Thus all the characters of the Passion agree to the year 34; and that is the only year to which they all agree.
CHAPTER 12.
OF THE PROPHECY OF THE SCRIPTURE OF TRUTH.
THE kingdoms represented by the second and third Beasts, or the Bear and Leopard, are again described by Daniel in his last Prophecy written in the third year of Cyrus over Babylon, the year in which he conquered Persia.
For this Prophecy is a commentary upon the Vision of the Ram and He- Goat.
Behold, saith he, there shall stand up yet three kings in Persia, [Cyrus, Cambyses, and Darius Hytaspes] and the fourth [Xerxes] shall be far richer than they all; and by his strength through his riches he shall stir up all against the realm of Grecia. And a mighty king [Alexander the Great] shall stand up, that shall rule with great dominion, and do according to his will. And when he shall stand up, his kingdom shall be broken, and shall be divided towards the four winds of heaven; and not to his posterity [but after their death,] nor according to his dominion which he ruled: for his kingdom shall be plucked up, even for others besides those. Alexander the great having conquered all the Persian Empire, and some part of India, died at Babylon a month before the summer Solstice, in the year of Nabonassar 425: and his captains gave the monarchy to his bastard brother Philip Aridaeus, a man disturbed in his understanding; and made Perdiccas administrator of the kingdom. Perdiccas with their consent made Meleager commander of the army, Seleucus master of the horse, Craterus treasurer of the kingdom, Antipater governor of Macedon and Greece, Ptolemy governor of Egypt; Antigonus governor of Pamphylia, Lycia, Lycaonia, and Phrygia major; Lysimachus governor of Thrace, and other captains governors of other Provinces; as many as had been so before in the days of Alexander the great. The Babylonians began now to count by a new AEra, which they called the AEra of Philip, using the years of Nabonassar, and reckoning the 425th year of Nabonassar to be the first year of Philip.
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