HORAE
APOCALYPTICAE,
OR
A
COMMENTARY ON THE APOCALYPSE,
CRITICAL
AND HISTORICAL;
INCLUDING ALSO AN EXAMINATION OF
THE CHIEF PROPHECIES OF DANIEL.
ILLUSTRATED
BY AN APOCALYPTIC CHART, AND SUNDRY
ENGRAVINGS
FROM MEDALS AND OTHER EXTANT
MONUMENTS
OF ANTIQUITY.
BY
THE REV. E. B. ELLIOTT, A. M.
LATE VICAR OF TUXFORD, AND FELLOW OF
TRINITY COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE.
VOL.
III.
"Blessed
is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep
those
things which are written therein: for the time is at hand." Rev. 1:3
SEELEY, BURNSIDE, AND SEELEY,
FLEET STREET, LONDON.
MDCCCXLIV.
1844
HA1420
CHAPTER
VII: CONCLUSION
In the
arrangement of the great calendar of prophecy, and the adjustment of our own
position on it, whether nearer to the final end or less near, it is evident
that the chronological predictions (I
mean those which involve chronological periods) must needs demand our most
particular attention. -- First and foremost in importance is the memorable
prophecy of the 1260 years of the Beast or Antichrist, six times repeated in
the Apocalyptic vision, and three in Daniel. It comprehends the Beast's reign,
in recognized supremacy over the Roman
HA1421
Empire, in
its last divided and apostatized state; or rather the reign of the Beast's last
Head, Antichrist. And we have seen that by that grand illustrative event of our
latter day, the French Revolution,
the commencement and end of the period (at least its primary commencement and end) have been fixed on, I think, almost
decisive evidence at about the years A.D. 530 and 1790 respectively: the one
the epoch of Justinian's Decree and Code, recognizing the Pope's supremacy as
Christ's pretended Vicar or Antichrist; {1} the other that of the French
revolutionary outbreak and code, giving to the Pope's supremacy and power a
deadly blow through Western Christendom: {2} the interval between them being
just 1260 years. We also saw that in one of his prophecies Daniel appended to
what seemed to be the same identical period, yet a further addition of thirty, and forty-five, or conjointly of seventy-five
years, as still to intervene before the times of blessedness: {3} so fixing the
year 1865, or thereabouts, as the probable epoch of the consummation. -- Now
what I here wish to set before the reader, with a view to his seeing the
strength of the corroborative evidence hence arising, on the point in question,
is the probable convergency within this
same seventy-five years' interval of the terminating epochs of almost every
other chronological scripture-prophecy, or preintimation, that has reference to
the time of the end. Thus 1st, when
our progressing mundane chronology reaches the thirtieth year beyond A.D. 1790,
it meets the end {4} of the long line of 2300 years in one of Daniel's visions,
calculated from the epoch of the emblematic Persian ram's acme of conquering
power, and which was to mark the destined epoch of the fall of the Turkman
empire: -- 2. when it reaches yet forty-five
years further, i. e. at the epoch of about A.D. 1865, it meets the secondary
terminating epoch of the 1260 years, calculated from that which may be deemed a
secondary commencement of them in the
-----------------------------------------
{1} See pp.
1009, 1010, with the references there given.
{2} See pp.
1098-1110 supra.
{3} See pp.
1343-1346 supra.
{4} See pp.
1138-1142.
HA1422
Popedom-favoring
Decree of Phocas. {1} These concurrences, as having been previously discussed,
need but a cursory re-mentioning. -- 3. The third
synchronism that I have to notice, and which will detain us longer, is that of
the probable termination of the world's 6000th year, dated from the Creation,
just at about the same interval of seventy-five
years from the year 1790 of our aera: in other words, the concurrence at that
chronological point of the opening epoch of the world's seventh millenary, and
therefore (as would seem probable) of that of the sabbatism of rest promised to the saints of God.
For, as I
have just hinted in the preceding chapter, {2} the apostle Paul's use of the
word σαΡ9ατωμος,
sabbatism, to designate the saints' expected
glorious rest with Christ, may be
reasonably considered as almost an apostolic recognition of the early and
well-known Jewish {3} opinion that Messiah's kingdom of blessedness would
occupy the seventh millennium of the world, agreeably with the type of the
seventh day's sabbatism of rest after the six days of creation: especially
seeing that it was
-----------------------------------------
{1} See pp.
1011-1013.
{2} p. 1388.
