 2014 William E. Wenstrom, Jr. Bible Ministries Wenstrom Bible Ministries Marion, Iowa Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom

 2014 William E. Wenstrom, Jr. Bible Ministries Tuesday July 8, 2014 Daniel: Daniel 11:37-The Prophecy of the Antichrist Having No Regard For Any Object of Worship Because He Will Magnify Himself Above All Lesson # 358

 2014 William E. Wenstrom, Jr. Bible Ministries Please turn in your Bibles to Daniel 11:36.

 2014 William E. Wenstrom, Jr. Bible Ministries Daniel 11:36 “Then the king will do as he pleases, and he will exalt and magnify himself above every god and will speak monstrous things against the God of gods; and he will prosper until the indignation is finished, for that which is decreed will be done.” (NASB95)

 2014 William E. Wenstrom, Jr. Bible Ministries Daniel 11:36 “Then, a unique king will do according to his desire. Consequently, he will exalt himself so that he will magnify himself above every deity. He will also issue extraordinary statements against the true God. However, despite this, he will succeed until the righteous indignation related to the end is completed because that which has been decreed must take place.” (My translation)

 2014 William E. Wenstrom, Jr. Bible Ministries Daniel 11:37 “He will show no regard for the gods of his fathers or for the desire of women, nor will he show regard for any other god; for he will magnify himself above them all.” (NASB95)

 2014 William E. Wenstrom, Jr. Bible Ministries “He will show no regard for the gods of his fathers” indicates that this unique king described in Daniel 11:36 will have absolutely no respect for the gods of his ancestors.

 2014 William E. Wenstrom, Jr. Bible Ministries “Or for the desire of women” is composed of the preposition ʿ ǎl ( עַל) (al), “for” and its object is the noun ḥ ěm·dā(h) ( חֶמְדָּה) (khem-daw´), “the desire of” which is followed by the noun ʾ iš·šā(h) ( אִשָּׁה) (ish-shaw´), “women.”

 2014 William E. Wenstrom, Jr. Bible Ministries The noun ʾ iš·šā(h) is in the plural and means “women” and the noun ḥ ěm·dā(h) refers to a “desirable object.”

 2014 William E. Wenstrom, Jr. Bible Ministries The latter is in the construct state meaning it is governing the word which follows it and is expressing a genitive relation with this word, which is the noun ʾ iš·šā(h), “women.”

 2014 William E. Wenstrom, Jr. Bible Ministries The genitive relation is a subjective genitive which specifies the agent who performs or is characterized by the concept that is implied by the construct term.

 2014 William E. Wenstrom, Jr. Bible Ministries Therefore, we could translate this expression “the one loved by women, the one beloved by women” (ESV, NLT, NRSV) or “the god loved by women” (NET), or “the one desired by women” (NIV, TNIV).

 2014 William E. Wenstrom, Jr. Bible Ministries The noun ḥ ěm·dā(h) is also the object of the preposition ʿ ǎl which means “for” since it is a marker of advantage or benefaction to a person, which indicates that the one desired by women will under no circumstances be worshipped by this unique king who will not be dependent upon this one desired by women.

 2014 William E. Wenstrom, Jr. Bible Ministries “Nor will he show regard for any other god” indicates that this unique king described in Daniel 11:36 will have absolutely no respect for any god.

 2014 William E. Wenstrom, Jr. Bible Ministries “For he will magnify himself above them all” presents the reason for the three previous prophetic statements indicating that this unique king will have absolutely no regard for the gods of his ancestors, the one desired by women and each and every god “because” he will magnify himself above every object of worship.

 2014 William E. Wenstrom, Jr. Bible Ministries Daniel 11:37 “Also, he will have absolutely no respect for the gods of his ancestors as well as the one desired by women, likewise he will have absolutely no respect for each and every god because he will magnify himself above all.” (My translation)

 2014 William E. Wenstrom, Jr. Bible Ministries Here in Daniel 11:37, the elect angel of God communicated to Daniel four prophecies regarding the character and actions of the Antichrist during the seventieth week.

