A 04 - The Time when Jesus made his Appearance

CHAPTER 4. HE TIME WHEN JESUS MADE HIS APPEARANCE

ANOTHER criterion for determining the person of the Messiah was, the time of his appearance. The prophecy, which most accurately fixes that time, is one delivered by Daniel. “Seventy weeks,” says Gabriel, “are determined upon thy people, and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the Most Holy. Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to build and to restore Jerusalem, unto the Messiah, the Prince, shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks; the street shall be built again, and the wall even in troublous times. And after threescore 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 the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of the abominations, he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.” Daniel 9:24-27. This is one of the most remarkable prophecies in the Old Testament. In many parts of it there is obscurity, and critics have exhausted much time and patience in its elucidation. Still, however, the leading facts are remarkably clear. It evidently refers to the Messiah. It both names and describes him. It also assigns a definite time for his appearance. This time was sixty-nine weeks, or four-hundred and eighty-three years, after the issuing of the decree “to restore and to build Jerusalem;” or, it was sixtytwo weeks, that is, four hundred and thirty-four years, after the complete re-establishment of Jerusalem and. the Jewish polity. To understand this better, it will be necessary to observe, that the Jews had two kinds of weeks, one of days including seven days; and another of years, including seven years. Leviticus 25:8. It is evident, that the former kind of weeks cannot be meant; for seventy weeks of days, which would be less than a year and a half, would be entirely too short a time, even to build Jerusalem, much less to complete what the prophet mentions, as occurring long after that event. The prophet must therefore speak of weeks of years. Seventy of such weeks would make four hundred and ninety years; which is the whole space of time specified in the prophecy. This four hundred and ninety years was to begin, “from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem.” The chief difficulty in the application of the prophecy is, that there were no less than four decrees, overspreading a space of at least eighty-four years, which were issued by the Persian kings, in reference to the restoration of the Jews. The first of these was published by Cyrus, (Ezra 1:1-11.) in the first year of his reign, and one year after Daniel was favored with this revelation. Daniel 9:1. The second was published by Darius Hystaspis. (Ezra 6:1-22.) about sixteen years later. A third was issued by Artaxerxes, son of Xerxes, in the seventh year of his reign, (Ezra 7:1,) which was fifty-five years after the one issued by Darius, and seventy-one after that issued by Cyrus.

Artaxerxes also delivered the fourth decree to Nehemiah, in the twentieth year of his reign. Nehemiah 2:1.

Cyrus founded the Persian empire about the year 536 before Christ. Now, if this prophecy be applied to the edict published by him in the first year of his reign, it will fall short of the vulgar Christian era by forty-six years. So also, if it be applied to the edict of Darius, it will anticipate the period of the birth of Jesus, about thirty years. Prideaux, therefore, and many others have selected the third edict, or the one published in the seventh year of Artaxerxes as the commencement of this prophetic period.

According to the data above, this would bring the reckoning down to the year of our Lord 26, which was about the time that John the Baptist began his public ministry. There are some variations however, in the modes of computing dates. Prideaux, therefore, makes the termination of this prophecy, precisely coincident with the death of Jesus. “The beginning, therefore, says he, of the seventy Weeks, or four hundred and ninety years of this prophecy, was in the month Nisan of the Jewish year, in the seventh year of Artaxerxes king of Persia, and in the 4256th of the Julian period, when Ezra had his commission; and the end of them fell in the very same month Nisan, in the 4746th of the Julian period, in which very year and very month, Christ our Lord suffered for us, and thereby completed the whole work of our salvation, there being just seventy weeks of years; or four hundred and ninety years from throne to the other.” Usher, and many others, are best satisfied with the last edict, as the one with which to begin this prophecy. According to this mode of reckoning, the seventy weeks would end Anno Domini 38. Usher however, and they who think with him, employ lunar instead of solar months in computing these dates. They also make allowance for some few years during which Artaxerxes was associated with his father in the throne of Persia. Cruden remarks on this calculation as follows: “This hypothesis or system seems to be the most rational of any proposed by the ancients, and is adhered to, some small particulars excepted, by the greatest part of interpreters and chronologers.” It will be seen however that all of these interpretations terminate the prophecy within a period of 84 years of each other; that which takes its beginning from Cyrus, falling 46 years before Jesus was born, and that which places it in the 20th of Artaxerxes, terminating 38 years after that event. Now, if we make some allowances for the different methods of computing dates, and for some other inaccuracies in the calculations of critics and commentators, and especially if we keep it in mind, that some of these calculations, very nearly, if not precisely concur, with the epoch of Jesus; if, I say, we consider these facts, there certainly is a most remarkable coincidence between the prophecy and the history of the Evangelists. Indeed, we may affirm positively, that if this prophecy relate to the Messiah, of which there can be no doubt, then must the Messiah have appeared somewhere between the 46th year before the Christian era, and the 38th after that era. Here is certainly a narrow, and considering the nature of the subject, a very narrow compass in which to look for the Savior of the world. The date is no doubt, accurately given; and if we err, it is through our ignorance of some of the facts in the case. The error however, is so trifling, that no one need mistake the person to whom the prophet alludes. But this prophecy was rendered more perspicuous, especially to the Jews, by being divided into three parts. During the first forty-nine years, the city of Jerusalem in particular and the Jewish commonwealth generally, were to be established. At the termination of the next four hundred and forty-one years, the Messiah was to appear. And sometime during the remaining seven, he was to die as a sacrifice for sin, and thus bring in “everlasting righteousness.” Here are allusions to events so palpable, that one would think, the people among whom they occurred, could not possibly have misapplied the prophecy. But in addition to the dates here given, there are other things mentioned, which unquestionably had their fulfillment in connection with the personal history of Jesus. At or near the end of these seventy weeks, the Jewish nation was to be overwhelmed in a terrible war; their temple was to be profaned and burnt; their city and country laid in ruins, and the Jews themselves dispersed and scattered, until some remote period alluded to in the prophecy. Now, when did these events occur? Josephus, himself a Jew, fixes their date about forty years after the crucifixion of Jesus. His description of the events too, most wonderfully agrees with the prophecy. The Romans, after capturing every other important place in the land, laid siege to Jerusalem. The Jews held out an obstinate resistance. Subdued at length, however, by faction, by pestilence and by famine, they surrendered to the conquerors. Their temple was destroyed, their city burnt and ploughed, and the nation, after suffering incalculable evils, was carried into a captivity, from which they have not even yet recovered!

If then, there be any thing in the dates of this prophecy to deceive us, the notorious facts which it contains would still strike conviction upon the mind. About the end of these seventy weeks, there did live an extraordinary personage, claiming to be the Messiah. He taught the most heavenly doctrines, he wrought the most illustrious miracles, he set the most perfect example, and he was eventually put to death by a public execution. The Jewish nation was soon afterwards conquered and scattered. Who was this extraordinary person? Who, if he was not the Messiah, the Savior of the world? The time then, according to prophecy, at which the Messiah was to appear, coinciding so accurately with that of Jesus of Nazareth, demonstrates, with almost positive certainty, that he was the person referred to by Daniel. Certain it is, that if this prophecy be not fulfilled in Jesus, it is difficult, if not impossible, to imagine another, in whom it either is to be or has been fulfilled. Jerusalem has been already captured. The Jews have long ago been dispersed. The seventy weeks of Daniel therefore, have certainly ended many centuries ago. We are not then to look to the future for the fulfillment of these predictions. We must look to the past. And if to the past; where is there one, who can have any adequate claims to being the subject of these prophecies, but Jesus? He, and he only can claim them; and to him they most certainly refer.