Daniel 11:35
Read Daniel 11:35 Using Other Translations
What does Daniel 11:35 mean?
And some of them of understanding shall fall
Not into sin, or from the religion they profess; and the
doctrines they have an understanding of, and have instructed
others in; but into distresses and calamities for their steadfast
adherence to the word, worship, and ordinances of God: to
try them, and purge and make them white;
to try their faith, patience, and other graces, and whether they
would hold fast their profession, and persevere in the good ways
of God; and to purge and separate them from others, that were
like chaff, hypocrites, that so they might be manifest, both the
one and the other; and these good men appear to be sincere and
upright: moreover, the best of men have their dross, and chaff,
and spots, to be removed from them; and this is one way of doing
it, even by afflictions: the allusion, in the first word, is to
the melting, purifying, and refining of metals, gold and silver;
the second to the winnowing of a grain floor, and separating the
chaff from the wheat; and the third to the cleansing and
whitening of cloths, and taking the spots out of them by the
fuller. Afflictions are the furnace in which the Lord refines and
purifies his people; the fan with which he purges his floor; and
the fuller's soap with which he makes his people white; by all
this the iniquity of Jacob is purged, and the fruit of it is to
take away sin, ( Isaiah 27:9 ) , so that
afflictions are not hurtful, but beneficial to the saints, even
those more violent ones, severe persecutions. Even to the
time of the end;
because it is yet for a time appointed; these distresses,
calamities, and persecutions, would have an end, and the time for
it was appointed of God; as yet it was not come, but quickly
would, and then an end would be put to the third or Grecian
monarchy; a hint of the Roman power over that being given, (
Daniel
11:30 ) , hence we have no further account of Antiochus or
his sons. Very remarkable are the words of Aemilius Sara
F13,
``the Assyrians first were possessors of monarchy; then the Medes; afterwards the Persians; then the Macedonians; from that time the kings, Philip and Antiochus, who sprung from the Macedonians, being conquered, not long after Carthage was subdued, the supreme power of empire came to the Roman people;''of whom, under one character or another, the following part of the prophecy is chiefly to be understood. So another historian says F14, Antiochus being drove out of Asia, the Romans first set footing there; and another F15 observes, that Antiochus being defeated by L. Cornelius Scipio, he took the name of Asiaticus, because he had conquered Asia; as his brother was called Africanus, from his subduing Africa: wherefore Asia and Africa being now in the hands of the Romans, the supreme power might well be said to be with them; and therefore, henceforward, are only spoken of, and particularly the Roman antichrist.
F13 De annis populi Romani apud Velleii Paterculi Hist. Roman. l. 1. c. 6.
F14 "Festi Breviarium, prope initium".
F15 Eutropii Hist. Rom. l. 4. So Plutarch. in Vita Scipionis Africani.
