CHAPTER VI. Back
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THE PROPHETIC YEAR
IN English ears it must sound pedantic to speak of "weeks" in any other than
the familiar acceptation of the term. But with the Jew it was far otherwise. The
effect of his laws was fitted "to render the word week capable of meaning
a seven of years almost as naturally as a seven of days. Indeed the generality
of the word would have this effect at any rate. Hence its use to denote the
latter in prophecy is not mere arbitrary symbolism, but the employment of a not
unfamiliar and easily understood language." [1]
Daniel's prayer referred to seventy years fulfilled: the prophecy which
came in answer to that prayer foretold a period of seven times seventy still to
come. But here a question arises which never has received sufficient notice in
the consideration of this subject. None will doubt that the era is a period of
years; but of what kind of year is it composed? That the Jewish year was
lunisolar appears to be reasonably certain. If tradition may be trusted, Abraham
preserved in his family the year of 360 days, which he had known in his Chaldean
home. [2]
The month dates of the flood (150 days being specified as the interval
between the seventeenth day of the second month, and the same day of the seventh
month) appear to show that this form of year was the earliest known to our race.
Sir Isaac Newton states, that "all nations, before the just length of the solar
year was known, reckoned months by the course of the moon, and years by the
return of winter and summer, spring and autumn; and in making calendars for
their festivals, they reckoned thirty days to a lunar month, and twelve lunar
months to a year, taking the nearest round numbers, whence came the division of
the ecliptic into 360 degrees." And in adopting this statement, Sir G. C. Lewis
avers that "all credible testimony and all antecedent probability lead to the
result that a solar year containing twelve lunar months, determined within
certain limits of error, has been generally recognized by the nations adjoining
the Mediterranean, from a remote antiquity." [3]
But considerations of this kind go no further than to prove how legitimate and
important is the question here proposed. The inquiry remains whether any grounds
exist for reversing the presumption which obtains in favor of the common civil
year. Now the prophetic era is clearly seven times the seventy years of the
"desolations" which were before the mind of Daniel when the prophecy was given.
Is it possible then to ascertain the character of the years of this lesser era?
One of the characteristic ordinances of the Jewish law was, that every seventh
year the land was to lie fallow, and it was in relation to the neglect of this
ordinance that the era of the desolations was decreed. It was to last "until the
land had enjoyed her Sabbaths; for so long as she lay desolate, she kept
Sabbath, to fulfill threescore and ten years." (2 Chronicles 36:21; cf.
Leviticus 26:34, 35) The essential element in the judgment was, not a ruined
city, but a land laid desolate by the terrible scourge of a hostile invasion,
(Compare Jeremiah 27:13; Haggai 2:17) the effects of which were perpetuated by
famine and pestilence, the continuing proofs of the Divine displeasure. It is
obvious therefore, that the true
epoch of the judgment is not, as has been generally assumed, the capture of
Jerusalem, but the invasion of Judea. From the time the Babylonian armies
entered the land, all agricultural pursuits were suspended, and therefore the
desolations may be reckoned from the day the capital was invested, namely, the
tenth day of the tenth month in the ninth year of Zedekiah. This was the epoch
as revealed to Ezekiel the prophet in his exile on the banks of the Euphrates,
(Ezekiel 24:1, 2) and for twenty-four centuries the day has been observed as a
fast by the Jews in every land.
The close of the era is indicated in Scripture with equal definiteness, as
"the four-and-twentieth day of the ninth month in the second year of Darius.
[4]
"Consider now" (the prophetic word declared) "from this day and upward –
from the four-and- twentieth day of the ninth month, even from the day that the
foundation of the Lord's temple was laid – consider it: from this day I will
bless you." Now from the tenth day of Tebeth B.C. 589,
[5]
to the twenty-fourth day of Chisleu B.C. 520, [6]
was a period of 25, 202 days; and seventy years of 360 days contain
exactly 25, 200 days. We may conclude, therefore, that the era of the
"desolations" was a period of seventy years of 360 days, beginning the day after
the Babylonian army invested Jerusalem, and ending the day before the foundation
of the second temple was laid. [7]
But this inquiry may be pressed still further. As the era of the "desolations"
was fixed at seventy years, because of the neglect of the Sabbatic years, (2
Chronicles 36:21; Leviticus 26:34, 35) we might expect to find that a period of
seven times seventy years measured back from the close of the seventy years of
"indignation against Judah," would bring us to the time when Israel entered into
their full national privileges, and thus incurred their full responsibilities.