 2014 William E. Wenstrom, Jr. Bible Ministries In regards to the first prophetic statement some interpret the noun ʾ ě lō∙hîm as meaning “God” referring to the God of Israel who is identified in the New Testament as the Father, Son and Holy Spirit rather than “gods” referring to pagan gods.

 2014 William E. Wenstrom, Jr. Bible Ministries This is a common use of the word ʾ ě lō∙hîm in Daniel and throughout the Old Testament.

 2014 William E. Wenstrom, Jr. Bible Ministries The implication is that this unique king is Jewish.

 2014 William E. Wenstrom, Jr. Bible Ministries This would indicate that this unique king will have absolutely no regard for the God of his ancestors, i.e. he will have absolutely no regard for the God of Israel.

 2014 William E. Wenstrom, Jr. Bible Ministries However, the Scriptures make clear that the Antichrist is emphatically not a Jew but will be a Gentile and specifically a Roman.

 2014 William E. Wenstrom, Jr. Bible Ministries The “little horn” in Daniel chapter 7 is from the fourth and final beast which represents the Roman Empire and is a reference to the Antichrist, thus, he will be a Roman.

 2014 William E. Wenstrom, Jr. Bible Ministries The Antichrist is the first beast in Revelation 13 who is described as arising from the sea and since the sea depicts the Gentile nations according to Revelation 17:15, he must be of Gentile origin.

 2014 William E. Wenstrom, Jr. Bible Ministries Antichrist is the head of the last form of Gentile world dominion, for he is like a leopard, a bear, and a lion (Revelation 13:1; compare Daniel 7:7-8, 20, 24; Revelation 17:9-11) and as such he is a political leader.

 2014 William E. Wenstrom, Jr. Bible Ministries Furthermore, in Daniel 9:26 the phrase “the people of the prince who is to come” teaches that the Antichrist will arise from the people who destroyed Jerusalem and the temple in this city.

 2014 William E. Wenstrom, Jr. Bible Ministries Of course, history records that the Roman’s fulfilled this prophecy in Daniel 9:26.

 2014 William E. Wenstrom, Jr. Bible Ministries There are many problems with regards to the second prophetic statement in Daniel 11:37.

 2014 William E. Wenstrom, Jr. Bible Ministries As we noted the noun ḥ ěm·dā(h) refers to a “desirable object” and is in the construct state meaning it is governing the word which follows it and is expressing a genitive relation with this word, which is the noun ʾ iš·šā(h), “women.”

 2014 William E. Wenstrom, Jr. Bible Ministries Now, most English translations interpret the genitive relation as a subjective genitive which specifies the agent who performs or is characterized by the concept that is implied by the construct term.

 2014 William E. Wenstrom, Jr. Bible Ministries Therefore, we could translate this expression “the one loved by women, the one beloved by women” (ESV, NLT, NRSV) or “the god loved by women” (NET), or “the one desired by women” (NIV, TNIV).

 2014 William E. Wenstrom, Jr. Bible Ministries From this translation some interpret this expression as meaning that the unique king will have no respect for the god loved by women, namely Tammuz.

 2014 William E. Wenstrom, Jr. Bible Ministries Another interpretation arising from the subjective interpretation is that this expression is a reference to the natural desire of Jewish women to become the mother of the Messiah which would thus make the expression a symbol of the Messianic hope in general.

 2014 William E. Wenstrom, Jr. Bible Ministries The implication of this interpretation is obvious, namely that the Antichrist will have absolutely no respect for the Son of God.

 2014 William E. Wenstrom, Jr. Bible Ministries Both interpretations arising from this subjective genitive interpretation have the advantage that this expression is sandwiched between two descriptions of the Antichrist rejecting the gods of his ancestors and his magnifying himself above every deity worshipped by unregenerate humanity on the earth.

