Works, Exposition 18

Works · Exposition 18

p. 697DANIEL'S WEEKS.

DANIEL 9. 24, &c.

THE WEEKS of Daniel are a Divine Chronology of the Time which the Sanctuary, with the Legal Service, should continue, when it should be restored after the Captivity of Babylon. During which time also the City of Ierusalem it self should be reinhabited, and the walls thereof re-builded; and some LXII Weeks after that began to be, should Messiah the Redeemer be anointed, yea and cut off and rejected of his own: For which, when the whole LXX Weeks (the time allotted) should expire, their Sanctuary and City should again be rased, and their Commonwealth utterly dissolved.

VERSE 24.

Seventy Weeks are allotted for thy people, and for thy Holy City, to finish transgression, and make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to fulfil Vision and Prophecy, and to anoint the MOST HOLY.

SEventy Weeks are determined or allotted] That is, The Holy City shall again be restored, and LXX weeks of years are allotted and limited for the continuance thereof, and thy people with it: and that for this end, that during the standing thereof, the Messiah, according to Vision and Prophecy, may come to expiate sin, and be anointed in his Kingdom.

The word foreign, here translated determined or allotted, signifies properly to be cut or cut out, and so may seem to imply such a sense, as if the Angel had said to Daniel, Howsoever your Bondage and Captivity under the Gentiles shall not altogether cease, until that succession of Kingdoms which I before shewed thee be quite finished; yet shall God, for the accomplishing his Promise concerning the Messiah, as it were cut out of that long Term a certain limited Time, during which the Captivity of Iudah and Ierusalem being interrupted, the Holy City and Common-wealth in some measure shall again be restored, and so continue till LXX Weeks of years be finished.

Here I distinguish the beginning of the Times of the Holy City from the beginning of Ierusalem. For the Holy City is so called of the Temple as the principal part; and therefore the Time of the restitution thereof to be reckoned from the Time the Temple was builded: But by Ierusalem is understood (as appears in the next verse) the external buildings and walls of the City, which were not restored till some time after the Temple and Sanctuary was finished.

As for the impletion, all are now agreed, that the Beginning of these Weeks is to be reckoned from some Restoring either of the Temple, and that in the second, third, or sixth year of the Reign of some Darius; or of the City, in the seventh or twentieth year of some Artaxerxes, Kings of Persia. But it cannot be from Darius the First surnamed Hystaspis; for then they would come out long before the Birth of Christ. Nor from the First Artaxerxes surnamed Longimanus; for he was an hinderer of the work of the Temple, and forbade the building thereof, Ezra c. 4. à vers. 11. ad finem. Nor from the second Artaxerxes surnamed Mnemon; for so they would far over-reach the Destruction of Ierusalem. Therefore it remains that they be counted from Darius the Second surnamed Nothus; in the second year of whose reign the work of the Temple, after a long interruption, began to revive, Ezr. 4. v. 24. Hag. c. 1, & 2. Zach. c. 1, &c. and in the sixth year of his reign was finished, Ezra. 6. ver. 15.

Secondly, These LXX Weeks are the Time allotted for the continuance of the Holy City, and therefore must they last as long as it lasted, and end with the end thereof. p. 698But this cannot be, unless we fix their Epocha in the beginning of Darius Nothus. Ergo.

Which in the event is most true. For from the third year of Darius Nothus, when the work of the Temple (by the incitement of Haggai and Zachary renewed the year before) was now confirmed by a new Edict from the King to be finished, unto the Destruction of Ierusalem by Titus, are exactly 490 years, that is, LXX Weeks of years fully compleat.

In this third year of the King, and at the end of this Olympiadical year, in the beginning of August (as may be supposed) came forth the Edict of Darius, some ten months after Zorobabel and Ioshua had begun to renew the work the year before, Hag. 1. 14, 15. And so much time (half thereof being Winter) may well be allowed for their enemies to hear of the work, to go see and do their best to hinder it; when they could not, to write and send unto the King, the searching of the Rolls, and obtaining a new Edict.

The account by years of Nabonassar, ex Canone Ptolemaei Astronomico.

Notwithstanding all this,The Temple was now finished in 4 years; which argnes it was well forwarded before, and much I suppose in the days of liberty under Darius Hystaspis: For I take him to be that Darius mentioned Ezra 4. 5. and never to have hindered the building, but permitted the Iews to go on as their poverty would suffer them, which was but slowly.Ezra 4:5 I had rather begin the Account from the sixth year of Darius, in the Month Adar, when the Temple was quite finished, (for then it first p. 699began to continue, and not till then,) although the Destruction of Ierusalem will then fall out three years and an half sooner, namely, when the last week is but half run out. And what if it do? The Angel as I conceive, tells us so much in the last verse, when he says, That in the midst of a Week the Sacrifice and Oblation should cease, and the City be made desolate. But how will the Prophecy be made good, if the Seventieth Week be not compleat? I answer, it should be observed (though it useth not to be) that the Angel reckons not by single years, but by Weeks. If he had said, there should be 490 years to the Excidium of Ierusalem; then indeed to make good the prediction, the City and Sanctuary must have been destroyed the last year. But when he says, there shall be LXX Weeks allotted for the continuance of the Holy City, it is enough if it be made desolate in the seventieth week. For if those who reckon by years, when the year designed answers the Event, will not stand upon the compleatness of months and days; nor those who reckon any thing by days, upon the compleatness of hours and minutes: no more in the Angel's reckoning here by weeks, if so the number of the weeks be compleat, are the parts of a week to be exacted.

The account by years of Nabonassar.

VERSE 25.

Also know and understand, that from the going forth of the Commandment to cause to Return and to Build Ierusalem, unto MESSIAH the PRINCE, shall be Sevens of Weeks; even threescore and two Weeks the Street shall be built again and the Wall, even in a streight of times.

