Daniel 11

Wesley: the king—Antiochus was an eminent type of antichrist; to whom many things that follow may be applied by way of accommodation: although they principally refer to Antiochus, and had their primary accomplishment in him. For that that is determined—that which God hath decreed to be done by him shall be done; and that which God hath purposed to be done upon him. Do as he wills names a blaspheming will; the primary stage is still this king.

Arminian reading of the range: a type points forward without licensing guesswork. Accommodation may apply some lines to antichrist; Wesley will not let that cancel the Epiphanes. Exalting himself is responsible pride. The church should not treat the verse as a key to modern nations. The verse is theology of a self-magnifying king under a decree that both uses him and ends him.

Calvin will not apply the verse to Antiochus: he did not long survive the pollution of the Temple, and the following events do not suit that hour. By “king” the angel means an empire—the Romans—whether senate, consuls, or proconsuls. He shall magnify himself against all deities and speak wonderful things against the God of gods. He will prosper until the end of the indignation: until God should punish the hypocrites, and thus humble his Church.

The angel passes from Antiochus to Rome so the pious would not think God had gone silent between the Maccabees and Christ. Appointment bounds the blasphemy. The church is not asked to master later maps, but to know that even this pride was told beforehand, and that indignation has a consummation God has already determined.

His map of the chapter still has Antiochus in view: the king who set Jupiter in the sanctuary (v. 31) now magnifies himself above all. Paying no attention is a chosen contempt, not a puppet string. The desire of women is left unnamed in Wesley; the point is the self-magnifying will.

A man can refuse the gods of his fathers and still be fully responsible. Magnifying himself above all is sin God reports and bounds (v. 36), not sin God authors. The same decree that lets him prosper also appoints what shall be done upon him.

Calvin: this king should be a gross despiser of all deities, fierce and barbarous against all mortals, because he should magnify himself above them all. The desire of women he reads as a figure for humanity itself: God has appointed that affection as a natural bond; the angel means a ruler utterly devoid of piety and of charity. Pride so blinded the Romans as to cause them to forget both piety and humanity.

Contempt of the gods of the fathers is not a private hobby. It is the empire’s manner. The church under such a power is to see that self-magnifying is already in the word, and that the absence of natural affection is part of the scourge God had named—not a riddle for later courts.

Wesley: in his estate—in the room of his father’s god. The God of forces—this seems to be Jupiter Olympius, never introduced among the Syrians, till Antiochus did it.

A new god, paid in gold and stones: worship is redirected, not abolished. Arminian reading keeps Wesley’s identification in that generation. Fathers did not know this god because Antiochus introduced him. Costly gifts are a responsible policy. The verse is theology of idolatry: when a king honors force as god, the sanctuary already profaned (v. 31) is not an accident.

Calvin: at first glance the king despises all deities and yet worships a certain god. This agrees with the Romans, who treated worship as business and were destitute of any perception of the divinity. They claimed a divine power as their own. The god of bulwarks is that perverse confidence by which they were puffed up. They limited Jupiter to his own capitol; nothing was esteemed divine but what pleased themselves. He shall honor him in his own place, with gold and silver and precious stones.

Pastorally: the angel names a worship that is self-worship. Riches heaped on temples do not prove piety. The church is to see the capitol-god as the word already described, and to refuse both envy of the gold and the habit of relocating this god onto later flags.

Wesley: with a strange god—using all art and authority to propagate his worship. Fortresses fall with a foreign god’s help; acknowledgers are loaded with honor; land is divided for a price.

Art and authority to propagate worship: this is mission for an idol, not mere logistics. Buying men with land and honor is a chosen policy. Those who acknowledge him could have refused. The church learns that strange worship travels with spoil, and that a price on land is still a moral fact. Wesley keeps the strange god as the worship Antiochus pushed. Faith is not required to re-map “divide the land” onto later markets.

Calvin: he shall multiply the glory—acquire territories, power, treasures. He shall make them rule far and wide, and divide the soil for a price: not a defined sum only, but avarice that sells what it cannot usefully keep. Allies are enriched from another’s property; kingdoms are bestowed and stripped. The strange god is the divinity that rests on the opinion and will of the sovereign people.

Even this success is already written, so that when land is sold and rulers made, the pious will not think heaven has changed sides. Price is the empire’s; the limit remains God’s. The church waits the end of v. 45, not a later ledger of provinces.

Wesley is silent here, yet his heading still places vv. 30–43 as the mischief Antiochus would do to the Jews. South attacks; north rushes like a whirlwind; countries overflow. The flood-verb of the earlier wars returns.

“Time of the end” in this chapter is the appointed close of this king’s career (vv. 35–36, 45), not a calendar for later blocs. Chariots, horsemen, ships are creaturely means. Overflow is a campaign the church between the armies must endure. The verse does not invite renaming south and north every generation. Wesley’s “principally Antiochus” still governs: the whirlwind is that hour’s war under the decree of v. 36.

Calvin has already said the long series of victories prevents applying this stretch to Antiochus, who died soon after spoiling the Temple. The appointed time now shows Egypt thrusting and the northern power—Rome in his reading—coming like a flood with ships as well as horse. Overflow and pass through is the same flood-language the angel used of earlier armies, now stretched over a monarchy, not a single madman.

