Daniel 11:33
And they that understand among the people shall instruct
many,
&c.] Such as had a better understanding of divine things than
others, had more light and knowledge in the sacred Scriptures, in
the law of God, and in his mind and will, and were capable of
teaching others; and such as these the Lord raises up among his
people in the worst of times, in the times of the greatest
apostasy and declension; and these are enabled to perform their
duty, to instruct the people in theirs, teach them what they
should do, and how they should behave; exhort them to retain the
doctrines and ordinances of their holy religion, and not embrace
the doctrines and inventions of men, will worship, superstition,
and idolatry; and so they instructed the ignorant, strengthened
the weak, and established the wavering; such were Mattathias the
priest of Modin, and Eleazar, one of the chief scribes, in the
Apocrypha:
``In those days arose Mattathias the son of John, the son of
Simeon, a priest of the sons of Joarib, from Jerusalem, and dwelt
in Modin.'' (1 Maccabees 2:1)
``Eleazar, one of the principal scribes, an aged man, and of a
well favoured countenance, was constrained to open his mouth, and
to eat swine's flesh.'' (2 Maccabees 6:18)
Auk applies this to the times of the apostles, who he thinks are
here meant; so Sir Isaac Newton:
yet they shall fall by the
sword;
by the sword of Antiochus and his soldiers; as multitudes of the
Jews did, even both the instructors and the instructed, who would
not comply with his orders:
and by flame;
some were burnt alive in caves, where they fled for shelter; and
others as the mother and her seven sons, were cast into heated
caldrons of brass; in the Apocrypha: ``And others, that had run
together into caves near by, to keep the sabbath day secretly,
being discovered by Philip, were all burnt together, because they
made a conscience to help themselves for the honour of the most
sacred day.'' (2 Maccabees 6:11) ``3 Then the king, being in a
rage, commanded pans and caldrons to be made hot: 4 Which forthwith
being heated, he commanded to cut out the tongue of him that spake
first, and to cut off the utmost parts of his body, the rest of his
brethren and his mother looking on. 5 Now when he was thus maimed
in all his members, he commanded him being yet alive to be brought
to the fire, and to be fried in the pan: and as the vapour of the
pan was for a good space dispersed, they exhorted one another with
the mother to die manfully, saying thus,'' (2 Maccabees 7)
by
captivity;
so it is expressly said of Antiochus, that he carried captive women
and children and at another time ordered the women and children to
be sold for slaves, in the Apocrypha: ``Insomuch that the
inhabitants of Jerusalem fled because of them: whereupon the city
was made an habitation of strangers, and became strange to those
that were born in her; and her own children left her.'' (1
Maccabees 1:38) ``He sent also that detestable ringleader
Apollonius with an army of two and twenty thousand, commanding him
to slay all those that were in their best age, and to sell the
women and the younger sort:'' (2 Maccabees 5:24)
and by spoil
many days;
being plundered of their substance, their houses rifled, and their
goods carried away; and this distress lasted "days", a short time
only; Josephus
F11 reckons it at three years and a half.
All this Cocceius interprets of the persecutions of the Christians
by the Romans; and likewise Sir Isaac Newton.