And I heard one saint speaking, and another saint said unto that one who spoke, How long shall be the vision of the continual [sacrifice] and of the transgression that maketh desolate, to give both the sanctuary and the host to be trodden down under foot?
Daniel's vision has just shown a power that stops Israel's daily burnt offering and tramples the sanctuary. Now the prophet overhears two holy ones asking how long it will last — and the answer decides whether this is old history or still ahead.
The word for "saint," or "holy one," does not have to mean a person. Scripture uses it of angels as well as of Israel:
Scripture speaks often of saints, or holy ones. It describes the elect angels this way (Deut. 33:2; Job 15:15; Dan. 8:13; Jude 14). It calls the people of Israel by the same name (Deut. 33:3).
The one being addressed is harder to name. An older English version calls him "that certain saint," and the margin adds a title:
We quote this passage for the phrase "that certain saint." A competent authority tells us the phrase means "a certain unknown person." The margin of our Authorized Bible describes this person as "the numberer of secrets, or the wonderful numberer." The Hebrew name is "Palmoni," which means a wonderful numberer, as the margin says. Does it not look as if there is an angel appointed whose work is to deal with numbers?
The question looks back to verse 11, where the horn attacks both the people and their worship. One small word decides the sense: was the daily sacrifice taken away by the horn, or from the Prince of the host?
This little horn grew great, and cast down some of the host and the stars of heaven, and trampled on them. That is, certain Jewish rulers who held a place of great authority are overthrown, treated with the greatest cruelty and degraded. "Yes, he magnified himself even to the Prince of the host," which, I suppose, means the Lord Himself. The marginal note is right in the next clause: "From him the daily sacrifice was taken away." That at once makes it all plain. Taking "by him" to mean the little horn, and "the place of his sanctuary" to mean the sanctuary of the Prince of the host, brings in the greatest confusion.
The daily sacrifice is the verse's regular burnt offering, and it was never a private act:
The priest offered the daily sacrifice as acting for the whole nation. It pictured the ground of the nation's blessings and privileges. So faith made much of it. Ezra 3:3; Dan. 8:11, 13, 26; Dan. 9:27.
The wording here is not the better-known "abomination of desolation." One writer keeps the two apart:
I am not ready to say that "the abomination of desolation," which our Lord speaks of in Matt. 24, referring to Daniel 12:11, is the same as "the image" before us... In Dan. 8:13 it is a different thing: "the transgression of desolation."
Much of this has already happened once, and history names the man:
I strongly suspect that most of what we have here, apart from the part set in brackets, was partly fulfilled in the past... Secular history calls him Antiochus Epiphanes, and he was a very bad man... He tried to force pagan worship on the Jews, above all the worship of Jupiter Olympus. He put to death every Jew who resisted him. At last the Romans, together with the strength and courage of the Maccabees themselves, held him back and defeated him. The temple was cleansed once more, and Jewish worship started again.
But that fulfilment was only partial. The same writer shows how far the details of the vision run past anything Antiochus did:
The horn cast down the sanctuary to the ground, and Antiochus did not: he left it standing. The sanctuary and the host were to be trampled under foot until two thousand three hundred days, and in Daniel's prophecies days stand for years. But the defiling in the reign of Antiochus did not last that many ordinary days. The trampling was to last until the time of the end, until the very end of the indignation against the Jews — and that indignation has not ended yet. It was to last until the sanctuary that had been cast down should be cleansed — and the sanctuary is not yet cleansed. The most we can allow is that the prophecy had only a partial fulfilment in Antiochus, one that ran ahead of the real one.
The sanctuary in view stands on earth, not in heaven:
What is the sanctuary spoken of here? It is Israel's. The "indignation" is God's anger against them, and it ends with their restoration and blessing, as we see here... The only sanctuary of God that could be trampled underfoot was the one in Israel, and so shall the sanctuary be cleansed.
- Asked — holy ones raise the question in heaven while the trampling is still going on. God's people are not the only ones watching the clock.
- Numbered — the margin calls the one addressed the wonderful numberer. The evil has a counted limit, not an open one.
- Named — what is lost is the daily sacrifice, taken from the Prince of the host. It stood for the whole ground of Israel's blessing.