FROM the going out of the Commandment] I take not this Epocha to be that of the whole LXX Weeks, but a second Root of another and lesser period of time comprehended in them; whose beginning was to be after the LXX were begun. p. 700and the end before they should be ended. The Root of this second Computation is described to be a time when two things should be done: A Commandment should go forth both to cause to Return and also to Build, not the Temple, (for that should be done before) nor some few houses only, but the whole Area or Street, and the Walls of Ierusalem, which should then be re-edified, though in a streight of Times; that is, it should be such a time, when a Commission to cause the people to return and re-inhabite should be seconded with another, to build the Wall of Ierusalem, and the Plot within the Wall. For by foreign here I understand properly that Circuit bounding out the limits of the City, whereon the Wall was builded, and anciently used to be marked out with a Plough earing a furrow round about. By foreign, which implies a broad place, I understand the Area or Plot of ground within, whereon the houses were to be builded. From such an Epocha, and a Commission thus characterized as ye have heard, must this second Computation be reckoned.

VntoUnto MESSIAH the PRINCE] That is, unto foreign, Luke 23. 2. Mark 15. 32. or foreign, as the Angel styles him Luke 2. 11. There is no exposition, no interpretation of any passage in this Prophecy could seem so harsh, but I would be content to admit it, rather than yield that by MESSIAH the PRINCE here named should be meant any other than CHRIST our LORD and Redeemer. For I am perswaded that the Church of Israel in the Gospel (and from them the Apostles took it) had no other place of Scripture, whence they did or could ascribe the Name of Christ and Messiah unto him they looked for, but only from this of Daniel: For there is no other Prophecy in all the Old Testament besides this where that Name is directly given him, but only by way of Type.

Shall be Sevens of weeks; even LXII weeks.] The numeral word foreign I have here translated distributively, understanding by foreign Hebdomade septenae, that is, many seven Weeks, or, as our English handsomely expresseth, Sevens of Weeks: the sense to be as if the Angel had said, As the whole time limited for the continuance of the Holy City from the first beginning to the last ending consisteth of many Sevens of Weeks, viz. LXX Weeks: so from this after-Epocha here mentioned unto MESSIAH should be likewise Sevens of Weeks, (plures septenniorum hebdomades) even Sixty two Weeks of years. For as in LXX are ten Sevens of Weeks, so in LXII are nine times seven wanting one; and that little want makes no matter, there being eight whole sevens besides in that number, and you shall see in that which follows examples of the like. The Hebrews want those numbers which the Grammarians call Distributive or Divisive, Terni, quaterni, quini, seni, septeni, &c. which they most-what supply by repetition, as foreign septem septem, but not always; as may appear, 2 Sam. 18. 4. And all the people came out foreign ad centum & millia, i. centeni & milleni, by hundreds and by thousands. 1 Kings 18. 4. Obadiah hid the Prophets of the LORD foreign quinquaginta viros in spelunca, id est, quinquagenos, by fifty in a Cave. Gen. 6. 19. Of all flesh thou shalt bring into the Ark foreign duo, i. e. bina, Twoes; and therefore afterward Chap. 7. verse 9. it is doubled foreign two and two: yet of clean Beasts, whereof he was to take seven, there is an odd one. To these I add Ezra 1. v. 9, &c. This is the number of the vessels, (to wit, of the House of the LORD which Cyrus by the hand of Mithredath numbred unto Sheshbazzar Prince of Iudah) thirty Chargers of gold, a thousand Chargers of silver, twenty nine knives, thirty Basins of gold, silver Basins of a second sort four hundred and ten, and other vessels foreign (not mille, a thousand, but millena, Tremell. per millia) Thousands, to wit, almost three thousand wanting but one hundred. Otherwise if we translate it as a Cardinal number [a thousand] the Summe will far exceed the Parts. For it follows in the next words, All the Vessels of gold and silver were 5400. But unless the last number be taken divisivè, the particulars**30 1000 29 30 410 1000 2499 make but 2500 wanting one. Nor do I see how this difficulty would otherwise be solved.

Now whether these examples be sufficient to make probable the Translation which I have given, I will not affirm; let others judge: I propound it to the consideration of the learned who can do it, without whose approbation I shall not satisfie my self. Yet thus much I am sure of; that if this foreign, which we are wont to translate Seven weeks, could be well bestowed, the chiefest difficulty were taken from this Prophecy. For the Threescore and two Weeks alone counted from the Epocha here named, so well befits the distance from thence to CHRIST, that the Event seemeth to argue that they should be there fixed, and not reckoned from any other Beginning.

p. 701Moreover that foreign should be a general expression of what in the LXII Weeks is after more particularly determined, may seem probable for these reasons.

1. Because the Angel ascribes no proper Event unto them; but having presently named the LXII Weeks, makes no farther reckoning of those other, but follows and dwells upon these only, as though the other were implied and contained in them.

2. Those who count them for XLIX years, and continue the LXII Weeks from the end of them to make up LXIX Weeks in all, can give no sufficient reason why they should be thus separated and divided asunder. For that which the followers of Funccius (who reckon from Artaxerxes Longimanus) assign to be done in seven Weeks of years (to wit, that during all that time Ierusalem with the rest of the Cities of Iudah were building and repairing) is grounded neither upon Scripture nor other Story, but pure and mere conjecture. Scaliger finds (Nehem. Chap. 13. ver. 6.) that Nehemiah returned again to Artaxerxes his Court in the 32 year of his reign, and thence supposeth that the Building of the City, about which he was sent, was finished but the year before, and that to be the determination of those Seven Weeks; there being then 49 years expired from the time the LXX began at the Building of the Temple under Darius Nothus. But to make this good, he is fain to raise the Epocha of the LXX so high in the reign of Darius, that they end before the destruction of Ierusalem. Besides, he seems not to be aware that these Seven Weeks are by the Text to be counted from a time when a Commission came out to cause to return and to build Ierusalem, and not from the time of building the Temple. Nor does it follow, Nehemiah staid so long there, therefore the City was till then in building: Nay, what if the Text, rightly construed, imports not that Nehemiah in the 32 year of Artaxerxes returned to the Court, but rather, that obtaining new leave of the King, he came then to Ierusalem the second time, whence he had been long absent? For the particle foreign (Chap. 13. ver. 6.) seems not to be taken rationally for [Quia,] but discretively for foreign, id est, [Sed, But] as Ezra 4. 3. 2. Sam. 16. 18. Gen. 45. 8. and so that Text of Nehemiah to be read after this sense, And in all this time (saith he) I was not there; But in the 32 year of Artaxerxes, &c. I came to the King, that is, into his presence, to ask new leave; which after a little waiting he obtained. Nor is it very credible that the time he first set the King, Chap. 2. ver. 6. should be twelve years.

