In our past examination of this prophecy, we have learned that the seventy weeks, and consequently the 2,300 days, or years, of this chapter date from B. C. 457. We now propose to examine briefly the dates of the several events which, according to the prophecy, were to fall within the first part of the 2,300 years, namely, within the seventy weeks. These events are thus enumerated in the prophecy: "Seventy weeks are determined [cut off] upon thy people, and the city of thy sanctuary; that sin may be restrained, and transgressions have an end; that iniquity may be expiated, and an everlasting righteousness brought in; that visions and prophecies may be sealed up, and the holy of holies anointed. Know therefore and understand: From the edict which shall be promulgated, to return and rebuild Jerusalem, there shall be seven weeks. Then it shall be fully rebuilt, with anxiety in difficult times. Thence, to the Prince Messiah, there shall be sixty-two weeks. And after sixty-two weeks the Messiah shall be slain and have no justice. Afterwards he shall waste the city and the sanctuary by the prince that is to come. And his end shall be in straits; and to the end of the war desolation is appointed. And for one week he shall confirm a covenant with many; and in the middle of the week he shall abrogate sacrifice and offering; and in the temple there shall be the abomination of desolation, until the ruin which is decreed rush on after the desolation." Dan. 8:25-27, Houbigant's Translation. As before stated, we have already learned that the edict to restore and to build Jerusalem was promulgated B. C. 457. Seven weeks, or forty-nine years, from this time, namely, B. C. 408, was marked by the restoration of the street and wall of Jerusalem. Prideaux shows conclusively that this work was completed in that year, which was the fifteenth of Darius Nothus; and that the wall was built "in troublous times" appears from the fourth chapter of Nehemiah. Referring to the restoration, which, according to Prideaux, occurred in 408, the Scripture says: "Thence, to the Prince Messiah, there shall be sixty-two weeks," or four hundred and eighty-three years from B. C. 457, the starting-point. Messiah and Christ mean "anointed" (see margin of John 1:41); and that the anointing of Jesus was at his baptism, which occurred in A. D. 27, we learn from Luke 4:18; Acts 10:30; Matt. 3:16. Before this time Jesus was not the anointed, but immediately after the descent of the Spirit at his baptism, and the forty days' temptation which followed it, we find him entering upon his public ministry, and upon the occasion of his first visit to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, he read and applied to himself the scripture which said: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor." Luke 4:18. Reference is also made to the same fact in Acts 10:38 and Matt. 3:16, previously referred to. After the beginning of Christ's ministry, one week, or seven years, of the seventy weeks, or four hundred and ninety years, still remained. Of this week the prophecy said: "And for one week he shall confirm the covenant with many; and in the middle of the week he shall abrogate the sacrifice and offering." The latter he did by the offering of himself, as is expressed in the preceding verse: "And after sixty and two weeks the Messiah shall be slain and have no justice." This, as all know, was literally fulfilled in the trial and crucifixion of Christ. Three years and a half from A. D. 27 carry us to the spring of A. D. 31, the time when, according to the best authorities, our Lord was crucified. Then the veil of the temple was rent in twain, signifying that the earthly sanctuary was no longer a holy place, and though sacrifices continued to be offered by those who had rejected the Saviour, they were without signification. The covenant referred to is of course the new covenant; its terms were preached for three and one-half years by the Lord himself, and by those whom he sent out; it was then sealed by his blood, and during the latter half of the seventieth week it was further confirmed to the Jews by those immediately commissioned by Christ, the Mediator of the covenant. Or, more properly speaking, it was confirmed by the Lord through his apostles. This is the idea conveyed by Mark 16:20, where we read of the apostles that "they went forth, and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them, and confirming the word with signs following." The end of the seventy weeks, or four hundred and ninety years, brings us to A. D. 34, about which time the apostles turned from the Jews to the Gentiles. Upon this point Doctor Hales says:— "Eusebius dates the first half of the passion week of years as beginning with our Lord's baptism, and ending with his crucifixion. The same period precisely is recorded by Peter, as including the duration of our Lord's personal ministry: 'All the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, beginning from the baptism of [or by] John, until the day that he was taken up from us,' at his ascension, which was only forty-three days after the crucifixion. Acts 1:21, 22. And the remaining half of the passion170week ended with the martyrdom of Stephen, in the seventh, or last, year of the week. For it is remarkable that the year after, A. D. 35, began a new era in the church, namely, the conversion of Saul, or Paul, the apostle, by the personal appearance of Christ to him on the road to Damascus, when he received his mission to the Gentiles, after the Jewish Sanhedrim had formally rejected Christ by persecuting his disciples. Acts 9:1-18."—Hales' Chronology, Vol. 1, page 100. Thus it appears from our very brief consideration of the eighth and a portion of the ninth of Daniel, that the prophecy concerning the seventy weeks is one of the most remarkable ever given. It not only made known the fact that Christ should die, but it also gave the very time of his anointing, the length of his personal ministry, the date of his crucifixion, and the length of time that his immediate followers should confine their preaching to the Jews. That all these things were fulfilled in the manner indicated and at the very time foretold, is an unanswerable argument that Jesus was the Messiah, and that the Scriptures are divinely inspired. Infidels have recognized this fact and have sought to show that the book of Daniel was written after the events took place which it professed to foretell, but Sir Henry Rawlinson has proved beyond a doubt that the prophecy of Daniel could have been written only at the time that it professes to have been written, namely, in the latter part of the Babylonian Empire and early in the Medo-Persian. Intelligent skeptics have ceased to deny this. The remainder of the 2,300 years, and the events connected therewith, must be left for another article.