- Limited — the sanctuary and the host are given up, but only for a counted number of days. Antiochus fulfilled part of it; the sanctuary is not yet cleansed.
- Cleansed — the answer ends with a cleansed sanctuary. God's anger against His people closes in their restoration and blessing.
And he said unto me, Until two thousand and three hundred evenings [and] mornings then shall the sanctuary be vindicated.
A question in verse 13 asks how long the daily sacrifice will stay stopped and the sanctuary lie trampled, and this verse is the answer. Three things hang on it: what "evenings and mornings" counts, which sanctuary the verse means, and whether the answer belongs to the past or the future.
The figure is tied to Israel's own way of counting days. One writer asks whether it can stretch across the kingdoms of this chapter:
Does this time measure the whole time of the kingdoms spoken of? Of course, two thousand three hundred days, if it is literally this, could not; and "evening-mornings" — taken from the Jewish reckoning of days — seems literal enough.
The little horn of this chapter attacked Israel's worship. One writer follows the story to its end:
History outside the Bible calls him Antiochus Epiphanes, and he was a very bad man… He tried to force pagan worship on the Jews, above all the worship of Jupiter Olympus, and he put to death all the Jews who resisted his plans. In the end he was held back and defeated, partly by the Romans and partly by the force and courage of the Maccabees themselves. The temple was cleansed once more, and Jewish worship began again.
Because the count fits that history, some writers reject the popular method of turning each prophetic day into a year:
The 2,300 days (literal days) cover just about the period of time during which Antiochus did his wicked deeds. When those days ended, Judas Maccabaeus cleansed the sanctuary about December 25, 165 B.C… the foolish speculations that these days are years, and so on, lacks scriptural foundation altogether. Such views and fanciful interpretations bring the study of prophecy into disrepute. We have in mind especially the Seventh Day Adventist delusion. They teach the terrible falsehood that the Lord Jesus Christ did not enter the Most Holy Place until the year 1844, because by their reckoning that is 2,300 years after Cyrus gave the command to build the temple. That this is a denial of the gospel itself, and satanic, is self-evident.
Commentators differ on how far this verse reaches. Some see it fully carried out in the days of the Maccabees. Others follow Gabriel's interpretation, which points past that crisis to a later day.
What Daniel saw came true in history, in Antiochus Epiphanes during the time of the Maccabees. But Gabriel's interpretation now shows us that this historical fulfilment also pointed to another fulfilment. So the full realization of what Daniel describes will come after the rapture of the Church, when the Jews will be once more in their own land.
Older translations end the verse, "then shall the sanctuary be cleansed," and the writers here use that wording. The promise belongs to one people. God's anger let the trampling happen, and the same anger closes with their restoration.
What is the sanctuary spoken of here? It is Israel's. The "indignation" is God's anger against them, which closes with their restoration and blessing, as seen here.
Some move the cleansing to a sanctuary in heaven. One writer answers that nothing in heaven can be trodden down:
It is certain, however, that the sanctuary in Daniel 8 is the Jewish one. It is not wholly set aside, as they imagine. As we have seen, and as the sure word of God teaches, it is still to stand in the midst of Israel… No heavenly sanctuary, despite all claims, could be "trodden underfoot," and the prophecy shows us the one who is to do this to the earthly one.
This teaching makes 1844 the start of a work not yet finished. The cost falls on the cross:
Imagine believers, pardoned and accepted by the Father, still waiting for a verdict on whether they have a right to the benefits of the atonement! Imagine the work of atonement not completed. Every true believer in the Lord Jesus must reject this serious dishonour put upon his Saviour and His precious finished work.
- Question. The verse answers a "how long?" from the vision: the trampling of God's house has a fixed limit, not an endless one.
- Days. "Evenings and mornings" follows Israel's own way of counting days. Taken as real days, the span is far too short to cover the kingdoms of this chapter.
- History. The limit ran out on Antiochus Epiphanes. Judas Maccabaeus cleansed the sanctuary he had defiled, and its worship began again.
- Horizon. Commentators differ on how far the words reach. Gabriel's interpretation leads many to see that old tyrant as a picture of a last one.
- Hope. The sanctuary here is Israel's, not one in heaven. So the verse closes God's anger with restoration, and leaves Christ's finished work untouched.