If therefore foreign be granted to be a general expression of what the LXII Weeks more particularly determine, the way whereby it may be translated to such a sense is as I have before represented: yet is it not the only one; I can add two ways more. As first this; foreign Seven useth, we know, to be taken indefinitely for plurimi, multoties, &c. Thus foreign would without any anomaly or novelty at all signifie indefinitely [Many Weeks,] if it might seem probable, that in a passage of reckoning by definite numbers some numeral word may be taken indefinitely. The sense would be all one with that I have followed, viz. As the whole time limited for the continuance of the Holy City consisted of many Weeks, even LXX Weeks; so also this lesser period contained therein, from the Epocha mentioned unto MESSIAH, shall be a time of many Weeks, even LXII Weeks. Another way, were it not somewhat harsh, might be this; The Hebrew Nouns of Cardinal numbers do sometimes substantivare, signifying their numbers in abstracto, like those Greek Numerals Monas, Dyas, Trias, Tetras, Hebdomas. So Gen. chap. 7. 10. chap. 8. 12. we have foreign & foreign, i. Hebdomas dierum: Exod 34. 28. foreign, Decas verborum, Decalogus: Gen. 17. 12. foreign, Filius ogdoadis dierum: Ioshua 14. 2. foreign, Novenarius or Enneas tribuum. If they be Substantives in statu constructo, were they not or may they not be so in absoluto? In the third Chapter and 19. ver. of Daniel foreign in absoluto seems to be a Substantive having an Adjective joyned with it, foreign, which we translate [one seven times.]Wheresoever besides in Scripture Seven Weeks are mentioned, the words are, foreign or foreign If this therefore may be admitted, foreign in our Text of Daniel will sound per Ellipsin conjunctionis, Hebdomades & Hebdomas, Weeks and a Week; the sense being all one with the former, saving that one Week is implied as singular from the rest, which may be that which the Angel afterward mentions ver. 27. If it were pointed foreign, as by the consonants in might be, there would be no great question but it might be translated Weeks and a Week.

But if foreign must needs import some limited time of 49 years, I would rather chuse to count the LXII Weeks from the same Epocha with them under Artaxerxes Mnemon, than from the end of them, and yet leave as probable a conjecture to be made of what was done in them, as those who follow Funccius from the other Artaxerxes do use to give.

p. 702I have sometimes considered whether, if it be translated Seven Weeks, those Seven Weeks might not be applied as rotundus numerus to those Fifty and two days, Nehem. 6. 15. where it is said, So the Wall was finished in the 25^th day of the Month Elul, in fifty two days; somewhat more indeed than Seven Weeks, yet short of Seven and an half, and so not regarded in accompt by Weeks. If this could be, then the reason of the Angel's division of weeks into 7 and 62 would be, because of diverse kinds of Weeks understood; the first of days, wherein the Wall of Ierusalem should be finished, the second of years, from thence unto the Messiah. If it seem impossible or unlikely that the Wall of the City should be repaired in so short a time, and therefore those words (according to Iunius) to be meant of setting up the doors and bars only: I could say, first, that the Wall was not new builded from the foundations, but repaired upon the old ruines; Secondly, the speedy dispatch thereof was taken for a wonder, even by the Iews Enemies, who thereupon (saith the Text**Nehem. 6. 16.Neh 6:16) perceived that this work was wrought of our God. So that, were there no worse scruple than this, it were easily answered; nor would examples**That renowned Palace and Court of Nebuchadnezzar, within which were those Pensiles Horti, was finished (saith Iosephus) in fifteen days. Antiq. Iudaic. li, 10. c. 11. in the Latine c. 13. be wanting to parallel with it, such as might make it seem at least possible. As that strange and speedy building of the Walls of Athens by Themistocles, after that Xerxes had demolished them, reported by Diodor. Sic. lib. 11. Yea, to come more near to the thing in question, Iosephus l. 6. c. 13. De Bell. Iud. tells us, That Titus, dividing the work amongst his Army, begirt Ierusalem in three days space with a Wall of thirty nine Furlongs, and thirteen Bulwarks, to hinder the Iews excursions from within and all relief from without. What the materials were I know not, but he says it was a thing beyond all belief, and might have seemed to be a work of some Months. But leaving this digression, let us see the Computation and Impletion of our LXII Weeks.

The Computation and Impletion of the LXII Weeks.

FROM the seventh year of Artaxerxes Mnemon, when Ezra had Commission to cause to Return and carry with him as many of the Iews as would to Ierusalem, Ezra c. 7. ver. 7, & 13: And from the twentieth year of the same Artaxerxes, when Nehemiah obtained leave to build Ierusalem the City of his Fathers Sepulchres, Nehem. 2: From both these Commissions, though thirteen years distant the one from the other, are by divine disposition unto MESSIAH the PRINCE threescore and two Weeks; from the first of Solar, from the latter of Lunar years. For LXII weeks, or 434 Lunar years, are less than so many Solar, as much as is between the seventh and twentieth of Artaxerxes. Which admirable concordance I cannot impute to chance, but ascribe to Divine providence so ordering it of purpose, that these two Epocha's and Commissions, To cause to Return, and, To build Ierusalem, might be as one and the same. And as the Lunar year is contained within the Solar, and by it ordered and directed; so is the Period here from Nehemiah's Commission to Build the City contained and reduced to that from Ezra's Commission to cause the people to return.