{3} So the
Rabbi Eliezer, cap. xviii. p. 41, as Whitby on Heb. Iv:9, quotes him: "The
blessed Lord created seven worlds (i. e. αιαναs, ages;)
but one of them is all sabbath, and
rest in life eternal." "Where," adds Dr. Whitby, "he refers
to their (the Jews) common opinion that the world should continue 6000 years,
and then a perpetual sabbath begin, typified by God's resting the seventh day,
and blessing it." -- For perpetual,
Whitby should have perhaps said a millennial
sabbath; it being αιωνιυs
in the sense in which the αιαναes, or ages, before mentioned, were each millennial. So in the Midras Till. p. 4,
the same Rabbi Eliezer says, "The days of Messiah are 1000 years." --
And so too Bereschith Rabba, quoted also by Whitby; "If we expound the
seventh day of the seventh thousand years, which is the world to come, the exposition is, 'He blessed it,' because that in
the seventh thousand all souls shall be bound up in the bundle of life. So our
Rabbins of blessed memory have said in their Commentaries on, 'God blessed the
seventh day,' the Holy Ghost blessed the world
to come, which beginneth in the seventh
thousand of years." -- Whitby also adds that Philo is copious on the
same subject; stating that the sabbaths
of the law were allegories, or figurative expressions. With which view
we may compare St. Paul's declaration in Col. ii:16-17, " in respect of
the Sabbath-days, which are a shadow of things to come," σκια των
μελλοντων.
The general
opinion of the Jews was, that the world was to be 2000 years without the law, 2000 under the law, and
2000 under the Messiah. This is still called by the Jews "a tradition of the house of Elias,"
an eminent Rabbi that lived before the birth of Christ: who also taught that in
the seventh millenary, the earth
would be renewed, and the righteous dead raised, no more again to be turned to
dust: also that the just then alive should mount up with wings as eagles; so
that in that day they would not need to fear, though the mountains (Psalm
xlvi:2) should be cast into the midst of the sea. Mede, Book iv, p. 951.
HA1423
Hebrew Christians whom he was then addressing; -- and that by them
the word thus chosen could not but be almost necessarily associated, alike from
its etymology and use, with some chronological septenary. {1} In fact among the
Christian fathers that succeeded on the apostolic age, this view of the matter
was universally received and promulgated. {2} -- Which being so, the
chronological question on which I have now to enter, becomes one of really
important bearing on the point in hand; I mean the question, what the world's present age, dated from
Adam's creation, and when the termination
of its sixth millenary. Nor is there wanting the evidence requisite for our
attaining a near approximation, to this notable epoch. Mr. Clinton, in his
Essay on Hebrew Chronology, appended to the third volume of his late learned
Work entitled Fasti Hellenici, has
greatly elucidated the subject. Setting aside the many mundane chronologies,
such as Hales has enumerated, based (if such a word may be used) on the
baseless foundation of authorities that altogether lack authority, our only
real appeal is to Scripture. -- And here, on the great primary disputed
question of the Patriarchal chronologies,
and whether it be the Hebrew text
with its shorter chronology, that has
-----------------------------------------
{1} Insomuch
that, as Schleusner observes on the; word Xαββατσν, the Septuagint translators sometimes render the word 1'1=0
by
έβδομαs.--It is a word applied to the seventh
year of rest in the Mosaic law, as well as to the seventh day of rest. See Lev.
xxv:4, &c.
{2} So, for
example, Ireneaus, at the end of his fifth Book: "Quotquot diebus hic
factus est mundus, toi et millenis annis consummatur. Et propter hoc ait
Scriptura, Consummavit Deus die sexto omnia opera sua quae fecit, et requievit
in die septimo. Hoc autem est et antefactorum narratio, quemadmodum facta sunt,
et futurorum prophetia. Si etenim Dies Domini quasi mille anni (2 Peter 3:8),
in sex autem diebus consummata sunt quae facta sunt, manifestum est quoniam
consummatio ipsorum sextus millesimus annus est." He adds presently after, that the
destruction of Antichrist was to introduce to the saints the "regni
tempora, hoc est requietionem, septimam diem sanctificatum."
Similarly the
pseudo-Barnabas, a very ancient though Apocryphal writer: "Consider, my
children, what that signifies, He finished them in six days. The meaning is,
that in 6000 years the Lord will bring all things to an end," &c.
The same
expectation as to the six days of creation typifying 6000 years, as the term of
the present world's duration, continued, as we have seen, (see p. 230, &c,
supra) even among the anti-premillennarian fathers of the fourth and fifth
centuries. Only they explained the sabbatical seventh day as typical, not of a
seventh sabbatical Millennium of rest, but an eternal Sabbath: -- a view
generally adopted afterwards.
