Theodoret of Cyrus — Commentary on Scripture

Daniel 8:13

The word phelmouni means “a person” in Greek; Syriac, which is close to Hebrew, also confirms this. So blessed Daniel is saying, I heard one holy one asking another holy one. Clearly he is witnessing angels conversing and wanting to learn how long is the period of the offenses of impiety and lawlessness, the devastation of the temple, the illicit and loathsome sacrifice and the oppression of the people.

COMMENTARY ON DANIEL 8:13

Daniel 8:14

By “evening” he referred to the beginning of the calamities and by “morning” to the end of the calamities, since night and darkness are figures of distress. From the present time, the beginning of the troubles, to the end, he is saying, the period is of that length [twenty-three hundred evenings and mornings].

COMMENTARY ON DANIEL 8:14

Daniel 8:16

I heard someone else as well using a human voice and bidding the one standing near me, whom he called Gabriel, to interpret the riddle of the revelation to me. It is possible from what was said to come to the conclusion that the one giving the orders was the Lord.

COMMENTARY ON DANIEL 8:16

Daniel 8:17

Do not think that these things come to fulfillment in the present age; they will happen after a great number of years. When the set time has run its course, then each of them will reach its fulfillment.

COMMENTARY ON DANIEL 8:17

Daniel 8:18

Perceiving me prostrate with fear, he first set me upright, then consoled me by making known why he had come, to inform me in my anxiety of the future and what in turn would overtake my people as a result of God’s wrath. Then, in his wish to allay the fear besetting me, he mentioned that this would happen after a time and interpreted to me the meaning of each of the things I had seen.

COMMENTARY ON DANIEL 8:18-19

Daniel 8:22

After [Alexander’s] death his empire will be divided into four kingdoms, but though those reigning over them are four, they will not succeed in achieving what he achieved but will be seen to be much inferior to his strength.

COMMENTARY ON DANIEL 8:22

Daniel 8:24

Nothing will be an obstacle to him; instead, he will do what he wishes. Of such people blessed David says in exhortation, “Do not vie with the one who prospers in his way, with the one who commits lawlessness”: it often happens that people living a godless and lawless life prosper considerably in their lawless pursuits.

COMMENTARY ON DANIEL 8:24-25

Daniel 8:26

“Seal up the vision because it will be in many days time,” that is, leave it obscure for many people; I have made it clear to you in your longing before the event.

COMMENTARY ON DANIEL 8:26

Daniel 8:27

On learning the troubles that would overtake the people in due course, I became so unwell as to fall a victim to illness. Yet despite being thus indisposed, I managed the work entrusted to me by the king, with no one aware of the cause of the sickness. He was in the habit of saying along with blessed Paul, “Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is made to stumble, and I am not indignant?” and “Weeping with those who weep, rejoicing with those who rejoice,” and “If one limb suffers, all the limbs suffer together.” This man felt the same way, and he had this affection for his fellow slaves; and on learning of the calamities to overtake his fellow slaves many generations later, he kept weeping and wailing. He had a precise knowledge that he personally would not experience those things but would instead be freed from the present life before long.

COMMENTARY ON DANIEL 8:27

Daniel 9:1

We must distinguish between the reign of Darius son of Ahasuerus and that of Darius the Persian. In this way, the things that are now being read will harmonize with the things that were spoken earlier. He did not simply introduce Darius as Darius the Mede but rather as one “from the race of the Medes.” Now, as it is clear, he was not a Mede on both sides of his family, that is, on his father’s and mother’s side. At the same time he ruled over the kingdom of the Chaldeans, when Belshazzar was killed in the middle of the night by a divine intervention after his godless act. According to my research, this Darius seems to have reigned for a very brief time.

COMMENTARY ON DANIEL 9:1-2

Daniel 9:4

[Daniel] calls [God] “great and wonderful” for his ability to do great and wonderful things. Godly people, after all, are accustomed to apply divine names on the basis of benefits conferred. He spoke of his “keeping covenant and mercy with those who love him” in recalling the promises to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Being very precise in his prayer, he mentions that he does not keep it with anyone but with “those who love him and keep his commandments;” if someone transgresses your commands, he renders himself unworthy of the promises.

