Difference between revisions of "Commentary: Daniel 11, Anthony's Historicist Study Aid"

Revision as of 00:10, July 17, 2026

Anthony's Historicist Study Aid or Anthony's Study Aid of Daniel 11 is the result of a lifetime of Anthony's personal historical studies. Understanding that the chapter does not provide an interpretation and the beginning was so literal, this Author determined that the only logical conclusion was that the entire chapter was literal.

Anthony Study Aid of Daniel 11 is therefore a 'Historical Paraphrase', a 'Historical Idiom', it is a study aid. Unfortunately, we do not have the liberty here to have complete historical explanations. In the words of the AI, it is the purest example historicim in existance: in the vain of Martin Luther and Sir Isaac Newton.

Each section will have the KJV and our historical paralelle.

Daniel 11:2

2 And now will I shew thee the truth. Behold, there shall stand up yet three kings in Persia; and the fourth shall be far richer than they all: and by his strength through his riches he shall stir up all against the realm of Grecia.

2 After Cyrus the Great [530bc] shall come 1. his son Cambyses II followed [522bc] by 2. that upstart magi Faulse Smyrdis. He shall be murdered [522bc] by 3. Darius I [522-486bc] whose son 4. Xerxes will launch the ‘Second Persian Invasion of Greece’ [480-479bc] with a force so big it easily passed the million.

Daniel 11:3

3 And a mighty king shall stand up, that shall rule with great dominion, and do according to his will.

3 Consequentially Alexander the Great shall arise to whom there has been no equal: His kingdom will be bigger than all those before and none shall defeat him, despite the odds. [336–323bc]

Daniel 11:4

4 And when he shall stand up, his kingdom shall be broken, and shall be divided toward the four winds of heaven; and not to his posterity, nor according to his dominion which he ruled: for his kingdom shall be plucked up, even for others beside those.

4 And once Alexander has forged his empire, he shall suddenly die [323bc] and his kingdom shall not go to his child, but after some time (and battles) to his remaining four generals who declared themselves kings [304bc]: 1. Ptolomy in Egypt and Lybia; 2. Seleucus from the east of Turkey through Syria all the way into India; 3. Lysimicus controlled western Turkey through eastern Greece and 4. Cassander shall control western and southern Greece.

Daniel 11:5

5 And the king of the south shall be strong, and one of his princes; and he shall be strong above him, and have dominion; his dominion shall be a great dominion.

5 So Ptolemy I [305bc] shall be strong as the dominant power of the South: but Seleucus I Nicator who had been sheltered by Ptolemy I after losing Babylon to Antigonus [316bc] and served as one of his commanders, shall with Ptolemy I’s support recapture Babylon [312bc]. Thus after this, Seleucus I Nicator shall wrest the domains of both Lysimachus and Cassander [281bc], and so become stronger than Ptolemy I; and he shall have a great dominion.

Daniel 11:6

6 And in the end of years they shall join themselves together; for the king’s daughter of the south shall come to the king of the north to make an agreement: but she shall not retain the power of the arm; neither shall he stand, nor his arm: but she shall be given up, and they that brought her, and he that begat her, and he that strengthened her in these times.

6 And after some significant time and the ‘Second Syrian War’, Antiochus II and Ptolemy II shall conclude peace [253bc] contractually by Antiochus II disenfranchising his wife, his children and then marrying Ptolemy II’s daughter Berenice to create a new line of succession. So Ptolemy II shall escort her to Antioch for the wedding [c.252bc] and after several years die of old age [246bc]. After which Antiochus II shall be murdered by his ex-wife, as well as Berenice, their child and all Berenice’s Egyptian attendants [246bc].

Daniel 11:7

7 But out of a branch of her roots shall one stand up in his estate, which shall come with an army, and shall enter into the fortress of the king of the north, and shall deal against them, and shall prevail:

7 Now out of Berenice’s own family roots shall her brother Ptolemy III leap from the throne of his kingdom, and shall rally an army of revenge creating the ‘Third Syrian War’ [246-241bc]. He shall fantastically sweep through the domains of the King of the North, even conquering some of the most fortified of cities, including most of Babylon and briefly the capitol Antioch itself.

Daniel 11:8

8 And shall also carry captives into Egypt their gods, with their princes, and with their precious vessels of silver and of gold; and he shall continue more years than the king of the north.

8 So Ptolemy III shall return into Egypt enriched with the children of the elite (as political prisoners), general captives and plunder. He also found in Babylon certain Egyptian idols taken by Cambyses II: for which they shall title him ‘Eurgetes’ (saviour). Ptolemy III shall also live longer [221bc] than his foe Seleucus II [226bc] with whom he sought revenge.

Daniel 11:9

Note: The Catholic Douay-Rheims reads similarly to the KJV, while the inter-confessional bibles such as the NIV, ESV, NAS etc. without substantiation supply the words “king of the north” into the text here which confuses the entire sequence. This is done in order to harmonize with Jerome’s Commentary on Daniel which is based on Porphyry’s work Against the Christians. It is evident to this author that textual accuracy has been sacrificed in said bibles in favour of theological dogma.

