Daniel 8:17

‘So he came near where I stood, and when he came I was filled with awe, and fell on my face. But he said to me, “Understand O son of man, for the vision belongs to the time of the end.”

The approach of Gabriel filled Daniel with awe and he fell on his face. The presence of Gabriel and the voice from the river made him aware of the awesome presence of God. Gabriel then addressed him as ‘son of man', a title suggestive of weakness and humanity, and, in the context of Daniel, of one of the people of God.

‘For the vision belongs to the time of the end.' The meaning of this statement is open to question. Of course, for interpreters who see large parts of prophetic Scripture as belonging to what they call ‘the end times', meaning the time just before Christ's second coming, even when, on the face of it, it does not fit in, there is no difficulty, ‘the end' always means that period. The fact that what has gone before does not fit in with that is no problem, they simply double up and say it all applies to both its obvious meaning and the end times. Such interpreters take up certain phrases and say that they always indicate what they mean by ‘the end times' (phrases such as ‘the Day of Yahweh', which can actually refer to any ‘day' when Yahweh acts in judgment whether at the ‘end times' or not; and ‘in that day', which can simply mean at that time; although both often can mean ‘the end times').

But we have to ask what Daniel meant by it in context, and, as we have seen, the vision refers first to the rise of the Medo-Persian empire, and then of the Greek empire and then refers at the end to the time of the rise and persecutions of Antiochus Epiphanes and desecration of the temple, and ceases at the point of the ‘making righteous' of the temple. ‘The ‘fourth empire' is not yet in sight. Thus the obvious meaning of ‘belongs to the time of the end' is that the whole significance and purpose of the vision was to bring us up to that end point, the end of the vision. The ‘time of the end' is ‘the time of the end of the vision'. The concentration of the vision was not on the prior sweep of history but on the final phase, the dealings of Antiochus Epiphanes. That is the time the vision ‘belongs to', the time at the end of the vision.

Note on - ‘The vision belongs to the time of the end' and similar phrases

In Daniel, references to ‘the end' are many and certainly do not all point to one period. We have seen already that in Daniel 8:17 ‘the time of the end' is the time on which the vision concentrates at its end, the time of Antiochus Epiphanes, thus meaning ‘the time of the end of the vision'. We can compare Daniel 8:19 where ‘the latter time of the indignation', that is the final part of the period of indignation against Israel and Judah, (which includes the three hundred and ninety years of Israel and the forty years of Judah - Ezekiel 4:4) belongs to ‘the appointed time of the end'. This refers to the activities of Antiochus which are seen as the closure of the time of indignation. The angel's explanation will cover exactly the same period. This ‘indignation' refers to God's wrath against His people as described by the prophets, which was clearly here seen as continuing during the activities of Medo-Persia and Greece because of the disobedience of God's rebellious people, the latter time of it being the reign of Antiochus, for that is what the vision is specifically emphasising. The end of this period is ‘the appointed time of the end' (of the indignation).

This phrase ‘the appointed time' also occurs in Daniel 11:27; Daniel 11:29; Daniel 11:35 where each time it is referring to the time that God has appointed in which to deal with this vile persecutor, Antiochus. The exile was clearly not seen as having averted ‘the indignation', and this was to be Israel's next major hurdle. Thus Daniel saw the Maccabaean uprising which followed Antiochus, and the rise of the Hasidim (the loyal ones) and their followers, preparatory for the coming of John the Baptiser and Jesus, as following this period of indignation. The return from exile had not purified the people. This had required the persecution of an Antiochus.

In Daniel 11:6 ‘the end of the years' simply means the end of the period to which those particular circumstances apply.

Very different are references to ‘the end' (Daniel 9:26; Daniel 11:40; Daniel 12:6 compare Daniel 12:13, and possibly Daniel 12:4; Daniel 12:9) where there is no reference point for ‘the end' and we must therefore see them as actually referring to the time when God is about to sum up history. For all these references see the commentary at that point.

Like all the prophets Daniel looked forward in his vision and saw the near and far future. None of them knew how long it would be. But they saw certain events ahead like mountain peaks one behind the other. And to them beyond the first mountain peak were ‘the last days'.

Imagine a sturdy walker on a long hike in unknown mountainous country. He looks ahead and sees stretching before him a number of mountain peaks, and the farthest does not seem all that much further than the nearest. The problem is going to be getting to the first. Then they will come quickly one after another. So he struggles on and at last reaches the first mountain. But when he gets to the top of the first mountain peak, he receives his first shock. The second mountain peak which had seemed to be just behind the first is now a long way distance away separated from him by a huge plain. So he begins his weary trip towards the second. And the same happens each time he reaches a mountain top. Rather than being close together as they first appeared they are each separated from the other by huge plains.

In the same way the prophets looked ahead and saw the mountain tops. They did not know what lay between, and they rarely reached the first mountain. (Ezekiel did and then he saw further mountains ahead). They were not fortune tellers or foretellers of future events in order to satisfy human curiosity, they were the voice of God, declarers of what God was going to do and the principles that he would follow through to the end. Their prophecies were regularly in two phases, the first phase which would be fulfilled in the not too distant future, but would only be a partial fulfilment, and a second phase, a further mountain top, which would bring about its final fulfilment. Compare for example Tyre (Ezekiel 26:7). This was first to be defeated by Nebuchadnezzar, but it would only a lot later on become a place to spread nets in. A similar example is Babylon, defeated by the Medes, but it was only long centuries later that it became a total ruin (Isaiah 13:17). And yet the second result followed the first inexorably.

In Daniel's case he saw first the persecutions of Antiochus Epiphanes, which would have such a profound effect on the faith of Israel, bringing about the birth of what was good in the Pharisaic teaching with its emphasis on the resurrection. That was his first mountain top. And then would come (of which he saw glimpses) the rise of the fourth kingdom and the birth of Jesus the Messiah and Son of Man, followed by the establishment of the new Israel under the Kingly Rule of God, arising out of the old Israel, all smiting at the base of the totality of the empires, and then would come ‘the end', troublous times, followed by the final judgment of God and the resurrection (Daniel 12:2). And all seen as coming closely one after another, without any conception of the spans of time that lay between, which to us seem so huge, but which to God, Who can step from one mountain top to another in a moment of time, are just ahead.

So the fourth and final empire, which was already in view in Daniel 11:30, would follow Antiochus. And as we have seen in his visions that was the ‘end time' empire, (Daniel 2:40; Daniel 7:7; Daniel 7:19), the apocalyptic empire, which would clash with the smiting stone and the son of man receiving His kingdom.

To put it in other words the actions of Antiochus would introduce ‘the last days'. These ‘last days' would include the conquests of Rome, the coming of Jesus, the Messiah and Son of Man, (regularly described in the New Testament as ‘the last days' and as being ‘the end of the ages' and its equivalent - Acts 2:17; 1 Peter 1:20; 1Pe 4:7; 1 Corinthians 10:11; Hebrews 1:1; Hebrews 9:26), the destruction of Jerusalem by Rome, the growth of the new Israel, the everlasting kingdom of God which incorporates all true believers, and indeed is the true church and the true Israel of God, the disintegration of Rome into many ‘kingships' (the ten horns), and the final times prior to the second coming of Christ, which would include the rise of ‘the horn, the small one', leading up to that coming, and the resurrection and the final judgment of God. All these are portrayed in one way or another by the prophets.

End of note.