p. 60 | The Sanctuary

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jul 21, 1863

The Sanctuary.

(Continued.)

FROM the opening of this chapter it is evident that Daniel had so far misunderstood the period of the 2300 days as to suppose that they terminated with the seventy years' captivity of his people, predicted by Jeremiah. He accordingly "set his face unto the Lord God," and sent forth his supplications that he would remember his promise, and cause his face to shine upon his sanctuary which was desolate. And God answered the prayer of the prophet, as he often answers the prayers of his people now, not by granting them their direct requests, but by giving them something else which he sees it is better for them to have. So he answered Daniel, not by fulfilling his request, but by correcting the misapprehension upon which it was founded. In the very midst of his supplications, suddenly a divine personage stands before him. "Gabriel," is the joyful exclamation of Daniel, "whom I had seen in the vision at the beginning, being caused to fly swiftly, touched me about the time of the evening oblation." Upon what errand had he come? "I am now come forth," says he, "to give thee skill and understanding." Understanding on what? That on which Daniel was evidently coming to wrong conclusions; that part of the "vision" seen "at the beginning," which he did not understand, but which of course Gabriel had been commanded to make him understand. And what was that? The period of time mentioned in that vision, and that only; for all else had been definitely explained. And how does he proceed to explain this point? He does it as follows: "Understand the matter, and consider the vision: Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people, and upon thy holy city." The word here rendered, determined, (chathak) signifies, literally, cut off. Gesenius in his Hebrew Lexicon defines it thus: "Properly, to cut off; tropically, to divide; and so, to determine, to decree." The earliest versions, the Septuagint and Vulgate, give the single signification of "cutting off" to this verb.

Mark now the lines of thought by which these two visions of Dan. viii, and ix, are inseparably interwoven:

1. Reference is made in chap. ix to the "vision at the beginning," in which Gabriel appeared to the prophet. This must refer to the vision of chap. viii, as that is the only previous vision in which that angel is said to have been present.

2. Gabriel was seen in the former vision: the same person appears again and cites the mind of the prophet back to that vision.

3. Gabriel was commanded in chap. viii, to make Daniel understand the vision. Daniel declared at the close of the chapter that he did not understand it; but says Gabriel in chap. ix, "I am now come forth to give thee skill and understanding. Understand the matter and consider the vision."

4. The point which was omitted in chap. viii, was time; all else was fully explained; and hence the angel in giving Daniel further understanding, as recorded in chap. ix, takes up that point, and that only: "Seventy weeks are determined" (cut off) &c.

5. Seventy weeks are said to be cut off from something; but there is no period given from which they can be taken, but the 2300 days of chap. viii. The seventy weeks must therefore be the first part of the 2300 days, and the date of these weeks must determine the date of those days. To deny this is to lay the word of God open to the serious imputation of gravely telling us that a certain period of time is cut off, but giving nothing from which it can be taken, and also of informing us that momentous events are to transpire at the end of 2300 days, but furnishing no conceivable point from which to date them.

In view of this conclusive testimony that the seventy weeks are a part of the 2300 days, is it strange that strong confidence should have existed on this point? As specimens of the noble utterances of the advocates of truth, touching this subject, irrefutable when uttered, and as good to-day as they were then, we present the following:

"We call attention to one fact which shows that there is a necessary 'connection' between the seventy weeks of the ninth chapter, and something else which precedes or follows it, called 'the vision.' It is found in the 24th verse: 'Seventy weeks are determined, or cut off, upon thy people . . . to seal up the vision,' &c. Now there are but two significations to the phrase 'seal up.' They are, first, 'to make secret,' and second, 'to make sure.' We care not now in which of these significations the phrase is supposed to be used. That is not the point now before us. Let the signification be what it may, it shows that the prediction of the seventy weeks necessarily relates to something else beyond itself, called 'the vision,' in reference to which it performs this work, 'to seal up.' To talk of its sealing up itself is as much of an absurdity as to suppose that Josephus was so much afraid of the Romans that he refrained from telling the world that he thought the fourth kingdom of Daniel was 'the kingdom of the Greeks.' It is no more proper to say that the ninth chapter of Daniel 'is complete in itself,' than it would be to say that a map which was designed to show the relation of Massachusetts to the United States, referred to nothing but Massachusetts. It is no more complete in itself than a bond given in security for a note, or some other document to which it refers, is complete in itself; and we doubt if there is a school-boy of fourteen in the land, of ordinary capacity, who would not on reading the ninth chapter, with an understanding of the clause before us decide that it referred to something distinct from itself, called the vision. What vision it is, there is no difficulty in determining. It naturally and obviously refers to the vision which was not fully explained to Daniel, and to which Gabriel calls his attention in the preceding verse—the vision of the 8th chapter. Daniel tells us that Gabriel was commanded to make him understand that vision (viii, 16). This was not fully done at that interview connected with the vision; he is therefore sent to give Daniel the needed 'skill and understanding,' to explain its 'meaning' by communicating to him the prediction of the seventy weeks." Advent Shield, 1844.