 2014 William E. Wenstrom, Jr. Bible Ministries The interpretation that Tammuz is in view is unlikely since the Antichrist did not live in the days of Daniel or in the ancient world when women worshipped this god.

 2014 William E. Wenstrom, Jr. Bible Ministries He will live during the seventieth week.

 2014 William E. Wenstrom, Jr. Bible Ministries It is possible Tammuz will be worshipped then but it is more likely that Tammuz will not be worshipped then but some other god will be worshipped.

 2014 William E. Wenstrom, Jr. Bible Ministries The interpretation that this expression is a reference to the desire to be the mother of the Messiah has problems since the reference to “women” in this expression is ambiguous since is the angel talking about Jewish or Gentile women or both?

 2014 William E. Wenstrom, Jr. Bible Ministries If the reference to “women” in this expression was Jewish women we would expect the angel to add the phrase “your people” which would indicate that the one desired by women of “your people.”

 2014 William E. Wenstrom, Jr. Bible Ministries One could justifiably object and say that the angel could be speaking to Daniel’s frame of reference or in other words, when the angel speaks of the object desired by women, both he and Daniel would understand it as being the Messiah who is desired by every Jewish women.

 2014 William E. Wenstrom, Jr. Bible Ministries The genitive relation of this expression could also be interpreted as an objective genitive meaning that the noun ʾ iš·šā(h) is receiving the action implied by the noun ḥ ěm·dā(h).

 2014 William E. Wenstrom, Jr. Bible Ministries Therefore, the translation of this expression would be “the desire for women.”

 2014 William E. Wenstrom, Jr. Bible Ministries The interpretation that arises from this translation is that the Antichrist will have absolutely no regard for the desire for women.

 2014 William E. Wenstrom, Jr. Bible Ministries The implication of this interpretation is that the Antichrist would not have a love or desire for women which is natural to men or in other words, he will not have a natural affection for women.

 2014 William E. Wenstrom, Jr. Bible Ministries The interpretation which best fits the context is that the Antichrist will have absolutely no regard for the one desired by women, namely the Jewish Messiah since this description would be sandwiched between the description that he will reject the gods of ancestors, and for any other deity and deify himself.

 2014 William E. Wenstrom, Jr. Bible Ministries In other words, the Antichrist will reject the gods of his ancestors, and every other object of worship, as well as the Messiah and will deify himself.

 2014 William E. Wenstrom, Jr. Bible Ministries The interpretation that the Antichrist will have no desire for women would seem out of place whereas the Antichrist rejecting the Messiah fits perfectly.

 2014 William E. Wenstrom, Jr. Bible Ministries There are no problems with the interpretation of the third and fourth prophetic statements in Daniel 11:37.

 2014 William E. Wenstrom, Jr. Bible Ministries The third prophetic statement reveals that the Antichrist will have absolutely no regard for each and every object of worship, thus, he will be against organized religion.

 2014 William E. Wenstrom, Jr. Bible Ministries The fourth prophetic statement presents the reason for the previous three and echoes the second prophetic statement recorded in Daniel 11:36 since it reveals that the Antichrist will magnify himself above every object of worship, thus, he will deify himself.

 2014 William E. Wenstrom, Jr. Bible Ministries Thus, this fourth prophetic statement in Daniel 11:37 corresponds to the second prophetic statement in Daniel 11:36.

 2014 William E. Wenstrom, Jr. Bible Ministries It also corresponds to the prophetic statements in Daniel 9:27, 2 Thessalonians 2:4 and Revelation 13:14-15 that the Antichrist will deify himself.

 2014 William E. Wenstrom, Jr. Bible Ministries So this fourth prophetic statement recorded in Daniel 11:37 is actually the third time that the book of Daniel prophesies that the Antichrist will deify himself.

 2014 William E. Wenstrom, Jr. Bible Ministries