Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam (To the Greater Glory of God)
From: Daniel 5:1-6, 13-14, 16-17, 23-28
The Hand Writing on the Wall
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[1] King Belshazzar made a great feast for a thousand of his lords, and drank wine in front of the thousand.
[2] Belshazzar, when he tasted the wine, commanded that the vessels of gold and of silver which Nebuchadnezzar his father had taken out of the temple in Jerusalem be brought, that the king and his lords, his wives, and his concubines might drink from them. [3] Then they brought in the golden and silver vessels which had been taken out of the temple, the house of God in Jerusalem; and the king and his lords, his wives, and his concubines drank from them. [4] They drank wine, and praised the gods of gold and silver, bronze, iron, wood, and stone.
[5] Immediately the fingers of a man’s hand appeared and wrote on the plaster of the wall of the king’s palace, opposite the lampstand; and the king saw the hand as it wrote. [6] Then the king’s color changed, and his thoughts alarmed him; his limbs gave way, and his knees knocked together.
[13] Then Daniel was brought in before the king The king said to Daniel, "You are that Daniel one of the exiles of Judah, whom the king my father brought from Judah. [14] I have heard of you that the spirit of the holy gods is in you, and that light and understanding and excellent wisdom are found in you. [16] But I have heard that you can give interpretations and solve problems. Now if you can read the writing and make known to me its interpretation, you shall be clothed with purple, and have a chain of gold about your neck, and shall be the third ruler in the kingdom."
[17] Then Daniel answered before the king, “Let your gifts be for yourself, and give your rewards to another; nevertheless I will read the writing to the king and make known to him the interpretation. [23] But you have lifted up yourself against the Lord of heaven and the vessels of his house have been brought in before you, and you and your lords, your wives and your concubines have drunk wine from them; and you have praised the gods of silver and gold, of bronze, iron, wood, and stone, which do not see or hear or know, but the God in whose hand is your breath, and whose are all your ways, you have not honored.
[24] "Then from his presence the hand was sent and this writing was inscribed. [25] And this is the writing that was inscribed MENE, MENE, TEKEL, and PARSIN. [26] This is the interpretation of the matter: MENE, God has numbered the days of your kingdom and brought it to an end, [27] TEKEL, you have been weighed in the balances and found wanting [28] PERES, your kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and Persians."
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Commentary:
5:1-30. The structure here is similar to that of chapters 1 and 2, which focused on Daniel as an interpreter of dreams; here it is not a dream but a vision. First comes an account of the king’s vision (vv. 1-12), then Daniel’s interpretation (vv. 13-28), and finally the king’s reaction, and the events that prove Daniel right. The author uses considerable artistic license in his references to the historical context: Belshazzar was not Nebuchadnezzar’s son (v. 11), nor did Darius the Mede succeed Belshazzar (6:1); cf. “Introduction”, pp. 794f, above. But by depicting Belshazzar as Nebuchadnezzar’s son, the sacred writer creates a link with the previous chapter and is able to explain the disappearance, by divine decree, of the empire, that is, the statue’s golden head (cf. 2:38). The dependence of this on the previous chapter, to which it refers (cf.4:5 and 5:11-12, 18-21), suggests that it is designed to round off the earlier one by showing Daniel’s connection with the last king of Babylon (according to the book itself, that is--not in real life). The story illustrates, also, what was said in 1:17--that Daniel “had understanding in all visions and dreams”. It is a gift that he makes available to the sacrilegious king, in the hope of changing his heart.
5:1-12. The sacrilege committed by the king and his court, and their idolatry, too, make this Belshazzar a sort of symbol of Antiochus Epiphanes, the king who sacked the temple and looted its sacred vessels (cf. 1 Mac 1:20-24; 2 Mac 5:11-16). The hand that writes on the wall, a sign of the living God (vv. 4-5), is something quite different from the pagan idols, which are incapable of movement. It is surprising that the king did not consult Daniel earlier (vv. 7-8), given that he was the official chief astrologer (v. 11). However, the sacred writer tells the story as he does, in order to highlight, once again, the superiority of Daniel’s wisdom over that of all the wise men of Babylon and all their magic arts. Daniel’s gift is seen by this polytheistic people as a spirit of a god which makes Daniel like the gods.
