{"author":null,"canonical_references":[],"database_sha256":"8cfbe7284c6936871d57c02dc6aa63ebbdfd4722422d539dd9f716e46e91112e","date_end":null,"date_start":null,"edition_year":null,"id":"sermonindex-ecf-3590","native_reference":{"book_number":340,"chapter_from":12,"chapter_to":12,"system":"MyBible module coordinates (mapping unverified)","verse_from":7,"verse_to":7},"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>Augustine of Hippo</b>: The word times may seem an indefinite plural in our language [Latin], but the Greek texts (and, so I am told, the Hebrew texts as well) show that \"times\" is written in the dual number and so means \"two times.\"<br/><i>— City of God 20.23</i></p><p><b>Augustine of Hippo</b>: The last of all persecutions, the antichrist's, is to go on for three and a half years.… Now the question, quite reasonably, presents itself: Should these three and a half years, brief as they are, be included in the thousand years of the devil's binding and the saints' reign with Christ, or are they outside the thousand and superadded to them?… We conclude that the reign of Christ with his saints will be longer than the devil's bonds and imprisonment, for, even when he is released, they will continue to reign with their King, the Son of God, for these three and a half years.<br/><i>— City of God 20.13</i></p><p><b>Hippolytus of Rome</b>: What and to whom did he swear? The Son swore to Father, saying that the Father lives forever and that they truly shall know all these things in a time and times and half of a time, when the dispersal of the Jews has been consummated. And so he stretched out his hands, and through this he displayed the passion.</p><p>But when he says, \"In a time and times and half of the time,\" [Daniel 12:7] he signaled that the things of the Antichrist are for three-and-a-half years. For he says a time is one year, but times are two years, and half of a time is half of one year. These are the one thousand two hundred ninety days which Daniel foretold.<br/><i>— Commentary on Daniel 4.56.6-8</i></p><p><b>Hippolytus of Rome</b>: And so, after the dispersion of the Jews happens, the suffering of the people is consummated, in those days the Antichrist is near, then they shall know all these things. And so, O man, why do you still doubt at what was spoken, or how do you not believe what was spoken by the Lord, when his first advent has already occurred, and he who stood upon the water at that time and was seen by Daniel in the world, now is made famous and his passion is declared to all, and the dispersion has happened to the people of the Jews by the Romans?</p><p>For when he says, \"When the dispersion of the Jews is consummated they shall know all these things,\" [Daniel 12:7] then, when the Lord came to them and was not recognized by them, they were scattered into all the world, becoming exiles from their own land. And being attacked by enemies, they were banished from the city of Jerusalem, becoming a joy to all nations, so that the Gospel of the Lord may be preached in all the world and all time may be fulfilled and the end of the week may be encompassed and the two precursors of Christ may be dispatched and the abomination of desolation may be shown with them and the Judge of judges may be revealed from heaven and the resurrection of the saints and of all the world may occur and the eternal kingdom may be given to the saints and the unquenchable and sleepless fire of the impious may be inflamed.<br/><i>— Commentary on Daniel 4.57.1-3</i></p><p><b>Jerome</b>: Verse 7. \"And I heard the man that was clothed in linen, that stood upon the waters of the river: when he had lifted up his right hand and his left hand to heaven and had sworn by Him that liveth forever, that it should be unto a time and times and half a time.\" Porphyry interprets a time and times and half a time to mean three and a half years; and we for our part do not deny that this accords with the idiom of Sacred Scripture. For we read in an earlier section that seven times passed over Nebuchadnezzar, that is, the seven years of his existence as a wild beast. The expression was also used in the vision of the four beasts, the lion, the bear, the leopard, and the other beast whose name was not specified but which represented the kingdom of the Romans. Right afterwards the statement is made concerning the Antichrist that he will humble kings and utter speeches against the Exalted One and will crush the saints of the Most High; moreover he will imagine that he can alter times and laws. And the saints shall be turned over to his power unto a time and times and half a time. And the court will sit for judgment, in order that power may be removed and utterly broken and vanish away until the very end. And clearly the reference is to the coming of Christ and the saints when it is said: \"But kingdom and power and the greatness of the kingdom which lies beneath the whole heaven shall be bestowed upon the people of the saints of the Most High, whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom; and all the kings shall serve and obey Him.\" If therefore the earlier references which were plainly written concerning the Antichrist are assigned by Porphyry to Antiochus and to the three and a half years during which he asserts the Temple was deserted (cf. Verse 1, above), then he is under obligation to prove that the next statement, \"His kingdom is eternal, and all kings shall serve and obey him,\" likewise pertains to Antiochus, or else (as he himself conjectures) to the people of the Jews. But it is perfectly apparent that such an argument will never stand. We read in the books of Maccabees - and Josephus also concurs in the same opinion (Book 11, chap. 10) - that the Temple in Jerusalem lay defiled for three years, and under Antiochus Epiphanes an idol of Jupiter stood within it; that is to say, from Chislev, the ninth month, of the one hundred forty-fifth year of the Macedonian rule until the ninth month of the one hundred forty-eighth year, which amounts to three years. But under the Antichrist it is not stated that the desolation and overthrow of the holy Temple shall endure for three years, but for three years and a half, that is, one thousand two hundred and ninety days.</p><p>\"And when the scattering of the band of the holy people shall be accomplished, all these things shall be fulfilled.\" When it is stated that the people of God shall have been scattered - either under the persecution of Antiochus, as Porphyry claims, or of Antichrist, which we deem to be closer to fact - at that time shall all these things be fulfilled.<br/><i>— St. Jerome, Commentary on Daniel, CHAPTER TWELVE</i></p><p><b>Theodoret of Cyrus</b>: Here we learn accurately that the one speaking at the time was not the Lord. For as the holy apostle says, \"Since the Lord could not swear by anything greater than himself, he swore by himself, saying, 'as I live, says the Lord.' \" And blessed Moses shows him to say, \"I will lift my hand to heaven, and I will swear by my right hand and say, 'As I live forever.' \" The man in our text is one of those subjected and well disposed to the Lord.\"When the scattering of the holy people.…\" The scattering of the sanctified people will prevail for three and a half years, and all these things will be accomplished. Then they will know the holy One. He alludes here to the great Elijah; around the end of the antichrist's reign, great Elijah will appear and proclaim the second coming of our Savior.<br/><i>— COMMENTARY ON Daniel 12:7</i></p>","source_html_sha256":"53e5b7558210addb31d2c0ef86e29894580e9c076fd1e5255ee137e669f0431f","source_module":"ECF","source_row_id":3590,"source_url":"https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/ecf/","text_sha256":"1c00ac746360de3ce8ad7a03de28d444d3d6097df7d99a508af9fca01003b436","translator":null,"work":null}