IN THE MIDDLE OF THE WEEK
By Uriah Smith
A CORRESPONDENT sends us a query about the meaning of the phrase “the midst [or middle] of the week.” Every reader of the REVIEW will recognize it as belonging to the subject of the 70 weeks of Dan. 9:24, which is a branch of the 2300 days, of Dan. 8:14, an important and essential link in the prophecy. We are happy to receive queries on this subject; for we are glad to know that the minds of Bible students are being turned to the study of the prophetic periods, of which there are no more important ones than the 2300 days and the 70 weeks. These are, and ever will be, timely and current topics in our study of the chart of the current of probation, especially in its closing stages. They are topics of immediate importance and lasting value, to guard against errors and wrong views continually pressing upon us, and to guide us through the future. They are like the pillars for which Sampson inquired in the temple of the Philistines when he was about to be avenged of his enemies. To the lad who held him by the hand he said, “Suffer me that I may feel the pillars whereupon the house standeth.” So the 2300 days and the 70 weeks are the pillars whereon the whole scheme of the Third Angel’s Message rests, so far as prophetic periods are concerned; that is to say, If these can be set aside or overthrown, the whole superstructure falls to the ground. The period of the 2300 days is the great landmark by which we can take our bearings in reference to every other prophetic date. How is this or that date related to the 2300 days? — and having settled this, we know where we are. It strikes all branches of the work in its history. When great crises are upon the world, and especially at that point where its computation comes to an end, its extensive and important bearing is seen. At that time, when this period ended, the truth of God had reached a great crisis in its religious development, and the world a great crisis in its religious experience. The veil was lifted which opened a view into eternal scenes — the doings of the great court of assize in the heavenly temple, which has to do with the world from the time of its fall to the day of its redemption, and with all the millions of men who have to do with its checkered scenes. “Unto two thousand and three hundred days; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed.” That scene is opened in the development of the gospel which shall not close till all things are finished. In the early days of the message the themes of the 2300 days and the 70 weeks were more prominent subjects than they have been in later years, because they were then a more newly developed collateral evidence of a truth which Adventists were trying to enforce upon the attention of the people; and everywhere were seen and heard, in articles and discourses on the prophecies, the announcements, “The prophetic era of the world has come; The 2300 days demand an explanation; At the end of the days the sanctuary shall be cleansed; These days end in our times. Come and learn duty, and be prepared for the future.” Men listened; the world was stirred. A religious revival was aroused greater than any that has been seen since the great Reformation. Fifty-six years have passed since that division of the threefold message for these last days reached its culmination. But has a jot or tittle of the great truth of the 2300 days been erased from the record, or fallen under a cloud, or been taken away? — Not one jot or tittle. The thrilling propositions, and the arguments upon which they rest, stand full and complete, and as firm as ever. The remarks thus far are not intended as an answer to the queries which have been sent in for consideration, and which will be noticed later. What is here said is designed only as a reminder of the great themes, worthy of profound meditation and study, which cluster around this subject. Our correspondent is no novice on the subject of the 2300 days. It is only on one point that a query arises, which he would like explained, as will hereafter appear. He understands when the days began; that is, that they date from the beginning of the work authorized by the going forth of a commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem; and this commandment was issued to Ezra, by Artaxerxes Longimanus, the king of Persia, in the seventh year of his reign, B. C. 457. Ezra 7. This decree to Ezra is the only one which meets the specifications of the prophecy (Dan. 9:25) wherein the true decree is set forth. The decree of Cyrus, B. C. 336 (Ezra 1:1-4), did not meet the conditions; it was too limited. The same may be said of the decree of Darius, B. C. 519. Passing over the decree of Artaxerxes, to the commission to Nehemiah (Neh. 2:1-8), we find that that was not a decree at all, and is not so called. These are all that can be found, except that given to Ezra; but that contained ample provision to do all that was intended; namely, to restore and to build Jerusalem. It was drawn up in due form, and is fully recorded in Ezra 7. It restored to the Jews their civil polity, their religious ritual, and all else necessary to the existence of the nation as a theocracy. This was in the seventh year of the King Artaxerxes; and that year was 457 B. C., one of the best-established dates of all history. Thus do we have the important question, When did the 2300 days begin? answered beyond all dispute or question. The subsequent dates, as brought to view in Dan. 9:25, follow in the simplicity of arithmetical figures, and the accuracy of mathematics. The “seven weeks,” or the forty-nine years, allotted to the building of the city, extended to the last act of reformation by Nehemiah in the fifteenth year of Darius Nothus, B. C. 408. In this the events are found accurately fulfilling the prophecy; and the decree to Ezra is the only one from which to reckon, to find these results. We have the satisfaction of knowing when this decree, filling so important a place, was issued, by whom and to whom issued, under what conditions it was issued, the provisions it contained, and everything about it that needs to be known. All this is fully set forth. Ezra and his company did not reach Jerusalem till the fifth month (Ezra 7:8); and it would be a trifle later than that, or well into the autumn, according to the Jewish calendar, before the actual beginning of the work, which, according to the prophecy, must be the point from which to begin to reckon. From that point the “sixty-nine weeks,” or 483 years, to the Messiah the Prince, would end in a