5:13-28. The king is ready to believe in Daniel’s supernatural powers, and offers him great rewards to use them on his behalf (vv. 14-16); but Daniel makes it clear that he never acts for personal gain. He is ready to interpret the writing on the wall, but he wants the king to acknowledge the Most High God, as his father had to do when misfortune overtook him (vv. 18-21). Therefore, he plainly tells the king what his sin has been (vv. 22-23) and reveals to him the sentence that God has passed--in other words, the meaning of the writing on the wall (vv. 24-28).
Four words were written by the mysterious hand according to the Masoretic text (which repeats the first word). They are the names of Eastern measures and coins--the mina, the shekel and the half-mina or "paras". In his interpretation, Daniel links them to three verbs that sound like them--the verb "manah", meaning to measure; "saqal", to weigh; and "paras", to divide. The last of the words in the Masoretic text is the plural ("parsim"), so that it sounds like “Persians” in Aramaic. And so, by this play on words, the end of the Babylonian empire and the arrival of the Persians is announced.
This sentence is passed on Belshazzar not only because he failed to glorify the God who gave him life (v. 23) but because he showed him disrespect through the sacrilegious use of the sacred vessels. Theodoret of Cyrus, commenting on v. 23, points out that Daniel “teaches them that they should worship the Lord God, not the things that they can see. Therefore, he denounces the vanity of the king, and tells him that the invisible God holds the high heavens in his sway. ‘You,’ he says to the king, ‘you have not humbled your heart, nor seen the greatness of the heart of heaven, who is God and Lord of everything that is. If you had not been blinded by your pride, you would not have taken the vessels of the Lord from his temple'" "Interpretatio in Danielem", 5, 23).
Discourse on the Destruction of Jerusalem
and the End of the World (Continuation)
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(Jesus said to His disciples), [12] "But before all this they will lay their hands on you and persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues and prisons, and you will be brought before kings and governors for My name's sake. [13] This will be a time for you to bear testimony. [14] Settle it therefore in your minds, not to meditate beforehand how to answer; [15] for I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which none of your adversaries will be able to withstand or contradict. [16] You will be delivered up even by parents and brothers and kinsmen and friends, and some of you they will put to death; [17] you will be hated by all for My name's sake. [18] But not a hair of your head will perish. [19] By your endurance you will gain your lives."
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Commentary:
19. Jesus foretells all kinds of persecution. Persecution itself is something inevitable: "all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted" (2 Timothy 3:12). His disciples will have need to remember the Lord's warning at the Last Supper: "A servant is not greater than his master. If they persecuted Me, they will persecute you" (John 15:20). However, these persecutions are part of God's providence: they happen because He lets them happen, which He does in order to draw greater good out of them. Persecution provides Christians with an opportunity to bear witness to Christ; without it the blood of martyrs would not adorn the Church. Moreover, our Lord promises to give special help to those who suffer persecution, and He tells them not to be afraid: He will give them of His own wisdom to enable them to defend themselves; He will not permit a hair of their heads to perish, that is, even apparent misfortune and loss will be for them a beginning of Heaven.
From Jesus' words we can also deduce the obligation of every Christian to be ready to lose life rather than offend God. Only those will attain salvation who persevere until the end in faithfulness to the Lord. The three Synoptic Gospels locate His exhortation to perseverance in this discourse (cf. Matthew 24:13; Mark 13:13) and St. Matthew gives it elsewhere (Matthew 10:22) as does St. Peter (1 Peter 5:9)--all of which underlines the importance for every Christian of this warning from our Lord.