“Time of the end” is still God’s clock, the consummation of indignation (v. 36). The church is to recognize providence in the whirlwind. South and north remain the pair that sit on either side of the glorious land.

Wesley: the children of Ammon—he will not hurt them; because they helped him against the Jews. The glorious land is still Judea, as in v. 16. Tens of thousands fall there; neighboring peoples who sided against the covenant people escape.

Deliverance of Edom, Moab, and Ammon is a historical exemption, not a virtue. Help against the Jews is a chosen alliance, and it is remembered. The land God made glorious is again under a destroyer. Faith lives there without baptizing the escapees, and without stretching “glorious land” onto later maps. Wesley keeps the neighbors on that generation’s border.

Calvin: the Romans come to the mountain of the desire of holiness so the novelty of a distant nation trampling the church would not drive the pious to despair. Nothing happens by chance; turbulent motions are governed by a divine power. Tens of thousands fall in the land God chose; some neighboring peoples are not in the same path of the army.

The epithet “glorious” still rests on God’s choice of dwelling, not on the land’s safety. The church is to read the fall of thousands as a scourge already named, and the exceptions as the angel’s precision—not as a code for later tribes. The same word that lets the land be entered has already said the invader will come to his end (v. 45).

Egypt shall not escape: the south that opened the chapter (v. 5) is still on the page at the end. Stretching out the hand is a reach of power. Wesley’s silence here does not move the verse off Antiochus; his heading runs the mischief against the Jews through v. 43, with Egypt’s treasures in the next line.

“Won’t escape” is the truth of that campaign. Countries are not ciphers. The church should not treat Egypt as a standing symbol to be reassigned, nor to deny that a king’s hand stretched. Escape is refused because the decree of v. 36 still stands. Patience, not speculation, is the work.

Calvin’s Roman reading keeps Egypt in its place on the map: the south still thrust (v. 40), and it does not escape the northern power that overflowed. Stretching out the hand is the empire’s reach after the land of desire has been entered.

Pastorally: the angel names Egypt so the pious who remember the earlier Egyptian wars will know the story has not slipped into another book. Appointment, not chance, governs who does not escape. The church waits the treasures of v. 43 and the helpless end of v. 45 without needing a later Egypt to make the sentence true.

Wesley: at his steps—he had them at his foot, at his beck. Gold, silver, precious things of Egypt; Libyans and Cushites in the train. Booty and followers are historical.

Becoming ruler of treasures is a will that takes, and a people who can be made to follow. Beck is not worship. The church is warned that wealth moving south to north does not prove the taker is the Lord’s anointed. Wesley keeps the train on that king’s road. Faith refuses to turn Libyans and Cushites into later blocs. Precious things test kings; they do not rewrite the covenant.

Calvin has already shown how Rome drew gold, silver, and desirable things into its temples and treasury, spoiling provinces to ornament the city. Egypt’s precious things and the peoples in the train fit an empire that sold land for a price (v. 39) and honored the god of ramparts with what it seized.

The train is still under the word. Following in his steps is not the last word of the chapter. The church is to see providence in the flow of treasure, and to remember that the same angel who grants this rule has already prepared the alarm of v. 44 and the end, and no one will help.

Wesley’s heading: his fall, vv. 44–45. News alarms; fury goes out to destroy and utterly to sweep away many. The king who did as he willed (v. 36) is now a man who can be frightened.

Alarm is a passion, fury a choice. East and north are directions from which reports come in that hour, not a standing code. Devote many to destruction is holy-war language in a pagan mouth: he would put under the ban what is not his to ban. Wesley is about to say God cuts him off. Fury does not outrun that cutting.

Calvin: if the Romans were sometimes in difficulties, they soon recovered their usual success—until the indignation was complete. Alarm from east and north, then a going out in fury, belongs to a long monarchy that could be checked and still rage.

The angel already joined alarm to fury so the pious would not think a rumor meant the vision had failed, nor think fury meant God had lost the bridle. Destroying many is still bounded by v. 45. The church hears the news as part of the decreed indignation, not as a chart of later fronts.

Wesley: none shall help him—God shall cut him off in the midst of his days. And when he destroys, who can help? Royal tents pitched between the sea and the holy mountain: the king plants himself as if he owned the beautiful land, then ends without an ally.

The midst of his days is a historical cutting off of Antiochus, the primary referent Wesley named at v. 36. Help fails because God destroys. When he destroys, who can help? That is the theology of the verse. Faith learns the end of self-exaltation without needing a modern “north” to make the sentence true.

Calvin: they shall fix the tents of the palace between the seas, near the mountain of the desire of holiness—not a night’s camp only, but settled sway in the east without making Asia the seat of empire. The consolation follows: they shall come at length to their end, and no one shall bring them help. This was not fulfilled in a single hour; the monarchy could still flourish, the city be razed, and yet the end come. Nothing happens by chance; all these motions are governed by a divine power.

In practice: pitching tents at the holy mountain is permitted; remaining there is not. None shall help him is the angel’s last word on the willful king. The church’s hope is not that empires last, but that the indignation is appointed, and that the God who named the mountain glorious also names the invader’s end.