HA1424
by fraud been
robbed of eleven centuries, or the Septuagint with its longer, that has had
them fraudulently added, {1} (for that the difference is the result of design
is a thing evident, and long since noted by Augustine, {2} ) the answer seems
on every account to be in favor of the Hebrew text: -- considering first, the superior reverence and almost
superstitious care with which the Hebrew text was watched over, as compared
with the Septuagint; {3} -- next, the wonderful uniformity of the numerals of
the Hebrew text, in all its multitudes of manuscripts existing in different
parts of the world, contrasted with the varieties and uncertainty of the
numerals in the Septuagint and Samaritan; {4} -- considering
-----------------------------------------
{1} The
following tabular schemes exhibit the variations; the numbers expressing the
parent's age at the son's birth, except In the cases of Noah and Shem.
Antideluvian Patriarchs. Postdiluvian Patriarchs.
\-
ANTIDELUVIAN PATRIARCHS
Hebr. Samr.
lxx. Joseph.
1. Adam ............. 130 130 230
230
2. Seth ............. 105
105 205 205
3. Enos
............. 90 90
190 190
4. Cainan
........... 70 70
170 170
5. Mahalaleel ....... 65
65 163 165
8. Jared ............ 162 62 162
162
7. Enoch ............ 65 65 165
(1)65*
8. Methuselah ....... 187 67 187
187
9. Lamech ........... 182 53 188
182
10.
Noah (at the flood) 600 600 600
600
Total.. 1656 1307
2262 2256
-------------------------
*
165 is doubtless the correct reading.
-------------------------
POSTDILUVIAN PATRIARCHS
Hebr. Samr.
lxx. Joseph.
11.
Shem (aged 100 ?
at the Flood).. 2
2 2 12
12.
Arphaxad .... 35 135
135 135
[Cainan spurious 130 ..]
13.
Salah ............. 30 130
130 130
14.
Heber ............. 34 134
134 134
15.
Peleg ............. 30 130
130 130
16.
Reu ............... 32 132
132 130
17.
Serug ............. 30 130
130 132
18.
Nahor ............. 29 79
79 120
19.
Terah ............. 130 130
130 130
(Gen. xi:32, xii:4.)
So to Abraham .... 352
1002 1002 1053
\+
{2} In the
Antediluvian Table (where the question is between the Hebrew and Josephus), the
years before the son's birth and the residues agree in all cases with the
totals of the lives; except that in the Samaritan the residues in the sixth,
eighth, and ninth are shortened, to adapt them to the shorter period between
Jared and the flood. Thus,
\-
in the Hebrew
and Samaritan Adam has 130 + 800 = 930.
...... Septuagint and Josephus 230 + 700 = 930.
And in the
Hebrew and
Samaritan Seth has 105 + 807 = 912.
...... Septuagint and Josephus 205 + 707 = 912.
\+
This can only
have been by design. So Augustin Civ. Dei. xv. 13; " Videtur habere
quamdam, si dici potest, error ipse constantiam; nec casum redolet sed
industriam." And so Mr. Clinton.
{3} The Jews
even counted the letters of their Bible.
{4} Professor Baumgarten, of Halls, in his
Remarks on Universal History, observes; "Both the Samaritan copy and the
Greek version abound in various readings, with respect to their different
chronologies, and frequently contradict themselves: whereas the Hebrew is
uniform and consistent in all its copies." And Mr. Kennedy, in his
Chronology of the World, says, that in examining the Hebrew Test he " was
not able to discover one various reading in that multitude of numeral words and
letters which constitute the scriptural series of years from the Creation to
the death of Nebuchadnezzar."
I quote this
from a Paper on the subject, in the Christian Observer for May 1802, p. 287;
and, in further illustration of the uniformity of the Hebrew copies in respect
of their numerals, may add that the Chaldee Paraphrase of Onkelos, written
about the time of Christ, agrees with the Hebrew chronologies, -- that the same
are recognized in the two Talmuds, -- and that Dr. Wolff informs me that
"in the ancient manuscripts which he saw at Bokhara, the chronological
notices of the length of lives both of the antediluvian and the postdiluvian
patriarchs were exactly according to the received Hebrew text, though the
letters of the manuscripts resembled Samaritan."
