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INTERNATIONAL SERIES

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Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Jul 17, 1901

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 27, No. 29.

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INTERNATIONAL SERIES

THE SABBATH SCHOOL

LESSON IV.—JULY 27.—THE TWENTY-THREE HUNDRED DAYS.

[Note to the Student.—These lessons are not designed to be exhaustive, but suggestive. In references to the “Desire of Ages,” in the lessons, the subscription edition is referred to. Those who have only the trade edition will find the matter in chapters 1, 4, 11, 27, 71, 77, 78; also read “Patriarchs and Prophets,” chapters 5 and 30. “Christ Our Advocate,” Bible Students’ Library No. 129 (price, 10 cents), and “Looking unto Jesus” (price, $1.00) will be found a great help. The SIGNS OF THE TIMES will have an article on the subject of each lesson this quarter by J. Q. Corliss. Read these articles in connection with the study of the lesson. We have not space to print all the scriptures. Let the student study them carefully from the Bible. Those printed are from the Revised Version.]

Dan. 9: 24-27.

24 “Seventy weeks are decreed upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most holy. Know therefore and discern, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the anointed One, the Prince, shall be seven weeks; and threescore and two weeks, it shall be built again, with street and moat, even in troublous times. And after the threescore and two weeks shall the anointed one be cut off, and shall have nothing; and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and his end shall be with a flood, and even unto the end shall be war; desolations are determined. And He shall make a firm covenant with many for one week; and for the half of the week He shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease; and upon the wing of abominations shall come one that maketh desolate; and even unto the consummation, and that determined, shall wrath be poured out upon the desolator.”

Ezra 7: 8, 12, 13.

8 “And he came to Jerusalem in the fifth month, which was in the seventh year of the king.”
12 “Artaxerxes, king of kings, unto Ezra the priest, the scribe 13 of the law of the God of heaven, perfect and so forth. I make a decree, that all they of the people of Israel, and their priests and the Levites, in my realm, which are minded of their own free will to go to Jerusalem, go with thee.”

Acts 8: 3-5.

3 “But Saul laid waste the church, entering into every house, 4 and hailing men and women committed them to prison. They therefore that were scattered abroad went about preaching 5 the Word. And Philip went down to the city of Samaria, and proclaimed unto them the Christ.”

SUGGESTIVE QUESTIONS.

  1. With what words does Gabriel begin his instruction? Dan. 9:24.
  2. What is the meaning of the word “determined”? Note 1.
  3. Upon whom were they cut off? What was to be accomplished during that time? Verse 24.
  4. When were the 70 weeks (490 years) to begin? Verse 25.
  5. When did the commandment go forth to restore and rebuild Jerusalem? Ezra 7: 8, 12, 13. Note 2.
  6. To what event were 69 of the 70 weeks to reach?
  7. What does Messiah mean? Ans.—“Anointed.” John 1:41, margin.
  8. How and when was Jesus anointed? Ans.—At His baptism. See Acts 10:38; Luke 3:21, 22. See date in margin.
  9. At what time, then, would the 69 weeks (483 years) end? Note 3.
  10. How many weeks are left when we reach “Messiah the Prince”? What was to be done during that one week? What was to take place in the midst of the week? Dan. 9:27. Note 4.
  11. What took place in A.D. 34, at the close of the 70 weeks (490 years)? Acts 8:3-5. See date in margin. Note 5.
  12. Seventy weeks (490 years) of the 2300 end in the autumn of A.D. 34. How many years are still left? Ans.—2300—490 equal 1810.
  13. To what point of time are we brought by adding 1810 years to the date when the 490 years ended? Ans.—1810 added to 34, autumn, brings us to the autumn of 1844, or the ending of the 2300 days.
  14. What was to take place at the end of the 2300 days? Ans.—“Then shall the sanctuary be cleansed” (margin “justified”). Dan. 8:14.
  15. Then when did Christ go into the most holy place to begin the work of cleansing the sanctuary?

NOTES.

1. The first definition of “determine” given by Webster is “to fix the boundaries of; to mark off or separate.” Thus the 70 weeks fixed the boundaries of the special work for the Jewish people. It ended with that period. The 70 weeks were also marked off or separated from the 2300 days, and they fixed the boundaries of that period by showing when it commenced, and by giving intermediate dates during the period which would test the accuracy of every exposition of it. Gesenius, in his Hebrew Lexicon, says that the word translated “determined” means “cut off.” As no other period was mentioned in the vision except the 2300 days, it must have been “cut off,” or “marked off,” from that period.
2. Artaxerxes began to reign B.C. 464. See Smith’s “Comprehensive Dictionary,” article “Artaxerxes.” The seventh year of his reign would be 457 B.C. See date in margin of Ezra 7, and “Christ Our Advocate,” page 59.
3. The prophecy indicates that 7 weeks, or 49 years, would be allotted to the building of Jerusalem. Hence the commandment could scarcely be said to “go forth” until the building was actually commenced; therefore, as Ezra and the Jews with him did not arrive till the fifth month, half of the year 457 had elapsed before the decree “went forth.” There would, therefore, be only 456½ years to A.D. 1. And as only about 6 months of the year 27 A.D. were passed when Christ was anointed, we can count only 26½ years to His baptism, when He was called the Messiah. Thus, adding the 456½ B.C. to 26½ A.D., we have just the 69 weeks, or 483 years, from the “going forth of the commandment” “to Messiah the Prince.”
4. Christ attended four Passovers, as recorded. John 2:13; 5:1; 6:4; 12:1. As He began His public ministry in the autumn of A.D. 27, the first Passover would be six months later, that is, in the spring of A.D. 28. His second Passover would be in the spring of 29; the third, in the spring of 30. At His fourth Passover, in the spring of A.D. 31, He was crucified “in the midst of the week.” After confirming the new covenant with the Jews for three years and a half, He, by virtue of His death, caused the sacrifices to cease. And during the remaining three and a half years of the seventieth week the covenant was confirmed with the Jews by the apostles. Heb. 2:3. The end of this time brings us to A.D. 34, when the Gospel began to go to the Gentiles.
5. Soon after this, Paul, the great apostle to the Gentiles, was converted, and we hear him saying to the Jews, “It was necessary that the Word of God should first have been spoken to you; but seeing ye put it from you, and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, lo, we turn to the Gentiles.” Acts 13:46.