Beginning of the 2300 Years by W. A. S.

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jan 13, 1916

Beginning of the 2300 Years

By W. A. S.

The Prophecy of Daniel 8 — No. 3

Beginning of the 2300 Years

IN the angel’s explanation of the vision of Daniel 8, we must assuredly find the explanation of the prophetic period of 2300 years, which mark the opening of the judgment work in heaven, or the cleansing of the sanctuary; for the commission to the angel Gabriel was, “Make this man to understand the vision.” Dan. 8: 16.

The eighth chapter closes, however, with no explanation as to the beginning of this important measuring line of prophecy. The angel had explained the symbols representing Medo-Persia, Grecia, and Rome, and had dwelt upon the antichristian work of the apostasy that was to come. But the angel left the time of the prophetic period unexplained, save to say that it was “true,” and that it would be “for many days”—far in the future. Here he stopped, for Daniel fainted. In his spirit the prophet had been gazing upon the warfare of the great apostasy against God’s truth through the ages, and evidently it took all strength from him. Daniel closes the account of this vision of the eighth chapter with the words, “I was astonished at the vision, but none understood it.” Verse 27.

But the angel had been commanded, “Make this man to understand the vision;” and soon after, as recorded in the next chapter,—possibly within a year,—Gabriel appeared to the prophet with the words:—

“O Daniel, I am now come forth to give thee skill and understanding. Therefore understand the matter, and consider the vision.” Dan. 9: 22, 23.

Thereupon the angel began to deal with the matter of time prophecy, the very feature of the vision of Daniel 8 that he had not yet made Daniel to understand. Therefore the vision of the 2300 years must be the topic.

The Starting Point

First of all, the angel said that a shorter period was to be cut off, and allotted to the Jewish people, to reach to the coming of the promised Messiah and the filling up of the measure of Jerusalem’s transgressions. The angel’s own words are:—

“Seventy weeks [490 days prophetic time, 490 literal years] are determined [cut off, as the word means] 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.” Verse 24.

This 490-year period “cut off” was to cover the history of the people of Jerusalem until that city had filled out the measure of its transgression. The only prophetic period from which this 490 years can properly be said to be “cut off” is, assuredly, the longer period of 2300 years, which stretches far onward to “the time of the end.” The 490 years and the 2300 years, then, must begin at the same time.

It was the time period that the angel Gabriel was yet to explain; and he begins the explanation by showing that the first 490 years of it would reach to the days of the Messiah. Then he gives the event that marks the beginning of the 490 years, which event must necessarily mark the beginning of the 2300 years as well.

This is what he was commissioned to make Daniel “understand” when first the vision of the 2300 years was given. And now he tells him to “understand” it:—

“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 threescore and two weeks: the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times. And after threescore 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.” Dan. 9: 25, 26.

The date of the going forth of the commandment to restore and rebuild Jerusalem is the date, therefore, from which the great prophetic measuring line runs—the first 490 years of it to reach to the time and work of the Messiah, at the first advent, the full 2300 years running on to mark the time when the judgment hour in heaven opens. Once the starting point is fixed, all the events of the long period must be seen following one another exactly scheduled to the time-table of divine prophecy.

Date of the Commencement to Restore Jerusalem

There were several commands issued concerning the restoration of Jerusalem after the Babylonish captivity. Cyrus, and Darius, and Artaxerxes Longimanus issued decrees. Which one answers to the language of the prophecy as “the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem”?

The decree of Artaxerxes was most comprehensive (Ezra 7), authorizing the full restoration of the civil and religious administration of Jerusalem and Judea. And Inspiration specifically sums up all the decrees as only completed in that of Artaxerxes, which thus constituted “the commandment:”—

“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.” Ezra 6: 14.

According to this scripture, the full “going forth of the commandment to restore and to build,” dates from this decree of Artaxerxes. And this decree went forth “in the seventh year of Artaxerxes the king.” Ezra 7: 7, 8.

What year was this seventh year of Artaxerxes—a date so important to fix to a certainty?

The great chronological standard for the kings of the ancient empires is the canon, or historical rule, of Ptolemy. Ptolemy was a Greek historian, geographer, and astronomer, who lived in the temple of Serapis, near Alexandria, Egypt. From ancient records, he prepared a chronological table of the kings of Babylon, Persia, Greece, and Rome (carrying the Roman list to his own time, which was the second century after Christ). Along with his list of kings and the years of their succession, Ptolemy compiled a record of ancient observations of eclipses. In such and such a year of a king, for instance, on a given day of the month, an eclipse of the sun or moon would be recorded. Astronomers have worked out these observations, and verified them. The learned Dr. William Hales said of Ptolemy’s canon:—

As to the authenticity of these copies of the canon, the strongest testimony is given by their exact agreement throughout with above twenty dates and computations of eclipses.—“Chronology,” Vol. I, page 450.

Thus, says James B. Lindsay, an English chronologist, “a foundation is laid for chronology sure as the stars.”

We thank God for this, as we desire to know if we may depend upon Ptolemy’s canon to help us fix to a certainty the seventh year of Artaxerxes. According to Ptolemy, Artaxerxes succeeded to the throne in the two hundred and eighty-fourth year of the canon. In modern reckoning, this two hundred and eighty-fourth year runs from Dec. 17, 465 B. C., to Dec. 17, 464 B. C. The canon does not tell at what part of the year a king succeeded to the throne; it only deals with whole years. The question is, to be exact, Did Artaxerxes come to the throne in December, 465 B. C., or at some time in the year 464 B. C.? At what season of the year did the king take the throne? Some historians, dealing with the matter roughly, date the succession from the year 465. But in dealing with divine prophecy, we require certainty upon which to base the reckoning of the seventh year of Artaxerxes, from which date the prophetic period runs.

And in God’s providence we do have certainty. Of all the kings of Assyria, Babylon, and Medo-Persia, in Ptolemy’s long list, there is but one concerning whose succession the Scriptures give us the very time of the year—and that one is Artaxerxes. The one case in which we need to know to a certainty the season of the year, in order to fix an important date in prophecy, is the one case in which Inspiration gives exactly the particulars. Who cannot see the hand of God in this?

The combined record of Neh. 1: 1; 2: 1; and Ezra 7: 7-9, proves that Artaxerxes came to the throne after midsummer (between August, the fifth month of the Jewish year, and November). The Bible gives one part of the record, and Ptolemy’s canon gives another part; and by the combined record we know that Artaxerxes came to the throne in the year 464 B. C.; and the seventh year of his reign was 457 B. C. This is the date fixed by other sources of reliable chronology also.

In the seventh year of Artaxerxes the commandment went forth to restore and to build Jerusalem, and this event fixes the beginning of the 2300 years, as also of the 490 years cut off from it upon the Jewish people.

That year, 457 B. C., therefore, is a date of profound importance. It stands like the golden milestone in the ancient Forum at Rome, from which ran out all the measurements of distance to the ends of the empire. From this date, 457 B. C., run out the golden threads of time prophecy that touch events in the earthly life and the heavenly ministry of Jesus that are of deepest eternal interest to all mankind today. W. A. S.