John Calvin Commentary Daniel 11:36

"And the king shall do according to his will; and he shall exalt himself, and magnify himself above every god, and shall speak marvellous things against the God of gods; and he shall prosper till the indignation be accomplished; for that which is determined shall be done." — Daniel 11:36 (ASV)

This passage is very obscure and, as a result, has been explained in very different ways by interpreters. Whatever is obscure is usually doubtful, and there would be little benefit and no termination if I were to recount all their opinions. Therefore, I will follow another method; omitting all unnecessary labor, I will simply inquire into the angel’s meaning.

I must, however, briefly refer to opinions accepted by the majority, because they occupy the minds of many and thus close the door to the correct interpretation. The Jews, for instance, do not agree among themselves, and their difference of opinion only serves to produce and perpetuate darkness, rather than to diffuse the clearness of light.

Some explain it as referring to Antiochus, and others to the Romans, but in a manner different from what I will later state. Christian expositors present much variety, but the majority lean towards Antichrist as fulfilling the prophecy. Others, again, use greater moderation by supposing Antichrist to be indirectly hinted at here, while they do not exclude Antiochus as the type and image of Antichrist.

This last opinion has great probability, but I do not approve of it and can easily refute it. Antiochus did not long survive the pollution of the Temple, and the following events by no means fit the occurrences of that time. Nor can his sons be fairly substituted in his place, and therefore we must pass on to some other king, distinct from Antiochus and his heirs.

As I have already stated, some of the Rabbis explain this as referring to the Romans, but without judgment, for they first apply the passage to Vespasian and his son Titus, and then extend it to the present times, which is utterly without reason, as they chatter foolishly, according to their usual custom.

Those who explain it as referring to Antichrist have some semblance of reason for their view, but there is no soundness in their conclusion, and we will perceive this better as our exposition progresses. We must now discover which king the angel designates here. First of all, I apply it entirely to the Roman Empire, but I do not consider it to begin with the reign of the Caesars, for this would be unsuitable and anachronistic, as we will see.

By the word “king,” I do not think a single person is indicated, but an empire, whatever its form of government—whether by a senate, by consuls, or by proconsuls. This need not seem either harsh or absurd, since the Prophet had previously discussed the four monarchies, and when treating of the Romans, he calls their power a kingdom, as if they had only a single ruler over them.

And when he spoke of the Persian monarchy, he did not refer to a single ruler but included them all, from Cyrus to the last Darius, who was conquered by Alexander. This manner of speech is already very familiar to us, as the word “king” often means “kingdom.” The angel, then, when saying, a king shall do anything, does not allude to Antiochus, for all history refutes this.

Again, he does not mean any single individual, for where will we find one who exalted himself against all gods, who oppressed God’s Church, fixed his palace between two seas, and seized the whole East? The Romans alone did this. I intend to show more clearly tomorrow how beautifully and fittingly everything related by the angel applies to the Roman Empire; and if anything should appear either obscure or doubtful, a continued interpretation will bring it to light and confirm it.

We establish this at the outset: the angel did not prophesy about Antiochus or any single monarch, but about a new empire, namely, the Roman Empire. The reason is at hand why the angel passes directly from Antiochus to the Romans. God desired to support the spirits of the pious, lest they should be overwhelmed by the number and weight of the massacres that awaited them and the whole Church, even until the advent of Christ.

It was not sufficient to predict the events under the tyranny of Antiochus; for after his time, the Jewish religion was increasingly harmed, not only by foreign enemies but also by their own priesthood. Nothing remained unpolluted, since their avarice and ambition had reached such a point that they trampled underfoot the whole glory of God and the Law itself.

The faithful needed to be fortified against such numerous temptations until Christ came, and then God renewed the condition of His Church. Therefore, the time that intervened between the Maccabees and the manifestation of Christ ought not to be omitted. The reason is now clear enough why the angel passes at once from Antiochus to the Romans.

We must next ascertain how the Romans became connected with the elect people of God. If their dominion had been limited to Europe alone, the reference to them would have been useless and out of place. But from the time the kings of Syria were oppressed by many and constant devastations in war, both at home and abroad, they were unable to harm the Jews as they had previously done; then new troubles arose through the Romans.

We know, indeed, that when many of the kings of Syria were indulging in arrogance, the Romans interposed their authority—and that, too, in bad faith, for the purpose of subjecting the East to themselves. Then, when Attalus made the Roman people his heir, the whole of Asia Minor was absorbed by them.

