Thoughts on Daniel by U. Smith

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Mar 2, 1882

Thoughts on Daniel.

By U. Smith

BY ELD. U. SMITH.

CHAPTER IX.—THE SEVENTY WEEKS.

IT now becomes an important point to determine in what year the crucifixion took place. The following evidence is sufficient to be decisive on this question:—

The Saviour attended but four passovers according to the record of John, mentioned in the following passages of his gospel. John 2:13; 5:1; 6:4; 13:1. At the last-mentioned passover he was crucified. From facts already established, let us then see where this would locate the crucifixion. As he began his ministry in the autumn of A. D. 27, his first passover would be in the following spring, A. D. 28. His second would be A. D. 29; his third A. D 30; and his fourth and last A. D. 31. This gives us three years and a half for his public ministry, and corresponds exactly to the prophecy that he should be cut off in the midst, or middle, of the seventieth week. As that week of years commenced in the autumn of A. D. 27, its middle would be three and one half years later, in the spring of 31, where the crucifixion occurred. Dr. Hales quotes Eusebius, A. D. 300, as saying: "It is recorded in history that the whole time of our Saviour's teaching and working miracles was three years and a half, which is the half of a week [of years]. This, John the evangelist will represent to those who critically attend to his gospel."

Of the unnatural darkness which occurred at the crucifixion, Hales, vol. i, pp. 69, 70 thus speaks: "Hence it appears that the darkness which 'overspread the whole land of Judea' at the time of our Lord's crucifixion was preternatural, 'from the sixth until the ninth hour,' or from noon till three in the afternoon, in its duration, and also in its time, about full moon, when the moon could not possibly eclipse the sun. The time it happened, and the fact itself, are recorded in a curious and valuable passage of a respectable Roman Consul, Aurelius Cassiodorius, Senator, about A. D. 514: 'In the consulate of Tiberius Cæsar Aug. V. and Ælius Sejanus (U. C. 784, A. D. 31), our Lord Jesus Christsuffered, on the 8th of the calends of April (25th of March): when there happened such an eclipse of the sun as was never before nor since.'

"In this year, and in this day, agree also the Council of Cæsarea, A. D. 196 or 198, the Alexandrian Chronicle, Maximus Monachus, Nicephorus Constantinus, Cedrenus; and in this year, but on different days, concur Eusebius and Epiphanius, followed by Kepler, Bucher, Patinus, and Petavius, some reckoning it the 10th of the calends of April, others the 13th."

Here, then, are thirteen credible authorities, locating the crucifixion of Christ in the spring of A. D. 31. We may therefore set this down as a fixed fact, as the most cautious, or the most skeptical could require nothing more. This being in the middle of the last week, we have simply to reckon backward three and a half years to find where the sixty-nine weeks ended, and forward from that point, three and a half years, to find the termination of the whole period. Thus going back from the crucifixion A. D. 31, spring, three and a half years, we find ourselves in the autumn of A. D. 27, where, as we have seen, the sixty-nine weeks ended, and Christ commenced his public ministry. And going from the crucifixion forward three and a half years, we are brought to the autumn of A. D. 34, as the grand terminating point of the whole period of the seventy weeks. This date is marked by the martyrdom of Stephen, the formal rejection of the gospel of Christ by the Jewish Sanhedrim in the persecution of his disciples, and the turning of the apostles to the Gentiles. Acts 9:1-18. And these are just the events which we should expect to take place when that period which was cut off for the Jews, and allotted to them as a peculiar people, should fully expire.

