WE have learned the meaning of the symbols of the vision of Daniel 8. The two-horned ram represented Medo-Persia; the rough goat represented Grecia; the first notable horn of the goat represented Alexander the Great; the four horns represented the four divisions of Alexander's kingdom; the little horn, which "waxed exceeding great," represented the empire of Rome, beginning small, yet by craft and conquest extending its dominion throughout the world.
Rome did more than this: that power stood up against the Prince of princes, took away from Him the spiritual, continual service due Him, and by craft and subtlety and policy perverted God's truth and destroyed souls.
How long, one holy one asked another, should this work of perversion and iniquity and oppression go on, in which God's people should be persecuted and His truth and worship trodden down. And the holy one answered the prophet:
"Unto two thousand and three hundred evenings and mornings; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed." Dan. 8:14.
Then came he who in the courts of God is called Gabriel, commissioned of heaven to show Daniel, and us through Daniel, the vision. And Gabriel, faithful to his trust, declared to Daniel, what we have already learned, the meaning of the symbols. When this was accomplished, the angel left the prophet with this assurance, "The vision of the evenings and mornings which hath been told is true; but shut thou up the vision; for it belongeth to many days to come." Verse 26.
Daniel could at that time bear no more of the great revelation, and was "sick certain days." But he did not forget the vision. What of the vision of the mornings and evenings? What of the number of them—2,300? Altho for many days to come, what did they mean?
Prophetic Time.
The term evening and morning is a Hebrew term for a day. See the days of Genesis 1. So our Common Version renders, "two thousand and three hundred days," but leaves the expression in verse 26 so that the ordinary reader sees no direct and specific connection between verse 14 and 26. The latter specifically refers to the former.
These days are symbols of years. As God uses short-lived beasts to represent long-existing empires, so, in the same connection, He uses short periods of time to represent long periods. The prophetic law is clearly stated elsewhere by the Spirit, "a day for a year." See Eze. 4:4-6; Num. 14:34.
But where does this period begin? Where end? Daniel tells us that none understood the matter. Dan. 8:27. This, however, did not prevent him from exercising an eagerness to know. He seems to connect this period of time in some way with the return of his people from captivity as foretold by Jeremiah. A little from the time of the angels' visit, Belshazzar, the last of the Chaldean kings, had fallen, and a Mede, reigning by permission of Cyrus, the Persian had come to the throne of world-empire. But notwithstanding this sweeping revolution, in which Daniel so strongly figured, we find him a little later still seeking God in behalf of his people. He set his face to know God's will. By confession of sin and earnest supplication with fasting he sought God. A sample of his pleading is given in chapter 9, verses 3-19.
And God answers prayer. Even while Daniel was praying Gabriel comes again. That Daniel may know the object of his coming, he immediately reverts to the unexplained 2,300 days of the previous vision:
"O Daniel, I am now come forth to give thee wisdom and understanding; . . . therefore consider the matter, and understand the vision. Seventy weeks are decreed upon thy people."
Note the following facts: (1) The vision of chapter 8 includes certain symbols and a period of time; (2) Gabriel was commanded to explain the vision of chapter 8 to Daniel (8:16); (3) Gabriel explained the symbols (verses 17-25); (4) He did not explain the time; but declared that it was true, and that it referred to far future time (verse 26); (5) The reason why the angel could not explain it was doubtless because Daniel could not bear it (verse 27); (6) Gabriel therefore left an important part of the vision unexplained, and his commission of God unfulfilled; (7) Therefore at the first opportune time he returns to Daniel, tells him wherefore he had come, refers to the unexplained vision, and begins where he left off; namely, on the matter of the time.
"Seventy weeks are decreed upon thy people." Seventy weeks of what?—Evidently of the 2,300 days. The word "decreed" is in the common version "determined." The original word is chathak, the literal meaning of which, according to Gesenius, Strong, and others, is "cut off." "Seventy weeks are cut off upon thy people." Cut off from what?—The time of the vision, the 2,300 days.
The Seventy Weeks.
The Seventy Weeks or 490 Years of Dan. 9:24-27. 2,300 Days or Years of Dan. 8:14.