They became masters of Syria by the will of this foolish king, who defrauded his legal heirs, thinking by this conduct to acquire some regard for his memory after his death. From that period, when the Romans first acquired a taste for the wealth of these regions, they never failed to find some cause for warfare.

Eventually, Pompey subdued Syria, and Lucullus, who had previously waged war against Mithridates, restored the kingdom to Tigranes. Pompey, as I have already remarked, subjected Syria to the Romans. He left the Temple untouched, indeed, but we may conjecture the cruelty he exercised towards the Jews from the ordinary practice of this people.

The clemency of the Romans towards the nations they subdued is notorious enough. After Crassus, the most rapacious of all men, had heard much about the wealth of the Jews, he desired that province as his own. We know, too, how Pompey and Caesar, while they were friends, partitioned the whole world among themselves.

Gaul and Italy were assigned entirely to Caesar; Pompey obtained Spain, and part of Africa and Sicily; while Crassus obtained Syria and the regions of the East, where he miserably perished, and his head, filled with gold, was carried about in mockery from place to place. A second calamity occurred during that incursion by Crassus, and from this time the Jews were harassed by many and continual wars.

Before this period, they had entered into an alliance with the Romans, as we are informed by the books of the Maccabees (1 Maccabees 8 and 1 Maccabees 14), as well as by secular writers. Therefore, when they granted liberty to the Jews, it was said they were generous at the expense of others.

This was their ordinary practice: at first they received with friendship all who sought their alliance by treaty, and then they treated them with the utmost cruelty. The wretched Jews were treated in this way. The angel then alludes to them first, and afterwards speaks of Antiochus. All these points, thus briefly mentioned, we must bear in mind to enable us to understand the context and to show the impossibility of interpreting the prophecy otherwise than as referring to the Romans.

I now proceed to the words, The king shall do according to his will. I have stated that we need not restrict this expression to a single person, as the angel prophesies about the continued course of the Roman monarchy. He shall raise himself and magnify himself, he says, above every god. This will be explained later, where the king is said to be a despiser of all deities.

But with reference to the present passage, although impiety and contempt of God spread throughout the whole world, we know how particularly this may be said of the Romans, because their pride led them to pass judgment on the right of each deity to be worshipped. And, therefore, the angel will use an epithet for God, meaning fortitudes and munitions, מעזים megnezim, as in Daniel 11:38.

That passage, I will show you tomorrow, has been badly explained; for interpreters, as we will discover, are utterly “at sea” as to its meaning. But here the angel, by attributing contempt of the one God and of all deities to the Romans, implies their intense pride and haughtiness, in which they surpassed other pagan nations.

And truly, they did not preserve even a superstitious fear of God; and while they vauntingly paraded the superior piety of both their ancestors and themselves, yet an accurate perusal of their writings will disclose what they really thought. They made a laughingstock of all divinities, ridiculed the very name and appearance of piety, and used it only for the purpose of retaining their subjects in obedience.

The angel then says most truly of this empire, it shall magnify itself against all deities; and it shall speak wonderful things against the God of gods, by which the Jewish religion is intended. For before they had passed into Asia Minor and penetrated beyond Mount Taurus, they were ignorant of the Law of God and had never heard of the name of Moses.

They then began to take notice of the worship of some particular god by that nation, and that the form of their piety was distinct from that of all other peoples. From the time that knowledge of the peculiarities of the Jewish religion spread among the Romans, they began to vomit forth their blasphemies against the God of gods. We need not gather proof of this from their histories; but Cicero in his oration for Flaccus (section 28) most contemptuously tears to pieces the name of the true God. And that impure slanderer—for he deserves the name—so blurts out his calumnies, as if the God who had revealed Himself to His elect people by His Law was unworthy of being reckoned with Venus or Bacchus, or their other idols.

Lastly, he treats the numerous massacres to which the Jews were exposed as proof that their religion was hated by all the deities; and this he thinks ought to be a sufficient sign of the detestable character of their religion. The angel then has every reason to declare the Romans puffed up with pride and haughtiness, as they did not hesitate to treat the name of the true God with such marked contempt.

He shall utter, he says, remarkable things against the God of gods. The angel seems to refer to a single individual, but we have stated that his reference is to this empire. He adds next, And he shall prosper until the consumption—or completion, or consummation—of the indignation, since the determination has been made. Here also the angel treats of a long succession and series of victories, which prevent the application of the passage to Antiochus.

