“The king of the South will become strong, but
one of his commanders will become even stronger than he and will rule his own
kingdom with great power. After some
years, they will become allies. The daughter of the king of the South will go
to the king of the North to make an alliance, but she will not retain her
power, and he and his power will not last. In those days she will be handed
over, together with her royal escort and her father and the one who supported
her. One from her family line will arise to take her place. He will attack the
forces of the king of the North and enter his fortress; he will fight against
them and be victorious. He will also seize their gods, their metal images and
their valuable articles of silver and gold and carry them off to Egypt. For
some years he will leave the king of the North alone. (Daniel 11:5-8)
The
King of the South was a Macedonian (Greek) named Ptolemy I. He made some
conquests outside of his area, but for the 280 years between him and Cleopatra
VII, their territory was mostly restricted to Egypt and Cyprus. The "One
of his commanders [who] will become even stronger than he" was Seleucus
Nicator of the Seleucid Empire.
After
a disagreement with Antigonus in 316 BC Seleucus joined Ptolemy. In 312, he and
Ptolemy defeated Antigonus and Seleucis returned to Babylon. His domain and authority were greater than
Ptolemy and put them in conflict until 252, when their sons, Ptolemy II
(Philadelphus) and Antiochus II (Theos) set up a peace treaty. Under the terms
of that treaty, Antiochus II was to marry Berenice, the daughter of
Philadelphus. He was already married to Laodice, and Laodice wasn't happy about
being dismissed. She managed to have both Berenice and her infant son
assassinated. Soon afterward the king himself was poisoned (247 B.C.), and Laodice's
party made her queen regent during the minority of her son, Seleucus II
(Callinicus). Thus the prophecy was fulfilled concerning Berenice, that she
would be "handed over," along with the nobles who supported her in
Antioch.
Berenice's
brother, Ptolemy III (Euergetes) sought vengeance for her assassination in a
war that raged from 246 to 241. Ptolemy III captured and pillaged the Seleucid
capital of Antioch and invaded its eastern domains as far as Bactria, but did
not add the territory to his own. He also recovered all his father's conquests
on the coasts of Asia Minor and temporarily gained control of portions of
Thrace.
As
I've mentioned before, there are those who tell me that they want proof that
God exists. The most recent request wanted the planets to be rearranged in
their orbits while God comments on the events. It seems to me that telling us
in advance what is going to happen is a pretty good bit of evidence. Claiming
that the text "must have been written after the events described" is
not proof that the text was written after the events described. It follows naturally
from the premise that there is no god and therefore a prophecy this exact and
accurate cannot possibly be made, but it is not supported by evidence. As noted
yesterday, the textual evidence suggests a date prior to these events and the
text itself places the writing in the 600-500 BC range. The evidence points to
the text being what it claims to be, which seems to me to require that God
exist.
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