Appendix B

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APPENDIX B:   O.T. USES OF Qodesh & Miqdash

To test claims that miqdash is less sacred than qodesh and in Daniel 8:11 refers to Satan’s Pagan headquarters, I examined all the other 46 translations of miqdash as sanctuary and all 46 translations of qodesh. But instead of less sacred, miqdash proved overwhelmingly more sacred.

Ezekiel, Daniel’s contemporary, uses qodesh only 6 times to describe God’s ideal temple (40-48), but miqdash 16 times! Not only does Ezekiel use miqdash 2.5 times more often than qodesh; but 85% of all divine possessives (17 of 20; “My sanctuary” or “Thy sanctuary,” etc.) translate miqdash! In striking contrast, only three (15%) divine possessives translate Qodesh! Far from being more secular, miqdash connotations are thus consistently more sacred! Indeed, 70% of qodesh uses in Scripture are only technical—32 of 46 merely refer to "shekels of the sanctuary,” its vessels, furniture, or work. Miqdash, by contrast, nearly always refers to the temple itself!

Moreover, miqdash is the choice for worship and reverence, as: "When I thought to know this, it was too painful for me, until I went into the miqdash" (Ps 7:17). The first two sanctuary references are: "Thou shalt bring them in [to] ... the miqdash O Lord" (Ex 15:17); and "Let them make me a miqdash, that I may dwell among them" (Ex 25:8). It is also used in connection with the Sabbath: "keep My Sabbaths and reverence My miqdash"(Lev 19:30; 26:2).

Except for a seeming mistranslation referring to Satan defiling his “sanctuaries” (Eze 28:18), miqdash always refers to God's sanctuary. From the same root and connoting holiness, miqdash is at times translated, “sanctify.” Thus it should probably be translated, “You have defiled your holiness by the multitude of your iniquities.” By sin, the once holy Lucifer defiled and excluded himself from God’s sanctifying presence—the only basis for creature holiness.

Miqdash is also the term for the day of atonement, sanctuary cleansing(Lev 16:33) announced in Daniel 8:14! This is significant whether or not this influenced its use in verse 11!

More significantly, Daniel’s use of miqdash in the next chapter that explains the 2300 day vision virtually closes the case. Far from referring to Satan's Pagan headquarters, he prays, “O our God, ... cause Thy face to shine upon Thy [miqdash] which is desolate!! (Dan 9:17).

Would Daniel contrast God’s qodesh desolated by the little horn (8:14) with miqdash, as Satan’s military bastion (8:11-12), and in the same context reverse this and identify miqdash as God’s desolated sanctuary (9:17)?!

As he seeks the meaning to the strange question: “Until when the vision concerning the daily [continual] and the transgression of desolation, to give both the qodesh and the host to be trampled under foot?” and its stranger answer, “unto 2300 days and then shall the qodesh be cleansed" (8:13 14), the angel Gabriel comes to explain its timing.

Now while I was ... presenting my supplications before the Lord my God ... the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision at the beginning, being caused to fly swiftly ... informed me ... I have come to give you skill to understand: At the beginning of your supplications the command went out, and I have now come to tell you, ... therefore consider the matter, and understand the [little horn] vision. Seventy weeks are [cut off] upon thy people and ... holy city ... (9:20-23; NKJV).

Daniel’s fondest thoughts and emotions are bound up with the temple and its “continual,” an expression that pervades Scripture references to the temple and its ritual, which he clearly perceives to be the object of the little horn’s attack. Most confusing was Gabriel’s explanation that it’s wicked oppression would be “long,” till “the time of the end” (8:17-19, 36).

 Fearing the continued hardheartedness of his people may have delayed fulfillment of Jeremiah’s prophecy of 70 years before Jerusalem with its temple was to be restored and its “daily” re-instated (9:2), Daniel examines record “books” to more precisely determine the timing, and prays, "Cause Thy face to shine upon Thy miqdash that is desolate" (Dan 9:17).

In response, Gabriel assures his acceptance and disconnects the 2300 days of Dan 8:14 from Jeremiah’s prophecy, assuring him that it would not begin until the decree to rebuild Jerusalem (9:20-27); thus he answers the question of verse 13 regarding the 8:11-12 miqdash problem!

Daniel’s prayer and Gabriel’s explanation certify miqdash as a synonym of qodesh; for he relates it not to pagan Rome but to the temple. The Papal view thus connects and  harmonizes the question and answer with the problem, which the Paganism view totally disconnects:[1]


 

[1] Clearly the sanctuary vision pertaining to “the time of the end” (8:17) could not refer to Antiochus’ desecration of the altar or its Maccabean restoration. “The time appointed [that] was long” (10:1) would not begin till a command to restore Jerusalem (9:24) and the 70th of 70 weeks (490 yrs) to be “cut off” from it would not begin until the Messiah’s baptism (27 AD, 9:24-25). The remaining 1810 would then reach into the very “time of the end,” 1844 (Dn 8:17, 19, 26).