9 So the king of the south shall come into his kingdom, and shall return into his own land.

9 But Ptolemy III’s immensely successful campaign shall be cut short by an emergency trip home due to the first native uprising [246bc] that would later become ‘The Great Revolt of Egypt’; leading him to focus on home affairs the rest of his days.

Daniel 11:10

10 But his sons shall be stirred up, and shall assemble a multitude of great forces: and one shall certainly come, and overflow, and pass through: then shall he return, and be stirred up, even to his fortress.

10 Consequentially thirty years later the King of the North’s sons (Seleucus III shortly assassinated then Antiochus III) shall determine a reclamation war and assembled a mighty army. He shall sweep through with great success [219-218bc]! Then in the following year (after winter) he shall return to try and invade Ptolemy IV’s Egyptian heartland [Battle of Raphia, 217bc].

Daniel 11:11

11 And the king of the south shall be moved with choler, and shall come forth and fight with him, even with the king of the north: and he shall set forth a great multitude; but the multitude shall be given into his hand.

11 And the King of the South (Ptolemy IV) shall rise to the defence with furious indignation. Their clash at Raphia [217 bc] became the greatest Hellenistic battle before Roman supremacy at Magnesia and hall-marked as the largest elephant-on-elephant battle ever. Yet while the King of the North shall have the larger army, Antiochus III’s army shall be slaughtered at a rate of five to one ending the ‘Fourth Syrian War’.

Daniel 11:12

12 And when he hath taken away the multitude, his heart shall be lifted up; and he shall cast down many ten thousands: but he shall not be strengthened by it.

12 And having taken the multitude, Ptolemy IV’s heart shall exalt itself in pride. Filled with over‑confidence he shall proceed on a victory tour [217 bc] during which he shall be struck with divine paralysis after attempting to force his way into the Holy of Holies. Returning to Egypt in humiliated rage, he shall cast down many ten thousands in the civil unrest that shall follow [213bc]. In this same spirit he shall also excuse the slaughter of some forty thousand of his own Jewish citizens, seeking revenge for being rebuked of God at Jerusalem.

Daniel 11:13

13 For the king of the north shall return, and shall set forth a multitude greater than the former, and shall certainly come after certain years with a great army and with much riches.

13 But the King of the North shall return with a much larger army in about fourteen years after the Battle of Raphia. For the turmoil of these years shall have left many of his eastern dominions in revolt. To restore order, Antiochus III shall re‑enact Alexander the Great’s eastern campaign [the Anabasis, 212–205 bc] with near‑equal effect, and upon his victorious return (being laden with treasures and commanding a greatly enlarged and battle‑hardened army) he shall receive the epithet “the Great.”

Daniel 11:14a

Note 1: The famous Rosetta Stone was inscribed in 196 BC during the reign of Ptolemy V. It commemorated his coronation and the suppression of the Great Egyptian Revolt, and its trilingual text (hieroglyphic, demotic, and Greek) later became the key to deciphering ancient Egyptian writing. Note 2: The Septuagint (LXX) was commissioned under Ptolemy II Philadelphus in the 3rd century BC, making its translators contemporaries of — or only one generation removed from — the historical events proposed in this text. Because they lived within the Hellenistic world, under Ptolemaic rule, they understood the political factions, idioms, and cultural context far better than modern scholars reconstructing Biblical Hebrew. For this verse, we therefore favour their rendering, particularly its bearing on the second half of this verse, which points to pestilent, lawless zealots attempting to “establish the vision,” rather than the more traditional interpretations.

14a And in those times there shall many stand up against the king of the south:

14a καὶ ἐν τοῖς καιροῖς ἐκείνοις πολλοὶ ἐπαναστήσονται ἐπὶ βασιλέα τοῦ νότου· (LLX)

14a And in those days many shall rise up against the King of the South; (Anthony's Direct Translation)

14a And while Antiochus III shall still be campaigning in the East, Ptolemy IV shall die suddenly, leaving his five‑year‑old son Ptolemy V upon the throne [204 bc] with the world against him. His regents shall then murder the guardian Lysimachus, his uncle Magas, and his mother Arsinoe III; and when these crimes become known, the Alexandrian mob shall rise and slay Agathoclea, his former nurse and political manipulator, together with Agathocles his chief regent. These deaths shall unsettle the court and trigger the Revolt of Alexandria [203–202 bc], all against the backdrop of the Great Egyptian (native) Revolt [204–196 bc]. Even his renowned mercenary general Scopas shall be sent to Greece to hire a new loyal army to replace the old. Meanwhile Antiochus III the Great and Philip V of Macedon shall agree together [Pact of 203 bc] to divide his dominions between themselves.

