Daniel 12:2

12:1-4. Michael signifies, Who is like God, and his name, with the title of the great Prince, points out the Divine Saviour. Christ stood for the children of our people in their stead as a sacrifice, bore the curse for them, to bear it from them. He stands for them in pleading for them at the throne of grace. And after the destruction of antichrist, the Lord Jesus shall stand at the latter day upon the earth; and He shall appear for the complete redemption of all his people. When God works deliverance from persecution for them, it is as life from the dead. When his gospel is preached, many who sleep in the dust, both Jews and Gentiles, shall be awakened by it out of their heathenism of Judaism. And in the end the multitude that sleep in the dust shall awake; many shall arise to life, and many to shame. There is glory reserved for all the saints in the future state, for all that are wise, wise for their souls and eternity. Those who turn many to righteousness, who turn sinners from the errors of their ways, and help to save their souls from death, Jas 5:20, will share in the glory of those they have helped to heaven, which will add to their own glory.

And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake,.... Which is not to be understood in a figurative and metaphorical, sense, as by R. Jeshuah the Jew, Porphyry the Heathen, and by some Christian writers; neither of the deliverance of the Jews from the troubles of Antiochus, or their present captivity; nor of the spiritual resurrection of them, or others, from their state of infidelity to a profession of the Gospel, which in some is real, in others only hypocritical; but, in a literal sense, of the resurrection of the dead at the last day, which, with respect to the righteous, will take place upon the personal appearance of Christ at first, 1 Thessalonians 4:16 , for, as death is oftentimes compared to "sleep", in which the senses are bound up, and the body is in a state of inactivity; see John 11:11 , so the resurrection from the dead is expressed by awaking out of sleep, when the body shall rise fresh and vigorous, in full health and strength, as a man out of a comfortable sleep; see Psalm 17:15 .

The word "many" is used, either because, as all will not sleep, so all will not be awaked; there will be some that will be alive and awake at Christ's coming, 1 Corinthians 15:51 , or, as it signifies, a multitude, Psalm 97:1 and so here the innumerable multitude of the dead, who are afterwards distributively considered; and indeed the word is sometimes used for "all"; see Romans 5:15 , some to everlasting life; to the enjoyment of everlasting life and happiness with Christ in the world to come; a phrase often used in the New Testament, though never before in the Old; expressive of that felicity and bliss which the saints enjoy in heaven after this life is over, first in the separate state of the soul, and then, at the resurrection, in soul and body, and of the everlasting continuance of it; they that shall enjoy this are those that are written in the Lamb's book of life, or are ordained unto eternal life; who are redeemed by the blood of Christ, regenerated by his Spirit and grace, justified by his righteousness, adopted into the family of God, are heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ; these are the dead in Christ, which rise first: and some to shame and everlasting contempt; wicked men, who lived in a course of sin in this world, without any remorse or shame; but, when they shall rise from the dead, they will rise with all their sins upon them, and with a full conviction of them in their consciences; and will be ashamed of them, and to appear before God the Judge of al

(2) Many . . . that sleep in the dust.— Literally, Many sleepers in the land of dust. The word “sleep” is applied to death ( Jeremiah 51:39 ; comp. 1Thessalonians 4:14 ); while “dust” is used for the grave ( Psalm 22:29 ). Some difficulty is presented by the use of the word “many” where “all” would have been expected. Theodoret explains it from Romans 5:15 , where he observes “many” stands for “all.” It is, however, more in accordance with the language to suppose that by the word “many” some contrast is implied, which is apparently between the many who sleep in the dust and the comparatively small number of those who “are alive and remain.” (See John 5:28 , &c.) It should be noted that this passage not only teaches the doctrine of a general resurrection, which had already been incidentally revealed by Daniel’s contemporary, Ezekiel ( Ezekiel 37:1-4 ), but also the facts of eternal life, and a resurrection of the unjust as well as of the just. Shame and everlasting contempt.—The latter word occurs only in this passage and Isaiah 66:24, where see the Note. For the use of the word “shame,” comp. Jeremiah 23:40.

And many {b} of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt. (b) Meaning all will rise at the general resurrection, which thing he here names because the faithful should always consider that: for in the earth there will be no sure comfort.

So enamoured are some of their notions, though found false and ill-grounded, that they will pertinaciously hold them, and seek still to prove one absurdity from another, as Grotius doth here, still expounding all of Antiochus, and so makes this resurrection metaphorical, and not the real ultimate one; whereas the most learned Jews themselves are against him, as the late Manasseh Ben Israel in his book de Resurrectione.

Daniel 12:2 . And many that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake — This may be understood, 1st, Of those saints who rose from the dead immediately upon the resurrection of Christ, spoken of Matthew 27:52-53 , where we read that the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints which slept arose, and came out of their graves after his resurrection, and went into the holy city, and appeared unto many. 2d, It may be interpreted figuratively of the mystical resurrection of Jews and Gentiles from spiritual death to spiritual life, by the preaching of the gospel, or of their conversion to true Christianity. Calmet thinks that this, without all question, is the primary sense of the verse, and that it is only in a secondary sense that it can be understood of the resurrection of men’s bodies. Most commentators, however, are of a different opinion, and consider the words as being primarily intended of the general resurrection which will take place at the last day. And they think, that the next clause, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt, requires this application of the words, and does not admit of any other interpretation. The Lord Jesus certainly seems to have referred to this passage, John 5:28 , where he speaks of the resurrection of life, and the resurrection of damnation; and upon the ground of it chiefly, the Jews are said by St. Paul, Acts 24:15 , to expect a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and of the unjust.

