Daniel 11

Wesley: a raiser of taxes—Seleucus Philopator, who peeled his subjects, and spared not to rob the temple. Within few days—he lived not out the third part of his father’s reign. Not in battle—not by open force, but by poison. The glory of the kingdom is used to squeeze the people; the taxer does not last.

The exactor is a successor with a will to peel. Tribute for glory is creaturely greed, not a cipher for later fiscal systems. The church under the taxer is not to hunt a modern name for this verse. Wesley keeps Seleucus on a short, poisoned throne. Faith learns that a king can be broken without a battle, and that the Lord’s people are still the point of the vision.

Calvin: Seleucus succeeds by hereditary right to the office of Antiochus the Great and causes the exactor to pass through—he laid new and fresh taxes on all his subjects. Luxury and prodigality always draw with them cruelty in the exaction of tribute. He shall be destroyed in a few days, not in anger, and not in battle, but by the hands of his domestics.

The taxer is named because God had already counted this brief reign. “Not in anger, and not in battle” is the angel’s verdict, not chance palace intrigue. The church’s consolation is not that tribute is light, but that even a peeler of the temple is mortal under the word. Antiochus Epiphanes next stands in his place (v. 21); the covenant still stands.

Wesley: a vile person—Antiochus, called Epiphanes by his flatterers, but the people of God accounted him infamous, base, and treacherous. They—neither peers nor people, nor was he the heir, but his nephew; but he crept in by flatteries. Royal majesty is not given; it is taken by a will that fawns.

Wesley’s heirs hear a responsible usurper. Flatteries are speech that persuades. God is not the author of the lie; He is the One who told His people the contemptible person would come. Wesley keeps Epiphanes. Faith watches a throne seized without honor, and does not call the seizure holy because it was foretold.

Calvin: the angel speaks of him rather as a robber than as a king, because he seized upon the kingdom and was not elected by the popular choice. The son of Seleucus ought to have reigned; the very person who should have been his nephew’s guardian wickedly deprived his ward. He shall come peacefully and seize the kingdom by flatteries—deceitfully acting as guardian until he had the power of ruining his ward.

Although Daniel did not see all these things, the pious tasted enough to banish anxiety. God wished to support them even to the advent of Christ and retain them in tranquillity amidst the greatest disturbances. The contemptible person is God’s scourge, already on the page so the church will not think the robbery random.

Wesley: overflown—the Egyptian force near Pelusium, where they fell by the power of Antiochus, with a great slaughter, near the river Nile. The prince—the high-priest with his place and honour, for he put out Onias, and set up in his stead, Jason his brother. Flood-language is still a battle; the prince of the covenant is still a priest.

Armies are swept because they actually march and actually break. The covenant’s prince is Onias displaced by Jason—holy office traded. Arminians take that displacement as responsible apostasy in the priesthood, not a mere mask of a decree. The people of God learn that covenant titles can be seized, and that the vision still minds the Jews under this flood.

Calvin: auxiliaries which should assist in the restoration of the son of Seleucus shall be overwhelmed by an inundation—drowned as by a deluge. Antiochus was in truth God’s scourge. They shall be broken, and also the leader of the covenant: Ptolemy shall take the part of his relative in vain. The boy-king’s dignity in Egypt made him deservedly called leader of the covenant, since all others followed that power.

The flood is easy not by Epiphanes’ own strength but because God wished to use this tyrant’s hand. The church is to see the scourge as appointed, not as a surprise. Whether one reads the “prince” as Ptolemy’s vain alliance or as the priesthood’s wound, the word already said the breaking would come.

Wesley: after the league—for he made a league with Egypt, and came with a few (but chosen men) and took the passes, and put all in subjection to him. Alliance is a treaty; deceit is a breach. Strength with a small people is cunning, not magic.

The league does not undo responsibility. He acts deceitfully from the time the alliance is made—the will to cheat is his. Wesley keeps the Egyptian league and the few chosen men. Faith learns that a small band can take passes when the other party trusted the table.

Calvin: there is some interruption of the wars; Antiochus negotiated a temporary peace with his nephew Ptolemy Philometor. During or after these agreements he shall deal treacherously. He shall ascend and prevail by a small band: he shall attack the boy suddenly, when Ptolemy anticipated lasting friendship, and thus lose some of his cities.

Deceit is the tyrant’s; the small band’s success is already in the word. The church is shown a hollow truce so that, when Egypt is robbed in peace, the faithful will know they are still inside the vision. God had already said the league would be the door of the fraud.

