Traditional Catholic Prayers: Good versus evil: December 28 The Holy Innocents Matthew, xi. 16.

Good versus evil: December 28 The Holy Innocents Matthew, xi. 16.

December 28 The Holy Innocents Matthew, xi. 16.

• Right to Life: Anti-God and Anti-Life are the same thing
• The War of Antichrist against the Church and Christian Civilization
• The War of Antichrist against the Church and Christian Civilization
• The Plot Against the Church by Maurice Pinay
• The Plot Against the Church, Part 1
• The Plot Against the Church, Part 2
• The Plot Against the Church, Part 3
• The Plot Against the Church, Part 4
• The Plot Against the Church, Part 4
• The Plot Against the Church, Part 4
• The Plot Against the Church, Part 4
• The Plot Against the Church, Appendix
• The Broken Cross
• The Broken Cross - Part One
• The Broken Cross - Part Two
• The Broken Cross - Part Three
• The Broken Cross - Part Four
• The Broken Cross - Part Five
• The Broken Cross - Part Six
• The Broken Cross - Part Seven
• The Broken Cross - Part Eight
• The Broken Cross - Part Nine
• The Broken Cross - Part Ten
• The Broken Cross - Part Eleven
• The Broken Cross - Part Twelve
• The Broken Cross - Part Thirteen
• The Broken Cross - Part Fourteen
• The Broken Cross - Appendix

Rev. Alban Butler (1711–73). Volume XII: December.
The Lives of the Saints. 1866.

December 28

The Holy Innocents

Matthew, xi. 16.

Matthew Chapter 2
The offerings of the wise men: the flight into Egypt: the massacre of the Innocents.
2:1 When Jesus therefore was born in Bethlehem of Juda, in the days of king Herod, behold, there came wise men from the East to Jerusalem,
2:2 Saying: Where is he that is born king of the Jews? For we have seen his star in the East, and are come to adore him.
2:3 And king Herod hearing this, was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him.
2:4 And assembling together all the chief priests and the scribes of the people, he inquired of them where Christ should be born.
2:5 But they said to him: In Bethlehem of Juda. For so it is written by the prophet:
2:6 And thou Bethlehem the land of Juda art not the least among the princes of Juda: for out of thee shall come forth the captain that shall rule my people Israel.
2:7 Then Herod, privately calling the wise men learned diligently of them the time of the star which appeared to them;
2:8 And sending them into Bethlehem, said: Go and diligently inquire after the child, and when you have found him, bring me word again, that I also may come and adore him.
2:9 Who having heard the king, went their way; and behold the star which they had seen in the East, went before them, until it came and stood over where the child was.
2:10 And seeing the star they rejoiced with exceeding great joy.
2:11 And entering into the house, they found the child with Mary his mother, and falling down they adored him: and opening their treasures, they offered him gifts; gold, frankincense, and yrrh.
2:12 And having received an answer in sleep that they should not return to Herod, they went back another way into their country.
2:13 And after they were departed, behold an angel of the Lord appeared in sleep to Joseph, saying: Arise, and take the child and his mother, and fly into Egypt: and be there until I shall tell hee. For it will come to pass that Herod will seek the child to destroy him.
2:14 Who arose, and took the child and his mother by night, and retired into Egypt: and he was there until the death of Herod:
2:15 That it might be fulfilled which the Lord spoke by the prophet, saying: Out of Egypt have I called my son.
2:16 Then Herod perceiving that he was deluded by the wise men, was exceeding angry: and sending killed all the menchildren that were in Bethlehem, and in all the borders thereof, from wo years old and under, according to the time which he had diligently inquired of the wise men.
2:17 Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by Jeremias the prophet, saying:
2:18 A voice in Rama was heard, lamentation and great mourning; Rachel bewailing her children, and would not be comforted, because they are not.
2:19 But when Herod was dead, behold an angel of the Lord appeared in sleep to Joseph in Egypt,
2:20 Saying: Arise, and take the child and his mother, and go into the land of Israel. For they are dead that sought the life of the child.
2:21 Who arose, and took the child and his mother, and came into the land of Israel.
2:22 But hearing that Archclaus reigned in Judea in the room of Herod his father, he was afraid to go thither: and being warned in sleep retired into the quarters of Galilee.
2:23 And coming he dwelt in a city called Nazareth: that it might be fulfilled which was said by the prophets: That he shall be called a Nazarene.

OUR Divine Redeemer was persecuted by the world as soon as he made his appearance in it; for he was no sooner born than it declared war against him. We cannot expect to be better treated than our great Master was before us. He himself bids us remember that if it hated him first, it will likewise hate us, though we have more reason to fear its flatteries and smiles than its rage. The first make a much more dangerous and more violent assault upon our hearts. Herod, in persecuting Christ, was an emblem of Satan and of the world. That ambitious and jealous prince had already sacrificed to his fears and suspicions the most illustrious part of his council, his virtuous wife Mariamne, with her mother Alexandra, the two sons he had by her, and the heirs to his crown, and all his best friends. Hearing from the magians who were come from distant countries to find and adore Christ, that the Messias, or spiritual king of the Jews, foretold by the prophets, was born among them, he trembled lest he was come to take his temporal kingdom from him. So far are the thoughts of carnal and worldly men from the ways of God; and so strangely do violent passions blind and alarm them. The tyrant was disturbed beyond measure, and resolved to take away the life of this child, as if he could have defeated the decrees of heaven. He had recourse to his usual arts of policy and dissimulation, and hoped to receive intelligence of the child by feigning a desire himself to adore him; but God laughed at the folly of his short-sighted prudence, and admonished the magians not to return to him. St. Joseph was likewise ordered by an angel to take the child and his mother, and to fly into Egypt. Is our Blessed Redeemer, the Lord of the universe, to be banished as soon as born! What did not he suffer! What did not his pious parents suffer on his account in so tedious and long a journey, and during a long abode in Egypt, where they were entirely strangers, and destitute of all succour under the hardships of extreme poverty! It is an ancient tradition of the Greeks mentioned by Sozomen, 1 St. Athanasius, 2 and others, that at his entrance into Egypt all the idols of that kingdom fell to the ground, which literally verified the prediction of the prophet Isaiah. 3 Mary and Joseph were not informed by the angel how long their exile would be continued; by which we are taught to leave all to divine providence, acquiescing with confidence and simplicity in the adorable and ever holy will of Him who disposes all things in infinite goodness, sanctity, and wisdom.

Herod, finding that he had been deluded by the magians, was transported with rage and anxious fears. To execute his scheme of killing the Messias, the desired of all nations and the expectation of Israel, he formed the bloody resolution of murdering all the male children in Bethlehem and the neighbouring territory which were not above two years of age. In this example we admire how blind and how furious the passion of ambition is. Soldiers are forthwith sent to execute these cruel orders, who, on a sudden, surrounded the town of Bethlehem, and massacred all the male children in that and the adjacent towns and villages, who had been born in the two last years. This more than brutish barbarity, which would almost have surpassed belief, had not Herod been the contriver, and ambition the incentive, was accompanied with such shrieks of mothers and children, that St. Matthew applies to it a prophecy of Jeremiah, which may be understood in part to relate more immediately to the Babylonish captivity, but which certainly received the most eminent completion at this time. A voice in Rama was heard, lamentation and great mourning: Rachel bewailing her children, and would not be comforted, because they are not. Rama is a village not far from this town, and the sepulchre of Rachel was in a field belonging to it. The slaughter also was probably extended into the neighbouring tribe of Benjamin, which descended from Rachel. The Ethiopians in their liturgy, and the Greeks in their calendar, count fourteen thousand children massacred on this occasion; but that number exceeds all bounds, nor is it confirmed by any authority of weight. Innocent victims became the spotless Lamb of God; and how great a happiness was such a death to these glorious martyrs! They deserved to die for Christ, though they were not yet able to know or invoke his name. They were the flowers and the first fruits of his martyrs, and triumphed over the world, without having ever known it, or experienced its dangers. They just received the benefit of life, to make a sacrifice of it to God, and to purchase by it eternal life. Almost at the same time they began to live and to die; they received the fresh air of this mortal life forthwith to pass to immortality; and it was their peculiar glory not only to die for the sake of Christ, and for justice and virtue, but also in the place of Christ, or in his stead. How few perhaps of these children, if they had lived, would have escaped the dangers of the world, which, by its maxims and example, bear everything down before it like an impetuous torrent! What snares, what sins, what miseries were they preserved from by this grace! With what songs of praise and love do they not to all eternity thank their Saviour, and this his infinite mercy to them! Their ignorant foolish mothers did not know this, and therefore they wept without comfort. So we often lament as misfortunes many accidents which in the designs of heaven are the greatest mercies.

