{"author":null,"canonical_references":[],"database_sha256":"8cfbe7284c6936871d57c02dc6aa63ebbdfd4722422d539dd9f716e46e91112e","date_end":null,"date_start":null,"edition_year":null,"id":"sermonindex-ecf-3537","native_reference":{"book_number":340,"chapter_from":10,"chapter_to":10,"system":"MyBible module coordinates (mapping unverified)","verse_from":13,"verse_to":13},"public_import_allowed":false,"record_kind":"verse-keyed-module-record","review_required":["English edition and exact text","author/work attribution","dating","verse mapping and citation kind","reuse and attribution","split author quotations and deduplicate"],"review_status":"unreviewed","source_html":"<p><b>Cosmas Indicopleustes</b>: And 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 left him there with the King of the Persians. Now I am come to make thee understand what shall befall thy people in the latter days. The expression he withstood me, and that other, he came and went away and I left him there, and others of like import, refer to beings whose natures are circumscribed<br/><i>— The Christian Topography, Book 2</i></p><p><b>Hippolytus of Rome</b>: But who is Michael, but the angel who is granted to the people, as he says to Moses, \"I will not go with you on the way because the people are stiff necked, but my angel will go with you\"? [Exodus 33:3] This one stood against Moses in the encampment when he carried the uncircumcised boy [Exodus 4:24-25] to Egypt. For it was not possible for Moses to be the elder and mediator of the law, who also announced the covenant of the fathers, and also to lead the uncircumcised boy, so that he may not be considered by the people as a false prophet and a deceiver.<br/><i>— Commentary on Daniel 4.40.4-5</i></p><p><b>Jerome</b>: Verse 13. \"But the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me for twenty-one days.\" In my opinion this was the angel to whose charge Persia was committed, in accordance with what we read in Deuteronomy: \"When the Most High divided the nations and distributed the children of Adam abroad, then He established the bounds of the nations according to the number of the angels of God\" (Deuteronomy 32:8). These are the princes of whom Paul also says: \"We speak forth among the perfect a wisdom which none of the princes of this world knew. For if they had known it, they would never have crucified the Lord of Glory\" (1 Corinthians 2:6-8). And so the prince or angel of the Persians offered resistance, acting on behalf of the province entrusted to him, in order that the entire captive nation might not be released. And it may well be that although the prophet was graciously heard by God from the day when he set his heart to understand, the angel was nevertheless not sent to proclaim to him God's gracious decision, for the reason that the prince of Persia opposed him for twenty-one days, enumerating the sins of the Jewish people as a ground for their justly being kept in captivity and as proof that they ought not to be released.</p><p>\"And behold, Michael, one of the chief princes, came to my assistance.\" That is, while the angel of the Persians was resisting thy petitions and my representations on thy behalf as I presented thy prayers to God, then there came to my assistance the angel Michael, who has oversight of the people of Israel. By chief princes we are of course to understand archangels.</p><p>\"And I remained there close by the king of the Persians.\" He designates the angel or prince by the term \"king of the Persians,\" and shows that he had tarried with Michael for a little as he spoke in opposition to the prince of the Persians.<br/><i>— St. Jerome, Commentary on Daniel, CHAPTER TEN</i></p><p><b>John Cassian</b>: We cannot possibly doubt that this prince of the kingdom of the Persians was a hostile power that befriended the nation of the Persians as an enemy of God's people. For in order to hinder the good which he saw would result from the archangel's solution to the question for which the prophet prayed to the Lord, in his jealousy he strove to prevent the saving comfort of the angel from reaching Daniel too speedily and strengthening the people of God, over which the archangel Gabriel was set.<br/><i>— CONFERENCE 8:13</i></p><p><b>Origen of Alexandria</b>: Accordingly we find in the holy Scriptures that there are rulers over individual nations, as for instance, we read in Daniel of a certain \"prince of the kingdom of the Persians\" and another \"prince of the kingdom of the Greeks,\" who, as is clearly shown by the sense of the passage itself, are not humans but powers.<br/><i>— ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 3:3.2</i></p><p><b>Theodoret of Cyrus</b>: 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.\"<br/><i>— COMMENTARY ON Daniel 10:13-14</i></p><p><b>Theodoret of Cyrus</b>: MOSES TEACHES US THESE THINGS MORE DISTINCTLY: \"For when the Most High allotted the nations, as he scattered the sons of Adam, he appointed the boundaries of the nations according to the numbers of the angels.\" And in the holy Gospels our Lord says to the apostles, \"See that you do not despise one of these little ones, because their angels daily see the face of my Father in heaven.\" … We learn then from these passages that each of the angels is entrusted with our care, to guard and protect us and to ward off the wicked demon's plots, but the archangels are entrusted with authority over the nations.… And blessed Daniel agrees with them, for he also speaks of the prince of the kingdom of the Persians [and] … the prince of the Greeks, and [he] calls the prince of Israel Michael.Why then [does] the prince of the Persian kingdom seem to oppose the advocate of God's people? After all, it is clear to everyone that the nature of the angels is better than the passions by which we are gripped, and their nature is full of holiness. The fact that they unquestionably obey the wishes of God can be learned throughout Scripture. How then does the prince of the kingdom of the Persians seem to oppose the care of the Israelites?… For the prince of the Persians and the prince of Greeks, that is, those who have been entrusted with the protection and care of these nations, inasmuch as they are fondly disposed toward those in their care and see the transgression of Israel, were displeased to see the Israelites enjoying more consideration. They did not know the mystery that had been hidden in God, who made all things. After the incarnation of our Savior, as Paul says, \"The manifold wisdom of God was made known to the rulers and authorities through the church.\" Therefore, since they did not know this mystery and they saw God's great providence for Israel, those who had been entrusted with the care for the other nations were displeased to see that after the law, the prophets and such teaching and care, the Israelites behaved worse and were inflamed by more evil than the nations who were shepherded by them.<br/><i>— COMMENTARY ON Daniel 10:13</i></p><p><b>Theodoret of Cyrus</b>: This means \"I spent all these days persuading him how the Israelites were justifiably worthy of this attention. And Michael, one of the chief princes, joined in advocating with me.\"<br/><i>— COMMENTARY ON Daniel 10:13</i></p>","source_html_sha256":"34195f82db60ce72a12c98b473b1c692fe51db0a883c25c5f26888b541619a3a","source_module":"ECF","source_row_id":3537,"source_url":"https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/ecf/","text_sha256":"5c0b5724591c59ea24b806fe89a74d1d0c7e0c779bd28155267810126cdea5b7","translator":null,"work":null}