For he died immediately after he had plundered the Temple; all his offspring perished by each other’s hands; and the Romans, to their great disgrace, acquired possession of Syria and that portion of the East. We must necessarily explain this as referring to the Romans, as they notoriously prospered in their wars, especially on the continent of Asia. And if they were sometimes in difficulties, as we will see tomorrow when treating the words which the angel will then use, they soon recovered their usual success. The angel here says, This king shall prosper till the end of the indignation; meaning, until God should punish the hypocrites and thus humble His Church. I refer this to God, as I will explain more at length tomorrow.

Prayer:

Grant, Almighty God, as in these days the affairs of the world are in a state of disturbance, and as wherever we turn our eyes we see nothing but horrible confusion: Grant, I pray, that we may be attentive to Your teaching. May we never wander after our own imaginations, never be drawn aside by any cares, and never turn aside from our stated course. May we remain fixed in Your word, always seeking You and always relying on Your providence. May we never hesitate concerning our safety, as You have undertaken to be the guardian of our salvation, but always call upon You in the name of Your only-begotten Son. Amen.

[Exposition continues from previous day's lecture]

Yesterday we began an explanation of the prophecy, in which the angel begins to treat of the Roman Empire. I then showed the impossibility of applying any other exposition to the passage, as it would have been absurd to pass by the point most necessary to be known. At the very beginning, we stated that God did not inform Daniel of other occurrences for the purpose of catering to the foolish and vain curiosity of the many, but to fortify His servants and to prevent them from falling away in the midst of these most grievous contests.

But after the death of Antiochus, we know by what various and grievous machinations Satan had endeavored to overthrow the faith of all the pious. For this reason, their courage needed to be strengthened. If this entire period had been passed over in silence, God would have seemed to have neglected His servants.

Therefore, either our yesterday’s subject of comment would have been useless, or else this clause ought to be added, lest the prophecy should appear either defective or mutilated. And we previously observed that while the angel was predicting future changes, there was no omission of the Roman Empire, which is again introduced here.

Let us remember, then, that the angel is not now speaking of Antiochus, nor does he leap forward to Antichrist, as some think, but he means a perpetual series. Thus the faithful would be prepared for all assaults that might be made upon their faith, if this rampart had not been interposed.

The remainder of the verse now remains to be explained: Even to the end of the wrath, because the decision has been made. The angel had narrated the perverseness of this king in not sparing the living God, but in darting his calumnies against Him. He now adds, He shall prosper even to the end of the wrath. The angel doubtless here addresses the next trial that might utterly overwhelm the faithful, unless they hoped for some termination to it.

By wrath, he does not mean the rage of those who were sent as proconsuls into Asia and the East, or even the bitterness and rigor of the Roman people and Senate; rather, the word refers to God. We must remember, then, what I have previously impressed upon you: namely, that the sons of God are called to examine their faults and to humble themselves before God, without either murmuring or complaining when chastised by His rods. We know how impatient human nature is in bearing adversity and how grudgingly people submit to the cross, not only stubbornly refusing it but also openly rebelling against God. Hence, those who are oppressed by His hand are always rebellious, unless He reveals Himself as their judge. The angel then presents us with a reason here why God did not rashly expose His Church to the lust of the impious: He only wished to exact the punishment due to their sins, and judgment ought always to begin at the house of God, as we learn from another prophet (Isaiah 10:12; Jeremiah 25:29; 1 Peter 4:17).

The conclusion, then, is that the angel, in the first place, exhorts the pious to repentance and shows them how deservedly God laid His hand upon them, because it was absolutely necessary. He then mitigates what would otherwise have been too severe by adding, till the end—or completion. This word signifies both consumption and end, but here it means end, or completion.

The explanation next follows: since the determination—or decision—has been made, he says. This means God will not pursue His children to extremes without moderation, but will bring their punishment to an end after they have been humbled.

As we read in Isaiah chapter 40, the time of their warfare was completed when God pitied His Church and freed it from the tyranny of its enemies (Isaiah 40:2). Isaiah there speaks in the person of God: the Church had received double, meaning sufficient punishment had been exacted. It almost implies God’s being displeased with Himself for having been too severe against His Church, as we are familiar with the indulgence with which He usually treated His children. He says, then, in this passage, Even to the end of the wrath; meaning, the punishment should be only temporary, as God had prescribed a certain termination which should put an end to all their troubles and anxieties. It follows: —