In Herod we see how blind and how cruel ambition is, which is ready to sacrifice every thing, even Jesus Christ, to its views. The tyrant lived not many days longer to enjoy the kingdom which he feared so much to lose. 4 About the time of our Lord’s nativity he fell sick, and as his distemper sensibly increased, despair and remorse followed him, and made him insupportable both to himself and others. The innumerable crimes which he had committed were the tortures of his mind, whilst a slow imposthume, inch by inch, gnawed and consumed his bowels, feeding principally upon one of the great guts, though it extended itself over all the rest, and, corroding the flesh, made a breach in the lower belly, and became a sordid ulcer, out of which worms issued in swarms, and lice were also bred in his flesh. A fever violently burnt him within, though outwardly it was scarcely perceptible; and he was tormented with a canine appetite, which no victuals could satisfy. Such an offensive smell exhaled from his body, as shocked his best friends; and uncommon twitchings and vellications upon the fibrous and membraneous parts of his body, like sharp razors, cut and wounded him within; and the pain thence arising overpowered him, at length, with cold sweats, tremblings, and convulsions. Antipater in his dungeon, hearing in what a lamentable condition Herod lay, strongly solicited his jailer to set him at liberty, hoping to obtain the crown; but the officer acquainted Herod with the whole affair. The tyrant groaning under the complication of his own distempers, upon this information, vented his spleen by raving and beating his own head, and calling one of his guards, commanded him to go that instant and cut off Antipater’s head. Not content with causing many to be put to barbarous deaths during the course of his malady, he commanded the Jews that were of the principal rank and quality to be shut up in a circus at Jericho, and gave orders to his sister Salome and her husband Alexas to have them all massacred as soon as he should have expired, saying, that as the Jews heartily hated him, they would rejoice at his departure; but he would make a general mourning of the whole nation at his death. 5 This circumstance is at least related by the Jewish historian Josephus. Herod died five days after he had put his son Antipater to death. Macrobius, a heathen writer of the fifth century, relates, 6 that Augustus, “when he heard that, among the children which Herod had commanded to be slain under two years old, his own son had been massacred, said: ‘It is better to be Herod’s hog than his son.’” By this he alluded to the Jewish law of not eating, and consequently not killing swine. Probably the historian imagined the son to have been slain amongst the children, because the news of both massacres reached Rome about the same time.

Parents, pastors, and tutors are bound to make it their principal care, that children, in their innocent age, be by piety and charity consecrated as pure holocausts to God. This is chiefly to be done by imprinting upon their minds the strongest sentiments of devotion, and by instructing them thoroughly in their catechism. We cannot entertain too high an idea of the merit and obligation of teaching God’s little ones to know him, and the great and necessary truths which he has revealed to us. Without knowing him no one can love him, or acquit himself of the most indispensable duties which he owes to his Creator. Children must be instructed in prayer and the principal articles of faith as soon as they attain to the use of reason, that they may be able to give him his first fruits by faith, hope, and love, as by the law of reason and religion they are bound to do. The understanding of little children is very weak, and is able only to discover small glimpses of light. Great art, experience, and earnestness are often required to manage and gradually increase these small rays, and to place therein whatever one would have the children comprehend. The lessons must be very short, and the truths which are taught made sensible when possible, by examples, images, and comparisons, adapted to the capacities of those that are to be instructed. The catechist, without demeaning himself, must become a little one with those that are little. This he must do with suitable gravity and seriousness; and it is only by his own earnestness and application that he can make them attentive and earnest. Were he at the same time to joke, or attend to, or be employed in any other thing, he would in vain recommend seriousness and attention to those that hear him. O how great ought to be the zeal of children and others to attend to that saving doctrine, without which man is a riddle to himself, and no one can attain to salvation and the love of God! That sublime science which the only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, came from heaven 7 to declare to us. The queen of the South came from the bounds of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon: behold more than Solomon is here? 8 When the Athenians had forbidden any citizen of Megara to set foot in Athens under pain of death, one Euclides, an inhabitant of Megara, went disguised many miles in the night to assist at the lectures of Socrates the next morning, and returned the night following; and this he continued to do a long time with the hazard of his life. 9 If such was the earnestness of this heathen to learn a profane philosophy, with what zeal ought a Christian to study the true and sublime science of faith, which leads to eternal life! The most ardent desire of this instruction is the surest mark of true virtue, and of that vehement hunger and thirst of God’s just and holy love, which is the very soul of sincere piety. The solicitude and diligence of parents and pastors to instruct others in this sacred science, ought not to lessen; neither must any one regard the function as mean or contemptible. It is the very foundation of the Christian religion. By this function the seeds of piety and religion are planted in the hearts of the faithful, which produce their fruit according to the manner in which they are received. A good catechist contributes more towards maintaining public peace, than all the laws and magistrates; as inferior ties of duty are far more binding than coercive force. Hence Pope Paul III. in a bull in which he recommends this employment, declares that “nothing is more fruitful or more profitable for the salvation of souls.” No pastoral function is more indispensable, none more beneficial, and generally none more meritorious; we may add, or more sublime. For under a meaner exterior appearance, without pomp, ostentation, or show of learning or abilities, it joins the exercise of humility with the most zealous and most profitable function of the pastoral charge. Being painful and laborious, it is, moreover, an exercise of patience and penance. Neither can any one think it beneath his parts or dignity. The great St. Austin, St. Chrysostom, St. Cyril, and other most learned doctors, popes, and bishops, applied themselves with singular zeal and assiduity to this duty of catechising children and all ignorant persons; this they thought a high branch of their duty, and the most useful and glorious employment of their learning and talents. What did the apostles travel over the world to do else? St. Paul said: I am a debtor to the wise and to the unwise. 10 We became little ones in the midst of you, as if a nurse would cherish her children; so desirous of you, that we would gladly have imparted to you not only the gospel of God, but even our own souls. 11 Our Divine Lord himself made this the principal employment of his ministry. The spirit of the Lord is upon me: he hath sent me to preach the gospel to the poor. 12 He declared the pleasure he found in assisting that innocent age, when he said: Suffer little children to come unto me, for the kingdom of God is for such. And embracing them, and laying his hands upon them he blessed them. 13 John Gerson, the most pious and celebrated chancellor of Paris, esteemed an oracle for his learning, testified his zeal for this sacred function by his book entitled, On drawing Little Ones to Christ. All his life he employed a considerable part of his time in teaching little children their catechism. Upon his return from the general council of Constance, he retired to the city of Lyons, where he every day assembled the children in St. Paul’s church, and taught them the Christian doctrine, till he was confined to his bed by his last illness. When he drew near his death, he caused all the little children to be called together into the church, and there to repeat with one voice: “My God, my Creator, have mercy on thy poor servant, John Gerson.” 14

Note 1. Sozomen, l. 5, c. 21, p. 213, ed. Cantabar. per Reading.

Note 2. S. Athan. l. de Incarn. Verbi. Calmet, Vie de Jesus C. c. 7, p. 21.

Note 3. Isaiah xix. 1.

Note 4. Antipater, whom Herod had by his wife Doris, and who had, by wicked artifices, engaged his father to put to death his two sons, Alexander and Aristobulus, (the two last princes of the Asmonean family by their mother Mariamne,) formed a conspiracy against the life of his father. Of this crime he was convicted before Quintilius Varus, who had succeeded Saturninus in the government of Syria, and whom Herod had entreated to preside in this trial at Jerusalem.

Note 5. Jos. Ant. l. 17, c. 7.

Note 6. Macrob. Saturn. l. 2, c. 4.

Note 7. John i. 18.

Note 8. Matt. xii. 42.

Note 9. Aul. Gell. Noct. Attic. l. 6, c. 10.

Note 10. Rom. i. 14.

Note 11. 1 Thess. ii. 7, 8.

Note 12. Luke iv. 18.

Note 13. Mark x. 14, 16.

Note 14. Vita Gerson. t. 1, op. p. 169.

Baptism

Traditional Catholic Prayers: Baptism


MATTHEW 28 

CHAPTER XXVIII.

The resurrection of Christ. His commission to his disciples.

1 And *in the end of the sabbath, when it began to dawn towards the first day of the week,

18 And Jesus coming, spoke to them, saying: All power is given to me in heaven and in earth. 
19 *Going, therefore, teach ye all nations: baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit; 
20 Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and behold I am with you all days, even to the consummation of the world.

"Consummation of the world," - the end of this age of grace and the beginning of the eternal ages with Christ reigning visibly. This is the end of the eschaton and the beginning of the eternal recreated heavens and the earth and will begin when Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ returns from heaven in the same flesh He rose with and ascended into the third heaven with, seated at the right hand of the Father. His return will be with all of His elect angels. He will raise and judge all men in the flesh and then recreate the heavens and the earth, which in that state will last that way for eternity. There will NOT be any sin in the new heavens and earth, so prepare now by confessing the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit and be baptized as commanded above and shown how to baptize below and live Holy and Godly lives in sincerity and humility and meekness waiting for the Lord when He returns so that we are not like the five foolish virgins but are like the five wise virgins.

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* 

1: A.D. 30.; Mark xvi. 1.; John xx. 1.
19: Mark xvi. 15.

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Method of Baptism

From the Didache (49 A.D. Council of Jerusalem):

Chapter 7. Concerning Baptism. 

And concerning baptism, baptize this way: Having first said all these things, baptize the one to be baptized into Jesus Christ in "the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit," in running water. But if you have no running water, baptize into other water [still water]; and if you cannot do so in cold water, do so in warm. But if you have neither, pour out water three times upon the head onto the one to be baptized saying at that time "in the name of Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit." But before the baptism, if possible, let the baptizer fast, and the baptized, and whoever else can; but you shall order the baptized [when there is time] to fast one or two days before.

Baptism can and should always be performed immediately when there is danger of death of the one to be baptized. For instance, impending martyrdom or possible death causing illness.

Prayer Against Evil: Our Lord Jesus Christ taught us to pray

Prayer Against Evil: Our Lord Jesus Christ taught us to pray


Our Lord Jesus Christ taught us to pray -

Mt:6:9-13:9 ¶ Thus therefore shall you pray: Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.
10 Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
11 Give us this day our supersubstantial bread.
12 And forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors.
13 And lead us not into temptation. But deliver us from evil. Amen. (DRV)

Not only did Our Lord Jesus Christ teach us to pray that we be delivered from evil (the evil one and all of it's minions), but He gave us power over the evil spirits.

Lk:9:1:1 ¶ Then calling together the twelve apostles, he gave them power and authority over all devils and to cure diseases. (DRV)

The Apostles following Our Lord Jesus Christ's teaching, taught us to have nothing to do with idolatry and sorcery and magic (which is what the verse below refers to) which is the demons and devils and practices of paganism.

