Daniel’s final vision, chapters 10, 11 and 12 in the Book of Daniel, describes a series of conflicts between the unnamed King of the North and King of the South leading to the “time of the end,” when Israel will be vindicated and the dead raised to shame or glory.
The book of Daniel was written in reaction to the persecution of the Jews by the Greek king Antiochus IV Epiphanes in 167-164 BCE. Its authors were the maskil, the “wise,” of whom Daniel is one: “Those among the people who are wise shall make many understand ...,” and its fundamental theme is God’s control over history. The climax comes with the prophecy of the resurrection of the dead: chapter 7 spoke of the coming “kingdom of heaven,” but Daniel 10-12 does not say that history will end with the coming of the Jewish kingdom; rather, the “wise” will be brought back to life to lead Israel in the new kingdom of God.
In contemporary Christian millennialism, Daniel 11:36-45 is interpreted as a prophecy of the career and destruction of the Antichrist, and Daniel 12 as concerning the salvation of Israel (the modern State of Israel) and the coming kingdom of Christ.
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Author: Wikipedia
Keywords: King of the North, King of the South
Bible reference(s): Dan 11
Source: This article uses material from the Wikipedia article “Daniel’s final vision,” which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0.
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