Daniel 8:14

unto me Sept. Theod. Pesh. unto him, which is adopted by most moderns, and is probably right.

unto two thousand and three hundred evenings, mornings] i.e. successive evenings and mornings: cf. Daniel 8:26 -the vision of the evenings and the mornings." The expression is peculiar; but it seems to have been suggested by the fact that the burnt-offering (Daniel 8:11; Daniel 8:13) was offered morning and evening daily (Exodus 29:38-42); the meaning consequently is that this offering would cease for 2300 times, i.e. during 1150 days (so most commentators). In Daniel 7:25 (where see the note), Daniel 12:7, the period of persecution is to last 31/2 years, i.e. (if the year be reckoned at 360 days) 1260 days, or, if account be taken of the varying possibilities of the Calendar in use in the 2nd century b.c. [327], 1274 or 1309 days; and, according to 1Ma 1:54; 1Ma 4:52-53, the interval which actually elapsed between the erection of the heathen altar upon the altar of burnt-offering, on the 15th of Chisleu, b.c. 168, and the dedication of the new altar on the 25th of Chisleu, b.c. 165, was 3 years and 10 days (i.e. 1090, 1102 3, or 1132 3 days). The period assigned here is some months less than 31/2 years; it is not however identified with the entire period of the persecution, but only with that part of it during which the daily sacrifice was interrupted and the Temple desecrated. It seems therefore (cf. Daniel 12:11) that 15 Chisleu b.c. 168 must be the terminus a quo, the end of the period assigned not agreeing precisely with the event. Cornill's supposition (pp. 22 26) that the edict of Antiochus (1 Macc. 1:44 6) is the terminus a quo, in spite of the very ingenious argument by which he seeks to shew that this edict might have been issued just 1150 days before 25 Chisleu, b.c. 165, hardly does justice to the terms of Daniel 8:13 (which lay stress on the cessation of the daily sacrificeas the beginning of the period referred to); cf. Bevan, p. 128 f.

[327] Cornill, Die Siebzig Jahrwochen Daniels(1889), p. 22.

By some commentators the expression -evening, morning" has been understood as equivalent to day(cf. Genesis 1:5 b, Genesis 1:8 b, &c.); and the 2300 days have been reckoned either from the time when Menelaus, in 171, purchased for himself the high-priesthood from Antiochus (see on Daniel 9:26) to the dedication of the Temple in Dec. 165, or from the profanation of the Temple in Dec. 168 to the great victory of Judas over Nicanor at Adasa, near Beth-horon (1Ma 7:43-50) on Adar 13, b.c. 162 (cf. Hävernick, Pusey, p. 219). But either of these periods seems to embrace much which is not legitimately included in the terms of the question in Daniel 8:13. And as against the second period suggested, the reference to an event some two years after the death of Antiochus is not probable.

then shall the sanctuary be justified] i.e. have justice done to it, be shewn not to have deserved desecration. "The justification of the sanctuary is the vindication of its cause, for as long as it is polluted it lies under condemnation" (Bevan).