Porphyry didnt interpret the last verses of chapter 11 and 12 in the same way modern scholars do, he thought they were past events from the perspective of the author, not future inaccuracies. Casey's paper quoted in the video is about this
@@dreyri2736 Porphyry was a member of the city-dwelling intellectual elite, not some superstitious country bumpkin! He also had the good grace to record the philosophical ideas that would go on to inform, shape and even constitute a significant portion of Christian and Islamic theology. One shouldn't disrespect one's elders is all I'm sayin.
@@extremaz9908 Porphyry was quite literally a pagan. No idea why this makes you act confused. He believed the hellenistic gods were real beings and he wrote a book criticizing christianity.
@@dreyri2736 I'm not confused. He was a Neo-platonist. Not a pagan. He believed in the One God and the emanations i.e Logos, Nous, World Spirit etc. You can read all about this in his Enneads if you haven't already. He would've regarded the Hellenistic gods as superstitious, and the religion for the simple masses. His theology went on to strongly influence both Christianity and Islam, this is not disputed among scholars of religious history, I believe. This influence is such that some Church fathers and some Islamic philosophers were of the belief that the Greek philosophical tradition might have been informed by some kind of special revelation from God that hasn't been recorded.
@@extremaz9908 yes and I'm not joking. He did believe in the hellenistic gods and he applied neoplatonism to pagan religion. I know that he influenced the creation of christianity. But he was not a christian. He was a pagan. Another example of a pagan neoplatonist was Proclus.
Porphyry lives! Dear teacher, you are bravely waving his flag so allow me here to remind you that you wrote in the comment section to the previous video that "you have nicely summarized a perfectly legitimate alternative to the theory presented in this video".This statement alone is sufficient to render Porphyry's claim (and now your's too) that "Daniel was a Maccabean pseudepigraph" as just another theory among other theories. To elevate your claim to a level higher than this, i.e. to something that can be accepted as truth, would require the absence of a legitimate alternative. Hence you must now either retract your claim or retract your comment. Your move.
Hi Joerg, Thanks for your comment. In this video, I hope I don't present my theory (which is also Porphyry's and most modern commentaries) as "TRUTH". However, I do believe it is the most convincing theory and as such I speak of it highly in the video. I can, at the same time, respect and understand alternative theories as being legitimate in the mind of others. While noting they are inferior to my own. How would justify the enormous leap in time between a single verse in Daniel 11 (without referring to other places in Daniel that you believe do the same thing)?
@@thestudyofchristianity Very well, we can agree that your theory is just another theory. That you consider your own theory to be superior is understood. But theories don't prove anything, much less pull entire houses down as Porphyry and now you are trying to do. For that you need something more firm. You need the truth. How do I justify the "enormous leap in time" in Daniel 11:35? Logic alone demands that the phrase "until the end time, because it is still to come at the appointed time" signifies a break in time. Small or large, some kind of break in time. Would you consider 1 year reasonable? 5 years? Let us examine the last 2,600 years, from the Babylonian captivity until now, from a Jewish perspective. In the light of God's promise to uphold his covenenant with Israel (Jer. 33:14-22), the last 2,000+ years can be considered a state of suspended animation. God even has a name for it: "the times of the Gentiles" (Luke 21:24). Israel only just recently regained national independence but her spiritual identity (her relationship wtih God) and the fulfilment of his promises to her in the latter days is still waiting for fulfillment. "Next year in Jerusalem" continues to be recited by many Jews. Lastly, add the heavenly perspective. What does the word "enormous" mean to a being that dwells outside time and space and whose perspective and words were focused on "what will happen to your people in the latter days" (Daniel 10:14)? When does the "latter days" begin? "Children, it is the last hour, and just as you heard that antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have appeared; from this we know that it is the last hour" (I John 2:18). That was written 2,000 years ago. Based on these words alone, either God has fallen asleep or we have been living on borrowed time for a very long time indeed. It far exceeds our human understanding of long-suffering and is a testimony to God's unwillingness that any should perish (2 Peter 3:3). On a more personal note, dear teacher, I have been richly blessed by your meticulous hard work over the past two years or so. Thank you. I have learned much from your videos, starting with the ones on Isaiah and more recently the ones on Daniel. I too am puzzled by the relative obscurity of your channel. I suspect God is shielding you from popularity because of his particular love for you. But that is just my theory, based on the best available evidence.
Thank you so much for your thoughtful reply. You’ve presented a good argument and although I disagree, I find it difficult to rebut. We are just approaching the data from different perspectives. Thank you for your kind words at the end. I hope I one day break free from this obscurity!
This proves Christains was defending also what Jews have proven to be historical "Both the rabbis of the Talmudic Age and the Christian Church Fathers accepted the book's own statements that the four apocalypses of Daniel B were written by a man named Daniel in the last years of the Babylonian Age and in the first ones of the Persian Age, i.e., approximately in the decade 545-535 B.C.E., and they did not question the historicity of any part of Daniel A." ~Jewish virtual library "And indeed it so came to pass, that our nation suffered these things under Antiochus Epiphanes, according to Daniel's vision, and what he wrote many years before they came to pass. In the very same manner Daniel also wrote concerning the Roman government, and that our country should be made desolate by them. All these things did this man leave in writing, as God had showed them to him, insomuch that such as read his prophecies, and see how they have been fulfilled, would wonder at the honor wherewith God honored Daniel;" ~the new complete writings of flavors of Josephus first/2nd century So it make sense the nations raged against the truth amen
@@thestudyofchristianity "Both the rabbis of the Talmudic Age and the Christian Church Fathers accepted the book's own statements that the four apocalypses of Daniel B were written by a man named Daniel in the last years of the Babylonian Age and in the first ones of the Persian Age, i.e., approximately in the decade 545-535 B.C.E., and they did not question the historicity of any part of Daniel A." ~Jewish virtual library "And indeed it so came to pass, that our nation suffered these things under Antiochus Epiphanes, according to Daniel's vision, and what he wrote many years before they came to pass. In the very same manner Daniel also wrote concerning the Roman government, and that our country should be made desolate by them. All these things did this man leave in writing, as God had showed them to him, insomuch that such as read his prophecies, and see how they have been fulfilled, would wonder at the honor wherewith God honored Daniel;" ~the new complete writings of flavors of Josephus first/2nd century