Daniel 11:14b

14b also the robbers of thy people shall exalt themselves to establish the vision; but they shall fall. (KJV)

14b καὶ οἱ υἱοὶ τῶν λοιμῶν τοῦ λαοῦ σου ἐπαρθήσονται τοῦ στῆσαι ὅρασιν· καὶ ἀσθενήσουσιν. (LXX)

14b and the sons of the pestilent ones(trouble makers) of your people [Daniel] (the Hebrews), shall exalt themselves to establish the vision (prophecy); but they shall fail. (Anthony's Direct Translation)

Note 1: “καὶ οἱ υἱοὶ τῶν λοιμῶν.” The noun λοιμοί, while normally meaning “plagues,” is used in prophetic‑classical Greek to denote **“pestilent ones,” “troublemakers,” or “those causing ruin.” This aligns with the Hebrew term פָּרִיצֵי (paritz) in Daniel 11:14, meaning “violent ones,” “breakers,” “lawless ones,” or “marauders.”

The Hebrews also used expressions such as “sons of Belial” to mean worthless, lawless troublemakers, similar to English idioms like “son of a gun” or “you no‑good son of bitch” — not literal lineage, but a description of character. This idiomatic background helps clarify the Greek and Hebrew usage here.

Thus, the concept conveyed is that of violent, lawless, and troublesome factions within Daniel’s people — internal agitators or opportunists — acting contemporaneously with the many who “stand up against the king of the south,” and doing so with the added context of attempting to force or fulfill a prophetic outcome.

14b Also in those days, as your people Daniel shall witness the unrest of Egypt and suffer under the oppression of the Ptolemaic general Scopas when he garrisons Jerusalem [Jan. 200bc], certain power‑hungry troublemakers shall open the city gates to Antiochus III [198bc], declaring his arrival the fulfillment of Isaiah 19. But they shall fail in their attempt to forcefully “establish the vision,” for they could not make “the land of Judah” a “terror unto Egypt”; therefore they shall fail.

Daniel 11:15

15 So the king of the north shall come, and cast up a mount, and take the most fenced cities: and the arms of the south shall not withstand, neither his chosen people, neither shall there be any strength to withstand.

Note 1: The Catholic Douay-Rheims footnotes match our supplied interpretation up to the appearance of Rome (exception 14b), from which point the rest of the chapter stays with the Greek kings as it mirrors Jerome’s Commentary on Daniel [c.400ad] which in turn mirrored one of its core source book from Porphyry’s ‘Against the Christians’ [c.350ad].

Note 2: This is where we first see the first development of the publicised concept of the Catholic Empire, literally “the rule of the whole”, ἡ καθολικὴ ἀρχή.

15 Yet after Scopas shall depart from Jerusalem [c. Feb 200 bc], he shall suffer a crushing blow at the Battle of Panium [c. June 200 bc], leaving him unable to meet Antiochus III again upon the field. He shall therefore retreat to the last Ptolemaic strongholds — the heavily fortified and economically vital coastal cities of Tyre and Sidon [late 200 bc]. Then shall the King of the North, Antiochus III, come and besiege Sidon, casting up mounds and ramparts for the heaviest of siege engines. With insufficient troops and failing supply lines, Scopas shall be starved into submission [198bc]. And with the loss of the general army and the elite forces, there shall remain no strength in the Ptolemaic King of the South. Antiochus III shall now focus on the battle for “the empire of the universe” resulting in a Roman victory at the Battle of Magnesia [189bc] and consequential Treaty of Apamea [188bc].

Daniel 11:16a

16a But he that cometh against him shall do according to his own will, and none shall stand before him: (KJV)

16 into: And after Antiochus III ‘the Great’ shall die an ignominious death [3 July 187bc], Antiochus IV Epiphanes shall crush the Ptolemaic forces at Pelusium [c. 170bc] and shall stand ready to seize the entire country.

16a But he that shall come against him shall be a single Roman senator, Popillius Laenas, who shall do according to Rome’s own will, and shall declare Egypt a protectorate client‑state of Rome; for if Antiochus IV should seize Egypt, it would mean a breach of the treaty and war [Day of Eleusis, 22 June 168bc]. So shall Antiochus IV Epiphanes, being then the King of the North, shall retreat; and Rome shall become the new undisputed King in the North and the world’s undisputed superpower.

Daniel 11:16b

16b and he shall stand in the glorious land, which by his hand shall be consumed. (KJV)

Note 1: Christ greatly expounds on v.16’s parallel deliberately saying “As spoken of by the prophet Daniel”. Please read & understand: Matthew 23:37-24:22; Mark 13:1-23; Luke 21:1-24, Daniel 9. This Matt. 24 / Jewish War interpretation was also commonly understood by Ancient Christianity - see Eusebeus of Caeserea, the Reformers, the Puritans, classic historicists such as Isaac Newton.

16b And Rome shall later raise her standard in the promised land led by “the teenage butcher”, Pompey Carnifex (later Pompey Magnus) by whose hand the land shall be consumed and he shall do as he pleases [63bc].

And in like manner this shall be a dark harbinger of the impending closure of the 70 week prophecy of Daniel 9; resulting in the Jewish Wars [66–73ad] and the Destruction of Jerusalem [70ad], when the world’s then two largest cities — Rome and Jerusalem — shall be locked in a struggle unto death. And this tribulation shall be so severe that Jesus shall describe it saying: “let them which be in Judaea flee... for then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved.” [Matt 24:21,22a]