Dave

???

spin

Take it as from the fall of Jerusalem to Nebuchadnezzar down to the time of Antiochus IV who polluted the Jerusalem temple.

The anointed prince is Yeshua the high priest who returned from Babylon (9:25).

The anointed one cut off after a further 62 weeks is Onias III the high priest removed from office by Antiochus IV in 175 BCE and he was killed (cut off) three years later ie 172/171.

Half a week of years later Antiochus polluted the temple setting up a Greek statue there and having pigs sacrificed there.

Antiochus is the prince who comes to destroy the city and the sanctuary.

Much of Daniel 7-12 is about Antiochus, the "little horn" in two of the visions.


spin

Dave

dont get it. my stupid bible teacher said that it predicted the coming of the messiah and that it was true. i dont believe it.

spin

Your bible teacher is selling the party line. Most non-academic xians don't understand Daniel because they believe it prophecies about Jesus. However, Daniel was almost certainly written in 164 BCE, just before the death of Antiochus IV. Chapter 11 from verse 21 onwards tells of events in his reign and has the story right except for the ending, which predicts the death of Antiochus IV (erroneously) and the end of the world.

Get hold of an scholarly commentary on Daniel and read about it for yourself. The best I'm told is by JJ Collins (whose work is generally very good), but most serious commentaries will give you the background information. Avoid works that are not scholarly, because they'll just sell you the same stuff as your bible teacher.

Daniel has no interest in, or knowledge of, Jesus. He was writing 200 years before Jesus in a specific historical context, when Jerusalem was being run by people in the pay of Antiochus IV (who was king of the Seleucid empire, called "king of the north" in Dan 11:21 onwards).

Most xians are hopeless about this text. Forget about them, unless you want to get into useless wrangling. They are not interested in history.


spin

Intelligitimate

The insanity of Christian eisegesis is mind-boggling at times, especially when it comes to Daniel. I recently heard a Christian say the fourth man in Daniel 3:25 is noneother than Jesus himself!

Pay no attention to what Christians have to say about this book.

CX

We should be cautious not to paint with too broad a brush. The preoccupation with OT prophecy and Jesus is a largely protestant fundamentalist one. Although such individuals are legion on internet message boards they are not a majority of Xians.

Vorkosigan

I don't think even all the Fundies regard it as such. Isn't it mostly a dispensationalist thing?

spin

Lots and lots of fundies, evangelicals, rollers, the lot of the whackos, many catholics, hey, I'm surprised that you guys haven't found this. You can't for example talk anyone through the "one like the son of man" in Dan 7.


spin