It is to be
observed further that the manuscript from which our Samaritan Pentateuch was
published, being written about A.D. 1400, was consequently not nearly so old as
many Hebrew manuscripts. And in earlier existing copies of it we know that
there were certain variations in the numerals, more accordant with the Hebrew. See
Note 1 p. 256.
Of the errors
of the Septuagint numerals in many copies a notable example is given by
Augustine, ibid. For it seems that in almost all the copies then extant
Methuselah was made to have begotten Lamech at the age of 167, and to have lived
802 years after: that is, fourteen years after the flood, on the Septuagint
chronology itself; though we know that no men but. Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japhet,
were preserved alive through it!
It is to be
observed further that the manuscript from which Samaritan Pentateuch was
published, being written about A.D. 1404, was consequently not nearly so old as
many Hebrew manuscripts.
HA1425
further the
general agreement of the Samaritan with the Hebrew in the chronology of the
antediluvian. patriarchs, {1} and its
thus fixing the fraud in that table at least, and by probable consequence in
the postdiluvian table also, on the Septuagint: -- considering moreover the
better agreement of historical fact with the Hebrew than with the Septuagint;
{2} and the more easily supposable
-----------------------------------------
{1} Viz. in
the cases of all but the sixth, eighth, and ninth Patriarchs. Here the
Samaritan residues are shortened to adapt them to the shorter period, made by
the shorter genealogies corresponding between Jared and the flood; to the
intent that these Patriarchs might not be thought to have been involved in it.
But we are told by Jerome (so the compilers of our English Universal History
have remarked) that in his time there were some Samaritan copies which made
Methuselah's and Lamech's ages, at the birth of their sons, the same as the
Hebrew.
{2} On the
two points alleged in their own favor by the advocates of the Septuagint
Chronology, Mr. Clinton quite turns the tables against them. -- 1st, as to the
age of the παιδο7ονια, which these writers have placed after
the lapse of one , - third of life, Mr. C. says that it appears from Scripture
to have been In the Patriarchal age as early as it is now; -- Judah being at
forty-eight a great-grandfather,-Benjamin having at thirty, eleven sons,
&c. -- 2. As to the Dispersion at Babel, which the Septuagintarians say
implies a mundane population such as could not have been according to the
Hebrew postdiluvian chronology, Mr. C. answers, that under favorable
circumstances even now it has been calculated that population may be doubled in
ten years; that cases are known where it has doubled for short periods in less
than thirteen years; and that in the older case of the Israelites in Egypt, and
later of certain parts of the North American colonies, the population doubled
itself in fifteen years --that the circumstances of the first families after
the flood were precisely the most favorable to increase of population, with all
the arts of the antediluvian world, unoccupied land to a boundless extent
before them, and lives extended to 500, 400, and 200 years :-that thus we may
reasonably assume twelve years, at the most, as that of the population doubling
itself : on which assumption the population of the earth; derived from the stock
of six parents, would in 276 years amount to above fifty millions, and in 300
years to two hundred millions. Even at the rate of fifteen years it would have
reached two hundred millions in 373 years from the flood, i, e. in the
twenty-fourth year of Abraham.--Now at the time of the Dispersion, had the
world's population then amounted to many millions, men would have been forced
by their wants to disperse, whereas the Sacred History tells us that it took
place contrary to the wishes of men, who desired all to dwell together. A
population
of about
50,000 would just answer the probabilities of the case. And this number must
have been reached within 160 years from the flood; i. e. about the sixtieth
year of Peleg (according to the Hebrew chronology); in whose days it is said,
Gen. x:25, that the Dispersion occurred.
HA1426
object {1}
With the Septuagint translators than with the keepers of the Hebrew text, as
well as better opportunity; {2} for falsifying in the matter. -- This point
settled, {3} there remain but two small chasms in the Hebrew chronology to fill
up, and one doubtful point to settle, arising from a difference between an Old
Testament statement and one in the New Testament, in order to the completion of
our chronological table. The chasms are, 1st, that from Moses' death to the
first servitude; {4} 2ndly, that between Samson's death and Saul's election to
the kingdom: {5} of neither of which could the length be much longer or
-----------------------------------------
{1} Jackson
allows that it is difficult to see the motives of the Jews in shortening the
patriarchal genealogies. On the other hand the Septuagint translators had an
obvious motive for enlarging the chronology. The Chaldeans and Egyptians (whose
histories were about this time published by Berosus and Manetho) laid claim to
a remote antiquity. Hence these translators of the Pentateuch might have been
led in a spirit of rivalry to augment the amount of the generations of their
ancestors, alike by the centenary additions, and by the interpolation (as Hales
himself allows it is) of the second Cainaan.
