Chugley's Chatter

‘And when He [Ptolemy IV 221 B.C.E.- 204 B.C.E.] had taken away The Multitude [4.000 Seleucid Infantry captured at The Battle of Raphia (217 B.C.E.)]; His [Ptolemy IV’s] heart shall be lifted up; And He [Ptolemy IV] shall cast down many The Thousands [40,000 Jews living in Egypt]; But He [Ptolemy IV] shall not be strengthened by It.’ (Daniel 11:12) After the retreat of Antiochus III back to Antioch in Syria (after The Battle of Raphia,) Ptolemy IV visited the cities of Coele-Syria and Palestine which had submitted to Him. Among many other cities, in His progress, He came to…

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‘And The King of The South [Ptolemy IV] shall be moved with choler (rage); And shall come forth and fight with Him [Antiochus III] – even with The King of The North; And He [The King of The North, Antiochus III] shall set forth A Great Multitude; But The Multitude shall be given into His (His Enemy’s) [Ptolemy IV] ‘s Hand.’ In this verse, Daniel, The Servant of King Cyrus of Persia (559 B.C.E. – 530 B.C.E.), is given by The Angel Gabriel – at The Behest of THE SON OF GOD – In Cyrus’ third year as King of…

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Chugley, The Thinking Chimpanzee, apologizes to all those who are reading his Sunday Scroll Through ‘Daniel 11’. His Schoolmaster, Co-Co, The Coconut-Throwing Chimpanzee Schoolmaster, has been suffering this last week from a case of The Chimpanzee Chills and is still not entirely recovered. Chugley has kindly allowed his former schoolmaster to write this column but he is most concerned for his old schoolmaster’s health and has only asked that he dictate a brief explanation for the Sunday Column’s absence. Next Week: If GOD pleases, ‘One of The Biggest Battles of The Hellenistic World’ – and, ironically, it took place some…

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‘But His [Seleucus II’s] Sons shall be stirred up, And shall assemble A Multitude of Great Forces: And One [Ptolemy 1V] shall certainly come, and overflow, and pass through: Then shall He [Antiochus III] return, and be stirred up [ again], even to His fortress” (Daniel 11:10) Seleucus II had two sons: Seleucus III who ruled for two years from 225 B.C.E. – 223 B.C.E. Antiochus III who ruled for thirty six years from 223 B.C.E. – 187 B.C.E It is the second of these two sons, Antiochus III, Antiochus The Great, who dominates the next nine verses in Daniel…

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9) The king of the south.–According to the Hebrew text, these words are in the genitive case (so Theod. Jer.), though the English Version is supported by the LXX. In this case the meaning is, “The king of the north shall come into the kingdom of the southern king,” and then shall return to his own land–i.e., the north–apparently without gaining any advantage. As excellent a translation as the King James Version was (and is), its editors never claimed to be infallibile. Their marginal notes indicate instances where they lacked absolute certainty over some readings. They acknowledged this in their preface: …it hath…

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Last week, in this glimpse at the over five hundred year period between Cyrus The Great and The Coming Messiah, – prophesied in Daniel 11 – Berenice, The Daughter of Ptolemy II and his first wife, Arsinoe I, was murdered by the supporters of Laodice, The Divorced Wife of Antiochus II. Not only was Berenice assassinated, but her son – the one who was to bring peace between The Ptolemaic and The Seleucid Empires, the five-year old Antiochus III, – was killed. Berenice’s full brother, Ptolemy III determined to avenge his sister and nephew. The avenging of his sister and…

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The Tragic History of Berenice, The Daughter of Ptolemy, The Wife of Antiochus I. N.B. ALTHOUGH PTOLEMY II DIED IN 246 B.C.E. , HE WAS NOT KILLED BY LAODICE. PTOLEMY’S DEATH, HOWEVER, MAY HAVE BEEN THE CAUSE OF ANTIOCHUS II RENEWING RELATIONS WITH HIS DIVORCED WIFE, LAODICE. Co-Co, The Coconut-Throwing Chimpanzee Schoolmaster, used to lament the folly of Antiochus II who seemed unaware of how his first wife, Laodice, would react to being divorced. (Of course, the English playwright, William Congreve lived many years after Antiochus, but the scorned Laodice is the archetypal ‘woman scorned’.) Berenice’s tragic story has inspired…

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Even in his own lifetime (358 B.C.E. – 281 B.C.E.) legends and stories of Seleucus’ s heroic status abounded. His mother told him (on his embarking on Alexander, The Great, ‘s military campaign to conquer The Persian Empire,) that he, Seleucus, was a son of the god, Apollo. Seleucus had a birthmark, an anchor. When he was about to reclaim his satrap of Babylonia, he stumbled upon an old anchor, Some of his soldiers thought that this was an ill omen; Ptolemy, who gave his friend, Seleucus, soldiers and cavalry to enable him to retake Babylon, argued that it was…

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Seleucus’s Dominion Shall Be A Great Dominion (Daniel 11:5b) It was this Scripture – Daniel 11:5b – which intrigued the coconut – throwing chimpanzee schoolmaster, Co-Co, in his youth. He became curious as to: Why was it that The Seleucid Empire became so great – almost as great as Alexander’s vast domain? What kind of a man was Seleucus? How did Seleucus come to have such a dominion when, at the death of Alexander, he was not even given a satrap [province] to govern? Perdiccas ( the Regent named by Alexander’s generals to govern until Alexander’s son borne by Roxana,…

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