is selected from Zechariah ii. 14 to iv. 7, as being most appropriate. The sermon of the day is usually devoted to 'the events being commemorated. The period is marked by an 'extra half-holiday or so being given in schools during the week, ' a festive entertainment being often added.'

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NOTE ON THE CHRONOLOGICAL STATEMENTS OF DANIEL IX. 24-27.

'I know,' said St. Jerome, 'that this passage has been much disputed amongst the most learned men. Each has spoken the opinions suggested by his own mind. And, therefore, because 'I consider it dangerous to pass judgment on the views of the Doctors of the Church, and invidious to prefer one to another, 'I will state what each one has thought, and leave it to the ' option of the reader whose interpretation he shall follow.'

Such is the statement prefixed to the elaborate summary of the contradictory opinions in the Speaker's Commentary' on the Book of Daniel, pp. 360–365, which concludes with the words, It is impossible at present to explain the passage satisfactorily.' It is not in accordance with the plan of this work to discuss these several opinions. But it is permissible, and may be useful, to state the view which is commended to us by the nearest contemporary authority and by the nearest coincidence of fact.

According to this view, 'the commandment to rebuild Jerusalem' in Dan. ix. 25 is the prophecy of the seventy years in Jeremiah, R.C. 588 (Dan. ix. 2); the Anointed Prince is Cyrus, as in Isaiah xlv. 1, в.c. 536. More doubtfully, in Dan. ix. 21, the death of the Anointed one without a successor' (Heb.) is Onias the high priest (2 Macc. iv. 35), which is substantially the explanation of Eusebius (H. E. i. 6, Demonst. Ev. viii. 391). The Prince who shall destroy the city and sanctuary, whose 'end shall be sudden,' in Dan. ix. 26, is Antiochus Epiphanes (1 Macc. vi. 8). In Dan. ix. 27 (compare viii. 11, xii. 12) the cessation of the daily sacrifice is the cessation described in 1 Macc. i. 54, and the Abomination of Desolation (Dan. xi. 31, xii. 12) is the desecration of the altar by Antiochus as described

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under that same phrase in 1 Macc. i. 54. The three years (Dan. viii. 14, xii. 11, 12) relate to the interval between the desecration and the re-consecration of the altar (1 Macc. ii. 54, iv. 52).

The only illustrations from any other part of the Bible are to be found in the application of the words 'the Abomination of 'Desolation' in Matt. xxiv. 15, Mark xiii. 14, to the desecration of the Herodian temple by the Roman Government. Such a secondary application is in accordance with the well-known usage of the New Testament, as, for example, Matt. ii. 15, 18, Acts vii. 43, Rev. xi. 11, xviii. 2.

The expression, 'One like to a Son of Man,' in Dan. vii. 131 (Heb.) is explained in Dan. vii. 27, to be the people of the 'saints.' The phrase 'Son of Man,' in the only other place in which it occurs in Daniel (viii. 17), agrees with its universal signification in the Old Testament, viz., as representing man, collectively or individually, in his mortal and fragile aspect. See especially Psalm viii. 4, lxxx. 17, and the forty-seven times in which it is applied to Ezekiel. It is in the Book of Enoch that it is first applied to the Chosen One who is to judge. the world (xlv. 3, 5; xlvi. 3, 6; xlvii. 3; lxii. 2, 5; lxii. 27, 29; lxx. 1). The references are given at length in Dr. Pusey's 'Daniel the Prophet,' 382-385.

That numerous applications of these passages may be made to the events of the Christian history, past or future, is obvious. The only purpose here is to point out-what is admitted by almost all scholars (see Speaker's Commentary, iv. 337, 365)—that their primary and historical reference is to the Maccabæan age.

1 'The Authorized Version: "The Son of Man," however accurate as a mode of expressing a Christian truth, must, if literally rendered, be altered into “A Son of Man."-Speaker's Commentary, vol. vi. 328.

THE

ROMAN PERIOD.

B.C. 160. TO A.D. 70.

LECTURE XLIX.

THE ASMONEAN DYNASTY.

(1) 1 Macc. ix. 23-xvi.

AUTHORITIES.

(2) Joseph. Ant. xiii. 1–16.

(3) 5 Macc. xviii.-xxxiv.

(4) Book of Judith, B.C. 130?

(5) Sibylline Books (iii. 828) B.C. 120, see Lecture XLVII.

(6) Book of Enoch, B.C. 115? which is found (1) in Epistle of Jude, verses 14, 15; (2) Fragments preserved by Georgius Syncellus, A.D.792, and discovered by Scaliger; (3) in the Ethiopic Bible, discovered in 1773 by Bruce, the Abyssinian traveller, and translated into English by Archbishop Laurence, 1838, and into German, with notes and discussions, by Dillmann, 1853.

(7) The Book of Jubilees? Probably B.C. 100-1? quoted in Clem. Recog. xxx., xxxii., perhaps in 2 Peter ii. 4, Jude 6, and in various later authors, collected in Fabricius' Codex Pseudep., v. i. 849-863 under the name of 'Little Genesis;' originally in Hebrew, translated into Greek, and found in an Ethiopic version in 1844 by Kraff, and first brought to notice by Ewald (Dr. Ginsburg, in Kitto, ii. 669-670). Its date and origin are, however, too uncertain to justify much remark.

(8) The Talmudical traditions, given in Derenbourg, Histoire de la Palestine, ch. iv. v. vi. vii. viii.