Commentary on Daniel, Chapter 9 · Doctrines 1 · Question 59
59. Quest. Whether that place, Ioh. 2. 20. that the Temple was 46. yeares in building, hauehave any agreement with these 7. weekes.
1. Oecolampadius vtterly reiecteth that saying of the Iewes, nobis illud dictum Iudaorum, quod per inuidiam loquebantur, non est tantae authoritatis, &c. to vsus that saying of the Iewes is not of so great authoritie, that we should set it against so euident places of the Scripture. Likewise Bullinger thinketh that the Iewes might ouerlash in this speach, as they did when they said to Christ, Thou art not yet fiftie yeare old, Ioh. 8. 57. and yet he neuer saw fourtie. But, although where the Iewes speake vponupon their blind traditions contrarie to Scripture, they are not to be regarded; yet when we see the receiued opinion to concurre with Scripture, and the euent to be answerable thereunto, it is not to be reiected: as here the 46. yeares by them mentioned, beeing counted from Cyrus third, when the worke ceased, doe agree with this prophesie of 7. weekes, that is 49. yeares from Cyrus first.
2. Iosephus Scalliger likewise reiecteth this testimonie of the Iewes, lib. 6. de emendat. tempor. vponupon this reason, because these 7. weekes are appointed for the building of the citie and streete, and not of the Temple: But by the one the other must be vnderstood: the building of Ierusalem includeth also the building of the Temple: for otherwise no mention is made at all here of the building of the Temple, which notwithstanding was principally intended, both in the prophesie of Isay concerning Cyrus, c. 44. 28. and in the fulfilling thereof, Ezra. 1. 1.
3. Pintus applyeth that tearme of 46. yeares to the building of the Temple, but he doth not make it agree with these 7. moneths: for he reckoneth but 48. yeares in all to the finishing of the Temple, which beganne two yeares after the going forth of the word: so that from the beginning of the building were 46. yeares, but from the going forth of the word 48. Contra. But neither were two yeares expired from the going forth of the word vntounto the beginning of the Temple, but onelyonly one yeare complete and somewhat more: for they beganne to set forward the worke in the 2. yeare the second monethmonth, Ezra. 3. 8. And thus the prophesie of 7. weekes from the going forth of the word should not be fulfilled.
4. Some thinke, that the Iewes put diuerse time… together, of the second building of the Temple in their teturne from captiuitie, and of the third by Herod, so that they adde 20. yeares, which Herod spent in enlarging the edifices about the Temple, Oecolamp. But the Iewes speake onelyonly of the time spent in the building of the second Temple: for Salomons Temple was finished in 7. yeares, 1. king 6. and Herods worke about the Temple in 10. yeares, as Iosephus witnesseth, lib. 15. antiquit.
5. Pererius thinketh the Iewes computation to be true, which he beginneth in the 2. yeare of Cyrus, when they laid the foundation of the Temple, and endeth in the 9. of Darius Hystaspis, when all the worke, the outward Court and all were finished: and thus he casteth the summe; from Cyrus 2. there remaine 29. yeares of Cyrus raigne, Cambyses, and the Magi raigned 8. and Darius 9. But the 7. weekes he beginneth from the 20. yeare of Longimanus.
Contra. 1. Beside that, Cyrus and Cambyses raigned not so long ouer the Persian Monarchie: Cyrus is held to hauehave raigned in all 30. but ouer the whole Monarchie, after the ouerthrowe of Babel, but three. 2. an other errour is, that Pererius taketh the ninth yeare of Darius, following therein Iosephus, whereas Ezra. 6. 14. the Temple was finished in the 6. yeare of Darius. 3. neither was this Darius Hystaspis, but Darius Longimanus, vnderunder whom the Temple was finished, as before is shewed, quest. 45. 4. the seuen weekes must beginne from the 1. of Cyrus, not from the 20. of Longimanus, as is also before prooued; quest. 43. and quest. 58.
6. M. Calvin, whom the Genevens. followe in their annotation here, doe giuegive vntounto the building of the Temple 46. yeare, and to the laying of the foundation 3. yeares, which make 49. in all: but this account cannot stand neither, for the 7. weekes must beginne from the going forth of the word, which was in the 1. of Cyrus: the foundation of the Temple was laid in the 2. yeare, then cannot the 7. weekes and these 49. yeares, wherein the Temple was built, ende together, not beginning together.
7. Some thinke that the Iewes speake not of the Temple built by Zorobabel, but of Herods Temple which he beganne to enlarge in the 18. yeare of his raigne, which was 46. yeares before, and was not yet finished, M. Lydyat de emendat. tempor. p. 174.
8. But the more receiued and probable opinion is, that the Iewes speake of the Temple built after their returne out of captiuitie, and finished, not then in building; and thus the 7. weekes, and the 46. yeares are made to agree together: the 7. weekes, which make 49. yeares, beginne at Cyrus 1. and the 46. yeares must be counted from the third of Cyrus, when the worke of the house was hindered: and so the 7. weekes and the 46. yeares shall ende together at the finishing of the Temple in Darius 6. yeare, H. Br. in his Concent.