| The
question in 8:13 implies that the sanctuary (qodesh), both earthy and
heavenly, continued to be trampled down for 2300 years following the return
of the exiles from Babylon. The commencement of the 2300 year prophecy in
457 BC to restore and build Jerusalem at the command of Artexerxes (Dn.
9:25; Ezra 7) has been well established elsewhere.109
If the sanctuary was trampled down in the early post-exilic period of the
2300 years, biblical evidence must exist to support this assertion which is
implied in 8:13. The post-exilic prophets, Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi as
well as the historical books of Ezra and Nehemiah, in fact, provide evidence
of the continual trampling down of Jehovah’s earthly sanctuary in
Jerusalem, following its reconstruction, by pagan elements and practices.
For example in Haggai where the people delayed rebuilding the temple to
pursue their own pleasure, Jehovah announced the work of their hands and
their offerings as unclean (2:10-14). Zechariah called the returned exiles
to repentance (1:2-4). In Malachi the priests are rebuked for lack of
reverence for Jehovah and despising His name ((1:6); for offering defiled
food (1:7); for offering blemished (lame/blind) sacrifices; for vain worship
(1:10) similar to the trampling or vain worship in Is. 1:11-13; for
departing from and corrupting the covenant of Levi (2:7-8); and Judah is
rebuked for profaning the sanctuary of Jehovah by ecumenical mingling with
the daughters of a pagan god (2:11). Ezra mourned, following his return to
Jerusalem in 457 BC, when he discovered that not only the people but the
priests and Levites had taken pagan wives causing trampling of the
sanctuary.110
However, the clearest and most
explicit statement of the trampling of the sanctuary by pagan elements is in
Nehemiah. Eliashib the high priest who had authority over the storerooms in
the sanctuary allied himself with Tobiah, the pagan Ammonite official (13:4;
2:19). Through this alliance the sanctuary was profaned and trampled down by
the pagan official Tobiah who, through the auspices of Eliashib, was
permitted to have a private large room in the court of the temple which had
previously been used exclusively for storage of holy articles for the
sanctuary including the grain offering, the frankincense, the tithe of
grain, the new wine and oil (13:5). Nehemiah, after returning to Jerusalem,
following his recall by Artexerxes (13:6), expelled the household goods of
Tobiah and commanded the rooms of the court of the sanctuary to be cleansed
(taher; 13:9). Furthermore the priesthood had again been defiled by
marriage to pagan women (13:27-29). In response to the pagan trampling down
of the sanctuary and priesthood, Nehemiah cleansed (taher) the
priesthood from everything pagan in order to restore the sanctuary to its
rightful function (13:30-31). It should be emphasized that both the
sanctuary and the priesthood were cleansed by Nehemiah.
Thus, clear evidence is provided
that the self-exalting character of paganism (hattamid), symbolized
by the ram in Daniel 8 and represented by Media-Persia to whom Tobiah, the
Ammonite official reported, infiltrated and trampled the earthly sanctuary (qodesh)
in the early stages of the 2300 year time prophecy.
With the rise of the Grecian and
Roman empires, Israel and Judah remained in subjection to pagan domination.
Due to the iniquity of the profane wicked prince of Israel, Jehovah’s
indignation would rest on Israel commencing with Babylon, who removed the
crown, followed by Media-Persia, Greece and Rome symbolized by the triple
imperative, “overturn, overturn, overturn, I will set it” (see Eze.
21:24-27). Thus, the latter time of the indignation (Dn. 8:19) would
continue until the time of the end with Rome. Pagan Rome through the office
of pontifex maximus trampled down the sanctuary and ultimately the
physical destruction of the sanctuary in AD 70 by Titus was consummated who
became Roman emperor.
Papal Rome’s trampling down of
the heavenly sanctuary continued with the human priestcraft of the Roman
church under the guise of professed Christianity. Thus a continuous
progression of trampling down the sanctuary commenced in the post-exilic
period with the earthly sanctuary (qodesh) under Media-Persia and
continued with Greece and pagan Roman. Papal Rome lifted up the self
exalting character of pagan Rome’s pontifex maximus function and
continued to trample down the heavenly sanctuary (qodesh) which at
the conclusion of the 2300-year period was to be exposed and put right (sadaq).
It seems clear that attempts to
symbolize the beneficial heavenly high priestly ministry of Christ by “the
daily” which is “taken away” by the papacy to initiate the trampling
of the sanctuary cannot fulfill the requirements of the 2300 years which
commenced in 457 BC. The continuous trampling of Jehovah’s sanctuary, both
earthly and heavenly during the 2300 evening-morning time prophecy is
summarized in the following table.
| 2300
YEAR TRAMPLING OF THE SANCTUARY |
| Symbol |
Agent |
Dates |
Qodesh |
Activity |
|
| Ram |
M/P |
538-331BC |
Earthly |
Pagan
Wives
of priesthood |
| Goat |
Greece |
331-168BC |
Earthly |
Pagan
influences
on worship |
| Horn |
Rome |
168BC-AD476 |
Earthly |
Destroy
sanctuary
pontifex maximus |
| Horn |
Papal
Rome |
AD300-1844 |
Heavenly |
Priestcraft |
8.3.2
“The Daily” & the Integrity of the 2300 Evening-Morning |