147

and by whom and in what manner, and where he will end, and what change he will undergo. You will know more clearly when you have heard from the vision itself, what the prophet announced to you through a parable. For he calls the ram the king of the Persians, Darius, and the goat Alexander of the Hellenes, king of the Macedonians. He says the four horns, then, are those who rose up after him, from whom later Antiochus himself grew as a horn. For he says, "I saw in a vision, and behold, a ram was standing, and it had high horns, and the one was higher than the other. And the high 1.402 one was coming up last. And I saw the ram butting toward the sea and the north and the south, and all the beasts will not stand before him, and there was no one to deliver from his hand. And he did according to his will and became great." He means the Persian power, which overran all the earth. Then speaking about Alexander the Macedonian, he says, "and behold, a he-goat was coming from the west over the face of the whole earth, and was not touching the ground. And that goat had a conspicuous horn between its eyes." Then, speaking of his attack and encounter with Darius and his decisive victory, "the goat came," he says, "up to the ram that had the horns, and was enraged, and struck the ram, and shattered both its horns, and there was no one to deliver from his hand." Then, narrating the death of Alexander and the succession of the four kings, he continues, saying, "and when he had become strong, the great horn was broken, and four horns came up from under it, toward the four winds of heaven." From here, then, coming to the kingdom of Antiochus, and showing that he is from one of those four, he says again, "and out of one of them came forth a strong one, and it grew exceedingly great toward the south and toward the east." And signifying that he will destroy the Jewish state, he declares, "and because of him the sacrifice was troubled by a transgression, and it happened and prospered for him. And the holy place will be desolated, 1.403 and sin will be concerning the sacrifice." For when the altar was demolished and the holy things trampled underfoot, he set up an idol within, and unlawfully performed sacrifice to demons. Wherefore he says, "Righteousness was cast to the ground, and he acted, and prospered." Then again, for a second time, speaking of the same kingdom of Antiochus Epiphanes and the captivity and the capture and the desolation of the temple, he adds also the time. For beginning from the kingdom of Alexander, again toward the end of the book, and having narrated all the things