A word respecting the date of the seventh of Artaxerxes, and the array of evidence on this point is complete. Was the seventh of Artaxerxes B. C. 457? For all those who can appreciate the force of facts, the following testimony will be sufficient here:—

"The Bible gives the data for a complete system of chronology, extending from the creation to the birth of Cyrus—a clearly ascertained date. From this period downward we have the undisputed canon of Ptolemy, and the undoubted era of Nabonassar, extending below our vulgar era. At the point where inspired chronology leaves us, this canon of undoubted accuracy commences. And thus the whole arch is spanned. It is by the canon of Ptolemy that the great prophetical period of seventy weeks is fixed. This canon places the seventh year of Artaxerxes in the year B. C. 457; and the accuracy of this canon is demonstrated by the concurrent agreement of more than twenty eclipses. This date we cannot change from B. C. 457, without first demonstrating the inaccuracy of Ptolemy's canon. To do this it would be necessary to show that the large number of eclipses by which its accuracy has been repeatedly demonstrated have not been correctly computed; and such a result would unsettle every chronological date, and leave the settlement of epochs and the adjustment of eras entirely at the mercy of every dreamer, so that chronology would be of no more value than mere guess-work. As the seventy weeks must terminate in A. D. 34, unless the seventh of Artaxerxes is wrongly fixed, and as that cannot be changed without some evidence to that effect, we inquire, What evidence marked that termination? The time when the apostles turned to the Gentiles harmonizes with that date better than any other which has been named. And the crucifixion in A. D. 31, in the midst of the last week, is sustained by a mass of testimony which cannot be easily invalidated."—Advent Herald.

From the facts above set forth, we see that, reckoning the seventy weeks from the decree given to Ezra in the seventh of Artaxerxes, B. C. 457, there is the most perfect harmony throughout. The important and definite events of the manifestation of the Messiah at his baptism, the commencement of his public ministry, the crucifixion and the turning away from the Jews to the Gentiles, with the proclamation of the new covenant, all come in, in their exact place, and like a bright galaxy of blazing orbs of light, cluster round to set their seal to the prophecy and make it sure.

It is thus evident that the decree to Ezra in the seventh of Artaxerxes, B. C. 457, is the point from which to date the seventy weeks. That was the going forth of the decree in the sense of the prophecy. The two previous decrees were preparatory and preliminary to this; and indeed they are regarded by Ezra as parts of it, the three being taken as one great whole. For in Ezra 6:14, we read: "And they builded and finished it, according to the commandment of the God of Israel, and according to the commandment of Cyrus, and Darius, and Artaxerxes, king of Persia." It will be noticed that the decrees of these three kings are spoken of as one: "The commandment," margin decree, singular number, "of Cyrus and Darius and Artaxerxes;" showing that they are all reckoned as a unit, the different decrees being but the successive steps by which the work was accomplished. And this decree could not be said to have "gone forth," as intended by the prophecy, till the last permission which the prophecy required was embodied in the decree and clothed with the authority of the empire. This point was reached in the grant given to Ezra, but not before. Here the decree assumed the proportions, and covered the ground, demanded by the prophecy, and from this point its "going forth" must be dated.

With the seventy weeks we are now done; but there remains a longer period and other important events to be considered. The seventy weeks are but the first 490 years of the 2300. Take 490 from 2300, and there remain 1810. The 490, as we have seen, ended in the autumn of A. D. 34. If to this date we now add the remaining 1810 years, we shall have the termination of the whole period. Thus, to A. D. 34, autumn, add 1810, and we have A. D., autumn, eighteen hundred and forty-four. Thus speedily and surely do we find the termination of the 2300 days, when once the seventy weeks have been located.

One other point should here be noticed. We have seen that the seventy weeks are the first 490 days of the 2300; that these days are prophetic, signifying literal years, according to the Bible rule, a day for a year, Num. 14:34; Eze. 4:6, as is proved by the fulfillment of the seventy weeks, and as all eminent expositors agree; that they commenced in 457 B. C., and ended in A. D. 1844, provided the number is right, and twenty-three hundred is the correct reading. With this point established there would seem to be no room for further controversy. On this point Dr. Hales remarks:—

"There is no number in the Bible whose genuineness is better ascertained than that of the 2300 days. It is found in all the printed Hebrew editions, in all the MSS. of Kennicott and De Rossi's collations, and in all the ancient versions, except the Vatican copy of the Septuagint, which reads 2400, followed by Symmachus; and some copies noticed by Jerome, 2200, both evidently literal errors in excess and defect, which compensate each other and confirm the mean, 2300."—Chronology, vol. ii, p. 512.