In the last of these Weeks according to prediction was Christ our Lord anointed. In the beginning whereof exactly, between the first and second Passeover after his Baptism, (when his Harbinger Iohn had now finished his Message, and was cast in Prison; a time precisely and purposely noted in the Evangelical Story,Wherefore I would take that Ioh. 3. from the 13. ver. to the 21. to be the Evangelist's own words interposed, and not the words of Christ to Nic…d…mus.John 3) he first began to preach in Galilee the Gospel of the Kingdom, ordained his Apostles, and proclaimed himself to be the MESSIAH. After Iohn was put in Prison, saith Mark, 1. 14, 15. Iesus came into Galilee, preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom of God, And saying, foreign, The time is fulfilled, (i. the last week of the sixty two weeks is come) and the Kingdom of God is at hand. From that time (saith Matthew c. 4. 17.) Iesus began to preach, and to say, Repent, for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand. This was that day whereof Christ himself said at Nazareth, that that Scripture was fulfilled, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the Gospel to the poor, &c. and to preach the acceptable year of the Lord, Luke 4. 18, 19. This the time and place, whence S. Peter reckoned the beginning of Christ's Prophecy in his Sermon to Cornelius; That word (saith he) which was published throughout all Iudaea, and began from Galilee, after the Baptism which Iohn preached, &c. Acts 10. 37.

In the third year of this Week (two years and an half after he began his Prophecy, and three years and an half after his Baptism) being made our Priest, he offered himself upon the Cross a Sacrifice for sin, was dead, buried, and rose again; then ascended p. 703up into heaven to be installed, and to sit at the right hand of God, from thenceforth to reign until he hath put all his Enemies under his feet. But you will say, This was all performed four years before the 434 years (which is sixty two Weeks of years) were expired. I answer as before; The Angel reckons not by single years, but by Weeks, the last whereof should be Messiah's Week, as we have shewed it to have been. If the Angel had said, There shall be 434 years unto MESSIAH; then, to make good the prediction, MESSIAH must have been anointed the last year. But when he says, There shall be Sixty two Weeks unto MESSIAH; it is sufficient he was anointed the last Week. But how this Week will at length be compleat, we shall see in the next verse. But first let us demonstrate our Computation.

Ezra's Commission.

N. B. If Artaxerxes had began before August, the number or date of his reign must have altered either in or between the first and fifth Month; but they are both of one year, Ezra 7. as also the first and the ninth, Nehem. c. 1. c. 2.

Christ's Prophecy.

Christ our Lord was Baptized Anno Olympiadico 805 ineunte, about the Feast of Expiation, in the seventh Month Tisri, six Months after Iohn began to baptize, and in that year natural and political, which began in the 15 of Tiberius towards ending, but was the 16 when he was baptized. For Iohn, I suppose, began to preach and baptize in the first Month Nisan, (when the Summer was before him, and not when the Winter was to enter) in the 15 year of Tiberius, which ended August following. Now Iohn's imprisonment was a year after the Baptism of Christ, namely, between the first and second Passeover after it, as is clear and evident by the Evangelical Story, Iohn c. 2. 23. c. 3. 22. & Chap. 4. The Beginning therefore of Christ's Prophecy, which began at the imprisonment of Iohn, Mark 1. 14. was Anno Olymp. 806. about the end (I suppose) of the same Month Tisre or September.

From hence Mens. 7. begins the last week: wherefore the Passion of Christ, at the Passeover, Mens. 1. firmly fixed by Chronological Characters in the 19 of Tiberius, Anno Olymp. 808. AErae Christian. 33. (that is, agreeable to the received Tradition, but three year and an half after his Baptism) will fall to be in the third year of the week; which is wholly to be compleat, Ann. AErae Christ. 37. when the 813 Ann. Olymp. shall be begun and current in September.

p. 704VERSE 26.

And after the threescore and two Weeks shall MESSIAH be cut off, and [they] none of his: Wherefore the Prince's people to come shall destroy the City and the Sanctuary, and the end thereof shall be with a floud, and unto the end of War desolations are determined.

AND after the threescore and two Weeks shall, &c.] That is, When the Threescore and two Weeks aforesaid shall expire and be fully compleat, (for so the word [after] supposes they must be) MESSIAH shall be cut off, not only from the living, by the death he should suffer upon the Cross, (for that was a little before) but from being any longer the King and Priest of that People; they refusing Him to be theirs, and he casting off them from being His, which is the meaning of the words following foreign, And they none of his: For foreign is to be understood, that so the conjunction Vau may couple similia tempora, foreign, Et non erit ei populus ejus, or foreign, And they shall be none of His. And for the Verb foreign, that it signifies not only a cutting off from life, but also from reigning as a King, or from being a Priest; see for the first, 1 Kings c. 2. ver. 4. & chap. 9. ver. 5. 2 Chron. ch. 7. ver. 18. Ier. 33. 17. foreign, &c. There shall not be cut off to David a man to sit upon the throne of the House of Israel: All which have reference to 2 Sam. c. 7. ver. 16. For the second, cutting off from the Priesthood, 1 Sam. 2. 33. to Eli, And the man of thine whom I shall not cut off from mine Altar. Ier. 33. 18. Neither of the Priests the Levites foreign shall a man be cut off before me, to offer burnt-offerings, &c. and to do Sacrifice continually.

The Computation and Impletion.

From the seventh year of Artaxerxes Mnemon, at the time of the Commission granted to Ezra, (Anno Olympiad. 379. as is already shewed) unto the fourth year after Christ's Ascension (Anno Olymp. 813. AErae Christianae Dionysiacae 37.) are LXII Weeks of years, or 434 years fully compleat and expired. The next year after was Christ divorced and cut off from the Iews, and they foreign cast off from being His people; which may appear thus.

Anno AErae Christian. 33.

Christ suffered upon the Cross, rose from the dead, and ascended into heaven. The Holy Ghost descended at Pentecost, 3000 converted, more added; the Apostles forbidden, but cease not to preach Iesus Christ. So this year ends about September.I begin and end these years in Tisri, or September, that so they may agree with that time of the Commission granted to Ezra, which I before supposed to have been about that month.

Anno AErae Christian. 34.

The number of Disciples much increased: Deacons chosen, and Steven one of them. Act. 6. 1, 2, 3, &c.

Anno AErae Christian. 35.

Steven doth great wonders and miracles. The Word of God and the number of Disciples increaseth so, that a great company of the Priests were obedient unto the Faith. The Elders and people rage, and about the end of the year was Steven martyred. Act. c. 6. ver. 7, 8, 9, 10, 11. chap. 7. ver. 1. ad finem.

Anno AErae Christian. 36.

Great persecution against the Church at Ierusalem. Saul makes havock, Act. c. 8. whereupon the Disciples were scattered through the Regions of Iudaea and Samaria, every where preaching the Gospel, ver. 4, 5. Of whose success the Apostles being informed, send Peter and Iohn to Samaria, to lay hands on the new converts, ver. 14, &c. which done, and by the way preaching the Gospel in the villages of Samaria, they returned again to Ierusalem, v. 25.

Anno AErae Christian. 37.

Those which were scattered upon the persecution of Steven proceed further, and travelled as far as Phoenice, Cyprus and Antioch, having by p. 705the way preached the Gospel to the Iews at Damascus (how came they there else?) Chap. 11. Which Saul hearing of, gets letters thither, to bring those he should find there of that way unto Ierusalem. But in his journey himself was miraculously converted and baptized, &c. Peter in the mean time was gone again from Ierusalem by Lyddae unto Ioppa, where he remained all this year at the house of Simon the Tanner. The next year after (Anno AErae Christianae 38. Anno Olympiadico 813.) (according as was foretold, That after threescore and two Weeks were ended, MESSIAH should be cut off, and they none of his) when Christ had now one whole Week of years tendred himself unto his own people, and they not only refused him, but first by crucifying the Lord himself, and after that by persecuting his Messengers sent unto them, had made themselves unworthy of everlasting life; Peter was taught by vision, that the Gospel of the Kingdom should be preached unto the Gentiles, and accordingly sent to preach it to Cornelius a Centurion of the Italian band, Acts 10. And here begins the Epocha of the Rejection of Israel, and the Calling of the Gentiles, which S. Paul speaks so much of Rom. 11.

True it is, the cutting off of Christ by death was before the last week was compleat; but the cutting him off from being King and Priest of the Iews was not until after it was ended. Or if this cutting off here mentioned may not be extended to any other cutting off than by Death, yet the other part of the copulative sense, foreign [And they shall be none of His,] was not fulfilled until the whole Week was ended.

Wherefore the PRINCE'S people to come, &c.] foreign, Populus MESSIAE venturus, i. futurus, The people that should be the People of Messiah the Prince, when Israel was rejected: so the Hebrews call Seculum futurum foreign; whence Mark 10. ver. 30. Luke 18. 30. foreign Eph. 2. 7. foreign. According to which notion, Apoc. 1. 4. foreign. Vid. Psal. 71. 18. Esay 27. 6. Esay 44. 7. foreign, Vulgat. ventura & quae futura sunt. Thus I construe the Text, and understand by Populus Principis futurus, the people of the Roman Empire, where Christ was principally to have his Church and Kingdom whilst Israel should be rejected. Cornelius therefore the first Gentile converted was a Roman Centurion. S. Paul, who is called the Apostle of the Gentiles, went not beyond the bounds of this Empire. This was that foreign whereof Christ said, Matth. 24. 14. That before the Destruction of Ierusalem the Gospel should be preached foreign in all the world; as Augustus is said Luke 2. 1. to have taxed foreign, according as the Romans themselves used to call it Imperium Orbis Terrarum, &c. Antichrist, who was to**2 Thess. 22 Thess 2 sit in the Temple or Church of Christ, sits in the midst of this Empire: whence it appears that the Church which Christ should have**Whilest. … after Israel disclaimed him, should chiefly be in it. This People therefore, which was in Israel's stead to be the People of Messiah the Prince, should destroy the City and Sanctuary with such a Destruction as should like a Floud overwhelm the whole Nation, and as an unresistible torrent break down and wash all away before it. All which we know they did.

And unto the end of War Desolations are determined] That is, Until the end of the Fourth Kingdom of the Gentiles, whose last period is that Time, Times and half a Time, whereof it is said Dan. 7. ver. 21, 25. that Antichrist the eyed and mouthed Horn should make War with the Saints, and prevail against them; and they shall be given into his hand until a Time and Times and half a Time: Until the end of this War the Iewish Desolations are determined. But of this more in the next.

p. 706VERSE 27.

Nevertheless he shall confirm a covenant with Many one week: and in half a week, being **Or, making desolation, … &c.a Desolator, he shall cause the Sacrifice and oblation to cease, and that being over a wing of Abominations, and until the final time (even that which is determined) it shall continue upon the desolate.

HERE the Angel tells us what should be done in the last Week, both of the first Computation and of the second, that is, the last of the LXX, and the last of the LXII. And of this first, as coming first in time.

