CHAPTER XV. THE JEW. Dan xi., the prophecy of "the seventy weeks."-How far applicable to the Roman desolation of Jerusalem-The last week of the seventy divided into two parts of three years and a half each-One past, the other future"The abomination of desolation"-How fulfilled in the Roman invasion under Titus-Referred to by our Lord, Matt. xxiv., Mark xiii., Luke xx— The four desolations spoken of by the Prophet Daniel-The past history of the Jews exemplified in three. A MEMORABLE page in the past history of the Jews has been seen in our consideration of the remarkable way in which Antiochus Epiphanes fulfilled all the characteristics of the "little horn" of Dan. viii., in his desolation of Jerusalem, and persecution, of the Jewish people for a limited period of time; and we think it may be shown, that the longer and more afflictive desolation under the Romans has been equally set forth in the prophecy of Daniel; and as such, it conveys to our minds the same lesson which God intended in the previous persecution under Antiochus Epiphanes respecting His intentions towards His once favoured people, "beloved for the Father's sake," but scattered, spoiled, and punished most justly for their tremendous sins. The prophecy, then, which remains to be noticed, is that portion of the seventy weeks" of Daniel which refers to the Roman desolation of Jerusalem. The earlier portion of the prophecy respecting the "sixty-nine weeks," at the termination of which the Messiah was cut off, has already been noticed in this work; (see chap. i.) and we have now to consider the half of the remaining week which refers to the subject of our present chapter. 66 It will not be amiss, however, previously to offer the following paraphrase, in order that the proper divisions in this famous prophecy may be the better understood. Dan. ix. 24. Seventy heptads, i.e., 490 complete solar years, have been determined and divided out from the whole course of ages by God, to fulfil His intentions towards His people and His holy city of Jerusalem, in order-1, To complete the apostasy both of Jews and Gentiles; 2, to perfect the sin offerings; 3, to make reconciliation for iniquity by the atonement of God's only son; 4, to bring in and establish everlasting righteousness; 5, to give the seal of confirmation to the vision by the issue of events as predicted; 6, in the same way to confirm the prophet's words by the fulfilment of those things which God has spoken through him; 7, and lastly, to anoint the Holy of Holies when Israel shall be restored, as Ezekiel foretold, "My tabernacle also shall be with them; yea, I will be their God and they shall be my people. And the heathen shall know that I the Lord do sanctify Israel, when my sanctuary shall be in the midst of them for evermore." (xxxvii. 27, 28.) v. 25. Know therefore and understand, that in the month Nisan, of the twentieth year of the reign of Artaxerxes, king of Persia and Babylon, permission will be given to Nehemiah to restore and build up the walls of Jerusalem, which shall remain unrepaired since their destruction by king Nebuchadnezzar, and from that time unto the public entry of the Messiah into Jerusalem (when the announcement of the prophet Zechariah shall be fulfilled, "Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem; behold, thy King cometh unto thee; he is just, and having salvation; lowly, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt, the foal of an ass"), shall be exactly seven heptads, or 49 years, for completing the building of the city and restoring the worship of the temple, and sixty-two heptads, or 434 years, making 483 years in all; and the building of the broadways, and streets, and walls of the city shall be carried on in the midst of troubles from the enemies of the Jewish people. v. 26. And exactly as the 483 years are completed, dating from the month of Nisan, when the decree was issued to rebuild the walls, Christ the Messiah, the Son of David, the very Paschal Lamb, shall be cut off, by being crucified "without the gate" of Jerusalem, "between the two evenings" of the 14th day of the first month Nisan, in accordance with the command of God, for the observance of the Passover; and He, the Messiah, though coming "to his own will not be received by them, but will be rejected by them, and shall have nothing at that time of the throne of David. And the Roman people (that nation whom the Lord foretold by Moses, "He would bring from the end of the earth, as swift as the eagle flieth," Deut. xxviii. 49) under the leadership of the prince who is coming, and whose name is Titus, shall destroy the city and the sanctuary, and "not one stone shall be left upon another;" for as, saith the prophet, Micah, "Zion shall be plowed as a field, and Jerusalem shall become heaps ;" (iii. 12) and from that time there shall be a series of desolations upon the city, and the outcast Jews "shall become an astonishment, a proverb, and a by-word among all nations whither the Lord shall lead them." (Deut. xxviii. 37.) v. 27. One heptad, or 7 years, shall be sufficient to accomplish that "covenant which the Lord commanded Moses to make with the children of Israel in the land of Moab," (Deut. xxix. 1) the effect of which would be that "the Lord should scatter Israel among all people from the one end of the earth even unto the other end, and give them there a trembling heart, and failing of eyes, and sorrow of mind," for many centuries (Deut. xxviii. 64, 65); and in the middle of that heptad, i.e., after a period of 3 years of war with the Roman people, the daily sacrifice shall cease to be offered, and upon the wing of the temple the abomination of the Romans, viz., their idolatrous ensigns, which they prefer before all other gods, shall be set up ("over against its eastern gate," Josephus B. J. vi., i. 1), and "Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled," when the events of the remaining half heptad, or 31 years, shall take place, and that which is determined during the whole seventy heptads, or 490 years, shall be finally and fully accomplished. * With this paraphrase we think there are good grounds for dividing the prophecy, with respect to its application, in the following manner. 49 I. From the decree in the 20th of Artaxerxes for YEARS the building of the wall until its completion+ II. From the completion of the wall to the cutting off Messiah, the Prince, at the time of the Passover An interval of 40 years' duration. B.C. .455-406. A.D. 434 . . . . . . . . 