Seventy weeks of years are 490 years; and these years are allotted to the Jewish people. Read what those seventy weeks shall see:
"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 the end thereof 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 in the midst 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 full end, and that determined, shall wrath be poured out upon the desolate." Dan. 9:24-27.
1. Here are the events to occur, and their meaning: (1) "To finish transgression;" that the Jewish nation might fill up its cup of iniquity (Matt. 23:32; Luke 19:45, 46); (2) "To make an end of sins" in the perfect overcoming of Jesus Christ, who lived for all; (3) "To make reconciliation for iniquity" by His death upon the cross; (4) "To bring in everlasting righteousness" in the perfect character of Christ; (5) "To seal up vision and prophecy," the vision and prophecy made sure by the complete fulfilment of the seventy weeks; (6) "To anoint the Most Holy," either the anointing of Christ as He entered upon His everlasting priesthood (Heb. 2:9), or the anointing of the heavenly sanctuary, as in the type (Ex. 40:9-13), or both.
When the Days Began.
2. The days began from "the going forth of the commandment to restore and build Jerusalem." This was "the commandment of the God of Israel," carried out by the decrees of three kings, Cyrus, Darius, and Artaxerxes. Ezra 6:14. The decree of Cyrus did not meet God's commandment, for it had to do with the temple alone. Darius merely renewed the decree of Cyrus. But Artaxerxes Longimanus issued a decree given to us in the very language in which it was issued, which covered God's purpose. It embraced the temple building, and the restoration of the Jewish city and commonwealth, even to the trial of all cases and the execution of the death penalty. It is found in Ezra 7:12-26. This decree was given in the seventh year of Artaxerxes, who began his reign in B. C. 464. Seven from 464 is 457. The going forth of the commandment to restore and build Jerusalem occurred in B. C. 457.
3. From that date to the Anointed One—Messiah, for so the word means—shall be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks, aggregating sixty-nine weeks, or 483 years. From the autumn of B. C. 457 (for then the decree went into effect), 483 full years reach to 27 A. D. In that year Jesus was baptized, was anointed with the Holy Spirit, and entered upon His three and one-half years of earthly ministry. See Mark 1:15; Luke 4:18; Acts 10:38. When Jesus declared "the time is fulfilled," direct reference was made to Dan. 9:25. The seven weeks of the first part of the sixty-nine weeks were given to the building of the wall and the repairing of Jerusalem, which by Prideaux is fixed as closing in B. C. 408.
4. After the 483 years end, the Anointed One, the Messiah, shall be "cut off, and shall have nothing." Compare with Isa. 53:8; Matt. 26:53; John 1:11. This can refer to nothing but the crucifixion. Then He had no justice, and His very own forsook Him and fled. This event occurred, not in the middle of a week of days, but in the midst of this week of years. By His crucifixion He rendered nugatory the sacrifice and oblation of the earthly temple.
Jesus began His ministry in the autumn of A. D. 27. He attended four Passovers, John 2:13; 5:1, 6:4; 13:1. His first Passover occurred in the spring of A. D. 28; His second in the spring of 29; His third in the spring of 30; and His fourth in the spring of 31, at which He was crucified. The crucifixion is fixed by Dr. Hale's chronology in the spring of 31. During the first half of this week Jesus taught the principles of His covenant to the Hebrews. He confirmed the covenant by His death upon the cross, sealing its principles forever. His disciples for three and one-half years more taught these principles among the Hebrews. This brings us to A. D. 34, where the seventy weeks ended. Then the Jews rejected Christ again in the proto-martyr Stephen; Paul, the apostle to the Gentiles, was raised up the next year, and the Gospel message was speedily spread to the world.
5. In consequence of the rejection of Christ, the Jews were left to themselves. They had said, "His blood be upon us and upon our children;" "we have no king but Caesar." God gave them their choice and left them to the tender mercies of Caesar. Then "the people of the prince that shall come," the Romans, destroyed the city and the temple; and upon the flood-tide of that nation's iniquity came the utter destruction of the nation, the desolation of their land, and the scattering of the people.
6. Taking the seventy weeks from the 2,300 years, and there remains 1810. This added to A. D. 34 carries us to A. D. 1844, the time of the cleansing of the sanctuary, when Jesus shall close His priestly work.
The next paper will explain more fully what is meant by the cleansing of the sanctuary.