Nevertheless (saith he) he shall confirm a Covenant with Many one Week] That is, Though the Body of the Iewish Nation should be cast off, and be foreign None of the people of the MESSIAH; yet for one whole week he should offer himself unto them, and gather many of them into the Covenant of the Gospel: And this Week was the last Week of the Threescore and two Weeks, which (as I shewed before) was wholly spent in preaching to those of the Circumcision. This therefore is as it were a Prolepsis, lest Daniel might think that none of his people should enter into the Covenant under Messiah. These Many therefore are that Remnant whereof S. Paul speaks Rom. 11. That, though Israel were cast off, yet was there A Remnant according to the election of grace; and therefore he limits the hardness happened unto Israel, by foreign, as not being universal.

And in half a Week, being a Desolator, he shall cause the Sacrifice and offering to cease] A Desolator, foreign, a word which otherwise much troubleth the Translator; but being thus made a suppositum or Nominative case to the verb foreign, (which hath no other near it) it both much clears the sense, and retains its propriety of signification. Nor is the postposition of the Nominative case to the Verb against the use of the tongue; nor the trajection here so great, but the Latine will admit the same order of the words, viz. Et abolebit sacrificium & munus, atque erit super alam abominationum Desolator: or, Et abolebit sacrificium & munus, qui erit super alam abominationum, Desolator. Howsoever the Translation be, this Week the Angel now speaks of is the last of the Seventy, which should be but half run out when the Temple and City should be destroyed and the Legal service made to cease. For if we reckon (as I think we should) the Seventy Weeks from the sixth year of Darius Nothus, (when the Temple was finished,) the Destruction thereof by Titus will fall out (as is shewed) in the midst of the last Week; the whole half thereof, from the beginning till then, having been spent in warlike preparations and exploits, which ended with the burning and desolation both of City and Sanctuary.

Of those who end the Seventieth Week compleatly with the Destruction of Ierusalem, some seem so to understand this first part of the verse, as if the one Week here mentioned were the last of the Seventy, and the confirmation of the Covenant to be therein to respect only the first half thereof, wherein Christ made good his Covenant of preservation to the believing Iews, namely, (as I would explain it) by sending Cestius Gallus President of Syria, in the middle or fourth year of the last Week, about seven days to environ Ierusalem with an Army, for to be that sign and watch-word mentioned in the Gospel of the near approaching Desolation thereof, Luke 21. 20. that so those which were in Iudaea being warned might flee into the Mountains (of Arabia Petraea to Pella,) and deliver themselves from those days of vengeance and wrath upon their people: and in the other half of the Week which remained, he should cause the sacrifice and offering to cease, by sending Vespasian with that second and fatal Army which should bring those wofull and vengefull Desolations upon them.

As for the phrase of Confirming a Covenant, (if the rest suted well) it would be no straining to interpret it to be meant of preservation and exemption from a common calamity: For we have the like speech Gen. 6. 17, 18. where God having said to Noah, that he would destroy by the Floud every thing that breathed upon the earth; addeth, p. 707But with thee will I establish my Covenant; and thou shalt come into the Ark, thou, and thy sons, and thy wife, and thy sons wives with thee, &c. Thus much of the Week and Half-Week: But for the Desolator who should cause the sacrifice and oblation to cease, whether and how it may be applied to Messiah himself, or otherwise construed, we shall better understand when the next is expounded.

And that [being] over a Wing of Abominations] foreign, I think literally rendred, as was the former. If any man would also have the order of the words precisely kept, and therefore foreign, i. Desolator, to keep his station here, as in the Hebrew, he may render the words thus, He shall cause the sacrifice and oblation to cease, foreign, And [commanding] over a Wing of Abominations [be] a Desolator or make Desolation; The sense is yet the same: Or thus, And over a Wing of Abominations [shall he be] who makes Desolation: All of them requiring nothing else but that so common Ellipsis of the Verb Substantive, which in some expressions of this language is perpetual. Now for the construing and expounding this and the rest which remains of this verse, I have always in mine eye that part of the Prophecy of our Saviour in the Gospel, Matth. 24. 15. Mark 13. 14. where he so expresly refers to this of Daniel, with an unwonted caveat not to pass it over slightly, Let him (saith he) that readeth, understand: which admonition as it implies the special need we have of our Saviour's Key to unlock it; so it may seem to intimate that neither the Septuagint before, nor the ordinary construction of their Rabbies then, had hit the meaning of this Scripture. Wherefore S. Luke relates not here (as Matthew and Mark do) our Saviour's words verbatim, but exegetically, of set purpose (so I am perswaded) expounding this place of Daniel, as will appear by that which follows.

Over a Wing of Abominations]**Auth. oper… impers. in Matth. Hom. 49. initio han… expositionem ad Petrum refert. H…c & Petrus apud Clementem exponit. That is, An Army of Idolatrous Gentiles. Even the self-same which S. Luke saith Chap. 21. 24. Ierusalem shall be troden down of the Gentiles; who also expoundeth Wing by Armies; putting in stead of those words of our Saviour, [When ye shall see the Abomination of Desolation spoken of by Daniel the Prophet, stand in the holy place] these,**Verse 20. When ye shall see Ierusalem compassed with Armies; and in both it follows, Then let them which be in Iudaea flee into the mountains. The word foreign Wing is of the Verb foreign, (but once found in the Hebrew Scripture) which signifies according to the Chaldee and Arabick To gather together; besides, in the Arabick, circundare, to environ or compass about: Both significations sute well to an Army, and the latter, that which beleguers and begirds a City or Fort besieged. Had S. Luke any reference to this, when he speaks of Ierusalem compassed with an Army? The Metaphor also of a Wing leans most this way, whether we consider their figure and motion being stretched out, or their posture when Birds of rapine sit couring over their prey. I will not say the Roman Eagle was here aimed at, though foreign is used not only for Ala a Wing, but for Alatum & Volatile a Fowl or Winged Creature. It is sufficient that neither the nature nor name of a Wing is strange or unaccustomed to an Army. But how (will you say) will an Army of Abominations be made an Army of Gentiles? I answer, The Scripture in many places calleth Idols by the name of Abominations, that is, foreign, & foreign. So the Egyptian Idols (Exod. 8. ver. 26, &c.) are called the Abomination of the Egyptians. Ezek. 7. 20. the Iews are said to have made the Images of their Abominations, foreign; Ier. 7. 30. to have set up foreign, that is, their Idols in the House of the Lord. So 2 Kings 23. 13. Ashtoreth is called foreign the Abomination of the Sidonians; Chemosh foreign, the Abomination of the Moabites; but Milchom foreign the Abomination of the Children of Ammon. Wherefore 1 Kings 11. 5, 7. foreign is by the Seventy thrice translated foreign Idol.

