Commentary on Daniel, Chapter 11 · Questions · Question 45
45. Quest. How Antiochus should not regard the desires of women.
1. Some doe read these words affirmatiuely, that he shall be in the desires of women. And here 1. Pellican applieth it to Antiochus, that was luxuriosissimus, most lasciuious, in so much that publikely he was not ashamed to vse his concubines. 2. some referre it to the Antichrist in the ende of the world, qui futurus est Iudaeorum Messias, who shall be the Messiah of the Iewes, who▪ because the Iewes doe expect the multitude of wiues to be graunted them by their Messiah, shall by no meanes command, or commend caelibatum, single life: Bellar. lib. 3. de Rom. pont. c. 21. But it is euident, that in the Hebrew the negatiue particle must be supplied in eueryevery clause, as hath beene shewed in the diuers readings of this verse: and so Anquila readeth, foreign, he shall not attend to the desires of women. As concerning that conceit of their Antichrist, the Iewes Messiah and that Antichrist shall come together.
2. Pererius thinketh, that the spirit of God of purpose left the Hebrew Scripture ambiguous, that in both senses it might agree to Antichrist: for he secretly shall be giuen to all lust, and yet outwardly feigne chastitie: but the Scripture vseth not to speake doubtfully.
3. Wherefore the best reading is negatiuely, he shall not hauehave respect to the desires of women. 1. which neither doe we take generally for his inhumanitie, becasue kindnes and humanitie is likened to the louelove of women, 2. Sam. 1. 26. as Iunius referring it to Antiochus, and Calvin to the Romanes, and some other to Herod that was cruell toward his wife and children. 2. nor, becasue Antiochus regarded not the desire and request of his wife for sparing the Temple: for the text speaketh of women, not of one woman. 3. nor yet is here signified the tendernes of women, whome he cruelly put to death, not sparing their sex: Bro. for the word chemidah, desire, is not taken in that sense. 4. nor yet is it meant, he should altogether be alienated from the desire of women; as Vatablus doth, applying it to their Antichrist. 5. But the word signifieth the lawfull desires of women: he shall contemne matrimonie, and be giuen ouer to vagrant lust: and this to be the sense Graserus sheweth by three arguments: 1. by the vse of the word, which is for the most part taken for lawfull desire: as Daniel is called, a man of desires, Dan. 9. 23. and Ezekiels wife is called the desire of his eyes, c. 24. 17. 2. the word signifieth a reflexion of desire: in desiring and beeing desired: as 1. Sam. 9. 20. the desire of Israel was toward Saul: but this reflexion of desire is onelyonly seene in lawfull matrimonie. 3. the phrase sheweth so much, he shall not regard: as before it signified not the abolishing of all gods, but a contempt of them: so here he shall not altogether despise women, but he shall not regard their desire: he shall contemne matrimonie: and so did Antiochus, who had a famous strumpet Antiochis, to whome he gaue the cities of Tharsus and Mallot, 2. Macchab. 4. 30. Theodoret: and he openly ioyned himselfe to strumpets: as Hierome. 6. This beeing thus literally true of Antiochus, may be applied typically to the Pope, who hath brought in contempt of Matrimonie, &c. but this is not the historicall meaning, as Bulling. Osiand. Illyricus, Graserus doe thinke. 7. But Oecolampad. is further off, who vnderstandeth this of Antiochus contempt of the beutiful goddesses, as the Moone, or Venus: for the text speaketh of women, not of goddesses.