Readings:
Daniel 11-12
Tobit 1

Daniel 11-12

This is the prophetic telling of the future story of the Persians and Greeks. The fourth king mentioned is Xerxes who launched an invasion of the Greek city states, which ended in defeat for the Persians in 480BC. Then the “great king” is Alexander the Great who died without successor and so his kingdom was split between his four top generals. The following parts mostly follow a struggle for power and hegemony in the near east between the Ptolemaic dynasty of Egypt and Seleucid dynasty of Syria. Both dynasties were Greek and both kingdoms are interchangeably called Greek, so it can be confusing sometimes.

Alexander the Great is said to have visited Jerusalem and offered a sacrifice at the temple at the direction of the high priest, whom Alexander spared when he threw open the doors of the city upon his arrival. Alexander even told the high priest that he had dreamed of him and that is why he was spared. Josephus then recounts in his Antiquities of the Jews, that the priests brought the scroll of the prophet Daniel to Alexander and showed him the parts concerning himself.

And when the Book of Daniel was showed him wherein Daniel declared that one of the Greeks should destroy the empire of the Persians, he supposed that himself was the person intended. And as he was then glad, he dismissed the multitude for the present.

Flavius Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, book 11, 337

The reason all this back and forth between the “king of the north” and the “king of the south” is that the route from Egypt to Syria runs straight through Israel. So their armies would constantly fight over this middle ground between the two.

Starting in verse 21 we hear of a “contemptible person” and this is none other than the forerunner of the antichrist, Antiochus Epiphanes. The Seleucid empire had reached its peak when Antiochus III had attempted to project his imperial powers beyond the Aegean but was met by the Roman republic and its great Scipio brothers who defeated him (mentioned in verse 18) and saw the beginning of the end of Seleucid control in the near east.

Antiochus IV Epiphanes set out to reestablish the dominance of his dynasty and in 167 BC he laid siege to Jerusalem. Once through the gates he led a great slaughter of the people and desecrated the temple. At one point he is said to have sacrificed a pig on the alter and erected an idol of Zeus. He even went as far as to imagine that he was divine himself. All of these events will be gone over in greater detail when we get to 1 and 2 Maccabees.

In chapter 12 it becomes more difficult to decipher what’s being said because it mentions the general resurrection of the dead, and we know this takes place at the very end of all time, so it seems like these events with Antiochus is a foretaste of the evil that will take place at the end of days.

Tobit 1

Today we begin reading the book of Tobit. This book is another one of the Seven Books removed from the Old Testament in Protestant bibles. It’s Aramaic original manuscript has not survived, and we only have it in its complete form in the Greek translations of the Old Testament. This is one of the reasons cited for its exclusion from Protestant versions of the scriptures, but in recent decades we have found fragments of the text in its original Aramaic at the caves in Qumran.

The book is set mainly in two locations; in Nineveh and in western Persia. It’s written as a story of a pious man from the tribe of Naphtali, his son, and their distant relative in Persia. Some say it’s a parable or fable meant to convey a religious message, and others say it’s an actual account of these real people. Which one is correct is beyond my level of knowledge of this book, but either one is viable. I

f it’s a fable, then it still has important things to teach us. We all learn valuable lessons from the prodigal son, and yet he was an invented character. If it’s a true story with actual events then the previous statement is still true, but the story becomes even more amazing due to the supernatural happenings in the book.

Either way it’s a lesson to remain faithful to God even when times are tough and your faith is tested.

The narration at the beginning sets out how Tobit used to travel to Jerusalem with his tithes and performed sacrifices to God at his temple. After the national divorce during the succession of Solomon’s son to the throne, the northern kingdom erected shrines and places of sacrifice so that the people of the northern kingdom would not travel to Judah to sacrifice at the Jerusalem temple. This worked for the majority of the people, but there remained some faithful Israelites in the north that thought it more important to abide by God’s law than to appease their ruler. Tobit was one of these righteous people.

Tobit was an exile living in Nineveh but the new king did not like his act of charity in burying the Israelites who died in exile and he was sought to be killed, but hid himself. He loses his property and possessions but survives with his wife and son until they’re pardoned after Sennacherib was assassinated by his own sons. It doesn’t mention if he was restored in property or possessions but at least he lived to see another day.

Tomorrow’s Readings:
Daniel 13-14
Tobit 2-3