This being a thing manifest, we are to observe further, That the Scripture useth also to express and imply under the names of the Gods the Nations themselves which worshipped them.Deut. 4. 28. ch. 28. 64. Ier. 16. 13.Deut 4:28Jer 16:13 The Lord threatned to scatter Israel among the Nations, and that there they should serve other Gods day and night, Gods, the works of mens hands, wood and stone; which neither they nor their Fathers had known: that is, they should serve them not religiously, but politically, inasmuch as they were to become Slaves and Vassals to Idolatrous Nations, even such Idolaters as neither they nor their Fathers had ever heard of. Let it also be considered whether that of David, 1 Sam. 26. 19. be not to be expounded after the same Trope: They have (saith he) driven me out this day from abiding in the inheritance of the Lord, saying, Go serve other Gods; that is, They have driven me to serve a Nation of another Religion. Yea, Ezra 9. 14. fitly to our purpose, the Strangers with whom the people of Israel had contracted affinity are called expresly foreign the people of Abominations, which the Seventy p. 708render foreign, the people of the Lands, that is, Gentiles. And where we read in the first verse, The people of Israel, &c. have not separated themselves from the people of the Lands according to their Abominations, &c. it is the same phrase with that of Moses, Cattel after their kind, creeping things after their kind, that is, the several kinds of cattel and of creeping things; so the people of the Lands according to their Abominations, is the several kinds of Idolaters of the Lands about them. And thus we have shewed that foreign the Wing of Abominations is as much as foreign an Army of people of Abominations, that is, of Gentiles and Worshippers of Idols.

But who is this Desolater, or Maker of Desolations, who should command over this Wing of Abominations, and bring these Gentiles against the Holy City? I answer, The words in the Original stand indifferent to be applied either to the Roman General, or Messiah; but I could not render them so indifferently: For if I render them, And in half a Week a Desolater shall cause the sacrifice and offering to cease, and that (being) over a Wing of Abominations, or, Over a Wing of Abominations (shall he be) who makes desolation; this Desolater would then seem to be some other than Messiah, that is the Roman General. But render them as I do, And making desolation (or being a Desolater) he shall cause the sacrifice and offering to cease, and that, &c. or, He He shall cause the sacrifice and offering to cease, and [commanding] over a Wing of Abominations, be a Desolater; either way of these they will have reference to MESSIAH the Prince, who is the Person meant in the words immediately before, [He shall confirm a Covenant with many one Week.] And this I most incline to, that so the Person spoken of may be the same throughout: and a reason also appears of that additament, That this Desolater should be over an Army of Abominations: For if a Forein General were only meant, what needed this Addition? what other Army could such a one lead but Gentiles? But that Messiah himself should command over an Army of Idolaters, this needed a special intimation.

And surely the Roman Army, though an Army of Abominations, was in this service the Army of Messiah. So the Parable aiming at this Prophecy tells us Matth. 22. 7. When the King heard how spitefully they entreated his Messengers who came to tell them the Wedding, whereunto they had been bidden, was ready, He was wroth, (saith the Text) and sent forth HIS Armies, and destroyed those Murtherers, and burnt up their City. Whence it is, that the coming of this desolating Army of the Romans is called the coming of Christ,Vers… 1. Iames 5. Weep and houl ye rich men (he writeth to Iews) for the miseries that shall come upon you—for you have heaped up goods for the Last days; Verse 3.that is, (according to Oecumenius) when the End of your State is a coming, and the Romans spoil you of all: which is expressed in the seventh verse by Christ's coming, Be ye patient (saith he) until the coming of the Lord, (he speaks to the believing Iews whom the rest persecuted;) and in the next, Stablish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh: He meaneth (saith Oecumenius) foreign, the expedition of the Romans, and their carrying away the Iews**Luke 21. 24.Luke 21:24 captives into all Nations. So he takes that of Iohn chap. 21. 22. If I will that he stay till I come, that is (saith he) foreign, till the Destruction of Ierusalem: and proves that this Coming of Christ is foreign, the destruction of Ierusalem, by that of Malachi Chap. 3. 1, 2. Behold, the Lord shall come, and who shall abide the day of his coming? And thus would I understand that Heb. 10. 37. For yet a little while, and He that shall come will come, and will not tarry. Messiah therefore himself seems to be that Desolater here meant, who should command over an Army of Abominations when he came to destroy the City and the Sanctuary.

Thus it appears our Saviour's citation in the Gospel is not of the very words of Daniel in this passage, but of the sense only summarily expressed; and that foreign; is to be expounded foreign, The Abomination, or Abominable Army, over which he should be who should make desolation. As for the Seventy, or whosoever else (for S. Hierome doubts) translated this Book, if their Translation here were originally as we now have it, and not translated thither out of our Saviour's words in the Gospel, they seem to have accommodated the place, though of unlike construction and circumstance of sense, unto two other places, Chap. 11. 31. Chap. 12. 11. where some such kind of Abomination is mentioned, and likewise the participles foreign: But in all three of them, not well understanding what subject these Participles included, they contented themselves only to express by foreign or foreign a general relation of p. 709desolation in the abstract, which might be diversly interpretable, otherwise it is not possible by any alteration of the points to express their Translation verbatim out of this place, unless foreign were in statu constructo, as it is not.

