"_Neque me pudeat consentire Porphyrio, quando is in veram sententiam incidit._" Moreover, St. Jerome himself could not have written his commentary, as he himself admits, without availing himself of the aid of the erudition of the heathen philosopher, whom no less a person than St. Augustine called "_doctissimus philosophorum_," though unhappily he was "_acerrimus christianorum inimicus_." FOOTNOTES: [158] Any apparently requisite modification of these words will be considered hereafter. [159] _On Revelations_, vol. i., p. 408 (E. Tr.). [160] "Dient bei ihnen die Zukunft der Gegenwart, und ist selbst fortgesetzte _Gegenwart_" (Behrmann, _Dan._, p. xi). [161] See M. de Pressensé, _Hist. des Trois Prem. Siècles_, p. 283. [162] See some admirable remarks on this subject in Ewald, _Die Proph. d. Alt. Bund._, i. 23, 24; Winer, _Realwörterb._, _s.v._ "Propheten" Stähelin, _Einleit._, § 197. [163] Comp. Enoch i. 2. [164] Ewald, _Die Proph._, i. 27; Michel Nicolas, _Études sur la Bible_, pp. 336 ff. [165] Comp. Mic. iii. 12; Jer. xxvi. 1-19; Ezek. i. 21. Comp. xxix. 18, 19. [166] Deut. xviii. 10. [167] _System der christlichen Lehre_, p. 66. [168] _E.g._, in the case of Josiah (1 Kings xiii. 2). [169] _De Coronâ_, 73: ἰδεῖν τὰ πράγματα ἀρχόμενα καὶ προαισθέσθαι καὶ προειπεῖν τοῖς ἄλλοις. [170] The symbolism of numbers is carefully and learnedly worked out in Bähr's _Symbolik_: cf. Auberlen, p. 133. The _several_ fulfilments of the prophesied seventy years' captivity illustrate this. [171] Hengstenberg, _On Revelations_, p. 609. [172] All these particulars may be found, without any allusion to the Book of Daniel, in the admirable article on the Apocrypha by Dean Plumptre in Dr. Smith's _Dict. of the Bible_. [173] Ewald, _Gesch. Isr._, iv. 541. [174] "Et non tam Danielem _ventura dixisse_ quam illum _narrasse præterita_" (Jer.). [175] "Ad intelligendas autem extremas Danielis partes multiplex Græcorum historia necessaria est" (Jer., _Proæm. Explan. in Dan. Proph. ad f._). Among these Greek historians he mentions _eight_ whom Porphyry had consulted, and adds, "Et si quando cogimur litterarum sæcularium recordari ... non nostræ est voluntatis, sed ut dicam, _gravissimæ necessitatis_." We know Porphyry's arguments mainly through the commentary of Jerome, who, indeed, derived from Porphyry the historic data without which the eleventh chapter, among others, would have been wholly unintelligible. CHAPTER VIII _EVIDENCE IN FAVOUR OF THE GENUINENESS UNCERTAIN AND INADEQUATE_ We have seen that there are many circumstances which force upon us the gravest doubts as to the authenticity of the Book of Daniel. We now proceed to examine the evidence urged in its favour, and deemed adequate to refute the conclusion that in its present form it did not see the light before the time of Antiochus IV.