Notes for Episode #66
Extracts and citations from Irenaeus, Josephus, Justin Martyr, and many others.
Irenaeus, Against Heresies (180 AD):
If therefore the great God showed future things by Daniel and confirmed them by His Son; and if Christ is the stone which is cut out without hands, who shall destroy temporal kingdoms, and introduce an eternal one, which is the resurrection of the just; as he declares, “The God of heaven shall raise up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed,” — let those thus confuted come to their senses, who reject the Creator, and do not agree that the prophets were sent beforehand from the same Father from whom also the Lord came, but who assert that prophecies originated from diverse powers. For those things which have been predicted by the Creator alike through all the prophets has Christ fulfilled in the end, ministering to His Father’s will, and completing His dispensations with regard to the human race.1
Josephus Antiquities of the Jews (94 AD):
This is the dream [seen by Nebuchadnezzar] and its interpretation is as follows:—The head of gold denotes thee, and the kings of Babylon that have been before thee; but the two hands and arms signify this, that your government shall be dissolved by two kings; but another king that shall come from the west, armed with brass, shall destroy that government; and another government, that shall be like unto iron, shall put an end to the power of the former, and shall have dominion over all the earth, on account of the nature of iron, which is stronger than that of gold, of silver, and of brass.” Daniel did also declare the meaning of the stone to the king; but I do not think proper to relate it, since I have only undertaken to describe things past or things present, but not things that are future: yet if anyone be so very desirous of knowing truth, as not to waive such points of curiosity, and cannot curb his inclination for understanding the uncertainties of futurity, and whether they will happen or not, let him be diligent in reading the book of Daniel, which he will find among the sacred writings.2
[I]t is fit to give an account of what [Daniel] did, which is most admirable to hear; for he was so happy as to have strange revelations made to him, and those as to one of the greatest of the prophets, insomuch, that while he was alive he had the esteem and applause both of the kings and of the multitude; and now he is dead, he retains a remembrance that will never fail, for the several books that he wrote and left behind him are still read by us till this time; and from them we believe that Daniel conversed with God; for he did not only prophecy of future events, as did the other prophets, but he also determined the time of their accomplishment…He also wrote and left behind him what made manifest the accuracy and undeniable veracity of his predictions.3
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; and may thence discover how the Epicureans are in an error, who cast providence out of human life, and do not believe that God takes care of the affairs of the world, nor that the universe is governed and continued in being by that blessed and immortal nature, but say that the world is carried along of its own accord, without a ruler and a curator; which, were it destitute of a guide to conduct, as they imagine, it would be like ships without pilots, which we see drowned by the winds, or like chariots without drivers, which are overturned; so would the world be dashed to pieces by its being carried without a Providence, and so perish and come to nought. So that, by the forementioned predictions of Daniel, those men seem to me very much to err from the truth, who determine that God exercises no providence over human affairs…4
Hippolytus’ Commentary on Daniel (c. 220 AD )
The “golden head of the image” is identical with the “lioness,” by which the Babylonians were represented. “The golden shoulders and the arms of silver” are the same with the “bear,” by which the Persians and Medes are meant. “The belly and thighs of bronze” are the “leopard,” by which the Greeks who ruled from Alexander onwards are intended. The “legs of iron” are the “dreadful and terrible beast,” by which the Romans who hold the empire now are meant. The “toes of clay and iron” are the “ten horns” which are to be. The “one other little horn springing up in their midst” is the “antichrist.” The stone that “strikes the image and breaks it in pieces,” and that filled the whole earth, is Christ, who comes from heaven...5
The Isaiah Targum (c. 150 BC)
This is an extract from Targum Jonathan, which is an ancient paraphrase translation of Scripture from the Hebrew into Aramaic. According to tradition, Jonathan was a pupil of Hillel the Elder (50 BC - 10 AD). Though the following interpretation of the prophecy of the Suffering Servant departs from the standard Christian interpretation in many places, it demonstrates that some Jews of this period identified this servant as the Messiah who would “hand his life over to death” and “entreat for our sins.”
Is: 52:13 Behold, My servant the Messiah will be successful; he will be lifted up and increase and be very strong. 14 Just as the house of Israel, who was in darkness among the nations, hoped on him for many days, their appearance and their splendor is more than the children of men. 15 So he will scatter many nations. Kings will be silent on account of him. They will put their hand over their mouth, for what was not told to them, they have seen, and what they have not heard, they have perceived.