Wesley: he shall come in upon the Egyptians under pretence of peace, in a plentiful and delicious country, and among a mass of treasures which the kings successively had heaped up; the greatest part of which Antiochus distributed among his confidants. He did what his fathers had not done; the kings of Syria before him could never attain to this success over Egypt. For a time—till God put a stop to his career, for the Egyptians found means to deliver themselves from his yoke.

Scattering plunder is a chosen policy that binds confidants. “Only for a time” is a limit Wesley reads as God stopping the career. The richest parts are Egypt’s fatness in that generation, not a code for later oil or later capitals. Pretence of peace is still a sin. The church waits the stop without renaming the province.

Calvin: he shall come in peace upon the fatness of the province, oppressing them while sleeping in security—conqueror not by open invasion but by cunning. He will do that which his fathers have not done, nor his fathers’ fathers did: this must be restricted solely to Egypt; his ancestors longed after Egypt and failed; he was more successful. God overrules the events of war: the conqueror is not the man who excels in counsel, but he who fights under the heavenly leader. So He wished to punish Egypt by the hands of this robber. “For a time”—he deferred plans against fortified cities, hoping to oppress his nephew off guard.

Even this unheard-of success over Egypt is dated. The church is not to envy the scatterer of spoil. The heavenly leader already wrote “only for a time.”

Wesley: but he won’t stand—he might have prospered, if he had not been betrayed by Eulaius, Benaeus, and the rest of his nobles, corrupted by Antiochus. Heart and power are stirred; the south raises a mighty army; plots inside the court undo it.

This is a fork in the chapter’s moral theology, kin to v. 12. Betrayal is a responsible act of nobles who could have stood with their king. Classical Arminians take Wesley’s “might have prospered” seriously: the south’s fall is not a puppet-show. The church is warned that a great army is not safety when the table is sold.

Calvin: after prevailing by fraud, Antiochus becomes bolder, ventures to levy a hostile army and invade Egypt openly. He stirs up his strength and his courage with a great army. The king of the south will be irritated and come with a very great army, but he won’t stand, because they shall agitate perfidious counsels against him. Ptolemy should have sufficient courage to resist, had he not been betrayed by his adherents.

“Won’t stand” is the angel’s verb before the battle. Treachery is the counselors’; the limit is the Lord’s. The church is not to read the south’s mighty army as a chance that almost overturned the word. God had already said plots would be devised.

Wesley: yea—his most familiar friends and confidants; for he shall be overthrown with a great slaughter, as when the Nile overflows the country. Those who eat of his delicacies are table-companions who choose to break him. The flood of the army is still blood.

Familiarity does not create faithfulness. The south is broken from inside. The angel still minds what relates to the Jews who live under these campaigns. Wesley keeps confidants and a Nile-like slaughter. Trust at table is a will; so is betrayal.

Calvin: the authors of this perfidy should not be ordinary men, but the chief among the counselors. They are said to eat at the king’s table. They shall destroy him, and his army shall be overwhelmed; many shall fall wounded. Kings choose counselors by appearance of congeniality, not by honesty, and hence experience treachery from those they ought not to treat with so much honor if they considered themselves in duty bound to God and to their people.

In practice: the table is a mirror of providence. God told Daniel the break would come from the portion of his meat, so that when the slaughter overflowed, the faithful would know the court was still inside the vision, not abandoned to chance.

Wesley: at one table—they shall meet under pretence of peace. But it shall not prosper—for neither shall Antiochus gain Egypt by all his artifice, nor Ptolemy, Syria. At the time appointed—by the Lord, whose purpose and counsel shall stand. Two hearts bent on mischief; two mouths lying; one table.

Lies at the table are chosen speech. To no avail does not void the guilt of the lie. The appointed time is the Lord’s; the evil hearts are still theirs. The church learns that peace-talk can be a sin, and that neither king gets what he plots. Wesley will not let artifice become Egypt or Syria. Faith waits the time without calling the table holy.

Calvin: the close of this war should be by treaties and a hollow pretence of peace. The uncle and nephew will meet and sup together and pretend the greatest friendship, but they will speak lies at one table. Yet it shall not prosper, because the end is for the time. The angel recalls the faithful to the providence of God: while kings devise many schemes, God still restrains their minds and holds events by his secret bridle.