{2}
Augustine, whose four chapters on this subject (C. D. xv. 10-14) well deserve
attentive perusal, has put this point very strongly. Which, says he, is most
credible: that the Jews, dispersed all over the world; should have conspired
together to defraud their scriptures and themselves of truth, the exclusive
possession of which is so much their boast; or that the seventy Greek
translators, united together in conclave by King Ptolemy, should have managed
to falsify the numerals? He adds, as his own solution of the matter, that it
was after all probably not the translators, but the first transcriber of the
manuscripts from the original in the Royal Library, that introduced the error;
"Sci?ptoris tribuatur errori qui de Bibliotheca supradicti Regis codicem
describendum primus accepit:" and concludes thus; "Ei linguae potius
credatur unde est in aliam per interpretes facts translatio."--Augustine's
testimony is the more valuable and remarkable because he was himself originally
(see the Note in my Vol. i, ?. 368) a Septuagintarian in chronology. At the
conclusion of the C. D. however he measures the six periods of the world
preceding its septenary period, or sabbath, by aras, not millenaries. the 1st
to the Flood, 2nd to Abraham, 3rd to David, 4th to the Babylonish Captivity,
5th to Christ, and 6th that after Christ. C.D. xxii. 30. 5.
{3} It is to
be observed, as Mr. Clinton remarks, that the question is not an indefinite
one, from want of testimony, so as in the case of the early chronology of
Greece. The uncertainty is one arising from two different distinct testimonies.
We have only to decide which is the genuine and authentic copy. Either the
space before the flood was 1656 years, or it was 2256. Either the period from
the flood to the call of Abraham was 352 years, or it was 1002. "These
periods could not be greater than the greatest of them, or less than the
least."
{4} This
period is that comprehended in Josh. xxiv. 31; " And Israel served the
Lord all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders that over lived
Joshua, and which had known all the works ?£ the Lord that he had done for
Israel."
{5} Compare
Judg. xv:20; xvi:31; 1Sam. iv:1, vii:13; xii:2.
HA1427
shorter than
thirty or forty years. {4} The doubtful point alluded to concerns the same
period of the Judges: it being whether the reckoning given in Kings vi:1 of the
interval from the Exodus to the building of Solomon's temple at 480 years be
the correct one, {1} or that by St: Paul in Acts xiii:18-22 at about 580. {2}
Mr. Clinton, not without reason, as it seems to me, prefers the latter. {3}
-----------------------------------------
{1} Mr.
Brooks, in the Preface to his late History of the Jews, ?. xiii, argues that
the interval from Moses' death to Joshua's must probably have been longer,
because of Joshua being called `117, a young man in Exod. Xxxiii:1 and Num.
xi:28, with reference to the second year after the Exodus. But this Hebrew word
is used to designate servants also (compare Gen. xxii:3, &c.); and Joshua
is so called in the places above cited as the servant of Moses. (So Kimchi
explains this appellative of Joshua, in Zech. ii:7: and so, I may add, Ambrose
comments on Gen. xxiv. "Etiam senioris aetatis servuli pueri dicantur a
dominis.") Thus the
appellation can no more be argued from than the French word garcon, or English
postboy. -- Moreover at the time of the division of the lands, seven years
after Moses' death, (Josh. xiv:10,) Joshua is said (ibid. xiii. 1) to have been
"old and stricken in years.'' -- Thus Mr. Clinton seems fairly to have
estimated Joshua's age at the time of the spies at about forty; it being the
then age of his associate Caleb also, who overlived him. See Judg. i:1, 9-12.
If so, as Joshua was 110 years at his death, (see Josh. xxiv:29,) the interval
must have been 110--(38 + 40) = 32.
{2} 1 Kings
vi:1; " It came to pass in the 480th year after the children of Israel
were come out of the land of Egypt, In the fourth year of Solomon's reign over
Israel, that he began to build the house of the Lord."
{3} Acts
xiii:18; " Forty years suffered he their manners in the wilderness and
when he had destroyed seven nations in Canaan, he divided their land to them by
lot: and after that, be gave unto them judges about the space of four hundred
and fifty years, until Samuel the prophet. And afterward they desired a king;
and God gave them Saul."