And such in fact will be found upon inquiry to be the case. From the year
succeeding the dedication of Solomon's temple, to the year before the foundation
of the second temple was laid, was a period of 490 years of 360 days.
[8]
It must be admitted, however, that no argument based on calculations of
this kind is final. [9]
The only data which would warrant our deciding unreservedly that the
prophetic year consists of 360 days, would be to find some portion of the era
subdivided into the days of which it is composed. No other proof can be wholly
satisfactory, but if this be forthcoming, it must be absolute and conclusive.
And this is precisely what the book of the Revelation gives us.
As already noticed, the prophetic era is divided into two periods, the one of 7+
62 heptades, the other of a single heptade. [10]
Connected with these eras, two "princes" are prominently mentioned;
first, the Messiah, and secondly, a prince of that people by whom Jerusalem was
to be destroyed, – a personage of such pre-eminence, that on his advent his
identity is to be as certain as that of Christ Himself. The first era closes
with the "cutting off" of Messiah; the beginning of the second era dates from
the signature of a "covenant," or treaty, by this second "prince," with or
perhaps in favor of "the many," [11]
that is the Jewish nation, as distinguished probably from a section of
pious persons among them who will stand aloof. In the middle of the heptade the
treaty is to be violated by the suppression of the Jews' religion, and a time of
persecution is to follow.
Daniel's vision of the four beasts affords a striking commentary upon this. The
identity of the fourth beast with the Roman empire is not doubtful, and we read
that a "king" is to arise, territorially connected with that empire, but
historically belonging to a later time; he will be a persecutor of "the saints
of the Most High," and his fall is to be immediately followed by the fulfillment
of Divine blessings upon the favored people – the precise event which marks the
close of the "seventy weeks." The duration of that persecution, moreover, is
stated to be "a time and times, and the dividing of time," – a mystical
expression, of which the meaning might be doubtful, were it not that it is used
again in Scripture as synonymous with three and a half years, or half a
prophetic week. (Revelation 12:6, 14) Now there can be no reasonable doubt of
the identity of the king of Daniel 7:25 with the first "beast" of the thirteenth
chapter of Revelation. In the Revelation he is likened to a leopard, a bear, and
a lion,– the figures used for Daniel's three first beasts. In Daniel there are
ten kingdoms, represented by ten horns. So also in Revelation. According to
Daniel, "he shall speak great words against the Most High, and wear out the
saints of the Most High:" according to Revelation, "he opened his mouth in
blasphemy against God," "and it was given unto him to make war with the saints
and to overcome them." According to. Daniel, "they shall be given into his hand
until a. time and times and the dividing of time," or three and a half years:
according to Revelation, "power was given unto him to continue forty and two
months."
It is not impossible, of course, that prophecy may foretell the career of two
different men, answering the same description, who will pursue a precisely
similar course in similar circumstances for a similar period of three and a half
years; but the more natural and obvious supposition is that the two are
identical. Owing to the very nature of the subject, their identity cannot be
logically demonstrated, but it rests upon precisely the same kind of proof upon
which juries convict men of crimes, and convicted prisoners are punished.
Now this seventieth week is admittedly a period of seven years, and half of this
period is three times described as "a time, times, and half a time," or "the
dividing of a time;" (Daniel 7:25; 12:7; Revelation 12:14) twice as forty-two
months; (Revelation 11:2; 13:5) and twice as 1, 260 days. (Revelation 11:3;
12:6) But 1, 260 days are exactly equal to forty-two months of thirty days, or
three and a half years of 360 days, whereas three and a half Julian years
contain 1, 278 days. It follows therefore that the prophetic year is not the
Julian year, but the ancient year of 360 days. [12]