An Important Date by W. W. P.

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jul 20, 1911

An Important Date

By W. W. P.

Historical Proof Which Establishes the Time for the Commencement of the Twenty-three Hundred Days

(Republished by request, from REVIEW of April 5, 1906.)

IT was the correct understanding of the subject of the sanctuary which explained the disappointment of 1844. This did not call for any readjustment of the prophetic periods, or the setting of any later date for the coming of the Lord. Seventh-day Adventists stand upon the original advent platform in their interpretation and application of such leading time prophecies as the “time and times and half a time” (twelve hundred sixty years) of Dan. 7:25, the “two thousand and three hundred days” (twenty-three hundred years) of Dan. 8:14, the “five months” (one hundred fifty years) of the fifth trumpet (Rev. 9:10), and the “hour, and a day, and a month, and a year” (three hundred ninety-one years and fifteen days) of the sixth trumpet. Rev. 9:15.

It is doubtless true that the period upon which the greatest stress has been laid, both before and since the disappointment of 1844, is that of the twenty-three hundred days, or years; and for about three-quarters of a century it has been maintained that this period began B. C. 457 and ended in A. D. 1844. The Scriptural proof of this position is very simple. The seventy weeks of Dan. 9:24 began with the going forth of “the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem” (Dan. 9:25), and the time of this event is stated to be “in the seventh year of Artaxerxes the king.” Ezra 7:7. According to the generally accepted chronology, the seventh of Artaxerxes was B. C. 457, as is noted in the margin of the Authorized Version of the book of Ezra; but, as is the case with almost every important doctrine, some have disputed this date, and have asserted that there was not sufficient proof to establish this important position. We have therefore thought that it might be worth the while to bring forward some historical evidence bearing upon this question,—evidence of such a character that it can not be set aside by mere assertion.

As the extract which we shall quote involves some abbreviations and expressions not now in common use in reckoning time, we will interpret some of them, so that all our readers may have as clear an understanding as possible of the grounds upon which the reckoning is based. The expression “An. 1, Olymp. 87” means “in the first year of the eighty-seventh Olympiad;” the expression “An. 4, Olymp. 88” means “in the fourth year of the eighty-eighth Olympiad;” the expression “An. 1, Olymp. 75” means “in the first year of the seventy-fifth Olympiad;” and the expression “An. 4, Olymp. 83” means “in the fourth year of the eighty-third Olympiad.” The Olympiad was “the period of four years between any two celebrations of the Olympic games,” at Olympia, in Elis, one of the states of Greece, the first Olympiad being reckoned from B. C. 776. Wherever the abbreviation “An. J. P.” occurs, it may be interpreted, “The year of the Julian Period.” This was “a chronological period of 7,980 years, combining the solar, lunar, and indiction cycles,” which was given a theoretical starting-point in B. C. 4713. “The Julian Period was proposed by Scaliger, to remove or avoid ambiguities in chronological dates, and was so named because composed of Julian years.” The abbreviation “lib.” should be read “book.” The expression “Anno Urbis Condita 273” may be read “in the two hundred and seventy-third year from the founding of the city,” referring to the founding of Rome in B. C. 754. The other abbreviations will doubtless be understood by the average reader.

The quotation to which reference has been made is from Part I, chapter 10, of Sir Isaac Newton’s work on the prophecies of Daniel, and reads as follows:—

The grounds of the chronology here followed [to show that the seventh year of Artaxerxes was B. C. 457] I will now set down as briefly as I can.

The Peloponnesian war began in spring, An. 1, Olymp. 87 (B. C. 432), Diodorus, Eusebius, and all other authors agree. It began two months before Pythodorus ceased to be Archon (Thucyd. I, 2), that is, in April, two months before the end of the Olympic year. Now, the years of this war are most certainly determined by the fifty years’ distance of its first year from the transit of Xerxes inclusively (Thucyd. I, 2), or forty-eight years exclusively (Eratosth. apud Clem. Alex.); by the sixty-nine years’ distance of its end, or twenty-seventh year, from the beginning of Alexander’s reign in Greece; by the acting of the Olympic games in its fourth and twelfth years (Thucyd. I, 5); and by three eclipses of the sun and one of the moon, mentioned by Thucydides and Xenophon. Now Thucydides, an unquestionable witness, tells us that the news of the death of Artaxerxes Longimanus was brought to Ephesus, and from thence by some Athenians to Athens, in the seventh year of the Peloponnesian, when the winter half-year was running, and therefore he died An. 4, Olymp. 88, in the end of An. J. P. 4289 (B. C. 425), suppose a month, or two, before midwinter; for so long the news would be in coming. Now, Artaxerxes Longimanus reigned forty years, by the consent of Diodorus, Eusebius, Jerome, Sulpitius, or forty-one, according to Ptol. in Can., Clem. Alexand. (I. 1), Strom., Chron. Alexandr., Abulpharagius, Nicephorus, including therein the reign of his successors, Xerxes and Sogdian, as Abulpharagius informs us. After Artaxerxes, reigned his son, Xerxes, two months, and Sogdian seven months; but their reign is not reckoned apart in summing up the years of the kings, but is included in the forty, or forty-one years’ reign of Artaxerxes; omit these nine months, and the precise reign of Artaxerxes will be thirty-nine years and three months. And, therefore, since his reign ended in the beginning of winter, An. J. P. 4289 (B. C. 425), it began between midsummer and autumn An. J. P. 4250 (B. C. 464).