And nothing could be brought in more seasonably than this doctrine is here; for under Antiochus’s persecution some basely betrayed their religion, others bravely adhered to it. Now it would be a trouble to the upright and faithful among the Jews, that they could neither reward the one nor punish the other; this therefore would be a satisfaction to them, that they would both be recompensed at the general resurrection. And the apostle, speaking of the pious Jews that suffered martyrdom under Antiochus, tells us, that though they were tortured, yet they accepted not deliverance, (namely, deliverance offered them on terms they could not conscientiously comply with,) because they hoped to obtain a better resurrection. In accordance with this sense of the words, which seems evidently to be that primarily intended, it must be observed, that the word many in the first clause of the verse must include all mankind, as it does in Romans 5:19 , where St. Paul says, By one man’s disobedience MANY were made sinners.

2. many … that sleep—"many from among the sleepers … these shall be unto everlasting life; but those (the rest of the sleepers who do not awake at this time) shall be unto shame" [Tregelles]. Not the general resurrection, but that of those who share in the first resurrection; the rest of the dead being not to rise till the end of the thousand years (Re 20:3, 5, 6; compare 1Co 15:23; 1Th 4:16). Israel's national resurrection, and the first resurrection of the elect Church, are similarly connected with the Lord's coming forth out of His place to punish the earth in Isa 26:19, 21; 27:6. Compare Isa 25:6-9. The Jewish commentators support Tregelles. Auberlen thinks the sole purpose for which the resurrection is introduced in this verse is an incitement to faithful perseverance in the persecutions of Antiochus; and that there is no chronological connection between the time of trouble in Da 12:1 and the resurrection in Da 12:2; whence the phrase, "at that time," twice occurs in Da 12:1, but no fixing of time in Da 12:2, 3; 2 Maccabees 7:9, 14, 23, shows the fruit of this prophecy in animating the Maccabean mother and her sons to brave death, while confessing the resurrection in words like those here. Compare Heb 11:35. Newton's view that "many" means all, is not so probable; for Ro 5:15, 19, which he quotes, is not in point, since the Greek is "the many," that is, all, but there is no article in the Hebrew here. Here only in the Old Testament is "everlasting life" mentioned.

2 . The resurrection. The doctrine of a future life is not fully developed in the O.T.; it is nascent ; and the stages in its growth are clearly distinguishable. The idea of a resurrection appears first, though in a national, not in an individual sense, in Hosea 6:2 : it appears next, also in a national sense (see Davidson’s note, p. 267), in Ezekiel’s famous vision of the Valley of dry bones (xxxvii. 1–14): the resurrection of individuals appears first in the post-exilic prophecy of Isaiah 24-27, viz. Isaiah 26:19 (see Skinner’s note), though, as in Ezek. ( Ezekiel 37:11 ), it is still expressly limited to Israel (it is denied, Ezekiel 37:14 , of Israel’s foes): in the present passage, a resurrection of the wicked, as well as of the righteous, is taught for the first time, and the doctrine of a different future reserved for each is also for the first time enunciated. See further the Introd. p. xcii. many ] The resurrection is still limited implicitly to Israel. It is not said who are to compose the ‘many’: perhaps the author thinks in particular of the martyrs, and apostates, respectively, who, on the one side or the other, had been prominent during the reign of Antiochus. sleep ] in death: cf. Jeremiah 51:39 ; Jeremiah 51:57 ; 1 Thessalonians 4:14 ; 1 Thessalonians 5:10 . in the dusty ground ] lit. the ground of dust.

The expression is peculiar, and occurs only here. ‘Dust’ is often said of the grave, as to ‘lie down upon the dust’ ( Job 20:11 ; Job 21:26 ), and ‘they that go down to the dust’ ( Psalm 22:29 ). shall awake ] cf., in the same sense, Isaiah 26:19 ; also (where it is denied) Job 14:12 , and (of the Babylonians) Jeremiah 51:39 ; Jeremiah 51:57 . some to everlasting life ] The expression occurs only here in the O.T., but it is frequent in post-Biblical Jewish writings: e.g. in Enoch (xxxvii. 4, xl. 9, lviii. 3, lxii. 14); Psalms of Sol. 3:16 (cf. 13:9); 4Ma 15:3 (cf. 2Ma 7:9 ; 2Ma 7:36 ); and in the Targums (in which passages of the O.T. relating really to the present life are often interpreted as referring to a future life)[394]. A more common synonym is ‘the life of the age to come’ ( חיי העולם הבא ), Aboth ii. 7, &c. (Dalman, Die Worte Jesu , p. 129). [394] See examples in the writer’s Sermons on the O.T. (1892), pp. 83, 88–91; Dalman, Die Worte Jesu , p. 128. some to reproaches ( Psalm 69:9-10 [Heb.]) and everlasting abhorrence ] the last word (only once besides) from Isaiah 66:24 ‘And they [the carcases of the transgressors, slain outside Jerusalem] shall be an abhorring unto all flesh.’ Cf. in the N.T., Matthew 25:46 ; John 5:29 .