Is. 53:1 Who has believed this message of ours? And so to whom has the strength of the mighty arm of the Lord been revealed in this way? 2 But the righteous will become great before him. Behold, like sprouts that produce fruit, and like a tree that sends forth its roots by rivers of water, so the generations of the Holy One will increase in the land that is in need of him. His appearance is not a common appearance, and his terror is not an ordinary terror, and his splendor will be the splendor of holiness, for all who see him will perceive him. 3 Then the glory of all the kingdoms will become a disgrace, and will be cut off; they will be weak and sick, behold, as a man of pain, and appointed for sicknesses. And as when the face of the Shekhinah was taken up from us, they are despised and not esteemed. 4 Then he will entreat for our sicknesses, and our iniquities will be forgiven on account of him, though we are reckoned as beaten and afflicted with blows from before the Lord. 5 But he will rebuild the temple that was defiled by our sins, handed over by our iniquities. And by his teaching peace will increase upon us, and when we follow his words, our sins will be forgiven us. 6 All of us like sheep have been scattered. We have gone into exile each to his (own) way, and it was pleasing from before the Lord to forgive all of us our sins on account of him. 7 He entreats, and he is answered, and before he opens his mouth, he is accepted. He will hand over the strong ones of the nations like a sheep to the slaughter, and as a ewe that is silent before its shearers, so there is not before him one who opens his mouth and speaks a word. 8 Out of sufferings and retribution he will bring our exiles near. Who will be able to tell of the miracles that will be done for us in his days? For he will remove the rule of the nations from the land of Israel. Sins that My people have sinned, he will put on them. 9 And He will hand over the wicked to Gehenna, and those rich in possessions with which they have robbed by death, which is destruction, because the doers of sins will not be established, and will not speak deceptions with their mouths. 10 But from before the Lord it was pleasing to refine and to purify the remnant of His people, so that He could cleanse their life from sins. They will see the kingdom of their messiah. They will increase sons and daughters; they will prolong (their) days, and those who do the Torah of the Lord will succeed by His favor. 11 He will deliver their life from the servitude of the nations. They will see the recompense of their enemies. They will be satiated from the plunder of their kings. By his wisdom he will justify the righteous to subject many to the Torah, and he will entreat for their sins. 12 Then I will divide the plunder of many nations for him, and he will divide the spoil, the possessions of strong fortified cities, because he handed his life over to the death, and he subjected the rebels to the Torah. And he will entreat for many sins, and to the rebels it will be forgiven on account of him.
Justin Martyr, Dialog with Trypho (c. 155 AD):
Trypho said, “[T]his so-called Christ of yours was dishonorable and inglorious, so much so that the last curse contained in the law of God fell on him, for he was crucified.” Then I replied to him, “If, sirs, it were not said by the Scriptures which I have already quoted, that His form was inglorious, and His generation not declared, and that for His death the rich would suffer death, and with His stripes we should be healed, and that He would be led away like a sheep; and if I had not explained that there would be two advents of His, — one in which He was pierced by you; a second, when you shall know Him whom you have pierced, and your tribes shall mourn, each tribe by itself, the women apart, and the men apart, — then I must have been speaking dubious and obscure things…[W]hen Daniel speaks of ‘one like to the Son of man’ who received the everlasting kingdom, does he not hint at this very thing? For he declares that, in saying ‘like to the Son of man, ‘He appeared, and was man, but not of human seed. And the same thing he proclaimed in mystery when he speaks of this stone which was cut out without hands. For the expression ‘it was cut out without hands’ signified that it is not a work of man, but [a work] of the will of the Father and God of all things, who brought Him forth.6
Jordan Peterson, We Who Wrestle With God (2024):
The story of the Tower of Babel is in its essence another retelling of the ever-present temptations and dangers of hubris—a warning against humanity’s marked proclivity to arrogance and misguided ambition. It cautions against the temptations of the Luciferian intellect: the desire…to exceed the proper human place, to define good and evil themselves, and attain the heights…In building a tower that “reaches to the heavens,” the engineers and technicians of Babel, or Babylon, and their associated rulers…aimed to make a name not for God but for themselves. In their pride, they claimed divinity and overstepped the bounds that kept them properly ensconced within the true cosmic and metaphysical order.7
John Gill’s Commentary on Isaiah (1748):
[Isaiah 14:12ff] is not to be understood of the fall of Satan and the apostate angels, from their first estate, when they were cast down from heaven to hell, though there may be an allusion to it, but the words are a continuation of the speech of the dead to the king of Babylon, wondering at it, as a thing almost incredible, that he who seemed to be so established on the throne of his kingdom, which was his heaven, that he should be deposed or fall from it…‘O Lucifer, son of the morning!’ alluding to the star Venus, which is the phosphorus morning star which shows that day is at hand, by which is meant, not Satan, who is never in Scripture called Lucifer…but the king of Babylon is intended, whose royal glory and majesty, as outshining all the rest of the kings of the earth…8
Irenaeus, Against Heresies, Book 5.26.2
Josephus, Ant. 10:208-210 (10.10.4)
Ibid., 10:266 (10.11.7).
Ibid., 10: 276-280 (10.11.7)
Hippolytus, Commentary on Daniel, 2.2.1-4
Justin Martyr, Dialog with Trypho, 32; 76
Jordan B. Peterson. We Who Wrestle With God (New York: Penguin, 2024), 195.
John Gill, A Commentary on the Whole Bible (London: J & J Knapton, 1748), commentary on Isaiah chapter 14).