If the finished seventh year of his reign was to bring the fulfilment of the prophecies, the seventy year-weeks might be reckoned back from this year to the beginning of the Captivity, by reckoning twice over the almost exact seven year-weeks to the Edict of Cyrus. But putting aside this unjustifiable double reckoning, the third year of Cyrus was B.C. 536-535; therefore, since the year of the prophecy, whether 609 or 604, not seventy, but seventy-three or sixty-eight years had elapsed. The certainly unhistorical calculation which the 9th chapter in the Book of Daniel seems to have had in view was the following: The real Captivity in Babylon 7 year-weeks, or 49 years 434 66 1 This interpretation is in harmony with the explanation of the image with feet partly of iron (Syria), partly of clay (Egypt), that is, Alexander and successors; with the vision of the four beasts, of which the fourth is described like to that of the second beast in the following chapter, which here is the King of Grecia." The ten horns refer to the ten Seleucidian kings, the little horn is Antiochus Epiphanes, and the three horns which were "plucked out by the roots" through his rising are perhaps Seleucus IV., Philopater (murdered 176), then his son Demetrius (kept as hostage in Rome, and apparently lost to his country), finally the king-murderer Heliodorus. The saints will be given into his hands for three and a half years, corresponding with the 1150 days during which the morning and evening sacrifice was prevented 3500 times. When it had turned out that neither Mattathias nor his successors could be regarded as Irrespectively of the chronological impossibilities of regarding the seventy year-weeks in the Book of Daniel as a prophecy on Christ, such an interpretation is met by other serious difficulties. In order to keep up the assertion that the 9th chapter of the Book of Daniel contains a prophetic reference to the crucifixion-year of Jesus Christ, it would first be necessary to substantiate the supposition that Esra's embassy in the seventh year of 'Artaxerxes" must necessarily be referred to Artaxerxes Longimanus, and not to the "Darius" or "Artaxerxes" Hystaspes. This king, like Cyrus, could bear different titles. Josephus writes' that the Greeks called Cyrus " Artaxerxes," and Assyriologists have proved that this word, in the form arta-kshershé, means "the great king.' Artaxerxes could therefore have been the title as of Cyrus so of Hystaspes. He was called "Darius," or Daryavush, the Tariyavaus of inscriptions, that is, the "holder' or "possessor," the ruler, and also Ahasuerus or Achashverosh (Kshah, Shah), with the meaning "strong king." The Book of Esther testifies that Darius-Hystaspes was known under the name Ahasuerus, for Hadassah is Atossa, and no other king has ever ruled "from India to Ethiopia." It seems introducers of Messianic times, the Roman empire was explained as the fourth beast of the vision, and Nero as antitype of Antiochus Epiphanes. 1 "Ant.," xi. 6. 2 Hadassah's predecessor (Esther ii. 7, 17) was Vashti, or "wife of Vash" (Baal-ti, wife of Baal), that is, of Vashtaspa, literally "the possessor of the horse," a name which may have caused the legend of the victorious horse. to follow from this that the 6th and 7th chapters in Esra refer to uninterrupted events of the sixth and seventh year of the same king, so that Esra's embassy, probably caused by the Purim-massacre, took place in B.C. 515, not fifty-seven years later, as if Esra had lived under King Artaxerxes Longimanus.1 Esra's embassy has taken place fifty-seven years before the seventh year of Longimanus (458-457), that is, in the seventh year of Darius, B.C. 515. Believing in the prophetic meaning of the seventy weeks, the 490 years have by some been reckoned from B.C. 457, and thus the crucifixion-year of Jesus has been reached, A.D. 33. This is below all criticism. But also on this supposition, which is contrary to every possible explanation of the text, Esra ought to have been ordered "to restore and to build Jerusalem." Of this nothing is said, and on the contrary we assert that Esra's mission led to the partial destruction of this city. According to Josephus, Bagoses was a general of "Artaxerxes," " we interpret of Hystaspes; he led his army from Samaria to Jerusalem, and punished the Jews for the murder of Joshua in the temple, by imposing on them a tribute for seven years. To this event To the year of Esra's embassy, B.C. 515, refers the fifth vision of Zechariah on the roll containing the curse against the land, and on the ephah with the woman being removed to the land of Shinar, where a house would be built for her (the temple at Gerizzim ?). This refers to the principal incident during Esra's mission, the banishment of the Jews who had married Samaritan women. "Ant.," xi. 7. we refer the complaint of Hanani to Nehemiahı, that the remnant of Israel were "in great affliction and reproach, the wall of Jerusalem broken down, and the gates thereof burned with fire."1 This attack of Jerusalem by Bagoses, which explains Hanani's report, we consider to have taken place in the first and probably last year of Esra's governorship, possibly in the year of his death, since his journal abruptly closes. Nehemiah was governor from 502-490, when the battle of Marathon caused his return. We believe to have proved that the sixty-two weeks or 434 years began in the fourth year of Jehoiakim, B.C. 609, and that this so-called prophecy reached to the accession of Antiochus Epiphanes, B.C. 175. The great Danielic vision of one like a son of man refers only to the elevation of the Messiah, not to a second personal advent of the same, but to the time still to come, when "all peoples, nations and tongues" shall serve the risen. Son of man. "The Son of man whom God hath "made strong unto himself," the man of His right hand, the representative of Israel and "the saints of the Most High," the bringer of salvation which comes from the Jews, will then (in the time of Elias ?) gather in heaven the harvest of the earth. We do not require the Book of Daniel, first mentioned about fifty years after Antiochus Epiphanes,3 in order to establish the دو historical fact that, in harmony with Jewish expectations and with announcements in the Old Testament, Jesus of Nazareth has regarded himself as "the Son of man" or Messiah, though he forbade his disciples to proclaim him as such, apparently because of the mysterious relation of Elias to the Messianic kingdom, which began with Jesus. RESULT. An astrological symbolism forms the foundation of the first Messianic prophecy recorded in the Bible, as also of the fulfilment of the same described in the Revelation of John. The head of the sign of Virgo aims at the head of the constellation of the Serpent, which aims at the heel of the woman, in the most exact harmony with the statement in Genesis according to the reading of the Vulgate. The same symbolism has been used by the author of the Apocalypse for describing the persecution of the woman and her child by "the old serpent." Putting aside those Messianically interpreted passages in the Bible which stand in connection with astrological symbolism, only such passages can be referred to the person of the Messiah and his kingdom which point to the bringer of the promised new and spiritual covenant, to the messenger of the covenant, from whom Malachi distinguishes the still future prophet Elias. To the greatest of all Messianic prophecies, the Danielic vision of the Son of man raised to God, |