in between that the Ptolemies and the Seleucids, clashing with one another, did, and what their generals accomplished, the deceptions, the victories, the campaigns, the battles, the sea-battles, the land-battles, he proceeds to Antiochus and ends again, and says, "Arms shall stand on his part, and they shall profane the sanctuary, and shall take away the continual sacrifice," meaning the customary and daily sacrifices, "and they shall place in it the abomination, and those who act lawlessly against the covenant" that is, the transgressors among the Jews, "they will lead away in slippery places with themselves and will remove, and a people that knows their God shall be strong" speaking of the events of the Maccabees and of Judas and Simon and John, "and the wise of the people shall understand many things. And they shall fall by the sword and by flame" again explaining the burning of the city "and by captivity and by spoil for days; and when they fall, they shall be helped with a little help" indicating that in the midst of those evils they will be able to take breath and recover from the 1.404 terrible things that have befallen them, "and many shall join themselves to them in slippery places, and some of the wise shall fall" showing that many of those standing will fall. Then also the reason for which God permitted them to be in such great evils. And what is this? "To refine them," he says, "and to choose them and to make them white until the time of the end." For God says these things

147

καὶ παρὰ τίνι καὶ τίνι τρόπῳ, καὶ ποῦ τελευτήσει, καὶ τίνα λήψεται μεταβολήν. εἴ σεσθε σαφέστερον αὐτῆς ἀκούσαντες τῆς ὁράσεως, ἃ διὰ παρα βολῆς ὑμῖν ὁ προφήτης ἀνήγγειλε. κριὸν μὲν καλεῖ τὸν τῶν Περ σῶν βασιλέα ∆αρεῖον, τράγον δὲ τὸν τῶν Ἑλλήνων Ἀλέξανδρον, βασιλέα τῶν Μακεδόνων. τέσσαρα δὴ κέρατα λέγει τοὺς μετ' ἐκεῖνον ἀναστάντας, ἀφ' ὧν ὕστερον κέρας αὐτὸς ὁ Ἀντίοχος ἔφυ. φησὶ γάρ "εἶδον ἐν ὁράματι, καὶ ἰδοὺ κριὸς ἑστηκώς, καὶ αὐτῷ κέρατα ὑψηλά, καὶ τὸ ἓν ὑψηλότερον τοῦ ἑτέρου. καὶ τὸ ὑψη 1.402 λὸν ἀνέβαινεν ἐπ' ἐσχάτων. καὶ εἶδον τὸν κριὸν κερατίζοντα κατὰ θάλασσαν καὶ βορρᾶν καὶ νότον, καὶ τὰ θηρία πάντα οὐ στήσεται ἐνώπιον αὐτοῦ, καὶ οὐκ ἦν ὁ ἐξαιρούμενος ἐκ χειρὸς αὐτοῦ. καὶ ἐποίησε κατὰ τὸ θέλημα αὐτοῦ καὶ ἐμεγαλύνθη." τὴν δύναμιν λέγει τὴν Περσικήν, ἣ πᾶσαν ἐπέδραμε τὴν γῆν. εἶτα περὶ τοῦ Μακεδόνος Ἀλεξάνδρου διαλεγόμενός φησι "καὶ ἰδοὺ τράγος αἰγῶν ἤρχετο ἀπὸ Λιβὸς καὶ ἐπὶ πρόσωπον πάσης τῆς γῆς, καὶ οὐκ ἦν ἁπτόμενος τῆς γῆς. καὶ τῷ τράγῳ ἐκείνῳ κέρας ἐθεωρεῖτο ἀνὰ μέσον τῶν ὀφθαλμῶν αὐτοῦ." εἶτα λέγων τὴν πρὸς ∆αρεῖον προσβολὴν καὶ συμβολὴν αὐτοῦ γενομένην καὶ τὴν κατὰ κράτος νίκην, "ἦλθε" φησίν "ὁ τράγος ἕως τοῦ κριοῦ τοῦ τὰ κέρατα ἔχοντος, καὶ ἠγριώθη, καὶ ἔπαισε τὸν κριόν, καὶ συνέτριψεν ἀμφότερα τὰ κέρατα αὐτοῦ, καὶ οὐκ ἦν ὁ ἐξαιρούμενος ἐκ χειρὸς αὐτοῦ." ἔπειτα διηγούμενος τὴν Ἀλεξάνδρου τελευτὴν καὶ τὴν τῶν τεσσάρων βασιλέων διαδοχήν, ἐπάγει λέγων "καὶ ἐν τῷ ἰσχῦ σαι αὐτὸν συνετρίβη τὸ κέρας τὸ μέγα, καὶ ἀνέβη κέρατα τέσσαρα ὑποκάτωθεν αὐτοῦ, εἰς τοὺς τέσσαρας ἀνέμους τοῦ οὐρανοῦ." ἐντεῦθεν λοιπὸν ἐπὶ τὴν Ἀντιόχου βασιλείαν ἐλθών, καὶ δεικνὺς ὅτι ἐξ ἑνὸς ἐκείνων τῶν τεσσάρων ἐστί, πάλιν φησί "καὶ ἐξῆλθεν ἐκ τοῦ ἑνὸς ἰσχυρόν, καὶ ἐμεγαλύνθη περισσῶς πρὸς νότον καὶ πρὸς ἀνατολήν." καὶ σημαίνων ὅτι τὴν Ἰουδαϊκὴν πολιτείαν καθελεῖ, φάσκει "καὶ δι' αὐτὸν θυσία ἐταράχθη παραπτώματι, καὶ ἐγενήθη καὶ κατευωδώθη αὐτό. καὶ τὸ ἅγιον ἐρημωθήσεται, 1.403 καὶ γενήσεται περὶ τὴν θυσίαν ἁμαρτία." τοῦ γὰρ βωμοῦ καθαι ρεθέντος καὶ τῶν ἁγίων καταπατηθέντων εἴδωλον ἔστησεν ἔνδον, καὶ θυσίαν ἐπετέλει τοῖς δαίμοσι παρανόμως. ὅθεν φησίν "ἐρρίφη χαμαὶ ἡ δικαιοσύνη, καὶ ἐποίησε, καὶ εὐωδώθη." εἶτα πάλιν ἐκ δευτέρου τὴν αὐτὴν βασιλείαν Ἀντιόχου ἐπιφανοῦς λέγων καὶ τὴν αἰχμαλωσίαν καὶ τὴν ἅλωσιν καὶ τὴν ἐρήμωσιν τοῦ ἱεροῦ, προστί θησι καὶ τὸν χρόνον. ἀρξάμενος γὰρ ἀπὸ τῆς Ἀλεξάνδρου βασι λείας, αὖθις πρὸς τῷ τέλει τοῦ βιβλίου καὶ τὰ μεταξὺ πάντα διη γησάμενος ὅσα οἱ Πτολεμαῖοι καὶ οἱ Σέλευκοι συρραγέντες ἀλλή λοις ἐποίησαν καὶ οἱ στρατηγοὶ τούτων εἰργάσαντο, τοὺς δόλους τὰς νίκας τὰς στρατείας τὰς μάχας τὰς ναυμαχίας τὰς πεζο μαχίας, προϊὼν εἰς Ἀντίοχον τελευτᾷ πάλιν, καὶ φησί "βραχίονες ἐξ αὐτοῦ στήσονται, καὶ βεβηλώσουσι τὸ ἁγίασμα, καὶ μετα στήσουσι τὸν ἐνδελεχισμόν," τὰς συνήθεις λέγων θυσίας καὶ καθημερινάς, "καὶ δώσουσιν εἰς αὐτὸν βδέλυγμα, καὶ τοὺς ἀνο μοῦντας διαθήκην" τουτέστι τοὺς παραβαίνοντας τῶν Ἰουδαίων "ἀπάξουσιν ἐν ὀλισθήμασι μεθ' ἑαυτῶν καὶ μεταστήσουσι, καὶ λαὸς γινώσκων τὸν θεὸν αὐτοῦ κατισχύσουσι" τὰ ἐπὶ τῶν Μακ καβαίων λέγων καὶ τὰ ἐπὶ Ἰούδα καὶ Σίμωνος καὶ Ἰωάννου, "καὶ οἱ συνετοὶ λαοῦ συνήσουσιν εἰς πολλά. καὶ ἀσθενήσουσιν ἐν ῥομ φαίᾳ καὶ ἐν φλογί" τὸν ἐμπρησμὸν τῆς πόλεως ἐξηγούμενος πάλιν "καὶ ἐν αἰχμαλωσίᾳ καὶ ἐν διαρπαγῇ ἡμερῶν· καὶ ἐν τῷ ἀσθενῆ σαι αὐτοὺς βοηθήσονται βοήθειαν μικράν" ἐμφαίνων ὅτι μεταξὺ τῶν κακῶν ἐκείνων δυνήσονται ἀναπνεῦσαι καὶ ἀνενεγκεῖν ἐκ τῶν 1.404 κατειληφότων αὐτοὺς δεινῶν, "καὶ προστεθήσονται πρὸς αὐτοὺς πολλοὶ ἐν ὀλισθήμασι, καὶ ἀπὸ τῶν συνιόντων ἀσθενήσουσι" δεικνὺς ὅτι πολλοὶ καὶ τῶν ἑστώτων πεσοῦνται. εἶτα καὶ τὴν αἰτίαν δι' ἣν συνεχώρησεν αὐτοὺς ὁ θεὸς ἐν τοσούτοις κακοῖς γίνε σθαι. τίς δὲ αὕτη; "τοῦ πυρῶσαι" φησίν "ἐν αὐτοῖς καὶ τοῦ ἐκλέξασθαι καὶ τοῦ ἐκλευκᾶναι ἕως καιροῦ πέρας." ταῦτα γάρ φησιν ὁ θεὸς