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religion showed no pity for the lax and the apostate. They are the prototypes of the Puritan in his fierceness and in his strength.

The formation of Mattathias' band must have taken place towards the close of the year 167. He himself was their leader for a short time only. His last words and charge are thus described. We must remember that ancient authors always allow themselves much freedom in putting speeches into the mouths of the various actors in their histories, and these words of Mattathias show traces of the narrator, who knew the life and the deeds not only of Mattathias, but also of his sons.

And the days of Mattathias drew near that he should die, and he said unto his sons,

'Now have pride and rebuke gotten strength, and a season of overthrow, and wrath of indignation. And now, my children, be ye zealous for the law, and give your lives for the covenant of your fathers. And call to remembrance the deeds of our fathers which they did in their generations; and receive great glory and an everlasting name. Was not Abraham found faithful in temptation, and it was reckoned unto him for righteousness? Joseph in the time of his distress kept the commandment, and became lord of Egypt. Phinehas our father, for that he was zealous exceedingly, obtained the covenant of an everlasting priesthood. Joshua for fulfilling the word became a judge in Israel. Caleb for bearing witness in the congregation obtained a heritage in the land. David for being merciful inherited the throne of a kingdom for ever and ever. Elijah, for that he was exceeding zealous for the law, was taken up into heaven. Hananiah, Azariah, Mishael, believed, and were saved out of the flame. Daniel for his innocency was delivered from the mouth of lions. And thus consider ye from generation to generation, that none that put their trust in him shall want for strength. And be not afraid of the words of a sinful man; for his glory shall be dung and worms. To-day he shall be lifted up, and to-morrow he shall in no wise be found, because he is returned unto his dust, and his thought is perished.

And ye, my children, be strong, and shew yourselves men in behalf of the law; for therein shall ye obtain glory. And, behold, Simon your brother, I know that he is a man

of counsel; give ear unto him alway: he shall be a father unto you. And Judas Maccabæus, he hath been strong and mighty from his youth: he shall be your captain, and shall fight the battle of the people. And take ye unto you all the doers of the law, and avenge the wrong of your people. Render a recompense to the Gentiles, and take heed to the commandments of the law.'

And he blessed them, and was gathered to his fathers. And he died in the hundred and forty and sixth year, and his sons buried him in the sepulchres of his fathers at Modin, and all Israel made great lamentation for him.

The hundred and forty and sixth year.' 146 from 312 is 166, which is therefore the year in which Mattathias died.

Hananiah, Azariah, Mishael, believed, . . . Daniel for his innocency was delivered.' I do not think these words could have been spoken by Mattathias. But they might have been written by the author of the First Book of the Maccabees, who wrote some sixty or seventy years after his death. For they seem to indicate an acquaintance with the Book of Daniel, which in all probability did not see the light in the lifetime of Mattathias. The Book of Daniel is the only Book of the Bible, the date of which we are able to ascertain and to fix with comparative accuracy and precision. It was not written before the opening of the year 166 ; it was not written after the close of the year 164. We may feel tolerably confident that it was in the course of those three years that Hebrew literature was enriched by the addition of this mysterious and remarkable book. Now Daniel was written with direct reference to the persecutions of Antiochus and to the Maccabean revolt; its aims were practical, hortatory and consoling. Its influence was probably considerable and immediate ; the resisting power of the people was stimulated, and the sword of the Maccabean warriors was sharpened, by the pen-work of an unknown writer whose strange book was doubtless eagerly and secretly read in many a stronghold and many a camp. It is, therefore, that I turn aside from telling the story of Judas and the deliverance he wrought in order to put before you the Book of Daniel, from whose adventures and prophecies Judas and his brothers in arms may have drawn hope and consolation.

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CHAPTER II

THE BOOK OF DANIEL

§ 1. General characteristics of the book.-The Book of Daniel is very unlike any Biblical writing with which we have yet had to deal. It is the earliest example of a new kind or class of Jewish literature, which within the Hebrew Bible has no other representatives, and of which, in Hebrew, no other representatives. survive. We may perhaps also say that it is not only the earliest example, but also the best, just as Amos is the earliest of the written prophets, and yields to none in his purity and strength.

The Book of Daniel is not prophecy, and yet it is connected with prophecy. It is not a mere tale with a purpose, like Jonah or Esther, but yet it has relations to them.

The prophetical writing which it most clearly resembles is that group of four late chapters in the Book of Isaiah (xxiv-xxvii), the marked differences of which from the old pre-exilic prophecy were pointed out on p. 362.

Daniel was written for a particular time and occasion, to meet a particular need. The time was the reign of Antiochus Epiphanes; the occasion and need were his persecution and the prohibition of the Jewish religion. Daniel is a Gelegenheitsbuch, as the Germans would say, a book for the time. And yet the essence, the raison d'être, of Daniel is its description of the End, the close of the old order, the opening and manner of the new.