And until the final time (even that which is determined) it shall continue upon the desolate] Here I have chosen to translate the verb foreign continue, as the Targum renders it Ier. c. 7. 20. &c. 42. 18. and the Vulgar here perseverabit, as a Metaphorical signification taken from a continued pouring of water. It is the Feminine Gender, and therefore to be referred to a Feminine suppos…um, which I take to be foreign Ala. This wing of Abominations, that is, metonymicè, the Desolation wrought by it, or forein possession brought in by it, should continue upon the Desolate until the final time which was determined should be accomplished. Or those Gentile people of the Roman Empire, by whom Ierusalem was destroyed, should continue their dominion and possession, either of the place or desolate inhabitants once thereof, until that final time be accomplished. Whether this or that sutes best, the meaning in S. Luke's language is thus expressed;Luke 21. 24.Luke 21:24 The Iews shall be carried captive over all Nations, and Ierusalem troden down of the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled: that is, (as was said before) until the Monarchies of the Gentiles should be finished. For these times of the Gentiles are that last period of the Fourth Kingdom prophesied**Dan. 7.Dan 7 of, a Time, Times and half a Time; at the end whereof the Angel swears unto Daniel, chap. 12. 7. That God should accomplish to scatter the power of the Holy people. This is that Fulness of the Gentiles,Rom. 11. 26.Rom 11:26 which being come, S. Paul tells us, The Deliverer shall come out of Sion, and all Israel shall be saved. And the Angel in Apoc. 10. 6. renews the same oath to S. Iohn, which he sware before to Daniel, That when these Times (N. B.) should end and be no longer, the mystery of God should be finished, as he had declared to his servants the Prophets.

Amen.

APPENDIX.

ALthough I think that preciseness of days is not to be much stood upon, when the Events and their Times do in the whole answer to Prediction: yet have I been so curious as to enquire whether the Desolation of the City and Sanctuary (to be in the middle of the Seventieth Week) were fulfilled to a very day or not. And, as I think, I have so found it, very near, if not altogether.

For Anno Iudaico 3344. AErae mundi Scaligerianae 3533. (the year the Temple was finished) Neomenia Tisri, according to the Iews Calendar, fell upon the 9 of September Calendarii Iuliani, Feriâ 1. Cyclo Solis 12. Literâ Dominic. G.

Ergò Neomenia Adar was Feb. 4. Fer. 2. Cyclo Solis 13. Literâ Dominicali F. So the 3 of Adar (the day whereon the Temple was finished, Ezra 6. 15.) will be the 6 of February. From whence to the 8 of August (whereon the Temple was fired, and two days after consumed) are exclusive 182 days, that is, half a year adunguem.

But this year (according to the Iudaical Calendar) was Annus Embolimaeus, and so had two Adars; which of them the Scripture meaneth is doubtful. But the Neomenia of the second Adar was March 5. Feria 4. So the 3 day of this Adar was the 7. of March: From whence to the 8. of September (the day whereon the City was fired) are exclusive 184 days, which is a day or two too much. But it is more than probable that the Iewish Calendar was not in Darius his time so exact, nor the Moon's motion so well known, but the New Moon might sometimes anticipate the beginning of their Months a day or two.

Howsoever those who begin their reckoning from the 2^d year of Darius, as Scaliger doth) cannot from the 24^th day of the 6^th Month (Sept. 16.) (which the Prophet Haggai names, chap. 1. v. ult. for the day whereon the work began) shew their compleat Seventy Weeks so exactly terminated upon any Event remarkable during the whole time of the War. For as for the destruction of Ierusalem it self, they come not near it by whole years.

p. 710Of the Opinion of Funccius.

FVNCCIVS his computation of the LXX Weeks from the seventh of Artaxerxes Longimanus (whence to Christ's Passion he finds just 490 years) hath three great and unavoidable inconveniences.

1. That it ends the 70 Weeks (which by the Text were allotted for the Holy City) long before the times of the Holy City were fulfilled.

2. That this Artaxerxes might not be Artaxerxes the Hinderer of the Building of the Temple, but that second Artaxerxes that gave Commission to Ezra and Nehemiah, they are fain to bestow the names of Ahasuerus and Artaxerxes mentioned Ezra 4. upon Cambyses and the counterfeit Tanioxarces or Smerdis (whom others call Sphendates) the Magus, without any ground in Scripture or prophane History, nay, against probability. For if Ahasuerus be Cambyses (as by order he should be) and Artaxerxes be Smerdis the Magus, how will that business in the days of Artaxerxes (Ezra 4. 7.) befit the 7 Months reign of Smerdis? Or if preposterously (as some will have it) Ahasuerus be that Smerdis, what needed the Holy Ghost so precisely to mention the**foreign Ezra 4. 6.Ezra 4:6 Beginning of his reign, if he reigned but seven Months in all? Secondly, Neither Cambyses nor Smerdis can be Ahasuerus. For Ahasuerus, Esther 3. 7. (and why should we …eign any other Ahasuerus of Persia than the Scripture describeth, and so diligently distinguisheth from Ahasuerus the Mede, as if there had been then no other? Esther 1. 1.) reigned at least twelve years, whereas Cambyses reigned but seven years, and Smerdis but so many months.

3. They cannot shew how 69 Weeks, or 62 Weeks added to 7 Weeks, (for they have no other way) are determined upon Messiah the Prince; since they out reach his Nativity, and end 7 years before his Passion (which was in the 19) and therefore three years at least before Iohn's Baptism, which was in the 15 of Tiberius. Wherefore neither beginning nor ending, neither part nor whole of the sixty and ninth Week can point us out any time of the manifestation of Messiah.