“The end will still be at the appointed time. Then” is why the lie fails. The church is not asked to trust either king. God spoke so exactly that the pious have no reason for doubting He has spoken—details of a fraudulent supper already written for their support.

Wesley: then shall he return—Antiochus shall depart with his booty gotten in Egypt. Against the holy covenant—against the law of God, with the people that worshipped God according to his will. Heart set against the covenant is a will aimed at worshippers, not a weather-change.

Pastorally: great wealth from Egypt becomes fuel for rage at the law. Working his will is still his will. The holy covenant is the Lord’s with this people in this land—Wesley will not let it become a slogan for later parties. The church under the returning king is to hold the law, not to invent a later “covenant” the angel does not name.

Calvin: that peace should be calamitous for the people of God, because Antiochus should turn his arms against Jerusalem. He should return with great wealth, and his heart should be against the holy covenant—he should carry on war against God. Lest the expedition be fruitless, he spoiled the temple. It was necessary to inform the faithful beforehand of this grievous slaughter, lest its novelty should astonish them and overthrow the constancy of their faith. Thus they would acknowledge the affliction to proceed from God’s hand; God by his certain counsel allowed much license to this impious tyrant.

“Holy covenant” is God’s, and the tyrant’s heart against it is already in the word. The church is fortified by prediction, not by the king’s mercy.

Wesley: toward the south—Egypt, to fight against Ptolemy. But—this shall not be so prosperous as the two former expeditions, but shall fail both of his victory and booty. The time appointed is a date for a return; the “not as before” is a failure.

He returns because he chooses to; he fails because this campaign is not the former. The south is still Egypt. Wesley keeps the third Egyptian expedition that does not pay. Faith learns that a king can come back and still lose.

Calvin: Antiochus should return a short time afterwards and take possession of Egypt—the fruit of that pretended peace. He showed he wanted nothing but an opportunity for breaking the truce. The latter expedition shall not be like the former; the whole preparation for war which had struck such terror into Egypt should lose its effect. We may take “time” for a period divinely predetermined.

“Not as before” is written before Popilius draws the circle (v. 30). The church’s comfort is not that Egypt is strong, but that the third coming is already limited in heaven. The tyrant’s will to return does not outrun the appointed time.

Wesley: the ships of Chittim—the Romans out of Italy, and the Archipelago. This made his heart boil with rancor, which he spit out against the Jews; especially being solicited to it by Jason first, and Menelaus after, who were apostates, and betrayers of their brethren. Fear before ships becomes rage at the covenant; apostates invite the rage.

Kittim is Rome checking Epiphanes in that generation. Rage is a passion solicited by betrayers. The church is to refuse both despair when the king is enraged and the habit of making every later fleet “ships of Kittim.” Wesley keeps Jason and Menelaus. Forsaking the covenant is a will.

Calvin: ships shall come from Chittim—Macedon, Greece, Italy; this passage is free from all doubt, because Antiochus was restrained not by the Greeks but by the Romans. Publius Popilius ordered him instantly to depart from Egypt, drew a circle, and the king dared no longer hesitate. He shall grieve and return, then turn his rage against the temple and city of God. He shall act with intelligence towards the forsakers of the holy covenant: summoned first by Jason, then by Menelaus.

The confidence of the pious would naturally be injured by observing divine permission granted to the tyrant for spoiling the temple—so the angel predicted the fury. Apostates are the door; the word already named them. The church is to see Rome here as a historical check on this king, for the sake of the covenant people, not as a chart of later nations.

Wesley: and arms—not only of his own army, but many Jews. The sanctuary—even the holy of holies. The abomination—the statue of Jupiter placed in the temple. Forces include covenant people who choose the profanation. The daily offering is taken away; an idol stands where sacrifice stood.

Arminian theology of the vision: the abomination is this statue in this temple, not a floating symbol to be reassigned at will. Many Jews stand on his part—responsible apostasy. The church in every age is not to baptize its own fears as this verse. Wesley keeps Jupiter in the holy of holies. Faith mourns the offering taken away without needing a later sequel to make the desolation true.

Calvin: arms shall stand up from him—he shall rely upon the people’s assistance; many should offer themselves in obedience. They shall profane the sanctuary of strength: fulfilled when the statue of Jupiter Olympius was erected there. The angel speaks of the sanctuary of power to show the faithful that Antiochus is not the conqueror of God, who continued the guardian of his temple. They shall abolish the continual sacrifice and set up that abomination which shall cause astonishment. Even if the very best men are astonished, nothing happens by chance; God had already foreseen and decreed all things.

