivers, and about a 100 miles in average width.
Chaldea was a nation in the southern portion of Babylonia, Lower Mesopotamia, lying chiefly on the right bank of the Euphrates, but commonly used to refer to the whole of the Mesopotamian plain. The country so named is a vast plain formed by the deposits of the Euphrates and the Tigris.
In former days the vast plains of Babylon were nourished by a complicated system of canals and water-courses, which spread over the surface of the country like a network.
Therefore, while many hold that the 70th “week” was fulfilled during Christ’s earthly ministry and the years immediately following, others conclude that there is an indeterminate interval between the 69th and the 70th “week” – a period of “war” and “desolations” (v. 26; cf. also 11:31, 32, 12:11; Matt 24:9-28).]
According to this latter opinion, in the 70th “week” the little horn or beast of the last days (referred to here as the one who “for the overspreading of abominations…shall make it desolate” and who is the antitype of the Roman Titus) will establish a covenant for seven years with the Jews (the “many”) but will violate the covenant halfway through that period.
The cutting off of the Messiah (v. 26) refers to the crucifixion of Christ.
26 And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined.
27 And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.
“He shall confirm the covenant…shall cause the sacrifice…to cease” – according to some, a reference to the Messiah’s instituting the new covenant and putting a stop to the Old Testament sacrificial system.
According to others, a reference to the antichrist’s (“the [ultimate] prince that shall come,” v. 26) making a treaty with the Jews in the future and then disrupting their system of worship.
Antiochus IV Epiphanes
Antiochus IV Epiphanes ruled the Seleucid (Syrian) kingdom from 175 to 164 B.C. Epiphanes means “manifest,” and the name indicates that he claimed to be the earthly manifestation of Zeus.
Antiochus attempted to unify his empire by imposing Hellenistic culture upon all its inhabitants. This policy brought him into sharp conflict with the Jews of the region later known as Palestine.
Most Biblical scholars believe Antiochus IV to have been the “small” horn in Dan 8:9 and the “contemptible person” of Dan 11:21. His relations with the Jews are recorded in 1 and 2 Maccabees (Apocryphal books) and are prophetically depicted in Dan 8:9-12,23-25 and 11:21—34. He was infamous for establishing pagan worship in the Jerusalem temple.
In about 174 B.C. Jason, the leader of a pro-Greek faction in the Jerusalem priesthood, bribed Antiochus to install him as high priest, after which Jason set about turning Jerusalem into a Greek city.
In 171 B.C., however, another man, Menelaus, in turn bought the priesthood from Antiochus. Jason, believing that Antiochus had died, seized Jerusalem by force. But Antiochus returned in 169 and carried out a massacre of the city.
He then moved upon Egypt but was humiliated by the Roman legate C. Popilius Laenas and forced to make an undignified withdrawal to the north. Thereafter, this tyrant vigorously sought to Hellenize Jerusalem.
The founder of the Seleucid Empire, a Hellenistic state ruled by the Seleucid dynasty following the division of the empire created by Alexander the Great.
Seleucus received Babylonia and, from there, expanded his dominions to include much of Alexander’s near eastern territories.
At the height of its power, it included central Anatolia, the Levant, Mesopotamia, Kuwait, Persia, Afghanistan, Turkmenistan, and northwest parts of India.
In 167 B.C. Antiochus dispatched his tax collector Apollonius against Jerusalem with 22,000 men. They attacked on the Sabbath, killing most of the male population and enslaving the women and children. Jerusalem’s walls were demolished and a Seleucid military garrison stationed immediately south of the temple.
All Jewish rites were outlawed, resulting in the cessation of daily sacrifice. An altar to Zeus was erected over the Jewish altar of burnt offerings, and worship of Zeus was instituted in the temple. On December 25,167 B.C., a pig was sacrificed on the Zeus altar; this was the “abomination that causes desolation” in Dan 9:27,11:31 and 12:11.
Enraged, the Jews rebelled against their Greek overlords and, under Judas Maccabeus, defeated the armies that Antiochus had sent against them. After a three-year struggle Jewish forces gained major concessions from the Greeks, and the Maccabees became the de facto rulers of Judea.
Most notably, purified the temple and reinstated the daily sacrifice, an event commemorated in the feast of Hanukkah. Antiochus himself, had moved off to the east to campaign in Elam, died in Persia in 164 B.C.
…the Chaldeans.