406— 29. III. The commencement of the Roman desolation.. 31 IV. The termination of the Roman desolation during "The seventy weeks," or.. 31 490 years. Josephus particularly notices this fact in the fourth year of the war, that "Titus was informed on the 17th day of Panemus [Tamuz] the daily sacrifice failed, and had not been offered to God, for want of men to offer it." (Bell, Jud. vi., ii. 1.) Although there is no positive declaration in Scripture that the wall and " The third period is that which we have at present to consider. As among the many attempts to interpret this memorable prophecy it has been customary for some to explain it as if the whole of the "seventy weeks" had been fulfilled at the time of Christ's death-for others, as if the events of the last week were all accomplished at the time when the Romans, under Titus, completely destroyed the Jewish people in Jerusalem-and for a third class of interpreters, as if the events of the last week were entirely future*-it behoves us to show the reasons for our interpretation, and which, we venture to think, is the only one consistent both with the language of the prophecy and the literal interpretation thereof. 1. The very expression with which the prophecy commences "seventy weeks are determined," which more literally should be rendered "divided," + supports the view that the whole "seventy weeks" does not necessarily imply a continuous period of 490 years. We find an example of a similar interval occurring in the midst of an important prophecy of Isaiah, as it is written, the city did take forty-nine years for their completion, it seems a very natural supposition from the words of this prophecy, where seven weeks or forty-nine years are particularly specified, and the restoration of the wall and the city is so placed in juxtaposition, that they appear without doubt to be connected together. Wintle observes upon it, "The term is thus divided, because the former part, i.e., the forty-nine years, shall be fully completed, with its streets and walls, in that narrower limit of the times." This is a very ancient opinion. Hippolytus, as early as the third century, in his Commentary on Daniel, writes, "When therefore the sixty-two heptads have been fulfilled, and Christ has come, and the gospel has been preached in every place, the times having been accomplished, one heptad, the last, shall remain, in which Elijah and Enoch shall appear; and in the half of it, the abomination of desolation shall be manifested, by Antichrist announcing desolation to the world." (S. Hippol. Martyr's Interpret. in Dan. xxii,) The objection to this ancient opinion is, that it passes over the cessation of the daily sacrifice, at the time when Titus besieged Jerusalem, as if it had never occurred, and to which the prophecy and our Lord's language, (Matt. xxiv. 15, and Mark xiii. 14) both clearly point; and the writer also alludes to some individual under the misnomer of Antichrist, (probably meaning the eighth head of the Roman beast) as setting up the "abomination of desolation," for which there does not appear any authority in the Word of God. As the substantive of the verb "determined" occurs in verses 26 and 27 of this prophecy, and a different Hebrew word, is there used, signifying "determination," from the verb in v. 24, , it should have a different rendering in English, and the word, "divided," as Dr. Tregelles translates it, is more appropriate in every way. "The spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because He hath anointed me to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of vengeance of our God." (lxi. 1, 2.) When He came who was to fulfil what Isaiah had foretold, it is recorded by St. Luke that Christ omitted to notice the last clause of this important prophecy. "And Jesus came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up; and as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and stood up for to read. And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Esaias; and when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written, The spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the acceptable year of the Lord. And he closed the book, and he gave it again to the minister, and sat down. (iv. 16-20.) By which omission we may clearly discern there was an interval of unmarked length, including, as we infer, the whole period from the first to the second advent, between "the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of vengeance of our God." More than 1,800 years have rolled by since Christ came "to preach the acceptable year of the Lord;" but "the day of vengeance," or, as the LXX. render it, "the day of recompense," is yet to appear.* 2. As it is quite clear that Messiah was cut off, as the prophecy foretold, at the expiration of sixty-nine weeks, and that one more week remained for its complete accomplishment, for it would be quite contrary to all history to affirm that it was fulfilled within the one heptad or week of years, immediately * Lowth implies that "the day of vengeance," spoken of in Isaiah, is the same as "the days of vengeance "mentioned by our Lord, when referring to the overthrow of Jerusalem by Titus (Luke xxi. 22) which would confine the interval between the acceptable year and the day of vengeance to a period of about forty years; but I think this can scarcely be so interpreted, for in Isaiah it is "day" in the singular, whereas in St. Luke it is "days," a difference which is not unimportant; and also the LXX. render Isaiah by a word signifying "recompense" or "reward" (ýμéρav åvτaπodóσews) as, in Isaiah xxxiv. 8, and in Col. iii. 24, whereas a different word is used by St. Luke, nμépaι ekdikýσews, the "days of punishment," as 1 Peter ii. 14; so that the latter appears to refer to the time of the "casting away " of the Jews-their punishment; the former to the "receiving of them as life from the dead"their day of recompense and reward at the time of the second advent. + There are some commentators who consider that the Messiah was cut off, not at the end of the 69 weeks, but 3 years later, and that the remaining half week, or 3 years, between the death of Christ and the preaching of the gospel to the Gentiles, (assumed without any warrant, to be a period of 3 years,) fulfils what is said respecting the last half-week of the prophecy; but a T |