In practice: the temple seemed weak and deprived of protection, and yet with respect to God it was still a sanctuary of strength. The church is to look upon God’s power with the eye of faith when the statue stands. Prediction is given so the pious will not think God abandoned His dwelling.

The sentence is plain: flattery seduces covenant-breakers; those who know their God stand firm and act. Knowing is not a slogan; it is allegiance that refuses the seduction. Action here is faithfulness under Epiphanes, not a chart of later revolts renamed.

Both halves are wills. Violators are corrupted because they take the flattery; knowers stand because they will not. Grace does not make Jewish apostasy holy, and knowledge of God does not turn the remnant into puppets. The church is called to the same fork: know God, stand, act—without treating this verse as a key to modern parties.

Calvin: such as do wickedly against the covenant shall he corrupt by flatteries—he shall pervert them more and more. But the people who acknowledge their God shall be strong and do exploits. The angel describes the intestine evils of the Church: Antiochus finds a party at Jerusalem devoted to himself, while another people is made strong.

Standing firm is the Lord’s work in those who know Him, in the same breath as the tyrant’s flatteries. The church is not asked to deny the exploits of the faithful, nor to credit them as if God were not the one who strengthens. Two peoples under one king: the word already divided them.

The wise instruct many, and still fall by the sword and by flame, captivity and plunder. Understanding is teaching under persecution. Stumbling is blood in that generation—Maccabean days, not a code.

Instruction is a responsible ministry; falling by the sword is a cost. The wise are not spared because they teach. The church is to refuse the habit of making “those who are wise” a later denomination. Days of sword are days in which the people of God must live, teach, and die. Faith holds both: many understand, and the teachers still fall.

Calvin: those who shall be wise among the people will teach many—not the masked hypocrites who arrogate knowledge, but those who remain in the pure doctrine of the Law. These should not be teachers of shadows: they should be strenuous warriors for the truth, rather fall a hundred times by the sword and the flame than desist from teaching. He mentions various kinds of death for exhortation, and that too for many days—an invincible constancy, not a single temptation overcome.

The more each becomes a proficient in the faith, the more he ought to teach his neighbors. God never approves teachers as legitimate unless they deliver their message as if ready to seal it with their blood. The church’s flower perishes, and the name of God still stands, because the angel already said they would teach and fall.

When they stumble, a little help comes; many join with flattery. Little help is still help; flattering joiners are still a danger. The verse warns the remnant not to take every ally at face value.

Help can be authentic and small—human aid that actually arrives—without becoming the kingdom of God. Many cleaving with flatteries is a will to use the cause. The church under the stumble is not to hunt a later “little help” in modern nations. Faith receives small relief and still tests those who join. The vision minds this people in these days.

Calvin: without the slightest doubt the angel here speaks of the Maccabees, by whose assistance the faithful were gathered. He calls the help small, and truly it was so: what could the Maccabees do to resist Antiochus? Then he cuts off the greater part: many will join themselves to them by flatteries—out of these few many should be hypocrites. When God purges his Church, but a small portion will remain sincere.

God does not always thunder from heaven; He enables us to contend successfully with our cross. The angel also reproves a fault in the Maccabees’ conduct: a pious cause does not make all their actions praiseworthy. The church is consoled that small help and mixed joiners were already written, so the pious would not despair at the mixture.

Wesley is silent on the verse; the theology is on the page. The wise can fall, and the fall can be for cleansing. The end is dated, not guessed.

Arminian close of this range: stumbling is not proof that teaching was false, nor that God authors the sword. Refining is the Lord’s use of what persecutors choose. “Time of the end” here is the appointed end of this trial under the vision, not a license to chart later empires or later raptures. The church is to become white by endurance, without turning the verse into a key to modern nations.

Calvin: some of the learned shall fall—the flower of the Church. Who could have expected the name of God to exist when all His sincere worshippers were murdered with impunity? But the true result: the sons of God should be purged, cleansed, and whitened. None possess such sanctity as to prevent the remnant of some pollution; hence they pass through the furnace. The angel predicts an end to these evils, even to a determined time. If God wished to humble them for three, or ten, or a hundred years, they should not despond, but wait for the time divinely predetermined, without depending on their own will.

Persecutions which seem to destroy the Church are profitable to the sons of God. The appointed time is mercy: God does not urge His people beyond their strength. The church waits the date heaven has already set.