COMMENTARY ON DANIEL 9:4

Daniel 9:5-6

Then to bring out God’s constant care for them and the people’s great insensitivity, [Daniel] went on, “We have not hearkened to your servants the prophets, who kept speaking in your name to our kings, to our rulers, to our fathers and to the whole people of the land.” Your grace did not cease watching over us and speaking through the prophets, at one time to kings and rulers, at another to priests and teachers, referring to them as fathers, and on many occasions to the whole people. Yet even when this happened, we continued to contradict you.

COMMENTARY ON DANIEL 9:6

Daniel 9:7

Lord, the things done by you proclaim your righteousness. But we are ashamed because of our great transgression and denounced for our own ingratitude. No harm comes to you because of our godlessness, but we have reaped the fruit of these seeds. He speaks in a pitiable fashion. Daniel both accuses his kin and associates himself with their trespasses.

COMMENTARY ON DANIEL 9:7

Daniel 9:8

Each of these would be enough to turn the most savage person to tears, not to mention what it would do to the gentle and humane individual. Through these words he shows that not only the lowest and unnoticed of the people had been filled with shame but also the kings themselves and the princes and the priests—the latter he called “fathers.” Then, to show the justice of the punishment, he added, “because we sinned against you.”

COMMENTARY ON DANIEL 9:8

Daniel 9:11

If some had sinned while others had been diligent keepers of your laws, they would not have awaited this misfortune. But since their transgression was common to all and had been undertaken by all, Daniel quite reasonably says, “The curse has fallen on.…” By “oath” he refers to the one made in Deuteronomy: “I will raise my hand to heaven and I will swear by my right hand and I will say, ‘As I live forever, I will sharpen my sword like lightning, and my hand of judgment will be stretched out, and I will avenge.…’ ” And a little before this he says, “I said, ‘I will scatter them and make the memory of them to cease from among humankind.’ ” He is describing the curse that was uttered by the six tribes that were on Mount Ebal. So he is saying that the oath and curse that had been spoken in the law of Moses is actualized with us.

COMMENTARY ON DANIEL 9:10-11

Daniel 9:23

The Lord … sent me to convey the future to you. For your part, give precise attention to what is said; what will be said is too profound for a human being (the meaning of “understand what is in the vision”), that is, what will be said in riddles, and requires of you precise attention for grasping it. Now, riddles occur when divine realities are spoken and written, the purpose being to prevent what is revealed to the holy ones becoming clear to everyone; after all, familiarity breeds contempt.

COMMENTARY ON DANIEL 9:22-23

Daniel 9:24

Daniel … teaches that God decided that a period of 490 years should be allotted to Jerusalem to enjoy divine gifts as usual until it committed that sacrilegious and fearsome crime—I mean, the crucifixion of the Savior, who is known as Holy of Holies for his being the fount of holiness; he is anointed in his humanity by the Holy Spirit, and seals and confirms the ancient prophecies by fulfilling everything foretold by them and grants forgiveness of sins to those who believe in him.

COMMENTARY ON DANIEL 9:24

Daniel 9:25

Now, it gave Christ a second name as leader.… He is our leader in his humanity as “the firstborn of all creation,” that is, a new creation: “If anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation”24—and as firstborn from the dead, so as to have, as Paul says, “first place in everything.” Hence holy Gabriel called him “Christ the leader.” To him from the rebuilding of Jerusalem, therefore, are “seven weeks and sixty-two weeks.”

COMMENTARY ON DANIEL 9:25

Daniel 10:1

To some it seems that Daniel is mistaken about the time and the one writing the book from the beginning puts “in the third year” instead of “in the first year.” And the proof of this is that the blessed Daniel says right after the beginning of the prophecy, “And Daniel continued until year one of King Cyrus.” For if the prophet had lived only up until the first year of Cyrus’ reign, the critic says, how could he have seen the revelation in the third year? Now I think that the former does not indicate the stated time nor does “the first year of Cyrus’ reign” mark the end of blessed Daniel’s life. For he does not say “until the first year of Cyrus the king” but “for year one.” As it appears to me, he intends to instruct those encountering the prophetic book that he survived until Cyrus, king of the Persians, who set free those Jewish captives.

COMMENTARY ON DANIEL 10:1

Daniel 10:1

Quite suitably he calls it “a word” and “a vision.” He saw holy angels; he also heard them conversing and from them learned accurately the things that would happen. And he says that the word was “true” so that all might receive the things about to be spoken without any doubts.

COMMENTARY ON DANIEL 10:1