Daniel — Chapter 7

The four beasts from the great sea: Lapide identifies them with Jerome as the four world empires — lion with eagle wings (Babylon), bear (Medo-Persia), leopard with four wings and four heads (Alexander's Greece), terrible beast with iron teeth and ten horns (Rome and its successors). The sea represents the unstable, restless mass of pagan humanity.

The fourth beast, terrible and dreadful and exceedingly strong, with great iron teeth: Lapide gives his most extended treatment of the Roman Empire as simultaneously the instrument of divine Providence (preparing the world for the Gospel's universal spread) and the great persecutor (Nero, Domitian, Diocletian). He develops his reading of Rome's iron strength from Augustus through the late Empire.

'Antiquus dierum sedit' — the Ancient of Days was seated: Lapide gives a magnificent commentary on the divine court scene. The 'Ancient of Days' is God the Father; His white garment is divine purity; His white hair is eternal wisdom without beginning; the river of fire is divine justice; the thousands upon thousands attending Him are the angelic orders. He cites Apoc. 4-5 as the New Testament fulfillment.

'Ecce in nubibus caeli quasi Filius hominis veniebat' — behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a Son of Man: Lapide's most celebrated passage in Daniel. He argues at length that the 'Son of Man' here refers to the Second Person of the Trinity in the mode of His future Incarnation — the divine Word who will take human nature. This text is cited by Christ before the Sanhedrin (Mt. 26:64), confirming the identification. He cites Justin Martyr's Dialogue, Irenaeus, Tertullian, Origen, Chrysostom, and Jerome.

'Et dedit ei potestatem et honorem et regnum: et omnes populi, tribus et linguae ipsi servient' — dominion, glory, and a kingdom were given to him, that all peoples should serve him: Lapide reads this as the declaration of Christ's universal kingship, given formally at the Resurrection and Ascension (Mt. 28:18). The eternal kingdom that shall not pass away is the Church triumphant in heaven.

But the saints of the Most High shall receive the kingdom and possess it forever: the final inheritance promised to the persecuted saints. Lapide reads this as the Church's ultimate destiny — not earthly domination but heavenly possession. He cites Matt. 5:5 ('the meek shall inherit the earth') and Augustine's De Civitate Dei on the saints' true homeland.

This horn made war with the saints and prevailed over them: Lapide reads this as a pattern repeated throughout Church history — the enemy of God does not prevail ultimately but prevails temporarily. He cites the Maccabean persecution, the Neronian/Diocletianic persecution, the Arian crisis, and the Protestant rupture as partial fulfillments of this pattern.

Until the Ancient of Days came and judgment was given for the saints: Lapide reads the divine intervention after temporary defeat as the model of all Church history — God delays, allows apparent defeat, then intervenes decisively. He cites the historical conversions of Constantine, Clovis, and Recared as examples of this divine reversal pattern.

The horn that speaks great things against the Most High will wear out the saints for 'a time, two times, and half a time': Lapide follows Jerome in reading this as the persecution of Antichrist (3½ years = half of Daniel's perfect seven), and also as a general type of all anti-Christian persecutions. He gives a careful analysis of the millenarian question, firmly rejecting any literal earthly millennium.