I have been most intrigued at learning the view of Dr. Hanna both in class and in the pages of his book, “The Cosmic Christ of Scripture” on pages 37-40, that in Daniel 12:4, the words “run to and fro” were not necessarily speaking of “faster means of transportation”, but were instead speaking of a better study of scripture, thereby increasing their knowledge.
When studying this text carefully though, I must admit that I have been very wrong in the way I understood this scripture in the past. In school, I was taught this was about going about speedily, and, Oh, how many times did I preach this in so many evangelistic meetings already? The text really does seem to appear very clearly to state that it is a better study of scripture, for that is what the context is about. First, Daniel is told to “shut up the words, and seal the book”. So from the start of this verse it kicks us off in the direction that it is speaking of the scriptures itself, the book of Daniel in particular. And how long would the words be shut? How long would the book be sealed? “…until the time of the end”. From this we should be expecting that in the time of the end we would gain better understanding of what Daniel is talking about. The early readers could understand it on their own level, but many things remained hidden from them, as is true about the book of Revelation as well. But as the saying goes, “hindsight is better than foresight”, it is much easier to understand what many of these scriptures are saying after we see the fulfillment of so many prophecies and begin to see the methodology of God’s bringing to pass the things called for here. And this says nothing about the special revelation that God has planned to give to His children in the “time of the end” to understand the scriptures better. And how do we define the time of the end? The passage tells us itself. It is when “many will run to and fro, and knowledge will be increased.” In this text, running to and fro is directly related to the increase of knowledge. By more and more careful study of the scripture to understand what is being said, and by contextualizing the passage, we really do come to an increase of knowledge.
If we do a systematic comparison of the phrase “to and fro” in the entire Bible, though some of the instances to be found do seem to be speaking of physically going places, we find in other places when it appears to be referring to the understanding of scripture as well, which tends to give more weight to the idea that this is referring more to the study of scriptures than to traveling about in jet planes, rocket ships, and sports cars. One of these texts worth mentioning in this reflection is that of Paul’s writings in Ephesians 4:14 “That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive;” This scripture serves as a powerful testimony that the meaning in Daniel 12:4 is that of a better study of scripture!Here is the most interesting that really strikes me about this understanding of this scripture. From this teaching, the fulfillment of this Bible Prophecy has actually come to pass in my own mind in particular, and any of the rest of the classes, because now, by studying the passage more closely, and comparing it with other scriptures by “running to and fro” in the Bible, my “knowledge has been increased!”
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