Jehovah’s Witnesses claim that chapter 11 of Daniel’s book contains a message for millennia to come. They say that there had been announced a millennia-long mutation of the “king of the north” and the “king of the south” (Daniel 11:40). These kings are thus embodied not only by antique rulers but above all by modern rulers and ruling systems.

In fact, however, this chapter is exclusively about a prophetic walk through the history of antiquity. Especially, it is about the evil doings of the Seleucid ruler Antiochus Epiphanes, the king of the north. Daniel’s book has nothing to do with “Kaiser Wilhelm II”; “Hitler”, “Great Britain” and an “Anglo-American world power”. Such interpretations are absurd.