This prophecy is so rich in special features which in part have been literally fulfilled, that believing interpreters from Jerome to Kliefoth have found in it predictions which extend far beyond the measure of prophetic revelation, while rationalistic and naturalistic interpreters, following the example of Porphyry, from the speciality of the predictions, conclude that the chapter does not contain a prophetic revelation of the future, but only an apocalyptic description of the past and of the present of the Maccabean pseudo-Daniel. Every one that shall be found written in the book shall be saved, and the dead shall rise again, some to everlasting life, some to everlasting shame ( Daniel 12:1-3). At this time of greatest tribulation shall the angel-prince Michael contend for the people of Daniel. But in the time of the end he shall pass through the countries with his army as a flood, enter into the glorious land, and take possession of Egypt with its treasures but, troubled by tidings out of the east and the north, shall go forth in great fury utterly to destroy many, and shall come to his end on the holy mountain ( Daniel 11:40-45).
At the time of the end this hostile king shall raise himself above all gods, and above every human ordinance, and make the "god of fortresses" his god, "whom he will acknowledge and increase with glory" ( Daniel 11:36-39). Then there follows a detailed description of the wars of the kings of the south and the north for the supremacy, wherein first the king of the south prevails ( Daniel 11:5-9) the decisive conflicts between the two ( Daniel 11:10-12), wherein the south is subjugated and the attempts of the kings of the north to extend their power more widely, wherein they perish ( Daniel 11:13-20) finally, the coming of a "vile person," who rises suddenly to power by cunning and intrigue, humbles the king of the south, has "indignation against the holy covenant," desolates the sanctuary of God, and brings severe affliction upon the people of God, "to purge and to make them white to the time of the end" ( Daniel 11:21-35). Proceeding from the present, the angel reveals in great general outlines the career of the Persian world-kingdom, and the establishment and destruction, which immediately followed, of the kingdom which was founded by the valiant king of Javan, which would not descend to his posterity, but would fall to others ( Daniel 11:2-4). In 1886 he founded a seminary at Leipsic in which candidates of theology are prepared for missionary work among the Jews, and which in memory of him is now called Institutum Judaicum Delitzschianum.īiographical text adapted from The New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge.The Revelation of the Future - Daniel 11:2-12:3 These were soon translated into English and published at Edinburgh.ĭelitzsch opposed the idea "of fencing theology off with the letter of the Formula of Concord." In an introduction to commentary on Genesis published in 1887, he made it clear that the Bible, as the literature of a divine revelation, can not be permitted to be charged with a lack of veracity or to be robbed of its historic basis. His exegetical activity began in earnest at Erlangen, where he prepared independently and in connection with Karl Keil some of the best commentaries on the Old Testament (Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Song of Solomon, Ecclesiastes, Isaiah, 1866) which had been produced in Germany. He came of Hebrew parentage studied at Leipsic where he became a private lecturer in 1842 held the position of professor in Rostock in 1846 then in Erlangen in 1850 and then again in Leipsic in 1867. To this work he contributed commentaries on all the books from Genesis through Esther, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, and the minor prophets.įranz Delitzsch (1813-1890) was a Lutheran, from Leipsic.
His chief work is the commentary on the Old Testament (1866), which he undertook with Franz Delitzsch. He regarded the development of German theological science as a passing phase of error. Ignoring modern criticism almost entirely, all his writings represent the view that the books of the Old and New Testaments are to be retained as the revealed word of God. He belonged to the strictly orthodox and conservative school of Hengstenberg. In 1887 he moved to Rodlitz, continuing his literary activity there until his death.
In 1859 he settled at Leipsic, where he devoted himself to literary work and to the practical affairs of the Lutheran Church.
Several years after finishing his theological studys in Dorpat and Berlin, he accepted a call to the theological faculty of Dorpat, where he labored for twenty-five years as lecturer and professor of Old and New Testament exegesis and Oriental languages. Karl Fredreich Keil (1807-1888) was a German Protestant exegetist.