Daniel 2
Augustine of Hippo · Comentário Patrístico (catena)
Daniel 2:1
The Spirit of prophecy does not affect everyone in the same way. The Spirit's infusion in some people confers images of things; others are granted the mental fruit of understanding; others are given both by inspiration; and still others know nothing. But the Spirit works through the infusion in two ways. The first way comes during sleep, and not only to saints, but even Pharoah and King Nebuchadnezzar saw what neither of them was able to understand but both of them were able to see. The second way is through demonstration in ecstasy (which some Latins translate as "trembling"—astonishingly idiosyncratic, but close in meaning nonetheless), where the mind is separated from the bodily senses so that the human spirit, which is assumed by the divine Spirit, might be free of perceiving and intuiting ideas, as, for instance, when it was shown to Daniel what he had not understood, and to Peter, the sheet let down from heaven by its four corners, who only later recognized what this vision represented. One way is through the mental fruit of understanding, when the significance and relevance of the things demonstrated through images is revealed, which is a more certain prophecy, for the apostle calls such prophecy "greater," as Joseph deserved to understand but Pharaoh only to see, and as Daniel explained to the king that he saw but did not know. — ON VARIOUS QUESTIONS TO SIMPLICIAN 2:1.1
Daniel 2:27-30
The one who interprets what another has seen is more a prophet than the one who had seen.… Less a prophet is he who … sees in spirit only the signs of the things signified, and a greater prophet is he who is granted only an understanding of images. But the greatest prophet is he who is endowed with both gifts, namely, that of seeing in spirit the symbolic likeness of corporeal objects and that of understanding them with the vital power of the mind. Such a one was Daniel. His preeminence was tested and established when he not only told the dream he had had but also explained the meaning of it. For the corporeal images themselves were produced in his spirit, and an understanding of them was revealed in his mind. I am using the word spirit, therefore, in the sense in which Paul uses it, where he distinguishes it from the mind: "I will pray with the spirit, but I will pray with the mind also." Here he implies that signs of things are formed in the spirit and that an understanding of the signs shines forth in the mind. — ON THE LITERAL INTERPRETATION OF GENESIS 12:9.20
Daniel 2:34
We know that the stone cut from the mountain without hands is Christ, who came from the kingdom of the Jews without human father: the stone that shattered all the kingdoms of the earth, all the tyrannies of idols and devils; the stone that grew and became a great mountain and filled the whole world. — HOMILIES ON 1 JOHN 1:12
Daniel 2:35
It talks of a mountain, and the mountain is veiled to the party of Donatus.… The holy Daniel saw a vision and wrote down what he saw, and he said that he had seen a stone hewn out of a mountain without hands. It is Christ, coming from the nations of the Jews, which was also a mountain, you see, because it has the kingdom.… What is the mountain over which the heretics stumbled? Listen to Daniel again: "And that stone grew and became a great mountain, such that it filled all the face of the earth." How right the psalm is to say to Christ the Lord as he rises again, "Be exalted over the heavens, O God, and let your glory be over the whole earth." What is your glory over the whole earth? Over the whole earth is your church, over the whole earth your bride. — SERMON 147A. 4
Daniel 2:35
"His holy hill" is his holy church. It is that mountain which, according to Daniel's vision, grew from a very small stone till it overtook the kingdoms of the earth and grew to such a size that it "filled the face of the earth." — EXPLANATIONS OF THE PSALMS 43:4