§ 2. The Great Deliverance.-Indomitable was the hope, ineradicable the conviction in every believing Jewish heart, that the Great Deliverance must sooner or later come to hand. Right ideas and wrong ideas, old ideas and new ideas, contributed to the maintenance of this conviction. The wrath of God for Israel's sins must sooner or later have burnt itself out: the measure of wickedness of Israel's enemies must at last be full; then God would deliver his

people for good and all; then the reign of sin, whether within or without Israel, would cease, and righteousness and Israel would triumph together. The victory of good, the triumph of righteousness, a meaning in history, the reality of God and his rule, these are the permanent and universal ideas which were partly expressed and partly distorted in their nationalist integuments. There was, as we know, too much identification of the triumph of Israel with the triumph of gcod, too intimate a union between sinners and Israel's foes. The enemies of Israel were too rashly supposed to be inevitably the enemies of God.

This Messianic belief became the more eager and active, as the need for it grew sorer and graver. The more urgent the calamity, the more sure and the more near must be the deliverance. The idea of gradual progress extending for indefinite and countless ages was unknown. From the direst distress Israel should pass suddenly to complete beatitude.

What situation could be worse than that produced by the persecution of Antiochus? Surely this awful suffering must suffice to wipe off Israel's sins. What punishment beyond this was possible? Surely too these very persecutions must fill the cup. of Gentile wickedness to overflowing. The long looked-for deliverance, to be wrought by God's intervention and might, must surely now be close at hand.

§3. Traditions about Daniel.-The author of Daniel was filled with the ardour of Messianic conviction, and to encourage and strengthen that conviction in others was one of the objects of his book. It is possible that he belonged to those Chasidim who at first let themselves be slaughtered without resistance on the Sabbath day. For the deliverance must be divine and supernatural.

Our author's first method of encouragement is by telling wonderful tales of God's deliverance in the past. There was a tradition of a man called Daniel, of great righteousness and wisdom. Ezekiel couples him with Noah and Job as a model of righteousness, and alludes to him elsewhere as a type of wisdom. In the Maccabean age he may have been supposed to have been one of the Jewish exiles at Babylon, and tales and legends of his piety and wisdom may have been current in Palestine. Our author took this legendary figure of the past, and dressed him up in new clothes. He told anew, with special reference to his own time, the tales of Daniel's wisdom and piety. He spoke in Daniel's name, but to his own contemporaries and not to Daniel's. He did not inquire whether the tales were true, and perhaps many of them are his own invention, but they are true to faith. This was the sort of way in which, as he believed, God had

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delivered his faithful servants in the past; this was the sort of way in which he would soon deliver them again.

§ 4. Visions and Apocalypse.--But the author of Daniel not. only wants to encourage resistance and stimulate to constancy and martyrdom, he wishes also to diffuse his belief that the Messianic age is near at hand. And for this purpose he tells a series of prophetic visions in which the manner and time of the deliverance is mysteriously revealed. It is these visions which give the chief character to the book. In them is displayed what the Germans would call its Eigenart, its idiosyncrasy. It is these revealing visions which are the characteristic of the Apocalyptic literature. Daniel is an Apocalypse. (Apokaluptô means in Greek 'I disclose, I reveal'; apokalupsis means an uncovering, a revelation.)

The essence and culmination of these visions lie in their description of the future: they reveal what is to be, and moreover what is to be shortly.

The prophets also spoke of the future, but they are very different from Daniel, and in drawing out these differences we shall understand better the kind of book we are about to read.

The main burden of the pre-exilic prophets was to denounce sin and to foretell punishment. The restoration was secondary and more distant.

The Second Isaiah's message is, indeed, a message of deliverance, but it is open and direct. Yet he is like Daniel in his anonymity, although very unlike him in manner, matter and style. Moreover, with his message of deliverance there is mingled teaching and reproof. The author of Daniel did not require to teach religion or ethics. For the oneness and uniqueness of God were acknowledged truths, and for moral lessons there were the Scriptures and the sages. He alludes to both.

The prophet speaks in his own name and by virtue of his own inspiration. The apocalyptic seer speaks in the name of another. He is not a prophet, and does not use the prophetic formula : 'Thus saith the Lord.' He ascribes his convictions, which he dresses up in the form of visions, to old heroes of Scripture, who were famous for their wisdom or their piety, and may be supposed to have known the secrets of the divine rule and the times of God.

For prophecy was felt to be a thing of the past. Its true sphere of action no longer existed. Psalmists and others sometimes lamented its loss (We see not our signs; there is no more any prophet; neither is there among us any that knoweth how long,' p. 485), but in truth there was no room for it. Its true work