Answer:
There is no more obvious place in scripture which proves the comment that “prophecy is history pre-written.” The parallel between the two is obvious. In fact the expositor may become torn between emphasizing the scriptures or the history. Last Sunday night we looked at what the angel told Daniel about the early aspects of the coming Kingdom of Grecia. Tonight we finish the Greek’s domination over Israel, looking at one particularly infamous king.
Some Bible scholars want to make a division after verse 35, and some do so at verse 31. They want to say that the first section refers to the Greek Antichrist, and rest of the chapter deals with the Antichrist of the Tribulation. As far as I am concerned those people have a very strong case. And here is the point – Everything from verse 21 to verse 31 has been authenticated by secular history. Following that we have reason to believe that these events took place during the lifetime of Antiochus, but more precisely, other scriptures indicate that they will occur during the Tribulation. For the sake of brevity and since this is another hot Sunday afternoon, I have decided to follow that opinion at least as far as our outline is concerned. We will stop with verse 35.
Verse 21 – “And in his estate shall stand up a vile person, to whom they shall not give the honour of the kingdom: but he shall come in peaceably, and obtain the kingdom by flatteries.” If you will remember Antiochus the Great, in 190 AD, lost a major battle to the up-and-coming Romans. Those Romans had been encouraged by Antiochus’ own daughter – a woman named Cleopatra.
I need to make it clear that this Cleopatra is not that Cleopatra. The name became a type of title, just as “Caesar” became the title of several Roman Emperors. The famous Cleopatra of “Antony and Cleopatra” was actually Cleopatra VII – born in 69 BC. This Cleopatra, the daughter of Antiochus the Great, was born about 150 years earlier. But it is not surprising that they were very similar in nature and power, since they were related. I used the term “Hollywood-esque” last week, and it might be applied to this history of these Cleopatras. There were mothers, sisters and daughters all with that name/title. And they were all powerful, diabolical, Hollywood starlet types of people.
But getting back to our scriptures, the father of Cleopatra I was defeated by the Romans. Then being forced pay huge yearly tribute to the Romans, as he was trying to strip a heathen temple of its wealth, he was killed. His son Seleucus Philopater (the raiser of taxes) succeeded him, but he died some time later after trying to strip the temple of the Lord of whatever wealth he could find there. Seleucus’ brother was named Antiochus, usually called Antiochus Epiphanes.