Acts:15:29:
29 That you abstain from things sacrificed to idols and from blood and from things strangled and from fornication: from which things keeping yourselves, you shall do well. Fare ye well. (DRV)
The risen Jesus Christ prophesies of those who will not turn from the demons and devils and practices of paganism.

Rv:9:21:
21 Neither did they penance from their murders nor from their sorceries nor from their fornication nor from their thefts. (DRV)

We are to have nothing to do with the demons and devils and practices of paganism - and those who are part of that for they have chosen eternal death (damnation) for themselves.

2Cor:2:14-17:14 Now thanks be to God, who always maketh us to triumph in Christ Jesus and manifesteth the odour of his knowledge by us in every place.
15 For we are the good odour of Christ unto God, in them that are saved and in them that perish.
16 To the one indeed the odour of death unto death: but to the others the odour of life unto life. And for these things who is so sufficient?
17 For we are not as many, adulterating the word of God: but with sincerity: but as from God, before God, in Christ we speak.(DRV)

Instead we are to remain apart from the demons and devils and practices of paganism and those who are part of that.

2Cor:6:14-18:14 Bear not the yoke with unbelievers. For what participation hath justice with injustice? Or what fellowship hath light with darkness?
15 And what concord hath Christ with Belial? Or what part hath the faithful with the unbeliever?
16 And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the living God: as God saith: I will dwell in them and walk among them. And I will be their God: and they shall be my people.
17 Wherefore: Go out from among them and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing:
18 And I will receive you. And will be a Father to you: and you shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.(DRV)

Since we have been delivered from the power of darkness -

Col:1:13:
13 Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness and hath translated us into the kingdom of the Son of his love, (DRV)

Our first rank of prayer is against evil and the evil powers so that we remain apart from the infidelity of paganism and others are delivered therefrom into the kingdom of Our Only Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. For Our Lord Jesus Christ lives and teaches us that there is no communion of the kingdom of God and paganism, nor can there ever be.

Jn:1:5:
5 ¶ And the light shineth in darkness: and the darkness did not comprehend it. (DRV)

Therefore by the power of the Cross of Christ (Jn:3:14) we Pray Against Evil and those who chose to be part of that and the wrath of God remains on them -

Jn:3:14-21,36:
14 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so must the Son of man be lifted up:
15 That whosoever believeth in him may not perish, but may have life everlasting.
16 For God so loved the world, as to give his only begotten Son: that whosoever believeth in him may not perish, but may have life everlasting.
17 For God sent not his Son into the world, to judge the world: but that the world may be saved by him.
18 He that believeth in him is not judged. But he that doth not believe is already judged: because he believeth not in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
19 And this is the judgment: Because the light is come into the world and men loved darkness rather than the light: for their works were evil.
20 For every one that doth evil hateth the light and cometh not to the light, that his works may not be reproved.
21 But he that doth truth cometh to the light, that his works may be made manifest: because they are done in God.
36 He that believeth in the Son hath life everlasting: but he that believeth not the Son shall not see life: but the wrath of God abideth on him.(DRV)

The early Church did the same, they Prayed Against Evil and the practitioners thereof, and the Church has always done this. From the Liturgy of St. Mark:

Bless our meetings, O Lord.
Utterly uproot all idolatry from the world.
Crush under our feet Satan.
Humble now, as at all times, the enemies of Thy Church.

Lay bare their pride.
Speedily show them their weakness.
Bring to naught the wicked plots they contrive against us.Arise, O Lord, and let Thine enemies be scattered, and let all who hate Thy holy name be put to flight.

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Prayer Against Evil

   

Parousia of the Lord Jesus Christ

Syria: Palestine Cry: Palestine Cry: Palestine Cry: As in the days of Noah: Holy Holy Holy Lord God


Palestine Cry: Palestine Cry: Palestine Cry: As in the days of Noah: Holy Holy Holy Lord God Pantocrator



Palestine Cry: Palestine Cry: As in the days of Noah: Holy Holy Holy Lord God Pantocrator

Palestine Cry: As in the days of Noah: Holy Holy Holy Lord God Pantocrator

All Jews must repent of the horrid attitude toward God and His Christ and Christian civilization that they have done everything they can to destroy, see here: Palestine Cry: Designs Of The Jews On Art And Architecture By Father Leonard Feeney - the Jews that do not will go to hell forever by Christ's command when He returns from heaven.

For there to be any peace in the Holy Land, the blasphemy against God and His Christ and the Holy Spirit must be renounced by all the Jews there: Jews called in Christ: The way out of the 18 temple benedictions and the unlawful subversion of governments by Jews must be ended: Jews called in Christ: Understanding the Synagogue of Satan, Zionism, Talmudism, Babylonian Cabbalism and the Apartheid wall in Palestine must be destroyed.

There is no other way. If it isn't done, shear destruction is the only future that the Holy Land will have. The faithful should leave at once and let the apostates sit there to be destroyed.

Traditional Catholic Prayers: Come out from amongst them and be ye separate saith the Lord Almighty

Be ye faithful and prepared to meet the Lord

The Apocalypse, the Book of the Revelation

2 CORINTHIANS 6

CHAPTER VI.

He exhorts them to a correspondence with God's grace, and not to associate with unbelievers.

14 Bear not the yoke together with unbelievers. For what participation hath justice with injustice? Or what fellowship hath light with darkness?

15 And what concord hath Christ with Belial? Or what part hath the faithful with the unbeliever?

16 And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? *For you are the temple of the living God: as God saith: **I will dwell in them, and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.

17 *Wherefore, go out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing:

18 And I will receive you: *and I will be a Father to you: and you shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.

Ver. 14. Bear not the yoke together with unbelievers. He does not mean, that they must wholly avoid their company, which could not be done, but not to have too intimate a friendship with them, not to marry with them, to avoid their vices. Be ye separate . . . touch not the unclean thing. He does not speak of meats, clean and unclean, according to the law of Moses, nor of legal uncleannesses, but what is sinful under the new law of Christ, and would defile the soul, as idolatry, fornication, &c. Wi.

Ver. 15. Such as have cast off the yoke of God are called children of Belial. John viii. 44. Belial, in its radical signification, means without yoke. V.

Ver. 16. The apostle here blames the too great affection the Corinthians had for the Gentiles, who sometimes invited them to their religious feasts, at which were eaten meats which had been offered to idols, and which gave scandal both to the Christians and Gentiles. To draw them from these feasts he tells them, that they are the temples of the Holy Spirit, and that consequently they ought not to make themselves the temples of devils, by eating of the sacrifices of devils. Calmet. — S. Paul, in this and the foregoing verses, clearly shews that the faithful ought not to frequent, on any account, the tabernacles of those who have left the Church, i.e. the true faith, such as those calling themselves the Novus Ordo or in other words, the New Order or New Sect - the New Church, for there is NO such thing; the Vatican II apostasy and all the antipopes thereof and their minions - John xxiii, Paul vi, John Paul i, John Paul ii, Benedict xvi and any other to come after them, we may have NOTHING to do with on pain of penalty of eternal damnation by the Just and True and Righteous and HOLY GOD. In the old law, Moses was ordered to command the ancients of Israel, on the part of God, to depart from the tents of those wicked men, lest they be involved in their sins. Numb. xvi. 27.

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*

2: Isai. xlix. 8.

3: 1 Cor. x. 32.

4: 1 Cor. iv. 1.

16: 1 Cor. iii. 16. 17. and vi. 19. --- ** Lev. xxvi. 12.

17: Isai. lii. 11.

18: Jer. xxxi. 9.

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See here: The Final Trial

1 comment:

1. 
   Patron St. Stephen Protomartyr ستيف في فيستاMay 29, 2012 9:34 AM

   It is become increasingly clear that the Palestinians are only pawns to be used by any number of interests. All the Jews who had any conscience at all in Occupied Palestine, whether Sabras (born there) or not, started leaving in the 1980's. The obvious solution is for all Palestinian people to simply leave and go anywhere else. In about six months to 4 years when the world looks back in at what Occupied Palestine looks like when there are only the Jews and PNA left there for that length of time, what we will probably find is only rubble to be cleared and bodies to be buried. Cancer always finally destroys itself. I am quite serious, in preaching to the multitudes about the destruction of Jerusalem, which He foretold, Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ warned them to flee and not be there when the end came. The Christians listened and fled to Pella (East of the Jordan River) when Jerusalem fell and NONE of the Christians were harmed. The Perfidious and always bloody Jews where utterly destroyed by the Roman General Titus in 70 A.D. Jesus Christ speaking. Matthew 24:15 When therefore you shall see the abomination of desolation, which was spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place: he that readeth let him understand. 16 Then they that are in Judea, let them flee to the mountains: 17 And he that is on the housetop, let him not come down to take any thing out of his house: 18 And he that is in the field, let him not go back to take his coat. 19 And woe to them that are with child, and that give suck in those days. 20 But pray that your flight be not in the winter, or on the sabbath. There will be right of full return when the ZioNazis are all gone. Let God deal with this plague of locusts. Right now the Palestinians are only human shields for the ZioNazis. Don't be used that way.

