More on the 'little horn' of this goat (Greece) in Daniel 8...
How long was the daily sacrifice taken away for, with the sanctuary cast down? (v14)
2300 days.
Finally Antiochus Epiphanes would be ‘broken without hand’: he died of disease.
The point in all this is that Daniel now knows that somehow there must be another temple built among those ruins of Jerusalem, possibly during the coming Persian Empire and then, the daily sacrifice will be stopped - for the SECOND TIME! No wonder poor Daniel faints with astonishment and takes sick leave. Nevertheless he will soon be confident enough to warn drunken king Belshazzar... "Peres: Thy kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and Persians” 5:28
Keep your eye on this religious Antiochus guy and the daily sacrifice - we must see this as a Jew would see it.
This Syrian dictator Antiochus IV Epiphanes (‘God Manifest’) was foretold to Daniel very accurately in chapter 11:21-35 but vv36-45 has not been fulfilled yet: not all of those 2300 days have been fulfilled yet in history!
This guy tried to obliterate Jewish faith by interfering with the priesthood, peacefully entering Jerusalem on the Sabbath to stop temple worship, sacrifice a pig on the altar, erect a statue of Zeus/Jupiter Olympus in the temple (‘abomination that maketh desolate’, v31), pouring pig broth on the Scriptures, looting the temple, banning circumcision, killing and enslaving thousands.
What was he like? ...vile, cruel, ambitious, deceitful, flattering, profane, murderous…and from historic records we learn he was depraved, dancing naked with entertainers. His coinage proves he was religious, claiming to be ‘Antiochus God Manifest’.
No wonder they called him ‘Epimanes’ the madman!
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