p. 12 | Aids for Bible Readers

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Mar 19, 1908

Aids for Bible Readers

Historical quotations and extracts from various writers which may assist the thoughtful student of the Scriptures.

The Time of the Messiah’s Appearance

But at a subsequent period the notes of time given in the word of prophecy became more distinct. That I may not, however, detain you unnecessarily on the point, I will confine my remarks to one remarkable prophecy of this kind—that of Daniel. To this highly favored prophet the angel of God was commissioned to make the following precise revelation of the time when the Messiah was to appear and fulfil his work on earth: “Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the Most Holy. Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks, and three-score and two weeks: the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times. And after three-score and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined. And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.”

A more definite and precise prediction could not be conceived; and this prophecy is in fact an accurate description of the time and circumstances of our Lord’s appearance in the world, and the events with which it was accompanied.

The word translated “weeks” literally signifies “septenaries,” and may be referred either to days or to years, as it is used in the Scriptures in both senses. Thus when Laban said to Jacob, respecting Rachel, “Fulfil her week,” the context shows that the word means seven years. And in this case, the reference to the Messiah in the prophecy shows that we must here also understand the word to mean years. So that the seventy weeks of the prophecy embrace a period of 490 years.

The statement of the prophecy, then, as regards the time of the appearance of the Messiah, and of the events that were to mark his course, is this: that from the time of the going forth of a commandment (for so the words should be translated) to restore and to build Jerusalem, unto the appearance of the Messiah, the Prince, should be seven and sixty-two septenaries of years,—that is, 483 years; and after those sixty-nine septenaries, and (as the words seem to imply) before another septenary had elapsed, the Messiah should be cut off; which event should be followed by the destruction of the city and temple. And during the last seven years of the 490, the Messiah was to establish a covenant with many, and in the middle year of the seven was to cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease. He was also, but at a time not precisely determined, to make the city desolate by a desolation that should last for a certain decreed period.

Now it appears from Scripture that there were four commandments, or edicts, issued by the kings of Persia with reference to the rebuilding of Jerusalem: one by Cyrus, a second by Darius Hystaspes, and a third and a fourth by Artaxerxes Longimanus; and as the prophecy does not state which is referred to, there was, until its fulfilment, a degree of obscurity remaining, sufficient, as might be expected from the usual phraseology of prophecy, to prevent the reader from knowing with certainty beforehand what would be the precise period of its fulfilment; while on its accomplishment, it was sufficiently definite to fulfil all the purposes of prophecy.

In endeavoring to ascertain, therefore, which of these edicts was the one referred to, we at once find that it could not be either of the first two, for the 490 years reckoned from either of them will not bring us even to the birth of Christ.

We proceed, therefore, to the third, which was granted to Ezra in the seventh year of Artaxerxes. Now it is capable of satisfactory proof that the reign of Artaxerxes commenced in the summer or autumn of the year 464 before the vulgar Christian era, and consequently the seventh year of his reign extended from the summer or autumn of 458 to the same period in 457 of the same era. And as it appears, from the account given by Ezra himself, that he started from Babylon, in consequence of this edict, on the first day of the Hebrew month Nisan, occurring about the middle of our March, and after communications held with the whole body of captive Jews, the edict must have been issued a little before this period, and consequently about the close of 458 B. C., or the beginning of 457 B. C.

The testimony of the prophecy, then, is that the public appearance of the Messiah would take place 483 years from this time.

Now, it is obvious that the event to which we should naturally look as corresponding to that which is here predicted is the first appearance of our Lord as the Messiah, which was at his baptism, when both human and divine testimony was borne to his true character, and he was proclaimed to be the Son of God. This event took place, we are told by St. Luke (3:23), when he “began to be about thirty years of age.” We have, therefore, to determine the precise date of our Lord’s birth, which, though it is not expressly stated by any of the sacred writers, may be fixed sufficiently for our purpose from the historical data they have given us connected with this event. The vulgar Christian era was as is universally admitted, wrongly calculated by those who first introduced it as an epoch for reckoning the period of the events of history; and therefore, when we speak of the year A. D. 1, it is understood that this is not the true year of our Lord’s birth.

Our Lord’s birth must have taken place, according to the evangelists, some little time before the death of Herod. And according to Josephus, Herod’s death took place a few days after an eclipse of the moon, and a few days before a passover. From these data we learn with certainty that this event happened in the latter part of March, B. C. 4 (B. C. being understood to refer to the vulgar Christian era); a date which is confirmed by several historical testimonies. The Messiah was born, therefore, some little time previous to this.

But St. Luke also tells us that our Lord’s baptism, when he began to be about thirty years of age, was in the fifteenth of Tiberius. Luke 3:1. And reckoning the years of Tiberius from the time when he was made by Augustus his colleague in the empire (which St. Luke must have done, for otherwise his words would place the birth of our Lord after the death of Herod), his fifteenth year would extend from the summer of A. D. 26 to the summer of A. D. 27. And thirty years backward from this period would take us to the latter half of B. C. 5, or the former half of B. C. 4. As our Lord’s birth, then, was some little time before March, B. C. 4, we are fixed to some period toward the close of B. C. 5. And consequently our Lord was thirty toward the close of A. D. 26, and was baptized about the close of A. D. 26, or the beginning of A. D. 27; precisely 483 years from the period when, as we have already proved, the edict was issued in the seventh year of Artaxerxes.—“Fulfilled Prophecy,” by W. Goode. D. D., F. S. A., London, James Nisbet and Co., 1891, pages 128-131.