Palestine Cry: Europa & Palestine News « Kawther Salam « Austrian Director For EU Military Command/ Video - While they calmly go about their business, the crimes of the baby murderers continue -

IOF cold blooded murder of mothers and children

Africa and then the Americas and then the World by the enemies of God and His faithful by today's Satanic Machiavelli and Mephistopheles in one and Satan's lies about peace which are being orchestrated to crush the world in order to bring in the reign of the Dajjal, Antichrist

From the Almighty Hand of God, His retribution for turning away from Him and going after the Devil - Satan - Iblis –– The Justice of God: The Plagues will be real - Three Looks at the 16th Chapter of the Book of the Revelation

Jews called in Christ: Begun in 2002, judged illegal 2004, Israel’s apartheid wall goes on regardless | Jews for Justice for Palestinians

Palestine Cry: Congratulations For Palestinians and Palestine « Kawther Salam

I came to set the captives free

The Best and Most Important Online Catholic Books: I came to set the captives free
In Jesus Christ is the only salvation. He is coming again to judge all men. The first coming was in mercy, the second will be without mercy for those who reject Him and those who do not do His will. Both the heavenly kingdom and hell are eternal.

LUKE 4

CHAPTER IV.

18 *The Spirit of the Lord is upon me: wherefore he hath anointed me, to preach the gospel to the poor he hath sent me, to heal the contrite of heart,

19 To preach deliverance to the captives, and sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of reward. reference v.18:  Isai. lxi. 1.

God does not send evil upon mankind. He sends blessings.

The  Devil is the author of evil and causes only trouble and tempts man.

To escape the Devil's evil, Our Lord gives us the way out: in His Holy Spirit, believe in the Gospel of Christ with a meek and humble heart ("to preach the gospel to the poor he hath sent me") and rely on Him for all healing and deliverance ("to heal the contrite of heart, 19 To preach deliverance to the captives, and sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord,") and look forward to the day of judgement and recreation of His creation, the general resurrection and judgment of all men ("and the day of reward.").


The Best and Most Important Online Catholic Books: Palestine Cry: Christmas, Palestine, St. Judas Maccabeus and the abomination of desolation - the Jews in Palestine


Palestine Cry: Christmas, Palestine, St. Judas Maccabeus and the abomination of desolation - the Jews in Palestine


Before anyone mentions feeding habits of sheep go here: Palestine Cry: The Date of Christ's Birth

Christmas in winter and sheep.

It takes a perfidious Jew to lie like a rug and tell the tall tale that that sheep have a problem with winter cold, whether during the day or night. God designed sheep specifically to do extremely well in the coldest of winters - outside night and day. Why do you think we use wool to stay warm in winter? Even when wool gets wet from snow melting close to a human being's skin of a person who is wearing wool - the wool will keep you warm.

Domestic sheep bred for market in Western Massachusetts in Mid Winter Snow Storm - sheep warm as can be in the midst of very cold winter.

Let me tell where Western Massachusetts is - it is the same latitude as upstate New York and it is not far from the White Mountains of New Hampshire. The White Mountains of New Hampshire are one of the coldest places there are in Winter, on a par with the Chilkat Valley in Alaska.

Icelandic Sheep in Winter, Reykjanes Peninsula, Iceland

40 Icelandic sheep found alive after being buried in snow for 19 days.

Sheep in Iceland in Winter

Notice all the domestic sheep, including the ones buried in snow for nineteen days and nights, which do perfectly fine in Iceland in Winter - far, far to the North.

Christmas is on December 25

Christ was born on Christmas. It was the very early church that preserved this date, not some invention later in the time of Constantine or whatever. The ridiculous idea that sheep could not have been outside at that time of year in the low hills and the Mediterranean latitudes is laughable. Sheep in the Rocky Mountains of the United States survive quite well outside night and day in the very middle of winter - farther to the North in latitude and much higher in elevation, not to mention Massachusetts and Iceland in winter. What do we think the wool coats of sheep are for or why do we use wool for our warm outside winter clothing? Because it keeps you warm day and night in the coldest winter. Pagan feasts were every day of the year. Obviously Our Lord Jesus Christ's birth would coincide with one of them - so what?! That absolutely obviously was not the reason that God would choose the day He chose for God the Son to to be born. The pagan Romans elevated a very minor Roman pagan feast - the Saturnalia, to compete with the Christian celebration of Christmas. Christmas was the birth of Christ. It was originally called and is still called the Feast of the Nativity or the Natal Day of the Lord. All the complaints concocted by Talmudic JudenRatz Protestant Freemasonic Pharisees are meaningless.

(See Link:) Palestine

The lie that shepherds and sheep could not be outside in winter at night is as big a lie as "there are no Palestinians." Another lie by the Perfidious Jews. Of course there are Palestinians!!!, who do you think the Jews are committing genocide against?! It is Newt Gingrich who doesn't exist.

See 

Viva Palestina

Palestine - YouTube: - the Apartheid South Africa of now.

Free Palestine.

Viva Palestine.

see:

stepalestinecryfreedom

peacepalestinecry

palestinecry

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FINAL TRIAL OF CHRISTIANS AND MUSLIMS TOGETHER - THE ONLY TRUE ISRAELO-CHRISTIANS THE PALESTINIANS

FINAL TRIAL OF CHRISTIANS AND MUSLIMS TOGETHER - THE ONLY TRUE ISRAELO-CHRISTIANS THE PALESTINIANS

 click on picture

 St. Judas Maccabeus and the abomination of desolation - the Jews in Palestine 

Now lets dispense with this Hanukkah nonsense. Judas Maccabeus is a Catholic Saint. All faithful Catholics from the first Adam to the last Saint are Saints of the Catholic Church of whom Jesus Christ is the Head. Judas Maccabeus did all he could to fight against an abomination in the temple that defiled it (the first was Antiochus IV Epiphanes, the Seleucid king and his profanation of the temple, who died in 164 B.C.). Judas Maccabeus, if he had been alive during the Apostolate of Christ on earth, would have been Christ's disciple, same as St. Simon Zealotes. Christ revealed Himself to the Jews as the Messiah on His birthday as an adult in the temple on the feast of lights. It was Jesus Christ who warned of the two final abominations of the temple -

1) the 18 temple benedictions which blasphemed God and His Christ and caused the destruction of the temple in 70 A.D. 

2) the final Abomination of Desolation which is the Jews invading Palestine and trying to rebuild their accursed temple. 

If St. Judas Maccabeus were alive today he would be leading an army to free Palestine from the Jews. You think Titus was harsh in 70 A.D.? St. Judas Maccabeus would enact the Biblical ban on the Jews in Occupied Palestine - all their forces would be destroyed and they would be driven from the land with no mercy. Their crimes against the Palestinians are secondary though very real. The crime of the nation of the Jews is  Deicide and Perfidy and these are the worst crimes that exist. The nation of the Jews, by God's command do not have any right or business being in the Holy Land which is the home of the Holy Family, Jesus, Mary and Joseph.

Jesus, Mary and Joseph

The Point

---

Edited Under Fr. Leonard Feeney M.I.C.M. — Saint Benedict CenterDecember, 1956

This Christmas men are looking to the Holy Land, and they are listening — not for the strains of “Glory to God in the Highest,” but for the sounds of war upon earth. And we might say: It is just. God long ago crashed the Temple of Jerusalem to the ground, and cursed its people, the Jews, to be forever homeless and wandering. If the world has defied this Divine judgment and supported a Jewish return to Palestine, then let the world bear the consequences of God’s righteous anger.

But this leaves a greater part unsaid. For the Holy Land is infinitely more than a geographical locality which God has forbidden to the Jews. It is, for all time, the precious countryside where God became the Child of a Virginal Mother, and where God as Man walked and taught and died for us. It is, indeed, God’s Land.

If, therefore, we are anxious this Christmas, our concern is this: The leaders of our nation have proposed that Christian boys be ready to shed their blood in order to make the Jews secure within the borders of the Holy Land. But should this happen, should Christian lives be spent to keep God’s Land in the hands of His crucifiers, the price of such betrayal will not be confined to the deserts of the East. We will be paying, in kind, on bloody Main Street, U. S. A.



*   *   *   *   *   

THE ENEMIES OF CHRIST AT CHRISTMAS

Soon, the Jews of America will be trying once more to jostle Christmas from its place as the nation’s chief interest in late December. As elbow for this endeavor, the Jews will rely again on their festival of Chanukah — once a minor holiday but recently seized on because of its timely Yuletide occurrence and now celebrated with all the blare and bluster the Jews can produce.

Though originally set up in 165 B. C., the observance of Chanukah (Hebrew for “Dedication”) has long since lost its holy, Old Testament meaning. Thus, when Jewish leaders decided a few years back to revive and exalt the holiday, they found it expedient also to invest it with a fresh and acceptable significance. They have, accordingly, made it an annual practice to hire the principal halls in the principal cities of the country for the staging of special Chanukah pageants. These loudly-trumpeted extravaganzas (“Inspiring — Breathtaking — Spectacular”) oppose the Birth of the true Messias by dramatizing, with the solemnity of religious ritual, the birth of their own messianic empire: the Jewish state of Israel.

It is, of course, true that the Jews would have been eager to exploit any one of their festivals that was opportune in order to affront the beauty and singularity of Christmas. Yet Chanukah is especially suited for such a use — because it was on that day that Our Lord revealed Himself to the Jews as the Messias, and, for doing so, was almost stoned. The story is told in the Holy Gospel of Saint John (Chap. 10, v. 22-39):

“And the Dedication was in Jerusalem: and it was winter. And Jesus walked in the temple, in Salomon’s porch. The Jews therefore compassed him round about, and said to him, How long doest thou hold our soul in suspense? If thou be Christ, tell us openly. Jesus answered them, I speak to you: and you believe not, the works that I do in the name of my Father, they give testimony of me, but you do not believe, because you are not of my sheep. My sheep hear my voice: and I know them, and they follow me. And I give them life everlasting: and they shall not perish for ever, and no man shall pluck them out of my hand. My father, that which he hath given me, is greater than all: and no man can pluck them out of the hand of my father. I and the Father are one. The Jews took up stones, to stone him. Jesus answered them, Many good works I have showed you from my father, for which of those works do you stone me? The Jews answered him, For a good work we stone thee not, but for blasphemy, and because thou being a man, makest thyself God. Jesus answered them, Is it not written in your law, that I said, you are God’s? If he called them God’s, to whom the word of God was made, and the scripture can not be broken: whom the Father hath sanctified and sent into the world, say you, That thou blasphemest, because I said I am the son of God? If I do not the works of my Father, believe me not. But if I do, and if you will not believe me, believe the works: that you may know and believe that the Father is in me, and I in the Father. They sought therefore to apprehend him: and he went forth out of their hands.”

