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"TIME OF DISTRESS"
Daniel 12 — Darby Translation (DARBY) — 1 And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince who standeth for the children of thy people; and there shall be a time of distress, such as never was since there was a nation until that time. And at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that is found written in the book.
Is there an answer in this text to the question, "What is the time of distress in Daniel 12:12?"
My answer below will adapt part of what I wrote in response to this question.
An answer ... rests on which presuppositions the reader is willing to make about the book of Daniel. Having at least one presupposition is inevitable, no matter who you are, and that affects the way one reads the entire book. My presupposition is this: Daniel is about kingdoms, and the author names all of the kingdoms that figure into his visions.
The first six chapters, the stories about Daniel and his fellow Jews during their activities in the royal courts of foreign kingdoms (aka the court tales), establish two themes in union together. First, God controls the rise and fall of kingdoms. (5.21) Second, it is better to serve this God than submit to pressure or pain to commit idolatry or other sins. (3.17-18)
By the time these two themes are established after six stories that illustrate them, the narrative begins to elaborate on the dream from chapter 2. This elaboration comes in the form of Daniel's dreams and visions, and an angel interpreting them to Daniel. What we read in chapters 2, 7, 8, 9, and 10-12 are all ultimately parallel and complementary descriptions of the same thing: the rise and fall of a series of kingdoms, the last of which is oppressive toward 'the saints', before that kingdom is in turn overthrown.
Again, my presupposition is that the author names all of the kingdoms in the series he describes: the first is Babylon (2.36-38), the second is a unified Media and Persia (8.20; 10.20a; 11.2a), and the third is Greece led by Alexander (8.21; 10.20b; 11.2b). To any historian of the ancient near east, what the author is portraying is very clearly the series of kingdoms that held power over the Jewish people: Babylon (605-538 BC), then Media-Persia (538-330 BC), then Alexander's Greece (330-323 BC).
This is where most presuppositions diverge, so that the fourth kingdom is thought to be the Roman empire, or the Roman papacy, or Islam, or what-have-you.
The details in Daniel 8 and 11, however, keep the historical context in the line of kings that followed Alexander. Both chapters mention how the king of Greece will suddenly die (as Alexander did), with his empire splitting four ways (an overly simplistic summary, but true enough). This is the fourth kingdom (323-140 BC). Chapter 11 describes the feuding of these successor kings, the Diadochi, in great detail, events that occurred in the fourth, third, and second centuries BC; primarily the Ptolemies (south of Israel, in Egypt) and the Seleucids (north of Israel, in Syria).
This brings us to the main question. The culminating events of each section are complementary details of the same historical events. Each section even uses several of the same words or phrases: 'little horn' of the fourth kingdom in chapter 7 and 8, the 'desolation' caused by transgression/abomination, and halted offerings in chapters 8 and 9 and 10-12, etc.
The descriptions of historical events in chapter 11 are too precise to be talking about anyone other than Antiochus Epiphanes and the events of 170-164 BC.
Because Daniel's different prophecies in chapters 2, 7, 8, 9, and 10-12 all seem to converge with the persecution of the Jewish people by Antiochus Epiphanes amidst his desecration of the temple in Jerusalem, this time period is the most likely referent behind 'the time of distress'.
John J. Collins. The Apocalyptic Imagination, p 87,114.
Raymond Hammer. The Book of Daniel, p 4-5.
As there seems to have been a typo in the header question and elsewhere, I have edited the Q and would point out that the text in question is Daniel 12:1 (not 12:12).
You ask if the answer to when "the time of distress" in 12:1 can be found in that very verse - Daniel 12:1. The short answer is "No", but there are a couple of clues designed to lead the reader on, so as to get a better idea of when that time is. It is crucially important to read the entire 12th chapter, so as to make sense out of verse 1. When that is done, then those believers who happen to be alive at that "time of distress" will know it, understanding both the 'when' and the 'what'.
However, a crucial statement in verse 9 is given to Daniel. He is told to go his way, because the words given to him in that prophecy will be "sealed till the time of the end." In other words, nobody will get the answer to either the when or the what until that 'time of the end' has arrived, then those who have discerned the then unsealed prophecy will know that they have come to "the thousand two hundred and ninety days" (vs. 12).
This being the verse I assume you ask about - if it answers "What is the time of distress" - my short answer is, again, "No, it is another clue."
History has shown an almost frenetic effort on the part of many trying to show that they are in the "purified and made white" category of vs. 10, by giving interpretations that enable them to state when that time is, and what that time of trouble is. Many false interpretations have been given over the centuries, yet still they keep coming!
All I will say is that more related prophecies about that time were given to the aged apostle John, who wrote the visions down in the book of the Revelation of Jesus Christ. But I will make no attempt to offer an answer to the when, and the what, of that dreadful, unprecedented time of trouble, other than that we are now around 4,000 years closer to that time than was Daniel.
Michael "standing up" in Daniel 12:12 refers to the armies of heaven participating in the destruction of Jerusalem, the temple and the Jews in the terrible judgment upon "spiritual Sodom". We see the same predicted in Zechariah 12:
ISV Zechariah 12:
2‘Look, I am making Jerusalem an unstable cupa toward all of its surrounding armies when they lay siege against Judah and Jerusalem. 3It will come about at that timeb that I will make Jerusalem a heavy weight; so everyone who burdens themselves with it will be crushed,c even though all of the nations of the earth gather themselves against it. 4 At that time,’d declares the LORD, ‘I will strike every horse with panic and every rider with insanity. I will keep my eyes on the house of Judah, but I will blind every horse of the invadinge armies. 5The leaders of Judah will say to themselves, “Those who live in Jerusalem are my strength through the LORD of the Heavenly Armies, their God.” 6‘At that time,f I will make the leaders of Judah like a brazier filled with blazing wood, or like a torch setting fire to harvested grain. They will devour all the invadingg armies, both on the right hand and on the left. As a result, Jerusalem will again be inhabited in its rightful place—as the realh Jerusalem.’”
7The LORD will deliver the tents of Judah first, so that neither the glory of the housei of David nor the glory of the inhabitants of Jerusalem overshadows Judah. 8 At that time,j the LORD will defend those who live in Jerusalem, and the one who is feeble among them at that time will be like David. The entire house of David will be like God—indeed, like the angel of the LORD in their midst!
9“‘At that time,k I will search out and destroy all of the nations who have come against Jerusalem. 10 I will pour out on the house of David and on the residents of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and of supplications, and they will look to me—the one whom they pierced.’”l
Verse 8 bears repeating because it is the precise link between this prophecy of the First Jewish-Roman War and its fulfillment in 70ad:
8 At that time,j the LORD will defend those who live in Jerusalem, and the one who is feeble among them at that time will be like David. The entire house of David will be like God—indeed, like the angel of the LORD in their midst!
[Jer 21:5 KJV] 5 And I myself will fight against you with an outstretched hand and with a strong arm, even in anger, and in fury, and in great wrath.
So the armies of heaven (the Roman army, which God is using to judge Israel) shall prevail against "spiritual Sodom and Egypt" as if they were like God, like Michael, like the angel of the LORD fighting against the Jewish nation.
This has nothing to do with modern day wars or organizations.