{4} Because
the servitudes must be included in the periods of rest, on the
shorter system; which inclusion seems directly contrary to the tenor of the
Scripture statements. (But for this the Hebrew must reasonably be deemed of the
greater weight; and St. Paul's 450 years be explained either, as Whitby
prefers, by reference to the then current Septuagint chronology, or, as Usher,
by supposing it the measure of the time from Abraham to the division of the
lands, not from the division of the lands to Samuel.) -- A chronological table
of this period, formed from the express declarations in the Book of Judges, is
given below: -- it being premised that Chusan's oppression followed
(Judg. iii:7) on Israel's first apostacy to the worship of Baalim, on
the death of the elders that overlived Joshua.
\-
Servitudes years Rests and Judges
years
1st. Chusan (Judg. iii:8.) 8
lst Rest
(Judg. iii:11.) 40
2nd. Eglon (Judg. iii:14.) 18
2nd . . . (Judg. iii:30.) 80
3rd. Jabin (Judg. iv:3.) 20
3rd . . .
(Judg. v:31.) 40
4th. Midian (Judg. vi:1.) 7
4th (" the days of
Gideon," Judg. viii:28.) 40
Abimelech's
judging (Judg. ix:22.) 3
Tola's do.
(Judg. x:2.) 23
Jair's do.
(Judg. x:3.) 22
5th. Ammon (?. d.) 18
Jepthah do.
(xii.:7.) 6
Ibzan, Elon, Abdon, (xii:8-?4.) 25
6th. Philistines (Judg. xiii:1.) . 40 [Samson 20 years, and Eli.]
--------- ---------
111 279
\+
HA1428
And thus,
completing his table, he makes the date of the creation to be about 4138 B. C.;
{1} and consequently
-----------------------------------------
This last
Philistinian servitude of forty years appears to have included the judgeships
of both Samson and Eli: the former being said (xv:20, xvi:31) to
have judged Israel " in the days of the Philistines;" and the
latter to have died from grief at their defeat of Israel, and capture of the
ark. Their supremacy continued until Samuel's defeat of them near Mizpeh, of
which the stone Ebenezer was the record, 1 Sam. vii:12: after which Israel had
rest "all the days of Samuel;" (ib. :13;) until he was old,
(viii:1,) and anointed Saul king.
Thus the time
of the Judges, exclusive of Joshua and Samuel, appears from
these numbers to have been 390 years: and if we add 30 years for Joshua and the
Egypt-born elders that over-lived Joshua, reckoned from after the time of the
conquest and division of Canaan, (about 7 years having intervened between that
event and Moses' death), and 30 years more for Samuel's judge-ship after the
Philistines' defeat, it exactly makes up St. Paul's "about the space of
450 years." Add 7 for the conquest of Canaan, 40 for the wilderness, 40
for Saul, and 40 for David; and then the 4th year of Solomon comes to about the
580th year from the Exode; instead of the 480th, as the Hebrew text defines it
in 1 Kings vi:1. -- And therefore the only solution of the difficulty that I
see is by supposing a mistaken reading in our Hebrew copies of 480 for 580.
\-
B.C. A.M. years
4138 Adam . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
2482 1656
The Deluge* . . . . . . . . . .
. . 1656
2130 2008
Birth of Abraham . . . . . . . . . .
352
2955 2083
The Call . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
75
1625 2513
The Exode . . . . . . . . . . .
. . 430
1585 2553
Death of Moses . . . . . . . . . . .
40
1558 2580
First Servitude (by conjecture). . .
27
1128 3010
Death of Eli . . . . . . . . . . . .
430
1096 3042
Election of Saul (by conjecture) . .
32
1056 3082
David . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . 40
1016 3122
Solomon . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . 40
976
3162 Rebohoam . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . 40
587
3551 Zedekiah's Captivity . . .
. . . . . 389
\+
In the Jewish
Calendar there appear several most material variations from the above
Chronological Table; involving a difference from Mr. Clinton's in the Aera of
the World altogether of 340 years. The following are the points of variation.
{1} Agreeing
with Mr. C. in dating the Deluge, A.M. 1656, it makes the birth, and
consequently the call too, of Abraham sixty years earlier. This arises from the
supposition of Abraham's being the eldest of Terah's three sons, born when
Terah was seventy" years old, Gen. xi:26. -- a supposition quite
unnecessary; as Abraham's first mention among the three sons no more implies
his primogeniture than Shem's first mention, Gen. x:1, among Noah's three sons,
of whom however Japbet is in Gen. x:21 expressly declared the eldest: and which
is directly contradicted by the statement, Gen. xii:4, that Abraham was
seventy-five years old when he left Haran; compared with Acts vii:4, which says
that it was at Terah's death that Abraham left that country, and with Gen.