Because it is reckoned by the Jewish calendar, the day on which Chanukah falls may vary from year to year by as much as a month. This year it is due to fall on its earliest possible date. But Jews have never been ones to let liturgical niceties stand in the way of more vital considerations, and so, the Jews of Boston (the only segment of whose plans we have heard) are making an adroit adjustment in their schedule. Their annual Chanukah pageant at the Boston Garden will be held this year, not when the calendar says Chanukah should occur, but some three weeks later, on December the twenty-third — just a stone’s throw from Christmas.

*   *   *   *   *    The pride of Jewish rural life is the “kibbutz,” a sort of collective farm settlement, of which there are presently some 250 well-populated examples in the state of Israel. A recent volume to swell the praises of these communes is Harvard University Press’ Kibbutz, Venture in Utopia. The following two extracts from this book provide a raw, startling picture of the Jews who today inhabit the Land of Christ’s Birth:

“In its attempt to create a better world, the kibbutz has found that it faces considerable opposition, and it has come to view this opposition with an intense hatred. Indeed, it is not unfair to say the kibbutz hates almost everybody, since it views almost everybody as an opponent. Outside of Israel, all the ‘bourgeois’ countries are hated, and only the Soviet Union and ‘People’s Democracies’ are ‘loved.’

“As for marriage, they believed — and still believe — that a union between a man and woman was their own affair, to be entered into on the basis of love and to be broken at the termination of love; neither the union nor the separation were to require the permission or the sanction of the community. Today, for example, if a couple wishes to marry, the partners merely ask for a joint room; if they wish a divorce, they return to separate rooms.”

*   *   *   *   *    Each year when the Church commemorates the arrival of the Magi at Bethlehem, on the Feast of the Epiphany, our priests are required to read, as an integral part of their Breviary prayers, the following homily by Pope Saint Gregory the Great:

“All things which He had made, bore witness that their Maker was come ... And yet, up to this very hour, the hearts of the unbelieving Jews will not acknowledge that He, to Whom all nature gave testimony, is their God. Being more hardened than the rocks, the Jews refuse to be rent by repentance.”

This is but one instance of what the Jews would term the “anti-Semitism” of the Church’s Advent and Christmas Season liturgy. With the possible exception of Holy Week in Lent, there is no period in the whole liturgical year which more emphasizes the bridgeless chasm separating Christian faith and Jewish infidelity.

From Advent through the Epiphany Octave, the texts of the Mass and the Divine Office resound repeatedly with that theme which is at once the fulfilled expectation of the Jews of the Old Law, and the indictment of the deicide Jews of today:

“Behold, O Israel, your king ... Blow ye the trumpet in Zion, for the day of the Lord is nigh ... It is the birth of the Christ, O Jerusalem ... The Savior of the world will be our King ... He shall sit upon the throne of David His father.”

These are the tidings of great joy which plague the Jews as sorely this December as they did more than nineteen hundred years ago. And among these tidings there is, for the Jews, no more hateful information than the exultant shouts that the Baby of Bethlehem is the true Son of David, inheriting a royal title from His foster father, Saint Joseph, and royal blood from His Spotless Mother, the Virgin Mary. It was precisely to attack this central truth of Christmas that the rabbis of the early Christian centuries concocted that unprintably-filthy version of the Birth of Christ which is now found in the Jews’ “holy” book, the Talmud. We have determined never to reprint, in direct quotation, these blasphemous assaults against the purity of the Mother of God. But that they were invented by the rabbis, for the express purpose of challenging Our Lord’s title to the Throne of David, is abundantly admitted by Jewish authorities. The Jewish Encyclopedia, for example, blithely states, in its article on “Jesus,” that, “For polemical purposes it was necessary for the Jews to insist on the illegitimacy of Jesus as against the Davidic descent claimed by the Christian Church.”

At no point in the Christmas liturgy, however, does the Church’s consciousness of Jewish perfidy becloud her joy at the Birth of the Messias. In this spirit, therefore, we anticipate the coming gladness, and leave our readers with that jubilant exhortation from the Third Mass of Christmas:

“Come ye Gentiles and adore the Lord, for this day a great light hath descended upon the earth!”

God and His Messiah Jesus Christ our Lord - our right and duty to witness to Him: Food for thought

The prophets of the Old Testament so exactly predicted the coming of the Messiah that Herod knew within two years time that it was Jesus (Yeshua) at His birth. Anyone, especially Jews who know their Torah of Moses and the Prophets from Moses to the time of Jesus Christ, Yeshua ha Maschiach, should avail themselves of the Book of Isaiah, Chapters 52 and 53 and the Book of Daniel, Chapter 11 in order to show some of the more important proofs to themselves of the fact that Jesus of Nazareth is the Christ promised to the Jews and Gentiles alike. Faith in Him is salvific.

Jews called in Christ: St. Isaiah

Jews called in Christ: The way out of the 18 temple benedictions

The Jew false prophet Maimonides (Rabbi Moses Ben Maimon), in order to hide the fact that the Jews KNEW that the Prophet Daniel had prophesied the time of the Messiah's Incarnation and He of course was Jesus Christ, said: "Daniel has elucidated to us the knowledge of the end times. However, since they are secret, the wise [rabbis] have barred the calculation of the days of Messiah's coming so that the untutored populace will not be led astray when they see that the End Times [the appearance of the Messiah - Jesus Christ] have already come but there is no sign of the Messiah" (Igeret Teiman, Chapter 3 p.24.)

",,,the End Times have already come..." 2,000 years ago with the coming of Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, who only is the Messiah.  "... but there is no sign of the Messiah" means that Maimonides and the rest of the Perfidious Jews unlawfully and out of utterly unrepentant evil hearts knowingly reject the true Messiah, who is Jesus Christ, and the Jews' nation are therefore damned for the unforgivable sin, forever.

The seventy weeks of Daniel's Prophecy makes it absolute that the only time the Messiah could come in history is the time when Jesus Christ, who alone is the only Messiah and the only one who could be the Messiah, came.

The seventy weeks are weeks of years. Hence 490 years.

The Messiah is the Christ.

The seventy weeks begins in the Old Testament, at that time, with the "going forth of the word to restore and to build Jerusalem" (Dan. 9:25)

69 weeks or 483 years, takes us to the beginning of Christ's public life.
The Messiah is "cut off" - Crucified,  for our sins (Isaiah 53:8) in the midst of the "week." That is after three and one half years.

DANIEL 9:24-27

CHAPTER IX.

Daniel's confession and prayer; Gabriel informs him concerning the seventy weeks to the coming of Christ.

24 *Seventy weeks are shortened upon thy people, and upon thy holy city, that transgression may be finished, and sin may have an end, and iniquity may be abolished; and everlasting justice may be brought; and vision and prophecy may be fulfilled; and the Saint of saints may be anointed.

25 Know thou, therefore, and take notice: that from the going forth of the word, to build up Jerusalem again, unto Christ, the prince, there shall be seven weeks, and sixty-two weeks: and the street shall be built again, and the walls, in straitness of times.

26 And after sixty-two weeks Christ shall be slain: and the people that shall deny him shall not be his.  And a people, with their leader, that shall come, shall destroy the city, and the sanctuary: and the end thereof shall be waste, and after the end of the war the appointed desolation.

27 And he shall confirm the covenant with many, in one week: and in the half of the week the victim and the sacrifice shall fail: and there shall be in the temple the abomination of desolation: and the desolation shall continue even to the consummation, and to the end.

____________________

*

1:  A.M. 3467, A.C. 537.

2:  Jer. xxv. 11. and xxix. 10.

4:  2 Esd. i. 5.

5:  Bar. i. 17.

11:  Deut. xxvii. 14.

15:  Bar. i. 1.; Ex. xiv. 22.

18:  Jer. xxv. 29.; Ps. xlviii. 2. 9. and ci. 8.

21:  Supra viii. 16.

24:  Mat. xxiv. 15.; John i. 45.

====================

Ver. 24.  Seventy weeks (viz. of years, or seventy times seven, that is, 490 years) are shortened; that is, fixed and determined, so that the time shall be no longer.  Ch. — This is not a conditional prophecy.  Daniel was solicitous to know when the seventy years of Jeremias would terminate.  But something of far greater consequence is revealed to him, (W.) even the coming and death of the Messias, four hundred and ninety years after the order for rebuilding the walls should be given, (C.) at which period Christ would redeem the world, (W.) and abolish the sacrifices of the law.  C. — Finished, or arrive at its height by the crucifixion of the Son of God; (Theod.) or rather sin shall be forgiven.  Heb. "to finish crimes to seal (cover or remit) sins, and to expiate iniquity." — Anointed.  Christ is the great anointed of God, the source of justice, and the end of the law and of the prophets, (Acts x. 38. and 1 Cor. i. 30.  Rom. x. 4.  C.) as well as the pardoner of crimes.  These four characters belong only to Christ.  W.

