The Prophetic Faith of Our Fathers, vol. 4

APPENDIX A - RUNNING TO AND FRO IN THE PROPHECIES

The clear intent of the Hebrew original of Daniel 12:4, the supporting evidence of the context, and its comparative rendering in the leading European translations, ¹ all indicate that this running to and fro pertains primarily to the prophecies, a searching for the understanding of their intent, with resultant knowledge of light for the last days, shed by the book of Daniel. It obviously is a forecast of the great revival in prophetic exposition that came under the simultaneous awakening in the nineteenth century, in both the Old World and the New. PFF4 1209.1

As to the text itself, the literal rendering of the Hebrew of the last part of Daniel 12:4 is really, “Many shall urgently run to and fro, and the knowledge shall be increased.” ² Taffel’s Hebrew Interlinear critical note (p. 18) reads: “run up and to, to read through or over, peruse.” The same verb used by Daniel occurs in identical form in Amos 8:12: “They shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east, they shall run to and fro to seek the word of the Lord, and shall not find it.” But here the infinitive, “to seek,” is introduced from another verb not in Daniel. And the verb “shut,” in Daniel 12:4, is followed by the parallel of the clause, “that the knowledge may increase.” The definite article is given in the Hebrew—“the knowledge”—and must mean “the knowledge of the book” which had been sealed, and later was to be understood. So the clause, concerning running to and fro, meets its fulfillment in arriving at an understanding of the book of Daniel. PFF4 1209.2