xi:32, which says that Terah died in Haran at the age of 205 years -- 2. There
is in it the further difference of 100 years less between this event
and-Solomon's completion of the Temple; a difference grounded mainly on the
circumstance of the Jews calculating by the chronological statement in 1 Kings
vi:1, noted by me in the text. 3. The Jewish Calendar shortens the interval
between Solomon and Zedekiah's captivity fifteen years: and 4. that between
Zedekiah and the Christian Era yet 165 years. By the latter most gross and
extraordinary falsification of a period as well ascertained as that between our
Richard the First and the time now present, the
HA1429
the end of
the 6000 years of the world, and opening of the seventh Millennium, by
approximation) about A.D. 1862: -- the same year, very nearly, that we
before fixed on as the epoch of the consummation, on quite different data.
I must add
yet a word besides on two or three other more dubious, yet very interesting and
important prophetic periods. And, 1st, on the seven times of
Nebuchadnezzar's insanity and state of bestialism: {1} These calculated
after the year-day system, {2} on the hypothesis of the Babylonish
king's insanity figuring that of the great empires which he then headed, in
their state of heathen aberration from God, (an hypothesis on the truth of
which I do not myself entertain much doubt,) terminate, -- if dated from the
time, B.C. 727, when the Assyrians under Shalmanezer {3} first acted the wild
beast's part against Israel,-about the year 1793; that is, at the epoch of
the French Revolution, and the coincident going forth of the gospel-message to
evangelize the heathen: -- doubtless a very remarkable synchronism: especially
considering that the bisecting point of these seven times is then A. D.
533; the very commencing epoch, with Justinian's Decree, of the three and a
half times of the Papal Antichrist. Of course if calculated from
Nebuchadnezzar's own accession and invasion of Judah, B.C. 606, the end is much
later, being A.D. 1914; just one half century, or jubilean period, from our
probable date of the opening of the
-----------------------------------------
Jewish
Rabbies make the interval between the first destruction of Jerusalem by the
Babylonians, and second by the Romans, just about 490 years. -- Thus there is
nothing in the Jewish mundane chronology to affect the accuracy of Mr.
Clinton's.
I have in the
above notice had before me Mr. Lindo's Jewish Calendar; a late publication,
elaborate with Jewish learning, and sanctioned by the then chief Rabbi in
London, Solomon Hirschell.
{1} Dan. iv.
The figure is somewhat otherwise applied by Cowper to the wretchedness and
ruined hopes of a prisoner;
Like the
visionary emblem seen
By him of
Babylon, life stands a stump,
And filletted
about with hoops of brass
Still lives,
though all his pleasant boughs are gone.
{2} Jer.
1:17; " Israel is a scattered sheep : the lions have driven him away first
the King of Assyria hath devoured him; last this Nebuchadnezzar, King of
Babylon, hath broken his bones."
HA1430
Millennium.
-- 2. If, as some would have it, and not perhaps altogether without reason, the
remarkable form of expression in which the period of "the hour and day and
month and year is couched," {1} concerning the Turkman's invasion of
Christendom, be meant to signify the time for which, as well as the time
within which, the Turks should occupy the throne of the Greek or Western
Empire, and so the capture of Constantinople were to be the bisecting point
between their primary going forth against Greek Christendom under Togrul Beg,
and their ultimate ejection from it, -- then the end of the second period will
fall about 396 years from the fall of Constantinople, or A.D. 1849. {2} 3. If, as Messrs. Bickersteth and Birks
would construe it, the χρονσς
εs«ι eτι in the Angel's oath in Apoc. x:7 be
meant, "A year shall not elapse ere the consummation," i. e. a
prophetic year, whether 360, or 365 natural years, -- and though I do not
myself so construe it, yet it seems to me quite worth the notice as being at
least possible, {3} -- then the termination of this period also will fall on
our chronological
-----------------------------------------
{1} 'σι ήτσιμασμενοι
ειs την ώραν
και ~μεραν
και μηνα και ενιαοτον,
Ινα
αποκτεινωσι TO τριτον των ανθρωπων.
I do not understand Mr.
ßirks' intimation on this verse respecting a different reading of authority.
Neither Griesbach, Scholz, nor Tregelles, note any different reading of
authority.
{2} See pp.
1119, 1150 supra.
{3} The
difficulty in the way of thus taking the passage is because tile Angel uses the
word χρονοs
not
καιροr;
which latter is the word always used in the Septuagint and Apocalypse of the mystical
periods, of the time, times, and half a time. See my Vol. ii. p. 121. It does
not seem to me that Mr. Birk's criticism (Elements, p. 387) has done much to
lessen this difficulty; his criticism being based on the very questionable idea
of kaipos being used to mark duration, xpovos delay.