Ver. 25.  Word, &c.  That is, from the twentieth year of king Artaxerxes, when, by his commandment, Nehemias rebuilt the walls of Jerusalem, 2 Esd. ii.  From which time, according to the best chronology, there were just sixty-nine weeks of years, the is 483 years, to the baptism of Christ, when he first began to preach and execute the office of Messias.  Ch. — The prophecy is divided into three periods: the first of forty-nine years, during which the walls were completed; (they had been raised in fifty-two days, (2 Esd. vi. 15.) but many other fortifications were still requisite) the second of four hundred and thirty-four years, at the end of which Christ was baptized, in the fifteenth of Tiberius, the third of three years and a half, during which Christ preached.  In the middle of this last week, the ancient sacrifices became useless, (C.) as the true Lamb of God had been immolated.  Theod. — A week of years denotes seven years, as Lev. xxv. and thus seventy of these weeks would make four hundred and ninety years.  V. Bede. Rat. temp. 6 &c.  W. — Origen would understand 4900 years, and dates from the fall of Adam to the ruin of the temple.  Marsham begins twenty-one years after the captivity commenced, when Darius took Susa, and ends in the second of Judas, when the temple was purified.  This system would destroy the prediction of Christ's coming, and is very uncertain.  Hardouin modifies it, and acknowledges that Christ was the end of the prophecy, though it was fulfilled in figure by the death of Onias III.  See 1 Mac. i. 19.  Senens. Bib. viii. hær. 12. and Estius.  From C. vii. to xii. the changes in the East, till the time of Epiphanes, are variously described.  After the angel had here addressed Daniel, the latter was still perplexed; (C. x. 1.) and in order to remove his doubts, the angel informs him of the persecution of Epiphanes, as if he had been speaking of the same event.  We may, therefore, count forty-nine years from the taking of Jerusalem (when Jeremias spoke, C. vi. 19.) to Cyrus, the anointed, (Is. xlv. 1.) who was appointed to free God's people.  They would still be under the Persians, &c. for other four hundred and thirty-four years, and then Onias should be slain.  Many would join the Machabees; the sacrifices should cease in the middle of the seventieth week, and the desolation shall continue to the end of it.  Yet, though this system may seem plausible, it is better to stick to the common one, which naturally leads us to the death of Christ, dating from the tenth year of Artaxerxes.  C. — He had reigned ten years already with his father.  Petau. — All the East was persuaded that a great king should arise about the time; when our Saviour actually appeared, and fulfilled all that had been spoken of the Messias.  C.  Diss. — Ferguson says, "We have an astronomical demonstration of the truth of this ancient prophecy, seeing that the prophetic year of the Messias being cut off was the very same with the astronomical."  In a dispute between a Jew and a Christian, at Venice, the Rabbi who presided...put an end to the business by saying, "Let us shut up our Bibles; for if we proceed in the examination of this prophecy, it will make us all become Christians."  Watson, let. 6. — Hence probably the Jews denounce a curse on those who calculate the times, (H.) and they have purposely curtailed their chronology.  C. — Times, &c. (angustia temporum) which may allude both to the difficulties and opposition they met with in building, and to the shortness of the time in which they finished the wall, viz. fifty-two days.  Ch.

Ver. 26.  Weeks, or four hundred and thirty-eight years, which elapsed from the twentieth of Artaxerxes to the death of Christ, according to the most exact chronologists.  C. — Slain.  Prot. "cut off, but not for himself, and the people of the prince that," &c.  H. — S. Jerom and some MSS. read, Christus, et non erit ejus.  The sense is thus suspended.  The Jews lose their prerogative of being God's people.  C. — Christ will not receive them again.  S. Jer. — Gr. "the unction shall be destroyed, and there shall not be judgment in him."  The priesthood and royal dignity is taken from the Jews.  Theod. — The order of succession among the high priests was quite deranged, while the country was ruled by the Romans, and by Herod, a foreigner. C. — Leader.  The Romans under Titus.  Ch.  C.

Ver. 27.  Many.  Christ seems to allude to this passage.  Mat. xxvi. 28.  He died for all; but several of the Jews particularly, would not receive the proffered grace.  C. — Of the week, or in the middle of the week, &c.  Because Christ preached three years and a half: and then, by his sacrifice upon the cross, abolished all the sacrifices of the law.  Ch. — Temple.  Heb. "the wing," (C.) or pinnacle, (H.) the highest part of the temple.  C. — Desolation.  Some understand this of the profanation of the temple by the crimes of the Jews, and by the bloody faction of the zealots.  Others, of the bringing in thither the ensigns and standard of the pagan Romans.  Others, in fine, distinguish three different times of desolation: viz. that under Antiochus; that when the temple was destroyed by the Romans; and the last near the end of the world, under antichrist.  To all which, as they show, this prophecy has a relation.  Ch. — Prot. "For the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even unto the consummation; and that determined, shall be poured upon the desolate."  H. — The ruin shall be entire.  C.

Traditional Catholic Prayers: The Rebuilt Temple of Remphan in Jerusalem and the Armour Bearer of the Antichrist, the False Prophet

DANIEL 11

CHAPTER XI.

The angel declares to Daniel many things to come, with regard to the Persian and Grecian kings: more especially with regard to Antiochus, as a figure of antichrist.

1 And from the first year of Darius, the Mede, I stood up, that he might be strengthened, and confirmed.

2 And now I will shew thee the truth.  Behold, there shall stand yet three kings in Persia, and the fourth shall be enriched exceedingly above them all: and when he shall be grown mighty by his riches, he shall stir up all against the kingdom of Greece.

3 But there shall rise up a strong king, and shall rule with great power: and he shall do what he pleaseth.

4 And when he shall come to his height, his kingdom shall be broken, and it shall be divided towards the four winds of the heaven: but not to his posterity, nor according to his power with which he ruled.  For his kingdom shall be rent in pieces, even for strangers, besides these.

5 And the king of the south shall be strengthened, and one of his princes shall prevail over him, and he shall rule with great power: for his dominion shall be great.

6 And after the end of years they shall be in league together: and the daughter of the king of the south shall come to the king of the north to make friendship, but she shall not obtain the strength of the arm, neither shall her seed stand: and she shall be given up, and her young men that brought her, and they that strengthened her in these times.

7 And a plant of the bud of her roots shall stand up: and he shall come with an army, and shall enter into the province of the king of the north: and he shall abuse them, and shall prevail.

8 And he shall also carry away captive into Egypt their gods, and their graven things, and their precious vessels of gold and silver: he shall prevail against the king of the north.

9 And the king of the south shall enter into the kingdom, and shall return to his own land.

10 And his sons shall be provoked, and they shall assemble a multitude of great forces: and he shall come with haste like a flood: and he shall return, and be stirred up, and he shall join battle with his forces.

11 And the king of the south being provoked, shall go forth, and shall fight against the king of the north, and shall prepare an exceeding great multitude, and a multitude shall be given into his hand.

12 And he shall take a multitude, and his heart shall be lifted up, and he shall cast down many thousands: but he shall not prevail.

13 For the king of the north shall return, and shall prepare a multitude much greater than before: and in the end of times, and years, he shall come in haste with a great army, and much riches.

14 *And in those times many shall rise up against the king of the south, and the children of prevaricators of thy people shall lift up themselves to fulfil the vision, and they shall fall.

15 And the king of the north shall come, and shall cast up a mount, and shall take the best fenced cities: and the arms of the south shall not withstand, and his chosen ones shall rise up to resist, and they shall not have strength.

16 And he shall come upon him, and do according to his pleasure, and there shall be none to stand against his face: and he shall stand in the glorious land, and it shall be consumed by his hand.

17 And he shall set his face to come to possess all his kingdom, and he shall make upright conditions with him: and he shall give him a daughter of women, to overthrow it: and she shall not stand, neither shall she be for him.

18 And he shall turn his face to the islands, and shall take many: and he shall cause the prince of his reproach to cease, and his reproach shall be turned upon him.

19 And he shall turn his face to the empire of his own land, and he shall stumble, and fall, and shall not be found.

20 And there shall stand up in his place one most vile, and unworthy of kingly honour: and in a few days he shall be destroyed, not in rage nor in battle.

21 And there shall stand up in his place one despised, and the kingly honour shall not be given him: and he shall come privately, and shall obtain the kingdom by fraud.

22 And the arms of the fighter shall be overcome before his face, and shall be broken; yea, also the prince of the covenant.

23 And after friendships, he will deal deceitfully with him: and he shall go up, and shall overcome with a small people.

24 And he shall enter into rich and plentiful cities: and he shall do that which his fathers never did, nor his fathers' fathers: he shall scatter their spoils, and their prey, and their riches, and shall forecast devices against the best fenced places: and this until a time.

25 And his strength, and his heart, shall be stirred up against the king of the south, with a great army: and the king of the south shall be stirred up to battle with many and very strong succours: and they shall not stand, for they shall form designs against him.

26 And they that eat bread with him, shall destroy him, and his army shall be overthrown: and many shall fall down slain.

27 And the heart of the two kings shall be to do evil, and they shall speak lies at one table, and they shall not prosper: because as yet the end is unto another time.

28 And he shall return into his land with much riches: and his heart shall be against the holy covenant, and he shall succeed, and shall return into his own land.

29 At the time appointed he shall return, and he shall come to the south, but the latter time shall not be like the former.

30 And the galleys and the Romans shall come upon him, and he shall be struck, and shall return, and shall have indignation against the covenant of the sanctuary, and he shall succeed: and he shall return, and shall devise against them that have forsaken the covenant of the sanctuary.

31 And arms shall stand on his part, and they shall defile the sanctuary of strength, and shall take away the continual sacrifice, and they shall place there the abomination unto desolation.

