“How long?” was the question asked in the vision of Daniel 8. How long was apostasy apparently to triumph, and trample underfoot the truth of God? The answer was, “Unto two thousand and three hundred days; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed.” Then should the final work begin in heaven that is to cut short the reign of sin.
And then on earth, also, should the standard of truth be especially lifted up against apostasy. For in the Revelation, the prophet John was shown that when this hour of investigative judgment began in heaven, a message was to be carried to all peoples and nations, proclaiming the hour of God’s judgment come, warning men against following the doctrines and ways of the great apostasy, and calling all to the divine standard of “the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.” Rev. 14:6-14.
The great prophetic measuring line—the two thousand three hundred years—reaches, then, to a most solemn and important time in the development of the plan of salvation.
When does that period begin, and when does it end? It is necessary to understand this in order to get the answer to the question, “How long shall be the vision?” It must reach to the latter days; for we recall the angel’s words, “At the time of the end shall be the vision.”
But what marks the beginning of the prophetic period? And may we understand definitely when the hour of the investigative judgment, the cleansing of the sanctuary, begins in heaven?
The angel Gabriel received the commission, “Make this man to understand the vision.” Dan. 8:16. Then if we follow the angel’s explanation, we also may understand the vision.10
The angel explained clearly the outline of coming events,—the succession of Medo-Persia, followed by Greece, and the rise of the fourth great empire, Rome; and then the development and deceptive workings of the great apostasy that was to come. Verses 20-26.
But the angel stopped short of explaining the matter of the time, the beginning and ending of the prophetic period. He only said that the vision of the two thousand three hundred days was true, and that it should be “for many days.” Verse 26. There he stopped, for Daniel fainted. The prophet had been shown a view of the working of apostasy in later times that took all his strength from him. And as he closes his report of this vision, in the last verse of this eighth chapter, he says, “I was astonished at the vision, but none understood it.”
Yet Gabriel had been commanded to “make this man to understand the vision.” And very soon after—very evidently within a year, possibly within a few months, or even weeks—the angel Gabriel came again to Daniel and said: “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. And at once the angel began to explain the time prophecy, which had been left unexplained when Daniel fainted.
First of all, he said, a shorter period was to be “determined,” or cut off,—cut off from the longer period which the angel had come to explain,—this shorter period to reach to the days of the Messiah and to the time when Jerusalem should fill up its cup of transgression:—
“Seventy weeks [490 days prophetic time, 490 literal years] 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.” Verse 24.
Wherever, then, this period of seventy weeks, or 490 years, begins, there also must begin the longer period of 2300 years; and the angel now foretold the event that was to fix the date of the starting-point:—
“Know therefore and understand,” he said to Daniel, thus fulfilling the divine charge given him to “make this man to understand” the vision of the 2300 years,—
“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.” Verses 25, 26.
From the time of the going forth of the commandment to restore and build Jerusalem, then, these prophetic periods begin—the 490 years to reach to the days and work of the Messiah, at the first advent, and the 2300 years to extend to the beginning of his closing work in the heavenly sanctuary, preparatory to his second advent in power and glory. It therefore becomes a matter of deepest interest and of eternal importance to ascertain when this commandment to restore and build Jerusalem went forth.
W. A. S.
Inasmuch as no trace was found in secular history of this King Belshazzar, it was concluded by Bible students that the Belshazzar of Daniel must have been the Nabonadius of Greek and Persian history, the last king of Babylon. This Nabonadius assumed the throne in B. C. 555, and reigned seventeen years. And as Belshazzar was assumed to be only another name used by Daniel for the same king, “the third year of the reign of King Belshazzar” (Dan. 8:1) was placed in 553, fifteen years before the fall of Babylon. This satisfied friends of the Bible story. But all along unfriendly critics discounted the book of Daniel for bringing in the name of Belshazzar, a character unknown to secular history.
About the beginning of this last generation, when light from the prophetic Word was to shine forth, books of clay were unearthed from old Chaldea that had been buried under the sands of over two millenniums. And lo, the very stones spoke out in confirmation of the words of Inspiration. The books of clay told what the Greek and Persian historians had failed to tell—of a Belshazzar who was not Nabonadius at all, but the son of Nabonadius, associated with his father as king in the last years of Babylon.
Rawlinson, in his “Ancient Monarchies,” tells of this kingly association of Belshazzar with his father, and in a foot-note adds:—
“The proof of this association is contained in the cylinders of Nabonadius, found at Mugheir, where the protection of the gods is asked for Nabu-nadid and his son Bel-shar-uzur, who are coupled together in a way that implies the co-sovereignty of the latter. (‘British Museum Series,’ Vol. I, Pl. 68, No. 1.) The date of the association was, at the latest, B. C. 540, Nabonadius’s fifteenth year, since the third year of Belshazzar is mentioned in Daniel (8:1).”—“Fourth Monarchy,” chapter 8.
Here is one of the various inscriptions telling of Belshazzar:—
“Myself, Nabo-nid, king of Babylon,
in the fear of thy great divinity
preserve me.
My life unto distant days
abundantly prolong,
and of Bel-sar-ussur, my eldest son,
the offspring of my body,
the awe of thy great divinity
fix thou firmly in his heart,
that he may never fall
into sin,
and that his glory may endure.”—“Records of the Past,” Old Series, Vol. II, page 148.
The third year of Belshazzar was near the fall of Babylon, probably his last year; in which case the “first year of Darius” and the explanation of the vision would follow within a year. The exact time intervening, however, is immaterial.