corresponding season of the year, A. D. 27; and in that very year Christ was anointed with the Holy Ghost and with power, and was manifested as the Messiah to the people. One week more, or seven additional years, remain to complete the whole period of seventy weeks. Tracing this along by years to its conclusion, we find ourselves in the autumn of the year A. D. 34, and at the end of that section of the great period of 2300 days which was cut off, or set apart, to mark the time during which the Jews should be nominally accounted the house of Israel, or the people of God. This last week that we have passed over takes us beyond the ministry of Christ, and of course covers the date of His crucifixion. And here is where the difficulty of our correspondent comes in. The prophecy brings to view the crucifixion of Christ in this manner: “And after three-score and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself.” Dan. 9:26. This must refer to the crucifixion of Christ; for that was the way in which He was cut off. And the next verse tells us how long it was after the three-score and two weeks that this took place: “And He [the Messiah] shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst [middle] of the week He shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation [the Jewish sacrificial services] to cease.” Christ did this by offering himself, the antitype of all their offerings, upon the cross. This was to be in the middle of this last week. Remember that the prophet is not speaking of the ordinary week of seven days, but of a prophetical week of seven years. Hence those who take this passage to prove that the crucifixion of Christ must have taken place on Wednesday, because that is the middle of the ordinary week, show that they are entirely11off the subject. The middle of this week of years would be three years and a half from the beginning of this week, at the baptism of Christ. Three and one-half years from the autumn of A. D. 27 would bring us to the spring of A. D. 31; and here, according to the prophecy, the crucifixion should have taken place; and here it must have taken place; for the scriptures can not be broken. But the compilers of the New Testament have given as the date of the crucifixion A. D. 33. And now our correspondent wants to know how to adjust these statements. If all were from the Bible, it would be difficult; but some of them being from men, they are easy to correct. The date of the baptism of Christ in A. D. 27, is correctly given in the margin of Mark 1:10; also the date of the martyrdom of Stephen, just previously to the conversion of Paul, is correctly given as A. D. 34, in the marginal chronology of Acts 8:1. The death of Stephen, and the soon-following conversion of the apostle Paul, and his dedication to the carrying of the gospel to the Gentiles, impressively signalized the end of the seventy weeks; and if the true date of the crucifixion had been given, as the others named were given, there would be no difficulty. Our correspondent says that if the expression “in the midst of the week,” may mean any time during the week, then it can be explained; but if not, he wishes the evidence that the crucifixion was in the spring of A. D. 31. The expression can not mean “any time during the week.” The prophetic periods are far more rigid than that. It must mean the exact middle. The trouble of our correspondent arises from his taking it for granted that the dates given in the marginal readings of the Gospels are all and always correct. This, unfortunately, is not the case. On this point we shall be allowed to transcribe a few paragraphs from the work, “Looking unto Jesus,” pages 191-193:— “The date which this gives for the crucifixion, A. D. 31, is confirmed by abundance of testimony. The crucifixion was attended by a preternatural darkening of the sun, for the space of three hours. Matt. 27:45. ‘A total eclipse of the moon may occasion a privation of her light for an hour and a half, during her total immersion in the shadow; whereas a total eclipse of the sun can never last, in any particular place, above four minutes, when the moon is nearest to the earth, and her shadow thickest.’—Hales, Vol. I, page 69. . . . 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, as 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 Cassiodorus Senator, about A. D. 514. ‘In the consulate of Tiberius Cæsar, August 5, and Ælius Sejanus (U. C. 784, A. D. 31), our Lord Jesus Christ suffered, 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 Alexandria Chronicle, Maximus Monachus, Nicephorus, Constantinus, Cedrenus; and in this year, but on different days, concur Eusebius, Epiphanius, followed by Kepler, Bucher, Patinus, and Petavius; some reckoning it the 10th of the Calends of April, others the 13th.”—Id., pages 69, 70. “The common Bible chronology, placing the crucifixion in A. D. 33, was, according to Dr. Hales, assumed on no earlier authority than that of Roger Bacon, in the thirteenth century, who, finding, by computation, that the paschal full moon fell on Friday, in the year 33, was led by that circumstance to suppose that that must have been the year of the crucifixion. But this very circumstance Dr. Hales claims as proof that that was not the year; for the true paschal full moon should come, not on the day of the crucifixion, but the day before, when Christ ate the passover with His disciples.” “We have thus thirteen credible authorities locating the crucifixion in the spring of A. D. 31. And all the evidence on this point tends also to establish the date of Christ’s baptism in the autumn of A. D. 27; for, according to the prophecy, the Messiah was to be cut off after three years and a half from the time of His manifestation; and, according to the evangelists, His ministry continued just that length of time, three years and a half. If, therefore, He was crucified in the spring of A. D. 31, He was baptized and commenced to preach three and a half years before, in the autumn of A. D. 27.” The answer to the query of our correspondent, then, is this; namely, the dating of the crucifixion in A. D. 33 is a mistake, made in the manner already stated. It is inconsistent with the other dates, which fact shows that it is wrong, and should be corrected. The crucifixion was in the spring of A. D. 31, exactly where the prophecy demands it; and this is sustained by a sufficient amount of unimpeachable testimony. Thus the whole argument for the 70 weeks and the 2300 days, and the conclusions upon which we rest concerning them, are as solid as a rock. U. S.