32 And such as deal wickedly against the covenant shall deceitfully dissemble: but the people that know their God shall prevail and succeed.

33 And they that are learned among the people shall teach many: and they shall fall by the sword, and by fire, and by captivity, and by spoil for many days.

34 And when they shall have fallen, they shall be relieved with a small help: and many shall be joined to them deceitfully.

35 And some of the learned shall fall, that they may be tried, and may be chosen, and made white, even to the appointed time: because yet there shall be another time.

36 And the king shall do according to his will, and he shall be lifted up, and shall magnify himself against every god: and he shall speak great things against the God of gods, and shall prosper, till the wrath be accomplished.  For the determination is made.

37 And he shall make no account of the God of his fathers: and he shall follow the lust of women, and he shall not regard any gods: for he shall rise up against all things.

38 But he shall worship the god Maozim, in his place: and a god whom his fathers knew not, he shall worship with gold, and silver, and precious stones, and things of great price.

39 And he shall do this to fortify Maozim with a strange god, whom he hath acknowledged, and he shall increase glory, and shall give them power over many, and shall divide the land gratis.

40 And at the time prefixed the king of the south shall fight against him, and the king of the north shall come against him like a tempest, with chariots, and with horsemen, and with a great navy, and he shall enter into the countries, and shall destroy, and pass through.

41 And he shall enter into the glorious land, and many shall fall: and these only shall be saved out of his hand, Edom, and Moab, and the principality of the children of Ammon.

42 And he shall lay his hand upon the lands: and the land of Egypt shall not escape.

43 And he shall have power over the treasures of gold, and of silver, and all the precious things of Egypt: and he shall pass through Lybia, and Ethiopia.

44 And tidings out of the east, and out of the north, shall trouble him: and he shall come with a great multitude to destroy and slay many.

45 And he shall fix his tabernacle, Apadno, between the seas, upon a glorious and holy mountain: and he shall come even to the top thereof, and none shall help him.

____________________

*

14:  Isai. xix. 1.

====================

DANIEL 11

CHAPTER XI.

Ver. 1.  Confirmed.  Gabriel assisted Michael to comply with God's orders.  C. x. 21.  C. — The angel continues his speech, and informs us that he had prayed for Darius after the fall of Babylon, seeing that he was well-inclined towards the Jews, as his successor Cyrus (who liberated them) was also.  W.

Ver. 2.  Three, &c.  Cambyses, Smerdis magus, and Darius the son of Hystaspes.  Ch.  W. — Cyrus had been mentioned before.  C. x. 13. 20.  Smerdis, or Artaxerxes, (1 Esd. iv. 7.) was the chief of the seven magi, and usurped the throne for six months after the death of Cambyses.  C. — He had been declared king before (H.) by Patizites, his own brother.  The news excited the fury of Cambyses, who mounting on horseback gave himself a mortal wound in the thigh.  Herod. iii. 21.  See Ezec. xxxviii. 21.  H. — Fourth: Xerxes.  Ch. — He invaded Greece with an immense army, forcing those on the road to join him.  Just. i. 10.  Herod. vii. and viii.  C.

Ver. 3.  A strong king: Alexander.  Ch. — The sequel clearly points him out.  Before fifteen years had elapsed, his mother, brother, and children were slain.  Arideus, his brother, was declared regent till it should be seen what Rozanna should bring forth.  After the death of those who might be heirs of Alexander, four general took the title of kings.  Others governed in different places, but were destroyed by degrees.

Ver. 4.  These four; Ptolemy, Seleucus, Antigonus, and Antipater, kings of Egypt, Syria, Asia, and Greece.  C. vii. 6. and viii. 22.  Besides the other generals, (C.) foreigners began to erect new kingdoms in what had formed the empire of Alexander.  S. Jer.  Livy xlv.  C.

Ver. 5.  South: Ptolemeus, the son of Lagus, king of Egypt, which  lies south of Jerusalem.  Ch. —S. Irenæus (iv. 43.) observes, that all prophecies are obscure till they be fulfilled.  History shews that this relates to Ptolemy.  The kingdoms of Egypt and of Syria are more noticed, as they had much to do with the Jews.  W. — Ptolemy took Cyprus (C.) and Jerusalem.  Jos. Ant. xii. 12. — His princes (that is, one of Alexander's princes) shall prevail over him; that is, shall be stronger than the king of Egypt.  He speaks of Seleucus Nicator, king of Asia and Syria, whose successors are here called the kings of the north, because their dominions lay to the north in respect to Jerusalem.  Ch. — Nicator means a "conqueror."  H. —This king was master of all from Media and Babylonia to Jerusalem.  Appian, &c.  C. —Philadelphus was more powerful than his father.  W.

Ver. 6.  South.  Bernice, daughter of Ptolemeus Philadelphus, given in marriage to Antiochus Theos, grandson of Seleucus, (Ch.) and king of Syria.  She brought a great "dowry," and was therefore styled Phernophoros.  Antiochus agreed to repudiate Laodicea; but he soon took her back.  Fearing his inconstancy, she poisoned him, and slew his son by Bernice.  This lady in a rage mounted her chariot, and having knocked down the cruel minister of such barbarity, trampled upon his body.  The rest pretended that the infant was still living, and delivered up a part of the palace to Bernice, yet slew her as soon as they had an opportunity.  S. Jer.  Usher, A. 3758.  V. Max. ix. 10. &c.  C.

Ver. 7.  A plant, &c.  Ptolemeus Evergetes, the son of Philadelphus.  Ch. — Three of Bernice's maids of honour (H.) covered her body, and pretended that she was only wounded, till her brother Evergetes came and seized almost all Asia, Callinicus not daring to give him battle.  S. Jer. &c.  Vaillant. A. 79. Lagid.  C. — He laid waste Syria.  W.

Ver. 8.  Gods.  He took back what Cambyses had conveyed out of Egypt; and it was on this account that the people styled him "benefactor."  S. Jer.  C. — North.  Seleucus Callinicus.  Ch. — If Evergetes had not been recalled into Egypt by civil broils, he would have seized all the kingdom of Seleucus.  Just. xvii. — As he passed by Jerusalem (v. 9.) he made great presents, and caused victims of thanksgiving to be offered up.  Jos. c. Ap. ii.

Ver. 10.  His sons.  Seleucus Ceraunius and Antiochus the great, the sons of Callinicus.  Ch. — The former was poisoned after three years' reign, as he marched against Attalus.  Just. xxix. — Antiochus the great reconquered many provinces from Egypt, but was beaten at Raphia, on the confines, and lost Cœlo-syria.  C. — He shall, &c.  Antiochus the great.  Ch. — He prosecuted the war, as his brother was prevented by death.  W.

Ver. 11.  South.  Ptolemeus Philopator, son of Evergetes.  Ch. — He was an indolent prince; but his generals gained the victory. C.

Ver. 12.  Prevail.  Many fell on both sides.  H. — But Antiochus did not prevail; (W.) or rather Philopator neglected the opportunity of dethroning his rival, (C.) as he might have seized all his dominions, if he had not been too fond of ease.  Just. xxx. — He followed the suggestions of his proud heart, when he attempted to enter the most holy place of the temple; and though he was visibly chastised by God, he would have vented his resentment on the Jews, if Providence had not miraculously protected them.  3 Mac.  C.  See Eccli. l.  H.

Ver. 13.  Times, seventeen years after the battle of Raphia.  When Philopator was dead, and his son Epiphanes not above five years old, Antiochus and Philip of Macedon basely attempted to divide his dominions.  Scopas engaged Antiochus, but lost the battle, and all that Philopator had recovered.  C. — Many revolted in Egypt on account of the arrogance of Agathocles, who ruled in the king's name.  v. 14.  S. Jer.

Ver. 14.  Vision.  Many Jews, deceived by Onias, erected a temple in Egypt, falsely asserting that they fulfilled the prophecy of Isaias, xix. 19.  W. — This Onias was the son of Onias III. who was slain at Antioch.  C. ix. 25.  H. — The temple of Onion was called after him.  All allow that he transgressed the law, by offering sacrifice there after God had pitched upon Jerusalem.  But this was done (C.) under Philometor, forty-seven years (Usher) or longer after those times, when Epiphanes fought against Antiochus.  The rebellion of the Jews against Egypt may therefore be meant.  It was decreed that they should by under Antiochus, that his son might cause them to fall, (C.) and punish them for their crimes.  H.

Ver. 15.  Cities; Sidon, Gaza, and the citadel of Jerusalem, &c.  C.

Ver. 16.  Upon him.  Antiochus shall come upon the king of the south. — Land: Judea.  Ch. — Consumed, or "perfected."  Antiochus was very favourable to the Jews; (C.) invited all to return to Jerusalem, and furnished what was requisite for the sacrifices.  Jos. Ant. xii. 3.

Ver. 17.  Kingdom, viz. all the kingdom of Ptolemeus Epiphanes, son of Philopator.  Ch. — The Romans interrupted Antiochus, who resolved to lull the young prince asleep, till he had subdued these enemies.  C. — Of women.  That is, a most beautiful woman, viz. his daughter Cleopatra. — It, viz. the kingdom of Epiphanes; but his policy shall not succeed; for Cleopatra shall take more to heart the interest of her husband than that of her father.  Ch. — He came with her to Raphia, and gave her Judea, &c. for her dowry, reserving half of the revenues.  Heb. and Gr. have, "to corrupt her;" (C.) Vulg. eam; as he wished his daughter to act perfidiously, that he might seize the whole kingdom.  H. — Epiphanes and his generals were on their guard, and Cleopatra took part with her husband.  S. Jer.

