മലയാളം

Theodoret of Cyrus

Nicene & Post-Nicene · AD 325–500 · 1,374 passages across 50 books

Commentary

321–340 of 1,374
Daniel 8:24

And his power shall be mighty, but not by his own power: and he shall destroy wonderfully, and shall prosper, and practise, and shall destroy the mighty and the holy people.

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

And the vision of the evening and the morning which was told is true: wherefore shut thou up the vision; for it shall be for many days.

“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

And I Daniel fainted, and was sick certain days; afterward I rose up, and did the king's business; and I was astonished at the vision, but none understood it.

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

In the first year of Darius the son of Ahasuerus, of the seed of the Medes, which was made king over the realm of the Chaldeans;

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

And I prayed unto the LORD my God, and made my confession, and said, O Lord, the great and dreadful God, keeping the covenant and mercy to them that love him, and to them that keep his commandments;

[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

We have sinned, and have committed iniquity, and have done wickedly, and have rebelled, even by departing from thy precepts and from thy judgments:

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

O Lord, righteousness belongeth unto thee, but unto us confusion of faces, as at this day; to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and unto all Israel, that are near, and that are far off, through all the countries whither thou hast driven them, because of their trespass that they have trespassed against thee.

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

O Lord, to us belongeth confusion of face, to our kings, to our princes, and to our fathers, because we have sinned against thee.

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

Yea, all Israel have transgressed thy law, even by departing, that they might not obey thy voice; therefore the curse is poured upon us, and the oath that is written in the law of Moses the servant of God, because we have sinned against him.

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

At the beginning of thy supplications the commandment came forth, and I am come to shew thee; for thou art greatly beloved: therefore understand the matter, and consider the vision.

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

Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy.

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

Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks: the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times.

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 · 2 passages

In the third year of Cyrus king of Persia a thing was revealed unto Daniel, whose name was called Belteshazzar; and the thing was true, but the time appointed was long: and he understood the thing, and had understanding of the vision.

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

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

Daniel 10:2

In those days I Daniel was mourning three full weeks.

We must seek the source of his grief.… Although the king permitted all who wanted their freedom and permission to return [to their homeland and rebuild the temple], most had built homes in Babylon and were held back by their bond to these houses and, thinking lightly of the chance to return, preferred a foreign land to their own. Only the lovers of godliness and guardians of the ancestral laws despised their possessions in Babylon and preferred their desolate homeland and its kingdom. Then the following fact also wrought a great pain for blessed Daniel: when he saw the trustworthiness of the divine promise and the kindness and benevolence of the king—and the stubborn and ungovernable nature of the people—he was very despondent in his soul, and he spent his time grieving.… He spent three weeks fasting.

COMMENTARY ON DANIEL 10:2-3

Daniel 10:3

I ate no pleasant bread, neither came flesh nor wine in my mouth, neither did I anoint myself at all, till three whole weeks were fulfilled.

Daniel paid no attention to his body in these days either by anointing the outside or [by taking] food within. Quite well and usefully he has added the descriptor desirable not to meat but to bread. For bread is the most necessary food of all; the wealthy enjoy meat, but the poor as well as the rich enjoy bread. Therefore, he called it “the desirable bread,” on the grounds that is a most common food and most desired of all food.

COMMENTARY ON DANIEL 10:2-3

Daniel 10:4

And in the four and twentieth day of the first month, as I was by the side of the great river, which is Hiddekel;

On the fourteenth day of the first month at evening the divine law commanded them to celebrate the Passover, but blessed Daniel maintained his fast until the twenty-fourth day.… Daniel did not celebrate the Passover in obedience to the law, which expressly commands Israel to celebrate the three feast days in the place which the Lord God chose. Those Jews who dared to celebrate these festivals in a foreign land would have been transgressing this command.

COMMENTARY ON DANIEL 10:4

Daniel 10:6

His body also was like the beryl, and his face as the appearance of lightning, and his eyes as lamps of fire, and his arms and his feet like in colour to polished brass, and the voice of his words like the voice of a multitude.

He says, “And his body was like Tharseis” instead of “it resembled purified gold brought from Tharseis,” for refined gold was brought to Solomon from there. “And his face was like the appearance of lightning.” He says that a radiance resembling light shone from his face. “And his eyes were like lamps of fire and his arms and legs like the sight of burnished bronze and the sound of his words like the sound of a crowd.” He says that he has eyes emitting fire and arms resembling the finest bronze. You would think that he had heard a multitude speaking.

COMMENTARY ON DANIEL 10:5-6

Daniel 10:7

And I Daniel alone saw the vision: for the men that were with me saw not the vision; but a great quaking fell upon them, so that they fled to hide themselves.

But perhaps someone would say, “Why then did they flee, if they did not see the vision?” Most likely this fact is what filled them all the more with dread, for since they saw no one and yet heard a great voice, they likely all ran away in fright. Then he calls their astonishment not only cowardice but also the inability to see. These events resemble the things that happened to Paul on the road near Damascus. There he too saw a light that flashed around him. His companions saw nothing but only heard a voice. And then his companions likewise fled from the divine prophet when they heard only the voice, while he remained there alone.

COMMENTARY ON DANIEL 10:7

Daniel 10:13

But the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me one and twenty days: but, lo, Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me; and I remained there with the kings of Persia.

He does not simply say “prince of the Persians” but “prince of the kingdom of the Persians.” He means to say “the one entrusted to rule over the very king of the Persians.”

COMMENTARY ON DANIEL 10:13-14

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