The same thing I gather also thus: Cambyses began his reign in spring, An. J. P. 4185 (B. C. 529), and reigned eight years, including the five months of Smerdis; and then Darius Hystaspes began in spring, An. J. P. 4193 (B. C. 521), and reigned thirty-six years, by the unanimous consent of all chronologers. The reigns of these two kings are determined by three eclipses of the moon, observed at Babylon, and recorded by Ptolemy; so that it can not be disputed. One was in the seventh year of Cambyses, An. J. P. 4191 (B. C. 523), July 16, at eleven at night; another in the twentieth year of Darius, An. J. P. 4212 (B. C. 502), November 19, at 11:45 at night; a third in the thirty-first year of Darius, An. J. P. 4223 (B. C. 491), April 25, at 11:30 at night. By these eclipses, and the prophecies of Haggai and Zechary compared together, it is manifest that his years began after the twenty-fourth day of the eleventh Jewish month, and before the twenty-fifth day of April, and by consequence about March. Xerxes, therefore, began in spring, An. J. P. 4229 (B. C. 485), for Darius died in the fifth year after the battle of Marathon, as Herodotus (lib. 7) and Plutarch mention; and that battle was in October, An. J. P. 4224 (B. C. 490), ten years before the battle at Salamis. Xerxes, therefore, began within less than a year after October, An. J. P. 4228 (B. C. 486), suppose in the spring following; for he spent his first five years, and something more, in

preparations for his expedition against the Greeks; and this expedition was in the time of the Olympic games, An. 1, Olymp. 75, Calliade Athenis Archonte, twenty-eight years after the regifuge and consulship of the first consul, Junius Brutus, Anno Urbis Condita 273 (B. C. 481), Fabio and Furio Coss. The passage of Xerxes’s army over the Hellespont began in the end of the fourth year of the seventy-fourth Olympiad, that is, in June, An. J. P. 4234 (B. C. 480), and took up one month; and in autumn, three months after, on the full moon, the sixteenth day of the month of Munychion, was the battle of Salamis, and a little after that an eclipse of the sun, which, by the calculation, fell on October 2. His sixth year, therefore, began a little before June, suppose in spring, An. J. P. 4234 (B. C. 480), and his first year consequently in spring, An. J. P. 4229 (B. C. 485), as above. Now, he reigned almost twenty-one years, by the consent of all writers. Add the seven months of Artabanus, and the sum will be twenty-one years and about four or five months, which end between midsummer and autumn, An. J. P. 4250 (B. C. 464). At this time, therefore, began the reign of his successor, Artaxerxes, as was to be proved.

The same thing is also confirmed by Julius Africanus, who informs us out of former writers that the twentieth year of this Artaxerxes was the one hundred fifteenth year from the beginning of the reign of Cyrus in Persia, and fell in with An. 4, Olymp. 83. It began, therefore, with the Olympic year soon after the summer solstice, An. J. P. 4269 (B. C. 445). Subduct nineteen years, and his first year will begin at the same time of the year, An. J. P. 4250 (B. C. 464), as above.

Thus by three independent lines of historical proof Sir Isaac Newton shows that Artaxerxes began his reign in B. C. 464, and “the seventh year of Artaxerxes the king” would consequently be B. C. 457. Such an array of historical evidence ought to be sufficient to convince any reasonable student of the prophecies that the twenty-three hundred years of Daniel’s vision began in B. C. 457, and therefore ended in 1844. This is one of the original planks in the second advent platform. W. W. P.