Ver. 18.  Islands, near Asia.  He also went into Greece, and was master of that country when the Romans declared war against him.  C. — Of his reproach.  Scipio, the Roman general, called the prince of his reproach, because he overthrew Antiochus, and obliged him to submit to very dishonourable terms, before he would cease from the war.  Ch. — Prot. "for a prince for his own behalf shall cause the reproach offered by him to cease, without his own reproach he shall cause it to turn upon him."  H. — Being defeated at Magnesia, he chose the wisest plan of avoiding fresh reproach, by making peace, though (C.) the terms were very hard.  Livy xxxvii. — He jokingly observed, that he was obliged to the Romans for contracting his dominions.  Cic. pro Dejot.

Ver. 19.  Found.  Antiochus plundered the temple of the Elymaites to procure money; but they, (S. Jer.) or the neighbouring barbarous nations, rose up and slew him.  Just. xxxii.

Ver. 20.  One more vile.  Seleucus Philopator, who sent Heliodorus to plunder the temple; and was shortly after slain by the same Heliodorus.  Ch. — He reigned about twelve years; and had sent his own son, Demetrius, to be a hostage at Rome instead of Epiphanes, whom he designed to place at the head of an army to invade Egypt.  Heb. "one who shall cause the exactor to pass over the glory of the kingdom," the temple.  2 Mac. iii.  C.

Ver. 21.  One despised; viz. Antiochus Epiphanes, who at first was despised and not received for king.  What is here said of this prince, is accommodated by S. Jerom and others to antichrist, of whom this Antiochus was a figure.  Ch. — He lived and died basely; as the origin and end of antichrist will be ignominious.  W. — All that follows, to the end of C. xii. regards Epiphanes.  He had no title to the crown, which he procured by cunning, and held in the most shameful manner.  He canvassed for the lowest offices, so that many styled him Epimanes, "the madman."  Diod. in Valesius, p. 305.  C.

Ver. 22.  Fighter.  That is, of them that shall oppose him, and shall fight against him.  Ch. — Heliodorus, who had murdered his brother and usurped the throne, and Ptolemy Epiphanes, were discomfited.  The latter was making preparations against Seleucus, and said that his riches were in the purses of his friends, upon which they poisoned him.  S. Jer.  C. — Covenant, or of the league.  The chief of them that conspired against him; or the king of Egypt, his most powerful adversary.  Ch. — This title belongs to antichrist, who will join the Jews, and be received as their Messias.  S. Iren. v. 25.  S. Jer. &c. Jo. 543.  W.

Ver. 23.  People.  Ephiphanes pretended to be tutor of Philometor.  But the nobles of Egypt distrusted him; whereupon he came to a battle, near Pelusium, and the young king surrendered himself.  His uncle thus took possession of Egypt with surprising facility.  Yet the people of Alexandria crowned Evergetes, which occasioned a civil war.  C.

Ver. 24.  Places.  Theodot. reads, "Egypt," omitting the b, (H.) which gives a good sense. — C.

Ver. 25.  The king.  Ptolemeus Philometor.  Ch. — Epiphanes came under the pretext of restoring Philometor, and gained a victory over Evergetes; but returned in Syria, that the two brothers might weaken each other, (C.) while the Syrians formed designs against both.  H.

Ver. 26.  Slain.  This was the perfidious policy of Epiphanes, who expected that the two brothers would destroy each other, so that he might easily seize Egypt, of which he kept the key, retaining the city of Pelusium.  They were however reconciled, and reigned together.  The Scripture often represents that as done which is only intended.

Ver. 27.  Two kings: Epiphanes and Philometor. — Time.  Epiphanes, vexed that he should thus be duped, returned again into Egypt.  v. 29.

Ver. 28.  Riches, taken in Egypt (C.) and in Jerusalem.  H. — The people had refused to receive Jason; and Epiphanes treated them in the most barbarous manner, profaned the temple, &c.  1 Mac. i. 23. and 2 Mac. vi. 21.  C.

Ver. 30.  Galleys.  Heb. "ships of Chittim."  H. — The ambassadors probably came in vessels belonging to Macedonia, (C.) which they found at Delos.  Livy xliv. — Romans.  Popilius and the other Roman ambassadors, who came in galleys, and obliged him to depart from Egypt.  Ch. — He was only four or seven miles from Alexandria, and went to meet the ambassadors, who gave him the senate's letter, ordering him to desist from the war.  He said he would consult his friends: but Popilius formed a circle round him with his wand, requiring an answer before he went out of it.   Hereupon the king withdrew his forces.  Polyb. xcii.  V. Max. vi. 4. — Succeed.  Apollonius massacred many Jews on the sabbath.  1 Mac. i. 30. — Against.  Heb. "respecting."  Prot. "have intelligence with them," &c.  H. — These wretches prompted him to make such edicts, for he was attached to no religion.  2 Mac. iv. 9.

Ver. 31.  Arms, (brachia) or strong men, Apollonius, Philip, &c. (2 Mac. vi.) and likewise the senator from Antioch, who executed his decrees.  C. — Abomination.  The idol of Jupiter Olympius, which Antiochus ordered to be set up in the sanctuary of the temple, which is here called the sanctuary of strength, from the Almighty that was worshipped there.  Ch. — Other idols were set up, and the people were compelled to sacrifice.  C. — Yet even in the hottest persecutions some remained faithful.  W.

Ver. 32.  Dissemble.  Thus acted the officers and apostate Jews. — Know.  Such were the Assideans, Eleazar, and the Machabees.

Ver. 33.  Learned; the priests, Matthathias, &c.  Mal. ii. 7.

Ver. 34.  Help.  The victories of the Machabees were miraculous. — Deceitfully, like those who took the spoils of idols, and were slain.  Heb. may imply, "secretly."  C.

Ver. 35.  Fall, or became martyrs.  H. — Such were Eleazar, &c.  C. — Another time, after death; (H.) or the perfect deliverance shall take place later, v. 27.

Ver. 36.  Every god.  "He plundered many (C. or most; pleista.  H.) temples."  Polyb. Athen. v. 6. — The Samaritans, and even the priests of the Lord, obeyed the impious decree; so that the king looked upon himself as a sort of god. — Accomplished against the Jews, when Epiphanes shall be punished.

Ver. 37.  God.  He laughed at religion, yet sometimes offered splendid presents and victims, which shewed his inconstancy.  C. — Women.  He kept many concubines, (Diod.) and committed the greatest obscenities publicly: mimis et scortis.  S. Jer. — Heb. may have quite a different sense.  He had no regard for the sex, (C.) killing all indiscriminately.  Grot.

Ver. 38.  The god Maozim.  That is, the god of forces or strong holds.  Ch. — Mahuzzim denotes "strong ones," (H.) guardians, &c.  Dr. Newton (Diss.) explains, the king (v. 36.) of the Roman state; and supposes that here the guardian saints and angels are meant, whose worship he shews "began in the Roman empire, very soon after it became Christian.  This exposition seems far preferable to that which interprets" Jupiter or the heavens, and understands the idol set up by Epiphanes.  See Univ. Hist. x.  Parkhurst. — If these authors speak of the inferior veneration shewn to saints and angels in the Catholic Church, it had a much earlier commencement, being coeval with religion itself.  But only the blindest prejudice can represent this as idolatrous, and of course this system must fall to the ground.  H. — Others suppose that Mars, Hercules, Azizus, or Jupiter, may be designated.  Heb. "He will rise up against all, (38) and against the strong God (of Israel. v. 31.  C. viii. 10.  C.) he will, in his place, worship a strange god, " &c.  Jun. — None of the ancestors of Epiphanes had ever adored Jupiter on the altar of holocausts.  C. — He and antichrist adore either the great Jupiter or their own strength.  W.

Ver. 39.  To.  Heb. "in the most strong holds, with," &c.  H. — He built a fortress near the temple, styled Maoz, (Ezec. xxiv. 25.) on account of its strength.  C. — Glory.  He shall bestow honours, riches, and lands, upon them that shall worship his god.  Ch. — He will entrust the strong places to them.

Ver. 40.  Fight.  Epiphanes made war on Egypt, till the Romans forced him to desist.  The prophet explains his preceding attempts, to which he only alluded.  v. 29, 30.

Ver. 41.  Land; Egypt, or rather Judea.  C. — Ammon.  He will not divide his forces.  S. Jer.

Ver. 43.  Ethiopia.  Heb. "the Lubim and Cushim shall be at his steps."  Theodot. reads, "in their fortresses."  He had troops from these nations, or Egypt was guarded by them.

Ver. 44.  North.  Judas continued victorious.  Armenia (C.) and Parthia rebelled.  Tacit. v. 8. — Many.  Epiphanes left three generals and half his army to destroy the Jews.  C.

Ver. 45.  Apadno.  Some take it for the proper name of a place; others, from the Heb. translate it, his palace.  Ch. — He fixed his royal tent between the Mediterranean and the Dead Sea.  W. —Porphyrius explains this of the march beyond the Euphrates, which S. Jerom does not disapprove.  Apadno may denote Mesopotamia, which is styled Padan Aram. — Glorious.  Heb. Zebi, C. or Tsebi, (H.) may allude to Mount Taba, where the king perished, without help.  1 Mac. vi. 11. and 2 Mac. ix. 9.  S. Jerom and many others explain all this of antichrist, and no doubt he was prefigured.  The final events will take place again towards the end of the world.  The particulars are summed up in the Church Fathers, see below: The Antichrist. Here we have adhered to the history of Antiochus.  C.

See:

The Antichrist

And the Second Coming of Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, see:

The Return of Christ: Our Lord Jesus Christ and the Lady Mary, the Blessed Virgin Mary, at the Second Coming Of Our Lord Jesus Christ

Nuzul i Isa - Parousia of Jesus Christ