"We claim that the ninth of Daniel is an appendix to the eighth, and that the seventy weeks and the 2300 days or years commence together. Our opponents deny this." Signs of the Times, 1843.

"The grand principle involved in the interpretation of the 2300 days of Dan. viii, 14, is that the seventy weeks of Dan. ix, 24, are the first 490 days of the 2300 of the eighth chapter." Advent Shield, p. 49.

"If the connection between the seventy weeks of Dan. ix, and the 2300 days of Dan. viii, does not exist, the whole system is shaken to its foundation; if it does exist, as we suppose, the system must stand." Harmony of the Prophetic Chronology, p. 38.

Says the learned Dr. Hales, in commenting upon the seventy weeks, "This chronological prophecy was evidently designed to explain the foregoing vision, especially in its chronological part of the 2300 days."

What need we say more? The arguments which show the seventy weeks to be a part of the 2300 days, are all iron-clad and invulnerable. We may consider this question decided, and hereafter appeal to this decision as authoritative.

The following points, then, are now established: 1. That the seventy weeks are a part of the 2300 days. 2. That they are cut off from that period. 3. That consequently they are the first part of those days; and 4. That from the date of the seventy weeks, the 2300 days are to be reckoned. Hence they who have taken the position that the seventy weeks are no part of the 2300 days, have abandoned truth for error, and have taken ground that is untenable.

2. The inquiry now follows, Are those correct who remove the date of the seventy weeks from B. C. 457? The data which the Bible furnishes on this point are found in the further instruction of the angel to Daniel. After telling him that seventy weeks are cut off, and allotted to his people and their holy city, he speaks as follows: "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 three-score and two weeks: the street shall be built again and the wall even in troublous times. And after three-score 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 and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined. And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week; and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and oblation to cease." Dan. ix, 25-27.

Seventy weeks contain 490 days. But before proceeding to an application of this prophecy, a word may be necessary relative to the nature of the time here introduced: is it literal or symbolic?

1. It is a fact that 2300 literal days (but little over six years) would not cover the duration of a single power in this prophecy, much less extend over them all. Therefore the days must be symbols, even as the beasts and horns are shown to be symbols.

2. It is a fact that a symbolic or prophetic day, is one year. Eze. iv, 5, 6; Num. xiv, 34. Hence the 2300 days denote 2300 years; and the seventy weeks, or 490 days, 490 years.

3. The fact that the seventy weeks, as all admit, were fulfilled in 490 years, is a demonstration of this theory.

The seventy weeks were to date from the commandment to restore and build Jerusalem, and we have thus only to find that commandment, to ascertain their starting-point. But the prophecy is still more definite than this; for it gives us also the events which mark their termination. Sixty-nine of the seventy weeks were to extend to the Messiah the Prince, or, to the commencement of our Lord's ministry upon the earth. During the seventieth week he was to confirm the covenant with many. In the midst, or middle, of that week, he was to be cut off, and cause the sacrifice and oblation to cease; which can refer to nothing else but his crucifixion. The seventy weeks then must be so dated as to bring the commencement of Christ's public ministry, and his crucifixion at the commencement and middle, respectively, of the last week. And taking the widest difference of opinion there is only a variation of a few years involved in the question respecting the date of the crucifixion of Christ; so there can justly be but little difference as to the date from which the seventy weeks should be reckoned. And this whole question might be left to an argument on this point, since this has as much bearing upon the question at issue, as even the commandment itself from which it is to date.

But it is not difficult to find the commandment to restore Jerusalem, a commandment, too, which went forth at the precise time to make the prophecy perfectly harmonize throughout.

There are but four events which can be taken as answering to the commandment to restore and build Jerusalem. These are, 1. The decree of Cyrus for the re-building of the house of God, B. c., 536. 2. The decree of Darius for the prosecution of that work which had been hindered, B. c. 519. 3. The decree of Artaxerxes to Ezra, B. c. 457, Ez. vii, and 4. The commission to Nehemiah from the same king in his twentieth year, B. c. 444, Neh. ii.

Dating from the first two of these decrees, the seventy weeks would fall many years short of reaching even to the Christian era; besides, they had reference principally to the restoration of the temple and the temple-worship, of the Jews, and not to the restoration of their civil state and polity, all of which must be intended by the expression, "to restore and to build Jerusalem." Thus failing to answer to the prophecy in any respect, these two decrees have never been brought into the controversy. The only question lies between the decrees which were granted to Ezra and to Nehemiah.

(To be Continued.)