Let me as Mr.
Birks has not done it, add a few proofs to show (what is a necessary
preliminary to this prophetic construction of the word) that (EDITOR: The Greek
from the original is not here reproduced.) is used literally sometimes to
signify the precise term of a year. In the History of the Council of Florence,
xi. 7, the word occurs with a numeral, (EDITOR: The Greek from the original is
not here reproduced.). So Suicer in his Thesaurus. Mill mentions in his Greek
Testament, that in some manuscripts at the end of St. Mark it was noted that
that Gospel was written (EDITOR: The Greek from the original is not here
reproduced.) in others (EDITOR: The Greek from the original is not here
reproduced.). Phavorinus in his Lexicon, expressly explains it so; (EDITOR: The
Greek from the original is not here reproduced.). Herodian speaks of Severus
spending (EDITOR: The Greek from the original is not here reproduced.) at Rome;
no doubt in the sense of many years. And so Plutarch, (EDITOR: The Greek from
the original is not here reproduced.) (Probably [EDITOR: The Greek from the
original is not here reproduced.] of Luke xx:9; viii:27, are to be construed in
the same way). I borrow this last example from Wintle on Dan. Xii:7; and add
myself another from Thucydides, i. 30, (EDITOR: The Greek from the original is
not here reproduced.) translated by Duker, "Maxima ejus anni parte."
Certainly the
want of the article is in favor of Mr. Birk's view. And I may add that it much
struck me, just after I had printed my Chapter on that last verse
HA1431
line yet but
a little distance further, and there mark the bounding limit, the ne plus
ultra, if I may so call it, of our present mundane chronology, at A. D.
1877 or 1872. {1}
In fine, notwithstanding,
what is fully allowed, the doubtfulness of some of these periods, and their
other, possible epochs of commencement, yet the fact is clear that, construed
consistently on the year-day, system, they have all a probable ending
somewhere within the extreme dates, distant scarce above a century, apart, of
A.D. 1790 and 1914. In regard of the 17 long centuries preceding, that
intervene between the Apocalyptic Revelation and French Revolution, there is
none within which they can with at all the same probability be similarly made
to converge. And I must say that the fact of their thus traveling, as they all
seem to do, to a close "within our own present aera, from their several
sources, more or less remote in the depth of antecedent ages, much impresses my
own mind, as confirmatory of the conclusion primarily deduced by me from the
evidence simply of the Apocalyptic prophecy. Like as the convergency of many
lines of road to a geographical center indicates that center to be the place of
some important and mighty city, so the convergency of these many chronological
lines within the present century, now above one
-----------------------------------------
of the
Apocalypse to which it refers (part iii. Chap. V,) to meet a passage in
Luther's Table Talk, in which, contrary alike to his earlier anticipations and
latest aspirations, he expressed an opinion that perhaps the world might last
yet 300 years more, before the consummation.
{1} I suspect
that we have another ne plus ultra in our Lord's celebrated saying,
"This generation," &c, Luke xxi:32: -- the saying having a double
reference; 1st, to the fulfillment of the judgments on Jerusalem, ere
the generation then alive should have past away; 2nd, to the final judgment of the
consummation, ere the generation should have wholly past away that
witnessed the signs in the sun and moon, &c, (verse 25, &c.) which
signs I suppose to have begun at the French Revolution. See Note 1, p. 1092.
It is
observable further that seventy jubilees reckoned from the Exodus, (each at
fifty years,*) will end (on the basis still of Clinton's Chronology) A. D.1875.
And perhaps, as seventy years marked the length of Israel's waiting time for
the redemption from Babylon, and seventy weeks of years that of its further
waiting for it sprimary redemption by Christ Jesus, so seventy jubilees may
define the mystical period of its whole existence as a people, from the Exodus
to the epoch of both the natural and the spiritual Israel's perfect redemption.
But there seems to me here too much of the conjectural to rest much on it.
-----------------------------------------
* See, in
proof of this value of the Jubilee, the Investigator, vol. iv. p. 124.
HA1432
half run out,
{1} seems to mark this century as a most important aera of crisis, big with
momentous issues as to the destinies of the world. {2}
-----------------------------------------
{1} I mean as
reckoned from 1790.
{2} See the
illustrative Diagram on the opposite page. The more dubious lines in my
judgment are dotted.
{3} Psalm
cii:13-14.