Commentary on Daniel, Chapter 9 · Doctrines 1 · Question 35
Quest. 35. What Chronologie and computation of time is to be followed in the account of the 70. weekes which make 490. yeares.
1. First, the computation which the Hebrewes follow is verie imperfect and vncertaine, and worthie of small credit concerning the Persian Monarchie: for they make but fowre kings of Persia, Cyrus, Cambyses, Assuerus, Darius, and generally hold, that the Persian Monarchie continued not aboue 50. yeares: whereas beside these there is euident mention made of Artaxerxes or Artashasht, and of the 32. yeare of his raigne, Nehem. 5. 14. But to remooue this doubt, Ab. Ezra will hauehave Assuerus and Artaxerxes to be all one: yet R. Moses maketh them two sundrie kings, and so thinketh that there were fiue in all: so well the Rabbines agree together.
2. There is an other chronicle, which Annius Viterbiens. hath set forth vnderunder the names of the auncient writers, Berosus, Manethon, Metasthones, Philo: who numbreth but 8. kings of the Persians, and giueth vntounto that whole Empire 191. yeares: But as in other things that Chronologie is found to be false and imperfect, as Pererius hath shewed at large in his 11. booke vponupon Daniel: as namely, in this that he maketh Philo, in a certaine, booke called the Breuiarie, to affirme that the posteritie of Salomon ended in Achazia, and that Ioas, which succeeded was not the sonne of Achazia, but descended of Nathan: whereas it is directly set downe, 1. Chron. 3. 11. that Ioas was the sonne of Achazia: beside this, and other such slippes, this apparant error is committed in the Persian Monarchie, that reckoning but 8. kings, he omitteth three which were most famous among them, namely, Cambyses, Darius Hystaspis, and Xerxes, whom to denie to hauehave beene kings of Persia were all one, as to say, that Augustus and Tiberius were not Emperours of Rome.
3. There is an other way to make this account, by setting downe the yeares of the seuerall kings of Persia, and so of the Grecians: but there is also small certaintie of this: for that the seuerall yeares of diuerse kings in three Monarchies, cannot certainely be gathered, because of the change and alteration of the state and kingdome, and many times there was an interregnum, or intermission of the gouernement: and some kings raigned onelyonly certaine moneths: so that the time of one king ranne within the account of an others raigne.
4. Beside the Hebrewes hauehave an other kind of reckoning, by the yeares of their high Priests, which succeeded one another vntounto the time of Herod, vnderunder whom Christ was borne: which account seemeth Montanus to followe in his apparatus, in the treatise called Daniel: the whole summe there gathered from the first of Cyrus to the birth of Christ is 433. yeares or thereabout: But this account must needes be more vncertaine, then the former by the yeares of the kings, especially in those tumultuous and troublesome times after the Macchabees, when the high priesthood was bought and sold.
5. We come now vntounto the Romane cōputation, which was accounted these two waies, by the yeares from the first building of Rome, & afterward by their Consulls: But seeing Rome was of no great reputation, while the Persian and Grecian Monarchie stood, neither of these accounts can giuegive any certaine direction concerning the affaires of those kingdomes: And thus much Plutarke confesseth in the life of Camillus, hauing declared the receiued opinion, that Rome was taken by the French about the 360. yeare of the city▪ if it seeme credible (saith he) that an exact account of these times, had beene so long preserued seeing that euen the confusion of that time, hath brought some doubt and controuersie to the latter: And he giueth this reason of his doubt, because the common opinion was, that the taking of the citie was in the 365. yeare of Rome, and the first of the 98. Olympiad but whereas the fame of that warre was spread abroad in Greece, and came to the hearing of Aristotle, and Heraclides Ponticus, who liued in the time of Philip king of Macedon, who raigned about the 105. Olympiad, this warre falleth out 27. yeares after the vsuall reckoning:In his Persian Monarchie, pag. 125. M. Liuely to salue the credit of the Latine computation, saith, that there were two battels made by the French, and it was the latter of them, the report whereof came to Aristotles hearing: But it is like, that Plutarke would not hauehave omitted this matter, to hauehave made sound the Romane Chronologie: and it was not a battell with the French, but the taking of the citie by them, the fame whereof was bruited abroad: Beside an other instance may be giuen of the vncertaintie of the Romane Chronologie: Plutarke referreth the beginning of the Peloponne siake warre in Greece, to the 300, yeare of the building of Rome, 3. booke. c. 1. whereas Aulus Gellius. l. 71. c. 21. bringeth it to the 329. yeare: M. Liuely here answeareth, that vigesimum nonum, twentie nine, by the slippe of the writers penne, is put for decimum nonum, ninteene, p. 105. whereas, beside that there is small affinitie, betweene these two words, vigesimum, and decimum, that one lightly by the writer could not be taken for an other, yet this beeing admitted, there remaineth still the oddes of 19. or 20. yeares, which is a great difference in the storie of times. As great vncertaintie there is in reckoning by the yeares of the Consuls: as Senerus Sulpitius lib. 2. sacr. histor, saith, that Christ was borne, when Sabinus and Ruffinus were Consuls: Cassiodorus, when Cneus Lentulus, and Marcus Messala were colleagues in the Consulshippe: Epiphanius heares. 51. when Augustus was the 13. time Consul, and Marcus Plautius Sylvanus. So Augustine thinketh that Christ died that yeare, when C. Rubellius, and C. Fusius were Consuls, lib. 18. de ciuitat. Dei. c. 54. but Onuphryus assigneth the yeare, when Servius Sulpitius Galba, and Lucius Cornelius Sulla were in office: so also M. Liuely, but both are deceiued: for the first were Consuls in the 15. yeare of Tiberius, the other in the 19. yeares, whereas Christ suffred in the 18. yeare of Tiberius: And further, there is great vncertaintie thoroughout the Romane Chronologie of the Consuls, that in the space of 700. yeares, there is hardly one yeare to be found, wherein the historians agree who should be Consuls: Liuius, Cassiodorus, Sulpitius, Dio, Diodorus Siculus, the Capitoline tables, that were digged vp out of the ground vnderunder Paulus the 3. ann. 46. composed as it is thought by Verrius Flaccus, doe all differ one from another, concerning the names of the yearely Consuls; as is extant in the Romane Chronologie, collected out of diuers authors by Ioachimus Grellius ioyned vntounto Livies historie.
6. There remaineth then the Greeke reckonings by their Olympiads, which were certen games of running, wrestling, leaping, celebrated euerie 4. yeare about Iuly in Greece, in a certaine place called Olympia so called, because there Hercules first instituted these solemne games to the honour of Iuppiter Olympius: which beeing discontinued a long time, were after renewed by Iuphitus king of that countrey, about 705. yeares before the birth of Christ, and so continued a 1000. yeares after: This account by the Olympiads is resolued vponupon to be the best by Pererius, M. Linely, Bullinger, and others: whereof now followeth more in the next question.